As if the president-elect weren't being fitted for enough mantles already (Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan?), pundits and commentators are already imagining for Obama a suit of rocket robot armor, suitable attire for the man who's now being dubbed the first tech president.

What exactly that means is still largely the stuff of speculation, admittedly fun in this case. This is still the postelection hype-o-sphere, remember, where rampant optimism and drunken soothsaying go unchecked by messy reality. Obama's transition team is hardly commenting on anything, so when it comes to soberly assessing the new administration's vaunted approach to technology, we're rather limited.

  Some things we know: Obama is no Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. And he's no Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook). Rather than being given to deranged leaps ...

The upgrade is out! The Google Mobile app (free), which was released in late August, just got a makeover. In addition to offering search of iPhone contacts, one-touch access to Google services (such as Gmail, Docs and Translate) and predictive type, now it is offering voice search.

The interface is more simple and sensible across the bottom: There are three buttons, for search, apps and settings.

You can set up the start screen to go to the last feature used or directly to apps, search or search with keyboard -- whichever you use most. The app can be set up to look in contacts, previous searches and the Web. You can toggle these on or off. The screen rotation can also be turned off, but that would disable the motion sensing.

And that brings us to the most exciting new feature of the app: voice search.

After several tests, I can say that voice search is a decent and useful offering. You put the phone up to your ear, you hear a blip, you speak, it blips again and, voila, it converts what you said into a search query.

(For those prone to searching while prone: the feature seems to work better if you are in an upright position. Although the phone itself recognized being placed close to my ear while I was lying down, the voice features didn't launch until I sat up.)

Another option is simply tapping the microphone icon in the top right corner of the screen.

The voice recognition is fairly accurate. Most simple searches turned up ... 

There it was, this morning, creeping up in the Google Hot Trends ranking: the LG Incite. AT&T announced that the smart phone, which runs on its 3G networks and is equipped with Windows Mobile 6.1, is available in stores and online. And so the masses began to prognosticate.

They wondered on Gizmodo whether the phone could be an iPhone killer. On Engadget, they compared it with other smart phones and debated how it would stack up. And on one phone site, they just posted photos of LG phones, presumably for the purpose of inspiring drooling.

How did we get to the point at which every launch of a new smart phone inspires rabid interest among the Googling public? People slept in line outside stores to buy the iPhone. They chattered incessantly about T-Mobile's G-1. And they debated endlessly about the Blackberry Storm. Is this a new type of ogling technology, a kind of phone porn that's a guilty pleasure in tough times?

I put the question to Jason Chen, editor of the tech gadget site Gizmodo. His theory: the iPhone made people interested in smart phones who otherwise weren't obsessed with new gadgets. Now, smart phones are cool, and even non-geeks want to know: "Is this the iPhone killer? Is it the iPhone plus whatever I want?"

People change phones more often than they do other gadgets, such as the helicopter thermal imaging system, which is another gadget featured on Gizmodo. And now that phones are fashion statements, people want to keep abreast of the latest trends and know what's cool.

As of noon, the LG Incite had 138,000 search results on Google, and was No. 10 in Google's hot trends, which tracks terms that are being searched for ferociously. The phrase "cell phone website" returns about 60 million hits on Google. And Chen said that since the iPhone came out, phone posts have been increasingly popular on his site.

Not that the interest necessarily will lead to increased phone sales. As the economy tanks, handset manufacturers such as Nokia are predicting that sales will slow as consumers stick with what they've got. That doesn't mean the interest in phone porn will die down, though. For some of us, checking out sleek new phones online is a guilty pleasure akin to watching "Gossip Girl" and drooling over lifestyles we can't afford.

Said Chen: "If people were going to buy everything we wrote about, they'd be broke."

-- Alana Semuels

Photo of LG Incite courtesy of AT&T

First things first. If you're a true addict -- and you know you are -- you've got to have your Appiphilia fix the second you can get it. Now you can subscribe to the RSS feed .

As you know, new apps are surfacing -- and then blending into the background -- just about daily. Last week, we touched on one holiday-focused app. But wait, there's more! On the L.A. Times' To Live and Buy in L.A. shopping blog, we took a look at six other iPhone apps to help with the season of giving -- that is, giving your money to the mall.

This week, we're going to look at apps that try to make it easier to be green.

Local Reuse (Free)

What it is: If you combined the serendipity of Woot, the community spirit of Craigslist and the intent of recycling, you'd get Gigoit: garbage in, garbage out. People list items that are in still-working or easy-to-fix shape for others to cycle back into use.

