FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that delaying the digital-TV transition because the government had run out of converter-box coupons would only confuse Americans. There has been a unprecedented barrage of public service announcements and stories about the switch occurring Feb. 17.

As many Americans scramble to get their living rooms ready for the switch to digital television, Mr. Martin expressed concern about changing the February 17th switch date and urged Congress to make some changes to the program. Among Mr. Martins requests: more funding for the $40 coupons and ditching the 90-day expiration dates on the coupons. Im concerned about customer confusion, he said.

A bankruptcy judge has ruled that Circuit City may sell its assets and the retailer warned that if it didn't find a buyer by the end of the week, it could go out of business. The company would prefer that it be bought intact.

Analysts have said for weeks that the Richmond-based company, which closed 155 stores in the final months of 2008 in wake of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing, could be the first casualty of what has been described as one of the worst holiday shopping season on record.

Sleep-walking? Sleep-driving? These have been documented, and even cases of sleep-murder. But until this study, these behaviors have all involved little cognitive ability. Until this case, one of sleep-emailing. Dr. Fouzia Siddiqui, a neurologist at the University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio, and two colleagues describe the case as the first case of “complex nonviolent cognitive behavior.” She had to login to both the computer and her email account to send the messages. According to the article, soon to

There’s something about becoming a parent that seems to raise your paranoia quotient; it probably has a lot to do with becoming responsible for another human being’s safety and welfare–especially when that being lacks the years of experience, wisdom, and distrust that adults eventually accumulate. Of course, it doesn’t help when the evening news is rife with stories of child kidnappings. Whether rational or not, it is this primal fear of losing a child combined with propensity for the news to cover seemingly

Superb call and voice clarity as clear as a face to face conversation, the CD4 series puts the emotion back into a call. HD sound brings people and their feelings closer together. This deal ends Tuesday at 12:00pm ET.

The very sleek Sansa e280 has a 1.8 TFT color screen with advanced navigational features and an easy to use interface. You can also avoid scratches and cracks with the durable metal backing. It produces superior sound playback and supports Microsoft PlaysForSure subscription music. This deal ends Tuesday at 12:00pm ET.

On Thursday, President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team asked Congress to delay the shut-off of analog TV broadcasts, which is currently scheduled for February 17. According to Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, postponing this shut off could confuse consumers. There’s also concern that consumers won’t take the new deadline seriously if the date is moved. The request for a delay comes shortly after the FCC ran out of $40 coupons that help to make the converter boxes more affordable.

Today, we have good news for Windows 7 fanatics: Microsoft is temporarily lifting that 2.5 million download limit that we told you about on Friday. As you’ll recall from our earlier post, Microsoft was unable to keep up with the demand for the beta. As a result, the servers reached a screeching halt as users hammered the site in an attempt to be one of the first 2.5 million to download the beta. Now, in an effort to make the download experience a bit more pleasant, Microsoft has removed the download limit for

With the exception of the Palm Pre (Best in Show winner), CES didn’t offer up much handheld excitement this year.  Be that as it may, we thought we’d give you a quick rundown of what Windows Mobile (and general smartphone) news there was from CES 2009, along with some thoughts on some related technology.

We were given our first real look at the new T-Mobile Shadow (sometimes called the Shadow 2).  It’s about what we expected and while we look forward to any new non-touchscreen WinMo handhelds, there’s nothing to write home about.  The Motorola SURF A3100 was also on hand for users to test-drive, and CNET writer Kent German seemed impressed.

Pharos announced a new Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro touchscreen smartphone, the Pharos Traveler 137.  The specs look great, but as is always the case with Pharos smartphones, you’ll have to pay more than double the price of comparable handhelds since the Traveler is sold unlocked without a carrier subsidy.  You’ll be able to buy a Traveler 137 for GSM carriers for $600 later this quarter.

Samsung’s MBP-200 Pico Projector was also on display, a 5.6-ounce pocket projector that can project a smartphone’s tiny screen onto a suitable surface as large as 50-inches.  Available later this year, the MBP-200 may be released only in Asia. Bummer.

The remainder of the news of note concerns Bluetooth headsets, with a few new voice-centric offerings that caught our eye.  First, the iVoice Diamond-X Dual Mic Bluetooth headset, which not only looks cool but can provide a voice alert of who’s calling based on your phone’s contact entries.  Second, the BlueAnt Q1, which again looks great (à la Jawbone) and features full-on voice control technology.  An update to the BlueAnt V1, the Q1 has digital audio processing and noise cancellation, two phone support and will be available in the second quarter.  Last, and actually least in our estimation, is the Griffin SmartTalk which offers voice interface.

The news was all over the blogosphere this weekend: Doing two web searches on Google creates enough carbon dioxide to boil a kettle.It was based on an article in the Times of London (and so now the kettle of tea comparison make sense), which reported on a Harvard researcher’s study of the environmental impact of computing.The energy used to complete a search was explained thusly:… its search engine generates high levels of CO2 because of the way it operates. When you type in a Google search for, say, “energy