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The 404 189: Where Dee is not Eric Franklin

Our No. 404 fanboy Dee Wren takes time out of his busy filming schedule to bring some positivity to our Monday morning. After revealing some news about the upcoming Google Android release tomorrow, we talk about the weekend box office, touch on Facebook porn, and make an overall attempt to shade ourselves from Jeff's rays of hate (unsuccessfully). Happy Monday!

To make up for all the lives we've ruined with The 404, we invite our buddy Dee Wren into the studio to pimp his philanthropic project, From Us With Love. It's a nonprofit organization that supplies aid to children in South Africa and Dee is helping to shoot a documentary on their efforts to send a group of them to Australia for the Homeless World Cup. We'd love for you to contribute as much time, money, and resources as you can to their foundation. The best part of this endeavor is that For Us With Love is already corporate-sponsored, so the full 100 percent of your contribution will go directly into the project, no filters. It's a very noble cause, please check out the Web site and do what you can to help!

Episode 189 Download today's podcast … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Banning train operators from texting

A deadly train crash in California prompts the state's railroad regulators to ban cell phone use by engine operators. Meanwhile, Congress is trying to limit the taxes that can be applied to consumers' cell phone bills. Already state taxes on cell phone plans average 15.19 percent, according to one study, which is twice as much as the average sales tax.

Plus, Cisco buys Jabber, eBay may have put StumbleUpon on the auction block, and a new Apple iPhone-related patent turns up. All this and more on Friday's podcast.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:… Read more

Samsung CLP-315W printer yields disappointing results

The Samsung CLP-315W is designed for working professionals and entrepreneurs who want a laser printer for speed but also need to print out documents, photos, and presentations in full color. This version also has a wireless print server built into the device, a convenient feature if you have several computers attached to the same network that will share the same printer. Unfortunately, the CLP-315W is not without its serious flaws.

First, the quality of the printouts are simply unacceptable. The printer has trouble separating subtle gradations in color and tends to blur together close sections on the color gamut. Also, … Read more

How much do you text?

On September 10, CTIA reported that American cell-phone subscribers are sending more text messages than ever despite the rising cost. About 75 billion SMS text messages were sent in June alone, according to the report. Of course, texting is only a relatively recent boom here in the U.S.--people from Europe and Asia have been sending and receiving text messages for years, most likely due to the low cost of texting over there.

With that in mind, many manufacturers are racing each other to develop messaging-centric phones with full QWERTY keyboards, but that aren't smart phones. The recently … Read more

U.S. text usage hits record despite price increases

SAN FRANCISCO--Despite a 100 percent price increase over the past couple of years, SMS text messaging usage is exploding in the U.S.

American cell phone subscribers are sending more text messages than ever, according to a recent survey released here Wednesday by the mobile industry's trade association CTIA. About 75 billion SMS text messages were sent in June, averaging about 2.5 billion messages a day, the report said. This represents an increase of 160 percent over the 28.8 billion messages reported in June 2007.

Short message service, or SMS, text messaging first became popular in Europe … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 806: Battlestar Monk

On today's show, we reveal a huge spoiler: Monk is the 12th Cylon. (Apologies to any of you who don't watch that show.) This is vaguely related to the news that NBC's return to iTunes comes shackled with variable pricing. In other news, RIM releases its first ever flip phone, and amazing space-based solar power arrives (bad news for birds). Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 806

CERN’s big collider now in action http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10037565-76.html

Flipping out: RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 debuts http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-10036487-7.html

Congress questions … Read more

The 404 181: Where Natali is not selling her hair on eBay...yet.

On today's show, we reveal our favorite fragrances, briefly touch on the new Apple offerings, disappear into e-Ink, rip into the Geek Squad and Microsoft's new "gurus," send text messages to inanimate household objects, and try to convince Wilson to take a shower in public in the name of animal rights.

Don't bust out that checkbook yet, my friends, contrary to popular belief, Natali Del Conte's hair is not on eBay...yet. We'll be the first ones to break that news, but until then you'll just have to listen to our show to get your NDC fix. Lots of news to talk about today, which we get to right after we guess each other's favorite eau de liquid smells. No surprise here, but Jeff's is the sweet scent of Natali's hair that he creepily compares to a cherry lollipop. Anyway, we also get the scoop on a few more tech-related gems, including a story about energy companies testing a program that will send you a text message on behalf of your thermostat if you forget to turn it off when you leave the house. Hey, I'm all for energy conversation, but are ya kidding me!? So now, on top of ignoring text messages from my close friends and family members, I have to deal with spam from my household appliances, too!? I guess I can see it being useful when I forget to turn off the oven, but I'd prefer to get the news by driving up to a burning apartment rather than getting a text from my oven that says "Hey, dummy--you forgot to turn me off, so now I'm spitting hot fire at all your physical possessions. See you at home!" No thanks, gas company, you can keep the service--I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Episode 181 Download today's podcast … Read more

Congress questions high cost of texting

The price of text messaging has doubled industry-wide in the last three years, and Congress wants to know why.

Sen Herb Kohl, chair of the Antitrust Subcommittee in the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter Tuesday to the four major wireless carriers--AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile--asking them to explain the dramatic price increases for text messaging services.

"Some industry experts contend that these increased rates do not appear to be justified by any increases in the costs associated with text messaging services, but may instead be a reflection of a decrease in competition, and an increase … Read more

Use your keyboard to select text in Microsoft Word

Dragging a mouse to select text in Microsoft Word requires the precision of a diamond cutter, or seems to, anyway. I prefer to press the Ctrl, Shift, and arrow keys to make my text selections. Throw in a couple of function keys, and I can use my keyboard to select text faster than any mouser can.

To select a word at a time, press Ctrl-Shift and the left or right arrow key. Ctrl-Shift and the up and down arrow keys select a paragraph at a time. If you get tired of holding down the Shift key, simply press F8 to … Read more