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Travel sleep device straps your head to your seat

Judging by the number of weird sleep aid devices on the market, people must be desperate to catch a few quality winks. Getting in a decent nap is even harder when you're on the go. So far, we've seen a pillow that swallows your head and a neck contraption that holds your chin up. Now, meet the Relax Ally.

The Relax Alley on Indiegogo is described as a "travel restband." At first glance, it looks like a sporty headband you might wear to participate in a tennis tournament. Look closer and you see it has another band attached at the back. That second band hooks over the headrest of your seat. Tighten it up and your head is held in place.… Read more

Ally Financial sees 'unusual traffic,' cyberattack fears abound

Ally Financial is experiencing some odd traffic issues that have prompted some to wonder if there's more there than meets the eye.

In a statement to CNET today, an Ally Financial spokeswoman confirmed that the company has witnessed some unusual activity across its site, but so far, no major issues have erupted.

"Ally has seen some unusual traffic on our Web site, which we continue to monitor; however, we have not experienced the type of disruption that has been associated with the denial of service attacks," the spokeswoman told CNET in an e-mailed statement. "There has … Read more

Mount your attack

Allied Star Police is a fun little game with a touching backstory: developer PopCap Games helped create this simple, side-scrolling castle-defense-style game through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, for a 9-year-old with leukemia whose wish was to make a video game.

Befitting a game co-created by a 9-year-old, Allied Star Police is action-packed, quick to play, and not too complicated--with cool graphics and animation (even cooler on the iPad) and a loud, rock-out soundtrack. The game pits you (the Allied Star Police, of course) against the evil Flamions, as you send competing waves of well-armed vehicles toward each other's bases.

Your … Read more

At Bletchley Park, breaking Enigma codes and winning WW II

BLETCHLEY, England--The list of important sites is endless: Omaha Beach, Dunkirk, London, Paris, Toulon. But if you're a real World War II aficionado, you may think of Bletchley Park with special fondness.

This nondescript town about 45 minutes outside London is where famed mathematician Alan Turing led a group of master code breakers in a successful battle against Germany and its once-unbreakable cipher codes.

Over the course of several years, the British government assembled a team and sequestered it here, working on various devices intended to break the codes. In the days prior to the war, the Germans rarely … Read more

Verizon's LG Ally poised to receive Froyo

Verizon is set to begin pushing out another Android 2.2 Froyo update, this time for the LG Ally. Launched last May with the release of "Iron Man 2," the smartphone has been running Android 2.1 for the better part of a year.

Details of the update range from enhancements to the browser to improved security and new versions of the Amazon, Amazon MP3, Facebook, and ThinkFree Office apps. Although the carrier has yet to announce the availability of the Froyo update, a support page has already gone live. Typically these pages hit the Web about a … Read more

IBM to create cloud-computing system for NATO

IBM has been tapped by NATO to build a new cloud-based computing system designed to help the 28 member nations better use and share data.

Selected for the project by NATO's Allied Command Transformation (ACT), Big Blue will be called upon to design and demonstrate a cloud-computing environment that would help the North Atlantic Treaty Organization plan and implement critical tasks, such as intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

The goal is to see if NATO members can use a collaborative cloud to access data faster and make decisions more quickly.

Though NATO's 28 countries share common goals, they … Read more

LG Ally heads north to Canada as Shine Plus

LG joins Telus Mobility's growing lineup of Android phones this week with the release of the Shine Plus. Available for as low as $69.99 with a three-year commitment, the handset looks nearly identical to Verizon's Allyreleased back in May. Details include Android 2.1, a 3.2-inch WVGA touch screen, a sliding QWERTY keyboard, and support for 3G and Wi-Fi. The only noticeable difference between it and its U.S. counterpart is the Shine Plus comes with a slightly better 5-megapixel camera.

The Ally never really took off here in the United States, presumably overshadowed by … Read more

Verizon rolls out updates to LG Ally and Droid X

Verizon Wireless has begun rolling out updates to two of its Android phones this week. Though neither the LG Ally and Droid X will get the much anticipated Froyo update, they are getting a few necessary improvements and features. As the updates are designed to clean things up and give a more unified, polished feel, casual users may not see a noticeable difference in performance.

The Droid X has been out roughly a week, but it's not surprising that a maintenance release has been issued.Typically, a small update comes on the heels of a phone's debut once … Read more

The 404 606: Where Mondays are the longest days of the year (podcast)

Today is the first day of summer, also known as the Summer Solstice, which also happens to be the longest day of the year, but everyone in the New York podcast studio this morning agrees that it's just way too hot to be outside right now.

If you're suffering, too, we recommend getting out of the sun to check out "Splice," a new sci-fi horror movie featuring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley.

Directed by Vincenzo Natali of "Cube" fame, "Splice" tells the twisted story of two overzealous genetic scientists who set out … Read more

LG planning 20 Android phones in 2010

Though LG is a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, the manufacturer has introduced just a handful of Android phones so far. Only one model, the Ally for Verizon Wireless, has landed in the United States and even that was just a few weeks ago.

That will soon change, however, as LG CEO Nam Yong recently announced that his company would introduce 20 Android-powered devices by the end of this year. Though the new models will be on a global scale, and the number doesn't take into account the same phone being rebranded for other carriers, it's … Read more