Brick and Mortar retailers haven't quite figured out the perfect way to utilize location-based "check in" services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Latitude, but mobile rewards app CardStar today presented a new option for retailers.

Retailers like Starbucks, Domino's Pizza, Chili's, Ann Taylor, and Sephora have all tried promotions where the people who check in most at their stores (the "mayors") get special coupons or prizes.

Aiming to bring its multi-touch technology to its desktop systems, Apple on Tuesday introduced the "Magic Trackpad," a navigation device that looks much like the trackpads on its current MacBook Pro line of laptops.

The device, which retails for $69, would allow the user to employ the same gestures available to those using its laptops. The device would run on two AA batteries and connect wirelessly to the computer via Bluetooth.

After Apple temporarily closed down its Web-based store on Tuesday, the company announced its annual desktop product line refresh, which included new Mac Pro, iMac, and Cinema Display products.

Apple's new iMacs are equipped with Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processors offering speeds between 2.93 GHz and 3.6 GHz, have up to 16GB of faster 1333 MHz memory, discrete ATI Radeon HD craphics cards, (including the HD 5750 with 1GB GDDR5 on the top end,) and configure-to-order storage solutions with up to 2TB hard drives or 256GB solid state drives.

I spent Thursday through Sunday (July 22-25) covering one of the best geek events anywhere -- best because the appeal is so broad. At Comic-Con, everyone is a geek, or someone else if they cosplay (costume play). The event has changed as big Hollywood media exercises greater influence. Comic-Con is no longer just about comics, anime or manga. Last year, for example, director James Cameron debuted a long segment from the then upcoming movie "Avatar."

Like previous years, I focused my reporting not on the star-studded panels but the attendees and exhibitors. From my viewpoint, the real stars aren't the Hollywood actors, directors or producers but the artists and attendees, many of whom dress up as someone else. For one day, or as many as four, they assume other personas or revel in the roles their favorite heroes play.

Citigroup customers using its iPhone app for mobile banking are being urged to apply an update after the company found a security flaw. The program was storing personal data in a file that could have potentially opened the user up to identity theft.

The issue was discovered during a routine security check of the company's products. Citi Mobile was released in March and was updated on July 19 to fix the issue. Customers were notified by mail beginning the following day. The update will erase this file from the phone as well as the computer when applied and synced with iTunes.

Following news over the weekend that it had missed the deadline to provide the city government of Los Angeles with its own email and collaboration infrastructure, Google today announced "Google Apps for Government".

Google Apps for Government provides more secure versions of the popular consumer-facing Web services that Google offers, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, Sites, and even YouTube. All of the apps are compliant with the 2002 Federeal Information Security Management Act (FIMSA, PDF here,) and operate at the "moderate" level. FIMSA was laid down by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to ensure federal agencies and their contractors were using secure and reliable software and systems.

Internet leak clearinghouse Wikileaks made the news over the weekend, being the source of the release of 92,000 secret government documents detailing US activity in Afghanistan from January 2004 to December 2009. The full suite of documents was provided to three news organizations about two weeks ago.

The New York Times, Britain's The Guardian, and Germany's Der Spiegel were given access provided they didn't report on the contents until Sunday. Indeed, it paints a not-too-forgiving picture of a US armed force that was fighting an increasingly organized Taliban on strained resources.

Methods for bypassing DVD encryption, unlocking mobile phone carrier locks, and other content protection could be argued as fair use under a revision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced today.

Every three years, the Library of Congress must determine if there are any types of works that can be exempt from Section 1201 of copyright law, also known as "Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems."

Last May, AT&T launched a project called "Hotzones" in New York City's Times Square aimed at fixing traffic problems by blanketing the area in Wi-Fi signals. Today, the carrier announced the project is coming to more cities, including Charlotte, North Carolina today and Chicago, Illinois in the coming weeks.

Over the last three years, AT&T says its mobile data traffic has grown by more than 5,000 percent, and in the most densely populated areas of the U.S., connectivity is often an issue. New York and San Francisco proved to be especially troublesome for the company's data network, and in 2009, AT&T Mobility's CEO Ralph de la Vega said they were "performing at levels below our standards," but that they were going to be fixed.

Android's share of the UK mobile market grew by more than 10 percent in a single quarter, International market research firm GfK's Retail and Technology division announced today. The mobile operating system appears to be experiencing the same explosive growth the U.S. showed earlier this month.

According to GfK's research, smartphones reached nearly 67% penetration in the contract mobile device market in the second quarter, and by June had already grown to 73.5%. While the sale of new mobile contracts didn't even grow by a single percentage point, smartphone adoption is skyrocketing.

In the quest to deliver a high-tech learning device that anyone can afford, India's Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal unveiled a prototype for a $35 tablet computer Thursday. Sibal said it is an answer to the "hundred dollar laptop" from MIT, which later launched as the One Laptop Per Child project.

In 2006, India's Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee reportedly criticized the $100 laptop project as an underdeveloped idea that was "pedagogically suspect," and research began within India to create a local version of the device.

Making good on a promise delivered in last week's press conference, Apple on Friday rolled out its free case program for iPhone 4 customers. A web page detailing the program has been set up, and a special app has been created and is now available from the App Store.

Those who ordered the iPhone 4 before July 23 would need to apply for their case by August 22, while any other customer would have 30 days from the date of purchase. The entire program is set to expire on September 30 as expected.

Microsoft has signed a new licensing agreement for the ARM architecture, extending the two companies' relationship that has already spanned 13 years. ARM's major intellectual property is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture that is commonly used in embedded and mobile processors.

ARM-based processors were most common in low power computing environments, and more powerful consumer computers used the x86 architecture. But as smartphones have become more powerful, and larger devices based on mobile operating systems are becoming more common, ARM is moving out of the low power sector and into the mass market.

Today, OnStar and General Motors announced a plan to bring mobile phone-based controls to 2011 Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC automobiles.

The service will be included in OnStar's subscription package at no extra charge, and users will be able to download an OnStar app onto their mobile device that grants remote access to their vehicle.

Microsoft published its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2010, and the software company reported revenue of $16.04 billion, a 22% increase over the same period last year, and $340 million ahead of Apple which also had a record-setting quarter.

Apple exceeded Wall Street's estimates and primed suspicion that the company may finally overtake Microsoft in revenue, but Microsoft also beat Wall Street expectations this quarter, so Microsoft remains the leader.