The famous quote "there are no second acts in American lives" is attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald. According to BrainyQuote.com, he also said, "his was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours."

The convoluted story of NTP and evolution of the American patent system is enough to drive a man to drink. Having beaten the literary metaphors well into the ground, let's ponder NTP's second act on the tech industry stage.

As you may have heard, NTP is once again feeling litigious. Last week it … Read more

Remember NTP? They're back.

The holding company that brought BlackBerry Nation to its knees in 2006 is once again on the advance, this time filing suit against AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. The suit was filed last week (PDF) in Richmond, Va., home to the last round of legal tussling between NTP and Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry.

Way back in 2002, NTP won a jury verdict that RIM infringed on patents held by the late Thomas Campana for a wireless e-mail system. RIM tried several times to overturn that verdict on appeal but never … Read more

Suddenly, it seems even more fitting that a company called Elevation Partners recently took a stake in Palm.

This might be rock bottom for the storied mobile-computing company. The decision to cancel the Foleo even before letting people get their hands on it is an embarrassing admission that Palm's vision of the computing world is way off base from the rest of the world, and it's a black mark on the otherwise stellar career of Palm founder Jeff Hawkins.

It's hard to dump too much on Hawkins. The man invented the Palm Pilot and the Treo. I … Read more

Faced with biting criticism of the Foleo, a Linux-based psuedo-laptop gadget, Palm has decided to cancel the first generation of the device.

Palm CEO Ed Colligan broke the news on Palm's official blog Tuesday after the close of the stock market. Just last week, a financial analyst predicted that Palm would have to delay the Foleo's launch until September or October because of serious software-related bugs, but Colligan decided to kill the entire project instead.

"In the course of the past several months, it has become clear that the right path for Palm is to offer a … Read more

If you were planning to camp out this week for the launch of the Palm Foleo, pick up the tent and go home.

Barron's Tech Trader Daily blog spotted a research note from Deutsche Bank's Jonathan Goldberg saying that Palm has delayed the launch of the Foleo, a Linux-based "mobile companion" that looks like a laptop but doesn't deliver anything close to a laptop experience. The device is now expected to ship in late September or early October, according to Goldberg. When Palm founder Jeff Hawkins unveiled the device in May at the D: All … Read more

The fellas at the freakin' FCC have given their blessing to Nokia's latest product, a 3G version of the N95 slider phone.

Before any wireless device can be sold in the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission has to test it to make sure its emissions won't cause brain damage or summon aliens from another planet. One nice side effect of that (other than the lack of brain damage) is that the FCC publishes the results of those tests on its Web site before the device is formally released, complete with photos and a user manual.

Wirelessinfo.com (… Read more

Palm's got a new smart phone in the works that could be its answer to the iPhone, the BlackBerry Curve and the Helio Ocean.

On Thursday, the company showed off a design called "Centro" at an event for media and analysts hosted by Sprint in Reston, Va., according to a Palm representative. At this point details are sketchy, and official photos are nonexistent, but Centro will be the smallest smart phone that Palm has released running Palm OS, the company said.

It will be targeted at the young'uns, which is probably appropriate, according to Gearlog. Gearlog's Sascha Segan, … Read more

The iPhone's screen is durable, but not invincible. An awkward fall, too much pressure and other unnatural impact can cause cracks in the optical glass that render the device unusable. When you're done cursing your buttery fingers and have traversed the stages of guilt, denial and acceptance, here are some productive means for dealing with a broken touchscreen:

Repair/replacement from Apple: $200-$250 The iPhone is covered under a standard limited one-year Apple warranty for manufacturer's defects, but is not eligible for AT&T's wireless phone insurance, which (for a $5 monthly fee) will … Read more

It breaks my heart to see an iPhone that's missing album cover artwork. There you are with the most beautiful iPod ever created, but your music collection looks like an endless series of generic boxes. Prove yourself worthy of owning such an advanced piece of technology by using my step-by-step guide for adding cover art to your iPhone's music collection. It's the least you can do. Respect your iPhone, people.

You can even use the guide to find out how to replace your album art with custom photos. You haven't truly lived until you've seen … Read more