Last week, hacker Chris Paget said he plans to demonstrate how to set up what’s essentially a fake cell tower that lets him listen in on nearby mobile calls. His talk is scheduled for Saturday.

But Tuesday, he wrote on his blog that he had “heard that AT&T may be considering suing me to stop my talk.”

AT&T, however, insisted it has no plans to interfere with the talk. “That is absolutely false. We are taking no such action,” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said.

Operators could have reason to be concerned about Paget’s talk, particularly if his demonstration interferes with the 911 system. But Paget says he has that covered.

“If you’re in the room, need to dial 911 and you have a GSM phone, you can just raise your hand and shout. In the extremely unlikely situation that someone near the room with a GSM phone connects to my demo network and also needs to dial 911, I am taking the extra precaution of ensuring that that person will be connected to someone local who can call for or send help,” he said in his blog post.

In planning his talk, Paget says he consulted legal experts at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He plans to put up prominent signs to warn people about his demonstration, and he’s taking precautions to make sure no data from intercepted phone calls is stored, he said.

Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wasn’t surprised that AT&T said it won’t try to block the demonstration. “Of course they would do nothing. It’s totally legitimate,” she said.

Anyone who has visited the popular e-tailer’s site in the past year or so has grown accustomed to being greeted by the Kindle’s image. However, as of Tuesday afternoon, the base $189 Kindle had been replaced on Amazon’s home page by the $379 Kindle DX.

The page for the base Kindle featured a note to shoppers saying the device was “temporarily out of stock. Order now and we’ll deliver when available.” To our knowledge, this is the first time a Kindle has been listed as sold out since 2008.

Sales of the Kindle had reportedly tripled since Amazon lowered the price from $259 in June. Earlier this month, CEO Jeff Bezos said the e-reader and bookstore have reached a “tipping point,” with Kindle titles outselling hardcover books on the massive online marketplace for the first time.

While the device being out of stock may be related to those brisk sales, it’s also possible Bloomberg was on the mark in May when it cited anonymous sources saying we could expect the next generation of the e-reader in August, which is right around the corner. Bloomberg reported at the time that the device was expected to be thinner and have a sharper picture but not come with a touch screen or color.

Amazon doesn’t release sales figures for the Kindle, and a company representative did not immediately return a request for comment.

But in practice, the actual impact of that portion of the decision may be limited.

How does it affect iPhones specifically?
Apple exercises greater control of its hardware and software than most of its competitors. Anyone remember last fall’s court-ordered permanent injunction that Apple won against Psystar, which sold PCs with OS X pre-installed?

On the iPhone, Apple restricts the software that can be loaded onto the device. Applications can be downloaded through the App Store, and to be included in the App Store, the program has to be vetted and approved by Apple.

Apple says this maintains a high-quality user experience and weeds out malware. (An executive summed it up: “You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you’d expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works.”)

But if users want software that’s not permitted in the App Store–Google Voice is a big one, and tethering is another–they need to jailbreak their phone. That unlocks the file system, allowing apps to be added without Apple’s permission.

Groups of software developers and individuals work to devise jailbreaking software for every new version of the iPhone’s operating system that is released. The best known is probably the iPhone Dev Team, which makes its software available at no cost.

Why do you say the practical impact of the Copyright Office’s decision is limited?
Until this week, Apple has possessed the legal equivalent of a double-barreled shotgun, which would have permitted the company to file lawsuits accusing users (or jailbreak software creators) of violating both the DMCA and breaching the contract in the form of the Apple iPhone Software License Agreement.

Now, thanks to the Copyright Office, Apple’s legal arsenal has been reduced to a single-barreled shotgun, the license agreement.

But these amount to legal claims that the company could in theory pursue. In reality, Apple has never sued a single person for jailbreaking or distributing jailbreaking software. It’s never even threatened to do so, even after years have elapsed.

Translated: If Apple isn’t going to sue the hundreds of thousands of customers merrily jailbreaking their iPhones, or the active developer community abetting their theoretically illicit activities, it doesn’t matter what the caliber of their legal weaponry is.

So why should we care?
We asked Jennifer Granick, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco-based civil liberties group that successfully petitioned the Copyright Office for the exception.