The idea behind Gigoit, which makes the Local Reuse app, is to keep functional items in your community from the fate of festering prematurely in a landfill. You can search for items as close as one mile from you and as far away as 1,000 miles.

What sizzles: The idea that you can donate or call dibs on items is pretty cool. And everything shows up, including assorted bedding, car bumpers, lawn mowers, microwaves and television sets. Canucks and Brits can also get in on the swap of stuff.

What fizzles: At this point, there hasn't been much to pick through in the L.A. area. (The third generation iPod charger and cable that was about 20 miles away has been withdrawn. And this was the closest offering I could find.)

Bottom line: An app that's worth keeping an eye on, but it's more wait-and-see than have-to-get-right-now. I'd like to see how the online community develops.

GoodGuide (Free)

What it is: This guide, currently in beta, grades products to identify major impacts to human health, the environment and society. In other words, it's trying to assess how "good" the product is. You can create shopping and "avoid" lists as well as share the ratings with others via e-mail.

What sizzles: When you launch the app, it lists two highly rated products with their rating (it's a different pair each time). If you touch a product on the screen, you get ...

-- Geeks find no solace in a Bond without Q. CNet

-- The XM-Sirius merger strikes sour note with listeners. Ars Technica

-- Voice of San Diego, a nonprofit news organization, paves a new and less costly path to serious journalism. NYT

-- Across the pond, the Independent gets the same message, axing 25% of its newsroom, citing the lower cost of producing online news. PaidContent

-- Movie pirates are loving Blu-ray. TechDirt

-- Square Enix, maker of the Final Fantasy game series, opens a studio in Los Angeles and puts up a help-wanted sign. Ars Technica

-- Is the cellphone a killer app? Here's a list of technologies rendered obsolete by those ubiquitous devices. Wired

-- And if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. The upcoming Motorola VE66 cellphone will incorporate a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and image stabilization. Engadget

-- National Geographic explores virtual terrain by launching a video game publishing division. ChannelWeb

-- Alex Pham

Photo: James Bond and Agent Fields in "Quantum of Solace." Credit: Karen Ballard / Columbia Pictures

Choire Sicha
(Courtesy C. Sicha)

Last week, when we heard Valleywag was undergoing a gestalt downsize, we thought we'd see if anyone had any thoughts about the move by Gawker Media czar Nick Denton. Taking the bait was New York writer Choire Sicha, a two-time editor of Gawker ("the second and then again like the sixth or something"), regular L.A. Times freelancer, and now a member of increasingly large and prestigious underclass of jobless journalists. Sicha answered a few questions about Denton's motivations, noting that all answers were speculative.

Does it seem like a straightforward business decision that Nick Denton would shutter Valleywag, a top 25 Technorati blog and Silicon Valley household name? Why or why not?

It makes sense from a business perspective in conjunction with the selling of Consumerist, and after the cross-company staff layoffs, and after the selling-off of the other sites they've already done. Plus whatever they're doing to what they now consider the outlier sites.

Plus I don't think this is the end of this stuff over there!

Is it a straightforward business decision? Hmm. Probably? Gawker Media's advertising people are pretty top notch. So if they felt they couldn't sell enough on Valleywag, that means ...

False advertising! (From a YouTube video by mrvmtz that appears to debunk the claim.)

Remember those videos from a while back that showed groups of friends pointing ringing cellphones at popcorn kernels, which then popped, implying phones emit enough radiation to heat kernels to 300 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature at which popcorn pops)? And then remember how those videos turned out to be a viral marketing hoax? That was fun, wasn't it?

Well, the fun is over.  Today, a short five months after the videos were revealed as a phony, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus released a statement (PDF) that whips a ruler across the knuckles of Cardo Systems, the company that released the videos.

"In non-traditional media, to the extent that advertising claims are communicated, advertisers are required to substantiate those claims with competent and reliable scientific evidence," said the statement.  Which means you can't just totally make stuff up to scare people into buying your products.

The original videos are no longer publicly accessible, suggesting that Cardo may have been sufficiently chastened.

And they say industry self-policing doesn't work! 

Still, these NAD guys may be tough, but I'd take them any day over the riotous crowd of mommy bloggers that set angry fire to this Motrin ad.  The ad dared to poke fun at the idea of wearing your baby in a sling, and then compounded its sin by suggesting that baby-wearing may lead to back pain.  Motrin, seriously, next time you want to claim that funny-looking things look funny, or that carrying a heavy weight on your back for hours could hurt it -- make sure you substantiate.

