According to a CNN Technology article, A woman (Dawn Simorangkir) is suing Courtney Love for libel for bashing her clothing line on Twitter.  Love apparently posted degrading and false material on her twitter page about Simorangkir and that she did cocaine among other things.

Simorangkir is wanting Love to pay for all of her clothing that was produced and released. Love went to the Los Angeles, California Superior Court to throw out the case.  The court threw it out and Love is expected to appeal.

Twitter has seemed to have been a place for people to post things that get them in trouble.  One lady made a post that said,  “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon Realty thinks it’s okay,” to another user on the website.  The owner of the apartment, Horizon Group Management LLC, sued the woman (Amanda Bonnen) for libel and is seeking $50,000 in damages.  These cases are being watched very carefully because of how unclear the law is with the internet and how there are so many unanswered questions.

The way the courts work is looking at and relying on former cases to help make decisions for the future.  Cases like these could have a very big impact on how the law is shaped and how future cases turn out (if they even go to trial).  Some of these cases to me just seem absurd and shouldn’t be taken very seriously.  It seems more like a publicity stunt or someone angry and trying to make the other person look bad and maybe come out of it with some extra cash and spending money.

The rules of privacy and libel over the internet are very murky right now.  Another problem with these cases is that since the internet and web are all over the world, how do you get past state and international laws and infringements that might be illegal in some places but legal in others?  I have a feeling these cases are going to be spread and drawn out over a long period of time because there isn’t anything concrete to go off right now and what is the internet defined as?  Is the Web a unique, separate space or is it really an extension of real space? There are no real answers to this question.

This article was found on Wired.com  After reading all of these articles, I’m beginning to ask myself one question and one question only…Is there anything out there that the iPhone can’t do or anything where it wouldn’t be beneficial or the best option?  If our military is thinking about using it (which it saves the best things for and where many of the latest technologies are found first), then it must be legit.

This new app will allow our military to track live data of friends and foes from the person or military commanders iPhone.  This makes this possible virtually anywhere (at least anywhere that has internet connection) since the iPhone is always connected to a server, wherever you go.

Raytheon, a military contractor, at the Intelligence Warfighting Summit in Tucson is the company that produced this app.  They are also working on a flight simulation game or program similar to that of an already popular iPhone game called Flight Control.  This would allow air-traffic controllers practice and training 24/7 and allow them to hone their skills accounting for what would hopefully be less error and more precision.  And to add to this, it would be fun and on one of the greatest portable devices of all time…the iPhone.

Want a way to show a friend or loved one that you care about them?  Then buy them an App for their iPhone for Christmas.  Some of the top holiday apps include a Holiday Bells which let’s you play sleigh bells by just shaking your phone and it creates melodies which are pre-tuned to specific notes.  Something that you might want to take along with you for your caroling if you go out with this would be some speakers so everyone can hear year because according to ELF the “best way to spread Christmas Cheer  is singing loud for all to hear.”  Another one is a cookbook app which contains about a dozen holiday recipes.  This would be good for a mother or friend who doesn’t know how to cook or needs directions.

The Weezer album is also a hot item during this cold time of year. It also has games with it and a guitar hero-esque thing to sing along with and play.

For those who a Jewish a mobile menorah can be bought and allow people to light each light on the respective days digitally.

Lastly for a dollar more than the rest of the apps.  You can buy a story advent a day calendar that tells a Christmas story and also has music along with it.  If you have a lot of free time on your hands, then buckle up because these stories can be upwards of 30 pages.  This is a cute idea and I think Apple is having fun with releasing these and also picking up a few extra bucks before the fiscal year ends and wraps up the 4th quarter.

According to CNN.com, a Japanese man in Tokyo married a character on his handheld portable video game that is on his console that he carries around.  The link shows the video of the man getting married which was broadcast to thousands.  There is also footage of them going out on dates together, him kissing the digital screen, and doing everyday chores with one another.

