Soon after the new iPad hit the street, reports started coming in that the device got a lot hotter than anyone was expecting. Not talking figuratively here — the actual temperature on the device. Now, Consumer Reports has stepped in and done some actual testing in a scientific lab to see exactly what’s going on. Also, another edition of the Robot Roundup.

Google has stepped in on the ongoing legal action between Hotfile and the Motion Picture Association of America. The MPAA wants Hotfile shut down because, it claims, Hotfile is trafficking in pirated content like movies and TV shows. But Google filed a brief that said Hotfile shouldn’t be held accountable for what people do on the site, just as Google shouldn’t be held accountable for what people put on YouTube, which Google owns. It’s certainly good to have a friend in Google.

YouTube is proving to be increasingly influential in this year’s presidential campaigns. YouTube videos differ from political ads in a couple of crucial ways — make a spot on YouTube and it can be up and running within minutes and pretty much for free; plus, videos you see on a computer screen are likely to be more positive and friendly than the attack ads you’d see on television. Also, a better system for online security, and the return of NetZero.

Several Internet service providers (ISPs) are set to take on a graduated approach to combating online piracy starting this summer. It calls for copyright holders to detect the specific web addresses of people believed to be trafficking in copyrighted material illegally. That information is then passed along to the ISP, who in turn issues a warning to the customer. And if you continue — more warnings! Also, the latest findings from our ‘According To A Recent Study’ file.

Google is taking a new approach to the way its search engine works, moving away from keyword-based searching to something a little more contextual. It’s embracing something called semantic search, which looks for the meaning of words rather than just the occurrence of those words. Also, the FBI is asking Google to hack into an Android phone, and the difference between the new iPad and a new robot vacuum cleaner.

Kickstarter is not a new phenomenon. People have been using the site to raise money for small projects for a while now, things like tiny independent films, music, an odd art project or two. It’s all been very charming and most of the projects are pretty limited in terms of what they’re setting out to raise. But that’s changed lately, and pretty dramatically — now the projects are becoming more big-ticket stuff. Also, good news for Dunder-Mifflin: Paper isn’t out of style.

Somewhere in Brooklyn, a company called Aereo has leased several rooms. In these rooms, the company intends to place tons and tons of little tiny antennas, each no bigger than a dime and each assigned to a customer. So instead of trying to grab all these signals with one giant antenna and streaming them out to tens of thousands of people, there are thousands of antennas and each one is like someone’s own personal antenna. Problem is, broadcasters are suing Aereo before it launches.

Today is the final day of the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. And it’s the first day of the South by Southwest music conference. The convergence of these two festivals makes a lot of sense when you factor in the technology explosion going on in the music industry lately — the musicians who are incredibly tech-savvy have a real advantage these days. Also, another edition of According to a Recent Study.

Before there was Marc Zuckerberg, before there was Steve Jobs, before there was Bill Gates, there was Alan Turing. Turing was a British mathematician and logician, and he had some ideas about computers. “The entire digital world we live in can be traced in large part to his ideas,” says George Dyson, author of “Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe.” Also, another edition of Robot Roundup.