After voting by internet ballot in last year’s parliamentary election, Estonia will be the first country to allow voting by mobile phone. Estonian lawmakers approved a measure Thursday allowing citizens to vote by mobile phone in the next parliamentary elections in 2011.

On December 18, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote on a proposal to auction off the AWS-3 wireless spectrum that becomes available after television stations go all digital. The winner would be required to use part of it for a national, ad-supported free wireless Internet service. The free Wi-Fi would have to be implemented within a few years of winning the auction.

The vulnerability recently found in Internet Explorer 7, as yet unpatched, is also found in Internet Explorer 5 and 6 as well as the latest beta version of IE8.

Further enhancing the computer-like function of the iPhone, Pastebud allows cut and paste using the Safari browser and the Mail application. Pastebud uses JavaScript and bookmarks to work where others haven’t.

A new service provides private, secure Personal Networks and Legacy Management where the emphasis is on the user and not a social public network.

Regulations to ensure businesses protect sensitive customer data are beginning to take effect in several states in the United States. Charity organizations, which often store vast amounts of confidential information are among those facing the most repercussions.

It’s called the ‘Pano’, or ‘Pano Virtual desktop’ and may be the industry’s first “zero client”. The creation of Pano Logic, the device has no operating system or drivers, no CPU, no memory, no hard disk, and no graphics chip. It consists only of the interfaces to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor, and external USB drive.

The court has agreed with the Federal Trade Commission and, at least temporarily, halted a “scareware” scheme which falsely claimed scans had detected viruses, spyware, and pornography on consumers’ computers. The scheme tricks consumers into buying computer security products such as WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus.

It seems that some of the applications installed on an Android handset are capable of automatically switching on data connectivity and running up huge data charges for their owners. T-Mobile has put out a statement clarifying that applications have the ability to switch on roaming without informing the user.

Sometime in the late sixties Douglas Engelbart gave a demo of the sort that would one day be called The Mother of All Demos. He demoed the first computer mouse to Bob Taylor, a NASA program manager.