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There are times when one is justifiably grateful to Google.

Only last week I wrote these desperate, pleading words: "It has long been my personal dream to see Google's Larry Page wearing brightly patterned trousers and dancing uncontrollably."

Clearly Google had mercy. For, though Page is obviously too busy penning Google+ updates to perform, the company instead proffered Marissa Mayer. Which, for many, might even be an improvement. Moreover, she's not merely dancing. She's getting it on down to MC Hammer's "Too Legit To Quit."

The work of art in which Mayer … Read more

Amazon's anticipated tablet, the Kindle Fire, is still a few weeks away from release, and it's raising legal issues and questions in every direction.

Today the Fire's flames are being fanned by the Silk browser, which on the front end is touted as a much faster browser using cheaper hardware because all Web activity is filtered through Amazon's cloud-based Amazon Web Services.

But that has been a hot topic in the last few weeks because, essentially, the Silk Web browser can track everything a user does on the Web and keeps a permanent record.

Now Congress … Read more

Illinois utilty ComEd today released a study that found smart meters yielded larger-than-expected financial benefits on operating efficiency alone.

The report, prepared by energy engineering and consulting company Black & Veatch, said smart meters eliminated the need for manual meter reading. The two-way communications of smart meters also cut down on energy theft and unpaid bills, costs which are now passed on to customers.

Projecting from the utility pilot's program, the report estimates that a full-scale smart-meter program would save between $2.8 billion and $3 billion over the 20-year life of the meters.

The meters can alert the … Read more

If you want the benefits of the OnStar system, such as emergency services and turn-by-turn navigation, but your car didn't come with OnStar hope is not lost. OnStar FMV (For My Vehicle) will be available this week.

Launching July 24, OnStar FMV will be available at Best Buy for $299.99, plus $75 for installation. Service plans for OnStar FMV will start at $18.95 a month, or $199 a year.

"The wait is over," OnStar President Linda Marshall said in a press release. "Since we announced OnStar FMV at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, … Read more

On today's preGame we'll interview Mr. Mortal Kombat himself, the co-creator of the entire franchise, Ed Boon. It's been a few weeks since the latest iteration of Mortal Kombat hit store shelves, and we'll ask Mr. Boon all about the game as well as the series' history.

But first we'll run down the hottest gaming news of the week including word that a new Alan Wake game will be hitting the Xbox 360, hopefully this year.

We'll also discuss what Microsoft buying Skype means for Xbox 360 owners and then run through a new … Read more

Law enforcement agencies have known since at least last year that an iPhone or iPad surreptitiously records its owner's approximate location, and have used that geolocation data to aid criminal investigations.

Apple has never publicized the undocumented feature buried deep within the software that operates iPhones and iPads, which became the topic of criticism this week after a researcher at a conference in Santa Clara, Calif., described in detail how it works. Apple had acknowledged to Congress last year only that "cell tower and Wi-Fi access point information" is "intermittently" collected and "transmitted to … Read more

Two congressmen are trying to pry information out of wireless carriers about how closely they track their customers' whereabouts.

Letters sent to AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile this week ask what personally identifiable information is stored, how long it is kept, and for what other purposes it's used.

Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) asked for responses no later than April 19. Their request came after Germany's Zeit Online published data showing that a cellular provider kept track of tens of thousands of locations that one person visited over six months.

Their letters could … Read more

Despite congressional criticism, Facebook is planning to resume the aborted rollout of a feature that allowed the optional sharing of addresses and mobile phone numbers.

Facebook said in a letter (PDF) released today that it is evaluating different ways to "enhance user control" over information sharing that would go into effect "once the feature is re-enabled."

The social-networking site encountered some criticism in January after announcing the feature, which allowed applications to request permission to access user information. Only if the user clicked "Allow" was information shared.

Only three days after announcing the platform … Read more

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are putting the pressure on Facebook to say more about its plans to share more user information with third parties: On Thursday, U.S. Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) published a joint letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in which they request "information about Facebook's recently announced, and subsequently postponed plan to make its users' addresses and mobile phone numbers available to third-party Web sites and application developers."

Facebook announced last month on its developer blog that it would be delaying but eventually continuing with … Read more