— David Sarno

After a stormy tenure at the helm of Yahoo, founder Jerry Yang is stepping down from his position as chief executive of the struggling Internet company.

Yang will return to his previous post as "Chief Yahoo." He will also remain on the company's board.

The company issued the following statement from Yang:

“From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensable to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise. When the board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation."

Yahoo has started a search to replace him.

According to people close to the situation, Yang, 40, had been contemplating this move over the last couple of months. They say he was not asked to step down.

Since June 2007, when the board asked him to become CEO, Yang has overseen the Sunnyvale, Calif., company he helped launched. Under his watch, Yahoo fended off an unsolicited takeover bid from Microsoft Corp., repeatedly saying the cash-and-stock offer of $31 a share was too low. But since then its shares have tumbled to a fraction of that amount (Yahoo's stock closed today at $10.63, down nearly 2%). Earlier this month, a search-engine advertising partnership with Google, which Yahoo was counting on to boost its revenue and profitability, fell apart after federal regulators decided to challenge the deal on antitrust grounds.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Jerry Yang, who is stepping down as CEO of Yahoo. Credit: Mark Lennihan / Associated Press

Brash Entertainment, the Hollywood game company that shut down last week, has been sued in Los Angeles County Superior Court by two game developers alleging nonpayment.

Brash, which kicked off in June 2007 with great fanfare and promises of $400 million in financing, struggled to find footing in the fast-growing but hyper-competitive video game industry. As negative reviews rolled in and financing dried up, Brash exercised a clause in its contracts with outside developers to cancel projects without cause.

Two of those developers are now alleging that Brash failed to adequately pay them.

In a lawsuit filed Friday, Slovenian game developer Zootfly alleges that Brash owes it $748,000 for work on a game based on the television show "Prison Break." Brash canceled the game Sept. 30.

In another lawsuit, filed Oct. 30, California 7 Studios claims Brash neglected to pay it $581,000 for developing two video games. One game, 9, was canceled Oct. 2. A second title, Fun Park, came out on the Nintendo DS on Nov. 11. But the fate of the Wii version, which was scheduled to ship Dec. 9, remains a mystery.

Calls to Brash Chief Executive Mitch Davis and spokeswoman Abby Topolsky were not returned.

-- Alex Pham

*A previous version of this post said Fun Park had not been released. Although the Nintendo Wii version hadn't, a version for Nintendo DS came out on Nov. 11.

Coming soon to a couch near you: laziness. TiVo and Domino's announced today that they're launching a service that allows you to order a pizza from your TV set-top box. Those who already have a Domino's account don't have to enter their address or name -- they just push a few buttons and wait for the pizza to arrive (they will have to get up off the couch to pay the delivery person, though).

It's the latest in an onslaught of services that allow people to buy things from their TVs. In the next few years, we'll be able to buy much more, said Michael Greeson, president and principal analyst at research firm the Diffusion Group.

"You're going to start to see interactive advertising be a regular part of the TV experience in two to three years," he said. "This is a drop compared to the flood of stuff you're going to start seeing ahead."

Interactive advertising is especially popular with advertisers trying to attract the attention of consumers fast-forwarding through commercials. That's part of what motivated Domino's to pursue this opportunity, said Rob Weisberg, vice president of precision print and Team USA marketing at Domino's. The pizza delivery company believes that the industry is "moving in this direction," he said, and wanted to be at the forefront.

Interactive advertising on TVs works a number of different ways. There's the menu option, where users go to a screen on their TVs much like an on-demand screen for cable. There, they can see a menu of different things available for purchase, click a few buttons and order a pizza. Companies will be competing ...

-- YouTube getting serious? CNet

-- Hulu giving YouTube a real run for its money. Financial Times

-- UK to Canoe: Interactive TV isn't so red hot here. PaidContent

-- Your TiVo knows when you're hungry. Gearlog

-- Unhappy people watch more TV. University of Maryland

-- Computing pioneer to introduce supercomputer. NYT

-- For Yahoo, size still matters. Advertising Age

-- Adobe demos flash for mobile, but not for iPhone. MobileCrunch

-- Secret Service wants President-elect Obama to disconnect. NYT

-- Intel funds community-driven film project. VentureBeat

-- Are consumer smartphones recession-proof? GigaOm

-- Technology doesn't scare them. ReadWriteWeb

-- iPhone's 99 cent app store is a bad idea, this guy says. LosingFight

-- Short, ginger-haired people are often shy and other conclusions from the Guardian's interview with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Guardian

-- And now for your pain-free moment of baby-carrying zen. Inquisitr

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Damon Wayans explains his choices for his wayoutTV.com show that runs comedy sketch clips on YouTube. Credit: YouTube

No credit? No cash? No problem.