If this is an attempt to get mass publicity…he’s got it.  I really hope that this is some sort of joke.  They were married on December 14.  Meme is his wife’s name.  I feel really sorry for this man if this is serious.  It is embarrassing for our society that he is so caught up in a fantasy world that he actually believes that this is love.  It takes away from everything that marriage is meant for and built around.

Another question…what are they going to do about children?  have virtual children.  This just enforces the scare of second life too where people spend more time living a fantasy life in this game than in real life.  Sure, it can serve as an escape from the real world and reality and relieve depressed or overwhelming feelings potentially but it won’t be something that satisfies over the long run.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/blind_block/

Last week, many countries met in Geneva to consider adopting the WIPO Treaty for Sharing Accessible Formats of Copyrighted Works for Persons Who are Blind or Have other Reading Disabilities. This would sanction the cross-border sharing of DRM-protected digitized books that tens of thousands of blind and visually disabled people read with devices and tools.

However, this process doesn’t bode well with American companies trying to make money.  Coming to this agreement would show a significant increase in internet piracy of books the U.S. chamber of commerce says.

The proposal before the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights could free up thousands of book titles to millions of blind people in WIPO-member nations — without payment to the publisher.  This would not go well with the publishers either.

I think it is a great idea to help out the blind people but I don’t think it works well economically.  I think powerhouse countries like the United States won’t go for it.  It’s a shame that this is how our world operates but that is just how things go.  I hope that in the future they can find an alternative way or means to change this.

In a world where more and more technology is available at our students fingertips and their attention spans seem to become increasingly shorter, Abilene Christian University in Texas, has decided to embrace these two things by buying every incoming freshman student (about 1,000) a free iPhone or iPod Touch.  That’s right, you read correctly, almost any college student’s favorite gizmo was given to them by their university for FREE.

This is all part of a pilot program to revitalize and test the classroom and help and adapt to the learning habits of today’s students.  On their devices, the students will be constantly connected to their university’s server with apps to turn in homework, watch lecture podcasts, check class schedules and grades.  It would also allow a freshman to avoid the embarrassment of walking around with a huge campus map trying to find their building.  Now they can just pop out the phone or iPod touch and put together where there class is without anyone seeing them do it (or thinking they are just checking their email or sending a text).

How’s the pilot test going thus far?  Pretty dag-gone well.  48% of the student population is equipped with an iPhone.  Nearly 97% of the faculty have one as well.  According to Bill Rankin, a professor at Abilene, the iPhone is aiding the students in giving them all the information they need, when they want it and wherever the want it.  Rankin was also one of the starters of this idea and helped implement it into action.

If a professor puts a discussion question up on his powerpoint, students can answer this question anonymously from their phone that will go right up to the screen.  Quick quizzes over the material can be asked to make sure students are following along and understanding the professor.  With having iPhones, those bulky, faulty, annoying to find, and expensive clickers that lots of classes require, are no longer needed.  You have one piece of machinery that essentially solves and does everything for you.

The students have apps that show how many credits they have for going to chapel, how much money they have left on their print card, how many meals are left on their meal plan, and if they want to go out, where some good restaurants are locally.

When you need to get someone’s contact information quickly after class has ended so you can work on that group project with them, all you need to do is bump your iPhones together, their is an app that will automatically give you that person’s contact info (email, phone number).  This is going to be interesting to see if since everything is much more convenient, what the students do with their extra free time.  Do they balance it healthily, or does it just give them that much more time to do things they would much rather do than homework and studying.

I’m impressed, and wouldn’t mind myself if Miami University implemented something like this.  I also feel bad for the upperclassmen who got left out of this deal.

At the University of Michigan, students and a professor have been working on making iPhones musical instruments.  They have designed programs that allow music to be produced through your iPhone by just blowing gently into it and pressing keys on a piano on the touchscreen to produce piano key like sounds.

These students are getting so good that they have performed an actual concert using just their iPhones!  Although the concert isn’t long at all (you can check out the video on the link posted above) and doesn’t sound very impressive either.  However,  the fact that these 11 students were able to produce all these different techniques of playing music is pretty impressive in and of itself.