Here’s what she told us: “Apple’s never sued jailbreakers, but they claim it violates the DMCA, and thus there’s a legal cloud. If they were right, they could stop people from jailbreaking the phones, i.e. get an injunction. Now, they can’t. Even if it violates contract law, they’d have to sue, and all they could get would be a tiny bit of money. It greatly decreases any incentive they might have or develop to sue. And it takes injunction off the table. Which means that the law will not, in the next three years, prevent people from jailbreaking their phones.”

In addition, the possibility of punitive damages has been eliminated.

What does Apple say?
Our old friend Leander Kahney extracted a statement from Apple on Monday, which says simply: “Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”

Earlier, Apple had told the Copyright Office it opposed EFF’s request in part because the App Store process protected consumers, because iPhone customers only license the software and do not own it, and that fair use should not allow circumvention.

What was the Copyright Office’s reasoning?
On all the important counts, it agreed with the EFF. It said, for instance, that “the amount of copyrighted work modified in a typical jailbreaking scenario is fewer than 50 bytes of code out of more than 8 million bytes, or approximately 1/160,000 of the copyrighted work as a whole.” The Obama administration had sided with Apple. The Department of Commerce said that granting the exemption “might just as likely deter innovation by not allowing the developer to recoup its development costs and to be rewarded for its innovation.”

A side note: the Copyright Office also granted another exemption, which allows used handsets to be reprogrammed to enable use of the mobile phone on another network.

Why would I want to risk jailbreaking my iPhone?
You might want to jailbreak your phone if there’s a piece of software you simply must have. But jailbreaking should probably be left to people who are technologically savvy–after all, if something goes wrong, you’re on your own.

The two big dangers to jailbreaking your phone are voiding your warranty, and not correctly following the instructions of whatever software program you’re using to do the jailbreak, which can lead to a unusable or “bricked” phone. Taking a phone that’s been jailbroken into an Apple store, or sending it to Apple’s service center means they likely won’t fix it because you’ve violated your user agreement.

This includes repairing something that is not software-related, like a cracked screen. You may be able to find an authorized repair center that would do it, but it’s still a risk.

According to Apple, the company’s support department already receives “literally millions of reported instances of problems flowing from jailbroken phones.” In a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office (PDF) opposing the new exemption, Apple warned that legitimizing the practice of jailbreaking would be a security risk for the devices and result in more malware being installed because the App Store’s protections would be bypassed.

So does Apple have to support jailbreaking?
Nope. Section 2(c) of the Apple iPhone Software License Agreement (PDF) bans any attempt to “modify” the iPhone software or to reverse-engineer it.

What that means is that Apple can still legally–if it chooses–protect its phones from jailbreaking. The contract formed between the user and Apple (and the user and the wireless carrier) when the iPhone owner agrees to the user licensing agreement is binding, says Tom Sydnor, a senior fellow with the Progress and Freedom Foundation who takes an expansive view of copyright law.

Just because the DMCA allows individuals an exemption to jailbreak their own phones, “it doesn’t mean Apple or a carrier can’t protect contractual restrictions to deal with it,” Sydnor said. “Essentially the exemption says this is the sort of thing that falls in bounds of contracts.”

Apple could pursue breach of contract if someone jailbreaks their phone, or they could sue a person or company that creates jailbreak software for inducing someone to breach their contract with Apple. In other words, Sydnor said, “even if there was no DMCA, you could still be bound not to circumvent that technological protection.”

What does the DMCA do, exactly?
Check out section 1201 of the text of the 1998 law. Part 1 says that, in general, “no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access” to a copyrighted work, including a computer program.

Part 2 says that “no person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic” in any software that allows such circumvention. (Note this restriction has little impact on overseas software developers.)

But there’s an important caveat to the first part. The Library of Congress’ Copyright Office is charged with evaluating the DMCA’s impact every three years and adding exemptions on behalf of Americans who want to make “noninfringing uses” of copyrighted works.

The last round of exemptions, for instance, said it’s officially legal to “unlock” your cell phone’s firmware if you’re hoping to switch carriers while continuing to use the same device.

So how does this week’s DMCA announcement benefit consumers?
While it doesn’t completely remove all legal repercussions from users who want to jailbreak their own phone, losing the protection of the DMCA was a blow to Apple and other phone makers with proprietary software, according to Jason Schultz, co-director of Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law.

