Imagine my horror the other day when I saw an otherwise sharp friend of mine shut down his laptop by holding down the power button until the system turned off. Why is that a really bad idea? I'll explain this week--and I'll also tell you about a Web service that could very well save your life.

Google Buzz has a great deal of work to do to convince even tech-literate Web users that it's a viable service, a CNET UK survey shows. We asked our exquisitely discerning readers what they think of Gmail's status-updates feature and the results are in.

Google will make a further 210,000 miles of UK roads available for your perusal on Street View this Thursday, adding to the 28,000 miles that are currently shown. That means you'll be able to see about 96 per cent of this leafy land's approximately 246,985 miles of thoroughfares.

As usual, Linux was everywhere at last week's Embedded World show in Nuremberg, Germany. Especially in Europe, the open source OS seems to be more popular than ever in markets represented at the show, which include industrial, automotive, military, telecommunications, and consumer electronics.

Feeling starved of Gran Turismo 5-related news? We have no word on a possible release date for the game (still), but we do have some fresh juicy screenshots for you to take a look at.

Developers are showing a new breed of screen at the giant European tech show CeBit that projects a 3D image directly at the viewer and doesn't require glasses. This can be achieved either with a panel that overlays a traditional screen, by using cameras to target a specific viewer, or by using cylindrical lenslets.

What had been unknown up until now was whether Apple's Wi-Fi-based iPad would have the capability to tether to an iPhone, thereby letting you harness the data connection from your mobile plan to surf the Web that way as well. The apparent answer, in a single syllable: no.

Pictures of the HTC Incredible have appeared on the web courtesy of Silicon Valley-based Twitterer, Devdroid, who apparently maintains the Linkedin Android Developer Group.

A promising and potentially useful iPhone application that would have allowed users to browse, view and even download content from the BBC was blocked by the corporation.

A recent study commissioned by Sky HD has revealed that the average British citizen utilises only about half of the functions available on the hi-tech gadgets purchased by them.