Google v. Technorati (and Hitwise v. Comscore)

by Michael Arrington

Metrics company Hitwise writes a sensational blog post showing the dramatic rise of Google Blog Search against competitors Technorati and Sphere. Their data is saying that this week, for the first time, Google Blogsearch surpassed Technorati in total visits.

Google Blog Search just passed 0.0025% of total internet traffic, according to Hitwise, v. 0.0023% for Technorati. The reason for the surge seems pretty straightforward: Google linked their Blog Search product to Google News in October, which had a immediate and significant impact on traffic. Google also added a Blog Search link in the “More” section on the Google main page. It was not enough to take the lead, but a recent Technorati decline in traffic put Blog Search on top.

It makes sense that the extra attention Google is giving BlogSearch would result in a spike in traffic, but we looked to Comscore for confirmation. What a surprise.

Comscore tells a much different story, and one that makes little sense given the facts. The most recent Comscore data (November) says Technorati had 3 million page views v. Google Blog Search’s 1 million. But Comscore also shows highly erratic Technorati data over the last twelve months, swinging from a high of 22 million page views in April 2006 to a low of 1 million in December 2005.

We’ve seen situations where Comscore showed erratic traffic swings before. In August Comscore showed a significant decline in Del.icio.us traffic, when Hitwise said it was increasing. Yahoo showed disclosed some internal traffic stats and it turned out Comscore was dead wrong. In the case of Technorati v. Google, it looks to be wrong again.

(c) www.techcrunch.com

Taiwan Quake Rattles Asian Communications

by Geoff Duncan

The 7.1 magnitude quake which hit off Taiwan's southern coast Tuesday has disrupted telecommunications and Internet service in Asia.

The 7.1 magnitude earthquake which struck off Taiwan's southern coast Tuesday has dealt a sharp blow to telecommunications and Internet service in south Asia and the Pacific Rim, as companies estimate it may take weeks to fully restore service. Communications providers are attempting to re-route traffic destined for areas as diverse as Hong Kong, Japan, China, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and India, but congestion and service outages may impact services for weeks.

According to Verizon, as many as 18 underseas telecommunications cables serve the Pacific Rim and south Asia; several cables were damages as a result of the Taiwan earthquake, and it may take weeks to get repair teams into the area, locate the problems, and effect repairs.

The U.K.'s Cable & Wireless has been redirecting traffic throgh Australia and Japan. Chunghwa Telecom said communications between Taiwan and Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong were offline, as well as communication to China, which were all routed through Hong Kong.

The quake hit just offshore from the town of Hengchun, came on the second anniversary of a tsunami that took more than 200,000 lives in southern Asia. Two people were killed when their home collapsed, and a total of 42 people were reported injured in southern Taiwan.

(c) www.digitaltrends.com

Newfangled DVD Copy Protection Apparently Cracked; Now The Real Fun Starts

Next-gen DVD players are already something of a joke. Despite their ability to play HD content, industry infighting over two competing standards has stymied their introduction, and their high prices don't help, either. But HD isn't the only new feature these players enable -- they've got a fantastic new DRM scheme, called AACS, too. But, just like pretty much every other DRM scheme out there, rumors say it's already been cracked. It's inevitable, really, and illustrates just what an exercise in futility implementing DRM is: it certainly doesn't stop piracy, as the content available on file-sharing networks indicates, and it simply raises costs and prevents honest consumers from using content they've legitimately purchased in the ways which they'd like. In any case, if AACS really has been cracked, it will be interesting to see the industry response. AACS is supposed to be able to adapt and be changed as time goes on. For instance, keys on playback devices can apparently be revoked and updated in order to allow the DRM to be updated and keep pace with cracks and hacks. However, simply not updating a player may not shield a user from updated DRM, since the copy-protection on discs will change, too -- and if a player hasn't been updated, it won't play the new media. Surely the movie industry feels great about this, and thinks it's really got one over on crackers and pirates. Here's the thing, though: whatever changes they make, the DRM will just get cracked again. And changing around the DRM and requiring updates and breaking functionality isn't going to hurt those people -- it's just going to frustrate honest consumers who won't understand why their expensive DVD player won't play movies any more.

