All about Gadgets...!

Bihar Board (BSEB) matric result 2011 declared

2011-05-25T00:14:00.000-07:00

Bihar Board (BSEB) matric result 2011 declared

The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) will declare the MAtric Examination results on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 5:30 p.m. at its official website.

Finally the wait for more than 20 lakh students who appeared for the class X & XII board examinations will be over.

Click here to check the results.

Students can also get the result through SMS. Type bb and send it to 54333.

The Bihar School Examination Board conducts the Secondary School Examination every year in the month of February/March and the supplementary exams are held in the month of August/September.

The BSEB result can be checked at the below websites also:

IIT JEE result 2011 Delhi, Roorkee, Madras, Kharagpur Announced

2011-05-25T00:02:00.000-07:00

IIT JEE result 2011 Delhi, Roorkee, Madras, Kharagpur Announced

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) has declared the outcomes of the Combined Entrance Examination on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at its official web site.

Click here http://jee.iitd.ac.in/result.php to check the results.

More than 4.85 lakh college students offered the entrance examinations which usually was conducted in above a 1051 IIT places centers across India this yr.

The fruitfully passed students will get seats in prestigious IIT's in India. The quantity of chairs to be filled in the IITs are around 9,600.

IIT-JEE 2011 Results can be found on the internet at the following websites:

(GKV) B.Tech. II, IV, VI, VIII sem.(Main & Repeat) 2011

2011-05-23T06:43:00.001-07:00

(GKV) B.Tech. II, IV, VI, VIII sem.(Main & Repeat) 2011 results have been announced today!

(CBSE) Central board of school education Delhi 12th result 2011 announced

2011-05-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

(CBSE) Central board of school education Delhi 12th result 2011 announced the result today on 23rd March.

A lot of eager students have been looking for results. The resuls could be obtained by visiting the website!

All the best to all CBSE students for their results!

HP Board of School Education VOC result 2011 announced

2011-05-23T06:34:00.000-07:00

HP Board of School Education plus two arts and commerce VOC result 2011 has been announced today. A lot of people have been looking for the results.

You can also get ur results via SMS. The procedue is :

SMS type HP12 and send to 5676750.

Results could also be retrieved by visiting the website!

ICSE Results 2011 / ISC Results 2011 Declared Today

2011-05-23T06:23:00.000-07:00

ICSE Results 2011 and ISC Results 2011 announced Today. The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is likely to announce the results of Class 10 (ICSE) and Class 12 (ISC) exams at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, 17th May, 2011. ICSE Results and ISC Results 2011 will be made available CISCE's website: http://www.cisce.org/.

Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) ICSE Results 2011 and ISC Results 2011 available following websites :

Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) results 2011

2011-05-23T03:08:00.000-07:00

The Assam Higher Secondary Education Council ( AHSEC) will declare its class 10 and class 12 exam results in soon at its official website.

Click here to check the results.

The results includes the Arts, Science, Commerce and Vocational streams courses of higher education.

The Council for Assam Higher Secondary Education was formed in 1984. It regulates, supervises and develops the education system in the State of Assam.

The results can also be obtained via SMS. Students can follow the procedure below.

'Result''Assam12''Roll Number' to 56263, Example - Results Assam12 123456 to 562633.

The results are also made available at the below mentioned websites.

http://ahseconline.org/

http://assamresults.nic.in/

We wish the AHSEC students all the best.

JKBOSE 12th results 2011 declared

2011-05-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

JKBOSE 12th results 2011 declared

The Jammu & Kashmir Board of State Education seems to have reported the final results of the higher secondary part 2 examinations on May 23, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. at its established web site .
The Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education is the main board of school education in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The final results can be checked by visiting the website.

It is based in Srinagar and also is underneath the management of the state government of Jammu and Kashmir.

The board runs much more rather than 10,609 schools across the state and engages 22,300 educators.

To check out the college-wise or State-wise final results click the website.

We would like the JKBOSE part 2 individuals all the best.

Privacy Policy:

2008-03-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

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Making your way into the corporate branding?

2007-09-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

Are you making your way into the corporate branding? If yes, then after market research, you must have observed the exceptional growth in the industry. Almost each and every market is overpopulated making it very difficult to be noticed uniquely. Plus, the evolution of internet has made this a global phenomenon.

Every businessman is now aware of the fact that how important it actually is to maintain a unique position in the market. And the best way to achieve this is by the implementation of a strong Corporate Branding Strategy. A powerful corporate branding has quite a lot of benefits. Some of which are:

It is cost effective.
Very effective as compared to the product-based marketing.
Depicts what a corporation aims at doing & for what it wants to be know.
Portrays aims, objectives, image & vision among many more dimensions.

So, now when you have realized that how important it actually is to have Corporate Branding , you must be thinking of some nice branding agency that can deliver you long term affects. I would recommend Brand Identity guru for the purpose.It is a leading Branding agency and market research firm located in Boston .It has a dynamic platform, which promises to deliver the best and maximum to you. The professionals there are very promising and they can exactly shape the image of your business the way you want.

So just give their page a visit and you will know the importance of corporate branding and they might accelerate your business like anything. Good Luck with your efforts:)

[This is a sponsored post]

25 Gadgets That Actually Save Money

2007-09-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

I admit it: I’m a gadget addict. I like little devices that do neat things. At the same time, I also like to save money. What is a poor modern man to do with these two conflicting interests?

Simple. I buy gadgets that can pay for themselves (and even see a bit of return) over the long haul. This usually means I look for energy-efficient gadgets, but it also means that I try to evaluate things in terms of whether or not they can potentially return money to me. What’s nice is that many of these gadgets that save me money in the long run make a great deal of environmental sense as well.

Here’s a list of twenty five neat items I’ve found that can save a lot of money, along with their cost and the amount of time that it will take before their extra cost is paid for by their utility. Since they’re gizmos, they make for great gift ideas, plus you can use the argument that “this will save money” when suggesting the purchase of one of these items to your significant other. In fact, I actually started this list as justification to my wife for a few items I wanted to buy for myself.

1.Filtered water bottle
Price: $39.95 + $32.95 cartridge refills
Time Until Break Even: 180 days of daily use

If you drink a bottle of water each day (as you should), but you buy bottled water instead of drinking tap water, you can pay for this nifty device in half a year. You can fill it from any tap and the internal filtering device will clean the water for you, eliminating viruses and bacteria. Thus, each day you use this bottle, you pay off a little more.

2.Battery charger
Price: $17.95
Time Until Break Even: How many kids do you have?

My son has a bevy of toys that just gobble batteries. It seems like every day I’m dropping more and more batteries into these devices. Thankfully, a battery recharger can trim the costs down really quick. Just take your Rayovac AAs, toss them in this, plug it in, and they’re good to go again. It’s absolutely perfect for parents that have children with lots of battery-powered toys.

3.Smart "Power strips"
Price: $34.95
Time Until Break Even: 60 days

If you use a desktop computer at home, it won’t take long until this device is a money saver for you. Simply plug in your main unit into the control outlet and all of your other peripherals (monitor, printer, speakers, etc.) into the other outlets. Whenever you power on your computer, the other devices power on; whenever you power off your computer, the others power off. Even better, it actually functions as a switch, so when your main unit powers off, there is no phantom “standby” electricity being drawn to the other peripherals. Not only will you save money on the powered-down peripherals, but you’ll save money from the lack of phantom charge.

4.Blender
Price: $47.99
Time Until Break Even: 6-12 months

A quality blender (like the one above) can save tons of money if you use it regularly. You can switch to grinding your own herbs, spices, coffee beans, and so on. A regular kitchen user can make back the price on herbs alone if they buy fresh herbs and grind them in the blender for long-term storage. Plus it’s invaluable for making drinks at home when you have guests, which ends up being much cheaper than a night out on the town. Get a good one, though, so it will chop and cut what you want.

5. Electricity Usage Monitor
Price: $24.99
Time Until Break Even: 3 years

With this device, you can see how much of a phantom load your powered-down electrical devices are still pulling through the wall outlet. If you discover devices that are pulling a significant load, unplugging them (or using an appropriate device to stop the drain) will save you money over time. This device is also useful for figuring out how much power various home devices are draining and, with some quick calculations, exactly how much it’s costing you.

6. Flash Drive
Price: $17.95
Time Until Break Even: 1 month

I find countless uses for my flash drive, the best of which is for an emergency backup of key files. A flash drive has saved my cookie during hardware crashes and it has also saved a lot of money in terms of burning CDs for software installation packages off the network. In short, it’s invaluable.

7. High End Solar Calculator
Price: $10.99
Time Until Break Even: 2 years

I like to keep one of these in my pocket for doing calculations at the grocery store. Which package is the better deal per unit? It’s always a good idea to figure this out before blindly making a purchase at the store. Plus, with a solar calculator, you don’t ever have to worry about batteries or anything else - just keep using it.

8. Efficient Power Supply
Price: $81.00
Time Until Break Even: 1 year

A high-efficiency power supply not only protects you from electrical faults, it also ensures that your devices drain electricity at the minimum rate, which means your power bills go down. If your home has any sort of questionable power distribution, this device is essential for protecting your electronic equipment, but even if you have normal power, you can save money with this gadget because of the power drain that it reduces.

9. Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Price: $1.79
Time Until Break Even: 4 months

CFLs can easily save $100 a year, plus they look a lot cooler than ordinary bulbs. The simple fact of the matter is that by merely replacing a regular bulb with a CFL, you’ll save about a dollar per bulb every two months or so.

10. Efficient Shower Heads
Price: $15.99
Time Until Break Even: 10 months

High efficiency showerheads save money by reducing the amount of water that needs to flow through your hot water heater. An average American household can save as much as 15,000 gallons of water per year by installing high-efficiency shower heads. Even better: that’s 15,000 gallons of hot water that your heater doesn’t have to heat, cutting down on your energy costs as well.

11. Fuel-Efficient Scooter
Price: $4,200
Time Until Break Even: 4 years

A high-efficiency scooter is perfect for people who have a relatively short work commute that’s just a bit too far to walk every day. Leave that car in the garage and travel on a scooter. Plus, you can scoot around town and quickly run errands on this thing. Of course, a bicycle is even less expensive, but scooters are much faster and won’t leave you sweaty when you arrive.

12. Solar Outdoor Lighting
Price: $12.95
Time Until Break Even: 180 evenings

This is a great choice if you want to light your yard and patio in the evening but don’t want to spend on electricity all the time. Solar powered outdoor lighting will provide adequate lighting for much of the night after recharging themselves during the day. Their design incorporates solar panels, a nice geek factor, and they can provide wonderful low light in the evening, perfect for a nice ambience.

13. Dance Dance Revolution
Price: $200
Time Until Break Even: 8 months ($25/month gym fees)

If you use the gym for a cardio workout, cancel your gym membership and get a home video game system, DDR, and a good quality dance pad. The game itself provides all the motivation you need, plus you have to be in pretty good shape in order to play the game for extended periods. I lost about 20 pounds playing DDR instead of going to the gym once upon a time.

14. Self-Cleaning Electric Shaver
Price: $169.13
Time Until Break Even: 8 months of daily shaving

A top-quality self-cleaning rechargeable electric shaver saves significant money for each shaving over disposable razors and shaving cream. Although there are still upkeep costs (recharging, a rare replacement of the blades, and facial wash), the costs are much less than what you’ll incur with shaving cream and blades. Plus, you get the unbridled joy of owning a new gadget.

15. Espresso / Cappuccino Machine
Price: $200
Time Until Break Even: 80 visits to a coffee shop

Do you stop by Starbucks each day to pick up a fresh cup on your way to work? If you invest in a decent cappuccino / espresso maker, those visits can go right out the door; you can make it at home and it tastes at least as good as the stuff at the shops, especially chain ones like Starbucks where they have the “process” down to an art form. Plus, once you get used to using it, you can experiment a lot with different beans and grindings and make some truly sublime homemade coffees.

16. Programmable Thermostat
Price: $39.99
Time Until Break Even: 6 months

If you have central air conditioning, you need programmable thermostats. They provide very precise temperature control and can be programmed to automatically lower your air conditioning and/or heat use while you’re not home. Just program it and forget about it; it will automatically adjust things for you so that you aren’t wasting electricity and money.

17. Coin Sorter
Price: $95.99
Time Until Break Even: 2 years

Most banks will no longer count change for you, but they will accept pre-rolled coins as deposits. CoinStar, on the other hand, will cash out change for you, but they have a 10% surcharge. Why not just sort and roll them yourself? Keep this device on the dresser, dump in your pocket change each night, change the rolls in and out (the device comes with a bunch of coin rolls), and when you go to the bank, take in a bunch of coin rolls and deposit them. Over time, the device pays for itself over the amount you would lose using CoinStar.

18. Efficient Space Heater
Price: $19.95
Time Until Break Even: One cold winter

Small, efficient space heaters can save a lot of money because they allow you to not have to spend lots of extra energy keeping some rooms heated (such as the bathroom). Instead, just put in a space heater and turn it on when you take a shower. It’s substantially cheaper than keeping that spare room heated. Plus, you can use them when working in the basement or other rooms that you don’t bother to heat, or in the bedroom at night if you lower the house heat during the nighttime hours.

19. Solar Christmas Lights
Price: $59.95
Time Until Break Even: 2 Christmas seasons

Instead of buying strands of electric lights for outdoor Christmas decoration, get a set of solar LED Christmas lights. They eat no electricity as they charge up during the day, come on automatically in the evening, and stay on most of the night. You can just set them up and let them be with no maintenance cost or effort at all. The start-up cost is a bit high, but the cool factor of LED solar Christmas lights, plus the energy savings, quickly makes up for it.

20. Remote Control Power Strips
Sample Model: Lacrosse RS-204
Price: $29.95
Time Until Break Even: 2 years (depending on use)

Quite often, we find ourselves plugging lots of lights and decorations in during the Christmas holidays, and it becomes a hassle to power them all off and on, so we often leave things on more often than we’d like, sometimes even overnight. To solve this problem, install a remote control power strip. This device can be turned on and off by remote control, meaning that you can have all of the cords out of the way and flip the Christmas tree lights on and off with just a button click.

21. High Efficiency Washing Machine
Price: $859
Time Until Break Even: 3 years

If you buy a large-load high efficiency front loading washing machine, you’ll do many fewer laundry loads per month and each load will take less water than before. A machine like this can easily save $10 over a regular machine in water usage in a family home per month; even better, a large load machine will save a lot of time. Given the cost of a normal low-end washer, it should only take three years or so for this machine to pay for itself.

22. A Laptop
Price: $819
Time Until Break Even: 1 year

Now that laptops have reached a usability and reliability standard that approximates desktops, it becomes a serious choice whether or not to replace a desktop with a laptop. If you make the leap, you’ll find that the energy savings are tremendous. I often run it from battery at home and charge it using available outlets in other places, such as the local bookstore, meaning I have very little home energy use from the laptop. It won’t take long for this savings to make up for the differences in cost, plus you’ll have all of the laptop portability advantages.

23. TiVo
Price: $49.99 + $9.95 a month
Time Until Break Even: 6 months

If you have cable and a TiVo, your needs for DVD purchases and rentals will almost disappear simply because of the plethora of programming you’ll be able to watch commercial-free. This will begin to save you money before long, plus it will give you a much greater control over what you watch on television - I skip a lot of programs simply because of the commercials and the inability to pause them to chase my child.

24. A Hybrid Car
Price: $22,175
Time Until Break Even: 5 years

If you compare a hybrid side-by-side with a non-hybrid, the hybrid costs more up front. The savings, though, kicks in over the life of the car with much lower fuel costs. Plus, it has a great “geek factor” and it’s a solid environmental decision.

25. A Residential Windmill
Price: $8,500 (including installation)
Time Until Break Even: 8 years

If you want to be “king geek” in your area, few things will top this. $8,500 will get you a windmill on top of your house, which can, by itself, take care of almost all of your home electrical needs. It looks like a high-tech antenna up there, quietly whirring away, using the wind to provide your juice. For an average household, the device will pay for itself in eight years; after that, it’s all gravy. Plus, you’re helping the environment by almost eliminating your load on the power grid.

Sometimes, you can buy gadgets to save money.

McCanns offer to take lie test

2007-09-21T04:27:00.001-07:00

The parents of Madeleine McCann are prepared to take a lie detector test to prove their innocence.

Friends say Kate and Gerry McCann want to show they have nothing to hide over the disappearance of the four-year-old who went missing on a family holiday in Portugal in May.

The couple's decision is the latest stage in a high-profile fightback led by family and friends against police suspicions they may been responsible for Madeleine's death and staged an elaborate cover-up.

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesman, said that it was "extremely unlikely" the couple would be asked to take a lie detector test by police. He said: "Kate and Gerry McCann have absolutely nothing to hide and, if a request from the Portuguese authorities was made for them to undergo such a lie detector test, they would have no issue with it, provided the test is suitably overseen by an appropriate expert who can ensure the absolutely reliability of the equipment being used.

"However, it is my understanding that such machines are not used in Portuguese criminal cases, nor is the information from them deemed admissible in court, and there are question marks over their reliability. Therefore we think it is extremely unlikely that such a request for a test would come through."

The McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were declared "arguidos" or official suspects by detectives two weeks ago after DNA traces in a car hired after her disappearance were used to suggest the vehicle had been used to carry Madeleine's body.

The couple have returned to Britain after a four-month stay in Portugal and have been told that police do not have enough evidence to justify interviewing them again. But they remain suspects and say they are determined to clear their names and continue the search for Madeleine who they believe may be still alive.

Friends have revealed a series of details in recent days which could form part of their defence if they were ever charged with causing Madeleine's death and disposing of her body.

It emerged this week that partial DNA matches found in the Renault Scenic hired by the family almost a month after her disappearance could potentially be explained by contact with Madeleine's clothes which were transported in it when they moved to a rented villa. The car was also used on a daily basis to transport bag-loads of household waste including her younger siblings Sean and Amelie's nappies.

The couple believe its use as a "dumper truck" ferrying rotting meat, chicken carcasses and food scraps to nearby bins during the summer could also explain the excited reaction of specialist sniffer dogs when shown the car last month as part of a review of the case.
[AFP Copyright]

Mobile phone technology turns 20

2007-09-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

The technology behind the mobile phone is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

On 7 September 1987, 15 phone firms signed an agreement to build mobile networks based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications.

According to the GSM Association there are more than 2.5 billion accounts that use this mobile phone technology.

Adoption of the technology shows no signs of slowing down with many developing nations becoming keen users of mobile handsets.

Future phones

Robert Conway, head of the GSM Association, said the memorandum of understanding signed in 1987 is widely seen as the moment when the global mobile industry got under way.

Although work on the GSM technical specifications began earlier, the agreement signed in 1987 committed those operators to building networks based upon it.

"There's no doubt that at the time of the agreement in 1987 no one had an idea of the explosive capabilities in terms of growth that would happen after the GSM standard was agreed," he said.

Since then, he said, the numbers of people using GSM mobiles has always outstripped the predictions.

Once the preserve of the well off, mobiles were now "the everyday gadget that's essential to people's lives," he said.

In the UK there are now more mobiles than people according to Ofcom statistics which reveal that, at the end of 2006, for every 100 Britons there are 116.6 mobile connections.

Figures from the GSM Association show it took 12 years for the first billion mobile connections to be made but only 30 months for the figure to reach two billion.

"In the developing world they are becoming absolutely indispensable," said Mr Conway.

This was because handsets were now cheap and mobile networks much less expensive to set up than the fixed alternatives.

But getting mobiles in to the hands of billions of people was just the start, said Mr Conway.

"The technology is a gravitational force that brings in to its orbit a huge amount of innovators," he said.

In the future, he suggested, high-speed networks would be ubiquitous adding the intelligence of mobiles to anything and everything.

"The technology will be in the fabric of your clothing, your shoes, in appliances, in your car," he said.

For instance, he said, the ubiquity of mobile technology could revolutionise healthcare and see people wearing monitors that gather and transmit information about vital signs.

Phones too could change radically in the future.

"You'll pull them out of your pocket and they'll look like a map but unfold like a screen," said Mr Conway. "We're now on the verge of another wave and that's going to be stimulated by mobile broadband."

Good vibes power tiny generator

2007-07-06T13:35:00.003-07:00

A tiny generator powered by natural vibrations could soon be helping keep heart pacemakers working.

Created by scientists at the University of Southampton, UK, the generator has been developed to power devices where replacing batteries is very difficult.

The device is expected initially to be used to power wireless sensors on equipment in manufacturing plants.

The generator's creators say their technology is up to 10 times more efficient than similar devices.

Power packed

The tiny device, which is less than one cubic centimetre in size, uses vibrations in the world around it to make magnets on a cantilever at the heart of the device wobble to generate power.

Although the generator produces only microwatts this was more than enough to power sensors attached to machines in manufacturing plants, said Dr Steve Beeby, the Southampton researcher who led the development of the device.

"The big advantage of wireless sensor systems is that by removing wires and batteries, there is the potential for embedding sensors in previously inaccessible locations," he said.

Using the tiny generator also made it possible to use larger numbers of sensors because there was no longer the need to visit them to replace or recharge batteries, Dr Beeby added.

The generator was developed to sit inside air compressors but, said Dr Beeby, it could find a future role in self-powered medical implants such as pacemakers.

In a pacemaker, the beating of the human heart would be strong enough to keep the magnets inside the device wobbling.

It could also be used to power sensors attached to road and rail bridges to monitor the health of such structures.

Work on the project was funded by the EU as part of the 14.3m euros (£9.67m) Vibration Energy Scavenging (Vibes) project that is looking at how to use environmental vibrations to generate power.

Looking for some good webhosting?

2007-07-06T13:35:00.002-07:00

IF you want to get professional with your website or blog {unlike me;)},then the first step for you will be to go for a purposeful domain and a nice webhosting company.I hope that most of the gurus will agree that the selection of webhost is one of the most difficult things on the internet.Security,price,bandwidth,space and speed are just few factors that will make you feel like banging your head against the wall.Or in other words,make the selection of webhost a real tough job!

Well,I have got a recommendation for all those folks looking out for some nice webhost,specially if u are looking for some canadian based hosting company.Yup!you got it right!I am talking about Canadian Web Hosting.
Founded in 1998, Canadian web Hosting is a privately held web hosting company with a focus on customer care.Their intelligent and knowledgeable staff provides help 24/7 through toll-free telephone service,e-mail and live online chat.The mission of this canadian company is to provide their customers a reliable and smooth hosting experience and to make them taste the lastest in hosting technologies.

Candian webhosting implements 3 com's TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention System (IPS).Which assures the security of all the data carried by their servers.

They provide wonderful hosting packages both for basic and professional webmasters.You want ASP windows hosting or Cpanel linux hosting,you'll get all there!They provide 30-day money back guarantee plus $25 Google Adwords credit even with basic plan which starts at $3.95/month.They also offer Reseller hosting.The detail price and package menu is available at their website.

Sitebuilder is also offered by canadian webhosting and they claim it to be one of the best available in the market.

I am specially inspired by their support section.I mean that detailed FAQ,tutorials,forums and Live support literally make them available 24/7 for their customers.

Canadian webhosting is basically targetted for Canadian webmasters but I hope that they can give good results to international webmasters as well.So,If you are looking for a webhost,Canadian webhosting is worth looking at!

[This is a Paid-review]

You know security?

2007-07-06T13:35:00.001-07:00

Safety and Internet security is one of the most vastly growing concern on the internet.Do u think you know security?If you think,let's put it to test!

An average data over the internet shows that the computers with internet access are attacked per 39 secs!Shocking??Isn't it?

So, what do you think that are you doing enough to protect your personal data? or your computer is an easy target for a hacker?confused?If yes,then move straight towards this Security quiz.It is a 15 question quiz,where safety and internet security related questions will be asked.This is a free quiz and is highly recommended by me to get basic information regarding internet security.And if,after taking the quiz,you want to read some more about internet security,just google internet security and you will find hundreds of articles waiting for you.

I hope that you'll like the quiz and will get a lot better scores than mine;)

[This is a paid-review]

Record fine over TV quiz phone-in

2007-07-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

The company behind the Richard and Judy premium rate telephone quiz scandal has been fined £150,000.

Premium rate services regulator Icstis imposed the record penalty on Eckoh UK Ltd after an investigation into the Channel 4 show.

It found viewers were urged to call its You Say, We Pay quiz after potential winners had been chosen, showing a "reckless disregard" for TV viewers.

Icstis is referring the case to media regulator Ofcom.

The watchdog has indicated it may wish to investigate the actions of the parties involved under the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.

Icstis also ordered a sanction to provide refunds to all those affected.

But Eckoh complained that it had been made a "scapegoat" and that it would consider appealing.

