CNET UK Podcast 142: What do you do about Internet obscenity? 
This week Ian and Nate asked that most ancient of all questions: is it possible to 'clean up' the Internet and should we even try? It's a debate that's been sparked off by the decision that the author of 'Girls (scream) Aloud' didn't break obscenity laws with his close-to-the-bone work of fiction. With Nate a fan of Cannibal Corpse, it's not hard to guess what his opinion on censorship is -- but is there a solution for everyone else?
There was also the usual look at the week's news and events, we discussed the new universal phone-charger agreement, Twitter trademarking 'tweet' and the Palm Pre's imminent arrival in the UK.
News
Twitter applies for 'tweet' trademark
Author of Girls (scream) Aloud cleared
EU standardise mobile phone chargers -- Apple on-board
The Pirate Bay sold to gaming cafe company
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Science to the rescue! Can an iPhone 3GS burn us?
If your new iPhone 3GS has singed a burning great hole through your face, you're probably one of the most unlucky people in the world. But a small group of sympathisers are likely to lend their support as it seems numerous complaints are arising over the heat generated by Apple's speedy new phone.
A French user noted that when using the phone's 3G and GPS connections, the phone became so hot it caused discolouration of the white plastic casing. The Telegraph also notes a user whose phone became so hot after a 20-minute 3G call he was forced to use the speakerphone mode in order to keep talking. Continue reading...
Photos: 30 years of the Sony Walkman 
It's hard to imagine our lives without portable music -- nowadays most of us can fit our entire music collection into an MP3 player the size of a deck of cards. But 30 years ago, as people hefted boom boxes off their shoulders, they oooh'ed and ahhhh'ed in fascination at a little machine called the Walkman.
Originally, portable cassette players were marketed for people who needed to record audio clips for their work, such as journalists and businesspeople, but Sony's Walkman brought the idea of playing cassettes to the masses. Not only did many Walkmans have cassette players, AM/FM dials and dual headphone jacks, they also had cool features such as auto-reverse and record. Continue reading...
Ghost Pigeon hides your secret identity
During the day, we're mild-mannered tech bloggers, wearing glasses and looking moody in our vast, yet innocuous, Crave penthouse. But at night, we fight crime. We take on the persona of a creature of the night, black, terrible, shadowy -- we become the Ghost Pigeon.
To protect our loved ones, we have to keep our secret identity super-duper seekrit. That means hiding our calls and texts to the police commissioner, especially when we send him MMS messages with videos of us collaring a miscreant.
Luckily, just for people like us there's Ghost Pigeon software, a secret-phone-within-a-phone, which will hide your texts, MMS messages and calls.
Ghost Pigeon is invisible on the phone -- there's no icon in the menu. Instead, you launch the application by typing in a password. We installed Ghost Pigeon on our Nokia N95 8GB, and although it's visible in the list of installed apps, its name is well disguised. Continue reading...
Cooliris for iPhone: Sexying up image search
The iPhone Safari browser has to be on the top three mobile Web browsers available today -- it's fast and it renders full-size pages perfectly. But if you want your Web with an extra whack of wow-factor, iPhone fans, you can't look past Cooliris.
Some of you may already be familiar with the Cooliris add-on for Firefox, IE and Safari desktop browsers. Simply put, Cooliris searches image sites, such as Google Images or Flickr, and returns results to your search in rows of images in a faux 3D space. Continue reading...
Chris Anderson's Free is first free audiobook on Spotify
Chris Anderson is the editor of Wired magazine in the US. His latest book -- Free: The Future of a Radical Price -- dissects and discusses the effect no-cost products, notably those offered online, have on businesses. And to support his arguments, he's giving the downloadable versions of the book away for free. In the UK, it's also the first audiobook on streaming music service Spotify and is, of course, available completely free of charge.
Anderson's previous work -- 2006's The Long Tail -- was a critically acclaimed and influential tome on the subject of online economics, and relatively controversial. Previews of Free suggest it is likely to have a comparable impact. Continue reading...
Nintendo on TV: Britain's Best Brain on Five
Nintendo is bringing the might of its marketing machine to bear on prime-time TV, as it teams up with Five to search for contestants for a new eight-part show, Britain's Best Brain.
The show will see contestants tackling five tasks in an episode, each of which will focus on different parts of the brain -- memory, co-ordination, numeracy, recognition and risk. Success in these tasks will add to a contestant's 'brain score', with the highest scorers competing against one another in a grand final. Continue reading...
Photos: Archos 9 Windows 7 tablet hands-on
Lurking in the archives of last month you'll find details of the 9-inch Windows 7 tablet PC coming later this year from French manufacturer Archos. Today, the wait to know how it functions is over, as we spent a morning fingering it. Oh, and we know now that it'll cost £450 for an 80GB model, and £500 for a 160GB.
First, a quick reminder of les autres caractéristiques. This is a tablet PC weighing 623g, featuring a 9-inch capacitive touchscreen (that's the sexy kind, like the iPhone), an Intel Atom Z515 CPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, plus built-in DVB-T antennas, which should allow it to receive and store Freeview TV in the UK. Continue reading...
Photos: Archos 3 Vision hands-on
At a press conference here in broiling London this morning, Archos showed off its currently gestating trio of MP3 players for the autumn -- the Archos Clipper, the Archos 2 Vision and the Archos 3 Vision.
Most interesting is the latter -- it's that thing up above in the photo, no less! -- which has a 400x240-pixel, 76mm (3-inch) touchscreen and will sell for £90 for the 8GB model. Continue reading...
LG 50PS6000: Rumours of plasma's death greatly exaggerated
Here are some things that aren't dead: Jeff Goldblum and plasma TVs. Of course, if you're reading this in 2050 there's a good chance that Jeff Goldblum is now dead, but if it's 2050, why on Earth are you reading about a plasma from 41 years ago? That's like us reading about a black and white TV in a little wooden cabinet. Anyway, how is the future? Are there hoverboards yet? Is 3D TV still a dismal waste of time? Please, do tell us all about your exciting futuristic lives via the comments section -- it's been fitted with a flux capacitor which should enable your thoughts to transcend the usual rules of linear time. So, as we were saying, plasma isn't dead, despite rumours to the contrary, and LG's 50PS6000 should help persuade you of this unassailable fact. Continue reading...