(c) www.techdirt.com

Japanese Media Still Unhappy with YouTube

 by Geoff Duncan

Japanese media groups have called YouTube's response to copyright violations "unsatisfactory," but are still hopeful things can be worked out.

Just after its acquisition by Internet titan Google, popular video sharing Web site YouTube pulled down nearly 30,000 Japanese video files from its service in response to complaints from JASRAC, the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers. However, Japanese publishers are far from happy with YouTube's efforts to remove copyright violations from its service, characterizing the company's response as "unsatisfactory." However, publishers are still hopeful a solution can be reached without litigation.

On December 4, JASRAC outlined a series of of preventive measures it would like to see taken to deter copyright infringements on YouTube until a comprehensive system can be put into place. JASRAC asked for Japanese-language notices on the YouTube site warning that copyright violations are illegal, that YouTube collect names and addresses of users uploading video material to the site, and that YouTube terminate accounts of users who post copyrighted material. JASRAC sets a deadline of December 15, 2006…which came want went with only a brief reply from YouTube's Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.

In their response, YouTube said they're working on Japanese-language versions of their copyright warnings, and has been terminating accounts of users who repeatedly violate their terms of service. YouTube also offered a simplified version of tool enabling publishers to request take-down of infringing material. However, YouTube noted that it does not currently require any sort of user authentication but would "strive for improvement"—but offered no concrete information or timetable. YouTube also indicated it wanted its senior staff to meet with Japanese publishers in regard to business development in Japan.

(c) www.digitaltrends.com

Google Top Searches: Based on Everything and Nothing

by Michael Arrington

Google made a clarification today to their much criticized list of most popular queries in their search engine. The list raised eyebrows because it included some fairly unlikely terms. “Bebo” for example, was the number one term on the list.

In the original announcement, Google said: “Google today announced its annual Zeitgeist, featuring lists and charts of the most popular and fastest-rising global search terms that people have typed into Google.com.” It turns out that while that statement was literally accurate, it was still somewhat misleading.

In the clarification today, Google said: “we do not simply retrieve the most frequently-searched terms for the period — the truth is, they don’t change that much from year to year…Instead, we looked for those searches that were very popular in 2006 but were not as popular in 2005 — the explosive queries, the topics that everyone obsessed over. To come up with this list, we looked at several thousand of 2006’s most popular searches, and ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2005. (”Bebo”, for example, had very little traffic in 2005.) We also gave a bit higher score to searches with more traffic. Similarly, our “what is” and “who is” lists are not necessarily the absolute most frequent searches, but rather those that best represent the passing year.”

I agree with Liz Gannes at GigaOm. If at the end of the day Google is taking the top few thousand searches, subjectively picking a handful that are interesting and then redetermining the order based on velocity of growth rather than overall rankings, we end up with a list that is, in the end, completely meaningless.

(c) www.techcrunch.com

Gmail Disaster: Reports Of Mass Email Deletions

by Michael Arrington

Just a week after I wrote “Uh Oh, Gmail Just Got Perfect” a number of users started complaining that all of their Gmail emails and contacts were auto deleted.

The first message, posted on the Google Groups forum on December 19, stated “Found my account clean..nothing in Inbox, contacts ,sent mail..How can all these information residing in different folders disappear? ..How to write to gmail help team to restore the account..is it possible?..Where to report this abuse?.Any help ..Welcome..Thanks in advance ps101″

Other Gmail users then added to the conversation, saying that their emails had been deleted as well. Most of the users reported using Firefox 2.0 and that Gmail was open in their browser when the deletions occured.

The cause of the problem isn’t clear. One user wrote that after the deletion they received the following message: “This is not a mistake. All your emails and contacts have been deleted on purpose. This was a malicious attack and not an error. Have a nice day. =)” One user pointed to a known security issue with Firefox 2.0, which was fixed in 2.0.0.1.

