tos

Five S Pen shortcuts for the Galaxy Note

The S Pen is the stylus that comes with the Samsung Galaxy Note. It can be used for things like taking notes, drawing doodles, and otherwise acting as a more precise version of your fingertip when using your phone.

These shortcuts are ones you'll definitely want to commit to memory as a Note user, especially since the S Pen does not interact with the capacitive navigation buttons near the bottom of the device.

Pop-up Memo app

Press and hold the S Pen button (on the side of the stylus), and tap once anywhere on the screen of the device. … Read more

Richard Dreyfuss reads the iTunes EULA

Update 4:17 p.m. PT: Want to remix these audio files? We've made downloads available. Go to the end of the post.

This Friday's Reporters' Roundtable is on a topic that vexes us all: why are end user license agreements and terms of service so long and convoluted? To get ourselves in the mood for this show, we asked CNET fan (and Academy Award winner) Richard Dreyfuss if he'd help us out by doing a dramatic reading of the Apple EULA. He said yes. So, without further ado, we present to you,

Dramatic readings from the iTunes EULA by Richard Dreyfuss

Please read: Your responsibility: Damages:

This one's our favorite:

Effective until:

Don't miss Reporters' Roundtable live on Friday at noon Pacific at CNET Live. Or catch the recording afterward on the Reporters' Roundtable blog. Our guest for this great discussion will be Gabriel Ramsey, a writer of EULAs and a partner at the San Francisco and Silicon Valley law firm Orrick. Click the Remind Me button here to set up a NudgeMail reminder for this podcast (button will launch your default e-mail app).

If you have questions on this topic, send them to roundtable@cnet.com or drop a note in the comments below.

In addition to his acting career, Richard Dreyfuss is head of The Dreyfuss Initiative, a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort to reform civics education in America. The views expressed in these recordings or the Reporters' Roundtable podcasts do not necessarily reflect his opinions. … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1263: iPad getting Flashed? (podcast)

The E.U. may force Apple to allow Flash on the iPad as well as competitive devices to use iTunes. Like that'll happen. Also: Mario smacks iDrones, and Prince says the Web is over. So, see ya.

BOL 1054: Violating terms of service is not a crime

A judge has determined that violating terms of service is bad, but it's not tantamount to unauthorized access of a computer system. Good news for jailbreakers and hackintosh perpetrators. Also Opera 10 is out. I know. I know. But some of you really do care.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1054

Confirmed: eBay has a deal to sell Skype http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10322833-94.html http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2009/09/a_new_chapter.html http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090901005931&newsLang=en… Read more

Keep tabs of terms of service with TOSBack.org

It's the closely printed (or displayed in very small font size at a Web page) pieces of text that most of us don't bother to read before we agree to them. Yet it's something that shouldn't be ignored at all. It's called terms of service, or TOS for short.

Remember the time that AT&T sneakily changed its TOS and banned users from streaming media from third-party sites via its cellular network? Thanks to the media outcry (CNET News included) the company retracted the changes a few days later only to reinstate them again, … Read more

AT&T reintroduces anti-video-streaming terms

Earlier this month, AT&T modified its wireless terms of service (TOS) to ban Slingbox activities on mobile devices attached to its network. Less than a week later, the company retracted these changes due to public outcry over the matter and explained that the changes were made "in error."

Unexpectedly, the AT&T TOS has changed again within the past 24 hours. The new TOS language targets and prohibits the place-shifting activities from Slingbox or similar devices to "Personal Computers" using AT&T's wireless network. The changes are:

While most common uses … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 946: OpenMoko is NoMo

Rafe and Molly take over the show today (because of travels by Tom and Natali) and, not surprisingly, geek out and argue a lot about things like FM radio transmitters. In the actual news, it's cell phone Monday with lots of talk about the spread of Android, the future of smartphone Internet apps, and the stupidity of illegally pirating a movie and reviewing it on Fox News. Oops.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 946

MLB’s Web video puts everyone else to shame http://www.businessinsider.com/baseball-crushing-everyone-at-web-video-2009-4

T-Mobile to use Google software in devices for home … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 835: EFF the DMCA

Several organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (aka EFF), sent public letters asking the broadcast networks and YouTube to ease up on the copyright takedown notices. Maybe this campaign season will help shed some light on the issues with the way the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is implemented... as long as it's fixed for all of us and not just politicians. We also get into Sony's new, harsh terms of service, as well as LaLa's move to put your music in the clouds. Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 835

Groups asks YouTube, networks to cool … Read more

Taking your iPhone 3G apart with a suction cup

Though such a procedure is sure to void your warranty, you can (fairly) easily remove the iPhone 3G's screen, gaining access to internal components and allowing possible resolution of certain longstanding manufacturing issues as well as repair of hardware damage.

A post to the Hackintosh forums offers steps for doing so with a standard suction cup, such as the one used by some windsheild-mounted devices.

The poster, flash31, describes using the procedure to resolve the "light leak" issue that has affected some units:

"Pull the suction cup toward you and the screen should come out (bottom … Read more

iPhone 3G accessory incompatibility index

As previously reported, many accessories that were compatible with the first-generation are not compatible with the iPhone 3G, either failing to charge the device or losing functionality completely.

We've compiled a list of incompatible devices based on user reports. If you have any to add, please let us know.

Will not charge the iPhone 3G: The explanation for this issue is as follows: most accessories on the market charge iPods/iPhones through either USB or a 12V connection that works through the FireWire portion of the pin connector. The latter method is cheaper, and hence more common. Apple has … Read more

tos