Image by Getty Images via Daylife

It seems that Apple continues to get into hot water over its applications store for the iPhone. The Electronic Frontier Foundation finally managed to get a copy of the developer agreement, which developers have to sign before they can submit applications for approval.

Tech lovers, save your cash. If you think there are cool gadgets out now, wait to you see what's around the corner.

Dozens of amazing devices are coming shortly, and we've had the chance to test drive many of them ahead of time.

If regulators have their way, the Internet could soon have its own red light district. At a conference being held in Kenya this week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is discussing whether to introduce a .xxx top level domain for the web.

Apple, schmapple. The company may have underwhelmed the world with its iPad tablet launch just over a month ago, and you may be able to buy one from early April, but it turns out that it's not the only tablet option available.

I like the idea of the tablet format, because it means that you can lounge on the couch and read your favourite websites or ebooks. But Apple's lack of Flash support, along with the lack of a camera and the

Image by nDevilTV via Flickr

 inability to multitask turned off a lot of potential customers (including me). Fear not, however, tablet lovers. There are some other devices on the horizon that promise more functionality.

Engadget has published some tantalising pictures of a 5 inch mini tablet that will be available from Dell sometime soon. It will include a capacitive touch display, along with cameras mounted on the front for video chat, and on the back. The Mini 5, as it was known, is apparently officially called the Streak. It will be available in a variety of different colour options. Apparently it will also feature a Kindle e-book reader application, along with other links to Amazon services. It will come with 3G wireless, and you'll be able to download Amazon video -- or, at least, you will if you're in the US.

HP is also said to be readying a tablet-style device running Windows 7, which is a little larger than Dell's proposed offering. Unlike Apple's device, it will support Flash. One of the hallmarks of HP's touch-enabled systems are their customised interfaces. The company has become an expert at designing its own interface shells that sit atop Microsoft's Windows, offering users a more intuitive experience for touch.

For those wanting a larger device, Notion Ink is currently preparing its own tablet device, based on the Android operating system from Google. Called the Adam, it features a multi-touch display, a 180° swivel camera, and full 1080p high-definition video playback. I like this system because it uses the new Pixel Qi display, which operates in two modes: a conventional, bright, full-colour LCD mode, and a reflective, e-paper-style display for reading e-books.

JooJoo is another tablet offering an even larger format, at over 12 inches. Running its own custom operating system, the ultra-thin tablet flips between portrait and tablet mode, supports high-definition video, and boots in nine seconds.

The more I look at tablet format devices, the more attractive they seem - and the more options there are to compete with what seems like an increasingly restrictive format from Apple.

Danny Bradbury, MSN Tech & Gadgets

Remember Second Life? The service, launched by Linden Labs back in 2003, has lost a bit of steam recently. All of the hype that accompanied this online virtual world when it first appeared evaporated as people got caught up in a frenzy over Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking tools such as Google Buzz. However, Second Life hasn't gone away, In fact, Linden Labs has just launched a beta version of a new Second Life viewer with some interesting new features. 

Image by ialja via Flickr

Over the weekend, technology news and analysis site Ars Technica posted an impassioned plea for its readers not to use ad blockers. Software tools that block advertisements on websites are common these days. You can download them as extensions for many web browsers, or as freeware. Using them stops your browser from displaying the advertising banners and other commercials, such as Google Ads, that you often find on websites. Advocates say that it makes the experience of reading a website more streamlined. Opponents, such as Ars Technica, say that it makes it harder to bring readers the content that they love.

The UK's Sun newspaper carried a nasty little news story this week. According to the tabloid, a couple addicted to playing an online computer game let their real-life baby starve to death, because they got so engrossed in their virtual world that they ignored the real one. The dark irony? Their task in the online world was to raise a virtual, digital daughter.

How many times have you used a software application that tells you to press the F1 key for help? Up until now, that has been a relatively safe thing to do -- but thanks to malicious software writers, it may not be so safe now. Microsoft has discovered a bug in its Internet Explorer web browser, which could enable a malicious Web site to take control of your system with a single keystroke.

When a nasty disease outbreak occurs, the best thing to do is to quarantine the patient, lest they infect everyone else. Now, experts are suggesting that we should do the same for computers.

By Chip Heath and Dan Heath, authors of Switch

SITUATION John has a BlackBerry addiction. His body twitches every time his BlackBerry goes off. He can’t stop himself from checking every message that comes in. It’s become a serious distraction. In meetings at work, he finds himself sneaking the device under the table to read messages covertly. (It annoys John’s colleagues that he thinks he’s fooling them.) John’s wife becomes increasingly irritated that he can’t focus on their dinner conversation, and one day he almost has a fender- bender because he is trying to email someone while driving. John knows that he needs to cut it out, but every time he resolves to stop, the Black-
Berry buzzes. [John is fictitious, but we all know a John.]