On December 22, four days after the initial incident was reported, a Google representative posted this message on the thread:

Thank you all for reporting this issue. We apologize for the scare and
inconvenience that it’s causing. We’re actively investigating as we
speak, and we’ll follow up individually with users in this thread as we
get to the bottom of the problem.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Google’s official policy is that once emails are deleted, they are gone forever. And based on the Google Groups thread, no one has been able to have their Gmail accounts restored to pre-deletion status.

Update: A representative from Google just sent the following email:

Hi there TechCrunch folks,

We saw your post today about Gmail and wanted to let you know what was going on.

Regretfully, a small number of our users — around 60 — lost some or all of their email received prior to December 18th. Once we found out about this issue, we worked day and night to confirm that only a few accounts were affected and to do whatever we could to restore as much of the users’ accounts as we could. We’ve also reached out to the people who were affected to apologize and to work with them to restore the email from any personal backup they might have.

We know how important Gmail is to our users – we use it ourselves for our corporate email. We have extensive safeguards in place to protect email stored with Gmail and we are confident that this is a small and isolated incident.

Thanks,
Courtney

(c) www.techcrunch.com

Power Jacket Exo-Skeleton

It’s cool-looking, but don’t expect to have super-human strength with this suit. It has been designed to help partially paralyzed people in their rehabilitation. In this photo, the left arm will mimic the motion of the right arm, thanks to the synthetic muscles (the blue tubes). That, in turn, will help patients remember “the feeling of moving the arm themselves”.

The device will be tested in Japan and might be on the market by 2009 for $17000 before eventually being mass-produced at a cheaper price.

(c) www.ubergizmo.com

Forget L.C.D.; Go for Plasma, Says Maker of Both

What kind of company takes out ads in daily newspapers attacking one of its own type of products? In the case of Panasonic, the answer is a company that has significant investments in a rival technology.

Panasonic, the consumer electronics company owned by Matsushita Electric Industrial, is the world’s biggest seller of plasma TVs. And it has long extolled the benefits of that technology compared with L.C.D., another flat-panel TV product. At the same time, the company sells a full line of L.C.D. sets.

But the company believes that plasma technology is under unfair attack from competitors making “desperate attempts” to denigrate what it sees as plasma’s superiority, according to Bob Greenberg, Panasonic’s vice president for brand marketing.

There is another issue as well, which is that the profit margins on L.C.D. TVs have fallen sharply because of competition.

To demonstrate plasma is better, the company has offered picture comparisons for journalists at electronics shows. And it has developed marketing materials that dispel some of the myths of plasma’s limitations, like how often to refill the plasma gas (never) and the problems with picture burn-in (none anymore).

This holiday, Panasonic went a step further, running an ad in newspapers around the country under the heading “Six facts you need to know before you buy a large flat-panel TV.” The ad points out plasma’s superior contrast, color rendition, crisp motion, viewing angle and durability when compared to L.C.D. TVs.

Not so fast, says Sony. The company, which exited the plasma TV market to concentrate on L.C.D. sets, is running its own series of sportslike newspaper and magazine ads that promote what it calls an HD challenge. Once consumers see reflections of fluorescent lighting in the plasma set, they will opt for L.C.D., the ad contends.

While most people do not have fluorescent lights in their living rooms, Sony believes its challenge shows how bright light bulbs and other reflections can spoil a picture.

“The showroom is the only place where a consumer can compare two TVs,” said Phil Abram, the company’s vice president of product marketing.

To help Panasonic maintain sales of both technologies, it sells plasma sets from 37 to 65 inches on the diagonal, while its L.C.D. TVs can only be purchased in sizes from 23 to 32 inches. Sony, Sharp and other manufacturers sell L.C.D. sets from 19 to 65 inches on the diagonal.

Panasonic also looks to segregate the market. The company argues that L.C.D. TVs, which look brighter in daylight, are the right choice for kitchens and other rooms that need smaller sizes. But in larger sizes and for fast-moving sports scenes, plasma is the right choice, said Mr. Greenberg. Since the ad campaign began, “field research shows that the dialogue is changing. Once you point out that the blacks in plasma are blacker than in L.C.D., it is like pointing out the rabbit in the painting.”

