Many smartphones let you access the Internet; very few have succeeded at doing it very well and none has come close to approximating the experience you get on a computer. Does the iPhone meet this lofty goal? Dan Frakes explores its Web browsing, e-mail, texting, and mapping features.

In the Internet Age, the superiority of group intelligence isn't always apparent, says CNET News.com's Charles Cooper.

Filed under: Laptops

Carlos Slim, who is (debateably) the richest man on the face of the planet, has recently pledged to do some good with all that fundage, and we'd say that donating "250,000 low-cost laptops to children by the end of the year and as many as one million in 2008" is a fine start. Noting "digital education" as the key for turning much of Mexico around, he is aiming to "initially put the laptops in libraries and schools" and hand them out to students afterwards. Moreover, he suggested that his company (Telmex) would be there to help set up wireless networks for the machines to connect to, and as if these plans were enormous enough, he's also looking to establish "early stimulation" preschools within four years to give "poor children training at a young age in math, language, and computers."

[Via Wired]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Researchers have figured out how to train synthetic polymer molecules to behave -- to literally "self-assemble" -- and form into long, multicompartment cylinders 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, with potential uses in radiology, signal communication and the delivery of therapeutic drugs in the human body. The discovery, a fundamental new tool for nanotechnology, is reported in Science.

Efforts by incumbent telcos to stifle municipalities' attempts to roll out municipal broadband projects may not get the press they did a few years back, but the carriers are still at it, trying to get state legislatures to pass laws banning or hamstringing muni broadband. This week, though, a bill was introduced in the house that would prevent states from passing such laws. It follows similar legislation that was introduced in the Senate, and appears to already have a broad base of support -- but given the power of the telco lobby in Washington, we won't count the eggs before they've hatched.