'Fundamental failings'

Icstis chairman Sir Alistair Graham said the size of the fine reflected the "very serious nature" of the breach of its Code of Practice.

"The hearing panel found clear evidence of fundamental failings in the winner selection process.

"Winners were being chosen before the competition closing deadline, whilst millions of additional viewers were still encouraged to phone in and pay to enter the competition but were denied the opportunity of fair consideration.

"Such reckless disregard for viewers is unacceptable. In this case, viewers were not only 'paying competition entrants' but also consumers who enjoy a high degree of consumer protection already provided by Icstis."

He added: "The public should be able to use these services with absolute confidence."

Icstis said that almost five million viewers entered the competition at a cost of £1 per call.

But 47% of calls were received after the shortlist of winners had already been chosen. Production company Cactus were responsible for choosing potential winners.

We are extremely sorry for anyone who entered the competition and were not dealt with appropriately.
Nik Philpot, Eckoh

A Channel 4 spokesman said it was shocked to learn that management at Eckoh were aware the competition was not being operated properly six months before the problems were made public.

The spokesman said: "We engaged Eckoh in good faith as a reputable and experienced service provider and we are very disappointed by their failure to ensure that all calls to the competition were handled properly."

Channel 4 said it has since introduced a new monitoring regime to audit the performance of service providers on its remaining phone-in competitions.

'Misled the public'

Eckoh spokesperson Harry Chathli said: "Icstis accepts that Eckoh has learnt from this case, but nonetheless has imposed this sanction 'to provide incentive to other service providers who may not yet have taken the steps that Eckoh have to ensure compliance'.

"Because of this we can't help but feel that we've been made a scapegoat and we will be considering an appeal once we have seen the result of the Ofcom investigation."

Eckoh said the regulations governing premium rate services were "fundamentally flawed".

In a statement the company said: "Under the current Icstis Code of Practice, the service provider is exclusively responsible for any breaches of compliance, irrespective of who is actually responsible or how this came about. It is for this reason that only Eckoh has been fined today.

"Information providers, in this case Channel 4 and Cactus, are outside the jurisdiction of Icstis and it is unable to take action against them unless they agree."

"In our view where a television programme has misled the public in promoting calls to a premium rate service it would seem appropriate that either the broadcaster or production company, or both, should also be brought before the regulator."

LED displays and signs for outdoor advertisement

2007-07-06T04:46:00.000-07:00

If you want LED displays and signs for outdoor advertisements,I'll recommend you to have a look at Proton LED.
They have really impressed me with there perfect system.They provide digital LED displays for outdoor advertisement.Their displays is as good to display TV like video and animations.Here are the few specifications that made me love them:

Full colog RGB full motion video at 150 frames per second.
Connect wirelessly to upload new video or animation.
Fully configurable via Internet hence,as a bussines man,providing you full freedom to upload the video from any place,anytime by just using an internet equipped windows media cell phone.
Display is equipped with thermostatic devices to prevent any damage from weather.
The display has been succesfully wind tested at 150MPH.
Display provides wide view angles of upto 140 degrees.

Apart from all those wonderful features,the company claims that the display can withstand a jolt from a brick to a shot-gun blast.Their site contain some videos of what LED signs will look like,which are worth looking.The site doesn't mention any cost or estimated budget,but reading all these wonderful features what they are providing,It's worth contacting them.
[This is a paid-review]

Gadgets 'threaten energy savings'

2007-07-04T05:33:00.001-07:00

The growing popularity of hi-tech devices, such as flat-screen TVs and digital radios, threaten to undermine efforts to save energy, a report says.

UK consumers spend £12bn a year on electronics, much of which is less efficient than older technology, a study by the Energy Saving Trust found.

By 2020, the gadgets will account for about 45% of electricity used in UK households, the organisation projected.

It said flat-screen TVs and digital radios were among the worst offenders.
Paula Owen, author of the report called The Ampere Strikes Back, said household appliances currently consumed about a third of an average home's electricity.

But she warned this was likely to increase as a result of people buying more energy-intensive devices.

The simple message to people is switch things off when you have finished using them
Dr Paula Owen,
Report author

"Your old-fashioned, bulky cathode ray tube TV on average consumed about 100 watts of electricity when it was switched on," Dr Owen explained.

"What we are seeing now is a trend for much bigger flat-screened TVs. On average, we are seeing a three-fold increase in the energy needed to power these TVs.

"Pretty much in every other sector [such as fridges and washing machines], we find that as the technology moves on, the products get more and more efficient.

"Consumer electronics does not work like that."

'Radio ga-ga'

The equivalent of 14 power stations will be needed just to power consumer electronic devices by 2020, the report warned.

By that time televisions on standby will consume 1.4% of all domestic electricity, it predicted.

Digital radios were also singled out by the report as being energy intensive.

"Traditional analogue radios consume about two watts when they are switched on," Dr Owen said.

"We've looked at digital radios and the average consumption of these is eight watts."

She added that listening to the radio via digital TVs or set-top boxes had an average consumption of more than 100 watts.

Recent research by the communications watchdog Ofcom said that more than 80% of UK homes now had digital TV.

More people are buying digital TVs or set-top boxes because by the end of 2012 the analogue TV signal will no longer be available in the UK.

But not all new technology was criticised by the report.

"Mobile phones and their chargers are one area where we have seen an improvement," Dr Owen said.

A few years ago, she said, the current being drawn by chargers that were plugged in but not actually attached to a phone was about three to five watts.

"We have done some testing on the newest mobile phones and chargers you can buy today and reassuringly we could see that 'no-load' consumption had fallen below one watt."

But she added that the sheer volume of mobiles being used, about 63 million in the UK, meant that a huge amount of energy was still being wasted if people were not unplugging their chargers when they were not being used.

The report called for governments, manufacturers and retailers to do more to promote energy efficient devices, but also said consumers had a role to play.

"The simple message to people is switch things off when you have finished using them," urged Dr Owen.

Wii outselling PS3 'six to one'

2007-07-04T04:49:00.000-07:00

Nintendo's Wii console outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 in Japan last month by six to one, says research.

Nintendo sold 270,974 Wii consoles last month while Sony sold 41,628 PS3s, according to Enterbrain, a Japanese publisher that tracks console sales.

Nintendo has sold about 2.76m Wii consoles in Japan since the launch last December, while Sony has sold 970,270 PS3s since it debuted last November.

About 17,616 Xbox 360 consoles were sold in June.

Last week, Phil Harrison, PlayStation's head of worldwide studios, told US Game Informer magazine that pundits should not judge the success of the console based on the launch software line-up.

Struggled

He said: "You only have to go back to the games that launched PlayStation 1 and Playstation 2.

"If you took those few dozen titles and analysed them, you would never have imagined that either of those formats would have on to sell over 100m units each."

Globally, Sony has struggled so far to replicate the success it had with the first two PlayStation consoles.

The machine has also suffered from a lack of "killer" exclusive titles which showcase the power of the machine.

PlayStation fans are still awaiting some of the biggest franchises on the machine to emerge, such as Metal Gear Solid, Killzone 2 and Gran Turismo.

Spam King arrested

2007-07-02T13:48:00.001-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO: They call him the "Spam King," but Robert Soloway is an unlikely figure accused of flooding computers with emails promoting everything whatever is financially beneficial for him.

Far from being an introverted computer nerd, Soloway dined at fine restaurants, threw hip parties, drove a Mercedes convertible and wore designer clothes.

And US officials are now branding him the king of one of the most vexing phenomenons of this interconnected, computerized world - the tide of unwanted spam swamping email in-boxes. "He was a con man living quite a lavish lifestyle," Assistant US Attorney Kathryn Warma told AFP after Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle, Washington, late last month.

Warma convinced a federal judge to keep Soloway in jail without bail while he awaits trial on charges of fraud, identity theft and money laundering. Soloway had made at least a million dollars from his spam empire since relocating to Washington state in 2003, according to IRS agent Sylvia Reyes. But when FBI agents raided his 17th-floor apartment, they found one lone, unimpressive computer.

He promoted his Newport Internet Marketing firm as a way for businesses to swiftly increase sales five-fold with his "broadcast email" service or by buying his software to send messages themselves. He sold spamming kits for 149 dollars each, agents said. Soloway rented servers then used a "Dark Mail" program to send bulk emails and disguise where they came from and who sent them.

The unsolicited email was delivered through "botnets," networks of online computers hijacked by "botherders," hackers that amass armies of "zombie" machines by infecting them with malicious codes without the owners' knowledge. It was a great money-spinner. Police found closets stuffed with designer clothes, including Prada, Gucci, Armani and Versace. Among his belongings confiscated as "proceeds of crime" were scores of sport coats and suit jackets, an Armani wristwatch and two dozen pairs of designer sunglasses. "He threw great parties in his pad, wore cool clothes and drove a hot car," Warma said. "It was a way for him to promote his criminal activity."

Among the complaints that led federal officials to Soloway were those from his customers, who said his services and software didn't give the promised results. "Just because people paid him money doesn't mean it worked," Warma said. Soloway changed "cyber bank" and Internet financial transaction accounts frequently and drained his funds routinely. And despite his expensive lifestyle, agents who executed search warrants at four of Soloway's bank accounts, could find only 5,000 dollars.

In testimony Soloway gave during a lawsuit filed against him by Microsoft in 2005 he said he was his company's sole employee and that he started the business in California when he was 16 years old. "It's the only employment I've had in my life," court documents quote Soloway as saying. "So you could say I've never worked for anybody."

Microsoft won the civil trial and Soloway was ordered to pay the company seven million dollars in damages for spamming abuses. But Soloway bragged in online chat rooms that the world's largest company would never get its court-ordered award.

Rushdie 18 years ago

2007-07-02T13:40:00.001-07:00

(The story behind a protest against 'Satanic Verses' that turned horribly wrong)

On February 12, 1989, a large number of protestors gathered in the heart of Islamabad under the banner of Tahafaz-i-Namoos-i-Risalat to condemn the publishing of 'Satanic Verses' written by Salman Rushdie in the United Kingdom

When the protest came to an end, seven people had lost their lives, thirty more had sustained injuries and forty four police personnel were injured in clashes with the protestors.

When the incident took place the Benazir government was just around two months old. The procession was led by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Maulana Abdul Sattar Niazi, Maulana Kausar Niazi and Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

A judicial enquiry commission was formed under Justice Ijaz Nisar who at that time was a Lahore High Court judge to look into the facts of the matter which then published its report in August 1990.

During the enquiry these leaders pleaded that the People's Party government had an ulterior motive of crushing the ulema on their very first appearance in Islamabad so that the greatest hurdle in the way of the secular government was removed or at least weakened.

The district administration justified its action in self-defence, pleading that the armed protestors were highly disorganised with no single leader in command and the protestors looted a petrol pump and collected petrol from there. The administration estimated the size of the crowd between 30,000 to 40,000.

The enquiry commission noted that confusion seems to have been caused by the advertisement placed in the press by Tehrik-e-Tahafaz-i-Risalat and the demonstrators were not informed about the arrangements settled with the administration that they were to halt at a barrier to be placed at a distance from American centre, that only leaders would proceed onwards to hand over the protest note. On the other hand they were intimated by the advertisement that the protest rally was to be staged in front of the American Centre

"It was strange that the infamous book was published in the UK, the US did not have any plan to publish it, still the organisers chose to protest in front of the USIS building in Blue Area instead of going to the British High Commission office," recalled Abdul Hameed Alvi, the then media advisor to USIS while talking to TNS.

Many of the witnesses that came before the commission agreed with the suggestion that America had nothing to do with the publication of 'Satanic Verses', neither was Salman Rushdie a resident of America, nor was the book published from there.

Identifying what went wrong, the the 160 paged commission report found that when the protestors crossed the barrier a scuffle ensued between the police and the protestors. The protestors pelted stones at the police that resorted to firing tear gas but the direction of the wind changed and the tear gas smoke instead struck the police. Meanwhile, the jeep carrying the leaders arrived at the scene where it was hit by a stray tear gas shell. Brick-batting was also going on. As a result those in the jeep were injured.

"It would therefore be incorrect to presume that the jeep of the leaders was made a target. The gas shells fired on the protesters encircling the jeep accidentally hit the occupants. Finding the leaders hurt the protesters became furious. They advanced towards the police in a state of intense anger, pelting stones on them. Seeing them getting violent, the police receded towards the depression by the side of the American Centre. Some of the protesters taking advantage of police drifting away, scaled over the walls of the American Centre, smashed its window-panes, damaged the dish antenna and destroyed the main entrance. Two or three of them climbed up the roof of the American Centre and pulled down the American flag. The demonstrators who were present on the eastern side of the American Centre also joined them and resorted to brick batting."

The report observed that the demonstrators tried to set a vehicle in the American centre on fire. A tent of the security guards and a security post was also burnt. As none of the leader was around, there was nobody to impart any instruction to the crowd.

Getting reinforcement, the police appeared on the scene again to prevent the situation from becoming worse. It resorted to firing that resulted in deaths.

"If the situation called for police firing, there was hardly any justification in aiming at the protestors directly. The police could have directed its shots towards the legs instead of vital parts of their bodies, the firing in that case could have merely incapacitated them rather than cause their instantaneous death," noted Justice Ijaz Nisar

Why the protestors chose to go to American Centre could be explained by the fact that a large number of international media was present in Islamabad to cover an event relating to formation of a future government in Afghanistan. Rushdie was not an American citizen nor the United States published the book but the anti-Rushdie protest turned into an anti-west or an anti-America protest, a fact attested by the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a press conference on her return from China soon after the incident.

The judicial enquiry commission in its report in August 1990 recommended the government to pay a minimum of Rs 100,000 as compensation to the legal heirs of each of the dead, Rs 50,000 to those with fire arm injuries and Rs 25,000 each to the persons having other injuries. Of the seven dead only three were from Rawalpindi. Rest of them belonged to the adjoining cities of Jhelum, Attock, Mansehra etc.

The father of one of the persons killed, Zafar Iqbal Sultan Muhammad Mirza, who was then principal of Qandeel Institution for the Blind and Deaf in Rawalpindi, told TNS that his son was not religious. "He had taken intermediate examination from Government College and was taking tests to join army. On the fateful day he along with his friends went to the protest and got killed," Mirza recalled. "The amount of compensation was not enough because the amount spent to seek justice was much more."

England smoking ban takes effect

2007-07-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

Smokers across England have sparked up at work and in the pub for the last time as the ban on smoking in enclosed public places begins.

The new law, which came into effect at 0600 BST, is intended to cut deaths from second-hand smoke.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already have similar bans in place.

Many venues held farewell events for the final night of smoking on Saturday, while local authorities are preparing to enforce the ban.

Doctors estimate second-hand smoke kills more than 600 people a year.

The government also hopes it will help smokers to quit, and discourage children from taking up the habit.

Fines

The new Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, welcomed the ban saying that tackling the causes of illnesses saved lives.

"A smoke-free country will improve the health of thousands of people, reduce the temptation to smoke and encourage smokers to quit," he added.
England's chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson said the ban was a "momentous move" and would prevent the deaths of both smokers and non-smokers.

"We are removing from the air at a stroke 50 cancer causing chemicals, and that's bound to be good news for the exposure to risk," he said.

From Sunday anyone lighting up illegally could be fined £50 - reduced to £30 if it is paid within 15 days.

The figure rises to £200 if an individual is prosecuted and convicted by a court.

Businesses failing to comply with the ban could be hit with fines of up to £2,500.

The ban has prompted protests by smokers and those concerned about what they see as the "nanny state".

A legal challenge to the ban has been launched at the High Court by Freedom2Choose, which says the change in the law contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights.

Smokers from the group defied the ban The Dog Inn in Ewys Harold, near Hereford.

Landlord Tony Blows said he was prepared to go to court.

Mr Blows said: "I'm doing it for the simple reason that this is my home. My wife and I work 200 hours a week in this pub. It's private property and there's no way they can stop us doing it.

"Pubs have been smoking for goodness knows how long and you just can't do that. It's been brought in on the back of a pack of lies."

Decline in sales

Others are worried that the ban will mean the demise of the traditional pub and other social haunts such as middle-eastern style shisha cafes.

Market researchers Nielsen estimate beer sales in England and Wales could drop by 200 million pints each year because of the ban.

However, a survey by the Campaign for Real Ale suggested England's 6.2 million regular drinkers are likely to go out to pubs and bars more often after the ban.

Its study also found that 840,000 people who currently do not go to the pub said they would do so after smoking was made illegal.

Mark Hastings, communications director of the British Beer and Pub Association, said that although the ban may lead to a small decline in beer sales, pubs would also see an increase in the sale of food.

Anger at Prince free CD giveaway

2007-07-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

The music industry has reacted angrily at a decision to give away the new album by US musician Prince with a tabloid newspaper.

Planet Earth will be given free with a future edition of the Mail on Sunday.

The 10-track CD from Prince - whose hits include Purple Rain, Sign O' The Times and Cream - is not due to be released until 24 July.

Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, said the decision "beggars belief".

"The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores," said Mr Quirk, referring to a period in the 1990s when Prince famously stopped using his name in favour of a symbol.

No one has done this before... this is just setting a new level
Stephen Miron, Mail on Sunday MD

"It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career.

"It is yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music."

The practice of "covermounts" - where newspapers attempt to lure readers with DVDs and CDs - is used widely in the industry.

The Mail on Sunday's recent CD giveaways include Peter Gabriel, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, UB40 and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

Stephen Miron, the newspaper's managing director, said: "No one has done this before. We have always given away CDs and DVDs, but this is just setting a new level."

Out of business

Mr Miron declined to say how much the newspaper had paid to secure the deal.

He added that the newspaper was not out to put music retailers out of business.

"They are living in the old days and haven't developed their businesses sufficiently. We can enhance their business. They are being incredibly insular and need to move their business on," he said.

But HMV chief executive Simon Fox has said it would be "absolutely nuts" to give the album away for free.

The company revealed on Thursday that its profits had more than halved in the face of cut-price competition from supermarkets and online retailers.

The deal has also led to the UK arm of Sony BMG pulling out of the distribution agreement.

"Given the sheer number of copies we are talking about here it seemed the right thing to do for retailers to become exempt from the deal in the UK," said a spokesman for Sony BMG, the world's second-biggest music company.

Prince is due to play 21 concert dates in London later this year.

WWE’s chairman calls Benoit a ‘monster’

2007-06-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

In an exclusive interview on TODAY, WWE chairman Vince McMahon backed off claims by his organization that steroids had nothing to do with the murder-suicide of wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife and 7-year-old son.

“Steroids may or may not have had anything to do with this,” McMahon told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira. “It’s all speculation until the toxicology reports come back.”

That was a retreat from a statement World Wrestling Entertainment, based in Stamford, Conn., had put out earlier, in which the organization said “steroids were not and could not be related” to the deaths.

Confronted with that statement by Vieira, McMahon said, “We didn’t say that. Our reaction was reacting to the hysteria of the media.”

McMahon explained that he and the WWE were reacting to suggestions that the phenomenon known as “'roid rage” may have led to the killings. Among the potential side effects of steroid use are depression, paranoia and episodes of rage.

The slayings of Benoit’s wife, Nancy, and their child were carried out last weekend. Authorities say that Benoit may have remained in the house with the bodies as long as another day before hanging himself, using the rope and pulleys from a weight machine. His wife had been strangled. Sometime after she was killed, the couple’s son was smothered. Bibles were placed next to the bodies.

‘This man was a monster’
“This is not an act of rage,” McMahon said. “This is an act of deliberation.” He added that investigators also found prescription medications in the house that may have played a role.

“This is a horrific tragedy,” he said. “It happened in pro wrestling. There’s a rush to judgment. There’s almost a hysteria around us.”
McMahon said that Benoit was known to the organization as “a mild-mannered individual,” adding, “there was no way of telling this man was a monster.”

Benoit married Nancy, who also worked for WWE, in 2000. Three years later, she filed for divorce, claiming that her husband “lost his temper and threatened to strike the petitioner and cause extensive damage to the home.”

They reconciled three months later. But there have been reports that the marriage had been under pressure recently, and Nancy had demanded that Benoit spend more time at home helping to care for their son, who was developmentally disabled.

McMahon built the WWE into a thriving force in entertainment, creating characters and building story lines that ran like violent soap operas from one big pay-per-view show to the next. The outcomes of the matches are scripted, but the wrestlers travel as much as 300 days a year, putting on shows in cities across the country on an almost nightly basis.

While the action may be staged, the wrestlers take a pounding in the ring and injuries are frequent. So is the use of pain medications. In an earlier taped interview with NBC News, former wrestler Lex Lugar, who battled addiction to prescription drugs, said that drug use is rampant in the sport.

Benoit, known as the “Canadian Crippler,” had failed to show up for two WWE events. When WWE employees reported receiving puzzling text messages from Benoit early Sunday morning and were unable to contact Benoit in his suburban Atlanta home, WWE officials called law-enforcement authorities, who entered the house on Monday and found the bodies.

Police reported finding anabolic steroids in the home along with prescription drugs. Sports columnists and commentators have attacked McMahon and professional wrestling for failing to control the use of drugs, which have been implicated in a number of deaths. After Benoit's suicide and the slaying of his family, those criticisms intensified.

On Monday, WWE replaced its “Monday Night Raw” television show with a three-hour tribute to Benoit. Shortly afterward, when it became public knowledge that he had killed his wife and child, it pulled a tribute to him from its Web site. The organization also released the statement in which it said steroids were not to blame for the tragedy.

McMahon’s steroid charge
Vieira cited statistics showing that 60 wrestlers have died before the age of 65 since 1985 and said, “It seems like early death is almost an occupational hazard.”

McMahon questioned that number and said that he can speak only to five wrestlers who have died while under contract to the WWE or its predecessor, the WWF.

Among those who have died were Eddie Guerrero, who succumbed in 2005 to heart failure linked to steroid use. Curt “Mr. Perfect” Henning died of a drug overdose in 2003, and Davey Boy Smith, the “British Bulldog,” died in 2002 of heart failure, also linked to steroids.

McMahon referred several times to the WWE’s “wellness program,” which the organization began in February. The WWE claims to test its athletes for steroids and other drugs and says that Benoit was last tested in April. The results were negative, the WWE says.

Two weeks ago, McMahon had staged his own death in a spectacular car explosion and had not been seen since. WWE publicists claimed that the FBI was working on the case. But when Benoit and his family were found, McMahon re-emerged to fight off the attacks on his business.

Born Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the 61-year-old got involved in professional wrestling through his father, Vincent J. McMahon, a wrestling promoter, whom McMahon did not meet until he was 12 years old. The family business was originally called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. McMahon later changed that to the World Wrestling Federation, or WWF, but when the World Wildlife Fund objected in court to McMahon's use of those initials, he changed the name again to World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE.

Under McMahon, professional wrestling underwent a renaissance during the 1980s that saw the creation of the "Wrestlemania" pay-per-view extravaganzas that began in 1985.

In 1994, McMahon stood trial on charges of providing his wrestlers with steroids. He admitted to taking the drugs himself during the 1980s but denied providing them to his wrestlers or ordering them to take them. He was acquitted of the charges.

Mr. McMahon ‘presumed dead’
In WWE shows, McMahon plays a character called “Mr. McMahon” who is seen as an evil overlord. Donald Trump once joined the antics, participating in a staged feud with McMahon.

But on June 11, after a Monday Night Raw broadcast, cameras followed “Mr. McMahon” out of the arena and into his limousine, which was then shown exploding. The WWE said that Mr. McMahon was “presumed dead,” and claimed that the FBI was investigating.

Monday night’s edition of “Raw” was supposed to include a tribute to “Mr. McMahon,” but when news broke that day that Benoit was dead, Vince McMahon reappeared and a tribute to Benoit aired.

“Everybody in this organization, to my knowledge, is well-adjusted family people,” McMahon said. “They go to work like everybody else. They’re performers. We put smiles on faces. That’s our job description, not to be tainted and smeared by this.”

YouTube makes international move

2007-06-20T03:05:00.000-07:00

YouTube has announced international versions of its web video service.

The video site, owned by Google, has launched nine versions across Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK.

Each site is translated into local languages and has country-specific video rankings and comments.

"Video is universal and allows people around the world to communicate and exchange ideas," said Chad Hurley, YouTube co-founder.

We want to create a YouTube experience that is a local experience
Steve Chen, YouTube co-founder

"Our mission is to entertain, inform and empower the world through video."

More localised versions of YouTube will be rolled out this year.

More than half of all viewers on YouTube were now from outside the US, Mr Hurley added.

YouTube has also unveiled content partners around the world, including deals with France 24, Antena 3 in Spain, European football clubs such as AC Milan, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid, as well as organisations such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.