Both technologies are gaining market share at the expense of traditional tube sets, with L.C.D. sales this year overtaking picture tube sets for the first time.

According to data compiled by the NPD Group, L.C.D. TVs held 49 percent of the market in 2006, compared with 26 percent last year. Plasma’s market share increased to 10 percent from 5 percent. At the same time, sales of picture tube TVs dropped by more than half, to 21 percent this year from 46 percent in 2005.

Does Panasonic’s strong support of plasma technology mean that it will never sell a very large L.C.D. TV? Well, not exactly.

“Panasonic in Japan is studying L.C.D. in its larger formats,” Mr. Greenberg said. “If we introduce larger-sized L.C.D. TVs, we will have overcome the problems in that technology.”

(c) www.nytimes.com

Send Greetings, The Google Earth Way

Send greetings this holiday season to your friends and family, the Google Earth way using geoGreeting.

Spell out your message using rare alphabet shaped building found on earth, snapped by Google Earth. Head over to geoGreeting.com, type your message and email the link to your friends and make them happy.

(c) www.tech-buzz.net

Video holography patent licensed to Light Blue Optics

by Peter Clarke

LONDON — Light Blue Optics Ltd., a startup company developing a color projector suitable for inclusion in mobile phones and other portable equipment, has agreed to license a key patent from Cambridge Enterprise Ltd., the University of Cambridge's technology commercialization service.

The patent is a method for real-time, full-color holographic laser projection, and was invented in 2003 by Edward Buckley, director of business development at Light Blue Optics (LBO) and Adrian Cable, while they were PhD students at the University of Cambridge.

The university had previously announced that it had granted an exclusive license to a core patent for holographic video projector technology, developed in the Department of Engineering, to Alps Electric Co. Ltd.

As well as signing a license to access the patent LBO has raised an additional $1 million as an extension to its seed funding round of $2.5 million announced in July 2006. Venture capital firm 3i led the round which also included investment from the U.K. National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, the Cambridge Capital Group and business angels.

Founded in 2004, LBO has developed a projection system that uses laser light sources and diffractive techniques to deliver full-color video images in focus at all distances — even on curved or angled surfaces.

"The efficiency, robustness and cost advantages of our technology make it ideally suited for deployment in multiple markets; including automotive, digital signage and consumer electronics," said Buckley, in a statement.

"At 3i, we invest in cutting-edge technology companies that have the potential to be market leaders. LBO is realizing that potential and we're pleased to support its accelerated product development program by providing this additional funding," said Laurence Garrett, a partner at 3i, in the same statement.

"We now have a strong, clear IP position, and are ideally placed to become the world's leading supplier of miniature laser projection systems," said Chris Harris, chief executive officer of LBO.

(c) www.videsignline.com

Nichia develops high-efficiency white LED

TOKYO — Nichia Corp. said Thursday (Dec. 21) it has developed a white LED delivering 150 lumens/W efficiency.

The prototype is packaged in the same lamp-type package used for Nichia's high-flux lamp type LED. The reported efficiency is about 11.5 times higher than conventional incandescent lamps that deliver 13 lumens/W and 1.7 times higher than widely used fluorescent lamps, Nichia said.

Even compared to high pressure sodium lamps, considered the most efficient light source, the prototype has better performance, Nichia claimed.

Powered by 20 mA current, the LED delivered a light flux of 9.4 lumens at 4,600 Kelvin color temperature. The new light source combines a blue LED chip and yellow fluorescent material.

Nichia demonstrated a 100 lumens/W LED in March, but said he has increased efficiency 1.5 times in its latest prototype. "The efficiency was achieved through accumulated fundamental research and by optimizing the package structure," a Nichia spokeswoman said.

Availability of the LED lamp was not disclosed.

(c) www.automotivedesignline.com

Wikipedia-based Search Engine: Exclusive Screenshot

by Michael Arrington

The Times reported earlier today that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is planning to launch a new search engine next year, to be called Wikiasari.

