My Way News - Internet cutoff fails to silence Egypt protests
My Way News reports: "In its effort to silence protesters, Egypt took a step that's rare even among authoritarian governments: It cut off the Internet across the entire country. The nation's four main Internet providers all went dark, and cell phone service was suspended in some areas. But the drastic move did not stop demonstrators Friday, and it could backfire by fueling anger and chaos in the streets of Cairo and beyond."

My Way News - The day part of the Internet died: Egypt goes dark
My Way News reports: "Egypt has apparently done what many technologists thought was unthinkable for any country with a major Internet economy: It unplugged itself entirely from the Internet to try and silence dissent."

My Way News - Restive Chinese city to be under full surveillance
My Way News reports: "China is putting a western city where deadly ethnic violence broke out in 2009 under full surveillance, including ensuring 'seamless' coverage of sensitive areas of the city with tens of thousands of cameras, state media reported Tuesday."

CNN.com - Credit cards: On their way out 'like vinyl records'
CNN reports: "You can already use your iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry to buy a hotdog at the ballgame, buy your Starbucks latt�, or give a friend a few bucks by Bumping phones. But by the end of the year you may not even think twice about reaching for your phone to pay at the register instead of fumbling for your credit card."

msnbc.com - Mobile payments are coming to Starbucks
msnbc.com reports: "Starbucks Corp. customers with certain mobile devices can now buy their coffee with the wave of their smart phone. The company had tested the mobile payment service in some markets and announced Wednesday that it was rolling it out to all 6,800 company-run stores and more than 1,000 Starbucks in U.S. Target stores. Customers with certain BlackBerry smartphones, iPhones and iPod touch can now use those devices to make purchases at these stores."

CBS News - Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans
CBS News reports: "President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today."

Comment: This seems a bit sensational and easily derailed by politics, I think I'll wait for more details before passing judgment.

Wired.com - Ears Could Make Better Unique IDs Than Fingerprints
Wired.com reports: "On a planet hosting 6.7 billion human beings, having proof you’re unique is of tantamount importance. The ear, it turns out, may be the best identification yet. Through a new shape-finding algorithm called 'image ray transform,' which boasts 99.6 percent accuracy, according to a study presented at the IEEE Fourth International Conference on Biometrics Sept. 29, the outer ear may prove to be one of the most accurate and least intrusive ways to identify people."

NYTimes.com - Readable on a Smartphone, Bar Codes Come to TV
The New York Times reports: "From the comfort of their sofas, mobile-phone users can scan a bar code embedded in commercials on certain evening shows on Bravo and instantly obtain additional information about a product and a discount to buy it."

Reuters Opinion - Why Web Giants would benefit from a ‘do not track’ policys
Reuters op-ed: "The Federal Trade Commission has issued a report recommending that browsers include a “Do Not Track” mechanism that would allow people to surf the web without sites collecting and sharing data about their activities. In the same way that the “Do Not Call” list hampered that ability of some (but alas, not all) telemarketers to interrupt our dinners with unwanted calls, the idea sounds like bad news for web sites that target ads based on such data. But in the end, such a move could be just what web giants like Google and Facebook need to get their users to opt in to sharing data, rather than opting out."

My Way News - WikiLeaks website blocked behind Chinese firewall
My Way News reports: "Links to the WikiLeaks website were blocked within China on Wednesday amid potentially embarrassing claims made in leaked U.S. diplomatic cables posted to the site. Attempts to access wikileaks.org and cablegate.wikileaks.org were met with a notice saying the connection had been reset. That's the standard response when a website is being blocked by Chinese authorities who exert rigid controls over Internet content."

Comment: I'm normally opposed to Chinese censorship of the internet, but in this case, I think it's entirely appropriate.

My Way News - Leading cell phone carriers in mobile payments bid
My Way News reports: "Three of the country's leading cell phone carriers have formed a joint venture aimed at allowing people to make purchases with their mobile phones. And they say the technology they plan to introduce could eventually do away with any need for cash, credit cards or even metro passes - it will all be done with a wave of a cellphone."