"We want to create a YouTube experience that is a local experience," said Steve Chen, the service's other co-founder.

"It's not just about translating, it also about creating content unique to certain countries."

Legal threats

YouTube is now stressing its credentials as a platform not just for user-generated content but also for professional broadcaster and advertisers.

The company says it has more than 1,000 global partners, with more than 150 deals signed in Europe since March.

Mr Hurley said: "We respect copyright and we want to create new revenue streams to create opportunities.

"We have been working with rights holders to help them leverage new audiences."

Despite the assurances, YouTube is facing widespread legal action from copyright holders over the use of material that is being uploaded by the site's users without permission.

Mr Hurley said only a small amount of material on YouTube was being shared without approval.

He added: "The majority is original created work. We are also working on tools to help stop this happen."

He declined to say, when asked, how much money Google had set aside to fight or settle pending and future legal battles.

Paedophile ring smashed by police

2007-06-20T03:01:00.000-07:00

Police have smashed a global child abuse network which was co-ordinated through a UK-based internet site.

Global agencies, led by UK investigators, examined more than 700 suspects, including 200 in the UK.

The ring was run by Timothy Cox, 28, of Buxhall, Suffolk, who admitted nine offences and has been handed a sentence which could mean he dies in jail.

A judge at Ipswich Crown Court told Cox: "You are obsessed with images of children being sexually abused."

Chatroom infiltration

Cox ran a website called "Kids the Light of Our Lives" which let users exchange abuse images, the court heard.

Judge Peter Thompson told Cox: "These are shocking images which involve very young children - in the worst cases being subjected to sadistic, painful abuse which you, for some distorted reason, appear to take enjoyment from."

Anybody who thinks they can carry out such horrific activities undetected is in for a rude awakening
Jim Gamble
CEOP

More than 75,000 indecent and explicit images were found on Cox's computer and there was evidence that he had supplied more than 11,000 images to other site users.

Cox pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing indecent images of children at an earlier hearing and was handed an indeterminate sentence.

Cox posed "significant risks", the judge said, and had to be imprisoned for "for public protection".

Under the terms of his sentence, he must satisfy the authorities that he is fit for release and does not pose any threat to the community before he can ever be set free.

Ian Robertson, of the UK-based Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP), told BBC News 24 that the ages of the children whose images were exchanged on the site ranged from babies to teenagers.

After he was arrested in September 2006, undercover officers spent 10 days infiltrating the chatroom, assuming his identity to collect evidence about other users.

When Cox was arrested, undercover officers placed a message online saying he had gone for his tea and would be back in half an hour to avoid raising suspicions.

As many as 70 online paedophiles were waiting to download images of abuse.

Investigators from the Australian Federal Police, the US Department of Homeland Security and Toronto Police took part in the online surveillance operation.

In total, 31 children were saved as a result of the investigation, CEOP said.

Cox lived with his parents, sister and 26-year-old girlfriend in a large farmhouse and worked at the family's micro-brewery. The website was operated from his bedroom.

CEOP said Cox hosted the website using the pseudonym "Son of God" - a reference to "G.O.D", the online identity of the owner of another paedophile site shut down by police last year.

The court heard Cox spotted a "gap in the market" after the other site was closed.

Simon Spence, prosecuting, told the court: "For what must have been hours at a time he was online either viewing these images of children, arranging the chat room or communicating with other paedophiles."

'Horrific activities'
Jim Gamble of CEOP said his capture "sends a powerful warning to those using the internet to facilitate the sexual exploitation of children".

He added: "From the apparent 'safety' of his home, Cox spent hours each day planning, promoting and encouraging the abuse and exploitation of children.

"In doing so he provided a service to hundreds of like-minded individuals, enabling those with a sexual interest in children to share indecent images and discuss further plans for abuse.

"Anybody who thinks they can carry out such horrific activities undetected is in for a rude awakening."

Cox had been identified after intelligence connecting the site to the UK was passed to CEOP by Canadian investigators.

Detective Constable Stefan Jochan said: "He doesn't fit any kind of traditional image of paedophile. He had a veneer of respectability."

The investigation uncovered another member of the same ring, Gordon Mackintosh from Hertfordshire, who attempted to keep the website going after Cox was arrested.

Mackintosh, 33, used the names "silentblackheart" and "lust4skoolgurls". More than 5,000 images were found on his computer as well as 392 indecent movie files.

He pleaded guilty to 27 charges of making, possessing and distributing the material and is due to be sentenced on June 29.

Blackberry ban for French elite

2007-06-20T02:56:00.000-07:00

French government officials have been ordered not to use handheld Blackberry devices because of fears that the US could spy on them, reports say.

Workers in the French president's and prime minister's office have been told their e-mails risk falling into foreign hands, Le Monde newspaper reports.

France's SGDN security service is worried because Blackberries use US- and UK-based servers, the paper says.

But some officials are flouting the ban and using them in secret, it adds.

"They tried to offer us something else to replace our Blackberries but it doesn't work," one unnamed official told the paper.

More than seven million people around the world now use the Blackberry, which is made by Canadian firm Research In Motion (RIM).

A member of France's governing UMP party in the National Assembly, Jacques Myard, said French politicians needed to be aware that Blackberries were not secure devices.

"It's very good to say 'be careful', because we don't live in an ordinary world in which you can talk on your mobile or private line without any warning, without caution," he told the BBC's World Today programme.

GP02 Skyline GTR Red Pull Back

2007-06-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

Always innovating, Tomy introduces a new series of Micro Racers called the Bit CharG Pullback Collection. Each model comes with its own windup, pullback motor and chassis. Just Pull Back and let these 1 1/4 inch cars go!! They scoot along the floor on their spring power, no batteries needed ( do not over wind as spring can become damaged )

What�s really great about each Bit Char G Pull Back Collection is that the body can snap off the pullback chassis and snap onto your battery operated R/C Bit CharG chassis!

Now you can collect, mix and match with the Tomy Bit CharG Pullback Collection.

Pen not included

Armored Core Crest CR-C75U2 Close Combat 1/72nd Scale Model Kit

2007-06-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Armored Core video games are third-person shooters, in which the player pilots a large mecha ( mechanical robot armor ) called an Armored Core, or AC for short. The player builds their AC from parts which can be bought, scavenged or earned by fulfilling mission requirements.

Typically, in each game, the player is a 'Raven', a member of a mercenary organization, and is hired by corporations to do various missions.

The best part of the ARMORED CORE game series is customizing your mech - and KOTOBUKIYA's Fine Scale Model Kits are no exception!

The Crest CR-C75U2 Close Combat robot model kit offers Armored Core players a way to build and refine powerful mecha warriors from the PS2 games in a highly detailed, 1/72nd scale.

You can swap parts with other Armored Core kits as well as use the accessories in various manners. This kit features 347 snap together parts and stands approximately 6 inches tall when assembled. With 24 points of articulation, it as poseable as an action figure!

Japanese packaging and instructions. Exploded View instruction sheet visually aids assembly.

Height: 6 inches
Points of Articulation: 24

Warnings of 'internet overload'

2007-06-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

As the flood of data across the internet continues to increase, there are those that say sometime soon it is going to collapse under its own weight. But that is what they said last year.
Back in the early 90s, those of us that were online were just sending text e-mails of a few bytes each, traffic across the main US data lines was estimated at a few terabytes a month, steadily doubling every year.

But the mid 90s saw the arrival of picture-rich websites, and the invention of the MP3. Suddenly each net user wanted megabytes of pictures and music, and the monthly traffic figure exploded.

For the next few years we saw more steady growth with traffic again roughly doubling every year.

But since 2003, we have seen another change in the way we use the net. The YouTube generation want to stream video, and download gigabytes of data in one go.

"In one day YouTube sends data equivalent to 75 billion e-mails, so it's clearly very different," said Phil Smith, head of technology and corporate marketing at Cisco Systems.

"The network is growing up, is starting to get more capacity than it ever had, but it is a challenge.

"Video is real-time, it needs to not have mistakes or errors. E-mail can be a little slow. You wouldn't notice if it was 11 seconds rather than ten, but you would notice that on a video."

Spending our inheritance

Perhaps unsurprisingly, every year someone says the internet is going to collapse under the weight of the traffic.
Looking at the figures, that seems a reasonable prediction.

"Back in the days of the dotcom boom in the late 90s, billions of dollars were invested around the world in laying cables," said net expert Bill Thompson.

"Then there was the crash of 2000 and since then we've been spending that inheritance, using that capacity, growing services to fill the space that was left over by all those companies that went out of business."

Router reliability

Much more high-speed optic fibre has been laid than we currently need, and scientists are confident that each strand can be pushed to carry almost limitless amounts of data in the form of light.

But long before a backbone wire itself gets overloaded, the strain may begin to show on the devices at either end - the routers.

"If we take a backbone link across the Atlantic, there's billions of bits of data arriving every second and it's all got to go to different destinations," explained Mr Thompson.

The real issue that people are going to face, and are already noticing at home, is that ISPs are starting to cut back on the bandwidth that is available to people in their homes
Bill Thompson, net expert

"The router sits at the end of that very high speed link and decides where each small piece of data has to go. That's not a difficult computational task, but it has to make millions of decisions a second."

The manufacturer of most of the world's routers is Cisco. When I pushed them on the subject of router overload, they were understandably confident.

"Routers have come a long way since they started," said Mr Smith. "The routers we're talking about now can handle 92 terabits per second.

"We have enough capacity to do that and drive a billion phone calls from those same people who are playing a video game at the same time they're having a text chat."

Congestion

Even if the routers can continue to take what the fibre delivers, there is another problem - the internet is not all fibre.

A lot of the end connections, the ones that go to our individual home computers, are made of decades-old copper.

"The real issue that people are going to face, and are already noticing at home, is that ISPs are starting to cut back on the bandwidth that is available to people in their homes," said Mr Thompson. "They call it bandwidth shaping."

"They do this because they have a limited capacity to deliver to 100 or 200 homes, and if everybody's using the internet at the same time then the whole thing starts to get congested. Before that happens they cut back on the heavy users."

Obstacles

But digital meltdown is not the only threat facing the net. There are other, more sudden, real world hazards which the net has to protect against.

Anything from terror attacks to, would you believe it shark bites, can and have taken out major links and routers.

It only takes an earthquake, as we saw at the end of last year, to take out a significant segment of internet infrastructure
Paul Wood, MessageLabs

"There's a perception that the internet is very resilient," said Paul Wood, senior analyst of security firm MessageLabs. "The way it was designed means that if any particular part of it is disrupted then the traffic will find another route.

"It only takes an earthquake, as we saw at the end of last year, to take out a significant segment of internet infrastructure. Then the traffic finds another route, but it goes over a very slow route, which then becomes saturated and can't handle the bandwidth. Then you lose the traffic and that part of the world goes dark for a while."

For decades the internet has kept pace with our demands on it. And demand continues to grow.

And the service providers will continue to insist that the net will survive, and the doomsayers will continue to insist that it is just about to collapse.

Ethernet Crossover Adapter

2007-06-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

You never know when you might need to crossover
There's this little series of numbers that goes something like "1, 2, 3, 6" to which the audience responds "3, 6, 1, 2". Sure, it's not exactly the most exciting call and response game ever devised, but it will help you remember the pattern for making an ethernet crossover cable.

Or you could just carry the Ethernet Crossover Adapter on your keyring and forget about those stupid numbers. Along with our Ethernet Loopback Jack, the crossover adapter could just help you out of a tight network jam. And besides, having this adapter on your keyring quietly shows the world your status as a prepared geek.

Also has these features.

Connect this directly to a standard network cable to convert to a crossover cable
Carry fewer cables and save space
Comes with small chain for connecting to your keyring, backpack, tool bag, etc.
Handy for network maintenance and testing
Small, very portable, easy to use
Compatible with Gigabit and 10/100 ethernet

Sony Ericsson to unveil 9GB Walkman mobile phone

2007-06-14T12:43:00.001-07:00

Sony Ericsson will launch late Thursday in Berlin six new phones, including a high-end Walkman-branded handset with around 9GB of internal Flash memory, according to a company spokeswoman.
The music-centric Walkman will more than double the internal memory of previous models and will feature a newly designed media player and large-touch display for easy navigating. But, unlike Apple’s planned iPhone, the new Walkman will include a keyboard.

“Our new Walkman mobile phone isn’t designed as a response to the iPhone but as a further development of the Walkman,” the Sony Ericsson spokeswoman said.

Sony Ericsson will also unveil the latest in its line of Cybershot camera phones, a 5-megapixel device.

Several new accessories will be introduced in Berlin, including a GPS (global positioning system) unit that can be connected to a mobile phone and new Bluetooth headsets.

What the Japanese-Swedish joint venture will not be announcing in Berlin is a new video game-mobile phone based on Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld device, the spokeswoman said.

The blogosphere was full of rumors of a new PSP mobile phone after Japanese employees of Sony Ericsson last month filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a mobile phone with video game features.

“The patent is registered; we register many patents,” the spokeswoman said. “But we don’t have a PSP mobile phone in the planning. I can’t say that we won’t see such a device in 10 years but there are no plans to build one at the present time.”

The spokeswoman said that the company’s current focus is on music, imaging and the Web, but not on the PSP.

Which isn’t to say that PSP owners won’t be able to make calls soon.

Last month, British Telecommunications (BT) announced its work on a software-based Internet telephony package for the portable device. The system will allow PSP users to make voice and video calls across a Wi-Fi network. Later it will be extended to cover calls and messages to PCs, fixed-line phones and cell phones.

Review: i199 full of playback options

2007-06-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK - As more and more tech toys evolve to include music-playing capabilities, gadget lovers face an increasingly common problem: How can you amplify them all without buying five different speaker docks?
Lately, this has been a problem for me, so when I first spotted iLuv's i199 multimedia system — promising to play music from all these sources while also letting you transmit and receive music — I was optimistic, though admittedly skeptical.

The $250 i199 is $50 cheaper and purports to do much more than Bose's excellent-sounding SoundDock for the iPod. And although some other systems offer multiple playback options, users are still hard-pressed to find one that promises the level of interoperability found in the i199.

The i199 does all that it claims — and much of it well enough to make it worth the price of a video iPod.

The iLuv dock comes in black or white and is about the size of a sleek desktop computer. Various controls on top let you toggle between functions, manipulate playback and volume and control features like the clock and alarm. A hinged panel opens to reveal an iPod dock, USB port and a port for iLuv's Bluetooth implementation.

The front of the iLuv is mostly speaker grill, obstructed by a slot-loading CD player and a central, adjustable LCD that glows bright blue.

When I started testing the iLuv, I wasn't sure where to start. With plenty of playback possibilities, I was briefly tempted to connect all my gadgets at once.

But I decided to ease my way in instead.

First, I docked my video iPod and found that it was typically easy to control with the iLuv's small, slightly awkward-feeling remote. The speakers also sounded good, though not incredible.

Soon, I moved on to CDs by popping in an old "No Doubt" disc. The CD slid smoothly into the unit, and, again, playback was steady and simple.

I began turning up the volume and found the sound good and clear until a little more than two-thirds of the way up. At full blast, the music began sounding a little distorted, but definitely loud enough to support a nice-sized party.

Of course, a good party demands a steady flow of solid tunes, and some of these are stored on stereo Bluetooth-enabled devices like cell phones.

As noted, the i199 has a port for Bluetooth devices. The gadget comes with a tiny "BluePin" audio transmitter and receiver, which you plug into the port. The i199 can now wirelessly play music from any stereo Bluetooth-enabled device and can send sounds for listening on similarly enabled headsets.

I did just that, but couldn't get music from my phone to play at first. Only then did I notice a tiny switch that had to be moved from "transmit" to "receive." Other than that, it was easy to set up. However, I found playback often noticeably choppy, especially when moving the phone.

I called a friend as music blared to see what would happen. As with a stereo Bluetooth headset, the music automatically paused once I hit the "call" button on my phone, resuming again after I hung up. The same thing happened when a friend called me.

I was more impressed with listening to music on a pair of Bluetooth headphones. Living with two roommates, all on different schedules, I like being able to rock out without annoying them.

It was fun to wander my two rooms in our apartment while tracks blasted into my ears alone. On a hot night, I took my headphones into my bedroom and chilled out (literally) to Stereo Total with the air conditioning on high and the stereo unit sweltering a room away.

Although being wireless is fun, the i199's USB port is also a good way to gain access to tunes. I plugged in an old USB memory stick I had lying around. The unit's LCD flashed song names and band titles as songs played.

With all the buttons and options on the i199's top, it's easy to forget about the back. There, you'd find an FM antenna wire, a jack for an AM antenna that is included, an input jack for attaching another audio source and an AV jack for watching videos and images stored on your iPod.

Using a cord that was included, I connected the i199 to my TV and played an episode of "Law & Order" stored on my docked iPod. Doing so allowed me to control the video's playback from the i199's remote, so I didn't have to keep the iPod nearby while watching on the (relatively) big screen.

I did notice, though, that hitting the rewind or fast-forward buttons on the remote quickly would cause the video to go out, thus requiring a trip to the iPod to restart the episode.

My last adventure with the i199 involved its alarm function. The unit has two alarms, and I set one to wake me up early for work by playing a tune from my iPod. The next day I was awoken by an Aimee Mann song and realized that although I wasn't thrilled to be up, for once I didn't want to break my alarm clock.

That's probably for the best with this stereo, because if I did I'd be out a kitchen sink's worth of playback functions, too.

The i199, of course, isn't perfect. It would be well-served by better-working and integrated Bluetooth capabilities, as well as slightly better sound quality. But given its current configuration and price tag, it's still a worthy do-it-all system.

Some latest Gadgets:

2007-06-12T11:07:00.003-07:00

Some latest Gadgets:

2007-06-12T11:07:00.001-07:00

HP Color LaserJet 2600n

2007-06-12T00:53:00.001-07:00

This is one of the best sellers in printer PC industry,so I decided to have a review of it for my users.
With a lower price than some ink jet printers, the HP Color LaserJet 2600n ($400 street) is well positioned to take over the ink jet slot on desktops and small networks. It's ideal for SOHO users wanting to move up to a laser, as well as anyone who has a personal printer in his or her office to augment the network printer down the hall.

The 2600n's most direct competition is the similarly priced Konica Minolta magicolor 2400W ($399 list). Compared with the 2400W, the 2600n is a touch smaller and lighter, at 16 by 14.6 by 17.8 inches (HWD) and 40.5 pounds. That makes finding room for it and moving it into position easier. But the actual setup is marginally more work, since you have to remove each of the four toner cartridges, pull out the restraining tape, and reinsert the cartridge--something you don't have to do with the 2400W. One of the extras in the 2600n is a network connection. Fully automated setup makes it as easy to install the 2600n on a network as it is to install the 2400W with its USB connection.

Output quality is more than acceptable, with an excellent rating for text, and ratings for graphics and photos just below the best available for color lasers. (All three ratings are the same for the 2400W.) Text quality is good enough for any purpose, with more than half of our test fonts easily readable at 4 points, and only one highly stylized font requiring 8 points. Graphics earned a rating at the high end of good, making them just good enough to use for potential clients you want to impress. The only problem worth mentioning is a tendency for white lines to show at the edges of objects, such as the slices in a pie chart.

Photos earned a good rating, with some qualifying as near photo quality. In one case, however, we saw obvious posterization (a tendency for sudden changes in gradients that should change gradually). We also saw a slight green shift in some photos and a reddish-brown tint in a monochrome photo. Overall quality is good enough for things like client newsletters, but the 2600n won't replace your ink jet for printing high-quality photos.

Performance is reasonably good for the price. Comparisons are complicated, however, by the fact that the 2600n is the first low-price single-pass color laser, meaning that it prints all four colors at once instead of one at a time. That gives it the same 8-page-per-minute (ppm) rating for both monochrome and color. By comparison, the 2400W has a tremendous advantage for monochrome output, with a 20-ppm rating. But for color, it's at a disadvantage, rated at only 5 ppm.

On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com), the 2400W left the 2600n far behind on the 50-page monochrome text file, at 2 minutes 40 seconds, compared with 6:06. But most of our test pages include color, so the 2600n beat, or effectively tied, the 2400W on 11 of the 13 individual tests. Total time on our print suite for the 2600n was 21:09, compared with 19:52 for the 2400W.

Which printer would be faster on your desk depends entirely on what you print. And given the equal quality ratings, either one could win out, depending on your mix of output. Even so, the included network connector on the 2600n gives it a slight edge, making it new Editors' Choice.
You are out of ink! Click here for Great FREE SHIIPPING Offers on Inkjet Cartridges, Laser Toners & more.

Wireless power charges gadgets

2007-06-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

You could soon be saying goodbye to having several different chargers for all your handheld gadgets like your mobile phone or MP3 player.
A British start-up called SplashPower has come up with technology that can charge all of them at once, without having to plug any of them into the mains.

The system is based around a small flat mat that plugs into the main electricity supply and a special module inside a gadget.

"You pick up your phone, drop it on the pad and it charges. The pad does all the thinking for you," explained David Whitewood, Vice President of Business Development for SplashPower.

The technology developed by SplashPower is based on the principle of magnetic inductive power transfer.

Inductive charging systems are already used in products like rechargeable electric toothbrushes.

"That technology had a lot of limitations," said Mr Whitewood, "and SplashPower have come up with a solution that works for mobile electronic equipment."

'Green pay-off'

"The cost to add SplashPower technology to phones or MP3 players is very low and very affordable"
David Whitewood, SplashPower

The system works by generating a magnetic field which transfers the energy into a gadget with a Splash module. This in turn transforms the energy into the direct current that the battery uses to recharge.

The company says the system is perfectly safe and will not even wipe credit cards if you accidentally put one on the pad.

The Cambridge-based company is talking to the big electronics manufacturers about integrating the technology into their products.

"The cost to add the SplashPower technology to phones or MP3 players is very low and very affordable," said Mr Whitewood.

The company says the technology will only add 25 cents to the cost of a device and the module itself is less than a millimetre thick.

The system could hold added benefits for businesses such as mobile phone manufacturers as it could help them cut costs.

"You don't have to put a charger in every box if you implement splashpower in your products," said Mr Whitewood, "and there's a green pay-off in that.

"Every time you change your mobile phone, you perhaps keep your charger in a drawer or throw it away. With SplashPower, you wouldn't have to do that."

The company hopes to see the first pads on sale by the end of the year, costing between $25 and $50

Google ranked 'worst' on privacy

2007-06-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

Google has the worst privacy policy of popular net firms, says a report.

Rights group Privacy International rated the search giant as "hostile" to privacy in a report ranking web firms by how they handle personal data.

The group said Google was leading a "race to the bottom" among net firms many of whom had policies that did little to substantially protect users.

In response Google said the report was mistaken and that it worked hard to keep user data confidential.

Hostile approach

The report by the veteran cyber rights group is the result of six months' research which scrutinised 20 popular net firms to find out how they handle the personal information users gave up when they started using such services.

None of the firms featured in the report got a "privacy friendly" rating.

Yahoo and AOL were said to have "substantial threats" to privacy as were Facebook and Hi5 for the allegedly poor way they dealt with user data.

Microsoft, one place higher in the rankings than these four firms, was described as having "serious lapses" in its privacy policy.

Other net sites, such as BBC.com, eBay and Last.fm were described in the report as "generally privacy aware but in need of improvement".

But Privacy International singled put Google at the bottom of its rankings for what the group called its "numerous deficiencies and hostilities" to privacy.

"We are aware that the decision to place Google at the bottom of the ranking is likely to be controversial," the group said in the report.

Privacy International placed Google at the bottom of its ranking because of the sheer amount of data it gathers about users and their activities; because its privacy policies are incomplete and for its poor record of responding to complaints.

"While a number of companies share some of these negative elements, none comes close to achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy," read the report.

Responding to the report Nicole Wong, general counsel for Google, said in a statement: "We are disappointed with Privacy International's report which is based on numerous inaccuracies and misunderstandings about our services."

Ms Wong added: "We recognise that user trust is central to our business and Google aggressively protects our users' privacy."

Privacy International said it planned to release a more detailed report in September produced after detailed consultation with the firms covered in the first draft.

Singer Michael avoids jail term

2007-06-09T00:57:00.000-07:00

George Michael has been sentenced to 100 hours of community service and banned from driving for two years at Brent Magistrates court, north London.

The 43-year-old had pleaded guilty to driving while unfit, blaming "tiredness and prescribed drugs" for the offence.

He was arrested in October last year after being found slumped at the steering wheel of his car.

The pop star, who performs at Wembley Stadium this weekend, has expressed regret over the incident.

"I was ashamed I had done something really wrong in putting other people at risk," he told the court.

Following sentencing, the singer was in a bullish mood outside the court, smiling and laughing with fans.

Reading from a prepared statement, he called the media coverage of the case "farcical" and said reporters had concentrated on the prosecution's case.

"I'm glad to put this behind me," he added. "Now I'm off to do the biggest show of my life."

Paris Hilton is sent back to jail

2007-06-09T00:55:00.001-07:00

Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton has been taken screaming from a Los Angeles court after being told to return to jail to serve out her sentence.

The celebrity heiress was ordered to attend the hearing rather than listen to the proceeding by telephone.

Hilton left jail on Thursday, just three days into a 45-day sentence for violating probation on a driving ban.

Her release from detention, on unspecified medical grounds, had sparked widespread criticism.

Hilton attended court to hear the case for her "reassignment" to house arrest.

I'm just going to keep [Hilton] in a better facility for her condition, meaning one that has a more intense form of medical support
Lee Baca
LA county sheriff

She arrived in handcuffs and cried throughout the court session.

The judge said that she would have to serve her full 45-day sentence.

"It's not right!" she shouted in response, before calling out to her mother, who was at the court.

'Severe problems'

Hilton will stay for a few days at a treatment centre at Twin Towers jail in LA for medical and psychiatric examination to determine which jail she will be sent to, sheriff spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

LA county sheriff Lee Baca defended his earlier decision to release Hilton on medical grounds, saying "this lady has some severe problems".

He suggested that her problems were psychological.

"I'm just going to keep her in a better facility for her condition, meaning one that has a more intense form of medical support, and will watch her behaviour so there isn't anything that is harmfully done to herself by herself," Mr Baca said.

She had been held at the Century Regional Detention Centre in Lynwood, California, in a special unit for celebrities, public officials, police officers and other high-profile inmates, and has so far served five days of her sentence.

Specific details of her medical problem have been withheld for "privacy reasons".

Google moves to take on Microsoft

2007-06-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Google will announce an initiative on Thursday that will take its applications beyond the web and challenge Microsoft on its home turf of the computer hard-drive.

The internet company is launching Google Gears, an open-source technology for creating offline web applications.

A key differentiator of Microsoft applications is that they can be used without an internet connection. They are launched from the computer’s hard drive and files created can be stored and accessed on that drive.

Google Gears will enable its own applications to have the same capabilities. Google Reader, a news reader, will be offline-enabled from today and other applications would be expected to follow.

“With Google Gears, we’re tackling a key limitation of the browser in order to make it a stronger platform for deploying all types of applications,” said Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive.

Google says Gears will work with all main browsers on all main platforms – Windows, Mac and Linux. But while it says the Firefox and Opera browsers welcome Gears, it made no mention of Microsoft or its Internet Explorer web browser.

Of additional concern to Microsoft will be Google’s decision to “open source” its technology. Google hopes Gears will move the industry towards a single standard for offline capabilities, potentially enabling thousands of applications to compete with Microsoft software.

“Microsoft is either going to have to support this or do something like it,” says David Mitchell Smith, analyst with the Gartner research firm.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Dell plans purchases to build services

2007-06-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

Michael Dell is planning a series of acquisitions to turn Dell into more of a computer services business, as he struggles to boost sales and margins at the world’s second-biggest personal computer maker.

Mr Dell, co-founder and chief executive, on Tuesday told the Financial Times that the company’s services business was growing faster than sales of computer equipment, and represented a “huge opportunity”.

“That growth will come not just from organic growth but also partnerships and acquisitions. We made a small acquisition in Scotland, which has worked out quite well, and I think you will see some more acquisitions to add capability to our services team,” he said.

The comments came days after Dell announced it was slashing 10 per cent of its workforce in a cost-cutting drive designed to help put the company back on track after a string of missteps.

“Michael Dell knows the company has got to change,” said Martin Reynolds, an analyst at Gartner. “[Using] services to sell hardware is something that makes a lot of sense for Dell.”

Services offered by Dell could include helping companies install new equipment and running an IT helpdesk for staff.

Mr Dell said only about $6bn of Dell’s $60bn annual revenues came from services.

Rivals such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM have spent the past several years building up their services businesses to serve the computing needs of big companies. Many companies find services attractive because they are more profitable than hardware sales.

Mr Reynolds said Dell was more likely to begin making small acquisitions to grow its existing services portfolio, rather than attempt the acquisition of a more specialised computer services company such as Accenture.

But Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies, said Dell might be interested in a bigger deal.

“In the past, Dell has wanted to remain lean and mean,” said Mr Kay. “Now they’re looking at it differently and saying: ‘We need to get this capability under our roof’.”

Dell said recently it would begin selling through Wal-Mart stores and third-party resellers in addition to its direct sales over the telephone and internet. Mr Dell also indicated that the company could be expanding its range of own-branded stores beyond two experimental US outlets.

Dell is also thought to be winding down a foray into Dell-branded televisions that began in 2003. The Bloomberg news service reported on Tuesday that Dell could stop selling its televisions as early as this month. A Dell spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the report.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Qualcomm loses ruling on 3G phones

2007-06-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

A US federal agency Thursday banned the import of new models of third-generation mobile phones using chips made by Qualcomm, the world’s second-largest supplier.

The International Trade Commission’s decision increased considerably the pressure on the San Diego company to settle with rival chipmaker Broadcom.

The commission had found in favour of Broadcom that Qualcomm’s chips infringed its patent relating to power management – a battery-saving feature on mobile devices.

The six-member ITC’s 4-2 vote follows a federal jury in Santa Ana, California, finding last week that Qualcomm had infringed three other patents owned by Broadcom.

“This is certainly an order that will complicate Qualcomm’s life and make it very uncomfortable for its customers,” said Smith Brittingham, a lawyer at Finnegan Henderson and a former ITC senior investigative attorney.

“In the light of this and the jury’s verdict, there’s a ball starting to roll down a hill that could make it end up considering a settlement.”

Qualcomm’s key role in 3G technologies has put it at the centre of a series of legal disputes over what intellectual property it owns and how much in royalties it is entitled to charge.

Nokia, the biggest handset maker, has balked at renewing a patent licensing agreement with the chipmaker this year, arguing its royalties are too high.

“Qualcomm’s wilful and widespread patent infringement is particularly egregious and ironic in light of its historic practice of seeking unfair compensation for its own patent portfolio,” said David Dull, Broadcom’s general counsel, Thursday.

The ITC decided on a limited exclusion order that would apply only to new models of phones imported from Friday. This compromise decision would “reduce the burden on third parties while affording meaningful relief to the patent holder”, it said.

Its order becomes final after 60 days, giving time for review by the Bush administration.

Qualcomm anticipated a ruling against it last week when it pre-emptively moved for the ITC to stay any order.

Mr Brittingham said the agency had never stayed an exclusion order previously and Qualcomm’s probable next step would be to ask a federal circuit judge to issue a stay so that the ban could not go into effect until an appeal had been heard. An appeal could take up to two years.

Lithium-Ion Batteries That Don't Explode

2007-06-03T03:44:00.000-07:00

A new material prevents overheating, making lithium-ion batteries safer for use in vehicles.
A new polymer material could prevent the type of battery explosions that led to last year's massive recalls of lithium-ion laptop batteries. By making such batteries safer, the new material could help clear the way for the widespread use of lithium-ion batteries in hybrid and electric vehicles.

Lithium-ion batteries are used in laptops because they're small and light compared with the alternatives. In cars they could replace the nickel metal hydride batteries used in hybrids now, saving room and improving fuel economy by reducing weight. But so far they haven't been used extensively in cars, in part because of safety concerns.
The batteries can explode and burst into flame when they overheat--a result of overcharging or of the electrodes inside the battery coming into contact, causing an electrical short. While a laptop fire can be dangerous, batteries for such devices only involve a few cells. A fire caused by thousands of cells in a battery pack for cars could be much worse.

Last year, millions of laptops were recalled by such major companies as Apple and Dell because metal particles were accidentally incorporated into battery cells during manufacturing. In rare cases, these particles could penetrate a plastic sheet called a separator that ordinarily prevents the positive and negative electrodes within a cell from touching. Such an event can generate heat, which can cause the separator to break down further, resulting in more shorting and more heating. At high enough temperatures, the electrode materials decompose, releasing oxygen and leading to more-rapid heating and, ultimately, an explosion and fire.

Researchers at Tonen Chemical, an affiliate of ExxonMobil Chemical based in Tokyo, Japan, have developed a new separator that plays an active role in keeping batteries from overheating. The material could make it possible to slow the reactions, allowing the battery to cool off rather than bursting into flame, says Peter Roth, program manager for advanced technology development at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, NM. Sandia is now testing the safety features of the new separator.

Separators are electrically insulating materials that have been engineered to have pores that allow lithium ions to shuttle back and forth between a battery's electrodes while the battery is being charged and discharged. A new generation of separators are designed to soften when they reach a certain temperature, about 130 ºC. That closes the pores, shutting off the current flow. In some cases, this will stop the overheating. But if the temperature continues to rise in the cell, these materials melt completely, breaking down and causing massive electrical shorts that can accelerate heating. If the cell tops 180 ºC, the electrode materials can decompose, releasing oxygen that allows the battery's electrolyte to catch fire and the battery to explode.

Unlike these separators, which break down at a little above 150 ºC, the new Tonen material stays intact up to 190 ºC. By preventing massive electrical shorting, the new separator could prevent the accelerated heating that leads to explosions, Roth says.

The performance of the separator is due to the fact that it incorporates more than one polymer: one that softens at 130 ºC to shut down current, and another to keep the separator intact to prevent shorting. Since the material can be made by modifying existing manufacturing equipment, it could quickly be available in large amounts, according to Koichi Kono, Tonen's R&D manager. "Commercially, we are ready," he says.

Other companies have developed alternative approaches to making lithium-ion batteries safer, including using different electrode materials or nonflammable electrolytes, or adding a thin layer of ceramic material to keep the electrodes separated. While the ceramics can survive very high temperatures, questions remain about how well they can be incorporated into manufacturing processes and whether they will be too expensive, Roth says. "The goal is to have batteries that fail gracefully rather than explosively."

Solar Power at Half the Cost

2007-06-03T03:42:00.000-07:00

A new roof-mounted system that concentrates sunlight could cut the price of photovoltaics.
A new mechanism for focusing light on small areas of photovoltaic material could make solar power in residential and commercial applications cheaper than electricity from the grid in most markets in the next few years. Initial systems, which can be made at half the cost of conventional solar panels, are set to start shipping later this year, says Brad Hines, CTO and founder of Soliant Energy, a startup based in Pasadena, CA, that has developed the new modules.

Concentrating sunlight with mirrors or lenses on a small area cuts the costs of solar power in part by reducing the amount of expensive photovoltaic material needed. But while concentrated solar photovoltaic systems are attractive for large-scale, ground-based solar farms for utilities, conventional designs are difficult to mount on rooftops, where most residential and commercial customers have space for solar panels. The systems are typically large and heavy, and they're mounted on posts so that they can move to track the sun, which makes them more vulnerable to gusts of wind than ordinary flat solar panels are.

Soliant has designed a solar concentrator that tracks the sun throughout the day but is lighter and not pole-mounted. The system fits in a rectangular frame and is mounted to the roof with the same hardware that's used for conventional flat solar panels. Yet the devices will likely cost half as much as a conventional solar panel, says Hines. A second-generation design, which concentrates light more and uses better photovoltaics, could cost a quarter as much. He says that a more advanced design should be ready by 2010.

The Soliant design combines both lenses and mirrors to create a more compact system. Each module is made of rows of aluminum troughs, each about the width and depth of a gutter. These troughs are mounted inside a rectangular frame and can tilt in unison from side to side to follow the sun. Each trough is enclosed on top with a clear acrylic lid. Inside each trough, a strip of silicon photovoltaic material runs along the bottom. As light enters, some of it reflects off the inside surface of the trough and reaches the strip of silicon. The rest of the incoming light is focused on the strip by a lens incorporated into the acrylic lid.

As a solar concentrating system, this design has a few drawbacks. Because the troughs are mounted close together, they shade each other during parts of the day, decreasing the total amount of electricity produced. They can also only track from side to side, which makes it impossible for them to follow exactly the arc of the sun across the sky. This second problem will be addressed in the second-generation design, in which each trough will be divided into sections, each of which can pivot from side to side and also up and down.

But the ease of installation could help convince solar installers to use the technology, says Craig Cornelius, the technology manager for the Department of Energy's (DOE) solar-energy technology program. DOE recently announced $168 million in funding for 13 solar projects, under which Soliant will receive up to $4 million. Cornelius says that the lower installation costs will help reduce the overall costs of solar power from the modules.

Cornelius thinks that some customers, such as those with plenty of roof space, will opt for cheaper, thin-film solar panels, which in some cases can double as shingles, but are less efficient than conventional solar panels. But for those who need more power for the space they have, Cornelius says that Soliant's approach may prove the best option. Its modules produce as much power as conventional flat panels but are less expensive, using 88 percent less silicon. The company's next-generation system would be even better, producing three times as much power per area.

To test the panels, Soliant is working with DOE and Sun Edison, an established solar-system installer and operator based in Beltsville, MD. The second-generation system will be even more challenging to develop because light will be focused on a smaller area, requiring better tracking of the sun. Soliant will also be working with Emanuel Sachs, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, to improve manufacturing techniques and the system for aiming the concentrators.

"In some ways, what's interesting about [Soliant's] approach is [that] the engineering issues they have to solve are relatively mundane," Cornelius says. "This is one of the projects that I'm most excited about in our whole portfolio."

Supplying the World's Energy Needs with Light and Water

2007-06-03T03:37:00.000-07:00

A leading chemist says that a better understanding of photosynthesis could lead to cheap ways to store solar energy as chemical fuel.
While researchers and technologists around the world scramble to find cleaner sources of energy, some chemists are turning to nature's own elegant solution: photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, green plants use the energy in sunlight to break down water and carbon dioxide. By manipulating electrons and hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon atoms in a series of complex chemical reactions, the process ultimately produces the cellulose and lignin that form the structure of the plant, as well as stored energy in the form of sugar. Understanding how this process works, thinks Daniel Nocera, professor of chemistry at MIT, could lead to ways to produce and store solar energy in forms that are practical for powering cars and providing electricity even when the sun isn't shining.

What's needed are breakthroughs in our understanding of the fundamental chemical processes that make photosynthesis possible, according to Nocera, a recognized photosynthesis expert. He is studying the principles behind photosynthesis and applying what he learns to making catalysts that use solar energy to create hydrogen gas for fuel cells. Nocera's goal: a world powered by light and water.

Technology Review: What's the biggest challenge related to energy right now?

Daniel Nocera: The real challenge with energy is the scaling problem. We're going to have this huge energy need, and when you start looking at all the numbers, there's only one supply that has scale, and it's the sun. But it's still a research problem. Technologies all follow lines; then there's a discovery and a new line that's better. We're on a very predictable line now in solar. Most things you hear about are incremental advances.

TR: You're studying photosynthesis to get ideas for how to convert sunlight into a chemical fuel--hydrogen--for use when the sun isn't shining or in powering fuel-cell vehicles.

DN: You can use the electricity directly when the sun is out, in places that have sun. [But] you need storage. There's absolutely no way around it. I am distilling the essence of photosynthesis down to be able to use it.

TR: Why is photosynthesis attractive in finding a source of clean energy?

DN: [Photosynthesis] does three things. It captures sunlight, and [second,] it converts it into a wireless current--leaves are buzzing with electricity. And third, it does storage. It stores the converted light energy in chemical energy. And it uses that chemical energy for its life process, and then it stores a little.

It turns out [that] photosynthesis is one of the most efficient machines in the world for energy conversion. But it's not great for storing energy because that's not what [a plant] was built to do. It was built to live and grow and reproduce.

And so that's the approach we take. Can we now do what the leaf is doing artificially, which is the capture, conversion, and storage in chemical bonds? But my device doesn't have to live: it can take a lot more of that energy and put it into chemical bonds.

Your Coffee Table as a Computer

2007-06-03T03:35:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has announced a touch-screen table that interacts with gadgets placed on its surface.
Today Microsoft unveiled a new addition to computing: a coffee table that doubles as a computer for viewing photos, videos, maps, or Web pages, for instance. The electronic furniture, called Microsoft Surface, lets users manipulating these objects directly with their fingers--to resize a picture or rotate it so that someone across the table can look at it.

The table's surface is a multitouch screen, which means that it can accommodate the input from a number of different points of contact at once, not unlike Apple's forthcoming iPhone.

Surface is also similar to technology created by a startup called Perceptive Pixel, founded by Jeff Han, a researcher at New York University. (See "Touch Screens for Many Fingers.")

Microsoft's technology distinguishes itself from that of other touch screens by wirelessly interacting with gadgets on the tabletop. The table is optimized to accommodate up to 52 points of contact, which could mean, for example, all the fingers on 4 people's hands and 12 devices sitting on the surface. A user can set her camera on the tabletop, and cameras inside the table's thick base will detect its presence (as well as the presence of other objects and fingers). Then software that leverages Bluetooth short-range wireless signals uploads the pictures from the user's camera to the tabletop screen. The user can flip, crop, resize, and organize the pictures using her fingers. To transfer a picture to another device on the table, such as a cell phone, she simply flicks the photos toward the gadget. This Popular Mechanics video offers a nice demonstration of the table in action.

The tables are expected to appear in hotels, casinos, and retail stores by the end of this year.

Third Pirates film in LA premiere

2007-05-20T04:16:00.000-07:00

The latest movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, At World's End, has had its world premiere in Los Angeles.

Crowds of screaming fans turned out to glimpse stars of the film, including Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, as they attended the gala event at Disneyland.

The original inspiration for the film series was a ride at the theme park.

Three films on, it has become one of the most successful film franchises ever, with the second in the series taking over $1bn (£506m) worldwide.

Only two other films - Titanic and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - have ever reached the $1bn global box office takings mark.

At World's End is one of the most expensive in Hollywood history, costing a reported $300m.

At World's End picks up where the last film, Dead Man's Chest, left off and once again features the exploits of the intrepid Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Depp.

Keith Richards
Keith Richards appears as Captain Jack's father
Depp famously based his portrayal of the character on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richard's and in this instalment Richards makes a cameo appearance playing Jack's father, Captain Teague.

British actor Bill Nighy, who returns as Captain Jack's arch nemesis Davy Jones, told the BBC that the success of the Pirates series lays in part with Depp's comic turn, which he described as "one of the great performances of recent times", and the swashbuckling adventure.

But mainly he put it down to the films' feel-good factor saying: " I know it sounds cheesy but it's something to do with big heartedness and good spiritedness and you just feel a bit better when you leave the cinema than you did when you went in."

Privacy bodies back Google step

2007-03-15T04:17:00.000-07:00

Privacy bodies have welcomed Google's decision to anonymise personal data it receives from users' web searches.

The firm previously held information about searches for an indefinite period but will now anonymise it after 18 to 24 months.

"This is an extremely positive development," said Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a US-based watchdog.

"It's the type of thing we have been advocating for a number of years."

However, governments could still force Google to hold onto data or hand it over to authorities.

"By anonymising our server logs after 18 to 24 months, we think we're striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google's services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices," a statement from the search giant said.

It's a step forward, but I would like to see them anonymising data in a much shorter period
Richard Clayton, Cambridge University

It added: "Unless we're legally required to retain log data for longer, we will anonymise our server logs after a limited period of time."

Peter Fleischer, Google's privacy counsel for Europe, said the decision has been taken after consulting with privacy bodies in the US and Europe.

He said: "We believe that privacy is one of the cornerstones of trust. We will be retroactively going back into our log database and anonymising all the information there."

Rolled out

Mr Fleischer said the firm was holding on to the information for up to 24 months in part to match data retention laws being rolled out across Europe.

European internet service providers (ISPs) and phone companies are in the process of implementing an EU directive which forces them to retain a variety of communication data for up to two years.

Google collects and stores data from each query. It holds information such as the search term itself, the unique address of the PC being used, known as the IP address, and details of how a user makes searches, such as the browser used and previous queries to Google.

That information can contain private data about a user, and could be used to build a detailed picture of the user's habits or lifestyle.

Google says it was using this information to help improve its different services and to monitor how its search engine was functioning.

Online habits

Privacy groups are concerned about how the data collected by Google - and other web firms - could be used to monitor people's online habits.

Richard Clayton, a researcher at Cambridge University specialising in web traceability, said Google's announcement was positive but had not gone far enough.

"It's a step forward but I would like to see them anonymising data in a much shorter period.

"There is no justification for holding on to the data for two years."

Mr Clayton said the data Google collected was useful to the firm in improving its services only in the short term.

He said that Google was hiding behind the European directive in setting time limits on how long it should hold on to the data.

"There is no sense of whether this directive even applies to web search logs," he said.

He said the real reason Google was holding on to the data was because of the cost involved in anonymising it.

He said he also had concerns about how the firm was ensuring that held data could not be traced back to individual users.

Google has said it will alter the data so that users' searches cannot be traced back to an individual's computer.

But Mr Clayton said the recent row over search data released by AOL showed that identification of users could still be made even without a machine's unique IP address.

AOL released data to academics last year relating to millions of search queries carried out by its users. While there was no direct identifying data, there was enough information in the searches to build profiles of users.

It is not yet clear if other search engines will follow suit. No-one at Yahoo or MSN was available for comment at the time of writing.

Blogger sued over topless Aniston

2007-02-22T11:44:00.000-08:00

A Hollywood film studio is suing a gossip blog for publishing topless photographs of Jennifer Aniston.

Universal City Studios Productions claimed the images on the Perez Hilton site were stolen and illegally copied.

The case, filed in a Californian court, seeks a bar on further publication and the return of the pictures, which were taken during the making of a film.

A lawyer for Mario Lavandeira, aka Hilton, who runs the popular celebrity blog, said he had "done nothing wrong".

The pictures were allegedly "misappropriated and illegally copied" during production or post-production of Aniston's 2006 romantic comedy The Break-Up, the studio said.

Their legal action claims Mr Lavandeira, 28, "posted all or parts of the stolen footage from the motion picture on his website".

The studio wants an injunction on future use of the picture and a court order "directing the US Marshal to seize" the copyrighted material.

Universal is also demanding a jury trial and monetary damages to be determined by the court.

A statement from Mr Lavandeira's lawyer said: "It is unfortunate that Universal has chosen to bring this lawsuit as our client has done nothing wrong.

"The use of a portion of a single photograph that was previously published on numerous websites, for the purpose of commentary and satire, constitutes fair use."

Aniston 'disdain'

The blogger immediately removed the shot as soon as he learned that it was allegedly stolen, it adds.

"Our client questions whether this lawsuit was in fact motivated by Ms Aniston as a result of her disdain for viewpoints expressed about her on the site."

The legal action follows a separate case last year, when Aniston sued celebrity photographer Peter Brandt.

She claiming he invaded her privacy by using a telephoto lens to photograph her inside her home when she was topless or partly dressed.

The pair reached a "confidential" and "amicable" settlement in September, Aniston's lawyer Jay Lavely said.

Google charges for web programs

2007-02-22T11:33:00.000-08:00

Google has introduced a paid-for version of its web applications it hopes will be popular with small firms.

The paid version adds more storage, phone help and guarantees of availability to the Gmail, calendar, word processing and messaging package.

Industry analysts suggest the move is aimed squarely at Microsoft and its Office suite of programs.

At the same time BT and Microsoft signed a deal to create a marketplace of web-based programs for small firms.

'Brutal timing'

Google's new service costs $50 (£27 or 40 euros) for every account and for this customers get phone support, a guarantee that the online applications will work 99.9% of the time and 10 gigabytes of storage for each e-mail address.

The package of programs available includes e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, calendar and Google Talk.

By paying, users also get the option to turn off the adverts that usually populate the free versions.

The free version of this package was introduced in August 2006 and Google said that more than 100,000 businesses had signed up.

Google hopes that the chance to collaborate on key documents via the web will prove popular to small firms who are more used to e-mailing copies back and forth.

Analysts said the announcement was intended to give people an alternative to Microsoft's Office 2007.

"The timing is just brutal for Microsoft," said Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research at Nucleus Research. "It's definitely a shot across their bow."

In related news Microsoft has revealed details of a partnership with telecoms firm BT to create a marketplace for a series of business programs designed for small businesses.

The subscription-based marketplace will host all the programs itself and allow small businesses to use the different applications as a service.

As well as generic applications such as payroll programs the marketplace will also host niche applications designed for particular types of small businesses such as dentists and estate agents.

A spokesman for BT said it would be signing up software firms to make the programs soon and that it was aiming to launch by the summer.
(Via:BBC)

2007-02-22T11:27:00.000-08:00

An Egyptian court has sentenced a blogger to four years' prison for insulting Islam and the president.

