NEW YORK – For doodlers who can’t get enough etching and sketching at home, Etch-A-Sketch is coming to a cell phone.
The nearly 50-year-old classic toy, adapted for the mobile phone by a company named In-Fusio, is being introduced in Britain on a wide array of handsets by the cellular carrier Orange.
The cellular version can’t, of course, replicate the look and feel of the original red-and-rectangular plastic toy, which is still produced by Ohio Art Co. And users will have to settle for a key pad rather than white knobs.
But there is one key advantage: For the first time, In-Fusio said, doodlers will be able to save their drawings – up to three in the phone’s memory.
The new mobile edition is the second digital reincarnation of Etch-A-Sketch. Last year, Ohio Arts introduced a video game in which doodlers use a controller to draw on a television screen.
The traditional Etch-A-Sketch works by turning two knobs to move a stylus up, down and diagonally along the inside of the plastic screen, etching lines through a coating of metallic powder.
On the cellular version, users move the virtual “stylus” around the phone’s screen by pressing the number pad or directional arrows.
Smut-blocking efforts may be stymied: Two states are on the verge of trying to block porn and other inappropriate messages sent to children through e-mail, but critics question how the laws will be enforced and predict they could have unintended consequences.
Michigan and Utah have until Friday to create and operate registries of e-mail addresses similar to “do-not-call” lists. Businesses will have to buy copies of the registries and face prison time and fines if they send e-mail to any addresses that parents submit.
The registries also can include instant-message addresses, cell phones and pager numbers.
Parry Aftab, an Internet safety expert with WiredSafety.org, said the laws were well-intentioned but flawed.
“Anytime anyone starts collecting lists of children, it’s subject to hacking and misuse,” Aftab said. “The last thing I want is anyone to have a large database of children.”
Ruling backs adware firms’ use of Web coupons: Adware companies do not break trademark laws when they use a retailer’s Web address to trigger coupons and other ads for rivals’ products, a federal appeals court has found.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals becomes the nation’s highest court to rule on a fundamental practice of adware companies that serve up pop-up and other ads based on sites users visit. Lower courts around the country had issued conflicting opinions.
In 1-800 Contacts Inc.’s lawsuit against adware provider WhenU.com Inc., the appeals court likened WhenU’s ads to retail stores that place generic competitors next to brand-name products.
Though the case did not directly address consumer frustration over adware, which often gets onto computers without their owners’ full knowledge, the court said it viewed WhenU’s ads as authorized.
The ruling may not, however, fully apply to many of the trademark disputes involving adware companies or such search companies as Google Inc. that target ads based on search terms, including brand names.
French drug firm faces lawsuit: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued Sanofi-Aventis Group because the French pharmaceutical giant threatened a medical news Web site that reports on one of its drugs.
Medical Week News Inc. uses the name of the drug, Acomplia, as part of the site’s name, AcompliaReport.com. Sanofi, the world’s third largest drug company, demanded that Medical Week stop using the name, prompting the EFF to intervene on its behalf.
Acomplia, a drug intended to combat obesity, is undergoing testing in the United States as the company seeks approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Based in Indian River County, Fla., Medical Week News launched AcompliaReport.com to help readers track the drug’s progress. The publication, founded by a group of medical and information professionals, maintains it has the right to use company names when it independently reports news.
Google invites users to exploit its mapping service: Google Inc. is throwing the doors open on the technology used to power the search engine’s mapping service, allowing developers to create Web sites and software applications that merge Google’s mapping information with data elsewhere.
The decision comes as a growing number of programmers are hacking into Google’s mapping technology to graphically illustrate vital information that might otherwise be ignored or not perceived as clearly. Until Wednesday, these hackers were officially violating Google’s service agreement.
Web sites built by these hackers include Chicagocrime.org, which overlays Chicago Police Department crime statistics on a Google map. The site enables house-hunters to pinpoint specific crimes in any of the city’s districts.
Housingmaps.com melds the technologies of Craigslist and Google to spot available housing in 29 U.S. cities. At Dynamite.co.uk/local, commuters in the United Kingdom can see country’s traffic conditions.
From Herald news services
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