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Fighting spam and scams on Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO--Twitter presents a relatively new frontier for spammers, malware creators, and all around bad guys, which in turn has created the opportunity for security researchers and vendors alike to try to figure out, and put a stop to, their efforts.

One company that's trying to get a handle on the size of the problem, and on ways to fight it, is Barracuda Networks. During a talk at the RSA security conference here, which wraps up tomorrow, Barracuda outlined some of the research it's been doing in this area over the past two years.

Paul Judge, chief research … Read more

China likely bright spot in Asia climate action

SINGAPORE--The outcome of U.N. climate talks in Mexico held this month should boost steps in Asia to curb greenhouse gas emissions, with China a likely bright spot in 2011, a senior analyst at a leading U.S. think tank said.

The talks helped put the troubled U.N. negotiations back on track but failed to agree on a broader pact meant to avert every more extreme droughts, floods, heat waves, and rising sea levels.

Across the region, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Taiwan are working on myriad policy steps to put a price on carbon emissions, drive … Read more

Mexico urges higher ambitions at climate talks

CANCUN, Mexico--Mexico is pushing parties at the United Nations climate change meeting to strive for the best possible deal, although even the most ambitious agreement will fall short of what is needed to deal with climate change.

Acknowledging that thorny issues such as agreeing to a second round of greenhouse gas emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol are unlikely to be resolved at the talks at the beach resort of Cancun, Mexico's top climate change diplomat told reporters that he feels a major step forward could be made.

"The big challenge is not to just capture in a … Read more

StartTalking lets you text with just your voice

Texting while driving is a serious safety problem, so much so that the activity is now banned in 30 states in the United States.

How dangerous is it? The U.S. Department of Transportation says that drivers who do anything with a handheld device increase the risk of getting in an injury crash by four times--a concept that can be easy to ignore if you've gotten away with this unscathed.

AdelaVoice is based in East Falmouth, Mass.--a state where, beginning tomorrow, texting while driving will become an offense with a penalty of up to a $500. The company … Read more

Avast says, 'Yer ship be secure'

Security vendor Avast takes a cue from its own name and a slightly aged Internet meme to bring you a pirate-themed approach to home computer protection. In honor of the upcoming annual "Talk like a pirate day" on September 19, Avast rebrands its main interface in pirate-speak for people who opt in to the feature through September 22. There's not a lot to the changes, but check out the our slideshow of the four newly rechristened pirate-themed windows in Avast.

The 404 657: Where Santa Jobs and Kenley pay us a visit (podcast)

Unfortunately Jeff can't make it to the show today, but our good friend Kenley jumps into the hot seat to fill Wilson's shoes while he pulls out his beautiful hair trying to play sound engineer for the day. Meanwhile, we're making last minute predictions on what the Apple Music event will bring, so head over to CNET's live blog for more details and in-depth post show coverage.

The average e-mail user gets hundreds of message everyday, and while spam filters get rid of most of the junk, we're still blasted with e-mails from work, mailing lists, Facebook, and more low-priority comments. Gmail recently rolled out a new solution to organize your messages called Priority Inbox.

The Gmail feature automatically sorts your incoming e-mail into three sections: "important and unread," "starred," and "everything else," and the idea is to target messages that aren't outright spam but still aren't important...Google cleverly calls this "bologne," or BACN. The service also improves accuracy as you use it and will sort sort between senders you reply to and others that you just skip over, hopefully helping you sift through the piles of mail you get a day.

We've seen plenty of strange Nintendo Wiimote accessories in the past, but the new detachable controller from a company called Mojowijo is by far the most NSFW. The device attaches to the Wii's accessory port and uses Bluetooth to run wireless software that basically turns it into a partner-controlled "marital aid." Its patent-pending "Motion2Vibration" technology transforms one user's motions into vibrations signals that get sent to another selected device, even if they're in another part of the country. Get it?

Thanks again to everyone who entered our JetBlue All You Can Jet contest! We've selected two winners for the seven-day and five-day passes and will announce their names on tomorrow's show where we'll welcome hypnotist Paul Ramsay back into the studio! On his last appearance he hypnotized me into forgetting my name, so who knows what'll happen tomorrow- tune in at 11:30 a.m. ET to find out!

Episode 657 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Tapping this app gives special-needs users a voice

At $189.99, Proloquo2Go is far from the cheapest App Store offering. Believe it or not, though, that price is actually a bargain--one a certain market is seriously happy to pay.

The target market? Parents of kids with special needs--specifically those with autism, apraxia, and other disabilities that affect their communication. Many of these kids can't speak, or can't speak as fluently as their peers, but they understand what's going on around them, and they do have things they'd like to say.

Augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC, devices can supplement existing speech or replace speech that is not functional to improve social interaction, school performance, and--not for nothing--to give the kids a better sense of self-worth. Electronic AAC aids use picture symbols, letters, and/or words and phrases to create messages. Equipped with an AAC device, a child with cerebral palsy whose speech is limited suddenly has a way to tell you, "I want to go to Grandma's house this weekend!" or "I ate cake!"

Proloque2Go is just one of a growing number of AAC apps quickly gaining ground in the special-needs community. The reason is hardly surprising: before these apps came along, AAC devices could cost upward of $10,000--a cost many insurance companies would not cover. And for that hefty price, you got a heavy, clunky device that screamed, "I am different!" You would have looked cooler lugging an actual Commodore 64 around--though, at least then, you could have rocked the whole retro-chic look.

Kids aren't the only ones benefiting from these apps, of course--stroke and accident victims, as well as adults with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease) and other progressive degenerative diseases are also tapping into this growing market. … Read more

Google, Verizon in tiered-Net traffic talks

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Verizon & Google agreement may raise net fees RIP Google Wave FTC & Intel reach settlement Jailbreakme.com patch coming soon

Wal-Mart expands prepaid phone service to AT&T

Shoppers perusing Wal-Mart for a cell phone will soon have double the options--that is, a choice of purchasing a prepaid phone on two carriers instead of just one.

Wal-Mart's Straight Talk wireless service, which has previously run only on Verizon's networks, is expanding to AT&T. StraightTalk is a brand made by TracFone, and is sold exclusively in Wal-Mart stores.

AT&T confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Monday that StraightTalk phones will work on the network. Wal-Mart would not comment on the impetus behind building out the service to include AT&T.

The … Read more