He’s clearly aiming for Google. He says:

“Google is very good at many types of search, but in many instances it produces nothing but spam and useless crap. Try searching for the term ‘Tampa hotels’, for example, and you will not get any useful results…Essentially, if you consider one of the basic tasks of a search engine, it is to make a decision: ‘this page is good, this page sucks.’ Computers are notoriously bad at making such judgments, so algorithmic search has to go about it in a roundabout way…But we have a really great method for doing that ourselves. We just look at the page. It usually only takes a second to figure out if the page is good, so the key here is building a community of trust that can do that.”

The new company will be the third business division of Wikia, the for profit company that Wales founded in 2005 and is now led by CEO Gil Penchina. The other two business units are the main Wikia wiki site itself, and the recently launched OpenServing product.

Wikia has raised over $4 million in capital, including a recent round by Amazon.

Despite the fact that the original article reported that Amazon is involved in the project, Wikia is making it clear on the site that they are not invovled in any way (other than as a shareholder of Wikia).

Wikiasari  

A source tells us that the working name for the project was “WikiSearch” until recently. It’s clear that Wikiasari will be focused on quality first, depth second. Search results will include tag based navigation, the top three results will be wikipedia content, and the remaining results are determined by sites wikipedia considers to be “reputable” because they are external reference links from wikipedia pages.

Since all search results will be tied to wikipedia, either directly by linking to wikipedia content or because the sites are linked to from Wikipedia, real people will eventually be determining all search results and rankings within Wikiasari. The search engine will be opensource, and the index will be available under a GFDL. Wikia will operate the master version of the index, but others are free to take it under the terms of the GFDL.

The engine itself will be built on the Nutch and Lucene open source projects.

Wikiasari will be a for profit venture, although the “majority” of proceeds will be donated to Wikipedia.

We obtained the screenshot from a trusted source outside of Wikipedia - we can’t guarantee it’s not a fake but our belief is that this is a genuine working screenshot of the application. Click on it to see full size version.

(c) www.techcrunch.com

Sun's Looking Glass 3D Desktop Released

Sun Microsystems this week released "Looking Glass," a 3D desktop interface that provides an OS-neutral version of some of the elements found in OS X and Microsoft's newly-released Vista OS.

Looking Glass, which was first shown off in 2003 and released as an open-source project in 2004, allows users to run a Java-based desktop environment on top of Windows, or on Linux or Solaris. The software allows certain applications to be run in a "2.5D" environment, allowing them to be rotated in 3D space to maximize the available desktop space.

The interface also includes a launch bar along the bottom middle of the screen, similar in appearance to the Apple OS X's Dock.

According to the developers, Looking Glass includes several interesting features not included in either the Apple or Windows OSes: the ability to "fly" left or right to a new virtual desktop, or to use the "back" of a virtual window. Windows can also be organized on their "side," allowing a "bookshelf" view of the available windows.

Users can download the new Looking Glass interface from Sun's Web site.

(c) www.extremetech.com

Robots could demand legal rights

Robots could one day demand the same citizen's rights as humans, according to a study by the British government.

If granted, countries would be obliged to provide social benefits including housing and even "robo-healthcare", the report says.

The predictions are contained in nearly 250 papers that look ahead at developments over the next 50 years.

Other papers, or "scans", examine the future of space flight and methods to dramatically lengthen life spans.

"We're not in the business of predicting the future, but we do need to explore the broadest range of different possibilities to help ensure government is prepared in the long-term and considers issues across the spectrum in its planning," said Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser.

"The scans are aimed at stimulating debate and critical discussion to enhance government's short and long term policy and strategy."

Robot rights

The research was commissioned by the UK Office of Science and Innovation's Horizon Scanning Centre.

The 246 summary papers, called the Sigma and Delta scans, were complied by futures researchers, Outsights-Ipsos Mori partnership and the US-based Institute for the Future (IFTF).
The reports also explored the future of manned space flight

The papers look forward at emerging trends in science, health and technology.

The scans explore a diverse range of areas from the future of the gulf stream and the economic rise of India, to developments in nanotechnology and the threat posed by HIV/Aids.

As well as assessing the current state of thinking the research also examines the possible implications for society.

