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Repetitive strain injury is a serious condition that causes pain in the hand and arm. Discomfort in the arm is a warning signal that a problem is developing but correct posture and the right hardware can prevent the condition from happening.

Office employees who work a lot with computers often develop repetitive strain injury in their arm from using a mouse. There are several models of ergonomic computer mice on the market that can prevent the condition from occurring. Varying movements of the hand and arm can also help.

The first sign that repetitive strain has developed is a burning sensation in the hand and lower arm. "The strain is caused by forceful exertion. Anyone who works with a computer mouse will make many, small repetitive movements but their arm muscle is built for a greater degree of motion," explains Dietrich Bornemann, a consultant orthopaedic doctor.

Ergonomic designer Ahmet Cakir has described the condition as an epidemic. "We not only use computers at work but also at home where we carry out identical arm movements. That puts a big strain on our hands and arms," says Cakir who is also a specialist at the health and safety institute, Ergonomic, in Berlin.

An ergonomic mouse on its own is not enough to prevent repetitive strain syndrome. "There's no such thing as the perfect ergonomic mouse," explains Oliver Christ, an industrial psychologist at the Technical University in Darmstadt. Because each hand is unique, no mouse can be designed to suit all needs. For anyone who works only occasionally with computers a dome shaped ergonomic mouse that slightly holds the fingers apart will suffice.

There are a range of ergonomic mice on the market in different sizes for both left and right-handed people. Try out a few to see which one feels the most comfortable. It is also...

On a trip through southern Italy years ago, I was embarrassed to discover that all along, I had been mispronouncing "tabacchi" -- tobacco shops that sell bus tickets and other sundry. I'd been saying "ta-ba-chee" rather than "ta-ba-kee" until a storekeeper impatiently corrected me.

Determined not to make the same faux pas, I brushed up on Italian using two language-lesson programs ahead of my visit to Cinque Terre and Tuscany in early July. I found the Fluenz software from a relatively new company by that name better than the venerable Rosetta Stone Totale program in helping me retain Italian.

The two programs had opposite approaches. Rosetta Stone Ltd.'s software believes in fully immersing the student in the language, without using any English to explain phrases. By contrast, Fluenz believes that while full immersion might work with children, adults don't learn languages as instinctively. Fluenz believes that adults learn best when they can relate the grammar and syntax of a foreign language to the structure of the tongue they already know -- in my case, English.

I like Fluenz's approach much better. I like the comfort of hearing English as I go through Italian words, to help me pronounce them and understand what they mean.

Fluenz helped me make the word associations I needed to learn the language faster. For instance, in learning the word "lui," which means "he," the smiling female instructor on the computer screen told me to think of a guy named "Louis."

The instructor also gave tips on how to pronounce Italian properly. For "Sandra," which is pronounced "sun-drah," she told me to open up my mouth for the first syllable.

These were the tips and mental bridges to the Italian language that were missing in Rosetta Stone.

Rosetta Stone's lessons used all Italian words and sentences, which you match to pictures -- of...

Hewlett-Packard has confirmed it plans separate tablet computers running Microsoft's Windows and Palm's webOS. HP says it will use Windows for a business device and webOS for a consumer-oriented machine.

No release dates, product specs, or prices have been named, but HP spokesperson Marlene Somsak told us in an e-mail that a Slate-type computer is coming soon.

Slated For Fall

"We aren't saying anything beyond 'fall' for a Windows-based slate," she wrote. "And we have not set an official name or set pricing. We are aiming that product at the commercial market. webOS from Palm is the platform for our consumer slate -- no timing, name or pricing revealed there."

Somsak declined further comment.

Speculation abounded last week about the technology giant's tablet plans when the HP Slate made a brief appearance on the company's web site, listed as the Slate 500-1002TU, with no release date or price. First unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, the Slate was assumed to be dead when HP purchased the failing Palm, creator of webOS.

The Slate 500-1002TU was described in product specs as a fun device for social media, photos and videos, which means it's not likely the upcoming HP Windows device geared toward enterprises. It had an 8.9-inch screen, video and still cameras, a gigabyte of memory, a 1.6-gigahertz processor, and support for input from an electronic pen "to write or draw as if on a piece of paper," HP said.

That device disappeared from the web site after it prompted numerous articles in the technology media.

A Two-Pronged Approach

Taking advantage of Microsoft's strong desire to be in the burgeoning tablet market -- Ballmer on July 12 said it is "one of the most important things we'll do in the smart-device category" -- while also promoting webOS for tablets...

Mobile apps on Android-powered smartphones and Apple's iPhone can disclose more personal data than most users realize, security vendor Lookout revealed Wednesday at the Black Hat USA 2010 conference in Las Vegas. Rather than being malicious, users often give the apps permission to access data when they are installed.

Lookout CEO John Hering and CTO Kevin Mahaffey told a session titled App Attack: Surviving the Mobile Application Explosion that a popular Android wallpaper app from Jackeey Wallpaper sent users' data, including phone numbers and SIM card numbers, to a server in Shenzhen, China. The wallpapers included My Little Pony and Star Wars.

