• Changes in federal copyright laws will allow users of Apple’s iPhone and other smart phones to lawfully download applications that aren’t approved by the phone maker or carrier, according to the Library of Congress. The practice, known as “jailbreaking” has been criticized by Apple and other firms, who say their mobile devices can become destabilized when users download unapproved software applications. Apple would not comment on whether it would sue the Library of Congress’s copyright office for the changes made to the Digital Millennial Copyright Act announced Monday.Those changes also allow a user to take their mobile phone from one carrier to another with the approval of their new service provider.
• The head of Wikileaks, the organization that leaked a trove of secret documents on the Afghan war, has likened the release of the documents to the leak of the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. But under scrutiny, the analogy does not hold up. About the only thing the two have in common is the sheer volume of documents.  The Pentagon Papers was a study of U.S. policy in Vietnam composed of politically sensitive top secret documents.  It exposed governmental duplicity on major policy decisions, and was a major factor in influencing public opinion on the war.  The Nixon administration went all the way to the Supreme Court in an unsuccessful bid to halt their publication.
• Google on Monday unveiled a new version of Google Apps designed to meet the rigorous security needs of U.S. government agencies. Google Apps for Government includes Gmail, Talk, Groups, Calendar, Docs, Sites, Video and Postini. The service costs the same as Google's existing Premier Edition offering: US$50 per user per year. Data in the apps will be stored only in the U.S., and servers that support the offering are segregated from those used by nongovernmental customers, Google said.
• Cellular trade body The CTIA is challenging a San Francisco ordinance that requires radiation labels on every mobile phone sold, claiming that such a rule breaches the US constitution. The ordinance, passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in June, requires buyers to be informed "at the point of sale" about the radiative properties of different mobile phones. The CTIA reckons that requirement undermines the FCC's (national) rulings and is thus unconstitutional – states can't go around overruling federal bodies.
• The Wireless Power Consortium said Monday that it will start working on a new specification for wirelessly charging laptops. The consortium will develop a medium-power wireless charging specification with a maximum output of 120 watts, said Menno Treffers, chairman of the steering group at the Wireless Power Consortium. That should be enough for wireless charging of devices like laptops and netbooks, he said. Wireless charging entails placing rechargeable devices on mats or pads containing transmitters that put out a charge. The devices contain coils that wirelessly receive the power. The consortium's initial goal was to tackle charging for low-power devices, said Treffers, who is also director of standards at Koninklijke Philips Electronics. On Saturday the consortium finalized a low-power standard of up to 5 watts of power for charging devices like smartphones, Bluetooth headsets or power tools, Treffers said.
• Based on early reviews, it seems that Microsoft’s new Phone System 7 has succeeded on many levels. The Windows Phone 7 user interface is completely different than Windows Mobile--and completely different than the iPhones and Androids that dominate the smartphone landscape--in a nice, refreshing way. The hub-centric approach, combined with built-in integration with the Microsoft ecosystem make Windows Phone 7 uniquely suited as the best option for a business-oriented smartphone. Sadly, though, Microsoft did copy the iPhone in a couple crucial ways. Not the current iPhone. Microsoft is following in the footsteps of the original iPhone by launching Windows Phone 7 without multitasking or copy and paste functionality. As great and unique as the other elements of Windows Phone 7 are, the lack of multitasking, and copy and paste, make the device seem like a throwback to the smartphone dark ages (otherwise known as June if we're talking about multitasking in iOS). In fact, because of its suitability as a business smartphone, and the integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, these functions are actually more crucial than they are on other smartphones.
• One of the most expensive and ambitious pieces of scientific equipment in mankind's history, the Large Hadron Collider, has   set records, but been   fraught with problems.  Now, even as operations and analysis of the $9B USD collider start to   get back on course, scientists are developing a new collider that will deliver more precise measurements and new insights into the fundamental building blocks of the universe. The International Linear Collider (ILC) as proposed would stretch 31 kilometers (19 miles, versus the 17-mile circumference of the LHC), with 14,000 electron-positron collisions per second at 500 GeV. That would essentially make it a linear version of the LHC and the world's largest linear collider by far, surpassing the 2-mile-long, 50 GeV Stanford Linear Accelerator.
• A device operated by nose sniffs allows disabled people, quadriplegics and those “locked in” by complete paralysis to use computers or operate wheelchairs, an Israeli study showed. Quadriplegic patients were able to navigate wheelchairs as well as healthy people who used the device created by the researchers, according to the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Two people in the study who were completely paralyzed with intact mental function used the technology to communicate by choosing letters on a computer screen to write. The technology works by translating changes in nasal air pressure into electrical signals that are passed to a computer. Patients can sniff in certain patterns to select letters or numbers to compose text, or on the computer, to control the mouse. For getting around, sniffing controls the direction of the wheelchair -- two sniffs inhaled can mean moving forward and two sniffs exhaled may signal backward.

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