The Walt Disney Co.’s Internet Group, in partnership with Sprint Corp., plans to establish a U.S.-wide wireless phone service, dubbed Disney Mobile, aimed specifically at families, the company announced Wednesday. Using Sprint’s PCS network, the service is due to begin operations next year.
Together with the wireless service, Disney is planning exclusive handsets and entertainment content […]

EURid has suspended 74,000 .eu domain names and sued 400 registrars for breach of contract, citing “abusive behavior from a syndicate of registrars who have systematically acquired domain names with the obvious intent of selling them.”
“In this case we are convinced that the domain name holders of the 74 000 .eu names (Ovidio Ltd, Fausto […]

Social networking portal MySpace is becoming a major target for cyber criminals, with credit card fraud, phishing attacks and spyware all growing concerns for users of the site.
One reason for the problems arising is the overwhelming popularity of the site which has created an ecosystem ripe for the picking by criminals, according to one security […]

From http://www.adslguide.org.uk/
“PlusNet who operate a number of virtual providers including Force9 accidentally emailed the personal details of around 20,000 customers to a list of up to 1,800 customers. It appears the issue was first raised publicly by users on our forums yesterday lunchtime.
The information sent out was in a comma separated spreadsheet format and contained […]

It was my 28th birthday a little over a week ago. My little brother Garett got me a Nintendo DS Lite and New Super Mario Bros. It was a nice surprise.

The DS Lite is a smaller version of the original DS with a brighter screen. It has 2 screens in a case that folds like a clamshell. The lower screen is a touch screen, which adds a whole new dimension to gaming. The DS has 2 speakers, with a surround mode that sounds pretty good. It has a built in microphone for voice commands, a headphone jack, and a AC adapter port. It has a rechargable battery that is supposed to last 15-18 hours on the dimmest screen brightness.

When I turned on my DS for the first time, it had me go through some setup screens, like setting the time and date, choosing a profile name and color, and choosing some other preferences. After that it shows a default screen when it is turned on. The top screen has a clock and calendar, the bottom screen has buttons with different functions.

There is a built in picto-chat program, which can be used to chat wirelessly with other DS’s. I wish the DS came with more built in programs, such as a notepad, ebook reader, and a scheduler. It would also be nice to have some built in apps that use the Nintendo Wifi connection, like a web browser or instant messenger.

New Super Mario Bros is a side-scrolling game that has elements from the 2D Mario games of the past. It has 8 worlds to explore. The world map is drawn in 3D, and is simular to the map style in Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World.

The levels are drawn in classic 2D style, with updated backgrounds. Mario and some elements use polygonal models to enable some effects, such as the giant Mario. The graphics are drawn in typical Nintendo style, with bright colors and cute characters.

Every level has 3 coins you can collect, to open special paths with require spending 5 coins. If you miss some coins you can always replay a level to try to find them. There are red and green mushroom houses in many of the special paths. In the green houses you can get up to 10 extra lives by hitting a sequence
of blocks.

New Super Mario Bros. also has 18 minigames that are mostly played using the stylus. There are some creative uses of the stylus, such as using it to aim a slingshot, or draw trampolines. Dani has been playing these mini-games every day.

There is also a 2 player mode, which I haven’t used because I don’t know anyone with a DS.

Overall, my DS lite is a very fun toy. I look forward to getting some more games for it. I think I’ll start with Mario Kart DS and Metroid Hunters. Brain Age also looks interesting. I hope Nintendo makes a full featured painting cartridge, and more educational games. I think the creative and educational potential of the DS has not been fully realized yet.

“OpenDNS can identify and stop sites trying to phish (steal) your personal information or money. The OpenDNS phishing protection works with all operating systems and browsers, and complements any other security measures already in use, such as a firewall and anti-virus software.”
http://opendns.com/
More at
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71345-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

Online scammers have found a new way of tricking computer users into handing over their secure banking details, this time by using internet telephone networks.
The scam is a twist on the now familiar phishing attacks that target banks and e-commerce companies but, instead of asking users to click on an email link to verify their […]

“The Home Office wants to give the police and the courts sweeping new powers which could see suspected hackers and spammers receiving the cyber equivalent of an anti-social behaviour order (Asbo).
The proposed Serious Crime Prevention Order is intended to combat organised crime where the police do not have enough evidence to bring a criminal prosecution. […]

Tech World
While there are over 40 million .com addresses, dotmobi is the new kid on the block
Try accessing a website on your cellphone. Besides the slow connections, chances are that most of the content would not be visible on the small screen. It makes for a very unpleasant experience since most Web pages […]

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest has set an opening weekend record at the North American box office.
The film took an estimated $132m (£71m) in its first three days, beating the previous best debut of $115m (£62m), set by Spider-Man in 2002.
It generated almost three times the opening weekend total of the original Pirates […]