The paper which addresses Robo-rights, titled Utopian dream or rise of the machines? examines the developments in artificial intelligence and how this may impact on law and politics.

The paper says a "monumental shift" could occur if robots develop to the point where they can reproduce, improve themselves or develop artificial intelligence.

The research suggests that at some point in the next 20 to 50 years robots could be granted rights.

If this happened, the report says, the robots would have certain responsibilities such as voting, the obligation to pay taxes, and perhaps serving compulsory military service.

Conversely, society would also have a duty of care to their new digital citizens, the report says.

It also warns that the rise of robots could put a strain on resources and the environment.

"These scans are tools for government to identify risks and opportunities in the future," said Sir David.

(c) news.bbc.co.uk

Samsung Unveils Mobile Phone With 'Optical Joystick'

 By Jennifer LeClaire

Samsung on Tuesday released a new cell phone, the SCH-V960, touting its unique "optical joystick," which is used for navigating menus, as a "world's first." The phone also has a 2 megapixel camera, GPS and Bluetooth functionality, and a screen that automatically adjusts its brightness based on ambient light levels to conserve battery life.

Samsung Electronics' latest mobile phone sports a gaming element -- a joystick. The company on Tuesday released the SCH-V960, which features a unique "optical joystick" to help users navigate the wireless device's menu and user interface.

Unlike most cellular devices -- which depend on the use of a scroll bar on the side of the phone or a series of clickable buttons to navigate the on-screen menus -- Samsung's joystick is reminiscent of a PC mouse.

Like an iPod

Unlike most cellular devices -- which depend on the use of a scroll bar on the side of the phone or clicking a series of buttons to navigate the on-screen menus -- Samsung's joystick is reminiscent of a PC mouse.

Users can operate the optical joystick by placing one finger on it and moving a cursor to navigate through the menu. At a high level, the process is similar to navigating an iPod, though it uses different technology.

Optical sensors read and react to finger movements, breaking down the traditional four-way menu navigation.

Users can point the cursor and click directly on icons in order to gain direct access to frequently used menus, such as the photo album, messaging and music functions. They can also use the optical joystick to scroll through play lists while listening to music.

Like a BlackBerry

With this joystick, Samsung can claim a unique innovation in the cell phone market, according to M:Metrics Senior Analyst John Jackson.

The concept echoes the trackball functionality of the new Pearl smartphone from BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) , he said.

"Samsung's optical joystick is certainly innovative. It's a good example of progress toward solving some of the usability conundrums that have always characterized handsets. Navigation and user interface advances are something that will continue to be a key area of focus and investment and innovation," Jackson added.

Although Samsung called its optical joystick "revolutionary," Jackson won't go that far. However, he did say that consumers will appreciate the innovation.

As advanced mobile applications become easier to use, and as their menus become easier to navigate, consumers will be more drawn to value-added services. "That means more money going through the wireless channel," Jackson said.
Smart Lighting

The V960's illumination sensor enables "smart lighting" -- a feature that automatically controls the brightness of the LCD screen and keypad, designed to protect users from eyestrain and minimize the device's power consumption.

In addition, the V960 supports a 2 megapixel camera, as well as global positioning system and Bluetooth functionality. The device will be launched in the Korean market at the end of December.

(c) www.technewsworld.com

Panasonic Says It Has Made A Safer Lithium-Ion Battery

By Antone Gonsalves

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., better known as Panasonic, says it has made a safer lithium-ion battery that won't overheat within a notebook computer or other electronic device, preventing the potential fire hazard that led to the recall earlier this year of millions of batteries.

Matsushita on Monday said it has developed a heat-resistant layer made of insulating metal oxide that would replace the polyolefin lining often used to separate cells within the battery pack. If a short circuit were to occur, the protective layer would prevent the battery from overheating and possibly bursting into flames.

Dell this year recalled 4.1 million Sony-manufactured batteries after several fires were reported as a result of the devices overheating. There were no serious injuries. The recall was the largest ever in the consumer electronics industry. Other companies also have recalled Sony batteries, including Hewlett-Packard and Apple Computer.

