spokesman

China without Google -- a prospect that looks increasingly likely -- could mean no more maps on mobile phones. A free music service that has helped to fight piracy might be in jeopardy. China's fledgling Web outfits would face less pressure to improve, eroding their ability to one day compete abroad.

Courts in Iowa, Minnesota and New York are considering replacing at least some court reporters with digital recording systems to cut costs.

If they do, they would follow Utah, Vermont, New Hampshire, Alaska and Kentucky in using electronic recording systems. Utah and Vermont switched exclusively for budget reasons in 2009, according to SueLynn Morgan, president of the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), and officials in those states.

"The budget crisis since January 2009 is behind the push now," Morgan said.

 –– an experiment in small friction

A growing number of police departments are turning to mobile camera systems to fight motor vehicle theft and identify unregistered cars.

The cameras read license plates of parked and moving cars -- hundreds per minute -- and check them against vehicle databases, said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which purchased several systems for its police vehicles last fall.

Gershom Gorenberg in The American Prospect:

Mobile phone operators must now limit how much they charge customers for using the Internet within the European Union, after new rules went into effect Monday.

Customers have until July 1 to set a maximum monthly cost with their network, and those who do not will by default have a euro50 ($68) limit set.

Networks will send a warning when customers use up 80 percent of their allotment. At the limit, they will be cut off.

Mobile phone operators must now limit how much they charge customers for using the Internet within the European Union, after new rules went into effect Monday.

Customers have until July 1 to set a maximum monthly cost with their network, and those who do not will by default have a euro50 ($68) limit set.

Networks will send a warning when customers use up 80 percent of their allotment. At the limit, they will be cut off.

From The Nation:

Smartphones can not only play music and help you locate the next restaurant, they also perform more banal tasks like waking you up in the morning. It is common for people to be dragged from their sleep to the electronic sound of their mobile ring tone.

That raises the question of whether the ordinary alarm clock should be put on the list of endangered species. After all, the desktop computer put paid to the typewriter. Is it time for the bedside clock to sound its last post?

With its sterling reputation and its scientific bent, Shanghai Jiaotong University has the feel of an Ivy League institution.

The university has alliances with elite American ones like Duke and the University of Michigan. And it is so rich in science and engineering talent that Microsoft and Intel have moved into a research park adjacent to the school.

But Jiaotong, whose campus here has more than 33,000 students, is facing an unpleasant question: Is it a base for sophisticated computer hackers?