In Brief

By Lev Grossman

THE BOY IS BACK IN TOWN What handheld computer has sold more than 100 million units in the past 11 years? The Palm? Wrong! It's Nintendo's Game Boy, beloved companion of air travelers and Pokemon addicts everywhere. On June 11, Nintendo will finally introduce the Game Boy Advance, which features 50% more battery life, a 50% larger screen and as much processing power as a Sony PlayStation.

APSTERNAY The bad news: last week a U.S. district court judge told the file-swapping service Napster that it has to stop users from trading copyrighted music. The good news: Napster isn't trying all that hard. Software filters are supposed to keep users from posting songs that the record labels have asked Napster to block, but the filters are ridiculously easy to fool. Disguise a song title with an obvious misspelling--say, replacing the word to with the number 2--and the filters won't pick it up. One popular strategy is to post a song with its title translated into pig Latin. Something tells us the folks from Etallicamay aren't going to be satisfied.

STRANGERS IN THE NET You glimpse a ravishing stranger across a crowded room, but you just don't have the moxie to go up and introduce yourself. Sound familiar? Skim.com a bizarre mix of Silicon Valley technology and Fifth Avenue fashion, is here to give you a second chance. Each item of clothing Skim.com sells bears a unique ID code printed in large numerals. The code corresponds to an e-mail address at skim.com Write down the hottie's skim.com code, and you can send him or her e-mail the morning after. Moxie sold separately.

--By Lev Grossman