The State Department has given Osama bin Laden, 52, an extreme makeover, updating a 1998 file photo of the suspected terrorist and digitally altering it to account for a decade of age and possible changes in his facial hair. (Somewhere, Nick Nolte's frantically trying to call in a favor at the State Department.) Which look do you prefer? more ›

You think that salacious Calvin Klein billboard is distracting... how about this new, menacing digital billboard at the corner of Canal and Hudson? NYC the Blog has video of it in action, and declares it to be a "potential mental health hazard" for those living near by (let's not forget what that glowing Kenny Rogers Roasters sign did to Kramer). Then there's the whole problem of temporarily blinding those operating motor vehicles in a pedestrian-heavy city. more ›

Change is coming to America's TV sets, but Representative Anthony Weiner says it's happening too fast. On February 17th, the government will require all television signals to switch from analog, as received by TVs with "220;rabbit ears," to digital. Weiner says too many people are unprepared, and it could result in "a major public safety problem" in the case of a emergency government announcement. He estimates that some 300,000 New Yorkers who have applied for federal funds to purchase digital converter boxes for their TVs still haven't used the money, so he he's pushing congress to postpone the digital revolution until June 15th, and also wants an additional $650 million to help subsidize the purchase of the converter boxes. (A similar bill passed in the Senate yesterday.) As of last month, nearly 7.6 million homes were not ready for the change, many of them inhabited by elderly viewers who worked their whole lives so they could sit and watch their stories. more ›

Some cab drivers are worried about a pilot program to install digital cameras on the outsides of their vehicles in order to monitor their driving. The city is planning to install the cameras on at least 20 vehicles as part of a pilot program, and Matthew Daus at the Taxi and Limousine Commission says, "This technology is being used effectively throughout the for-hire vehicle industry, and it is saving them considerable amounts of money on their insurance costs." EmpireCLS, the country's largest luxury car chauffeur company, has reduced payout costs for accidents by more than $500,000 since installing the cameras. Some yellow cabs already have cameras pointed toward the interior to deter crime, but Bhairavi Desai, president of the Taxi Worker's Alliance, hates the idea of exterior cameras. He tells the Daily News, "This would absolutely be an invasion of privacy. It's intrusive." more ›

The MTA is currently testing out new digital screens that display ads on the sides of buses running on the M23 route. The screens, which use GPS technology to change according to each neighborhood's demographic, are being installed by New York-based ad company Titan Worldwide; the company's website declares that the 12-foot displays "are bright and unavoidable and will enable advertisers to target mass audiences by time of day, block, zip-code, demography and ethnicity." Yay! more ›