“It is an uphill battle now for Apple. What this does is kind of shifts things in favor of users,” said Schultz. “If Apple goes to court they have to explain to a judge why the copyright office is wrong (in this case) or why other laws should trump copyright laws.”

“Another way to say it is the DMCA was Apple’s strongest weapon in controlling the iPhone platform. (Losing that exemption) is like losing your best player on the team,” he said.

GM disclosed the pricing and touted the 340-mile range of the Chevy Volt on Tuesday at a conference on plug-in vehicles in San Jose, Calif.

The cost of a lease is $350 a month for 36 months with a $2,500 down payment. The Volt, which has an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty, qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax, which brings the net purchase price to $33,500 after receiving the credit.

The Chevy Volt.

(Credit: GM)

People on Tuesday will be able to order a Volt from www.getmyvolt.com and be able to track the status of their order as GM starts delivery of the car later this year.

Initially, GM will offer the Volt in seven regions: California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Michigan, and Texas.

The company anticipates that it will sell 10,000 cars in the first year and then make the Volt available nationally and sell 30,000 units in 2012, GM executives said on a conference call on Tuesday. The company hopes that higher volumes will bring down the price in the future, but some of that is already figured in, said Joel Ewanick, GM vice president of U.S. marketing.

“We’re pricing very aggressively taking into account some of those factors already,” he said. “We think it’s a great opening salvo and we’ll see what happens over time.”

The base model will include a number of high-tech features, such as Bluetooth connectivity, a navigation screen, and five years of GM’s OnStar service. There will also be four options, such as a rear camera, a more expensive paint package, and different wheels. If all options are chosen, the cost is $44,600 before the $7,500 tax credit.

When GM first launched the Chevy Volt concept in 2007, there wasn’t a lot of competition among major automakers in the electric-vehicle category. But now the battery-electric $33,000 Nissan Leaf is expected for release in coming months as well a host of other electric vehicles and hybrids.

Although this is the first time GM has disclosed the suggested retail price, outsiders for some time have anticipated cost of the Volt would be about $40,000.

Electrification ahead?
To stand out from the competition, GM is emphasizing the relative long range of the Volt’s design over battery-electric cars, such as the Leaf, said Ewanick.

“Our strategy is (to say) that it’s more car than electric,” said Ewanick. “This car gives you a 340-mile range, it gives you real peace of mind, which is a big piece of differentiation between us and the competition. This is a car you can drive cross-country and our competition can’t do that.”

GM also plans to provide coaching to Volt buyers on how to install a higher-voltage charging station in their homes, although the Volt can charge overnight using a standard outlet.

Unlike a traditional hybrid, the Volt is driven entirely by an electric motor, which gives it a peppy, smooth acceleration. The batteries store enough charge to drive the car about 40 miles and then a gasoline engine runs a generator to maintain charge for the batteries. By contrast, battery-electric vehicles planned from major automakers, such as the Nissan Leaf, can go about 100 miles.

But GM is still not able to say what sort of mileage the Volt will get because the Environmental Protection Agency is still working on a methodology to communicate the fuel economy of electrically driven cars.

GM and other automakers tend to list pricing of their electric vehicles net of the $7,500 federal tax credit. But those tax credits are limited to 200,000 cars per manufacturer, said Ewanick. That’s enough for GM to launch back into electrification, he said. In the coming years, the company plans to use the Volt’s powertrain, known as Voltec, in other models.

“Two hundred thousand vehicles gets us many years down the road and it gets the electric-vehicle market established,” Ewanick said. “It’s a good time frame to build awareness.”

Sticker shock?
CNET readers’ reactions to the announced Volt pricing reflect the mixed feelings consumers seem to have toward electric vehicles. On the one hand, it’s appealing to use no or less gasoline. But what price are you willing to pay for more efficiency and the lower cost per mile?

“What really doesn’t add up is that GM has saved on the price of batteries and that savings should be enough to pay for the generator, and so should be priced at par with Nissan Leaf. If the Volt is priced $2,000 more than the Nissan Leaf, then I’d be buying (the Volt),” wrote commenter with the user name Joe Real. He said the Volt is for early adopters who are willing to pay more for new technology.

Some people suggested waiting for the battery-electric Model S from Tesla, which is scheduled to be available in 2012 and cost $57,400 before rebates. Others said that buying a traditional hybrid, such as a Ford Fusion of Toyota Prius, makes more sense for people who want to get good fuel economy and be able to drive hundreds of miles.

