So Britney Spears medical records were accessed by hospital personnel who weren’t assigned to her medical care, big deal, right? Yes, it is a big deal. U.S. Congress created the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to prevent breaches of privacy and confidentiality such as happened to Ms. Spears. Whether it is someone who is tabloid fodder or someone who is unknown to the media, everyone deserves to have their private medical information protected.

A method for producing lightweight bendable screens was announced yesterday. GE has developed a cost effective process for producing OLEDs using roll to roll manufacturing. What are OLEDs and why should you care? Well, as the press release says:

The days of free online Nintendo DS games may soon be over. Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama announced during the Game Developers Conference last week, that some Nintendo games which were previously played for free over Nintendo’s global wi-fi connection service will soon be offered on a pay and play basis.

Google is said to be just two weeks away from launching the much speculated about Google Phone, or Gphone as it’s been tagged.

According to a warning issued by Gartner, Businesses that rush blindly to set up shop on online virtual worlds are opening themselves up to significant risk.

With the release of the final Harry Potter novel due in the next few weeks, and the imminent premiere of the fifth Harry Potter movie, Internet security firm Sophos has warned of a new computer worm exploiting Potter-mania around the world.

At a family gathering recently my uncle pulled me aside and asked “Should I upgrade to Visa?”. He’d heard all the media hype about Vista, and while he was not even sure what Vista was about, he had idea that upgrading to Vista would be a good thing. My advice to him was a resounding no, which would also be my answer to many other non-technical users. Here’s why.

You’re walking down a busy street and you come across a group of people huddled around a shop window. If you’re like most people, you’d want to find out what’s going on. A new web site, Me.dium.com, is trying to bring the same concept to the Internet.

If you’re a PC user running iTunes software, Apple’s advice is to avoid upgrading to Vista for time being.

Apple: stay away from Vista

Apple has identified a number of compatibility issues that may affect the functionality of an iPod working with the current version of iTunes and Vista.