Technology Audio/Video - NPR

Despite being the country that invented the Internet, America lags far behind nations like Japan and South Korea in broadband speed and access. Guy Raz checks in with Thomas Bleha, author of the book Overtaken on the Information Superhighway, to find out why.

These days, if you want to find a fling, a friend or a cheap used sofa, you might check Craigslist. But decades before Craig Newmark posted his first list, computer users all over the country were connecting through electronic bulletin boards.

Evan Ratliff eschewed his identity and picked up a new one, challenging Wired readers to find him in 30 days in a contest sponsored by the magazine. Lured by a cash prize, readers mobilized online in a mad dash to locate Ratliff — who got a little too cocksure for his own good.

Oprah Winfrey told her audience today that her talk show will end in 2011. Maureen Ryan, TV critic for the Chicago Tribune, discusses Winfrey's decision and if her power of network TV can translate to cable.

Researchers are hoping to improve solar energy installations by coupling a solar panel to an efficient hydrolysis unit that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen. Daniel Nocera of MIT says the approach could lead to personal solar power units that could get many houses off the grid.

Tell Me More host Michel Martin and Lee Hill, the program's "digital media guy," comb through listener feedback and offer important news updates to recent conversations heard on the program. This week, the audience shares personal stories in reaction to controversial new guidelines issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a component of the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency says suggests women can now wait an additional 10 years before getting an annual mammogram.

Google is preparing to strip down the computer-user experience to a single application: the Web browser. The company says it's just recognizing the reality that most people use their computers to connect to the Web, and that's about it.

Sony's new online service connecting the whole range of its gadgets to downloadable content like movies and games should help build brand loyalty, a top executive said.

How much do you know about the company that knows so much about you? In Googled: The End of the World as We Know It, Ken Auletta chronicles the growth of Google, from the brainchild of two computer science graduate students, toiling in a California garage, to the multi-billion dollar, multi-nation corporation it is today.

Has Google joined the ranks of the best street photographers? Jon Rafman might argue so, and he has a collection of Google Street View photos to make the case.

Two instruments from the Hubble Space Telescope, including the camera that corrected an early flaw in the telescope, are now on exhibit at the Smithsonian. The camera, about the size of a baby grand piano, is responsible for some of Hubble's most astounding photos.

Power-hungry TVs will be banned from store shelves in California after state regulators adopted a first-in-the nation mandate to lower electricity demand. On a unanimous vote, the California Energy Commission on Wednesday required all new televisions up to 58 inches to be more energy efficient beginning in 2011.

The National Security Agency has been working with Microsoft Corp. to help improve security measures for its new Windows 7 operating system, a senior NSA official said on Tuesday.

As DVD sales decline, Hollywood studios are looking for ways to get movies straight to consumers' living rooms. This has some industry insiders worried that Hollywood is jeopardizing its most valuable asset: the theatrical release date. The movie industry is looking to change the way it distributes content.

A group of executives from more than a dozen auto, transportation and energy companies launched a new coalition Monday to urge the federal government to make a major investment in electric transportation. Their goal is to bring 100 million electric cars to the road by 2030.

A new iPhone application, called Cry Translator, claims that it can help parents interpret the many subtleties in their babies' cries — from hungry to tired to needs a diaper change. Melissa Block puts the app to the test with the help of All Things Considered producer — and new mom — Melissa Gray.

The president uses a town hall-style meeting with university students in Shanghai to focus on human rights, one of the trickiest issues separating China's communist government and the United States. Later, President Obama met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing.

Many people already use the Internet to search for health information, but more Americans are using social-networking sites to talk to each other about their health. And many patients find it empowering to be able to share and learn from others who are going through the same thing.

When was the last time you actually set pen to paper and mailed off a personal letter to someone? It's probably been awhile — and the man responsible is Ray Tomlinson. In 1971, Tomlinson changed the way the world communicated when he invented e-mail.

