Tim Conneally

The US Transportation Safety Administration's recent relaxation of rules on removing laptops from luggage at airport checkpoints, carried an announcement of soon-to-be available TSA pre-approved bags. This fall, we should see the first.

"The Checkpoint Flyer" by Tom Bihn adheres to TSA guidelines as presented in the group's five-month design challenge. To achieve this, it integrates a protective laptop sleeve into a messenger-style bag that allows the two to be separated for scanning in "less than three seconds" (re-attachment times were not included).

Upstart mobile browser Skyfire this weekend rolled out its Beta version 0.6 to select testers in the US, using the Olympic craze to highlight the browser's native support of Microsoft's Silverlight.

Skyfire's default page provides a link to NBC Universal's glut of Olympic content, and no Silverlight plug-in needs to be installed, giving users almost immediate access to hours of video content. Add to this the browser's full support for Adobe's Flash, and Skyfire opens the user's handset to hundreds of hours of free video from Google Video, YouTube, Hulu and other content providers that deal in Flash.

Withdrawing from the fierce high definition format war was considered a "losing move" by Toshiba. Now, instead of concentrating on the next generation of hard-copy home media, Toshiba will focus on improving the 13 year-old DVD format.

Toshiba announced today a DVD player with full 1080p/24 fps upconversion. Called the XD-E500 that is expected to retail for $149.99.

EA's hostile takeover bid for software company Take-Two Interactive is finally set to expire after a series of extensions failed to cull outstanding stock in the company necessary for a takeover.

Nearly seven months after placing its initial bid for the manufacturer of the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto game series, Electronic Arts has made little progress in obtaining Take-Two. For this reason, EA CEO John Riccitello wrote a note to Executive Chairman of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick which said:

Beginning August 16, the US Transportation Safety Administration will no longer expressly require laptops to be removed from luggage at airport security checkpoints if they are kept in appropriate bags.

The allowance has been made, according to the TSA, to help streamline the security check process and reduce the likelihood of damage to travelers' important hardware.

A construction equipment company in Mumbai, India, has asked that country's high court to order Google India to disclose the identity of "Toxic Writer," a blogger who made defamatory remarks about its mining project in Mozambique.

According to the original complaint filed by Gremach Infrastructure Equipments and Projects Ltd., the ninth paragraph of a blog entry entitled "toxic fumes" contained defamatory material that amounted to a smear campaign against it. However, because the blog post was taken down on an interim order from the Bombay High Court, the actual text is unavailable and even some cached copies cannot be retrieved.

Though redolent of dogs barking jingle bells, the "Condom a Capella" ringtone -- sponsored by the BBC World Service and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation -- seeks to break social taboos regarding the prophylactic.

The ringtone (available here) is part of an ongoing campaign to prevent the transmission of HIV in India by making the discussion of condoms more socially acceptable.

While not yet formally announced by either Google or the North American arm of Deutsche Telekom, widespread reports from "briefed" sources assert that T-Mobile will be the first company offering handsets utilizing the open OS.

T-Mobile has long been rallying to be the first carrier with an Android phone, and has actually spoken on Google's behalf, saying there would be no delays in the release of such a device.

11:00 am EDT August 15, 2008 - In what many are calling Netflix's biggest service disruption yet, the movie rental-by-mail company's shipping system has still not returned to full functionality, with at least 2.5 million subscribers affected.

As of Thursday evening, Netflix still had not returned to fully functional distribution after almost four days of intermittent service. The company's representatives have disclosed neither the scope of the disruption nor the precise cause, saying only that it is of "significant" size and that technicians are working to have operations fully restored as soon as possible.

The maker of a popular pre-paid cell phone today announced a program that will give low income Tennessee residents free cell phones and mobile service on a year-to-year basis.

Called SafeLink Wireless, the project is being led by the Tennessee Department of Safety, TracFone Wireless, and local nonprofit organizations. Eligible households will receive a free cellular handset with 60 or more minutes of airtime a month plus unlimited access to emergency services (911). Handsets will support standard cellular features such as voice mail, SMS, call waiting, as well as international calling.

The Russia-Georgia conflict has US senators worrying about NASA's future in the International Space Station project. As it is now, US law may eventually prohibit NASA from enlisting the help of its only way into space after 2011.

Senators Bill Nelson (D - Fla.) and Barbara Mikulski (D - Md.) -- who is incidentally the chair of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee that funds NASA -- expressed concerns that if the conflict erodes US-Russian relations, NASA may have no way to reach the International Space Station.

Intel this morning made available the updated Extended Host Controller Interface (xHCI) specification that will allow manufacturers to start work on USB 3.0 devices.

The xHCI spec describes the register-level host controller interface for USB 2.0 and above. As you may know, the host controller connects the computer with external peripherals, and the host controller interface allows the operating system to communicate with the controller. Intel is making the xHCI spec available under RAND-Z (Reasonable and Non-discriminatory licensing with zero royalties) terms today to companies that have signed the xHCI contributor agreement.

Armed conflict between Russia and Georgia has been paralleled by what many in the media have classed a "cyberwar," where Georgian Web sites have been crippled by DDoS attacks and defacements.

As Georgian government sites were rendered inaccessible this week, Poland, Estonia, and the United States hosted mirrors to provide supplementary outlets for information. Polish president Lech Kaczynski's official site says, "Along with military aggression, the Russian Federation is blocking Georgian Internet portals."

Telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent has extended the tender offer it made in June to buy Texas automation software company Motive.

The previous offer to buy all issued and outstanding stock in Motive was set to expire at midnight on August 12. Today, the company announced that it will extend the offer until September 10. As of last night, approximately 27 million shares had been tendered.

The United States' fifth largest wireless carrier, with the largest network by area looks to be simply holding on until Verizon takes over, leaving open questions as to where its new customers will go.

Alltel has not gone into great detail about how the acquisition will affect its customers, since the