U.S. Business

It sounds ridiculous, but beginning next week, it will officially be illegal in the United States to unlock a smartphone without your wireless carrier's permission.

Last October, the Librarian of Congress determined that certain actions involving mobile phones were illegal under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The rules were revised to say that while it is legal to jailbreak smartphones, it is illegal to jailbreak tablets and illegal to unlock phones without permission from your wireless provider. A 90-day window was established to allow consumers the chance to buy a smartphone and unlock it, but that window will be closing this weekend on January 26.

Travel to Australian from the U.S. or Europe is currently quite a long ordeal, but in the future, a hypersonic "SpaceLiner" could whisk up to 50 passengers from Europe to Australia in just 90 minutes. The futuristic vehicle would accomplish this by riding a rocket into Earth's upper atmosphere, reaching 24 times the speed of sound before gliding back in to make a landing.

Martin Sippel, project coordinator for SpaceLiner at the German Aerospace Center, suggests that the project could make enough progress to begin attracting private funding in another decade, and aim for full operations by 2050.

Currently, the concept includes a rocket booster stage for launch and a separate orbiter stage to carry passengers halfway around the world without ever making it to space. Flying from the U.S. to Europe could take just under an hour if the SpaceLiner is successful.

Unfortunately, the downside to the high speed travel is going to be the cost, which will likely be prohibitive to all but the world's richest people.

Instead of dipping a spoon into a hot bowl of chicken soup to help deal with the symptoms of the flu, you might soon be scooping up some Influenza Sorbet instead. Ohio-based ice cream maker Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams has developed a sorbet to combat flu symptoms.

Jeni's Influenza Sorbet contains honey, ginger, cayenne pepper, and orange and lemon juice along with some Maker's Mark bourbon.

Jenni Britton Bauer, the company's founder and president, described her inspiration for the sorbet:

A major global computer manufacturer based in Taiwan, Asus has attempted to enter the smartphone market a couple times with devices like the Padfone and Padfone 2. To date they've failed to many any significant inroads in this market, but according to the Wall Street Journal they're ready to give it another try. Asus is reportedly in talks to offer Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

With shipments of computers on a significant decline globally, it should come as no surprise that Asus wants to get in on the smartphone market, which has seen global shipments of smartphones and tablets only increase in recent months.

The WSJ reports that Asus is considering the production of a Windows Phone 8 version of the Padphone. The Padfone and Padfone 2 are smartphones that can slip into a larger dock to turn them into a tablet.

Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and one of the companies that he leads has agreed to acquire a majority interest in the Greektown Casino-Hotel in Detroit.

Gilbert, the Chairman of Rock Gaming and founder of Detroit-based Quicken Loans, said in a statement that its Athens Acquisitions LLC entity entered into a deal to acquire interest in the casino's owner, Greektown Superholdings Inc. The acquisition is subject to approval by the Michigan Gaming Control Board.

Gilbert says that "significant investment" is planned in and around Greektown, and plans could expand the existing entertainment district.

Honda has announced plans to build the 2014 hybrid Accord at its production plant in Marysville, Ohio. The automaker also announced that it will be investing $23 million to increase production and hire an additional 50 workers at the plant.

The 2014 hybrid Accord will be the third hybrid model Honda that the company is building in the United States, and the first in Ohio.

Nothing has yet been confirmed, but we're hearing rumors from various sources that the Cleveland Browns have struck a deal with First Energy for the naming rights to what is currently known as Cleveland Browns Stadium.

No official confirmation from the team has yet been made, nor have any details of the deal been disclosed. Stay tuned for more details.

Reports indicate that Internet phones sold by Cisco Systems are vulnerable to hacks that can basically tur them into remote bugging devices, allowing for all sorts of nefarious actions to be taken, such as eavesdropping on calls and conversations that take place near the phone. Cisco officially warned consumers about the flaw this week.

Cisco's warning only came after security experts demonstrated how people who have physical access to the phone could execute malicious code that would allow for eavesdropping. The company has also confirmed that the vulnerability can be exploited remotely over a corporate network, but Cisco has already issued workarounds that make these attacks more difficult to execute.

Cisco plans to remedy the problem by releasing a software patch later this month that will plug the security hole.

The vulnerability has been confirmed to affect several models of desk phones in the CiscoUnified IP Phone 7900 series.

In late December, Redbox began unveiled its Redbox Instant by Verizon streaming video service, which is currently restricted to an invitation-only beta. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Redbox CEO Shawn Strickland revealed that the streaming movie service will arrive before the end of the first quarter of 2013.

The service will compete with similar offerings from Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, but it will also take advantage of Redboxes 42,600 kiosks located around the country.

Redbox Instant will offer customers unlimited access to 7,500 "streaming and transactional movie titles", as well as four DVD rental credits per month for a fee of $8 per month.

The computer scientist who co-created the TCP/IP networking protocols that serve as the Internet's foundation has never been one to shy away from controversial topics, and this week has decided to take aim at the state of competition for broadband services in the United States, which he claims has "evaporated" since the days of dial-up.

Vint Cerf, who currently works as Google's Chief Internet Evangelist, says:

“I have to tell you that in the 1990s there were 7 or 8,000 Internet service providers because the Internet was provided through dial-up. If you wanted to switch you just changed the telephone number you call. When broadband came along the number of choices you had telescoped down to one or two: either a telco or cable company or both, and so competition evaporated. There isn’t enough of it. Getting access to competition to discipline the market and give you choice is still an important consideration.”

He didn't offer any solid suggestions on how to make the U.S. broadband market more competitive, but pretty much dismissed the idea that deregulating broadband services would magically lead to more options and lower prices for consumers. He said: