Gadgetory

it's Tuesday February 15th I'm Natali Morris and it's time to get loaded the US State Department is getting ready to announce new policies about Internet freedom these policies are specifically relevant to people whose access to digital communication is repressed during government uprisings Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will detail the new policy later today it said to address things like circumvention services with help to get around national firewalls and training for human rights workers on how to secure their email from surveillance and not a minute too soon given what is happening in Iran HTC unveiled five new phones and its first tablet two of the phones are what they are calling social networking phones so their phones with an emphasis on Facebook and Twitter they are the chacha and the salsa the other three new phones are new versions of the desire wildfire and incredible the tablet is called the HTC Flyer it's a 7-inch tablet with a stylus running Gingerbread not honeycomb which is Google's tablet-optimized operating system all of these phones also run Google's Android operating system Facebook has partnered with Gemalto to launch a SIM card type program that lets you perform Facebook functions without a dataplan Facebook will come embedded in your SIM card so that you can approve friend requests or update your status and post on walls without downloading an application it will all be done over text message this is obviously for non smartphone users skype also announced a lower bandwidth version of its own program the skype mobile partner program is made for parts of the world where 3g service and smart phones do not abound it will be a low maintenance version of the program designed to maximize battery use and minimize data usage it's designed for a variety of mobile operating systems the FAA may someday lift the ban on cell phone use while flying new legislation was proposed to the US House Transportation Committee that removes a provision that bans mobile phones and voice over IP calls while in the air the Senate has not seemed eager to pass this law they think that the airline's not the government should spearhead this update I for one and not for it I do not want to hear your cell phone conversation while on a long flight please keep to the texting and the instant messaging the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and numbers is dealing with an application from a man named Scott sites to own the domain dot gay sites owns a marketing firm and has applied for the domain I can is already dealing with proposals for car web movie and more the government may seek to block this domain from being awarded the Bush administration did not allow xxx to be awarded and the Obama administration may not allow gay either Arab countries have also said that they would not let this domain through cnet has a very interesting interview with sites about this application you can find that at news cnet com researchers in japan are making a japanese baby robot the robot is called affetto it can make baby like expression so that scientists can study how adults interact with babies because you can't experiment on real babies I guess and previous prototypes were not cute enough these things are pretty cute but I don't think I would make the same silly faces to them that I do to my own baby or at least I don't think I would that's your news of the day if you want links for more info on our stories go to cnet com / loaded I'm Natali Morris for Cena and you've just been loaded you