Technology

Tired of being told not to use your smartphone on a commercial flight? There's good news. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to lift the long-running and often criticized ban on in-flight cell / smartphone use. The FCC voted 3-2 ... in favor of ditching the measure late last week. But there's still one major hurdle left: the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has final say on whether or not you should be allowed to use a handheld electronic device while a plane is in the air. "The FAA is the expert agency on determining which devices can be used on airplanes," noted ... (view more)

There's something both pop star Justin Bieber and smartphone maker BlackBerry have in common: they're both Canadian. Even more precisely, they're both from Southwestern Ontario, the part of Canada that thrusts southwards into the American Midwest. ... Now, a new report says that Bieber, who is from Stratford, Ontario, attempted to help promote the struggling Waterloo-based BlackBerry. However, BlackBerry (formerly Research in Motion, or RIM) officials turned down the deal because they had concerns about Bieber's staying power. BlackBerry Dismisses Bieber, Bets On Keys The report comes from ... (view more)

A Russian company is selling a smartphone that features both front- and rear-facing screens. The manufacturer, Yota, says the layout is no gimmick and will help increase the device's battery life. The company first unveiled the 'YotaPhone', which ... runs the Android operating system, last year. Although some analysts questioned whether it would ever see the light of day, Yota says the phone is already available to customers in Austria, France, Germany, Spain, and Russia. It plans to expand sales to another 20 countries next year. The front of the phone features a traditional LCD color screen, ... (view more)

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's ... an Amazon drone delivering my Battlestar Galactica DVDs! Amazon says it's testing aerial drones capable of delivering packages to customers in less than an hour. However, it remains unclear how people will respond ... to the idea of having a small robot hovering at their front door. Amazon chief executive officer Jeff Bezos showed off the concept, tentatively called Amazon 'Prime Air', during an interview with Charlie Rose on CBS' evening news show "60 Minutes". (Source: cnet.com ) Drones Use GPS to Deliver Small Packages Prime Air uses eight-propellor drones ... (view more)

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned a $99 genetic home testing kit. The agency says the company responsible for the kit, '23andme', failed to prove its marketing claims and insists that the product could put customers' ... mental and physical health at risk. 23andme was founded by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The company's kit allows users to collect a saliva sample and send it in for genetic analysis. The company then provides a report that can be used for tracing family connections. It also includes details about 240 health conditions ... (view more)

One restaurant owner is so desperate to rid his fine dining establishment of annoying smartphones that he's established a new rule: if everyone at a table turns off their mobile device, all pay half price for their meals. The incentive is the work ... of Jawdat Ibrahim, a restaurateur based just outside Jerusalem in Israel. Ibrahim says he got really tired of watching couples enter Abu Ghosh, his fine dining restaurant, and spend the entire meal texting or talking to others. In some cases, Ibrahim says people were so distracted by their phones that they had to ask his staff to re-heat their meals ... (view more)

Scientists have developed a new food source: human beings. But we're not talking cannibalism here; instead, researchers have developed a new type of cheese that is made entirely from human by-products, like toe jam and belly button bacteria. The new ... -- and somewhat stomach-turning -- cheese is the work of scientist Christina Agapakis and scent specialist Sissel Tolaas. Together, Agapakis and Tolaas assembled a variety of bacteria samples from human donors. "Selfmade" Cheese "A Little Bit Funky" The project is known as "Selfmade" and it's easy to see where the name comes ... (view more)

Scientists say they've found the world's oldest creature -- unfortunately, they've also killed the poor thing. The creature in question is an ocean quahog known as the 'Ming clam'. It was found in northern Wales about seven years ago and, at the ... time, it was believed the creature was roughly four hundred years old. That meant the Ming clam was the world's oldest creature, and soon found itself in the Guinness Book of World Records. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the previous record was set by another clam, though that one was discovered in Iceland. (Source: mirror.co.uk ) Fame Comes at a Price for ... (view more)

BlackBerry Messenger is now available on Android and iOS phones. So far it's getting some tremendous reviews -- but there's something fishy about a lot of those write-ups. It's led some experts to suggest that someone has devised a campaign to flood ... technology websites with bogus reviews. At the moment it remains unclear who's behind the scam -- or if BlackBerry itself is involved. The BlackBerry Messenger service, also known as BBM, was previously only available on BlackBerry handsets. It's a variation on text messaging that has become very popular because there's no charge to send a message ... (view more)

A federal appeals court has ruled that law enforcement authorities in the United States must get a warrant before hiding a global positioning system (GPS) tracker on a suspect's car. The ruling clarifies an issue left unanswered by a previous ... Supreme Court verdict. The legal confusion followed a high-profile case involving a suspected drug dealer who was tried and convicted after police tracked his movements using a GPS device attached to his Jeep. The man took the case to the Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction because it found that much of the evidence was inadmissible. The ... (view more)