Free apps can be risky, they said, with about 29 percent of free Android apps and 33 percent of those for the iPhone able to determine a user's location. Apple's iOS does, however, require apps to alert users when location information is accessed. iPhone users can also use the settings to block apps from accessing personal data.

In addition, Hering and Mahaffey said, about eight percent of Android apps and 14 percent of iPhone apps can access user contacts. And 47 percent of Android apps and 23 percent of iPhone apps have third-party code, usually for mobile ads and analytics, but sometimes for other purposes.

They urged app developers to be aware of security practices, especially when third-party code is added. Mahaffey noted, "The lesson today is that developers don't always know what's inside their apps."

Hering added, "Standardized APIs are making it easier and easier to actually create practical attacks. Instead of having to do something complex in a desktop-like environment, I know I can just call the contact API, for example, and have a very simple programmatic way to grab that information."

Just when you thought it was safe to turn on your iPhone ... Antennagate may be over, but complaints are now rolling in from iPhone 3G users who downloaded the latest Apple mobile operating system.

There are reports that upgrading the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to iOS 4 causes the phone to drag and the battery to run out more quickly. Apple has said it is investigating the issue, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

"My I-phone 3G was running perfectly fine, till I updated to OS 4, it's been slower than the slowest, and even turns itself off at anytime, during browsing and even during calls. I updated to 4.0.1 only to improve things a little bit. Still the problems persist," wrote a user from India who calls himself I-Phone 4.0.1 bugs. "Am cursing myself why I updated it."

Worldwide Complaints

The problem isn't confined to Asia. Users in the United States are reporting the same issues. Some say the iPhone 3GS now "stutters." Others say the iPod capabilities on the phone are "completely busted." Still others report the updated iPhones won't go to the home screen and take 30 seconds to respond to various commands.

One forum complainer named "Savvytraveller" said his apps are crashing or just freezing after the upgrade to iOS 4.0.1. This same users reports the handset is getting hot. The complaints go on and on, giving Apple another headache after the iPhone 4 case giveaway just eased the last one.

Indeed, this isn't what Apple expected when it touted iOS 4, the newest version of the iPhone mobile operating system with the much-anticipated multitasking. Many iPhone 3GS users upgraded to tap into the multitasking capabilities, which promise to let users switch between apps while preserving battery life.

iOS 4 also offers a new Folders capability that...

Motorola said it shipped 8.3 million cellular handsets in the second quarter -- including 2.7 million smartphones, or 400,000 more units than the company shipped in the prior quarter. Overall, the company said it earned $162 million -- up from $26 million in the same period last year.

However, Motorola said its mobile-device shipments declined from 8.5 million in the first quarter and mobile-device sales were $1.7 billion, down six percent year over year. Additionally, the company reported an operating loss of $109 million for its mobile-device business.

As a possible sign of better days to come, Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha noted that demand for the company's Droid X has been "exceeding our expectations" since its launch earlier this month. "I believe we have momentum going into the third and fourth quarter," Jha said. "As we continue to execute on our business strategy, we are in a strong position to continue improving our share in the rapidly growing smartphone market and improving our operating performance."

Betting On Android

According to Gartner, Motorola ranked sixth in the global smartphone market with a three percent share at the end of this year's first quarter, right behind Sony Ericsson at 3.1 percent. Moving forward, Motorola hopes to benefit from the rising popularity of the Android mobile operating system, which grew a stunning 707 percent year-on-year during the first quarter in the North American market, where Motorola recorded 66 percent of its mobile-device sales.

Motorola is also hoping to capitalize on the headline-grabbing antenna flaw sowing doubt about Apple's iPhone 4. A new IDC survey indicates that 66 percent of current iPhone owners have decided to put off their purchase of Apple's new smartphone.

Apple is attempting to address the flaw by offering a free case that promises to mitigate connectivity problems even as it contends that rival...

In a move to compete with Apple's iPad and emerging e-reader alternatives, Amazon.com on Wednesday unveiled the next-generation Kindle. The new-look Kindle comes equipped with a new electronic-ink screen that offers better contrast in a 21 percent smaller body that holds fast to its six-inch reading area. The new Kindle is also 15 percent lighter than its predecessor.

The made-over Kindle promises to turn pages 20 percent faster, offers up to one month of battery life, pulls content in Wi-Fi and free 3G, and doubles storage to accommodate 3,500 books. The price is $189. If you don't need the 3G capability, a Wi-Fi-only Kindle is expected Aug. 27 for $139.

At a $139 price point, some analysts are seeing commoditization of the Kindle. But Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis, disagrees: "I'm not calling it a commoditization because it's not a commodity. This is tied very closely to Amazon's bookstore, so it defies commoditization. This is getting into impulse-buy territory."