That is, if you want to give online bartering a try.

That's what Valerie Whitlock did. The 37-year-old actress and writer from Studio City holds down sporadic film and television gigs to cover her rent, utilities, car payments and insurance. For everything else — headshots and haircuts, clothing and cut reels — she barters her handcrafted jewelry on the Web.

"Bartering is something wonderful in good times and in tough times. We are all thinking of ways to make our dollars stretch farther," said Mary Hunt, founder of money management website Debt-Proof Living.

More people are turning to Craigslist, SwapThing and other websites during the financial crisis to trade for what they need or what they want. These cashless transactions pick up in every recession, economists say. But the Internet has given the practice unprecedented reach.

"In cyberspace, there is no distance between two points," technology forecaster Paul Saffo said. "What the Internet has given us is convenience and scale."

Read the full L.A. Times story on bartering here.

Photo: Valerie Whitlock, an actress and writer from Studio City, barters her jewelry online. Credit: Jay Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Google plans to release a groundbreaking mobile application that allows users to say a search query into their phone and have it transcribed and returned as a Web search. Surprisingly, the technology won't be exclusive to T-Mobile's G1 phone, the first commercial device to run Google's Android operating system. It's only going to be available on Apple's iPhone at first.

When Google released Android, some worried that development for other mobile platforms would slow down. But Google's mobile search team works separately from the Android group, and it is more concerned with pushing innovative products out the door than it is with wooing consumers to the G1.

"I want to bring the most valuable applications to as many users as possible," said Gummi Hafsteinsson, senior product manager for the mobile team. "We treat all high-end [mobile] platforms equally."

The G1 has a built-in function that allows users to say a contact's name to trigger a call -- something lacking in the iPhone out of the box. And Android has its own app store, but currently no Google voice Web search app. "We're obviously working hard to add as many devices as possible," Hafsteinsson said.

The voice search function will be part of an update to the Google Mobile App for iPhone, a Web and contacts search app that hasn't seen an upgrade in two-and-a-half months. To use speak search, simply open the app, hold the phone up to your ear and yap your query. Voice search doesn't yet support contact look-up -- iPhone users can download Say Who Dialer (the link opens iTunes) for that -- but matching names in your address book will still show up for text searches.

Google expects that the new version of Google Mobile App will be available in the iTunes App Store later tonight or some time this weekend.

-- Mark Milian

Photo credit: Google

* This post was updated at 6:05 p.m. with a comment from the Obama campaign.

You've heard of user-generated content.

But president-elect-generated content?

Now that's a first.

Today Barack Obama is recording the weekly four-minute Democratic address on radio and on video. The YouTube video will be posted on Obama's transition site, Change.gov, on Saturday morning. Obama will continue to record these videos and post them weekly to make sure that what happens in Washington doesn't stay in Washington.

YouTube was just one pillar in a new media campaign the likes of which the country has never seen. The Web played a crucial role in Obama's historic win, forever changing the way campaigns organize and connect with supporters and voters. After all, this is the presidential candidate who joked that everything you need to know about him is right there on his Facebook page (favorite movies: "Casablanca," "Godfather I & II," "Lawrence of Arabia" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest").

Obama is the first president elected in the era of Facebook and YouTube. And the Obama campaign wrote the playbook on how to use new-media tools ...

So maybe gas prices aren't that high anymore and you're tempted to buy a Hummer and drive to Florida. But how about resisting the temptation and instead saving the environment with your iPhone? No, we’re not talking about finding public transportation schedules or bike shops or walking routes. We’re talking about something much more fun and potentially sketchy: ride-sharing.

By the end of the month, a company called Mapflow is planning to launch Avego, an iPhone app that tracks people's driving routes to work, then matches the drivers with people looking for rides. The people looking for rides don't have to have iPhones, which is pretty much how society works anyway: Those with iPhones have nice cars and jobs places to go and those without are left in the Stone Age.

Here’s how it works: a driver with a GPS-enabled iPhone downloads Avego. The app tracks common routes he takes. On any given morning, he selects where he’s going, and Avego suggests potential riders along his route. If he decides to give one a ride, his iPhone will tell him ...