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Parents are more worried about advertisers having access to their children's online data than about their children talking to strangers online, according to a report published today.

The Pew Internet Project and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University collaborated on the report, which is based on a survey if 802 parents of children aged 12 to 17 with questions about social-networking sites, namely Facebook. As more and more teens and pre-teens use social media as a part of their every day communications , the study finds that parents worried about a variety of online dangers -- … Read more

Elliptic Labs wants to bring the touchless gesture controls seen in the science-fiction film "Minority Report" to everyday consumer electronic devices, starting with Windows 8.

The company -- a Norwegian university spinout with offices in Oslo and Silicon Valley -- unveiled a set of tools to help consumer electronic companies enable touchless controls in their products. These would be similar to the kind of gesture controls seen with the Xbox 360 Kinect and in certain smart televisions like a few models from Samsung Electronics, but presumably would work more smoothly.

That's because the Elliptic device won't … Read more

Skout suspended its 17-and-under community following reports of men posing as teenagers to prey on minors on the mobile social network.

The creators of the popular location-based flirting app suspended the site at 1 p.m. PT to adjust safety and security measures, according to Skout's blog post on the suspension.

The shutdown upset users who posted comments on the blog post, asking when the site will be back up. A Skout spokesperson said it will make a decision about reopening the teen community after it has concluded an evaluation and made the adjustments.

We'll wait until tomorrow to go over all the Apple announcements from WWDC, so today's show is all about Jeff's return to the East Coast and his E3 wrap-up. Jeff and Scott Stein agree that the show lacked the hardware announcements everyone expected, with Nintendo playing serious catch-up with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Jeff and I then envision a potential future without E3 or maybe even a move to New York, where my co-host wouldn't be forced to play next-gen hockey games as the LA Kings.

Moving on, we'll talk about Microsoft registering … Read more

It's our first day back from CES so we'll give you quick recap of last week's shows, but you should really go back and hear them for yourself!

We'll also give you a backstage pass today for some of the events that happened when the microphones turned off, and tell you why the CES acronym should be changed to stand for the Chinese Exports Show.… Read more

As a teenager, Curtiss Pope worked as a clerk at Food 4 Less in east San Jose, Calif., gathering up shopping carts and helping customers find grocery items. He got the job to help his single mother of nine pay the bills, but it also seeded the idea for a start-up he's launched while helping to buck a well-documented Silicon Valley trend.

Pope, an 29-year-old African-American, goes up against some tough stats as he seeks funding for his company, AisleFinder, which aims to help people find items in grocery stores.

According to a recent CB Insights report, which tracked … Read more

Set in 2054, "Minority Report" revealed a future in which natural user interfaces play a major role. A memorable scene features Tom Cruise controlling a large interactive screen with illuminated gloves, gesturing back and forth to navigate through an NUI.

Less than a decade after the movie hit theaters, we now have Microsoft's $150 Kinect accessory for Xbox 360, which provides a similar experience to the one seen in the movie--without requiring special gloves or a multimillion dollar computer setup.

People have primarily used a mouse and keyboard to interact with computers for decades; this seems silly considering that nearly every other computer component has evolved significantly in the same time frame. Now that the Kinect SDK is available for Windows 7, natural user interfaces have more opportunity than ever to change how we interact with computers.

Supportive technology such as speech recognition (which has already matured greatly, as this week's launch of Google Voice Search for desktop computers highlighted), Microsoft Surface, and 3D Immersive Touch are all stepping stones to something far greater in the evolution of computer interaction. It's inevitable that years from now, aspects of these technologies will work together to free us from pressing keys and clicking buttons.

So, what do you think the most exciting possibilities for natural user interfaces are? Vote in our weekly poll. And please be sure to elaborate in the comments section.… Read more

Apple has just released a new version of the highly anticipated iOS 4.2 update for developers, iOS 4.2.1 Gold Master. Though the first Gold Master of iOS 4.2 was released weeks ago, Apple has yet to initiate a public release.

This version of iOS has build number 8C134 and instructions from Apple for developers to retest their iOS 4.2 applications using the 4.2.1 build.

Apple says only minor fixes are included in this build. iOS 4.2 will bring a vast array of features to iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads including AirPlay, AirPrint, … Read more

Apologies to all the live listeners, this morning's broadcast had to start later than usual to give Wilson some time to tweak our new studio set-up we mentioned last week.

We have an all new tricaster, new mic stands, HD video, and more, so definitely be sure to check out the video feed to see all the improvements, because we're all really excited and have Wilson plus the rest of the CNET crew to thank for helping with the installation!

As hard as it already is to stay away from Starbucks' seasonal coffee flavors, here's another reason to avoid the overpriced chain of cafes: shoppers will soon see the arrival of "ping marketing," a tactic that bombards shoppers' smartphones with electronic discount coupons as they pass by participating stores.

The vouchers are delivered in the form of a text message, and the technology relies on GPS satellites to keep track of your location in relation to the partnered storefronts. Britain's O2 network is the first to test out the opt-in service, where customers can sign up for a six-month trial that releases information about their age, gender, and interests to relevant retailers. We're all in agreement that this crosses the privacy line, but is anyone else worried that tech companies are just poaching ideas straight from "Minority Report?"

While other fathers teach their sons how to throw a baseball or catch a fish, Luke Geissbuhler went the NASA route and helped his son send an iPhone into space. They fitted a small weather balloon with an HD camera, an Apple iPhone (to track GPS location), and several handwarmers before launching the contraption into space.

Sixty minutes and 90,000 feet later, the balloon actually broke the thermal wind barrier and burst after 10 more minutes, but not before it recorded 100 minutes of footage from take-off to landing. In their self-shot video, the father/son team reported that the contraption had to survive "100 mph winds, temperatures of 60 degrees below zero, speeds of over a 150 mph, and the high risk of a water landing." Somebody needs to give Papa Geissbuhler the official "Best Father of All Time" award, right now.

Check out the rest of the full show below for more stories, including Sprint adding 4G access in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and don't forget to add @BlakeStevenson and RT this message for a chance to win Blake's awesome 404 Halloween poster!