According to numerous sources on the Internet, three years from now a planet called Nibiru will collide with Earth, resulting in the extinction of the human race. This and other apocalyptic myths have NASA stepping up to soothe our fears.

More than 63 million people play the Facebook game called "Farmville" every month, and some even shell out real money to get ahead in the virtual reality. Host Scott Simon speaks to Dean Takahashi, who writes about gaming for the technology news blog VentureBeat, about why the game is so popular.

Researchers have figured out how to track the facial expressions of one person and map those movements onto a digital image of another person's face in real time. The result is something like a digital video puppet, which psychologists say may reveal something about human nature.

Consumers are clicking on Internet ads for prescription drugs less often in the wake of an FDA crackdown that led companies to scrub the ads of information.

A highly anticipated public meeting on social media is part of an FDA project to come up with rules for how drugmakers and other companies that market regulated products should behave online.

Amazon's Kindle is taking some knocks from the National Federation for the Blind. The electronic reader can read books aloud, but the federation says that function is difficult to turn on when you can't see. Now, two universities say they won't buy more Kindles for their students unless Amazon comes up with a fix.

Google announced today the roll out of yet another "free" service: WiFi access at 45 airports. But is it really free?

When Marine engineer Jonathan Kuniholm returned to his industrial-design shop after a tour of duty in Iraq, one of his first projects was personal: He wanted to improve on the design of the prosthetics he'd been using since he lost part of his right arm in an ambush. Kuniholm and his colleagues founded the Open Prosthetics Project, an open-source collaboration that shares its innovations freely.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is at war against Google. He's fed up with Google's search engine serving up the journalistic content of his new outlets without any compensation. So he is talking increasingly about blocking Google searches once his newspapers go behind a pay wall.

Advances in military medicine mean that more soldiers are surviving on the battlefield, but many are coming home with missing limbs. When they come home, those soldiers turn to Colonel Paul Pasquina, medical director of the amputee program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the latest in prosthetics.

The next time your batteries need a recharge, try taking a walk. A tiny Cleveland startup is trying to capture the renewable energy of your footsteps — no outlet required. Its device is called the Personal Energy Generator, or PEG, and it's about the size of a flashlight.

For this week's installment of All Tech Considered, host Melissa Block talks with Omar Gallaga, technology culture reporter for the Austin American-Statesman, about Verizon's Motorola Droid smart phone; what Dell is calling "the world's thinnest laptop"; and a new video game Disney is using to help reinvent its most beloved character.

A boarding school in Massachusetts has removed its stacks and book collection to make way for Kindles and a subscription to millions of digital books. Administrators say the changes reflect current student habits; critics say they're rash and don't account for different learning styles.

The social networking Web site Tagged.com has adopted reforms after being accused of essentially stealing the e-mail addresses of some 60 million Internet users, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said. Cuomo had said the e-mail addresses in members' contact lists were used to send out more solicitation e-mails.

For two years, some of the biggest names in consumer technology have been trying to outdo Apple and its wildly popular iPhone. Reviewer Joshua Topolsky says the latest contender — the Droid — does a number of things better than the iPhone. But given a choice between the two, he says, the iPhone still has the edge.

At the 2009 International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, undergraduates from all over the world unveiled the living machines they'd created with snippets of DNA, from bacteria that change color when they detect pollutants to ones that secrete non-toxic superglue.

The state of New York is looking for ways to reduce the time the unemployed spend looking for jobs, and it's turning to a mathematical formula for help. Using an algorithm developed by a Boston technology company, the program directs resumes to the employers most likely to make a hire.

The Motorola Droid is an exercise in functionality. But does it really give the iPhone a run for its money?

October 29th marked the 40th anniversary of the Internet. We'll talk with Scott Fahlman, the computer researcher who invented the virtual smiley face, about how emoticons and abbreviations have changed electronic communication.

Computer chip giant Intel is the target of an antitrust suit filed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Intel commands about 80 percent of the microprocessor market. An Intel spokesman denies the charges and says the company's sales practices were legitimate.