Abdel Kareem Soliman's trial was the first time that a blogger had been prosecuted in Egypt.

He had used his web log to criticise the country's top Islamic institution, al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

A human rights group called the verdict "very tough" and a "strong message" to Egypt's thousands of bloggers.

Soliman, 22, was tried in his native city of Alexandria. He blogs under the name Kareem Amer.

A former student at al-Azhar, he called the institution "the university of terrorism" and accused it of suppressing free thought.

The university expelled him in 2006 and pressed prosecutors to put him on trial.

'Slap in the face'

During the five-minute court session the judge said Soliman was guilty and would serve three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mr Mubarak.

"On blogs everyone is allowed to write what they want. This proves how unintelligent the president and Al-Azahr are"
'Kasia'

Send us your comments

Egypt arrested a number of bloggers who had been critical of the government during 2006, but they were all subsequently freed.

Hafiz Abou Saada of the Egyptian Human Rights Organisation called the sentence "a strong message to all bloggers who are put under strong surveillance".

The UK-based organisation Amnesty International said the ruling was "yet another slap in the face of freedom for expression in Egypt".

Fellow blogger Amr Gharbeia told the BBC it would not stop Egyptian bloggers from expressing opinions as "it is very difficult to control the blogosphere".

There have been no reported comments on the sentence from the Egyptian authorities.
(Via:BBC)

A Long-Delayed Ad System Has Yahoo Crossing Its Fingers

2007-02-05T03:26:00.000-08:00

BURBANK, Calif., Feb. 1 — Starting around 3 p.m. Pacific time on Monday, a group of Yahoo executives will begin shuttling among three “war rooms” at the company’s search marketing unit here.
They will be scrutinizing an array of moving charts and graphs projected on walls and checking with a team of 30 to 40 engineers for any signs of trouble as Yahoo flips the switch on a new search advertising system.

“It’ll be a good event if it is a nonevent,” said Brian Acton, senior director of engineering at Yahoo Search Marketing.
Yahoo’s investors and advertisers, on the other hand, will be looking for something eventful to start happening, if not on Monday, then in the weeks and months after.

The much-delayed ad system, known as Project Panama, is Yahoo’s effort to close the wide gap with Google in the race for search advertising dollars, a fast-growing and incredibly lucrative business that Google dominates. As such, Panama is the most important new product for Yahoo in years.

“You are talking about something that could potentially affect the single largest and most profitable business segment that Yahoo has,” said Mark Mahaney, an analyst at Citigroup.

Among those who will be keeping close tabs on Panama is Yahoo’s chief executive, Terry S. Semel.

“I think we will be watching this closely for many Mondays,” he said. “It has been and continues to be our No. 1 company priority.”

That is no surprise. Some analysts who follow Yahoo say the delay of Panama is the biggest reason Yahoo shares dropped from a high of more than $35 early last year to just over $22 in October. They have since regained some ground, closing Friday at $28.77.

In its simplest terms, Panama is Yahoo’s attempt to place ads in front of users that are more likely to be clicked on. Until now, Yahoo gave top billing to the advertisers who were willing to bid the most to have their ads listed alongside a particular search result.

Google has a different formula, which Yahoo is trying to emulate. It ranks ads on a mix of bid prices and relevancy to the user. That leads users to click on ads more frequently, and since advertisers pay only when a user clicks on their ad, Google, on average, makes more money on every search than Yahoo does.

And since Google is better at matching ads with users, the system is more efficient for advertisers, too, creating a sort of virtuous circle that gives Google a powerful edge.

“I spend a majority of my dollars on Google,” said Amy Wong, global online marketing manager for the software security firm Trend Micro. “I’m glad to see that Yahoo is trying to get their act together.” Ms. Wong said she would like to distribute her ad dollars more evenly among Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, the third major player in search advertising.

Mr. Mahaney estimated that in 2006, Google made 4.5 cents to 5 cents on every search, while Yahoo generated only 2.5 cents to 3 cents a search. The difference adds up to billions every year.

As critical as the success of Panama is for Yahoo, it is not the only challenge facing the company. As Google’s share of all searches has grown steadily over the last year, Yahoo’s has remained largely flat. The company also faces increasing competition in its display advertising business.

In addition, while Yahoo is going through a reorganization aimed at making it more nimble and more accountable, crucial posts remain unfilled, and some investors are waiting for the company to lay out a clear strategy.

“Panama is very important to Yahoo, but it is not the only thing they need to focus on,” said Ellen Siminoff, a former Yahoo executive who is now chief executive at Efficient Frontier, a search marketing firm.

For now, however, all eyes are on Panama.

Mr. Semel acknowledges that Yahoo was late in starting the project. He said that happened partly because Yahoo’s search advertising system, which the company acquired through its takeover of Overture Services for $1.6 billion in 2003, was performing well, and it took time for executives to realize just how much better Google’s system was.

But once Yahoo assembled the Panama team in mid-2005, “things did come together quite quickly,” Mr. Semel said.

Those who worked on the project described the effort as a huge undertaking. They compared it to rebuilding an airplane in midflight, as engineers had to keep the old advertising system running while they put the new one together.

The first phase of the project, which went into operation in mid-October, two months later than planned, includes a completely new system for advertisers.

It provides them with a digital dashboard where they can manage their marketing campaigns, aim ads geographically and test their effectiveness. It includes interactive tools that suggest to advertisers what to bid based on their budget and the number of users they want to attract. Most of those features are already available from Google and Microsoft.
Yahoo engineers say Panama has some unique features, like a “quality index” that gives advertisers a sense of how the system will rank an ad, and sophisticated analytical tools that give advertisers insights on why certain campaigns are effective.
Yahoo says the system can be upgraded without disrupting it. It is intended to be flexible enough eventually to handle video and audio ads and to distribute ads to mobile devices. And while Yahoo gives few specifics, it says Panama will some day play a role beyond search advertising.

“Panama is a foundation for us to start sewing together all our advertising assets,” said Tim Cadogan, vice president of Yahoo Search Marketing.

Yahoo has been moving advertisers to the new system gradually and expects to complete the task in the United States in March. And while some advertisers have run into problems, the new system has generally been well received.

“In terms of ease of use, Google is still the leader, but Yahoo and Microsoft have made great strides in coming up to par,” said Matthew Greitzer, director of search marketing at Avenue A Razorfish, an online ad agency.

But the part that matters most to Yahoo’s bottom line will come Monday, when the new ad-ranking algorithm begins its work.

Last Thursday, the company ran a test in which searches originating on the West Coast ran the new ad ranking system. The team started at 3 a.m., and by lunchtime, the engineers gathered in the war rooms, many with bags under their eyes, and appeared satisfied things were running smoothly.

“Our tests today went beautifully,” said Mark Morrissey, vice president for product at Yahoo Search Marketing.

Just about everyone inside and outside Yahoo expects the system to generate more revenue for the company, but no one knows exactly how much more. Last month, Yahoo cautioned investors not to expect the financial impact of Panama to show up until the second half of the year.

That is in part because as the system is introduced, some advertisers will end up paying less and some more for each click, as ads vary in how likely they are to attract a click from a searcher. Search marketing experts say that in general, the well-known brands will get better placement for their ads at lower bids, because people are more likely to click on them. The reverse will be true for lesser-known brands.

But those dynamics may vary depending on keywords and how carefully advertisers aim their pitches. Yahoo says a customer service team has been working with advertisers to help them understand how to make ads more relevant.

Regardless, it will take time for the marketplace to adapt to the new system and for Yahoo to fine-tune it.

Whatever Yahoo’s gains turn out to be, they will not necessarily come at the expense of Google.

“If this is successful, advertisers will not shift from Google or MSN, but rather from other mediums, such as e-mail, display advertising and offline budgets,” said Stuart Larkins, vice president for search at Performics, a division of online advertising firm Doubleclick.

No matter how good Panama may be, it is unlikely to catch up with Google’s system in the near term. Google has been perfecting its ad-ranking software for years. And on Wednesday, Google’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, said the company was placing fewer ads in front of users, yet receiving more clicks. That means not only that the ads are more relevant, but also that the experience of users is better.

Even Yahoo executives acknowledged that the version of Panama they are introducing on Monday is only a first step.

“I don’t think it gets us ahead,” Mr. Cadogan said. “It gets us to a place where we can compete more effectively.”
(Via:Nytimes)

Be the Next American Idol With Karaoke You Can Carry

2007-02-05T03:18:00.000-08:00

If you cannot get enough karaoke at the local sushi house, the engineers at Griffin Technology have created a low-cost karaoke system you can carry anywhere.
The iKaraoke is a microphone that plugs into any iPod with a dock connector and processes any music that you own. Its software mutes the vocals so you can be Bono’s fill-in. The playback can travel by cable to a headset or amplifier, or it can be broadcast wirelessly to an FM receiver up to 20 feet away.

The muting is not perfect You will still hear the lead singer at least faintly in the background, and, unpredictably, it works better with some songs than others. The microphone has three reverb settings to enhance your voice and help you compare more favorably with the vocalist you are replacing.

The iKaraoke is $50 and is available now at RadioShack and Apple stores. Now when you get the urge to sing “Behind Closed Doors,” it can stay behind closed doors.
(Via:Nytimes)

Tagging 'takes off for web users'

2007-02-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

Tagging or labelling online content is becoming the new search tool of choice among web users, shows research.

As more and more people put their own content online, they are also being invited to tag it with descriptive keywords to help organise their data.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the trend in tagging is growing among US web users.

It found that over a quarter of online Americans - 28% - had tagged content such as a photo, news story or blog.

The business of intelligently tagging content is seen as a crucial element for a next-stage, so-called "semantic web".

But for users of social networking sites it is just an obvious tool to navigate around the sites they visit.

Social networking

Tagging is the process of creating labels for online content. Somebody creating an account on a site such as Flickr is invited to upload photos and then apply labels to the pictures that make sense to them - for instance, labelling a picture of the sun going down as "sunset".

Tagging allows social groups to form around similarities of interests and points of view
David Weinberger, Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society

Once the labels are applied, anyone entering the term "sunset" into Flickr's search will find the photo and any other pictures with the tag.

In this way, tagging makes it easier to organise information for all the users of a site and this social dimension means tagging is becoming a hallmark of the so-called web 2.0 - the social networking element to the net that encourages sharing and collaboration.

New hierarchy

Tagging comes in many forms. Google's tagging feature is called "bookmark", while other sites offer the ability to label content so effortlessly that people may not be aware they are doing it.

David Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a prominent blogger, told Pew that tagging was becoming increasingly important for the web.

Mr Weinberger makes the case for tagging in his book Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder.

This new way of organising information in the digital age, he argues, is a classic example of how the web is enabling the bottom-up building of categories rather than having such things imposed on users.

'Vastness'

"Tagging lets us organise the vastness of the web, and even our e-mail, as Gmail has shown, using the categories that matter to us as individuals," he said.

Some have criticised tagging as being too imprecise or ambiguous but Mr Weinberger is not concerned that one person may tag, say, a Stephen King story as "horror" while someone else calls it "ghost story".

"Tagging allows social groups to form around similarities of interests and points of view. If you're using the same tags as I do, we probably share some deep commonalities," he told Pew Internet.

Data from web-tracking firm Hitwise shows that tagging sites such as Flickr and del.icio.us - a bookmarking site that lets users tag websites with descriptive terms - are gaining popularity as people become more aware of them.
(Via:BBC)

Vista to Aibo = DO NOT COMPUTE

2007-02-03T10:22:00.000-08:00

In 2005, Sony had announced a drastic restructuring plan to stop losing money. That meant Aibo was going out the window, as well as the GPS for car unit and the Qualia luxury brand.

Following suite, Sony announced today they will not develop a driver or any software compatible with Vista for Aibo...

Storage growth sets a fast pace

2007-02-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

A decade ago a 500 megabyte (MB) photo collection was something to boast about. Nowadays it is more likely be a collection measured in the gigabytes.

But as our appetite for storage continues to grow thankfully so does the capacity of our hard drives.

Hitachi has unveiled a drive which has reached the new heights of one terabyte (TB). Its drive looks like any other, but uses perpendicular magnetic recording to make space for all that data.

"The previous generation of recording technology was called longitudinal and it basically recorded the bits laying down, now we're recording the bits standing up," said Kelly O'Sullivan from Hitachi.

"So if you think of it that way, you're stacking a lot more data in a shorter area, therefore you get a terabyte."

With so much data being written to the hard drive, wear and tear is inevitably a concern. So the Hybrid Storage Alliance is promoting a new laptop unit with a built in flash chip that stores all the data you are currently calling on.

That reduces disk spinning time, increases longevity and has other benefits.

"A hybrid solution will extend your battery life. If you're on a plane for two or three hours and you don't want to stop working on a project you want to keep going - so battery is really important in a laptop PC," said Joni Clark, chair of the Hybrid Storage Alliance.

Flash memory

Some storage firms, such as SanDisk, are doing away with the mechanical hard drive completely and are opting for an all flash solution. Its flash drive is due out in Spring.

Using flash memory has many advantages. A modified laptop using only flash memory can start up faster than an ordinary one; is less of a drain on battery power and is far less likely to suffer data loss when dropped.

However, the biggest it can currently get is 32GB which says something about its target market.

"If you look at my kid, he will never use it as he is downloading movies every day," said Amos Marom, general manager of SanDisk Corporation's Computer Solutions Division.

"But if you look at myself I am a road warrior, I work in airports, in aeroplanes, on trains and in hotel rooms. I am consuming about 20GB today, that's all.

Another advantage of this little device is that it helps alleviate burnt knee syndrome in laptops. Flash hard drives stay cool.

Gadget friendly SD flash memory cards are also advancing in leaps and bounds. They come in high-capacity varieties up to a staggering 8GB hence SDHC - as in Higher Capacity.

Those planning to use them should be aware that they run at a variety of speeds and can only be used in compatible SDHC hardware.

For reliability and endurance, optical storage is considered one of the best options. Holographic disks start at 300GB capacity and store data all the way through the disk rather than just on the surface.

Data is written using a split laser beam which creates holograms in the light sensitive material of the disk at the point of intersection.

That's quite a bit of money, but on a cost per gigabyte perspective it's very, very attractive.
Elizabeth Murphy, InPhase Technologies

But even if you wanted to buy a holographic burning kit you cannot - at least not in the shops.

"The reason that it's not entering the consumer market initially is because of fairly high pricing," said Elizabeth Murphy of holographic storage maker InPhase Technologies.

"The drive will be $18,000 (£9,135) list price, so that's a little bit outside the average consumer's price range. And then the media will be $180 for one disk.

"That's quite a bit of money, but on a cost per gigabyte perspective it's very, very attractive."

Still the cheapest is the traditional hard drive, which now comes in a new form - this is an external Serial ATA drive - the same kind that sits inside your PC.

This is an improvement because it does not use the slower types of connections your computer supports

"USB really was made for keyboards and mice and it's not really made for storage, neither was Firewire," said Conrad Maxwell, chairman of the SATA-IO Marketing Work Group.

"They both require protocol translations to make them work and the drives come out with SATA, so direct SATA is faster and you get six times faster performance."

While hard drive advances are impressive, losing 1TB of data is not likely to be much fun in the future. That is why devices built around a technology known by the fearsome name of Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) are becoming more popular. One such is Seagate's 1.5TB device that is actually made up of two 750GB drives.

A continuous backup is created by the same data being written to both drives simultaneously. It might well save your life. Well, your digital one.
(Via:BBC)

PS3-eSATA: free the SATA port on your PS3

2007-02-02T11:58:00.000-08:00

If, like me, you’re the owner of a PS3, you’ve probably realized by now its potential for games and video, and also the fact that there is not a single great game on the market yet! Well, except for MotorSport (I’m totally hooked), but where’s the online mode?? Anyway, let's say we’ll have games on the PS3 at some point, or maybe we’ll have a console emulator (for NEC PC Engine, Super Famicon, Neo Geo, etc.), even a nice DivX player… You’ll also realize that 60GB is good, but hardly enough after a while… Kurouto Shikou is coming to the rescue with their PS3-eSATA, a SATA and eSATA slot for PS3 that allows you to plug any kind of hard disk, and even install the OS of the PS3 on them. You can even unplug the hard disk from your PS3 and plug it on a PC to backup your data, Great!

(Via:akihabaranews)

SRV-1 Mobile Surveillance Robot

2007-02-02T06:34:00.000-08:00

Mars Rover for your Home

Explore the dangerous terrain of your home or office with the SRV-1 Mobile Robot. This palm sized bot packs tank-like treads, a 32-bit ARM processor and a mini video camera. The included wireless transmitter interfaces via USB with any PC up to 300 feet away. The Java based host software supports Windows, Mac or Linux OS and features a built-in web server to monitor and control the SRV-1 Robot with a web browser anywhere in the world. Live video from the robot updates at a few frames per second and runs at resolutions of up to 320 x 240. The built in proximity sensors can be toggled on or off to assist when driving the robot manually. An autonomous roving mode allows the SRV-1 to explore independently while avoiding obstacles. Video surveillance recording can be scheduled based on time or date and saved as an AVI video file. Built in web based user-management controls who has access to pilot the robot or change settings. Multiple users can watch the live video feed from the robot without having access to control it. The included software is completely open source on both the host computer end and the robot firmware. Budding programmers can exploit some other nifty features of the robot such as visual object tracking.

Important Note:
The SRV-1 Mobile Robot comes fully assembled and ready to use, but requires some basic technical knowledge of Java and the command line to set-up the software. If you feel comfortable tinkering and have had experience configuring a basic web server you should be in fine shape.

Product Features

* Drive robot manually via web browser with live video feed
* Built in proximity sensors can be toggled on or off to assist when driving the robot manually
* Archive video on demand or via schedule
* Control access to robot and video feed via multiple user accounts
* Roving mode allows autonomous exploration with basic vision detection
* Wireless control up to 300 feet from host computer
* Fully open source and programmable

Hardware Specifications

* Robot moves at 20cm - 40cm /second (about 1/2 mile/hour or 1 ft/sec) with variable speed control and differential steering
* 60MIPS ARM7TDMI 32-bit processor
* Digital video camera with resolution from 80x64 to 640x480 pixels (Currently only up-to 320 x 240 supported in software)
* Four infrared sensors detect object proximity and allow communication with other Robots
* Zigbee USB 802.15.4 wireless module included (Range 100m indoors and 1000m line-of-sight)
* Updatable internal robot firmware
* Internal 7.2V 2AH Li-ion battery pack, provides operation in excess of 4 hours
* Included AC Adapter for Charging Robot (100-240V 50/60Hz)

Software Specifications

* JAVA based Control Application Runs on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
* Robot firmware source code, written in GNUARM-compatible C, is available under open source (GPL) release

(Via:ThinkGeek)

iPhone court battle put on hold

2007-02-02T06:12:00.000-08:00

The legal dispute between Apple and Cisco Systems over the iPhone name has been temporarily suspended.

Cisco's lawsuit has not stopped, but the two firms have agreed to extend talks aimed at "reaching agreement on trademark rights and interoperability".

The Apple iPhone, which the company has said will hit shelves in June, was launched last month in San Francisco.

Cisco immediately sued Apple for trademark infringement; Cisco has its own line of internet-enabled iPhones.

The company, which makes much of the hardware that underpins the internet, has owned the trademark on the iPhone name since 2000 after it acquired another company Infogear.

Different uses

Infogear's original filing for the trademark dates to 20 March, 1996. Cisco's Linksys division has been producing a range of wireless VOIP phones under the name since 2006.

The phones allow users to make calls over the internet

Apple unveiled its iPhone at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco in January.

The touch screen phone allows users to download music and videos and comes in two versions - one with 4GB of storage space, the other with 8GB.
At the time. Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel for Cisco said: "There is no doubt that Apple's new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission."

Apple responded by saying the lawsuit was "silly" and that Cisco's trademark registration was "tenuous at best".

"There are already several companies using the name iPhone for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) products," said Apple spokesman Alan Hely.

"We are the first company to ever use the iPhone name for a cell phone, and if Cisco wants to challenge us on it we are very confident we will prevail."

Under US federal law, two companies are allowed to share the same name providing their uses are not similar.

Apple is no stranger to trademark battles. Last year the company was sued by Apple Corps, the Beatles' recording company, over its entry into the music business. Apple Corps lost the case.

The extended talks between Cisco and Apple are aimed at resolving the dispute before it goes to court.

A joint statement from the two companies read: "Apple and Cisco have agreed to extend the time for Apple to respond to the lawsuit to allow for discussions between the companies with the aim of reaching agreement on trademark rights and interoperability."
(via:BBC)

Vista has speech recognition hole

2007-02-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has admitted that speech recognition features in Vista could be hijacked so that a PC tells itself to delete files or folders.

Vista can respond to vocal commands and concern has been raised about malicious audio on websites or sent via e-mail.

In one scenario outlined by users an MP3 file of voice instructions was used to tell the PC to delete documents.

Microsoft said the exploit was "technically possible" but there was no need to worry.

The firm has pointed out that in order for the flaw to be exploited the speech recognition feature would need to be activated and configured and both microphone and speakers would have to be switched on.

"There are also additional barriers that would make an attack difficult
Microsoft security researcher"

"The exploit scenario would involve the speech recognition feature picking up commands through the microphone such as 'copy', 'delete', 'shutdown', etc. and acting on them," a Microsoft security researcher wrote on the team's official blog.

Some Vista users have already tested the exploit and were able to delete files and empty the trash can so that the documents were not retrievable.

Microsoft has said that even if the machine was primed to accept voice commands it would be unlikely the user would not be in the room to hear the file with malicious instructions being played.

The firm also said that voice commands could not be used for privileged functions such as creating a new user or formatting a drive.

"There are also additional barriers that would make an attack difficult including speaker and microphone placement, microphone feedback, and the clarity of the dictation," wrote the Microsoft researcher.

While speech recognition was a feature of Windows XP, in Vista the use has been widened.

"While we are taking the reports seriously and investigating them accordingly I am confident in saying that there is little if any need to worry about the effects of this issue on your new Windows Vista installation," said the researcher.

Portable Temperature Data Logger

2007-02-01T07:15:00.000-08:00

Log temperatures - and then graph them!

The Portable Temperature Logger is a single channel logging device that can record up to 52,000 measurement samples of temperature in user selectable intervals ranging from 1 second to 12 hours. The unit can then be connected to your computer via USB for retrieving and graphing the data using the included software.

In addition to recording samples at set intervals, the Portable Temperature Logger can also record events (such as low battery, button pushes, or connection to a PC). So, you can press the button on the front of the logger unit for one second and the unit will record "button down" and "button up" events. This is useful if you want to mark the datafile at a certain point in time, for later reference. The unit can be programmed to start at a specific time and date or via a manual push-button start.

This gadget is great for server rooms, wine cellars, mad scientist laboratories, caffeine storage facilities, or any location where temperature is an important consideration. It can also be used around the home to check for furnace short-cycling or programmable thermostat settings.

* Temperature range: -4° to 158°F (-20° to 70°C)
* Resolution: 0.2°F at 77°F (0.1°C at 25°C)
* Battery life: 1 year typical use (CR-2032 lithium)
* Dimensions: 2.4" x 1.85" x .75" (6 x 4.7 x 1.9 cm)
* Weight: .82 oz (26 grams)
* Includes: data logger, software CD, USB cable, mounting kit with magnet/hook-loop tape & double-sided tape
* One year warranty
(Taken from:ThinkGeek)

Vista security claim challenged

2007-01-31T07:07:00.000-08:00

Security experts have thrown doubt on Bill Gates' claim that Vista is "more secure" than other operating systems.

It may be more secure than other versions of Windows, they said, but there are older operating systems that are still safer.

Others said that its security rested on how people use the new system rather than on any individual technology.

There is also evidence that malicious hackers are refining attacks to cope with the changes Vista makes.

Old iron

Mr Gates made the claim that Vista was "dramatically more secure" during an interview with BBC News. He said the improved security in Vista was a reason all by itself to upgrade from Windows XP.

Microsoft has spent more than five years developing Vista and some of the delays to its launch have occurred as developers struggle to make it more secure.

Malicious hackers are already known to be targeting Vista and carrying out research to expose its weaknesses.

"For sure, people are hammering away on it," Jeff Moss, the organiser of the Defcon hacking convention, told Reuters.
"If you are a bad guy and you find a problem, you have a way to spread your malware and spyware," he said.

Vista exploits and vulnerabilities are starting to turn up on discussion boards where such things are traded and developed. So far most have been only experimental and none seem to have been tried in the wild.

Academics are also publishing papers on weaknesses in the security technologies inside Vista.

Testing times

Vista comes with many built-in security features in a bid to make the system safe from the moment it is switched on. These include anti-spyware software and a system that aims to stop malicious programs installing themselves by stealth.

