By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

All right, I’ll take that back; I don’t really know if they are risking the wrath of Apple, but Google has renamed their Personalized Home Page to iGoogle. We’ll see where it goes from there.

The search giant is renaming and adding new features to Google Personalized Home Page, a product team said during a briefing with the media at company headquarters here on Monday.

In an effort to clarify Google’s strategy on customization, the company is changing the name of its Personalized Home Page product to iGoogle and announcing new features that were set to go live Tuesday after midnight PDT. Source: News.com

We Say: Like I said, although I do believe Apple has gone lawsuit-happy, suing companies for devices such as the ProfitPod, Google is probably safe here. Now, PodGoogle or GooglePod … that would be dangerous.

By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Are you interested in thought controlled video games, and if so, would you be if they adjusted for your thoughts and feelings? Say, you were nervous about something and picked up a game to play, the game would catch the nervousness and make it harder for you to do what you needed to do. When playing Grand Theft Auto, if you were nervous, you would have worse aim than those who are relaxed.

Behind the mask is a sensor that touches the user’s forehead and reads the brain’s electrical signals, then sends them to a wireless receiver inside the saber, which lights up when the user is concentrating. The player maintains focus by channeling thoughts on any fixed mental image, or thinking specifically about keeping the light sword on. When the mind wanders, the wand goes dark.

Technology from NeuroSky and other startups could make video games more mentally stimulating and realistic. It could even enable players to control video game characters or avatars in virtual worlds with nothing but their thoughts. Source: New toys read brain waves

We Say: While I would like to have more control over how fast my character reacts, etc, I think I would just rather use a controller than have some device that decides it should be harder for me to shoot, or steer, etc. They already have a prototype that hooks up to an Xbox 360, PS3 and a Wii, but do we really want mentally taxing games, or do we just want to forget about stuff when we are playing? I would like to be able to play Gears of War better, that’s for sure, sucks when pre-teens kick your butt all the time…

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Reports have been flying around the Internet that the prototypes of the iPhone that people have been seeing are “too slippery.” People whio have used the device have said it’s definitely drop-prone … not good when you look at the price tag.

According to those who’ve had a little more than Apple’s standard 15 minute playtime, the mobile’s design is simply too smooth, meaning it’s prone to slipping from the hand and, potentially, tumbling to the floor. Source: T3

We Say: Let’s say this is true. So what? The reason I say this is because I’ve seen plenty of cell phone prototypes, and many of them go through case changes, including not just color but often texture. Even IF this is true, it will most likely be fixed before release. Case texture or color … that’s easy to fix. What Apple’s been discovering is that the ROM and firmware … those are harder to fix than they expected.

By Martin Regtien
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews 

Every once in awhile a gadget lands on your desk and hangs around, kicking up a storm.
The aptly named The Tornado (but not for its destructive capabilities!), is an incredibly useful device for transferring data from one PC to the other.
We have just finished a big Vista migration in which this device played a major role.
Let me show you how life in the fast lane has now become a lot easier with hurricane-like transfer speeds and a pretty (inter)face.

It’s a simple device, but not simplistic.
For this jaded, grumpy old geek, (after all, I’m of the same vintage as the venerable Walt Mossberg) it’s an ideal tool to suck up my precious data from equally old computer gear into the virgin spaces of my gleaming Vista machine.
I have decided to give this Tornado Transfer Tool the highest rating on our DigitalReviews Network: The Editor’s Award. Read why.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Continuing our strangely comic-book themed posts this week (when’s that Spider-Man 3 movie premiere again?), a scientist has proposed a type of suit using technology based on geckos to allow people to climb walls, ala Peter Parker’s alter-ego.

In an upcoming paper, Nicola Pugno, a professor of structural engineering at the Polytechnic University in Turin, Italy, discusses formulas for fashioning carbon nanotubes into superadhesive gloves and boots that could be used to create a Spider-Man-like suit in the near future. He also outlines a theory for using carbon nanotubes to create large invisible cables that could act as human-strength cobwebs.

The designs for the materials are modeled from the adhesive properties of the gecko, a tropical lizard whose sticky feet can scale trees. Source: News.com

We Say: Even if this works, the part I really love, being able to cast webs and swing across a city (and let’s face it, it would only really work in a city like New York anyway … not in the SF Bay Area where I live) doesn’t appear to be in the cards. Heavy sigh.

By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

So says Ben Edelman, and many other experts in the security field. To avoid future malware attacks on searchers, such as the one I touched on here, more detail here, Google needs to more thoroughly investigate advertisers and publishers in their Adwords and Adsense programs. In short, malware “distributors” created fraudulent ads in Google Adwords for legitimate organizations, like the Better Business Bureau, to trick users into clicking on the links, once someone clicked a link, the ad would redirect their browser through Smarttracker.org which then attempted to automatically download malware onto their computers before passing them along to the actual sites that were advertised, with them none the wiser.

“We actively work to detect and remove sites that serve malware to our users both in our ad network and in our search results,” the company said in a statement. “We have manual and automatic processes in place to detect and enforce these policies; we also encourage our advertisers to contact Google directly if they have concerns or detect suspicious malware.” Source: Experts: Google AdWords needs policing

But, it shouldn’t be up to advertisers to notify Google about problem advertisers, sure, there are always going to be a few that start out good and turn bad, so there will always be a need for people to be able to report these problems, but, Google needs to change how they do things, maybe have one team that investigates advertisers who are signing up, and, change their guidelines for their employees who approve ads on their network.

“The big problem is that Google sells ads to anyone, without completing any due diligence to determine who they are or that the content they are advertising is legitimate,” Edelman said. “We’ve been writing about this problem for years and nothing has been done about it. Apparently anyone who pays the bills is good enough for Google.”

“People treat sponsored results as safe because they believe that Google has filtered out the bad stuff, which they should, because legitimate publishers such as print or broadcast companies do that,” Edelman said. “It’s highly likely that these malicious ads appear throughout the Google network, including in Gmail, and they may also show up on sites like AOL and Ask.com that are advertising syndicates.”

We Say: As it stands, Google has no incentive to REALLY do anything about their Adwords or Adsense platforms, because they are knocking down the cash from people advertising, if they knockout the made for Adsense sites, and change their guidelines for websites they allow in, they could loose a big chunk of revenue without showing any benefit other than posts like this one will not be created. Once consumers decide with their mice that they are not clicking on any Google ads, they might have some motivation to change how they do things, until then, nothing to see here.

By Martin Regtien

Contributing Writer, RealTechNews 

Today DigitalReviews.net are having a quick look at Casio’s latest high-end models, the exciting 7x zoom EX-V7 as well as one of the few 10 mega pixel cameras on the market in the digicam range.
Both cameras are exciting in different ways and come loaded with features.  But are they picture perfect?  Let’s find out here.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Microsoft will be backporting security work it did for Office 2007 and applying those security fixes to Office 2003, in a Service Pack (3). There’s also a chance that other code will make it into the SP, but there’s no information on that or on the date of release.

Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 will be focused on security, said Joshua Edwards, a technical product manager for Office at Microsoft. “We’re trying to take what we learned from building Office 2007 and bring as much as we can to Office 2003,” Edwards said in an interview with CNET News.com.

Microsoft hasn’t yet set a release date for the Office 2003 update, which like other service packs will be available as a free upgrade. Also, there are no details of what will be in the update, other than that Microsoft is “backporting” work it did for Office 2007. Source: News.com

We Say: Now, if we could just get an SP3 for Windows XP.