Just Buy the E-Books

Along with the new Kindle, Amazon is making sure the e-book-buying world knows that Kindle e-books can be read on other devices, including the iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC and Android-based devices. The bookseller also pointed to its Whispersync technology that keeps track of where a reader left off reading an e-book on one device so it picks up in the same place when the reader resumes reading on another device.

"The Kindle is a delivery mechanism for Amazon. Amazon is perfectly happy if you buy Kindle books and read them on the iPad or the PC," Greengart said. "But if you want a dedicated e-book reader, they are going to provide you with several different models at extremely aggressive prices so that you join the Amazon family rather than the Barnes & Noble family, the Sony family, or the...

Your smart phone applications are watching you -- much more closely than you might like.

Lookout Inc., a mobile-phone security firm, scanned nearly 300,000 free applications for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and phones built around Google Inc.'s Android software. It found that many of them secretly pull sensitive data off users' phones and ship them off to third parties without notification.

That's a major concern that has been bubbling up in privacy and security circles.

The data can include full details about users' contacts, their pictures, text messages and Internet and search histories. The third parties can include advertisers and companies that analyze data on users.

The information is used by companies to target ads and learn more about their users. The danger, though, is that the data become vulnerable to hacking and use in identity theft if the third party isn't careful about securing the information.

Lookout reported its findings this week in conjunction with the Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas.

Lookout found that nearly a quarter of the iPhone apps and almost half the Android apps contained software code that contained those capabilities.

The code had been written by the third parties and inserted into the applications by the developers, usually for a specific purpose, such as allowing the applications to run ads. But the code winds up forcing the application to collect more data on users than even the developers may realize, Lookout executives said.

"We found that not only users, but developers as well, don't know what's happening in their apps, even in their own apps, which is fascinating," said John Hering, CEO of the San Francisco-based Lookout.

Part of the problem is smart phones don't alert users to all the different types of data the applications running on them are collecting. IPhones only alert users when applications want to use their locations.

And...

A cyber mastermind from Slovenia who is suspected of creating a malicious software code that infected 12 million computers worldwide and orchestrating other huge cyberscams was arrested and questioned, police said Wednesday.

Leon Keder, a spokesman for the Slovenian police, did not identify the suspect. Keder told The Associated Press the man was released after police made sure that he could not tamper with evidence or leave Slovenia, but offered no details pending an investigation.

The FBI told The AP in Washington that a 23-year old Slovene known as Iserdo was picked up in Maribor in northwestern Slovenia 10 days ago, after lengthy investigation by Slovenian police, FBI and Spanish authorities.

His arrest comes about five months after Spanish police broke up the massive cyberscam, arresting three of the alleged ringleaders who operated the Mariposa botnet, which stole credit cards and online banking credentials. The botnet -- a network of infected computers -- appeared in December 2008 and infected hundreds of companies and at least 40 major banks.

Botnets are networks of PCs that have been infected by a virus, remotely hijacked from their owners, often without their owners' knowledge, and put into the control of criminals.

The Mariposa botnet, which has been dismantled, was easily one of the world's biggest. It spread to more than 190 countries, according to the researchers who helped take it down after examining it in the spring of 2009.

Jeffrey Troy, the FBI's deputy assistant director for the cyber division, said Iserdo's arrest was a major break in the investigation.

On Wednesday, the FBI also identified, for the first time, the three individuals arrested in connection with the case in Spain: Florencio Carro Ruiz, known as "Netkairo;" Jonathan Pazos Rivera, known as "Jonyloleante;" and Juan Jose Bellido Rios, known as "Ostiator.

They are being prosecuted for computer crimes. Officials said the Mariposa...

WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief claims his organization doesn't know who sent it some 91,000 secret U.S. military documents, telling journalists that the Web site was set up to hide the source of its data from those who receive it.

Julian Assange didn't say whether he meant he had no idea who leaked the documents or whether his organization simply could not be sure. But he did say the added layer of secrecy helps protect the site's sources from spy agencies and hostile corporations.

"We never know the source of the leak," he told journalists gathered at London's Frontline Club late Tuesday. "Our whole system is designed such that we don't have to keep that secret."

U.S. officials said U.S. operatives inside Afghanistan and Pakistan may be in danger following the massive online disclosure Sunday.

In his first public comments, President Barack Obama said the leak of classified information from the battlefield "could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations." He spoke in Washington after meeting Tuesday with Congressional leaders from both parties on the topic.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said a Pentagon investigation will determine whether criminal charges will be filed in the leaking of Afghanistan war secrets. Holder, speaking during a visit Wednesday to Egypt, said the Justice Department is working with the Pentagon-led investigation to determine the source of the leak.

In Baghdad, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters he was "appalled" by the leak.

"There is a real potential threat there to put American lives at risk," he said.

While Assange acknowledged that the site's anonymous submissions raised concerns about the authenticity of its material, he said WikiLeaks had yet to be fooled by a bogus document.

"We do see wholly fabricated submissions, usually around election time," he said, but added that they were "quite rare."

Assange added that WikiLeaks used ex-military and...