Attention iPhone users: Andy Greenberg of Forbes is reporting that two researchers will demonstrate (and publicize) a method of wrestling control over a person's iPhone via SMS: If you receive a text message on your iPhone any time after Thursday afternoon containing only a single square character, Charlie Miller would suggest you turn the device off. Quickly. That small cipher will likely be your only warning that someone has taken advantage of a bug that Miller and his fellow cybersecurity researcher Collin Mulliner plan to publicize Thursday at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas. Using a flaw they've found in...

No event sets the shutter clicking like the birth of a baby. Like any new parent, I have a hard drive filled with photos of my young kids and to be honest, I never felt ashamed of myself until a copy of How to Photograph Your Baby landed on my desk. For it was then that I realized that aside from the emotional resonance of these images, most of them were dreck. Oh sure, I had some exposure to photography tips (unavoidable in my line of work) but I had applied them unevenly, if at all. It was not until...

Shortly after my netbook piece went to press (as it were), Gateway snuck in new model, the LT2000. It measures in at an inch thin and 2.6 pounds with a 10-inch display, 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive. Like most netbooks, you can bulk up the specs if you're willing to shell out a little more cash. The baseline model starts at $299 and you'll find it in red and black. Not a bad price.

So discovered 12 year-old Jamie Neale from Britain who was lost for 12 days in the Australian bush without a cell phone. Not only is this a good cautionary tale - always carry your mobile! - but it provides us the excuse to share Jamie's father's reaction: "When I've seen the mistake after mistake he's made," he said, "I can't say I'd kill him, because that would spoil the point of him coming back, but yeah, I'm going to kick his a-- because I appreciate the millions that have been spent on the search, the man (and woman) hours, that have...

Every parent learns on day one that sleep is a precious commodity. But it's not just kids that can keep us up nights. Bills, stress, the collapse of the global economy, world-altering climate change, wars, World of Warcraft... the obstacles to a good nine hours of sleep are endless. Maybe you, dear bleary eyed reader, need a sleep aid (and no, reading this blog doesn't count). That's where the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach comes in.  According to the company, Zeo is designed to "help consumers understand how they sleep, reveal habits and behaviors...

After you've figured out how to spy on your kids and exercise near-dictatorial control over your child's video game console, you've got to worry about the Internet. We'll address viruses and other threats in the future, but for now, let's marvel at the example of one John Sawyers. He is, by all accounts, an amiable chap. His Facebook account has photos of him wearing a Santa hat, cavorting shirtless on the beach, and generally having a good time with his family. His wife has generously detailed family activities on the popular social networking site to keep friends and family up-to-date...

Life is full of difficult choices but perhaps none so vexing as what kind of technology you want in your flat screen TV. LCD or plasma? Nothing lights up the message boards or sends videophiles into contrast-ratio-measuring fury like the LCD vs. plasma debate. This is not the place to settle it definitively, but as the Wall Street Journal points out, this great debate seems to be winding down as consumers flock to LCD. But as they shift, it also means that plasmas are getting less and less expensive. And that's good! But the same Wall Street Journal article warns...

Returning to the subject of kids and video games, you may be wondering how to set up parental controls on a video game console. Wonder no more. The folks at the Entertainment Software Rating Board have put together a series of detailed instructions for you. Here goes: How to set up parental controls on Xbox 360 How to set up parental controls on Windows Vista How to set up parental controls on Sony Playstation & PSP How to set up...