Tag archive: Illinois

A teenage male in Illinois was arrested and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for creating and circulating an offensive list on the internet which ranked female students at his high school. The 17-year-old was a student at Oak Park and River Forest High School, though his name hasn't been released due to his age. Oak Park police told the Chicago Tribune that the list contained 50 female students, all rated on their body parts and… Read More

The Internet is a wonderful thing, but not all of our ancient human brains are equipped to handle it. In Naperville, Illinois, a 48-year-old man just discovered that his online girlfriend of 2.5 years isn't real, reports the Chicago Sun Times. Worse, he's wired her more than $200,000 throughout the relationship. That's right. Pent up for love and obviously ignorant about the dangers of the Internet, the poor man wired tens of… Read More

Albert Gonzales of Miami might never have thought it, but he’s making history. The 38-year-old, along with two unnamed Russians, has been charged with the largest identity theft in history – stealing data from 130 million credit and debit cards. The Department of Justice alleges that Gonzales used an SQL injection attack to breach firewalls and steal the information. His targets included 7-Eleven, Hannaford Brothers, and card… Read More

Google, the Open Handset Alliance, and a host of mobile technology companies including Samsung, T-Mobile, Motorola, Intel , Asus, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, Vodafone, Qualcomm, and SiRF plus many others have all been sued for breach of trademark for using the word "Android." Android, of course, is Google open source mobile operating system—which is increasingly looking like it might make the leap to netbooks and other devices… Read More

Computer maker Dell has agreed to pay some $3.35 million to settle 34 states' allegations that the company's warranty, financing, and rebate offers were deceptive and misled consumers. The agreement has Dell paying $1.5 million into a restitution account; impacted consumers will be able to submit claims for compensation. The other $1.85 million will go towards the states' legal costs. “More than the money, this… Read More

Telecommunications operator AT&T has announced it will begin selling its U-verse broadband Internet and digital video service through retailers Circuit City and Walmart beginning this month. The offerings will be available in more than 600 retail locations in and near neighborhoods where U-verse services are available: right now, that includes regions of Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri,… Read More

Fans of old-school technology retailing may rejoice: the CompUSA brand may be changing, but it's not going away. As word broke in late 2007 that the venerable computer retailer CompUSA would be closing its remaining retail stores and, essentially, holding a fire sale on anything left on the shelves, some technology enthusiasts rejoices (whoo hoo! Longer lines at Best Buy, Fry's, and Circuit City!) but others lamented the loss of… Read More

The preponderance of cell phones in U.S. society may be creating all sorts of businesses opportunities that didn't exist two decades ago, but it's bad news for at least one former stalwart of the American landscape: pay phones. Over the last few years, public coin-operated phones have gone from being something one could see on many street corners and in most businesses to quaint rarities…nowadays, if you need one, you can… Read More

When July 1 rolls around, Californian teens will have to find new time to catch up with one another on their cell phones – because using electronic devices while behind the wheel will become a crime for those under 18. Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar signed the bill, known as SR33, into law on Thursday, banning the use of cell phones, laptops, PDAs, pagers and all two-way messaging devices while operating a motor vehicle for 16- and… Read More

Google is likely to find itself up before both House and Senate subcommittees over its acquisition of DoubleClick. The deal is already under scrutiny by federal antitrust legislators. Google bought Doubleclick for $3.1 billion in April, and immediately other companies, including Microsoft, began complaining that the new company would limit online ad competition. They were quickly joined by privacy groups, and then in May the FTC began an… Read More

It has to be tough when the leader in a segment you are trying to get off the ground exits it saying they simply don’t have enough resources to get it to work. For HP this has been a long road because they have been working on products in this class since before there was a Media Center and they continue with their somewhat related Touchsmart and MediaSmart TVs with built in media capability. Gateway, who had several of the more… Read More

So you want to get your sweetie a techie gift for Valentine's Day? The most romance-filled day of the year is certainly a great opportunity to get him or her that special gadget they've been eyeing since the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year or that you might have missed picking up during Christmas. Check out our quick and dirty Valentine's Day gift ideas below and provide your lover a little something extra… Read More

Following immediately on its settlements with Texas and California, music label Sony BMG has agreed to pay some $4.25 million as part of settlement agreements with 39 U.S. states and the District of Columbia regarding copy protection software included on some of the labels music CDs which caused computers to malfunction and exposed users to security threats. The terms of the agreement are similar to earlier settlements with Texas and… Read More

The U.K.-based Spamhaus Project is in danger of losing its domain name as the result of a lawsuit filed in U.S. court. Spamhaus maintains blacklists of sites and computers known to be used by spammers to distributed illegal messages, phishing schemes, viruses, worms, and unsolicited commercial email—by their estimates, they help protect the mailboxes of mord than 650 million Internet users (including sites like the White House, the… Read More

Satellite television provider DirecTV has agreed to pay $5 million and restitution to thousands of customers to settle a 21-state investigation into complaints about the company's advertising and marketing practices, undisclosed fees, channel availability, and cancellation policies. The settlement was announced by the office of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The investigation began in early 2003 in response to consumer… Read More