But whether these changes made it more secure than other operating systems generated debate among security experts.

"It's dramatically more secure than, say, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure.

"However, it's fundamentally not more secure than operating systems like FreeBSD, QNX, AS/400 etc," he said.

"I would claim it's not even as secure as another operating system from Microsoft; namely the operating system inside the Xbox 360."

David Emm, senior technology consultant at Kaspersky Labs, said that with Vista Microsoft was treading a fine line between making the software safe and easy to use.

"The more useable and convenient you make it, especially for non-technical people, the more risk there is that there is a chink in the armour," he said.

"In a sense people are the weakest link here," said Mr Emm.

For instance, he said, the User Account Control system in Vista which aims to stop malicious programs installing themselves invisibly may not prove as effective as Microsoft believes.

This system ask users to give permission for programs, browser extensions and many other things to be installed. The sheer number of times that people are asked may make them click past the warning without realising what they were doing, said Mr Emm.

His fears were echoed by Greg Day, security analyst at McAfee, who said the lack of context in the warnings could lead people to make dangerous choices. "It passes the emphasis on to the user to decide."

"Because it is Microsoft its always going to have a very big target on it," he added.

There is also evidence that the malicious hacking community is starting to change its tactics to cope with the kind of security technologies seen in Vista and which are also starting to be used in older operating systems such as XP.

Surveys of the sorts of malicious software seen in 2006 reveal a significant fall in what is known as "replicating code". These are the familiar viruses that travel by e-mail and which try to trick people into opening an infected attachment so they can find more victims to attack.

Instead more and more attacks are becoming targeted at very small populations of users or groups of PCs via a specific exploit or crafted junk mail campaign.

(Taken from:BBC)

Picoo-Z Micro Remote Control Helicopter

2007-01-31T06:29:00.000-08:00

Possibly the best flying toy yet!

Only 17 cms long and weighing an incredible10 grams,the amazing new Picoo Z is a fascinating flying machine that is super stable and easy to fly in the smallest of spaces, and unbelievably fits in the palm of your hand for fantastic desk space fun!�

PicooZ comes with very unique roto-blade mechanism that provides strong and steady lifting power for flying. Equipped with sophisticated design on rudder mechanism, PicooZ can hover very steadily in the air. Two-channel and digital proportional remote control provide players smooth maneuverability.

Supplied completely ready-to-fly with an innovative pre-installed two channel proportional wide beam infra red control system, the lightweight Lithium Polymer flight battery will provide flights of up to10 minutes between charges driving two powerful micro motors, yet can be recharged in less than half an hour with the portable charger provided.

The great value Picco Z Micro Helicopter is remarkably robust made of tough expanded Polypropylene foam, features a blue LED strobe light, and incorporates an auto stability system to make this easy to operate both indoors and outside in calm conditions.
Technical Specification:

* Product Dimensions: Main Rotor Diameter 130mm (5.25")
* Length 170mm (6.5") excluding rotors. Rear Rotor diameter 30mm (1.25")
* Product Weight: Only 10g, including Flight Battery
* Rechargeable Flight Battery: High capacity integral Lithium Polymer battery
* Charger: Integral Transmitter/Charger supplied with LED indicator/Auto shut off
* Simply plug in and charge, with easy to use connections
* Charging Time: 20-30 minutes for full charge
* Flight Duration: 5-10 minutes between charges
* Batteries Required: 6 x 1.5v AA Alkaline Batteries for Transmitter/Charger
* Control Specification: Supplied completely assembled and already charged
* Ready-to-fly, with pre-installed 2 Channel Proportional Infra Red Control System
* Take off, hover and descend, turn left and right with fixed forward movement.
* Range: Up to 10m (30ft). Frequency: Infra Red Control System - Bands
* Instruction Manual included: Providing helpful tips for the new Helicopter Pilot
* Age Recommendation: 8+ Adult supervision recommended for operation.
(Taken from:GadgetsAll Rights reserved with them)

Credit card Digital Camera

2007-01-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

This new digital camera is as practical as it is stylish.

Slightly smaller than a credit card, and just 6mm deep, the Credit Card Camera is solidly built with a protective aluminium casing.

As you can see, the camera is too slim to fit a traditional battery, instead it contains a rechargeable lithium battery that is recharged when the camera is connected to your computer's USB port.

Thanks to its slim size, and light weight, the Credit Card Digital Camera can be carried in almost any pocket, even a shirt pocket, and be virtually invisible. You'll have no excuse not to have a camera with you all the time to capture those unexpected moments!

Despite its size, its not short on features:

* Two resolutions of pictures - up to 640 x 480 VGA images
* Image compression mode for storing up to 209 images
* 10 Second self timer- for taking group pictures with you included
* Continuous shooting - takes 10 pictures per second!
* Built in rechargeable battery lasts up to one week
* Automatic exposure and white balance
* PC Web Camera mode for video conferencing

Comes complete with:

* Windows driver CD
* USB Cable
* Driver and software

Camera Sensor: 300K pixels CMOS
Image Resolution: 640 x 480 (Hi)
320 x 240 (Lo)
Memory: 64Mb (8MB)
104 pics (Lo)
26 pics (Hi)
Compression up to 2X
Self Timer :10 Seconds
Size :8 x 5 x 0.6 cm
Compatibility: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
Lens :f=4.99mm, F 2.8

(Taken from: Gadgets)

Skype founders move into net TV

2007-01-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

The founders of the Skype internet telephony service are launching what they describe as the world's first broadcast quality internet TV service.

Following speculation about a service dubbed The Venice Project, the online television software is now being unveiled under the name Joost.

It is designed to enable broadcasters to get their programmes in front of a global internet audience.

It will allow viewers to access all kinds of television over the internet.

Trial period

The chief executive, Frederik de Wahl, showing off the service in Joost's London offices, claimed that it provided a different experience from other internet television ventures.

"We are trying to replicate the complete television experience," he explained as he flicked through channels using the Joost interface on a widescreen television.

"It's full-screen, broadcast quality, you've got instant channel flipping, and interactivity - a viewer can come to us and get all their TV needs."

The service is still undergoing trials, but thousands of people have taken up an invitation to download the software and try it out.

But the big question is what is there to watch?

So far, it is hard to see a compelling reason to switch on to Joost, which will be a free service supported by advertising.

Competitive market

There is a line-up of sports, documentaries and music programming, but nothing that is going to tempt many away from their existing television diet.

But Mr De Wahl insists this is just trial programming and when the full launch takes place in the next few months there will be much more impressive content on offer.

Joost is backed by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who founded Skype, while Frederik de Wahl previously ran a business whose peer-to-peer software was used in Skype.

He says a version of that software is key to the appeal of Joost, with new peer-to-peer technology, backed up by the firm's own servers, making it possible to stream video on demand.

But rival services are already casting doubt on the claim that Joost represents a new frontier for internet television.

BT Vision, launched in December, offers video-on-demand via broadband, and Channel Four Television says its 4OD service promises DVD-quality programmes to download to your computer.

Meanwhile another company calling itself Babelgum contacted the BBC to insist that its service, launching in March, would also use peer-to-peer technology to stream video at "near-TV resolution".

A spokesman said "the Venice Project hasn't got this to itself."

The battle to broadcast over the internet is hotting up and the Venice Project - or Joost as we now must call it - will have to make plenty of noise to make itself heard.

Sundance strikes iTunes film deal

2007-01-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

The Sundance Film Festival has struck a deal with Apple to allow festival films to be sold through its iTunes store.

Thirty-three short films being screened at the festival in Utah will be made available for download for $1.99 (£1).

They will also be streamed free of charge on Sundance's Web site when the festival kicks off on 18 January.

"Streaming on our site is not the same as owning, and there seems to be a world out there for both," said John Cooper of the Sundance Institute.

Demand

The films will be available on the Sundance website for three months only.

Filmmakers will get the bulk of the download price, with Apple, the Sundance Institute and cable television's Sundance Channel sharing the remainder.

So far, at least 33 of the 71 film shorts to be shown at the festival are slated to be distributed through the Sundance site and iTunes.

They will be made available for download from 22 January.

Mr Cooper said a few more will be shown on the website only, and added that he expected demand to be reasonably robust.

But he said there were no plans to make full-length festival films available online.

"What Sundance is really known for is as a platform for people to sell their films, and that's mainly the feature film," he said.

"We didn't want to really interfere with that yet."

Hollywood star Robert Redford, who founded the Sundance Film Festival, said short films were an important aspect of the annual festival.

"I have felt, from the earliest days, that if people really care about independent film, they should pay particular attention to short filmmakers, who are the best indicators of what is coming down the creative pike," he said.

The Sundance Film Festival is held each January in Park City, Utah.

Connecting the digital home

2007-01-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

It has long been promised that the PC will become the entertainment hub of the home. However, the problem with this vision is that our computers tend to sit in the bedroom and means getting those movies, music and pictures the last few metres to the living room is a real pain.
This year's CES - the world's largest consumer gadget show - boasts a wealth of new kit which aims to make it easier to access digital media around the home - and in particular on TV screens.

Ideas on what should be at the centre of it all vary, from PC-based media centres, digital video recorders or even video game consoles.

Microsoft is promoting its Xbox 360 as the place to store and access movies and songs.

"Xbox 360 is at its heart, the world's best games console and we're continuing to sell it very well. But we also know that people have it connected to their TV, and that means they want to see movies," said Robert Bach of Microsoft.

"So we've added a Download Movie service, we've added an HD DVD movie player to it. You want to play music, so you can take your MP3 player or Zune player, and plug it in and see your music.

"Here we're announcing that you can take IPTV digital TV services and run them on top of an Xbox 360."

It should be pointed out that the downloads are only available to those that have a hard drive for their Xbox 360.

Sony's PS3 console does something similar.
Microsoft's ambitions also include its Media Centre software which has not made the impact some had hoped for. It will now get a boost by being integrated into all but the most basic versions of Microsoft's new PC operating system - Vista.

The consumer versions of Vista is scheduled for launch on 30 January.

Apple is getting in on the act too. At the MacWorld show Apple boss Steve Jobs gave more details of Apple TV - the set-top box which uses iTunes to stream media to a television.

Various launches at CES suggest that moving files around the house should be easy. We have more choices now than ever before - hardwire Ethernet cables, Bluetooth or wi-fi.

Netgear's new Digital Entertainer set-top box is one of several here that let you stream HD pictures from your PC over wi-fi to the TV.

But obstructions and interference may hamper a steady picture.

Compatibility

Presuming we can move our digital media files around without too much problem, you then have to consider the alphabet soup which is compression formatting - or codecs - which allow all your devices to understand each other, otherwise you will not see a thing.

"I think it's unbelievably frustrating because you purchase the music expecting to be able to play it where you would like to play it and then you find out later that this is not quite the case."
John MacFarlane, Sonos

"Many of the files that people would like to buy and download, including movies and TV shows, are actually protected with what's called DRM, that is Digital Rights Management software," said Josh Bernoff an analyst from Forrester Research.

"A lot of this software is incompatible with some of these devices.

"So for example, if you buy a movie or TV show from iTunes it'll work fine on your iPod but it's unlikely to work on, say, your Xbox 360 that happens to be connected to the same setup."

Slowly this is changing. For instance, last month if you had bought a rights-protected Windows music file it would not have played on Sonos' high-end multi-room streaming system.

After a year of negotiations Sonos' hardware can now support those files. Now the boss of Sonos wants Apple to also open up, claiming it is customers who lose out.

"I think it's unbelievably frustrating because you purchase the music expecting to be able to play it where you would like to play it and then you find out later that this is not quite the case," said John MacFarlane of Sonos.

"That's not, generally, well explained at the point of purchase."

The steady march of technology is also helping break down these barriers. For instance, a new PC to TV chip by start-up Quartics might help audio and video streaming compatibility.

It allows any files your laptop can read to be streamed over wi-fi to your TV or digital projector.

It is hoped the chip - which can be updated with any new video formats as they emerge - will be integrated into some TVs by the end of the year.

Many companies are supporting a set of standardised formats through industry groups like the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA).

And the new faster 802.11n standard for wi-fi should soon be ratified, which will help boost consumers' confidence in streaming video.

But for now it might be best to take all the hype with a pinch of salt.

Will Zune be music to your ears?

2007-01-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

Regular commentator Bill Thompson looks over Microsoft's Zune player and download service and finds it lacking in pizzazz.
Now that Microsoft has unveiled all the parts making up its Zune music service we can begin to see how it stacks up against the iPod and other MP3 players.

The version of the player that comes in brown has attracted a lot of attention, though that may be just because it's one of the few novelties in an announcement that confirmed most of the leaks that had been circulating for months.

However, it's hardly going to make or break Zune in the market, and anyway it's surely only a matter of time before the player gets snap-on covers like many mobile phones or the Xbox 360.

Prices aren't available yet, presumably because Microsoft wants to make sure that it undercuts Apple's pricing for the iPod and will wait until the last possible moment to reveal them.

After all, Apple has just dropped the iPod's price below the Zune player's rumoured $299 (£160).

Sounds good

Details of the store are sketchy, but as well as buying individual tracks there will be a "Zune pass" subscription service that offers unlimited downloads for a monthly fee.

It's not clear whether you'll lose access to the tracks if you stop your subscription, but somehow I doubt that Microsoft would be foolish enough to do that.

Zune Specifications:

30 GB hard drive
FM radio
7.6cm screen
320x240 resolution
802.11 wireless
Available in black, white and brown

But there is one significant difference between the Zune player and an iPod, and that's wireless. The player comes with wi-fi, which means that lots of cool things become possible, stuff you can't do on an iPod because its only link to the world is through a USB cable.

You won't be able to download music directly from the store to the player using wi-fi, although that must be coming soon. But you will be able to let other Zune users listen to your music by giving them tracks from your player via wireless, a feature that may well turn the heads of the white headphones brigade.

Sharing music between players is an idea that's been around for a long time. Tech journalist Andrew Orlowksi suggested a "Bluetooth iPod" three years ago, with a "what am I listening to?" menu option that lets other people on the bus or train listen in.

Share price

It was a great idea, but it's not surprising that it has taken so long to happen.

Microsoft and Apple, like the rest of the technology industry, will happily restrict the capabilities of their products to keep the entertainment industry happy, and anything that would seem to let users have control over the songs they have paid for is often unacceptable.

Even the new "Zune to Zune" service is restricted in order to keep the record companies happy. You'll only be able to listen to a song you've been sent up to three times over three days, and then you'll be expected to buy it.

There's no indication of how often you'll be able to share unprotected music from other sources, like songs ripped from CDs that you actually own, but the chances are that this too will be limited.
Given the limitations, it may be too much to claim that player-to-player sharing is a way of "building community around new bands", as Microsoft product manager Scott Erickson put it at the launch, but it is an interesting feature that opens up many intriguing possibilities, and even limited sharing is a start.

We should also remember that there is a good track record of hackers opening up Microsoft hardware, as happened with the original Xbox, so we may see more open sharing become possible for those willing to hack the hardware they own.

And if Microsoft really does want to take on Apple then it will soon offer player-to-player streaming and other network-based services. Messenger, Xbox Live and online maps, anyone?

Lost leaders

While Zune is clearly aimed at Apple's iPod/iTunes there are other players in this market and they may well be rather annoyed with Microsoft.

Creative, iRiver, Samsung, Archos and other companies making and selling music players will now have both Microsoft and Apple to compete with, and the chances of them being around in five years must be slim indeed unless Microsoft decides to let them in on its music store and services.

Napster has already started to reposition itself, offering free 512MBb MP3 players to anyone who signs up for a three month subscription. It is trying to move music closer to the mobile phone model, where you get the hardware from your service provider at a deep discount, and pay through monthly subscriptions.

It's a brave attempt to commodify what, for the moment at least, is a highly visible and branded product. And it goes completely against the Apple model, a model which now has explicit support from Microsoft, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
Zune players will be out in time for Christmas, but things will get interesting in a year or so when those who were first to buy iPods start looking for replacements.

Once these early adopters find that they can't buy a music player from anyone else because all of their expensively acquired iTunes downloads are locked by Apple's FairPlay digital rights management technology and will only play on an Apple player, they may get annoyed.

If that annoyance turns into regulation obliging Apple to license FairPlay to others then Zune could be in the right place at the right time to pick up large numbers of users.

As we have seen with the Xbox, Microsoft can afford to wait for the market to arrive, and once the switch from iPods begins it will be unstoppable.

With all that is positive about the new player, it's a shame that the name is so difficult to take seriously.

"Zune" doesn't work for me, and I can't see it ever taking off in the way that "iPod" did. So I doubt we'll ever find ourselves talking about "zunecasts", however successful Microsoft's latest foray into hardware proves to be.
BBC news

Do you think wi-fi's affecting your health?

2007-01-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

Have you suffered headaches, problems with your eyesight, in fact any ill effects since installing wi-fi into your home or office?

There is absolutely no evidence that wireless networks are bad for your health but a growing number of people are complaining about health problems the moment they step into a wireless field.

One MP has already called for an inquiry, while some schools have taken out wi-fi.

BBC Breakfast is interested in talking to anyone who has suffered problems, or who works somewhere that has stopped using the system.

Better leave your comments on BBC breakfast:)

No ceasefire in DVD format battle

2007-01-12T12:39:00.000-08:00

The high definition DVD format war will continue until a winner is declared, technology watchers have heard.

Blu-ray and HD-DVD are battling to become the pre-eminent hi-def format to replace the slowing DVD market.

The two formats are incompatible with each other and so consumers are being asked to choose both the player and the system when moving to high definition.

There is also no sign of the two camps working on a unified format, the Consumer Electronics Show was told.

'Wasted opportunity'

Some believe the industry at large is being damaged by the war due to consumer confusion.

Ben Keen, chief analyst with Screen Digest, said: "There is an awful lot of people in the US and Europe who have HD displays and no hi-def content.

"That's a wasted opportunity at this point. The industry is not exploiting that opportunity."

"The growth of the industry is much slower than it could be," agreed Dr H G Lee, chief technology officer of LG Electronics, which has announced the first player to accept both formats.
"We recognise that the two formats are here to stay."

But the backers of Blu-ray are much more bullish and are predicting victory.

Blu-ray has more backing from film studios and more makers of the players, but HD-DVD has sold equally well in the first year of release.

But the Blu-ray camp believes a library of exclusive titles and the power of PlayStation 3 - which has an in-built Blu-ray player - will see the format pull ahead in the next 12 months.

No-one is going to buy any player without good array of content
Andy Parsons
US Blu-ray Disc Association chairman

Mike Dunn, president of worldwide home entertainment for 20th Century Fox, said: "I really believe the format war is in its final phase."

Supporters of Blu-ray believe that the late arrival to the market in 2006 of new next generation Blu-ray DVD players has given a more even picture than is true.
Studio backing

Currently there is an even number of titles available for both formats but most analysts predict there will be more content available for Blu-ray than HD-DVD next year.

Seven of the eight major US film studios back Blu-ray and five of them are exclusive to the format.

Andy Parsons, chairman of the US Blu-ray Disc Association, said: "It comes down to content and selection of content. No-one is going to buy any player without good array of content.
"As title population grows consumers will quickly see which platform has the titles."

In an ominous sign for HD-DVD, the backers of Blu-ray revealed that of the 20 biggest selling DVDs of 2006 the vast majority were from film studios supporting Blu-ray.

Toshiba and Microsoft, the principal backers of HD-DVD, see the future very differently.

They believe that the cheaper cost of HD-DVD - both in terms of hardware and the ability of firms to produce content on HD-DVD disks gives them the advantage.

Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of consumer technology at Microsoft, said the dual format player by LG - originally a Blu-ray only backer - was proof of the vitality of HD-DVD.

LG is saying that HD-DVD is not dying
Amir Majidimehr
Microsoft corporate vice president of consumer technology

"LG are recognising there is a thriving market for HD-DVD. That's the most positive thing for me.

"It's going to show the way to other Blu-ray exclusive companies. LG is saying that HD-DVD is not dying.

"You can wish it goes away but I'm here to ensure that it doesn't."

Microsoft has sold more than 175,000 and says that they sold out as quickly as they were made.

Toshiba has said that it plans to sell more than 1.8m HD-DVD players in 2007.

Mr Majidimehr predicted that the lifespan of both formats would also be less than the current DVD format.

It has lasted 10 years with great success but Mr Majidimehr said the technology would be superseded by developments in online delivery of hi-def content.

Beneath the bonnet of the iPhone

2007-01-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

Iphone Stastics:

Screen size - 3.5in (8.9cm)
Resolution - 320x480 pixels
Memory - 4GB/8GB
Wireless - Quad-band GSM/wi-fi/Bluetooth
Wi-fi
Camera - 2 megapixels
Battery life - 5 hours talk/16 hours playback
Size - 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
Weight - 135grammes
Operating System - OS X

With the iPhone, it seems that Apple may have surpassed the expectations of even its most demanding fans.

The immediate reaction was one of delight that Apple had combined a widescreen iPod, mobile phone and internet device in such a slick and stylish gadget.

Most excitement is being reserved for the new user interface, which allows users to touch the screen to make calls and listen to music.

Some experts though question whether the phone will be compelling enough to make a real impact on the market.

Others are concerned that the hefty $499 price tag is just a little too much to pay even for the latest iconic Apple design.

User-friendly

Mac fans are excited about the fact that Apple has addressed the need to improve user experience while retaining the sleek design most have come to expect as standard from Apple's head of design Jonathan Ive.

Editor of MacFormat Graham Barlow, obviously not put off by the price, wants two.

"I want one to put in a box and look at and one to play with," he said.

Like many, he is most impressed by the touch-screen technology, which Apple has patented and labelled "multi-touch".

The touch-screen came about as a result of Steve Jobs frustration with existing mobile phones' usability. The new designs means users simply need to touch an icon on the iPhone's 3.5 inch screen to make a call. If another call comes through, users touch a second icon. A third icon allows them to merge the calls into a three-way conference call.

Few doubt that the touch-screen technology could have the same impact on the phone market as the motion-sensitive controls of Nintendo's Wii console seems to have had on the games market.

Small innovations

But others point out that it is not the first time Apple has dabbled with touch-screen technology.

"Apple had its first go with its Newton PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Other companies like SonyEricsson and Nokia have also had a go at touch-screen devices and the arena is littered with casualties," said Ben Wood, partner at research firm CCS Insight.

He believes that the usability of the touch-screen and how well the keyboard's predictive functionality works will be crucial to the device's success.
Mr Wood is impressed by smaller innovations such as the phone's accelerometer, a movement sensor, which automatically detects when the user has rotated the device from portrait to landscape and changes the contents of the display accordingly.

These aside though, he isn't convinced there is anything that revolutionary about the rest of the technology behind the iPhone.

"Peel back the layers and below the Apple lustre, there isn't a great deal that all the major phone companies haven't talked about. The difference is that Apple has done it and that has raised the bar," he said.

Convergence equals compromise

Some think that the iPhone has finally solved the thorny issue of how to converge many functions on one device, although Tom Husson, mobile analyst for research firm Jupiter, is more reticent.

"Convergence without compromise is something very difficult to reach," he said.
"There is no question that the iPhone has set a new standard for handset manufacturers and it definitely addresses the key issue of user experience which is something that Apple is good at but, in order to succeed, it needs to be compelling as a phone," he said.

Issues he identifies as possible problems going forward are battery life - five hours talk-time and around 16 hours for listening to music. He also questions whether the operating system will allow third party applications for the phone.

The fact that the iPhones runs Apple's operating system OS X has delighted Apple fans.

"No-one expected that but it means that Mac users will be right at home with it," said Mr Barlow.

His desire to get his hands on the iPhone has not blinded him to concerns, mainly that the device could be prone to scratching.

He is also under-whelmed by the 4GB storage, although a bigger 8GB model will also be available, priced at $599.

The lack of storage means he will not be giving up his iPod any time soon and he believes the music device Apple has become synonomous with will enjoy healthy sales for some years to come.

Cisco to sue Apple on iPhone name

2007-01-11T06:07:00.000-08:00

Cisco Systems is suing Apple for trademark infringement in a US federal court, for using the iPhone name.

Apple launched its new handheld mobile phone device under the iPhone name on Tuesday, at the hotly anticipated Macworld event in San Francisco.

Following the launch Cisco said it hoped to resolve the matter by Tuesday evening after negotiations.

Apple responded by saying the lawsuit was "silly" and that Cisco's trademark registration was "tenuous at best".

"We think Cisco's trademark lawsuit is silly," Apple spokesman Alan Hely said. "There are already several companies using the name iPhone for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) products."

"We are the first company to ever use the iPhone name for a cell phone, and if Cisco wants to challenge us on it we are very confident we will prevail."

