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The 404 882: Where everyone did it in the '90s (podcast)

If you willingly choose to pay to see a movie like "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," you give up your right to complain about your fellow theater-goers. This is the lesson Wilson and I impart to our third co-host, who got suckered by the trolls on Rotten Tomatoes into seeing the pre-prequel to "Planet of the Apes."

The big news, of course, is Google's proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, so we'll discuss what that means for existing patent trolls, Android handset competitors, and the Android platform in general.

Stick around until the end of the show, when we'll announce which two lucky listeners won our V-Moda Faders earplugs giveaway contest!

The 404 Digest for Episode 882

Google to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5B. Air Swimmers let you fly your own fish. Rise of the Planet of the Apes: An animal-rights manifesto disguised as a prison-break movie. Weekend breaches: BART page by Anonymous.

Episode 882 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Amazon Student app for iPhone

Mac OS X Lion finally shows up on a USB stick, the FCC reviews San Francisco BART's decision to shut down cell phone service, and Amazon launches an iPhone app that enables students to scan barcodes and includes six months of free two-day shipping.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Amazon Student App for iPhone T-Mobile sells pre-paid at Family Dollar Mac OS X Lion shows up on USB sticks FCC reviews BART cell service shutdown Starbucks serves up free apps Follow Pres. Barack Obama on FourSquare Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (HD) |  … Read more

Google to acquire Motorola Mobility

Adobe releases a new tools for designers to create websites with very little code called Muse, the San Francisco BART train service shuts down cellular phone service over fears of protestors, and Google shakes up the smartphone industry by acquiring Motorola Mobility.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Google to acquire Motorola Mobility Chrome 14 Beta gets Native Client San Francisco BART shuts down cell service Sprint drops BlackBerry Playbook Adobe debuts "Muse" for designers Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (HD) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS HD

Ask Maggie: Buh-bye BlackBerry; iPhone has iMessage

If you've been waiting to dump your BlackBerry for an iPhone because you don't want to give up the free BlackBerry Messaging service that allows you to bypass carrier text messaging, then the wait is over.

Earlier this week, Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco that its new iMessage feature that will be baked into the latest version of iOS software due later this year, will offer a similar messaging service that Research In Motion's BBM service offers.

In addition to seeing when and if messages have been received, just like BBM, iMessage … Read more

SF utilities agency warns of potential breach

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is warning its customers that their personal data may have been exposed in a recent breach, an SFPUC spokesman told CNET today.

SFPUC noticed a few weeks ago that an unsecured server that was storing customer data also had some viruses on it, according to spokesman Tyrone Jue. It's unclear how the server got infected with the viruses, he said, adding that "it looked like someone had found an open port on the server and dumped a bunch of viruses on it."

A file on the server contained customer names, account … Read more

City of San Francisco's e-mail heads to Microsoft cloud

San Francisco is upgrading its e-mail system to a Microsoft cloud-based service to reduce IT costs and improve the city's response to disasters.

The switch to Microsoft Exchange Online will occur over 12 months within 60 departments--starting with smaller departments before rolling out to departments dealing with public safety and eventually reaching the city's 23,000 employees.

Jon Walton, chief information officer for the City and County of San Francisco, made the Microsoft contract announcement during a press conference today.

First, the city will upgrade its e-mail system from seven different systems, including Lotus Notes, into one cloud-based … Read more

Google amps up the media experience (live blog)

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET reporters. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here. To get the key points from today's announcement, you can check out our summary of what got announced, in our story here.

SAN FRANCISCO--Google's annual developer conference kicks off here Tuesday morning at Moscone … Read more

SFO to welcome first scheduled A380 flight

Update (Tuesday, 1:12 p.m. PDT): Lufthansa's A380 has landed at San Francisco International Airport, making the airline the first to offer regular service of the world's-largest passenger plane to SFO. But Air France is said to be ready to begin its own A380 service here on June 8.

Though I mostly write about cell phones at CNET, you may have noticed that I'm rather passionate--some would say obsessed--over commercial aviation. I was lucky enough to attend the first flights of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 747-8, so I jumped at the chance to witness … Read more

Cell phone radiation and the law that died

The strange tale of San Francisco's "Right to Know" ordinance finally came to an end last week when city officials permanently shelved the legislation in its current form. Indeed, it was a quiet end to a groundbreaking law that drew not only worldwide interest, but also the fervent opposition of the wireless industry.

Passed almost a year ago, the ordinance would have required cell phone retailers to display a cell phone's Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) at the point of sale and make available consumer information materials on cell phone radiation. The law (PDF) was the first … Read more