Cell phone calls on airplanes in flight are not only unsafe, they’re obnoxious and they should be permanently banned, according to some members of Congress.

House members, most of whom board airplanes almost every week, traded horror stories Thursday about their worst experiences with annoying fellow passengers who talk loudly on cell phones before takeoff and after landing. One lawmaker said his wife sat next to a woman who loudly discussed her sex life on the phone.

If you’re the owner of a MacBook Air, you know your machine deserves the best protection around. Proporta has introduced two cases for the Macbook Air. The Profile Case (Macbook Air) is made from a thin, yet really tough polycarbonate and covered in a stylishly designed soft leather wrapping. The MacBook Air Profile Case, with its funky stripe design is the perfect accessory to keep your device protected from scratches and dust evasion. Complete with rubber grips to keep your MacBook Air stable whilst in use.

For a simpler design, try Proporta’s Classic Sleeve–MacBook Air. This custom design fits the exact specifications of your MacBook Air and keeps it completely protected whilst it’s not in use. Made from an alternative to leather, it’s easy on the wallet (not to mention the cows) and provides the same stylish protection of a leather case.

The Government Accountability Office slammed the Bush administration in a report released July 29 saying 70 percent of laptops, notebook PCs, and mobile devices used by federal agencies in the executive branch are not encrypted or secure.

The GAO report comes more than two years after the Department of Veterans Affairs reported a laptop stolen and the names and Social Security numbers of 26 million veterans were exposed, in the second-largest data breach on record. Today only 30 percent of federal agency laptops and mobile devices are using encryption to protect data, according to the report.

After struggling to bring new desktop and server processors onto the market, Advanced Micro Devices is looking to focus on two key areas that have served the company well in the past: laptops and gaming PCs. eWEEK got a sneak peak at some of the notebooks and gaming systems built around AMD’s new mobile platform and ATI graphics line, which should help AMD compete against Intel.

CardboardFish has launced fishText, a mobile application that substantially reduces the cost of national and international ad-free texts from a mobile phone. FishText is Java-based and runs on most handsets; there is also a Web-based version. Both bypass a mobile operator’s network and thus enable users to save money for every text message they send.

FishText is free when texting other users and costs from just 1p for all other texts to over 200 countries. After registering, every user gets GPB 0.20/Euro .30 worth of free credit, which is up to 20 free text messages.

Belkin’s TuneCast Auto for iPhone and iPod now works with the iPhone 3G. By passing the certification testing required by Apple’s “Works With iPhone” program, you can be assured that your iPhone 3G is compatible with the TuneCast Auto. Featuring ClearScan technology, TuneCast Auto will automatically seek out the best FM frequency to play the music from your iPhone 3G in your car by one push of a button.

If you have frequent flier miles on Virgin America, your points could be worth more than you think. The airline is allowing passengers to cash in their miles for the chance to win a seat on a Virgin Galactic space flight.

Is it one chance per point or do you get extra chances for that 3,000 mile flight where you sat next to the screaming baby?

Garmin’s nuvifone, combining the features of their nuvi line of GPS navigators with a multimedia phone, won’t ship as anticipated, in the fourth quarter. It’s now expected to ship during the first half of 2009.

In a way inconceivable in today’s fragmented marketplace, Usenet was where you went to talk – well, type. Conceived in the early days of the Internet, it was a series of bulletin boards called “newsgroups” shared by thousands of computers, which traded new messages several times a day.

Business Logic Systems is expanding operations in the Middle East with the opening of an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.