'Revolutionary'

"This issue is not about money, and it's not about the phone itself; it is about Cisco's obligation to protect its trademark in the face of Apple using it without our permission"
Jon Noh, Cisco spokesperson

Cisco, which has owned the trademark since 2000, said it thought Apple would agree to a final document and public statement regarding the trademark.

"Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name," said Mark Chandler, Cisco senior vice-president and general counsel, in a statement.

The firm has owned the name since it bought Infogear Technology in 2000, which registered the name.

Infogear had previously used the name for several years, said Cisco.

Cisco, which supplies networks, said it would seek to stop Apple from "infringing upon and deliberately copying and using" the trademark.

Jon Noh, a spokesperson for Cisco told the BBC: "This issue is not about money, and it's not about the phone itself; it is about Cisco's obligation to protect its trademark in the face of Apple using it without our permission."

Cisco's Linksys arm has employed the trademark since early 2006, and in December it launched its own phone, capable of connecting to the internet, called the iPhone.

News of Apple's launch of its touch screen has been long awaited and Steve Jobs, the firm's head, said the phone would revolutionise the market.

Shares in Apple were 1.3% lower in after-hours trade, having risen 8% after the phone was launched a day earlier.

Apple's 'magical' iPhone unveiled

2007-01-11T06:04:00.000-08:00

US firm Apple has confirmed its move into the telecoms industry, unveiling the long-awaited iPhone.

Users will be able to download music and videos with the phone, demonstrated by Apple boss Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

Mr Jobs praised the phone's design and told the audience the "magical device" would "revolutionise the industry".

The phone, which will cost from $499 (£257) to $599, will be launched in the US in June and Europe later this year.

Apple is not yet saying how much the iPhone will cost in the UK, but using the comparison of a Mac mini computer the 4 gigabyte (GB) model would be about £335.

Also revealed at the Macworld Expo was Apple TV, a device to stream music and movies from a computer to the living room.

'Super-smart'

The announcement ended months of speculation about the iPhone, which has no conventional buttons but instead uses a large touch-screen.

The firm has patented keyboard technology on the 11.6mm thick phone, calling it "multi-touch".

It is essentially a computer with a blank screen that users configure so they can operate the monitor with their fingers.

TOMORROW'S WORLD BLOG
"But as the hype piled up Jobs told us we were witnessing history and he was going to reinvent the telephone - some doubts crept in.
Rory Cellan-Jones"
BBC News' Technology Correspondent

"We are all born with the ultimate pointing device - our fingers - and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse," said Mr Jobs.

A full touch keyboard is available for text messaging and there is a built-in two megapixel camera.

Mr Jobs said the iPhone was a "revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone".

"It works like magic... It's far more accurate than any touch display ever shipped. It ignores unintended touches. It's super-smart."

iPod impact

He demonstrated the phone by playing the Beatles' Lovely Rita, Meter Maid.

He added: "The iPod changed everything in 2001. We're going to do it again with the iPhone in 2007."

The phone will be available on the network of US mobile firm Cingular and will run Apple's OS X operating system.

It will come in two versions - one with 4GB of storage space, the other with 8GB.

Apple shares closed around 8% up after the announcement.

Hands-on: Downloading Movies and TV to Xbox 360

2007-01-11T06:01:00.000-08:00

The new Xbox Video Marketplace is one my favorite new developments of 2006. Launched just before Thanksgiving, Microsoft's new service lets you download HD and SD movies, TV shows, and video clips to your Xbox 360. While not without its hiccups, the service works well, based on my viewings over the past couple of weeks (hey, I only have this phenomenal Pioneer PRO-FHD1 50-inch plasma a couple more weeks, so needless to say, I'm watching a lot of TV).

The service is accessed via the Xbox Live Marketplace on the Xbox 360 console and takes about 15 to 20 seconds to load up each screen, but once I got the selection going, I was impressed with the overall selection of movies: around 48 titles, everything from Akira Kurosawa's Dreams and Rosemary's Baby to THX 1138 and Batman Begins. Unfortunately, just a handful of those movies (Clash of the Titans, The Perfect Storm, V for Vendetta, among others) is available in HD.

The TV show selection is okay—a partial selection of series from CBS, NBC, ABC, MTV, Comedy Central, and a few others.

Though I was able to see if all the fuss around Jericho is merited (it isn't), I'll be happier when I see a larger selection of TV shows. NBC only offers Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (where's 30 Rock?), and ABC offers only The Nine (and now that it's on hiatus, why would I want to get involved with that show?). Again, not all of these shows are offered in HD.

The nice thing about the HD downloads is you get a free download of the SD version, too. The SD versions take just minutes to download, versus the HD shows, which can take anywhere from five hours (a one-hour episode of Jericho in HD) to all night (a different one-hour episode of Jericho in HD), depending, presumably, on how many other Xbox Live members are downloading movies at a particular time. You can usually start viewing a movie once it's downloaded about halfway, but this is little consolation to anyone who's been waiting half the night to watch Exorcist III: The Heretic (in which case, you might have other problems).

Why would you want an SD version, too? I'm thinking it's handy if you decide to delete the show from the Xbox 360 to make space on the hard drive but decide you want to watch it later—an SD download of the show is better for instant gratification. TV shows like Jericho you buy the rights to forever, so you can download the same episode indefinitely; movies, on the other hand, have a Movielink-like deal where you get up to 14 days to start watching a movie, then just 24 hours once you start watching. Like Zune, the service uses the Microsoft "points" system, so HD downloads cost 240 points (about $4.50), and SD downloads cost just 160 points (about $3). Another cool feature: You can download purchased content onto any Xbox 360, provided you sign in under your Xbox Live account.

I experienced a couple of semi-nightmarish problems on the first download—namely, my movies didn't finish downloading and they disappeared off of the "Active Downloads" screen. There was no record of my having purchased the movies, and yet my Microsoft Points account was still 240 points down. I waited about a day and, at a certain point, was prompted to download a patch/update. After that, I simply restarted the download and everything has been peachy since then.

As for quality, the HD content I watched—three episodes of Jericho and Clash of the Titans—looked perfectly clear and colorful and sounded perfectly surround-tastic. I could discern no difference between the downloaded Xbox stuff and what I get via my cable service on HDTV, though, needless to say, Clash of the Titans does not age well in HD, special-effects-wise.

All in all and despite the hiccups, it's a great service. Now if they can just up the HD offerings, I'll be watching more and more of my TV shows and movie rentals on my Xbox 360.

Setting Up Your Xbox before Playing

2007-01-11T05:54:00.000-08:00

When you turn on your Xbox 360, you first need to perform the initial setup. This process lets you:

* Select your language

* Create your gamer profile

* Create an Xbox Live account

You're ready to get started. Press the Start button on your Xbox 360 - now!
Choosing your language

The first choice you need to make is the language you want the Dashboard to use. This page lets you choose what language you see when navigating the Dashboard.

Follow these steps to set your preferred language:

1. Select the language you prefer to use in the Dashboard.

2. Press the A button on your controller to set the language.
Creating a gamer profile

After selecting your language, you automatically switch to the Gamer Profile menu. Your gamer profile is an identity that:

* Stores your data on the Xbox 360 console (either on the hard drive or on a memory unit)

* Connects you to Xbox Live

The following sections show how to use the right gamer profile option for your Xbox 360. You have three choices:

* Create an offline profile

The offline profile doesn't connect to Xbox Live by default. Use the offline profile if:

• You aren't hooking up your Xbox 360 to the Internet

• You prefer to play games without Xbox Live

* I am a member of Xbox Live

* I want to join Xbox Live

Xbox Live requires a high-speed Internet connection.
Creating an offline profile

An offline profile is an Xbox 360 identity you don't use with Xbox Live.

If your Xbox 360 has a high-speed Internet connection, you can create an Xbox Live profile. You can skip to one of the following sections:

* I am a member of Xbox Live

* I want to join Xbox Live

Your offline profile's scores and other data (such as your preferred controller settings) are stored on a memory unit or hard drive and are available only on the Xbox 360 that you are playing on.

Creating a new offline profile is easy. Follow these steps:

1. Press A to use the default option, Create an Offline Profile.

2. Select a storage device and press A.

After you press A, a keyboard screen appears (Figure 1) and prompts you to enter your gamer profile name.

Figure 1: Create a new gamer profile.

3. Create your gamer profile name and press the Start button.

4. After you've typed your name in, you can do one of the following:

• Press the Guide button on your controller

• Highlight the Done button on-screen and press A on the controller

After you press the Done button (or just press the Start button on the controller - the result is the same), the Gamer Picture screen opens.

If you want to use Xbox Live,the following sections show you how.
Creating an Xbox Live profile

If your Xbox 360 console is connected to a high-speed Internet service, you can create a profile that uses Xbox Live.

Before you connect to Xbox Live, make sure that your Xbox 360 console is connected to your home network or high-speed Internet modem to ensure a smooth connection.

The Xbox Live setup steps depend on whether you're already an Xbox Live member.

I am a member of Xbox Live

If you're an Xbox Live member already, you can add your Xbox Live account to your gamer profile after you select the Xbox 360 console's language.

Follow these steps to use Xbox 360 with your existing Xbox Live account:

1. On the Gamer Profile screen, use the left analog stick (or the direction pad) to scroll down to I Am a Member of Xbox Live and then press A.

2. Press A to open the Keyboard screen, and then enter your current gamertag.

Enter your gamertag exactly the way you're currently using it. (Your gamertag is case-sensitive. If you created your gamertag with capital letters, you must use the same capital letters to retrieve your gamertag.)

3. If you want to use a Microsoft .NET Passport account with Xbox Live, follow the on-screen instructions.

I want to join Xbox Live

If this is your first Xbox, or if you have never had an Xbox Live account, you can create a new Xbox Live account after you select your console's language.

Follow these steps to create an Xbox Live account with your Xbox 360:

1. On the Gamer Profile screen, select I Want to Join Xbox Live and then press A.

2. Scroll to the Join Xbox Live option and press A.

3. Select Yes and press A to continue.

4. Enter your gamertag and press Start.

Xbox Live checks the availability of your selected gamertag:

• If the name isn't available, you're prompted to try another name.

• If the gamertag is accepted, you are automatically prompted to link to your Passport account.

5. Select your current Passport account status:

• Yes, I do(you have a Passport account).

• After you sign in to an existing Passport account, you can skip to Step 16.

• No, Create One(you don't have a Passport account).

6. If you select No, Create One, you can now choose your Locale.

7. Set your preferred language.

8. Set your birth date.

9. Enter your e-mail address.

10. Select a password, a secret question, and a secret answer.

11. Select Next and then press A.

12. Enter your first name, last name, phone number, and contact e-mail address.

13. Read the Terms of Use.

14. To accept the terms, choose Accept and press A.

If you don't accept the Terms of Use, you can't create an Xbox Live account.

15. Pick your Xbox Live membership type.

When creating a new Xbox Live account, you have two basic choices:

• The Gold (paid) account lets you in on multiplayer games on Xbox Live.

• The Silver (free) account lets you download game updates and purchase new content through Xbox Live.

16. Confirm your account type choice (and enter payment details if you chose Xbox Gold).

17. Choose a gamer picture.

18. Choose your level.

19. Decide whether you want to subscribe to e-mail information about Xbox Live.

iPod & iTunes: Create Your Own Podcast

2007-01-11T05:50:00.000-08:00

Podcasting is still such a new medium that there aren't many programs around to simplify the process of wrapping your MP3 in an RSS feed yet. A little online research should yield some decent freeware or shareware podcasting applications for download. Here's the basic idea.

1. Record the show; use Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net), which has everything you need and doesn't cost a dime.
2. Edit the audio, removing any verbal missteps (“uh, um, err, you know what I mean,” etc.). You can also run noise reduction and hiss reduction, but in general, a dry mix works fine for podcasting your voice.
3. Export it as an MP3; a bit rate of 64 Kbps should be sufficient. If your podcast is voice only, consider mixing it down to one mono track, since that takes up half the space and recordings made with most desktop microphones are mono anyway.
4. Make an XML file with all the relevant data about your recording.
5. Post the MP3s and XML file on your server, using whatever directions your host service provides.
6. Publicize your podcast by submitting it to podcast directories (a simple web search will turn up several, but you might start at iPodder.org, Podcast.net, or PodCastAlley.com).
7. Keep doing your show every week; who knows, you might be able to build up enough of a following to influence the New York Times Best Sellers list like Oprah, or you might end up being approached by a nationwide detergent company to advertise their wares during your dramatic daytime soap opera show.

Skype™ Cordless Phone

2007-01-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

"Stick it to the Man" Wirelessly

Shhh... don't tell your phone company but there's this little service called Skype™ that, using your PC and some internet black magic, lets you talk to anyone, anywhere in the world for free. What's that you say? You already know about Skype™ and have been using it for months to call your cousin Sven in Copenhagen... Ahh. But wouldn't it be delightful to roam your house freely while you and Sven chat about how Empire Strikes Back really was the best Star Wars movie ever made and how newer technology and special effects don't necessarily make a better film?

Enter the Linksys Skype™ Cordless Phone. Rather than be tethered to your PC for all your Skype™ calls you can "stick it to the man" wirelessly by making and receiving free calls from every room in your house. The compact handset sports a color LCD allowing you to display your Skype™ contact list, connection status, and see who is calling with Caller ID. Built in speakerphone on the handset is a nice extra.

Simply plug in the USB base station to your PC, install the included software and be Skyping in no time. You even get 60 free SkypeOut minutes... to call those pesky friends who don't already use Skype™.

*Features

Complete cordless Internet phone solution for Skype™
Connects Skype™ to Skype™
Connects Skype™ to regular phone lines (with Skype™Out service)
Connects regular phone lines to Skype™ (with Skype™In service)
Plug and dial—easy to install and easy to use
Expandable up to 4 handsets with a single base station Intercom support allows talk between multiple handsets
Built-in speakerphone in handset
Graphical color LCD display with status indicators
Display your Skype™ Contact list on the handset screen
Superior sound quality
Voice encryption for maximum security
120 hours standby time, 10 hours talk time
Base station with USB connection to connect to your PC

* System Requirements

PC with 400 MHz Processor
128 MB RAM
One Available USB Connection
15 MB Hard Disk Space Available for Installation
Windows XP, 2000
Skype™ Application (Included) Installed on PC
CD-ROM Drive
Internet Connection (cable/DSL/other)

* Package Contents

2 NiMH Batteries
Charger with Power Adapter
USB Base Station with 5 foot USB Cable
Quick Installation
Setup Wizard CD with Skype™ Software
Registration Information Card

X-Ray Thunder 8 Gaming Pad

2007-01-08T06:51:00.000-08:00

Dual-Surface Design

A mousepad worthy of its own spiffy tin carrying case? You bet. The Thunder8 Gaming pad is no ordinary mousepad. It features a unique dual-surface design which allows you to switch from a smooth, to a more textured mousing surface to determine which works best with your mouse of choice. To prevent any slippage, its base is firmly held to your desk with silicone rubber feet (and the assistance of gravity, of course).

In another effort to please the ubergamer in you, the Thunder8 also includes a cord clip, to keep your mouse cord from impeding your gaming efforts. All you have to do now is decide which color base you prefer for your Thunder8 Pad. And cross off "crappy mouse pad" from your list of excuses at the next LAN party...
Thunder8 Gaming Mousepad

ABS Base: Super slim, Washable, Excellent Chemical Resistance
Double-sided surface allows you to choose which side is best for you
Easy Lift Hole: Change easily between the two sides
Rubber feet prevent slippage across your desk
Enhanced Cord Clip: Easy in and out design keeps your mouse cord out of the way
Tin packaging provides enhance protection during travel
Dimensions: 11.4" x 9.3" x .2"

Mvix Wireless HD Media Center

2007-01-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

Mvix Now in HD and Wireless!

The venerable Mvix player and enclosure took a quantum leap forward in ability and coolness. First, it's a drive enclosure...you have to supply your own hard drive..., but you can put any size 3.5" IDE hard drive. Any size. What size you got? Trust me, that'll fit. Second, it connects to your network either via Ethernet or 802.11b/g/pre-N MIMO. Third, it's a media player that connects to your HDTV via composite, component, s-video or DVI.

What you want more? Okay, how about it's massive file support? It can do Mpeg-1/2/4, VOB, WMV 9, DivX, and Xvid. It'll play your MP3's, WMA's, AAC's, Ogg files, or straight-up WAV and AC3. It can do it all from its internal hard drive, an external USB drive, or even stream off of your other computers over the network.

More? Wow, you're greedy! Okay, it will also display your photos for you, showing you a happy little slideshow while you listen to your music files.

Last, but not least, it will do all this while upsampling to 1920 x 1080i.

Processor: SEM8621L
Operating System: ucLinux
Video Formats: DivX (3/4/5), AVI, Xvid, MPEG, VCD(DAT), DVD(VOB, IFO), WMV-9, TP, TS, TRP
Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, PCM, AC3, DTS (pass-thru and downmixing)
Image Formats: BMP, JPEG/JPG, PNG
Video Output: Composite, S-Video, Component, and DVI
Audio Output: Stereo RCA, 5.1 channel RCA, Coaxial, Optical
TV Standard: NTSP, PAL or AUTO
Hi-Def Decoding: HD Component Y, Pb, Pr (480p, 720p, 1080i) / HD DVI (480, 720, 1080i, 1080p)
Audio Decoding: MPEG-1 AND MPEG-2 Laysers I, II, and III (MP3), and MPEG-2 BC multi-channel layers I, II and III, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AAC-LC, WMA9 and WMA9 Pro
Networking: RJ-45 Ethernet (10/100), Wireless 802.11b/g/Pre-N MIMO
Network Security: WEP and MAC filtering
Hard Disk Type: 3.5" Internal IDE(PATA)
Power: AC-DC Adapter 12V, 2.5a
Dimension: 187mm(w) x 193mm(h) x 58mm(d) or 7.4"(w) x 7.6"(h) x 2.3"(d)

Microsoft and Apple battle for connected world

2007-01-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

Technology giants Microsoft and Apple will set out their rival visions of the digital future at two separate events in the coming days.

On Sunday Bill Gates will open the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas with a speech focusing on Microsoft's role in the connected world.

The digital home and the move to a high definition age will dominate the agenda at CES, say analysts.

On Tuesday in San Francisco, Apple boss Steve Jobs will address Mac devotees.

Devices which move digital content around the home - from PC to PC and to TVs, hi-fis and other products - have been available for some years but the digital living room battleground is still to be won.

Companies such as Netgear, D-Link, HP and Intel are all expected to unveil new products at CES which make it easier to hook up the digital home and share content such as films and music.
These companies have allied themselves with Microsoft's vision of connectivity and on Sunday evening Mr Gates will deliver the opening keynote of CES and is expected once again to concentrate on the themes of digital content in the home and beyond.

Microsoft has partnered with a number of companies around the world - including BT in the UK - to help deliver video content via the net, called IPTV, and to offer a platform for sharing content built around its new operating system, Vista.

Analyst Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter research director, said: "I expect a strong push from Microsoft relating to Vista.
"This will also likely be Bill Gates' final CES. It will be his swan song and I expect a lot of nostalgia during the evening."

He added: "Apple will not be physically present, but will cast a huge shadow over the show."

In fact, there may well be a mass exodus from CES on Monday night to San Francisco ahead of Apple chief executive Steve Jobs giving his keynote speech.

'Critical part'

"Apple has gone from being just another computer manufacturer to being a critical part of the consumer electronics industry," said Mr Gartenberg.
Apple is tipped to give more details about its iTV device, which shares video and other digital content around the home; a key part of its digital home strategy.

Analyst Sean Wargo said: "The networked home is such a complicated technology - you've got networking infrastructure that needs to be in place, you need devices that can tie into that network and you need content.

"Each year there has been developments in one or all of these areas. The latest development has been around the interface you use to interact or manage that content."

With Apple choosing its own path in San Francisco and many companies in Las Vegas securely attached to Microsoft's vision for the digital home, with Vista at the centre of plans, there are two key rival strategies for the future emerging.

Swarming

More than 140,000 people will attend CES, swarming over more than three million square feet of conference halls, housing the latest digital devices and gadgets

Mr Wargo, director of industry analysis at the Consumer Electronics Association, the organiser of CES, said: "One of the other major themes of this year is the services and content that feed the networked home."

Mr Wargo said the drive for higher resolutions and "beyond hi-def" displays, cameras and games consoles would be the stars of the show.

"High definition TV is driving industry growth now - in the US we are going through a massive display upgrade cycle.

"We're seeing unprecedented volume of TV selling through retail right now. It's pushing that market to new heights. It is now the single biggest product category."

Mr Gartenberg said the focus of CES would be the ongoing move from analogue to digital lives, both in the domestic and business worlds.

'Huge content'

"There will be a lot of stuff related to the digital home - especially for people who have problems with building and managing these huge content libraries of video, music and photos."

Mr Wargo said next generation DVD would certainly be part of the buzz of the show. A lot of people I would expect would be talking about the two formats and whether they will persist for a considerable amount of time."

Blu-ray and HD-DVD are rival and incompatible high definition DVD formats and have a number of different backers.

Sony is the flag-bearer for Blu-ray while Toshiba and Microsoft are firmly in the HD-DVD camp.
Mr Wargo said: "Attendees will be looking for signs of one format pulling ahead of the other or if both formats can coexist."

The battle may be altered following the news that Korean giant LG is to announce a DVD player which can play both formats.

The appearance of Yahoo and Google at last year's show reflected the rising importance of content and services to the digital home and Mr Wargo said he expected 2007 to be no different.

"We are seeing two fronts maturing - the hardware and operating system that will control this system and the content that will feed it.

"There's a story of how the online community is emerging as a potential competitor to the cable, satellite and packaged media industry.

The fact that Walt Disney and CBS are giving keynotes tell the story of how this market place is really growing beyond the boundaries of hardware and moving into content and software."

Security bug found in PDF reader

2007-01-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

Web users are being urged to upgrade their Adobe reader software as a security flaw is found in older versions of the program.

Millions of people use the reader software to view documents prepared in the popular PDF format.

Security researchers said malicious hackers exploiting the flaw could view victim's hard drives or use it to make phishing scams look more plausible.

So far there is no evidence that the bug is being exploited in the wild.

The flaw is found in the web browser plug-in of the Adobe Reader software. Ordinarily this allows PDF documents to be viewed in a browser window.

But by exploiting the flaw hi-tech criminals could use links to PDF files stored on any website to attack vulnerable Windows PCs.

Information about the flaw in the Adobe reader software was first revealed at the annual conference of the Chaos Computer Club - a venerable German hacker group.

Since then security researchers have investigated and found that it could also be used to view files on the hard drive of a vulnerable PC.

Writing about the flaw Symantec security researcher Hon Lau said: "The ease [with] which this weakness can be exploited is breathtaking."

So far no cyber criminals are thought to be actively exploiting the Adobe Reader flaw but code to do so has been produced.

Initially it was thought that only users of the Firefox web browser were at risk but now it is known that Internet Explorer users are vulnerable too.

Upgrading to version 8 of the Adobe Reader software removes the risk of falling victim to the flaw.

Security project focuses on Apple

2007-01-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

Two security researchers are spending the next month publicising bugs in Apple's OS X operating system and programs that run on it.

The plan is to only publicise flaws that have never been found before.

The two hackers behind the project also propose to produce working code that can be used to exploit any loopholes they find.

The pair said they will be revealing problems that range in importance from the trivial to the critical.

Bug tracking

Describing the project on their blog, Kevin Finisterre and hacker LMH said their work was not driven by malice.

Instead, they said, highlighting problems and getting them solved would "improve" OS X and many of the programs that run on it.

"A positive side-effect, probably, will be a more concerned (security-wise) user-base and better practices from the management side of Apple," wrote the two researchers.

LMH told the BBC News website that enough bugs have already been found, including some extra ones as back-up.

Apple iPods, AP

The project started on 1 January and the first discovery was a flaw in Apple's Quicktime video software and the way it handles a particular protocol.

Exploiting this bug via a booby-trapped webpage would let attackers install malicious programs on a target machine.

The attack is designed to work on Intel-based Macs and can also be used to attacks PCs running the Windows version of Quicktime. The flaw is found in version 7.1.3 of Quicktime.

LMH said there had been a variety of reactions to the project from Apple users.

He said: "We have had non-sense personal attacks, delusional responses, some people liked it, some Mac users giving thanks over email, others sent bugs."

Another response has come from former Apple employee Landon Fuller who has set up an unofficial project to patch the bugs found throughout January.

Writing about his project on his blog, Mr Fuller said: "If I have time (or assistance), I'll attempt to patch the other vulnerabilities, one a day, until the month is out."