The battery problems stem from microscopic metal particles that float within the battery pack. The particles can't be avoided in the manufacturing process, but battery makers try to minimize the number and size. A fire hazard can result when conditions in a laptop, such as rising temperatures or the recharging process, cause the particles to move aggressively in the battery cavity. If a particle pierces the lining protecting the battery cell, a spark can result and ignite the highly flammable lithium salt electrolyte inside.

Matsushita, based in Osaka, Japan, said in a statement that even if such a spark, or short circuit, was to occur in one of its new batteries, "it will cease without causing the battery to overheat."

Matsushita's subsidiary Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. developed the patent-pending safety feature. Matsushita says it's ready to mass-produce the safer batteries.

(c) www.techweb.com

The solar-powered rotating skyscraper

 

December 20, 2006 Gulf city state Dubai’s growth and far-reaching vision continues to astound us – we’ve already written about the World's tallest building and largest mall and the monumentally-large real estate synthesis projects such as the Palm and world island groups and then there’s the world’s largest airport which is currently under construction and dozens of other projects which would make any city proud. Then earlier this year Dubai-based High Rise Real estate announced a Rotating Tower with four rotating penthouses and a rotating villa. Now the Rotating Tower has been seriously gazumped with the news of the Time Residences tower which will become one of the most unique engineering feats of the modern world - a solar-powered rotating skyscraper. The 30-floor Time Residences will provide 200 one- and two-bedroom apartments as well as duplexes and penthouses with continuously-changing views of one of the most exciting skylines on Planet Earth. Just so you know they’re serious, the company has announced plans to build a further 23 such rotating towers around the world.

The tower was designed by Glenn Howells Architects in the UK and City of Arabia developers Palmer and Turner.

As the 80,000 tonne building will rotate precisely once every week, markings within each apartment will enable it to function as the world’s largest clock.

(c) www.gizmag.com

LG to launch a new 'TVPC' supporting powerful PC performance

by Rose Kim

SEOUL, Korea (AVING) -- <Visual News> LG Electronics presented 'TVPC series' a sort of intelligence TV that embraces powerful PC inside while maintaining almost the same size of regular LCD TV.

It enables users to watch TV while they do various PC work like surfing the internet or editing documents. It can jump from TV-mode to PC-mode or vice versa easily with a touch of a button on remote control and provide instant access to web content related to the program that is currently on the screen, and allow users to move to the sites directly.

For PC-side, it features the same platform of LG's Xnote - intell celeronM 430 CPU, 160GB HDD, i945PM chipset, Intel GMA950 graphic chip, and 1GB DDR2 553 memory. WiFi access and wireless keyboard with mouse-function are provided as well.

Suggesting price is 1,850,000(KRW).

Meanwhile, LG anticipates rolling out another new 'TVPC' lineup that will support 'Time-machine' function and increased PC performance by the end of this month.

(C) www.aving.net

Costa Living: Why Blu-ray Will Win

This column is about actually testing and living with cutting-edge technology, which is what makes it different from the artificial rhetoric, deliberate provocation, and blatant bloviating that is increasingly common in technology journalism. Still, there comes a time when you just have to make a straight argument in favor of or against a new technology. That's why I have to say, in the HD-DVD versus Blu-ray battle, Blu-ray is going to hand HD-DVD its ass on a sliding platter.

HD-DVD had a head start, to be sure. And some industry luminaries jumped on board with two feet. First mover advantage and the blessing of Microsoft? How could it fail? Keep watching, it will. To be fair, there is nothing inherently wrong with HD-DVD, and it isn't vastly inferior or anti-consumer in any particular way. It just doesn't quite match Blu-ray in a number of key areas. Therefore, it will lose.

Capacity

HD-DVDs are easier and cheaper to make, but Blu-ray discs store more data. You can get 25GB on a single-layer Blu-ray disc, compared to 15GB on an HD-DVD. And the first double layer 50GB Blu-ray discs just hit the market. The first movie to get this honor: Adam Sandler's Click. (Because fart jokes are way funnier in PCM uncompressed audio.). Think of it this way: Has any format war ever been won by the technology with less capacity? If you can think of one, e-mail me.