There is an advantage in digital music.  Take the electric guitar for example and the ability to mess with, alter, and manipulate bits of code to create different sounds.  Although this technology is great, I don’t think it will ever really catch on, however, isn’t that the same thing that people have said about all other things that eventually caught on like the internet or mp3 players?  Maybe one day I will bite my tongue but for now, the ability to create one’s own music from a real piano, guitar, violin, or whatever takes more skill and practice than getting an app from your iPhone to make these things.  Just to the people who actually invented these programs, like the students and faculty at University of Michigan will I really give some real credit too.

From the website Wired.com  and according to a recent survey done by the Associate d Press and MTV, 1/3 of youth engage in Sexting! Ladies and Gentlemen, that is absurd!  For real, sending naked pictures or videos of yourself or hot and steamy texts back and forth with total strangers or your significant other is outrageous.

Of those who “sext,” girls are more likely than boys to sext, those engaged in sexually activity are way more likely to sext than those who are not, and a staggering 61% say that they sent the sext because they were pressured by others or those around them.

A campaign done by the same people who set up the survey (Associated Press, MTV, LG) is called “A Thin Line” and trying to make kids aware of exactly what they are doing and what the consequences may be from what they’ve done.  All the way up to college students, they are trying to educate us about appropriate digital behavior.

“To help measure where the younger generation currently stands on sexting and digital abuse, MTV and the Associated Press surveyed 1,247 youths between ages 14 and 24. About 50 percent of youths who responded to the survey said they’ve been the victim of some form of digital abuse. The most common type of abuse was being the target of a smear campaign; about 22 percent of respondents indicated they’d been the target of lies spread through digital media. About 8 percent of respondents indicated they’d been threatened with some form of digital blackmail.”

Lastly, a whopping 12% of those who have been caught up in this sexting business have admitted contemplating suicide and 3/4 said that it was a problem but didn’t think the risks or affects of it would actually be that serious.   This is outrageous and needs to be more looked over by parents and better controlled as a society of young teenagers and men and woman in the world.

It is finally here.  After watching all of those commercials that said things like “iDon’t run simultaneous apps,” “iDon’t take 5-megapixel pictures,” and  “iDon’t have a real keyboard.”  Then moving on to the commercials where meteors and canisters crash into the earth with curious and intrigued people from all over approaching these devices with caution and then the commercial ending with saying its arrived.

The Droid is produced by Motorola in partnership with Verizon to come out with a phone to compete and match up with iPhone and AT&T.  It was released on the 28th of October and seems to be doing fairly well with estimates of already over 100,000 sold and being better than any android ever created before.  This thing has a lot of pros and a few cons according to the article on Wired.com.

The 3.7-inch touchscreen display is just a tad bigger than the iPhone 3G S, but it also has much higher resolution, with 854 x 440 pixels compared to the iPhone’s 480 x 320. The virtual keyboard is extremely responsive with very little input error.  The review didn’t particularly like the slide out QWERTY keyboard and said it was small and hard to punch the buttons.  However, I love having the option to either use a touch-screen to respond to texts or having a keyboard available because at times it does go faster either way.  Also, it is just one more option given to help make me and you (the customers) more satisfied.

Another great and interesting feature is that since it is powered through the Google system, you get free usage of google maps and turn by turn as well as voice activated navigation.  A down side is that it weighs 6-ounces which feels a little heavier than most phones that we are used to today.  Again, a slight con, nothing that is too troublesome or a glitch with the actual phone.

The Droid also does not provide a simple way to sync all of your music. Instead of iTunes, the phone connects to Amazon’s MP3 store and lets you browse tracks by genre or artist and buy them for a dollar apiece. But there’s no software to sync your music to the PC and manage it easily.  Could be a bummer for all of us who love our tunes.

Overall it seems to be a great phone, and with my contract with Verizon ending in December, this phone will definitely be on my list for a new phone and be a high contender.