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On today's show, we discover that "scareware" is a thing (that never should have been) and that you can tell a bad business idea by the bad name. Also, PlayStation Home comes out (in beta) after a year and a half in development, and it seems kind of lame, and we talk about the few folks making money in TTT (These Troubled Times).

PlayStation Home opens its doors http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7777122.stm http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_SONY_PLAYSTATION_VIRTUAL_WORLD?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-11-07-55-27… Read more

Google's browser, Chrome, is officially leaving beta today.

Yesterday at the Le Web 08 conference in Paris, Google VP Marissa Mayer told TechCrunch's Mike Arrington that the move would be happening, but she did not say when. Google representatives have confirmed the Thursday change of status for Chrome.

How to get it The first people to get the non-beta version will be new users who download the browser directly from Google. Also Thursday, a small proportion of existing Chrome users will automatically get the update. On Friday, all the remaining Chrome users (10 million, according to Google) will … Read more

More scientists and engineers are about to join the international race to the moon sponsored by Google and the X Prize Foundation.

The foundation announced Thursday it will introduce two new Google Lunar X Prize teams to its already weighty roster of 14 competitors. The announcement will be made Tuesday via a teleconference from Google headquarters. Although the X Prize Foundation organizes a number of innovation competitions, the Google Lunar X Prize is sponsored in conjunction with Google.

Team LunaTrex will also have an announcement to make at that time, according to the foundation.

Then on Wednesday, Google and the … Read more

Hewlett-Packard has opted to become the last of the major computer OEMs to ship an integrated Linux desktop. Beyond the standard OpenOffice and other Linux desktop fare, HP has thrown in a modified version of Mozilla's Firefox browser, though after reading through ZDNet's description I can't fathom why I or anyone else should care about this "value-added" HP-specific Firefox.

I'm glad to see Novell's Suse Linux find a home on HP's SMB-focused machines. But I wish we could just move on from these now routine fits and starts with the Linux desktop. … Read more

From a MySpace-related suicide to hate speech on YouTube, the world of user-generated content has been plagued by plain, old nastiness since its early days.

That's why, as part of the Family Online Safety Institute conference in Washington, D.C., YouTube parent company Google has unveiled an "Abuse and Safety" resource guide.

According to a post on the official Google blog, the new section of YouTube's help center features "straightforward safety tips and multimedia resources from experts and prominent safety organizations" regarding topics like cyberbulling, privacy, spam, and sexual exploitation.

YouTube also said that … Read more

Chrome is out of beta. Do you know what that means? Tough times are ahead for Mozilla.

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Google hopes the second time will be a charm for a Gmail Labs feature that lets people send text messages to people's mobile phones with the company's Web-based e-mail service.

"A few weeks back, we ran into a few snags when we first started rolling this out, but starting today you can turn on text messaging for chat," said Leo Dirac, a Google product manager, in a blog post Wednesday.

After the feature's fleeting debut in October, Google removed it to fix a problem where turning the feature on didn't actually fully turn it … Read more

As part of its settlement agreement stemming from a shareholder lawsuit, Yahoo announced Wednesday it revised its controversial severance policy that had the potential of making a buyout of the company more expensive to a prospective buyer.

Yahoo faced investor wrath when it rolled out the change-in-control severance policy in mid-February, less than two weeks after Microsoft announced its $44.6 billion unsolicited buyout bid for the company.

The change-in-control policy would have applied if a buyer took control of Yahoo, or a new board of dissident directors were elected that constituted a majority on the board. The provisions of … Read more

This week we discuss the latest news that the T-Mobile G1 may not be the only Android phone for very long. We also talk about the latest BlackBerry Storm update, new Nokia handsets, calendar syncing for the Instinct, a new Bluetooth profile, AT&T femtocells, and the best phones of 2009. And of course we go over the latest reviews and listener questions. Listen now: Download today's podcast

News Sony Ericsson, HTC to release Android phone Non-G1 Android phone to hit Australia in January Verizon Wireless officially rolls out BlackBerry Storm firmware update Nokia 2605 debuts on Verizon … Read more