Laura Sydell

Obscure law change makes it harder to unlock cellphones

Laura Sydell — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:57:50 +0000

Maybe you don't like your mobile phone carrier, but you like your phone and you want to keep it but change providers. An obscure change in federal law makes it illegal to switch without permission from your carrier.

If you have, for example, AT&T, in order to switch to T-Mobile you have to unlock the phone, and AT&T can now stop you from doing that.

The change in the copyright law has some people upset, and they're petitioning the White House for a fix.

Sina Khanifar, who is backing the petition, has been personally affected by the rules.

Yet Another Shift In Facebook Policies Raises Privacy Concerns

Laura Sydell — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:43:20 +0000

Facebook has a long history of upsetting its users by suddenly announcing a change to its privacy settings. In 2009, as a way to quiet the critics, Facebook set up a system for its customers to vote on changes. If enough of them were unhappy, the company would back down. Now, Facebook wants to get rid of the voting.

This is how Facebook Vice President Elliot Schrage put it in a posting on the company's website: "The voting mechanism ...

What Will Apple's Patent Case Mean For Phone Design?

Laura Sydell — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:10:43 +0000

A lot of thought goes into giving your smartphone a distinctive look and feel, from the shape of the speaker — square, round or oval — to where to put the buttons — side, front or back.

But industrial designers like Robert Brunner say he doesn't have a lot of room to be creative.

"Because you're really being so heavily driven on maintaining a minimal physical size," he says. "So you really get into this very fine envelope of a few millimeters that you have to work with."

Brunner should know.

Megaupload Shut Down By The FBI

Laura Sydell and Jacob Ganz — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:29:00 +0000

Megaupload, one of the world's most popular file-sharing sites, was shut down Thursday as its founder and several executives were charged with violating piracy laws by the U.S. Department of Justice. As a technology used to transfer files too large to be sent by email, Megaupload has perfectly legitimate uses, but the Motion Picture Association of America claims that most of the content transferred over the site violates U.S.

How Rick Santorum's 'Google problem' has endured

Laura Sydell — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:37:48 +0000

Rick Santorum has been working hard this week to capitalize on his strong showing in the Iowa caucuses, trying to convince Republicans in New Hampshire that he is presidential material. One thing he's not encouraging possible supporters to do: Google him.

That's because if they do, one of the top results is a scatological and sexual site called SpreadingSantorum.com. It's got a big brown blotch on it — and we can't say more than that.