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Mom invents a muzzle for naughty closed captions
Diane LaPierre, a mother of four, stumbled across a problem when she suggested that she and her son try reading the closed captioning on his favorite cartoons as a way to practice reading.
Before long, all her sons were hooked on reading and spelling naughty words  not just swear words, but hateful and bullying terms. That drove her to start Caption TV Inc.
The result is a new product: ProtecTV, which scans closed caption information to bleep more than 100 objectionable words, phrases and variations from both the captions and the audible broadcast.
Captioned words are replaced with X’s and the sound is silenced.
The unit connects your VCR, satellite television box, DVD player, personal video recorder or cable box with your television using audio/video cables.
ProtecTV retails for $79.95. For more information, call (866) 887-7683.
Handspring’s hybrid marries function with sleek stylings
www.handspring.com/products/communicators
Handspring Inc.’s newest handheld, the Treo 180, has a futuristic look and feel.
Sporting built-in wireless ability, Internet accessibility and a small keyboard similar to the RIM BlackBerry, the new Treo, right, may give Palm Inc. more than a slap across the wrist.
Handspring doesn’t even include the PDA in its Visor line, dubbing it a “communicator” instead. That’s accurate. Nothing else currently on the market is quite like it.
Encased in charcoal plastic, the Treo measures just 4.3 inches long, slightly more than 2.5 inches wide and just shy of 0.75 inch thick. Overall weight: just 5.4 ounces.
Save for its grayscale screen, this is no dullard. Later this year, the full-color screen Treo 270 will remedy that. The Treo 180 retails for $399; the color Treo is $599.
And communicate it does. Wireless connectivity is standard and talk quality clear.
Study: Gambling sites bet heavily on advertising
If virtual Vegas hasn’t sucked you in yet, it’s not for want of trying.
Internet gambling sites nearly tripled their advertising on the Web last year, a new report found, flashing 2.5 billion banner and pop-up ads.
This dose of advertising helps explain why 13.6 million Americans  more than a tenth of the U.S. online population  visited gambling Web sites in December, according to a recent report by Jupiter Media Metrix. The research firm ranked the Internet gambling industry as the fifth-heaviest online advertiser last year.
It’s unclear how many of these people are putting real dollars at risk or just playing video poker and simulated slots for fun. But top sites such as King Solomon’s Casino (www.kscasino.com), Aces High (www.aceshigh.com) and Intercasino (www.intercasino.com) typically draw about 2 million U.S. visitors a month.
Industry analysts estimate that several billion dollars were wagered online worldwide last year.