Big banks like Barclay’s, JPMorgan Chase, and Capital One have announced that this summer, they will launch a trial program for mobile payment. The plan will join the ranks of other mobile banking platforms, including Google Wallet and Isis, a payment system developed by mobile giants Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Apple also has a new even scheduled for early March, but it isn’t clear yet what exactly will be announced – although our bets are on the iPad 3.

Companies like Ford Motors are making big investments in technologies to improve your life on the road. As cars get smarter — and more social — they will hopefully help you pick routes to avoid traffic, help reserve parking spots before you arrive at your destination, and even cars that can drive themselves. Nevada has already approved rules for companies experimenting with robot-driven cars and companies like Google are investing heavily in figuring out that technology.

New research shows that experiences on mobile networks can differ depending on whether you’re on an unlimited or tiered plan. In the study, customers on the unlimited plans were getting throttled; their data was moving slower than customers using the same amount of data on tiered plans. Why is the network slow for some customers and not others? Also, another edition of According to a Recent Study.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about privacy protection on the web. The White House announced what it called a Privacy Bill of Rights, and then a group of web companies, including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL, announced broad implementation of a Do Not Track system. Now, this all sounds very nice, right? But don’t get any fancy ideas that privacy worries will all be magically lifted away. Also, advice on how to make your tweets stand out.

If you own a phone, a television, a radio or a tablet computer, you really need to understand spectrum. Companies like AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon want to get access to as much of the spectrum as they possibly can in order to build networks, get customers and make money. That effort to acquire spectrum was at the heart of the failed acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T. And it’s at the heart of a proposed deal between Verizon and a consortium of cable companies. Also, IKEA releases a series of web videos, complete with sing-alongs.

The advertising arm of Google is getting a lot of heat lately about tracking people who use Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browsers. Safari does allow for some cookies to be placed on users but only from the site that they’re actually visiting, and Safari is not supposed to accept advertising cookies. There’s now a class action lawsuit against Google from a group of Safari users. Also, another installment of Tech Report Theater.

A medical breakthrough in Belgium could provide for new possibilities in cosmetic medical work. A patient had a severely infected jaw and it had gotten so bad it needed to be replaced. Dr. Jules Poukens tried an alternative approach: 3D printing. It’s a relatively new technology that has been making great strides recently. Fundamentally, it’s just like regular printing except instead of an image, you make an object. Also, taking a look at the PlayStation Vita.

Congress is debating a cybersecurity bill that would make the Department of Homeland Security responsible for evaluating and regulating companies that are considered critical to American infrastructure. But the bill has a lot of critics. Also, we hold a three-part tech funeral for technologies that have passed into the spirit realm.

Scientists working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have successfully tested a system to deliver medicine into a patient’s body thought an implanted chip. This means that the patient doesn’t have to worry about filling a prescription or remembering to take medicine at the right time — it’s all done for them. A timer in the chip knows when to release the medicine or can even be set up to sense when the body needs a new dosage. Also, another edition of the Robot Roundup.