In an e-mail to the BBC he said: "My run-time patches are band-aids, in that they wrap and protect the vulnerable code. Apple will actually fix the bugs."

Apple has yet to issue an official statement on the project. It is not known if it will produce official fixes or patches.

But, LMH told the BBC News website that he expected Apple to respond and produce official fixes.

"They may be dysfunctional at some points but they will catch up sooner or later," he said.

Previously similar projects have been run finding bugs in web browsers and the kernels, or core, of several operating systems.

Toshiba joins European DVD battle

2007-01-07T06:09:00.000-08:00

Toshiba has launched its new high-definition DVD player in Europe, marking the start of a battle for living room domination.

The electronics firm wants consumers to use their HD-E1 DVD system rather than the rival Blu-Ray format.

Blu-Ray is being backed by electronics firms Sony, Samsung and Panasonic as well as a number of film studios.

The tussle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is similar to the 1980s war between VHS and Betamax video, analysts said.

Toshiba has forecast 500,000 worldwide sales of its HD-DVD player by March 2007.
HD-DVD

Price: Roughly £450
Disc: 15GB or 30GB
Supporters: Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Microsoft, Intel
Studios: Universal, Warner, Paramount

Its system will retail for about £450, roughly half the price of Blu-ray.

A more feature-laden HD DVD player from Toshiba - the HD-XE1 - is planned to launch from late January 2007 for around £649.

Despite differences, both of the new DVD formats offer greater storage capacity than traditional players to cope with the increased size of encoded images needed for high-definition televisions.

And both players have an internet connection, which adds further possibilities of downloadable extras and film teasers.
Blu-ray

Price: Roughly £900
Disc: 25GB or 50GB
Supporters: Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Sharp, Philips, Hitachi, Pioneer, Apple, Dell
Studios: Sony, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Warner, Paramount

HD-DVD discs contain up to 30 gigabytes (GB) of data, compared with 50 GB for Blu-ray.

Disney and 20th Century Fox are backing Blu-ray, while Universal is supporting HD-DVD.

Warner Bros and Viacom have said they will support both.

With no agreement between studios, both formats may continue to exist side-by-side for a while, analysts said, adding that many consumers may put off buying a system until a clear winner emerges.

Brazil model wins YouTube battle

2007-01-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

A Brazilian judge has ordered the video-sharing website YouTube to remove a clip of supermodel Daniela Cicarelli romping in the sea off Cadiz in Spain.

The ex-wife of Brazilian football star Ronaldo was secretly filmed cavorting with Brazilian banker Renato Malzoni.

The court told YouTube to find a way to permanently block the intimate video from being uploaded on its servers.

Inaction could result in a daily fine of $119,000 (£61,300), the couple's lawyer said. YouTube has not commented.

File name change

The Sao Paulo state supreme court first ordered YouTube and two other websites - Globo and IG - to remove the five-minute clip in September after the couple sued.

The two other websites did remove the footage, but despite YouTube's efforts to withdraw the clip it keeps appearing on the site.

"The internet is democratic and has to be defended, but this struggle is to have some level of control to avoid the violations of people's fundamental rights, like privacy and intimacy
Lawyer Rubens Decousseau Tilkian"

As a result Supreme Court Justice Enio Santarelli Zuliani made a new order for its permanent removal, the court's press office said in a statement.

Lawyer Rubens Decousseau Tilkian, who represents Ms Cicarelli's boyfriend, told the Associated Press news agency that YouTube had not taken sufficient action to enforce the order as people kept re-posting the clip by constantly changing the name for the file.

"The internet is democratic and has to be defended, but this struggle is to have some level of control to avoid the violations of people's fundamental rights, like privacy and intimacy," Mr Tilkian told AP.

According to Mr Tilkian, the case will now go before a panel of three judges who will decide whether to fine YouTube.

The hugely popular YouTube website - which claims clips on its site are viewed 100 million times every day - was bought by the search engine company Google for $1.65bn last year.

Technology 'embraced by public'

2007-01-07T06:01:00.000-08:00

More people than ever are becoming early adopters of technology, says research outlined in Las Vegas.

"Consumers get it; they understand technology and they are adopting it accordingly," analyst Sean Wargo told the Consumer Electronics Show.

More than $155bn (£80bn) in consumer technologies is expected to be sold in the US in the next 12 months.

"Driving the industry is the transition to the new breed, the next generation of technologies," Mr Wargo said.

More than 140,000 people are in Las Vegas for one of the world's largest technology shows.

The industry says consumers' love affair with gadgets will continue despite a global economic slowdown and a prediction that growth in the US market would halve in 2007 from last year's figures.

Hardware over time deflates - it's the services and user experience that becomes more important
Sean Wargo

Mr Wargo, director of industry analysis for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), said the industry would continue to grow faster than retail on average.

He said people were "not only upgrading what they have but acquiring new technologies every year".

'Adoption curve'

"The adoption curve now is faster than ever. That early adopter segment of the market has grown."

The CEA said the average US household spent $1,500 (£765) on consumer technology in 2006 and expects that figure to near $2,000 (£1100) this year.

"TECH PREDICTIONS 2007
Total gadget sales to hit $155bn
MP3 player market to peak at 41m units
Video game industry to be worth $16bn
In-car navigation sales to hit $1bn
Flat panel TV sales to break $22bn
Source: Consumer Electronics Association"

"Consumers are allocating more of their disposable income on consumer electronics and will continue to do so.

"They are adopting technologies faster than ever. New technologies we haven't even seen yet are sure to be adopted faster than their previous generations."

Globally the industry is being driven by the shift to high definition and digital.

"Consumers are buying LCDs (flat panel TVs) instead of CRTs (cathode ray tube TVs). They are buying portable MP3 players rather than portable CD players.

'Upgrading'

"They are not only upgrading what they have but acquiring new technologies every year."

But one trend that could be about to slow is the shift to digital music players, such as iPods.

CES preparations
The show floor opens on Monday

CEA research predicted that the market for MP3 players in the US would peak in 2007 at 41 million products as people look to replace existing players and as mobile phones with music playback become more successful.

In 2005 the average number of products per household in the US was 25, the CEA said.

Mr Wargo said that content and services were becoming increasingly important to the industry. "Hardware over time deflates - it's the services and user experience that becomes more important.

"Blogs, voice over ip (internet telephony) and social networks are part of the fabric of our industry."

He also predicted that "disruptive distribution" was also becoming more important, referring to the shift to new methods of getting content such as TV programming, video and gaming via the net.

"They go against the mainstream thread of cable, satellite, retail of receiving content.

"We are witnessing a shift away from old models - physical to digital. We are still in early throes of this. Physical media dominates."

However, research carried out by the CEA suggests that almost half of people want to watch their content on a PC on their TVs.

"They want to make a bridge between a TV and a PC sitting perhaps in a home office."

According to the survey 52% of people were interested in being able to download a movie and burn it on to a DVD.
BBC report.

StealthSwitch

2007-01-06T12:34:00.000-08:00

Procrastinate At The Office With Confidence!

Feet have been a major factor in the course of human history. If it wasn't for feet, so many great heroes of the past would have had to sit down or risk tipping over. The sound of feet is how you know when someone is approaching your cubicle and it is time to hurry and close the game running on your computer. Too many close calls can lead to unnecessary office stress.

The Stealth Switch is the answer. Quickly install the software and plug the hidden foot switch in (it goes either between the keyboard and your computer, or just into an available USB port) and you are safe. It hides in the shadows and just a light tap of your toes will let it work its magic. Based on your preferences, it can hide the current window, hide all windows, or hide all windows except for specified windows. Not just minimize, mind you, but totally erase from your screen. The Stealth Switch can also mute the sound, hide the taskbar, hide the desktop icons, and password protect the restore function. When the coast is clear, another quick tap and you are ready to frag in peace.

Stealth Switch:

Software Requires: Win 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP Home/Pro
Includes: Stealth Switch with 6' cable, USB-PS/2 Adapter, Installation CD-ROM, Quick Install Guide
Dimensions: Approx. 3"(W) x 1.5"(H)
Manufacturer's Warranty: 1 year, limited

Optimus Mini Three Keyboard

2007-01-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

Fabled Mini Keyboard with Animated Keys Arrives

Let's get one thing out of the way. We have this Optimus Mini Three Keyboard in our hot little hands, it is very real and very cool. You want one, trust us. And that's not the salesman in us talking... this is the die-hard geeky friend who wants to see you get some amazing tech that no one you know will have.

Here are the basics. The Optimus Mini connects to your PC via USB and features three keys, each with their own backlit OLED screen. Each key can display a static image or full animation. Press the key and a different action occurs depending on what is assigned to it. Think it as some kind of futuristic dynamic hotkey device.

The bundled Optimus Mini Configurator software allows you to assign various actions to each of the three keys. Furthermore you can instantly switch between six different key layouts by holding down the Ctrl, Shift, Alt-Shift, or Ctrl+Shift keys on your larger keyboard. Hotkey options for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Outlook Express and Windows media player are included. But forget about the practical stuff... what we liked best was being able to assign a different webcam image to each key and have them dynamically update. Or have a clock face with animated second hand displaying the time in Tokyo on one key while a CPU Usage graph scrolled across another key. You can of course mix and match the key functions to your desire and there is even support for portrait or landscape orientation.

Product Features

* Mini USB Keyboard with an OLED screen on each key
* Keys can be configured for the following functions:
o Start an Application
o Set as any keyboard combination
o System Status with Free Memory and CPU Usage graph
o Display webcam or other dynamic images pulled from the web
o Display the Time and Weather in any city with animated analog or digital clock face
o Control Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Outlook Express and Windows Media Player
* Instantly switch between six different keysets by pressing a modifier key on your larger keyboard
* Keyboard images can be set for vertical or horizonal orientation
* Software updates are planned for future enhanced features

Specifications

* Three OLED Screens
o 20×20 mm
o 96×96 pixels resolution
o Animation at 3 frames per second
o 65536 Colors
o viewing angle 160 degrees
* Total Keyboard Size: 116 mm x 51.8 mm x 18 mm
* Key size: 32×32 mm

System Requirements

* Windows 2000, ME, XP (Mac and Linux Support is not currently available, but under development)
* One available USB port

Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard

2007-01-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

The Future Has Arrived

Remember when you were promised all those amazing future tech innovations? Just around the corner was supposed to be a shining technology utopia with flying cars, personal space travel to distant galaxies, and bio-implantable cell phones. It's almost disappointing enough to make you sit at home and watch old episodes of "Space 1999".

Don't lose hope! An amazing glimpse of this promised future has just arrived at ThinkGeek in the form of the Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard. This tiny device laser-projects a keyboard on any flat surface... you can then type away accompanied by simulated key click sounds. It really is true future magic at its best. You'll be turning heads the moment you pull this baby from your pocket and use it to compose an e-mail on your bluetooth enabled PDA or Cell Phone. With 63 keys and and full size QWERTY layout the Laser Virtual Keyboard can approach typing speeds of a standard keyboard... in a size a little larger than a matchbook.

Product Features

Connects to PDAs Smartphones and Computers using Bluetooth
Projects a full size keyboard onto any flat surface
Allows the convinence of regular keyboard typing in a tiny form factor
Rechargeable battery lasts for 120 minutes of continuous typing
Tiny size only 3.5 inches high
Compatible with PalmOS 5, PocketPC 2003, Windows Smartphone, Symbian OS, and Windows 2000/XP. Limited Mac OSX Support.

Whatever Happened to ReplayTV?

2007-01-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

Once as big as the once-big TiVo, ReplayTV was an early pioneer in the DVR business, offering its own excellent set-top box recorder with a supersmooth (and free) program guide. When TiVo emerged as a winner in the early DVR wars, ReplayTV went videophile, creating high-quality DVRs with the latest connections for high-end home theater systems.

But with the rise in inferior (but less expensive) cable-box DVRs, not to mention TiVo, ReplayTV just couldn't keep up. The company recently ditched its consumer electronics skin and has gone all software with the recently launched ReplayTV PC Edition.

This begs the question: Why would you need DVR software on your PC when you can just get it from your cable company or a Windows Media Center Edition PC (and soon, Windows Vista)? The answer is simple: Most of us don't own still-pricey Windows Media Center PCs, so to turn our PCs into TVs, much less DVRs, we need to buy an external tuner/PVR kit such as Hauppauge's WinTV-PVR (just connect the sandwich-sized peripheral into your USB port, and presto, you've turned your computer into a TV/DVR). Excellent and magical as the WinTV-PVR is, it has lousy program-guide and PVR software. And we all know how glitchy and unresponsive cable-box DVRs can be.

This is where ReplayTV's every-bit-as-smooth-as-TiVo software comes in handy. ReplayTV's PC version has a fast-reacting, user-friendly interface with useful features such as "Surprise Me," which is a little like TiVo Suggestions, where the DVR automatically records programs based on your actor, director, and genre choices. The program also lets you search based on categories such as "Primetime Shows" or "Series Finales" or put all your favorite channels together. As with its DVR boxes, the PC edition has Replay's QuickSkip feature, which lets you skip ahead 30 seconds (or any number of minutes depending on what number you punch in first) at the touch of a button.

The PC Edition costs $99 separately, plus an annual subscription fee of $19.95, but select packages of the WinTV-PVR will come bundled with ReplayTV's new program. You can download and try out the program and service for free for 30 days, and the first year of the service is free.

Dory wrote about ReplayTV PC Edition and its features when it was first announced last July, but the release and availability of the program was delayed until just under two weeks ago. With the inclusion of Windows Media Center in every Vista computer, the days of ReplayTV may still be numbered, but for college students or anyone needing an extra DVR, the combination of Hauppauge's WinTV-PVR and ReplayTV PC Edition makes a great holiday gift.

Watch YouTube Videos on Your Phone

2007-01-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

Uploading videos to YouTube from your cell phone has been possible since May, but watching them on your handset has been another matter—until now. Orb Networks just released an updated version of its MyCast, the free web-based service that lets you manage and stream videos, even TV shows, from your home computer to your phone, PDA, or laptop.

The update lets you stream videos from YouTube to your cell phone, also via your computer. It works like this: MyCast transcodes the video formats used on sites like YouTube, Guba, Google, and Daily Motion into a format suitable for viewing on your cell phone.

If there are any videos you particularly like, you can bookmark them (by clicking on the "Orb This" link) and compile them into a playlist of sorts—right from your phone.

I've tried out watching music videos saved on my desktop on my Treo using Orb's software and it works pretty well, if a little grainy. But given the uneven video quality of a lot of YouTube content, it would seem that the small screens of cell phones and PDAs are perfect venues for these little user-generated movies.

YouTube watchers: How often do you want to watch YouTube videos on your cell phone?

Achievements are how Microsoft is gonna edge in on Google

2007-01-05T12:42:00.001-08:00

Mark my words, the popularity of Microsoft’s “points” system (aka “Xbox 360 achievements”) is going to be how Microsoft comes back against Google and Yahoo. Those Xbox wackos (I’m one) will look to get a leg up on their friends by using other Microsoft services.

Imagine if you earn an achievement for doing 100 Windows Live searches, or doing a search that has no results for it, or doing a search that’ll return a Microsoft.com page in the #1 spot.

Don’t think this matters? Every Xbox’er I know keeps track of how many achievements they’ve gotten. I still remember how Chris Pirillo got excited when I was over his house and he earned an achievement.

They are addictive. Watch for Microsoft to expand the points system.

iPhone Announced...And It's Not What You Think

2007-01-05T12:24:00.000-08:00

After several years of speculation and rumor and a few days of intense blog-world activity, chatter over the mystical iPhone has reached an almost epic level.

And now it has finally been announced.

It's not what you think.

Our pals at Gizmodo have the scoop. It's neither an Apple product nor a cell phone, but a VoIP phone from, of all people, Linksys. What's the deal? Turns out Linksys (a division of Cisco) owns a trademark on the iPhone name. It has since 1996: Here's the trademark filing, if you don't believe me. Now it's trotting its old product name out once again, for obvious reasons. (Here's Linksys's press release.)

So what does this mean? Hard to say. Apple is widely rumored to be finally announcing its own iPhone (iPod + cell phone) come January, but there has never really been any chatter over the name. "iPhone" has always seemed the obvious choice, and insiders have largely confirmed that that is indeed the name.

Trademarks have to be used in the marketplace in order to maintain their legal status or else they are invalidated, so for Linksys this may be nothing more than a way to make a quick buck by keeping the name it owns alive and claiming, quite legally, that any Apple product to come along later would be infringing on its trademark. If Apple were to release a product called iPhone, Linksys could simply sue Apple (and easily win, though that would take years) or simply arrange a transfer of the trademark to Apple for a hefty fee.

Hence, a product announcement on December 18, one week until Christmas, not a time traditionally well known for big vendor releases and news.

I imagine Internet chatter is going to be bananas over this issue for the next few weeks, as pundits wonder what Apple's next move might be: Specifically, whether it might drop the iPhone name altogether and go with something else (MacPhone? PhonePod? iPod plus Cellular Calling Plan?).

As for the Linksys iPhone, well, I'll be surprised if anyone really cares much about it. Heck, I'll be surprised it it actually arrives on the market for real. This is legal bait, pure and simple.

Gentlemen, start your lawyers!

Nokia 6155i Phone

2007-01-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

The Nokia 6155i , a mid-level CDMA handset is coming soon to the US. However as of now there is no specific US carrier having it , though its compatible with some U.S. networks, and may be available from third-party dealers or smaller, regional carriers.

The Nokia 6155i measures 3.41" x 1.79" x 1.02" (87 x 45 x 26 mm) and sports a smart clamshell design. Its capable of 3.50 hours of Talk-time and 480 hours of Standby. The handset in;cudes a 1 megapixel camera and comes equipped with a LED flash and video capture. Key features include speakerphone, push-to-talk, FM radio, and infrared.
Modes AMPS 850
CDMA 850 / CDMA 1900
Weight 4.44 oz (126 g)
Dimensions 3.41" x 1.79" x 1.02" (87 x 45 x 26 mm)
Form Factor Clamshell
Stub / Extendable Antenna
Battery Life Talk: 3.50 hours (210 minutes)
Standby: 480 hours (20 days)
Battery Type LiIon
1070 mAh
Display Type: LCD (Color TFT/TFD)
Colors: 262,144 (18-bit)
Size: 128 x 160 pixels
Platform / OS (N/A)
Memory 16 MB (built-in, flash shared memory)
Phone Book Capacity 500
FCC ID QMNRM-59 (Approved Sep 28, 2005)

Fuji FinePix F40fd 8MP Super CCD Digital Camera

2007-01-05T12:15:00.000-08:00

Fujifilm has just announced the FinePix F40fd is an compact 8.3 megapixel digital camera that's packed with tons of features.

Aimed at both beginners and semi-professionals this camera comes with Fujifilm's Face Detection Technology which can focus on up to 10 faces no matter where they are in the frame. During playback you can also auto-zoom in to each face to make sure everyone was looking their best (with their eyes open and best smiles).

The camera runs on Fujifilm's Real Photo Processor II, comes equipped with a Super CCD HR VI, and also works well in low lighting situations and can take shots up to ISO 2000.

It is also the first in a line of cameras by Fujifilm that features an xD/SD compatible slot. Previous Fujifilm cameras supported only xD Picture cards, the F40fd is the first to also support Secure Digital (SD) cards.

Other features include 3x optical zoom, VGA (640x480) movie capture, 14 pre-programmed scene modes, IR image transfer, a 2.5 inch LCD, PictBridge direct printing support and a rechargeable Li-ion battery that can take up to 300 shots on a single charge.

The device is set for a March 2007 release and will retail for a very affordable $299.

Awesome Freebie: Driver Collector

2007-01-05T12:11:00.000-08:00

Faithful readers, today I'm bringing you not one, not two, but three amazing, free, and Null-certified tools for your PC-lovin' pleasure.

First up is Driver Collector, which is so insanely handy I barely know where to start in singing its praises. Built for Windows XP, Driver Collector does one thing and one thing only: It scours your system for hardware you have installed, then finds the drivers for that hardware, and lets you back them up. You can then copy all those drivers to a CD or a thumbdrive.

Why would you want to do this? Many reasons, but the most useful is for when you are reinstalling Windows on your computer. Nothing is more frustrating than finishing up a Windows installation, only to find that Windows couldn't find a driver for your video card (and has stuck you with the heinous 800 x 600 default resolution)...nor has it found the drivers for any of your networking components, so you can't just hop online to download the video driver.

With Driver Collector, you can just back all those drivers up and install them immediately without having to go web hunting on a second PC. It's only a few hundred kilobytes and runs without having to be installed.

Curiously, Driver Collector is several years old and was created by an individual who seems to have vanished from the planet. The link I've provided is to the site where I found it, not the official site, which no longer seems to exist.

Xbox HD-DVD Player Lookin' Gooooood!

2007-01-05T11:58:00.000-08:00

One of the major complaints from people wanting to get into high-definition DVD is that it's prohibitively expensive. Well, if you've got an Xbox 360, that argument may be fading away: The Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player add-on is only $199 and is so far meeting with positive reviews. PC Perspective has the most comprehensive coverage I've seen (and Tom also has a mini-review)... and there's more.

Turns out the Xbox 360's HD-DVD player also works with any PC right out of the box. You don't even need drivers for it. Just plug it in via USB and Windows recognizes it as any USB optical drive. Thus, it may be a great choice even if you don't have an Xbox 360 but still want to get HD content on your computer.

But if you want HD-DVD on your TV (and I'd expect that's where you would want it), your excuse that the Xbox is too expensive may run out. From the look of things, you'll be able to get the $300 Xbox 360 Core System (which has no hard drive and a wired controller) for a cool $100, beginning Thanksgiving Day at 11am PST. How do I know this? Amazon is running a promotion where customers vote on which mega-discount they want. The $100 Xbox 360 is, by far, winning the vote, and I expect its 90% share of the vote won't budge within the next week. So head on over to Amazon come Thanksgiving, get your $100 Xbox and $199 HD-DVD player, and, boom, you've got an HD-DVD setup for $120 less than the very cheapest standalone HD-DVD player that Amazon sells. And you can play Viva Pinata with it.

While I'm still not entirely sold on high-def DVD, this at least removes its single biggest obstacle. Am I crazy? I'm sure you'll let me know...

Meanwhile, if anyone else can find a better deal, let me know in the comments section below!

Update: Amazon is now listing there would be only 1,000 units of the $100 Xbox if (and when) it wins the poll, so you better be ready right at 11am on Thanksgiving morning. Visit Amazon's home page to see the deal!

Hitachi Jumps the CES Gun: Announces 1-Terabyte Hard Drive

2007-01-05T11:52:00.000-08:00

A major tech milestone was hit today: Hitachi—one-upping what will likely be similar announcements next week at CES—announced the 1TB hard drive, the first single unit to hit that magical number.

Before you start sending emails, yes, I know that you can purchase terabyte "drives" already, but these are large, external enclosures, often featuring up to four hard drives jammed into a huge, power-hungry case. The Hitachi drive, the Deskstar 7K1000, is a single disk that you can pop into any PC. (The company is also marketing a version for DVRs and set-top boxes.)

The drive is unfortunately not ready to ship today. It's "expected" in the second quarter of the year at a price of $399. No final release date has been announced.

The PC World story linked above notes that Seagate (with Hitachi, these are the market leaders in storage) also has "intentions" to ship a terabyte drive this year but hasn't announced details. I'm meeting with Seagate on Monday, and I fully expect a response at that time. Stay tuned!

Windows Vista Goes for Arty Start-up Music

2007-01-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to give Windows Vista some aura of cool, Microsoft recently announced that guitarist-musician Robert Fripp, the only member to play in the many versions of '70s-era art-rock band King Crimson, has composed the four-second start-up theme for the new OS.

Like legendary producer-musician Brian Eno, who composed the theme you heard when you turned on Windows 95, Robert Fripp is a gutsy, artsy choice for Microsoft—a gift to the billions of Windows users around the world who have never heard of King Crimson, and probably never will. As this informative article points out, Fripp's music beat out more generic and perky start-up themes.

Alas, despite the fine pedigree of its start-up music composer, Windows 95 never managed to be cooler than the Mac operating systems. I doubt that Fripp's theme will achieve a different result, but the desktop world is certainly a better place for it.

Fripp joins other '70s and '80s music icons who have crossed over to the gadget-world—Thomas "She Blinded Me With Science" Dolby was an early pioneer in the ringtone business and is responsible for the Chopin-esque piano theme you hear on Nokia phones, while Ryuichi "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" Sakamoto wrote a series of catchy, exclusive ringtones for Nokia's stainless-steel 8801 phone last year.

If you could choose any musician to create music for Vista or some other iconic software or gadget, who would it be?