GM executives have said that they chose a 40-mile electric range for the Volt because it meets the daily driving needs for most U.S. drivers. Because of the limitations on range for most electric cars, people need to consider and better understand their requirements.

There was also a lot of discussion on the technology behind the Volt, which reflects how the many types of electric vehicles can be confusing to consumers. Finally, readers asked where the energy for charging electric vehicles will come from and whether there will be cost-advantage over time.

“Many people could drive pretty much on electricity from external charging alone and use the charging motor in the Volt when necessary. Yes, currently most electric power is generated from fossil fuels but that is changing and a fully electric car, unlike a hybrid, which just uses an electric motor to be efficient in city driving, can take advantage of renewable sources as they increasingly are being used to generate electric power,” said a reader with the user name djsxxx.

Geek Squad at Best Buy is a competitor of Secure Remote Support, Inc., on paper. We believe that we provide a much higher quality product and level of service and therefore arent in the same category as Geek Squad. However, to most customers, we are a direct competitor of Geek Squad. I invite you to read some peer reviewed experiences actual customers have had about the Geek Squad.

We occasionally get calls from customer who have used Geek Squad and ultimately hire us to clean up and fix problems that they had before the Geek Squad ‘repaired’ their machine, as well as errors and problems that arose AFTER a repair by the Geek Squad.

If you have an experience with the Geek Squad, please leave you experience below. Thank you.

Dont take our word for it, view what your other colleagues have to say before you make a decision.

iYogi Reviews

If you do not use the Language Bar, you can terminate this process to free up system resources.

If Windows is running slowly, you can speed it up by disabling some of its visual effects. It comes down to appearance versus performance. Would you rather have Windows run faster or look prettier? If your PC is fast enough, you don’t have to make this tradeoff, but if your computer is just barely powerful enough for Windows Vista, it can be useful to scale back on the visual bells and whistles.

You can choose which visual effects to turn off, one by one, or you can let Windows choose a bunch for you. There are 20 visual effects you can control, such as the transparent glass look, the way menus open or close, and whether shadows are displayed.

The Performance Options dialog box lets you turn on or off up to 20 visual effects

To adjust all visual effects for best performance:

A toolbar is usually located at the top of all Windows-based applications and it is basically a collection of buttons that enable users to perform various related tasks. Applications, such as Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word come with many built-in toolbars that you can display or remove per your requirements. However, the built-in toolbars have limited functionalities, especially in Internet Explorer. To resolve this problem and to enhance your Internet browsing experience, you can install third-party add-on toolbars to your Internet Explorer. Some of the popular toolbars that you can choose from are Google toolbar, Windows Live toolbar, and Yahoo toolbar.

What are the features of these toolbars?

There are several features that may inspire you to install an add-on toolbar to your Internet Explorer. These features:

How to Remove Toolbars from Internet Explorer

Before moving ahead with learning toolbar removal steps, let’s first investigate the reasons that may force you to uninstall a toolbar.

Many of us want to uninstall these toolbars because they get installed without our knowledge. For example, the option to install Windows Live and Yahoo toolbars is included in the setup process of their respective Instant Messengers. If you fail to clear the appropriate option the toolbars will be installed on your system. Having too many toolbars may not only clutter the Internet Explorer window, but may also affect your Internet browsing speed.

Additionally, many toolbars, such as the Mirar toolbar, are actually spyware and will stealthily install on your system to track your Web browsing and PC activity and trade the collected information with various affiliate websites for advertising purposes. These malicious toolbars also display adware on your system without your consent and add several files and registry entries to your system, which considerably slows down your PC.

To uninstall add-on toolbars from your Internet Explorer, perform the following steps:

To ensure complete uninstallation, you must follow up the above steps with a registry cleanup. You can use a registry cleaner tool to do this. A registry cleaner tool will enable you to scan the entire registry for any orphan files left behind by the uninstalled toolbars and ensure you of a complete toolbar removal. Registry cleaning is especially useful when you are uninstalling spyware toolbars because these toolbars add many hidden entries into the registry, which enables them to reinstall on your system even after you have uninstalled them. To get rid of spyware and adware toolbars, you may also run an antispyware scan on your system. These tools are useful in combating any kind of spyware programs including spyware toolbars and make it easy for you to get rid of them.