Friday, Oct 31, 2008    Text size: 

• In a dramatic development, a U.S. appeals court has ruled that software patents may only be granted if the software interacts with a physical object like a machine or otherwise changes the physical world. This means that straight software cannot be patented, giving the open-source community a victory – at least until this case reaches the Supreme Court.

• Hopefully electric cars are on the horizon, and in the meantime, CrunchGear has a review of the Chevy Volt.

• Is MTV censoring the names of file-sharing sites from the songs that appear on its site?

• Gmail has a new text-messaging feature.

• Social-networking addicts have another way to aggregate their online activity with Yoono.com.

• Syncplicity.com has an unusual domain name, but it's another online alternative for computer professionals to back up their data.

• Google is now indexing scanned documents, an elaborate process that will use optical recognition technology to index scanned text data.

• Like CafePress, Zazzle.com lets anyone create their own clothing lines instantly.

• Radus is a full-scale content aggregator that lets users scan loads of online information, including RSS feeds, photos, videos and music.

• Facebook continues to become more popular than MySpace outside the United States.

• Users of the document-sharing service DocStoc.com can now upload files by simply sending an email.

• People who own the Apple iPhone can now access WiFi service at all AT&T HotSpots.

• Need to spy on someone? The EyeClops night-vision goggles may the answer.

• Gizmodo has a run-down of this week's new applications for the Apple iPhone.

• On the heels of news that Sony's Blu-ray format may be dying, Sony has stopped delivering its good to Circuit City stores.