Cody Taylor

bsharma writes to let us know about a little goodie that we will be able to buy starting May 17: a battery-powered, rechargeable, cellular, Wi-Fi hot spot that you can put in your pocket. “What if you had a personal Wi-Fi bubble, a private hot spot, that followed you everywhere you go? Incredibly, there is such a thing. It’s the Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon starting in mid-May (0 with two-year contract, after rebate). It’s a little wisp of a thing, like a triple-thick credit card. It has one power button, one status light and a swappable battery that looks like the one in a cellphone. When you turn on your MiFi and wait 30 seconds, it provides a personal, portable, powerful, password-protected wireless hot spot. … If you just want to do e-mail and the Web, you pay a month for the service (250 megabytes of data transfer, 10 cents a megabyte above that). If you watch videos and shuttle a lot of big files, opt for the plan (5 gigabytes). And if you don’t travel incessantly, the best deal may be the one-day pass: for 24 hours, only when you need it. In that case, the MiFi itself costs 0.” The device has its Wi-Fi password printed on the bottom, so you can invite someone to join your network simply by showing it to them.

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An anonymous reader writes with a report about programs revealed in the Department of Justice’s 2010 budget request, which includes 3.9 million in funding for an “Advanced Electronic Surveillance” project, and .6 million to establish the Biometric Technology Center. The surveillance project is designed to help the FBI “deal with changing technology and ways to intercept phone calls such as those used by VOIP phones or technology such as Skype. The program is also conducting research on ways to conduct automated analysis to look for links between subjects of surveillance and other investigative suspects.” The Center for Democracy and Technology’s Jim Dempsey warns, “It is appropriate for the FBI to develop more and more powerful interception tools, but the privacy laws that are supposed to guide and limit the use of those tools have not kept pace.” The biometrics plan lays groundwork for a “vast database of personal data including fingerprints, iris scans and DNA which the FBI calls the Next Generation Identification,” a system we have discussed in the past.

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Schmidt says he recuses himself from board meetings when the iPhone comes up. That has to be nearly impossible to do. The iPhone is Apple’s biggest product right now and the company has to revolve around it. On the flip side, an Apple board member not knowing anything about iPhones wouldn’t be making informed decisions.

New iPhone applications will be rejected unless they are ready for Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 3.0 firmware upgrade, developers have been informed.

Apple announced recently that iPhone and iPod users had downloaded an impressive one billion programs from the company’s online App Store in a mere nine months. Meanwhile, 15 of the 20 most popular paid downloads since the service opened have been games.

A 16-year-old North Carolina boy arrested for allegedly making a bomb threat against Purdue University had a secret identity as a superstar in an unusual online one dedicated to making prank phone calls for a live internet audience, his mother admitted Thursday.

gyrogeerloose writes “According to MacRumors, NIN’s iPhone application has been approved. Trent Reznor has reported via his Twitter account that the now-approved app was resubmitted without modification, which suggests that Apple reconsidered their initial rejection. This should really come as no surprise to anyone who follows Apple news since it follows the company’s typical pattern of handing potentially controversial iPhone apps, especially when it concerns high-profile rejections.”

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Statistically speaking, most students don’t do nearly as well as they planned in a semester. The iPhone – your most portable computer – is an unbelievably helpful tool when it comes to educational organization, studying, note taking, staying connected with other students, data reference, and more.

AT&T may slash the price of its iPhone service plan by when a new version of the touchscreen smartphone is launched this summer, according to a story on TheStreet.com.

These days, a 2-megapixel camera may not seem like much. But add Web access, a pocket-size Mac, and third-party apps to the mix, and presto! That humble camera is now a personal assistant and digital artist in one. Here are just a few of the ways you can extend your camera.