If you can get a refurbished iPhone for $99, are good deals in the offing for other popular smartphones, like the BlackBerry Storm and the Google G1? They may be if enough consumers, faced with a change of heart, decide to return them within 30 days.

Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs, looking to quell rumors about his health, said Monday his doctors have discovered a hormonal imbalance that has been causing his weight loss.

The International Consumer Electronics Show, the largest trade show in the U.S., opens this week in Las Vegas. But the economic downturn will temper the normally dizzying extravaganza, and some attendees are wondering if the whole technology trade show business is past its peak.

"This particular scam sent out e-mails resembling those you might receive from Twitter if you get e-mail notifications of your Direct Messages. The e-mail says something like, 'hey! check out this funny blog about you ...' and provides a link," the company said.

Twitter went on to explain that the link redirects users to a site masquerading as the Twitter front page. Twitter advised its members to look closely at the URL field to see if it has another domain besides Twitter, but looks exactly like the microblogging home page. That, the company said, indicates a fraud.

If You Get Twicked

E-mail, cell phones, Facebook and now Twitter all have something in common: They are being used by fraudsters for phishing attacks, observed Marian Merritt, Symantec's Internet safety advocate.

"The scam messages, just like the phishing e-mails and Facebook phishing attacks, seem to come from someone you know and appear to be personal," Merritt wrote in the Norton blog.

For members who have clicked the link and given up their Twitter password to the phishers, the company said it is possible for the phisher to send out direct messages on your behalf that could trick your followers. In those cases, Twitter said users should proactively reset the passwords of their accounts.

"If you find yourself unable to log in to your account with your user name and password, please use the reset password link to regain access. This will send an e-mail to the address associated with your account, and you'll be able to create a new password," the company advised.

Will the Real Twitter Please Stand...

China's Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies launched the campaign on Monday.

The government "decided to launch a nationwide campaign to clean up a vulgar current on the Internet and named and exposed a large number of violating public morality and harming the physical and mental health of youth and young people," said a report on state television.

Low-Class, Crude and Damaging

China's government identified 19 Internet operators and Web sites that had not made moves to remove "vulgar" content. These operators and Web sites also allegedly failed to heed warnings from censors, according to the television report.

"Some Web sites have exploited loopholes in laws and regulations," said Cai Mingzhao, a deputy chief of the State Council Information Office. "They have used all kinds of ways to distribute content that is low-class, crude and even vulgar, gravely damaging mores on the Internet."

Repeat violators, as well as those that have a "malign influence," might be exposed, punished or even shut down, according to China.com.cn, one of the nation's official news Web sites. On Monday, the Financial Times reported that the Chinese government is arming censors with more advanced filtering software to catch the banned content.

Same Old Threats

According to Leslie Harris, CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, China is trying to flex its muscles. However, she said, if China is seriously concerned about vulgar content -- and if it is illegal -- then the government ought to take its complaint to Internet service providers.

"This is just a threat, and I think it's the same old-same old dressed up in rhetoric that is more internationally acceptable," Harris said....

Although the rumor of a new phone has been swirling since last month, it's expected to debut at CES on Thursday.

Jon Rubinstein, Palm's executive chairman, told Business Week that the company will launch a product that bridges Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices and Apple's iPhone. Rubinstein worked for Apple for nearly a decade.

Perfect Timing

Although analysts are seeing a downturn in mobile-phone sales, converged mobile devices such as smartphones are racking up success. Smartphones have most of the features of mobile phones, including personal information management, games, office applications, and multimedia, but a major differing factor is the operating system.

High-level operating systems -- including Android, BlackBerry, Linux, Mac OS X, Palm and Symbian -- are helping the smartphone market stand out, according to IDC.

Smartphones are expected to grow 8.9 percent worldwide this year, according to IDC. Beyond 2009, growth is expected to return to double digits faster than the overall mobile-phone market.

But will Palm have a piece of that market? Some observers are already counting Palm out, while others insist that's premature.

Palm's Future

Palm's move to release a new OS and phone could not come at a better time for the struggling company. A successful operating system will save Palm from a lot of speculation about what it has been working on in the past year.

"This will be a way for them to say you have all this money from U2's Bono and Elevation Partners -- what do you have to show for it?" said Ramon Llamas, senior analyst of mobile devices, technology and trends...

The company says the new interface "delivers the most dramatic design changes in over a decade." Among other things, there's a newly redesigned and customizable status toolbar, which makes commonly used features more easily available to save time.

Search Saves, Script Triggers

Other new features in the latest FileMaker include the ability to automatically save the results of a search and script triggers, which allow scripts to be launched based on user actions or time limits.

The saved searches can be named as a set, so a user, for instance, can find all customers in a given region who meet a given set of criteria -- and save and name the results. The saved searches can also be specific to a user.

A script trigger, comparable to a spreadsheet macro, can help automate tasks and increase productivity. The trigger can be called by a specific action, such as clicking in a field; FileMaker Pro 10 comes with five predefined, object-based triggers, and seven layout-based triggers.

For reports, the new product allows a user to make changes in underlying data from within a report, and changes to data will immediately be reflected in the database.

Enhanced SQL Support

A new "See It, Use It, Learn It" interface is intended to get users up and running quickly. Ten new layout themes and 30 starter databases, including such applications as invoicing and asset management, are included in version 10.

Enhanced support includes the ability to display, access and use data from more SQL sources than before, such as SQL tables in Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Oracle 11g, and MySQL 5.1 community edition. Additionally, a new function...

Called the ThinkPad W700ds, the new dual-screen machine sports a primary screen with 1920x1200-pixel resolution and a second 768x1280-pixel color display that slides out from the machine's cover. "That's 10.6 inches on the diagonal," said ThinkPad team member Wes Williams.

Covering All the Angles

The integration of a second color screen only contributes a few extra millimeters of thickness compared to the machine's predecessor, the single-screen W700. Like an automobile's rear-view mirror, the second screen can be tilted up to 30 degrees.

The primary color display, which measures 17 inches diagonally, delivers 400-nit luminance performance when users select the WUXGA screen option. By comparison, the luminance delivered by most computer displays typically ranges between 50 and 300 nits.

"The 400-nit display is super-bright," said Lenovo spokesperson Kristy Fair. "There are other optional displays, but the 400-nit is the brightest."

Moreover, the WUXGA screen's 72 percent wide color gamut enables a color intensity boost of more than 50 percent. "Color gamut is the screen's ability to display a wide range of colors -- the higher the gamut, the more intense the colors are," Fair explained. "For users in fields like photography and digital content creation, this is important."

Customization Options

Every time Williams used to go on the road he had to lug around a second monitor, a color-calibration unit, a digitizer and pen, and a backup hard drive as well as the computing system. "Now there is a better way," Williams said.

The ThinkPad W700ds provides users with a wide array of configuration options to meet mobile workstation needs. For example, it can be customized with solid-state storage, dual integrated hard drives that can be configured for high-speed or mirror RAID, and...