Cody Taylor

The Linux version of Boxee’s eponymously-named multimedia platform has finally been updated to include several new features introduced into the OS X and Windows versions over the past few months. Key additions include an “App Box” and restored support for Hulu.

Who else but a Frenchman would decide that a phone needs the ability to send kisses?

Remember when the iPhone came out? Cool huh? Well, you haven’t seen anything. Here is the top 10 of the craziest, funniest and most innovative touch screens applications in the industry today.

number6x writes “LinuxDevices.com is reporting that the Open Invention Network has posted the details of three of the eight patents used by Microsoft in the Tom Tom suit (which Tom Tom settled last month), asking the community for prior art. These patents cover aspects of the FAT file system. You can find them on Post-Issue.org — see numbers 5579517, 5758352, and 6256642. OIN CEO Keith Bergelt believes that these three patents are of tenuous validity and will probably not survive a review. Bergelt believes that there’s a good chance that the USPTO may well invalidate them before the end of the year.

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The Narrative Fallacy writes “According to BusinessWeek, Verizon Wireless is in talks with Apple to distribute two new iPhone-like devices that are not iPhones. (Apple has created prototypes.) AT&T’s contract with Apple, which has not been made public, is believed to cover all models of the iPhone, but only the iPhone. So if Apple builds something that isn’t an iPhone — and perhaps doesn’t even make cellular calls — they won’t be violating their exclusivity contract with AT&T, which runs through at least 2010. One device is a smaller, less expensive calling device described by a person who has seen it as an ‘iPhone lite.’ The other is a media pad, said to be smaller than a Kindle but with a bigger screen, that would let users listen to music, view photos, watch high-definition videos, and make calls over a Wi-Fi connection. (And read books?) Apple could use the prospect of an iPhone-esque device as leverage to prevent Verizon Wireless from introducing the Palm Pre, or at least to delay its introduction on Verizon’s network. ‘The media pad category might go to Verizon,’ said one person who has seen the device. ‘We are talking about a device where people will say, “Damn, why didn’t we do this?” Apple is probably going to define the damn category.'” Reader stevegee58 writes with word that Verizon may be playing both ends against the middle. Marketwatch reports that Microsoft and Verizon are in talks to develop a touch-screen mobile phone that would run on Windows Mobile.

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The NYTimes has a piece analyzing the policy discussions in the US around the question of what should be the proper stance towards offensive cyberwarfare. This is a question that the Bush administration wrestled with, before deciding that the outgoing president didn’t have the political capital left to grapple with it. The article notes two instances in which President Bush approved the use of offensive cyberattacks; but these were exceptions, and the formation of a general policy was left to the Obama administration. “Senior Pentagon and military officials also express deep concern that the laws and understanding of armed conflict have not kept current with the challenges of offensive cyberwarfare. Over the decades, a number of limits on action have been accepted — if not always practiced. One is the prohibition against assassinating government leaders. Another is avoiding attacks aimed at civilians. Yet in the cyberworld, where the most vulnerable targets are civilian, there are no such rules or understandings. If a military base is attacked, would it be a proportional, legitimate response to bring down the attacker’s power grid if that would also shut down its hospital systems, its air traffic control system, or its banking system?”

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Vigile writes “With the release of AMD’s latest budget graphics card, the Radeon HD 4770, the GPU giant is bringing a lot of technology to the table. The card sports the world’s first 40nm GPU (beating out CPUs to a new process technology for the first time), GDDR5 memory, and 640 stream processors, all for under 0. What is even more interesting is that as PC gaming has evolved it appears that a graphics card is all you really need to play the latest PC titles — as long as you are comfortable with a resolution of 1920×1200 or below. Since so few PC gamers have screens larger than that, could the world of high-end PC graphics simply go away?”

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Akido37 was one of many readers letting us know that US Sen. Arlen Specter has changed parties to become a Democrat. This gives the Democrats 59 seats in the Senate, and 60 if and when Al Franken gets seated from Minnesota. However, Specter said in his announcement that he will not be an automatic 60th vote for breaking Republican filibusters. While the senator’s move seems to have surprised many Republicans, it is understandable to moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who said, “You haven’t certainly heard warm encouraging words of how they [Republicans] view moderates. Either you are with us or against us.” Specter noted that in his home state of Pennsylvania, 200,000 formerly Republican voters switched party allegiance last year.

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Barence was one of several readers to send in word that the UK Home Office checked whether its interpretation of the law suited Phorm, before issuing advice on the legality of the controversial advertising service. The Home Office and Phorm entered a dialogue about the company’s services back in August 2007, at Phorm’s request. In an email sent to Phorm in January 2008, a Home Office official writes: ‘I should be grateful if you would review the attached document, and let me know what you think.’ After Phorm made deletions and amendments to the document, the Home Office sent another email to the company stating: ‘If we agree this, and this becomes our position do you think your clients and their prospective partners will be comforted.’ From the BBC: “Baroness Sue Miller, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on Home Affairs, told BBC News: ‘My jaw dropped when I saw the Freedom of Information exchanges. … Anything the Home Office now says about Phorm is completely tainted.'”

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