Twitter's new Lists feature.

One of the big complaints about Twitter is that after you pass a certain number of people that you are following, the stream of tweets is impossible to keep up with. By giving users the ability to group people together, it becomes a lot easier to keep track of the accounts that you are interested in at a given time. This will certainly allow people to use the service much more effectively.

For example, you can create a list o

The other categories were “news” (3.6 percent), “spam” (also lower than I’d expect, at 3.75 percent), and “pass-along value” (8.7 percent). Granted, sometimes there’s plenty of gray area (is linking to a blog post you wrote “pass-along value” or “self-promotion”? shouldn’t tweeting about breakfast too often be considered spam?) but it’s pretty cool regardless.

“We thought the news category would have more weight than dead last,” the report read, “since this seems to be con

“And if you’re an innovator,” he continued, “where DVDs are concerned, it’s very dangerous to innovate without asking the studios’ permission first.”

The film industry has always maintained that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 was designed to protect innovation as well as the rights of content creators. A balance was sought and in pursuit of that, provisions were made to protect antipiracy controls, such as DVD CSS, from being circumvented.

“This is yet anot

Clearwire uses a technology called WiMax, which offers faster speeds than current 3G wireless technologies, but offers wider coverage than other high-speed wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi. Clearwire claims that it can provide up to 4 megabits per second for downloads and 500 kilobits per second for uploading, which is more than double what consumers can expect using a 3G wireless connection.

Clearwire, which is using Sprint Nextel’s 2.5GHz spectrum to build a nationwide 4G wirel

He also said that, so far, there are five companies likely to be started by groups of students in the program, including the Gettaround team, and that some of the program’s founders are already interested in putting money into some of the projects.

“I’m not sure how it’s all going to shake out,” Lem said, “but mix enough of this stuff together, and really cool stuff is going to happen. Seeds are being planted in the ground, and they’re going to germinate and sprout this cool rain

In this invented settings screen, Facebook keeps users' permissions at their current settings unless they're explicitly changed. The screen also gives users realistic privacy options for the main content types.

(Credit:
Rafe Needleman/CNET)

(Credit:
Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

But at their core, the Facebook privacy settings have not been simplified. Beyond the set-up page, Facebook’s privacy controls are now more complex and more powerful. The new set-up p

Alex Kochis, Microsoft’s director of Genuine Windows, posted a blog late Thursday addressing the “leak of a special product key” of Windows 7 RTM (release to manufacturers). This confirmed the rumor on Tuesday that an ISO file of Windows 7 RTM sent to Lenovo that contains a master key–a number used to verify the authenticity of the software–was leaked to the Internet.

This means the hacked key will still work, though it will likely be identified, presumably when the computer w

Most Mac users seem to take pride in their supposed invulnerability, so one would think that they are less cautious in their surfing activities. But it’s hard to tell.

It’s unclear whether rumors are true that Snow Leopard includes several internal features designed to prevent attacks that Vista and Windows 7 have, known as Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Data Execution Prevention (DEP) on that platform.

“The frequency is increasing” for Mac threats in th

“Skype has infringed Joltid’s copyrights,” a company spokesman said in a statement. “Joltid will vigorously enforce its copyrights and other intellectual property rights in all of the technologies it has innovated.”

Joltid, a peer-to-peer software company established by Skype’s founders, filed a copyright suit against Skype Wednesday alleging Joltid’s technology is being infringed on by Skype users “in the United States at least 100,000 times each day.”

The two co

On Wednesday, Digsby released a new version of the Digsby all-in-one instant messenger to all users.

In addition to socializing, Digsby’s latest uses OneRiot’s real-time Web search engine to add Web search. Hit Control and F while in the buddy list view to begin.

A new skin preps you for Digsby on Windows 7.

A significantly expanded MySpace newsfeed is a second change. Some back-end alterations have opened up the info box. Instead of just being able to view