How do you bring the Internet to countries like Mali, where more than 70 percent of the population is illiterate and the telecommunications infrastructure barely exists? You use the radio. Equipped with dust-resistant PCs, digital audio broadcasting equipment and antennas assembled from salvage, local radio broadcasters are emerging as ersatz Internet service providers in the West African nation, thanks in part to a program initiated by Geekcorps, a U.S.-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to cultivating high-tech skills and businesses in the world’s emerging nations. While a host of multinational corporations and academics have announced plans to bring technology to the emerging world, Geekcorps has been on the ground in West Africa and other regions for more than five years, and its presence could potentially play a pivotal role in bridging the technological divide.

Firefly Mobile announced that celebrity presenters and performers at the 78th Annual Academy Awards will receive the Firefly phone, the first mobile phone designed from the ground-up to satisfy tweens and their parents, in the official gift bag. The Firefly phone satisfies parents’ concerns about appropriate mobile phone use by tweens and delivers a variety of parental controls. Based on extensive research and input from parents across the country, the Firefly phone provides voice only communications. With just five keys instead of a regular dial pad, parents use a private PIN to program up to 22 outgoing numbers into the phone, including speed-dial keys for Mom and Dad. Kids place calls by pressing the Mom, Dad or Phone Book keys, and then Send. An optional call screening feature allows the phone to accept incoming calls from only those numbers programmed into the phone book.

From December of 2002 through February of 2003, Computing Unplugged Senior Technical Editor Jason Perlow was Software Developer Liaison for Sharp Electronics’ Zaurus. As some of you may recall, the Zaurus was also a Linux PDA, which shared many similarities with the ALP platform, and like ACCESS and PalmSource, the Zaurus was also the product of a Japanese company. The Zaurus had many things going for it, but it failed miserably in the US and European consumer market. In this important article, Jason shares his insights into what went wrong and what ACCESS has to do to get it right.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

Hopes for a quick settlement between Research In Motion and NTP appeared slim on Monday as the two sparred publicly, despite pressure from a court last week to end the standoff that has threatened to shut down RIM’s U.S. BlackBerry service. Last Friday, U.S. District Judge James Spencer stopped short of ordering the shutdown of millions of RIM’s BlackBerry email devices, but also said there was no escaping that RIM had been found to be infringing on NTP’s patents. Spencer said he would issue a decision on an injunction “as soon as reasonably possible” but didn’t say when. Analysts said on Monday they believed Spencer had made it clear that he would rather see the case settled than be forced to issue a decision.

A teenager in the US has made the one billionth purchase from Apple’s online music service iTunes. Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield in Michigan bought Coldplay’s “Speed of Sound.” The 16-year-old won a number of prizes, including 10 music players, while Apple has said they will set up a music scholarship in his name. The service was established three years ago and its sales have surpassed many conventional outlets in the US. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the billionth download represented “a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the internet”.

Sony announced the new HDPS-L1 photo storage unit with high-definition output. Featuring eight slideshow styles with image transitions synchronized to pre-installed background music and high-definition video output, the new HDPS-L1 hard drive photo storage unit offers an interactive way to view and share high-resolution photos on a home theatre system. The HDPS-L1 eliminates the effort required to organize printed photos, as it automatically sorts picture files by their creation date. The Sony HDPS-L1 photo storage device will be available in May for about $300.

On the Internet, the traffic cops are blind–they don’t look at the data they’re directing, and they don’t give preferential treatment. That’s something operators of the Internet highway, the major U.S. phone companies, want to change by effectively adding a toll lane: They want to be able to give priority treatment to those who pay to get through faster. Naturally, consumer advocates and the Web companies that would be paying the toll are calling it highway robbery. “Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success,” Vinton Cerf told a Senate committee recently. Cerf, who played a key role in building the Internet, is now the “Chief Internet Evangelist” at Google.

Microsoft has registered a Web site for something called The Origami Project. From the rather cryptic video clip there, you can’t tell much about what Origami is or what it will do. Guesses about Origami’s origins have been all over the map. But what we’re hearing now is that Origami might be little more than a new code name for an ultra-portable device that Microsoft demonstrated last year at its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. The original “Haiku” device was described as an ultra-portable mini-Tablet when the first prototypes made their public debut. The systems, as described Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, would weigh about a pound, feature a battery that could hold a charge for a full day, and integrate a camera, a phone and a music device in a single form factor.

PhatWare announced PhatNotes 4.7, an upgrade to the notes creating and organizing software for Windows Mobile-based devices. PhatNotes 4.7 supports a wider range of square screen devices and features an enhanced Today screen add-on that allows users to open, delete or rename notes and access linked notes and attached files directly from the Pocket PC Today screen. Additionally, a new properties dialog box allows users to change note properties, such as color, priority, category and authoring date, for single or multiple notes from the notes list window.

BoxWave announced the new ClearTouch Crystal for Creative Zen Vision:M. ClearTouch Crystal is known for its amazing glass-like clarity with its 99% visual transparency. It will retain the full color vibrancy and life of your Creative Zen Vision:M’s screen. Each package contains two separate ClearTouch Crystal pieces: one to protect the upper display and one to protect the bottom half. ClearTouch Crystal reduces 99% of UV rays caused by reflected light, protecting your eyes. Better yet, you can wash and reuse your ClearTouch Crystal.