A 25-year-old San Diego man has been charged with hacking into the University of Southern California’s online application system and nabbing personal data from prospective students. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles filed a criminal complaint against Eric McCarty, a network administrator, for allegedly exploiting a vulnerability in a USC database that hosts and stores student applications. Officially, he’s charged with “intentionally transmitting a code or command to cause damage to the USC online application system,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Multitasking drivers are three times as likely to be involved in a crash as more attentive motorists who don’t dab on makeup, eat breakfast, or chat on cell phones, a new study reveals. Almost 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of happen within three seconds of some form of driver distraction, according to the report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

Senior Technical Editor Mick Moignard tells the story of the little Motorola RAZR that couldn’t. Why did his friend have both an old Nokia and the hot new RAZR, and why was the RAZR unusable? You’ll have to read this particularly fun take on Life in These Digital Times.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

Palm has made available a comprehensive software update for the Windows Mobile powered Treo 700w smartphone on Verizon Wireless. The free update gives Palm Treo 700w users automatic push email functionality and improved exchange synchronization with outlook, calendar items, contacts and tasks from Exchange Server 2003 SP2.

Some users of Windows Mobile 5 are reporting “erratic behavior” during which their devices spontaneously slow down and speed up, according to a lengthy thread on the Windows Mobile Team blog. Concerns appear greatest among users who have upgraded their devices from Windows Mobile 2003 to Windows Mobile 5. Writing on the Windows Mobile Team Blog, Microsoft’s Mike Calligaro explains that the problem comes about because Windows Mobile 5 stores “persistent storage” data in flash ROM, rather than in battery-backed RAM. The advantage of flash-based persistent storage is that data survives a complete power failure, he notes. The disadvantage, on the other hand, is that flash must be erased before it is written, and can only be erased a full block at a time; and, with NOR flash, erasing a block can take up to two seconds.

BoxWave announced Armor Case for BlackBerry 8700c/g/r. Armor Case is a form-fitting, trendy aluminum case that is designed to fit your BlackBerry 8700c/g/r perfectly. It’s exterior is made of anodized aluminum that is strong yet lightweight while the interior is padded with a layer of foam for optimal security. While Armor Case works to protect your BlackBerry 8700c/g/r from everyday wear and tear, its accessible openings give quick access to button functions, trackwheel, and headphone jack. Armor Case is also designed with a clear Plexiglas window that works to protect your BlackBerry 8700c/g/r screen and allows you to easily read your display.

Earthcomber announced an upgrade to its free mobile service for Palm and Windows-powered handhelds that locates places serving the top needs of travelers, including Wi-Fi hotspots, coffee stores, ATMs, office supplies, and business printing and data services. The enrichment to Earthcomber’s free personal navigation service responds to the increasing demand business travelers place on being able to find an instant “lay of the land” for specific personal favorites and professional needs. By getting a download of any given area within the U.S., a traveler can scan their surroundings for all their needs at once, and see results by distance from an exact spot on a map, without the need for an Internet or cell phone connection. The upgrade to the Palm OS version, like the Windows Mobile version before it, adds turn-by-turn directions for wirelessly connected devices, such as smartphones, or PDAs with Wi-Fi.

Prevalent Devices announced the availability of the Phraze-It Game included with each full-version download of the Phraze-It On-Screen Finger Typing Keyboard for the Pocket PC. Joining other fun virtual games such as Solitaire, FreeCell, Sudoku, anagrams and crossword puzzles, The Phraze-It Game includes over fifty games, each with twenty increasingly challenging puzzles to decode for hours of fun. After loading the full version of Phraze-It on your Pocket PC, the Phraze-It Game can be found on the Games screen.

MALIBAL unveiled its long awaited Veda Series. Available immediately, the Veda Series features the world’s first 19-inch laptop display with NVIDIA SLI technology. NVIDIA SLI technology is a revolutionary platform innovation that allows the end-user to intelligently scale graphics performance by combining multiple NVIDIA graphics solutions in a single system with an NVIDIA nForce SLI media and communications processor. The Veda Series comes equipped with a pair of NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX GPUs, which can produce up to twice the rendering capability of a standard Go 7800 GTX notebook, while generating flawless picture clarity and video playback.

BoxWave announced Armor Case for Dopod 818 Pro. Armor Case is a form-fitting, trendy aluminum case that is designed to fit your Dopod 818 Pro perfectly. It’s exterior is made of anodized aluminum that is strong yet lightweight while the interior is padded with a layer of foam for optimal security. While Armor Case works to protect your Dopod 818 Pro from everyday wear and tear, its accessible openings give quick access to button functions, camera, and charging/synchronization port. Armor Case is also designed with a clear Plexiglas window that works to protect your Dopod 818 Pro screen and allows you to easily read your display.