Four-week waiting list for iPod Shuffle

Only one week after Apple Computer launched its iPod Shuffle, the cheaper model of its best-selling digital music player, customers face a wait of up to four weeks before getting their devices.

Reuters reports that there is a three-week waiting time for the $99 Shuffle that can hold about 120 songs and a four-week waiting time for the $149 model that has double the capacity.

Apple has sold more than 10 million iPods since their introduction in October 2001, with sales in the most recent quarter more than doubling to 4.58 million from the previous period.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has abandoned its Carnivore custom-built Internet surveillance technology designed to read e-mails and other online communications.

Instead, it has switched to unspecified commercial software to eavesdrop on computer traffic, reports Associated Press.

The FBI performed only eight Internet wiretaps in 2003 and five in 2002, none of which used Carnivore.

It would not disclose how much it spent to produce the surveillance software, saying part of its budget was classified. However, outside experts believe the US government probably spent between $6 million and $15 million.

Toshiba has developed software that allows mobile phone users to remotely operate a PC over a cellular network, reports IDG News Service.

The software, called Ubiquitous Viewer, is installed on the mobile phone and on a client computer running Windows. It recreates the desktop of a PC or notebook on the cellphone`s screen.

The user can use the PC via the mobile phone to complete tasks such as reading e-mail messages and editing documents.

The phone`s keypad becomes a virtual QWERTY keyboard. For example, the cursor pad can mimic the functions of a mouse, and the 1-9 keys can become shortcut, enter, delete, tab and other types of keys found on QWERTY keyboards.