Techbytes

Mistrial on photo from courtroom

TOPEKA, Kan. — A Kansas judge declared a mistrial in a murder trial last week after a newspaper reporter tweeted a photo that included the grainy profile of a juror.

“One of the photos apparently showed one or more of the jurors,” said Lee McGowan, spokesman for the district attorney's office. “It was brought to the court's attention and ultimately a mistrial was declared.”

McGowan said the judge had agreed to allow camera phones in the courtroom, but said no photos were to be taken of jurors. That traditional restriction corresponds with rules established by the Kansas Supreme Court for cameras in courtrooms. Specifically, close-ups that identify individual jurors are not permitted,.

The picture, taken and tweeted by reporter Ann Marie Bush, includes the profile of a juror set against a brightly lit window.

The photo was a mistake and the “reporter is miserable about it,” said Topeka Capital-Journal Managing Editor Tomari Quinn.

Domain name deadline extended

NEW YORK — The organization in charge of the Internet address system says it had to abruptly shut down its system for letting companies and organizations propose new suffixes to join “.com.”

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is blaming a technical glitch and says some user data may have been exposed. ICANN has been taking applications for hundreds of new

suffixes, but decided to shut the system down early last week after discovering the glitch.

ICANN says the glitch “allowed a limited number of users to view some other users' file names and user names in certain scenarios.” It wasn't immediately clear whether that included proprietary information on the names of the bidders and their proposed suffixes. The deadline has been extended to April 20.

Barnes & Noble lights up e-reader

Barnes & Noble Inc.'s black-and-white e-readers will now have a screen that lights up so it can be read in the dark. E-readers with black-and-white screens are easily readable in bright light but don't come with their own light sources and can't be read in darkness. The ones with color screens do have their own light sources but are barely legible in sunlight.

The new Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight model has an array of light-emitting diodes inside the frame that spreads a glow over the page with the help of an invisible light-guiding layer.