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There's a reason why no mobile social-networking company has broken out yet. They haven't found themselves--on a map, that is.

Mobile networking, at least in the U.S., remains a limited extension of the social-media industry's biggest PC-based players: lighter, messaging-focused versions of Facebook and MySpace.com, as well as instant-messaging software like Yahoo Messenger and AIM. Social-networking start-ups with a major or exclusive focus on mobile use, like Twitter, have failed to amass a following outside the alpha-geek crowd. For mobile social networking to really take off, it's going to have to move beyond providing … Read more

Helicopters are noisy beasts; it's just in their nature. But for one mission at the tail end of the Vietnam War, a combination of ARPA funds and hard work by the aircraft division of Hughes Tool led to the development of a chopper known as the Quiet One. The Hughes 500P wasn't totally silent, but it was about as surreptitious as a helicopter could be, and in December 1972, it flew in a CIA mission to wiretap a key communications line for North Vietnamese forces. Helicopter historian James R. Chiles (The God Machine) tells the full story of … Read more

Updated at 5:55 AM PT to include comments from Dell.

Dell is expanding its horizons a bit further.

The PC maker plans to acquire enterprise e-mail service MessageOne for $155 million in cash, the company said early Tuesday.

Though Dell has made very few acquisitions over its two decades in business, this one isn't that much of a stretch: Austin, Texas-based MessageOne, which manages the process of archiving, e-discovery, and long-term storage of e-mail, was founded by Adam Dell, the brother of the PC maker's CEO, Michael Dell.

To ensure fairness, the company says founder and chairman … Read more

If you've lusted after the mysterious "Q" uber-box but choked on the $10,000 price tag, you're in luck: Lumenlab, which makes the all-in-one HDTV-PC, has come up with another model that verges on the affordable.

The "Q42" has just come out of beta, according to the company, and is available for $3,850. The specs aren't quite as ridiculously over-the-top as its "Qmax" predecessor, but it's definitely no slouch either: The Q42 comes with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor, 2GB of memory, a 1TB hard drive, and … Read more

Yes, we're already sick of Valentine's Day talk too, but this is one gift that will put those red Vaios and pink Nanos to shame. We're talking a full-scale "Love Tub" here. The in candy-apple red "Amore Bay" is a limited-edition hot tub that's ready for suburban romance, from its built-in stereo and "hydronomically" designed seats to its mood lighting and landscape etching, according to BornRich.

There are no TVs or recliners involved (bummer), but we suppose those are the sacrifices of love. "All that's left for you … Read more

As impressive as the "ITC One" media system may be, some have observed that its design doesn't live up to its extensive functions. It's understandable that appearance wasn't a priority, though, given that it's one of the few compact all-in-one systems of its kind.

All that will change, however, if they catch on--and a company called DVico is trying to get ahead of the pack with a multimedia hub of its own. "TViX," as it's known, is an HD multimedia system that plays 1080p video, DVDs, and MPs while storing files … Read more

Microsoft and Dell are seeing Red.

The two companies planned to announce on Friday that they were teaming up to offer three (Product) Red PCs, supporting the charitable effort that benefits women and children affected by HIV and AIDS in Africa. However, their news dribbled out early, after the New York Times' John Markoff mentioned the plans on the paper's Davos blog.

Dell plans to slather its all-in-one desktop PC, the XPS One, in red. The two are also teaming up on Red versions of the XPS M1330 and XPS 1530 notebooks, which, should be noted, were already available … Read more

I missed this little bit of news at the time, but it's worth passing along here, if only for completeness.

In a brief interview published on New Year's Eve by Laptop magazine, One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte said total XO-1 laptop shipments during the organization's "Give One, Get One" promotion were expected to be between 150,000 and 170,000 units.

A few days later, The New York Times reported that OLPC announced a more precise figure: 167,000 laptops. (Unfortunately, I can't locate the OLPC announcement itself; it isn't on … Read more

Here's the scoop: Buy.com has the Epson Stylus CX7450 printer/scanner/copier for $70. They also have a deal going where you can get a $70 mail-in rebate if you purchase a digital camera at the same time. Any digital camera. Like the $9.99 Argus Keychain Digital Camera. Add $6.79 for shipping and your out-the-door price is $86.78. Final price after rebate: $16.78. Woo!

The CX7450 employs four separate ink cartridges (one each for black, cyan, magenta, and yellow) and promises print speeds of up to 28 pages per minute. It includes a memory-card … Read more