A text message sent by a kidnapped 14-year-old to her mother led to her rescue Saturday, when police found her in a hand-dug, booby-trapped bunker. Elizabeth Shoaf’s message also led investigators to name a suspect in her Sep. 6 abduction–police were searching a wooded area where the girl was found for 37-year-old Vinson Filyaw, said Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill.

California has banned motorists from talking on cell phones unless they use a headset or speakerphone, although the law will not take effect until July 1, 2008, to allow time to educate the public. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed the measure, urged Californians not to wait until then to put down their phones while driving, citing government data showing those who held their phones while driving were involved in 15 times more accidents than those with hands-free setups.

Segway is recalling every one of its pricey, high-tech electric scooters because a glitch has caused riders to fall off and break teeth and wrists, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday. Six riders have been hurt, CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson says. The problem occurs when they push the scooter past its maximum speed, usually about 12.5 miles per hour. A safety feature designed to slow the scooter down can misfire in rare circumstances, including if the rider hits a large bump. That can cause riders to lose balance and tumble off.

Mobility Electronics’ Think Outside division has announced the launch of the Stowaway Sierra, a portable Bluetooth keyboard designed specifically for smartphone users. The Stowaway Sierra portable keyboard includes five rows and full-size keys in a fold up package, providing the closest replication of a traditional desktop keyboard available on the market. The Stowaway Sierra is compatible with over 600 different Bluetooth-enabled phones and computers. It supports all major operating systems, including Windows XP, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile 5, Pocket PC, Palm OS and Symbian.

HTC (High Tech Computer) has developed a smartphone that’s just a half-inch thick, or 1.3 centimeters. It’s available now in the U.S. from Cingular Wireless. The Cingular 3125 Smartphone is a slender clamshell handset that runs on Windows Mobile 5.0, enabling it to compete with the Blackberry’s push email service through its Outlook Mobile software.

Microsoft refreshed its line of keyboards and mice on Wednesday, introducing a desktop system that includes a keyboard designed for use with Windows Vista and the company’s Windows Live online services. The Ultimate Keyboard comes in the Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 package, which also includes a wireless laser mouse, according to the company. A Windows Live Call button on the keyboard provides one-touch access to a list of Windows Live Messenger buddies online to initiate a videoconference or chat session. It automatically logs a user in to Windows Live Messenger and opens a list of contacts that are currently online.

Networking guru Eric Benhamou has joined the board of Web security company Finjan. Benhamou, chief executive of Palm from 2001 to 2003, is currently the chairman and chief executive of Benhamou Global Ventures, which provides investment for technology start-ups.

PandaLabs has detected a vulnerability that affects the popular PlayStation Portable. This flaw is a buffer overflow that allows malicious code to be run on these devices. A proof of concept already exists that exploits this flaw and works on all versions of PSP firmware that can view TIFF files. In view of this situation, it becomes relatively easy to program malicious code to exploit this security hole. According to Jeremy Matthews of Panda Software, this is not the first case of an attack on gaming consoles.

A 22-year-old woman was arrested after authorities say she tried to hire someone to kill another woman whose photo appeared on her boyfriend’s MySpace.com Web page. Heather Michelle Kane was booked Tuesday for investigation of conspiracy to commit murder, Mesa Detective Jerry Gissel said. The records say Kane gave an undercover officer photographs taken from her boyfriend’s social networking Web page of the woman she wanted killed. She also requested a photo of the woman’s dead body.

Nintendo plans to begin selling its Wii video game console in the United States on Nov. 19, the company said Thursday. The date is a few weeks ahead of its launch in Japan, as it girds for a three-way showdown this holiday-shopping season against Microsoft and Sony. The Japan-based company, once the game industry leader and renowned for its Mario Bros. franchise, plans to sell the Wii in the U.S. for about $250, as expected, with games priced at about $50 each.