Clearly, the taxi economy has been a buyer’s market this year. At the convention center, cabs are backed up nearly as far as the eye can see, even as the lines seem demonstrably shorter than in years past.

So how many people actually showed up?
During the show, Tara Dunion, the senior director of communications for the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on CES, said that 130,000 people were anticipated, just 11,000 less than the 141,000 who came last yea

Technology companies such as Google, Motorola, Microsoft, and Dell had been lobbying the FCC for years to open this spectrum for unlicensed use. The hope is that the spectrum could be used to augment existing wireless services or eventually be used to create new wireless broadband services.

In its ruling in November, the FCC set rules stating that devices using a combination of geolocation technology and spectrum-sensing technology could be approved for unlicensed white spa

Besides the $50,000 prize, the winner will get 200 percent of the application’s revenue for one year (Verizon will cut you off at $100,000) plus a “featured spot” (whatever that means) when the V Cast Apps launches later this year.

In attempt to fill its upcoming V Cast Apps endeavor, Verizon Wireless is inviting developers to submit application ideas. A panel of judges will review all submitted apps and award a $50,000 prize for their top pick.

Developers can sub

As for specs, here’s what you’re looking at:

Sony has also updated its eBook Library software to version 3.0, and it’s integrated into the device itself (similar to Flip Video camcorders) and includes support for both Windows PCs and “many” Macs. Owners of the PRS-505 and PRS-700 should take heart that in the near future Sony will provide a firmware upgrade to both those models that adds the new eBook Library software to your devices and makes them
Mac compatible.

(

Microsoft will issue fixes for five critical holes affecting Windows and a variety of other software on Patch Tuesday next week.

Four additional vulnerabilities, rated “important,” affect Windows and Windows .NET Framework and could allow an attacker to remotely execute code, launch a denial-of-service attack or elevate system privileges, the company said.

The critical holes, which could allow an attacker to remotely run code on a PC and take control of it, affect

What it gets: Time. This deal will take months, if not years, to complete, and it will be a messy integration process. Google sales representatives likely called up all of their major clients this morning to remind those clients of the uncertainty that will accompany the integration process, and the notion that their ad dollars might be better spent with the more stable operation. Google also gets to deflect some of the antitrust scrutiny that has been directed its way by pointing out that a

Budget costs are an obvious concern and a key determining factor in what plan NASA will follow, going forward. Panel member Norman Augustine, the former chief executive of Lockheed Martin, told The New York Times that none of the options would feature “an exorbitant price tag.”

(Credit:
NASA)

Should we be going to the Red Planet next?

CNET News Poll Moon, Mars, or ISS?
On what do you think NASA should focus its budget?

For st

The move is significant because California’s efficiency policies have been able to ratchet down household energy consumption without sacrificing product features in the past. An often-cited example is that tough energy efficiency codes on refrigerators in the state have helped keep per capita electricity consumption steady since the 1970s, even though electricity use from other appliances keeps rising.

The California Energy Commission on Friday published a proposal to set eff

BERLIN–We saw Toshiba’s first Blu-ray product announcement coming, but the touch-screen home media tablet that the company introduced here at IFA was a bit of a surprise.

The JournE Touch has a 7-inch screen and is a half-inch thick, weighing in at less than a pound. Inside is an ARM processor, integrated Wi-Fi, and Windows CE.

Toshiba says to expect the JournE to go on sale in Europe first, by the end of 2009, with other regions following early next year. The price

Facebook announced on Thursday that it has open-sourced recently acquired FriendFeed’s real-time technology. Dubbed Tornado, the company’s real-time, nonblocking framework is written in Python.

(Credit:
Bret Taylor)

FriendFeed will live on
Before you think this is the end of FriendFeed as we know it, think again.

Taylor said his team ran some baseline throughput calculations to determine how well Tornado matched up against other Python frameworks. According