wires

Lime Wire is best known as the latest in a long chain of software that makes it easy to find and download music for free, replacing Napster, Grokster, eDonkey, Kazaa, and all the other applications and networks that shut down or cracked down on the sharing of copyrighted material.

Lime Wire LLP, the company that makes the Lime Wire software application, has also been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), but has so far refused to cave, saying that it only manufactures the software and has no control over how users choose to employ it. Moreover, it … Read more

LOS ALAMOS, N.M.--For more than two weeks now, I've been traveling throughout the Southwest on Road Trip 2007, producing stories and photo galleries on the most interesting science- and technology-related subjects I can find.

In that time, I've covered more than 2,700 miles and stayed in an absurd number of motels.

And since I often haven't finished writing and processing photos until 9 or 10 at night, I've definitely needed downtime, and a good way to entertain myself.

That's where HBO's much-heralded series, The Wire, a drama about crime in Baltimore, … Read more

CNET News.com writers Anne Broache and Declan McCullagh Wednesday produced a piece of Capitol Hill reporting whose central subject is a recent legislative gambit regarding peer-to-peer file-sharing applications.

"Politicians call peer-to-peer networks a 'national security threat' because they enable federal employees to accidentally share sensitive or classified documents."

The subject has been burning up blogwaves and comments sections all over the Web.

The general consensus among network geeks, security pundits and other observers seems to be that the U.S. Government should be way more cautious in their internal security practices and not try to pin the … Read more

LaCie announced yesterday its new Big Disk Extreme+ desktop hard drive, a fairly standard external drive whose standout feature is the massive capacity. It's available in 1-terabyte, 1.5-terabyte, and 2-terabyte capacities, starting at $350 ($850 for the 2TB drive). The design is LaCie's classic Neil Poulton d2 look: brushed gray body with a blue programmable one-touch button mounted on the front. Connection options include two FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port, and one USB 2.0 port. It comes bundled with LaCie's 1-Click Backup software, Silverkeeper (backup software for Macs), and two versions of EMC … Read more

Since the Transformers movie has inspired much coverage by CNET and Wired I figure I am well within my rights to chime in with a posting about a revival of girls' 1980's pop culture.

It's hard for even me to believe this, but the camp classic Xanadu has been reincarnated as a Broadway musical, opening today. When Xanadu came out as a movie in the summer of 1980, the story of Olivia Newton-John as a Greek goddess coming to life in Venice Beach probably didn't make a lot of sense to anyone over the age of 18. The plot was pretty incoherent and the heroic goal was to open a roller disco, after all. But if you were a 12-year-old girl, the story gave you plenty to do for the rest of the summer as you wrapped your barrettes in ribbons, put on your leg warmers, and roller-skated around the block for the thousandth time. The movie's low-tech special effects were actually a plus, because it was easy to pretend you were a wall mural coming to life with your friends.… Read more

A full-out assault has arrived in my living room. Transformers movie tie-ins are being marketed non-stop through ads on Nickelodeon, selling everything from Burger King kids' meals to Pontiac cars. We only watch about a hour of commercial TV a day, but there are multiple ads featuring the Transformers being shown within a single commercial break. The contradiction of a violent action flick based on Hasbro toys is spelled out right in the Burger King commercial--hey kids, get your kids' meal with one of eight toys based on characters from the movie (PG-13, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13).

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has turned a spotlight on this situation but has not yet received a lot of response. Transformers star Shia LaBoeuf has said that producer Steven Spielberg fought back against a proposed R-rating. Yet the movie is being marketed to kids all the way down to the toddler years. (Opti-mash prime Mr. Potato Head, anyone?)… Read more

Summer has officially arrived, and our Car Tech editors have put together some photos of cool tech to take on the road. We also have some pictures of crossover SUVs, or CUVs, which you also can take on the road. Well, you could take the pictures on the road, but I really meant the cars.

Something you may not want to take on the road (or at least not while you're in the driver's seat) is the futuristic-looking MyVu Personal Media Viewer. Finally, Donald Bell shows us what it's like to get custom-molded earphones. It involves pink … Read more

It's rare to get the opportunity to review custom-molded earphones. Custom ear products are usually just too expensive to be relevant to most people, and the ear-impression process can be an inconvenience. But when John Diles from LiveWires offered to come by CNET and take the ear impressions onsite, it was a tough proposition to pass up. (Click here to view a slide show of my custom earphone fitting, but be warned! These photos are not for the squeamish.)

I've had the earphones for over a week now, and they sound fantastic. At $249, they're less than … Read more

LimeWire is an extremely popular, peer-to-peer file-sharing program based on the Gnutella network. The version 4.0 series ups the ante with a combination of feature tweaks, an updated interface, and better all-around performance.

In this First Look video, take a quick tour of the app and learn how to screen out illegally shared content.