Disney is launching a new “family-friendly” (read “parent-friendly”) phone service that allows parents to map their children’s whereabouts using GPS, and control when they can make calls and who to. It strikes me as really creepy now, but I’ll probably have a different opinion when my own kids start asking for cell phones.

Google and Earthlink will be teaming up to provide free Wi-Fi Internet access in the city of San Francisco.

On bad days I feel like my phone already incorporates active disassembly technology but it appears Nokia is the first to intend it. The big idea: use parts that automatically disassemble when heated to a point lower than the plastic’s melting point but higher than what you’d get in normal use. Check out Jeremy Faludi’s write up on WorldChanging for more on why the technology matters.

Centauri Dreams has a write up of a probe designed from the start to cross into interstellar space.

Another planet could have formed in the space between Mars and Jupiter, back when the solar system was young. Two researchers reckon they may have the clues to pinpoint what happened to this missing planet, using data on the positions of certain groups of rocks near the asteroid belt.