CNetNews.com reports that “[i]n an economy gone sour, local governments seeking new sources of tax revenue have begun hungrily eyeing their residents’ monthly cell phone bills. But some members of Congress would like to block that, which has sparked a debate in Washington about federalism, tax policy, and fairness. Introduced in April by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the Cell Tax Fairness Act would impose a five-year moratorium on what the bill describes as any ‘new discriminatory tax’ on wireless services and providers. Foes and supporters of the measure showed up Thursday in front of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on commercial and administrative law. ‘Wireless services and mobile devices play a growing role in affordable broadband access in this country,’ Lofgren said at the hearing. ‘Especially for low-income people, this is going to be the way to the Internet superhighway.’”
Reuters writes that “[n]ot satisfied with regular updates of printed dictionaries compiled by professionals, a new website has thrown open the definition of words to all comers. Wordia.com offers everyone the chance to record and upload a video of themselves defining their chosen word in a complete democratization of the language that will have Samuel Johnson, the compiler of the first dictionary, turning in his grave. One early offering is the word ‘bungalow’ –‘One storey house. Grannies live in it. Often with cats. Originally an Indian word.’”
PCMag.com has a pretty convincing article arguing that “Chrome’s an OS, not a browser.”
The Guardian has a good summary today of Seedcamp at University College London.
According to Internetnews.com, “[w]hile this week’s financial fallout from Wall Street will affect corporate IT spend, high-end smartphone makers won’t experience any great pains given mobile handsets are critical business devices and market shakeup could even bring new business opportunities. ‘Overall there will not be a big impact, though any time the economy is tough technology will experience somewhat of a hit,’ said Ryan Reith, an analyst at Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, IDC, told InternetNews.com. ‘But we don’t foresee a slowdown in the high-end device market.’ Such predictions aren’t surprising given the strength of the mobile device industry and wireless data services markets. Nearly every vendor boasted good financials so far this year, with some celebrating double-digit growth in the first two quarters despite increasing competition both on the services and device landscapes.”