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Amazon has backed down for the Guild's comfort rather than for any legal motivation, since it's pretty clear that a robotic reading isn't the same as an audio book. "We strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat," Amazon said.

But instead of removing the feature, Amazon has simply made it optional, so publishers can decide for themselves what's best for their property. That means it's unlikely the much-advertised (though not necessarily much-loved) feature is going to be too useful for Kindle 2 owners. We're not thrilled, since the Guild has no real legal leg to stand on and seems to need Amazon more than Amazon needs them, but then again, we're not fancy-pants authors. [CNET]

I'm a fancy-pants author and I say this is crap! -JC

You first need to be logged into the Mac with administrator privileges and, when asked, you have to provide with the administrator password.

Yes, it's that easy. Enjoy. [Get the script here or here via Hackintosh]

• Panasonic 32'' HDTV for $599. Originally $699.

• Samsung 42' plasma for $799. Usually goes for around $1000.

• Unlocked Nokia N82 for $389. Originally $650.

• 8GB USB Flash drive $17.99. Originally $37.99.

• Insignia Blu Ray player $199. Originally $230.

• Garmin nuvi 4.3 inch Widescreen portable GPS $199.99. Originally $749.99.

• Sony Bravia Z-Series 46 inch hdTV $1,842. Originally $2,799.

• Motorola H350 Bluetooth Headset for $14.99. Originally $49.99.

• SanDisk Sansa 6GB MP3 player for $39.99. Originally $219.99.

• Element 32'' HDTV for $499.99. Originally $579.99.

• LG 42 inch 720p HDV for $799.99. Originally $1099.99.

The EFF asked, "What's so bad about what Comcast's actions?"

One objectionable aspect of Comcast's conduct is that they are spoofing packets—that is, impersonating parties to an exchange of data. Comcast is essentially deploying against their own customers techniques more typically used by malicious hackers (this is doubtless how Comcast would characterize other parties that forged traffic to make it appear that it came from Comcast or its subscribers). In this sense Comcast is behaving worse than if they dropped a propor¬tion of packets under congested circumstances in order to throttle bandwidth usage, or even if they blocked certain ports on their network. In other words, Comcast is essentially behaving like a telephone operator that interrupts a phone conversation, impersonating the voice of one party to tell the other that "this call is over, I'm hanging up."

Best touch? Making a used popcorn container from the theater into sex receptacle. Those M&Ms never knew what hit them. – Jason Chen

Make Your Own Sexdoll [Homemade Sex Toys (NSFW) via Fleshbot (NSFW)]

AT&T will charge you 15 cents a minute for doing PTT, which you can then convert to a real phone call to save on PTT minutes. Other features like availability status (like IM status), call-me alerts, contact alerts, and quick group calling are also available. – Jason Chen

Press Release [Cingular via Mobile Tech Review]