Consumer Watchdog, a privacy advocacy group, is running a 15-second spot on a 540-square foot digital display in Times Square to promote a longer video the group made highlighting what it perceives to be Google's intrusions on privacy. Both the 15-second spot and the longer video feature a ghoulish caricature of Eric Schmidt driving an ice cream truck, offering"free ice cream"to children.

Facebook has reportedly shut off access to its friend search feature for subscribers to Apple's newly introduced Ping social music service. The social networking apparently giant did this by denying Ping access to its application programming interfaces, AllThingsD reported.

For a growing number of businesses, maintaining fail-safe website availability is a matter of business-critical importance, and not just for the e-commerce industry. Certainly for the e-tail trade, website downtime equates to lost business, but beyond the online sales realm, Web availability is paramount for organizations of all sorts and sizes.

Like it not, we live in the Information Age. As such, we're almost always researching something. Which means we're almost always looking for some place to stash our research where we can find it again. Papers will give you that place on the iPad. Papers is a vertical app targeted at scientific and academic researchers, but it can be valuable to anyone doing any kind of research.

Toshiba has announced its own entrant into the tablet market with the Folio 100, which will run on the Android 2.2 operating system. Sporting a screen just over 10 inches, the device will be larger than other early competitors to Apple's iPad tablet computer, such as the Dell Streak. The Folio will debut in late October in Europe as a standalone device with WiFi capability.

Microsoft has released the code for its latest mobile operating system to manufacturers. That means U.S. consumers should be able to purchase smartphones running Windows Phone 7 during the upcoming holiday shopping season, while European consumers could have those new devices in their hands as early as next month. The question now is how many consumers actually will want a new Windows-based smartphone?

Samsung has unveiled its much-discussed Galaxy Tab Android-powered tablet at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Germany. The device runs Android 2.2, has a seven-inch display, and focuses on connectivity and entertainment. It also enables video conferencing and can be used as a mobile phone.

Apple put a charge in its iPod line Wednesday, but it remains a holdout in the"all you can ear"music subscription market. Apple revamped its flagship player, the iPod touch, so it's now essentially an iPhone without the phone. It also brought buttons back to the iPod shuffle and a touchscreen to the iPod nano.

"What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?"That's the question Alice asks at the beginning of Lewis Carroll's classic adventure. Perhaps Mr. Carroll knew more than he realized. 3D Movies. Multitouch screens. iPads. Everywhere you look, consumers increasingly demand more of an"experience"when engaging with their content, be it a book, a movie or their computers.

Despite the best hopes of many of us in the community, the man suing Sony over the removal of the"other OS"feature from its PS3 has apparently lost his case. The bad news is that the man won't get the money he had requested to compensate for an upgrade to his newly crippled PS3; the good news is that he reportedly wasn't forced to pay Sony's legal bill to boot.