Tech News 2/15/10
Justice Dept. wants phone locales without warrant
Should the government be allowed to track a person's movements based on cell phone records, without evidence of criminal wrongdoing?
A showdown on the issue unfolded Friday in a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, as the Justice Department battled electronic-privacy groups.
The privacy groups say the information could reveal when someone goes to a religious service, medical clinic or political rally, or is having an extramarital affair.
Yahoo News
Stopping Infections: The Art of Bacterial Warfare
Most bacteria are well-behaved companions. Indeed, if you are ever feeling lonely, remember that the trillions of microbes living in and on the average human body outnumber the human cells by a ratio of 10 to one. Of all the tens of thousands of known bacterial species, only about 100 are renegades that break the rules of peaceful coexistence and make us sick.
Scientific American
Solar Energy Harvesting Using 1 Percent Of Current Materials
Imagine a world where sunlight can be captured to produce electricity anywhere, on any surface. The makers of thin-film flexible solar cells imagine that world too. But a big problem has been the amount of silicon needed to harvest a little sunshine.
Now, researchers [led by Harry A. Atwater] at Caltech say they’ve designed a device that gets comparable solar absorption while using just one percent of the silicon per unit area that current solar cells need. The work was published in the journal Nature Materials.
Is Apple Banning iPhone Hackers?
At least two of them sure seem to think so! Jailbreak scenesters Sherif Hashim and iH8sn0w are both reporting bannings—by Apple ID, strangely—following their latest hacks. Is Apple attacking jailbreak from the bottom up? Maybe.
Last Updated (Monday, 15 February 2010 08:41)