Hardware support

HD-DVD has two main backers: Toshiba and Microsoft. Toshiba has used its clout to push HD-DVD into a few laptops, but Blu-ray has a much broader base of support. Panasonic, Sony, Philips, and Samsung will all have players shipping by the end of December. Yes, Blu-ray players have been plagued by delays. Still, it isn't like HD-DVD players have been flying off store shelves in the meantime.

Studio Support

There are about 100 Blu-ray titles available for sale right now, but that number isn't so significant. Right now, there aren't too many players out there, so studios are proceeding cautiously. That said, Blu-ray has the support of seven of the eight largest movie studios. And five of those have pledged to support Blu-ray exclusively. That means if you want to watch a Sony, Disney, or 20th Century Fox film in high def, it has to be on Blu-ray.

The argument has been made by people I trust and respect that the whole packaged media business is doomed anyway. Soon we will all be ordering our movies on demand either from our cable provider, through iTunes, or via Bittorrent. There is some truth to this. I already watch a ton of downloaded TV and movies on my PC. The thing to remember here is that this isn't a high-definition experience. Broadband is great, but sending high-definition video, to say nothing of lossless audio, bonus tracks, and interactive features, all out over the Internet just isn't practical over existing technologies, or anything we are likely to see soon. Anyway, that trend would kill HD-DVD just as fast as Blu-ray.

Of course, I wouldn't buy a Blu-ray player now. They are too damn expensive, and I still need to make the switch to HD at home. Then again, if it was part of a PS3 if might be worth it. Sony sold 195,000 PS3s in the U.S. in November alone. And every one of them is a fully functioning Blu-ray player. I dare say that number alone blows away HD-DVD sales for the last year. Nuff said.

[Thanks goes to www.gearlog.com for this article]

NASA Mulls ISS Solar Panel Repair

Having reached the halfway mark in their rewiring of the international space station, the crew of the shuttle Discovery may be able to get some rest on Friday. However, a stuck solar array panel could rob them of their day off. NASA hasn't yet decided what approach to take in making the repair -- it could mean another spacewalk.

After five busy days in space and two successful spacewalks, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery planned on taking things easy on Friday.

However, with a solar array halfway retracted and NASA managers willing to try several creative potential fixes, the day may end up being busier than expected.

Old Solar Panel Stuck

The solar panel is part of an interim power system the international space station was using. One of the main goals of the Discovery mission was to rewire the station and hook a new set of panels onto the permanent electricity grid.

The panels rotate with the movement of the sun to maximize the amount of solar energy produced, but in order for the new panels to rotate, the old panel had to be retracted.

While it was folded far enough to give clearance to the new panels, the old one got stuck after retracting halfway. NASA had wanted it to retract fully.

The problem lies in a guidewire that is stuck in one of the eyelets, causing the array to billow. In tests of the array on Earth, NASA saw the issue arise, but gravity helped fix it. That's not the case in space.

Fourth Spacewalk Possible

NASA will try helping it along by jiggling the array in hopes that will push the wire through the hole.

It plans to move a joint on the panel to shake it, and may also ask one of the astronauts to break a sweat using a bungee bar-like exercise device. NASA officials recalled an incident where the space agency saw an array shaking and found the cause was astronaut Leroy Chiao working the device hard in his squats and lifts.

NASA may also try different methods of retracting the accordion-like 115-foot array using a remote control.

One of the final resorts would be a fourth spacewalk, where astronauts could manually help the array along. If that were to happen during the Discovery mission, it would take place on Sunday or Monday.

U.S. astronaut Robert Curbeam and Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang -- who have performed both of the spacewalks -- would likely take on the task. It could also be performed later on by one of the space station residents.

Lack of training, logistical challenges and the risk of electrical shock involved in such an undertaking makes it a less favorable option.

Time to Ponder Solutions

"I think we'll clear this with IVA steps," Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager, said in a briefing late Thursday, using the technical name "intravehicular activity" for tasks that can be done from inside the spacecraft -- as opposed to a spacewalk.

"Now I'll tell you, there's about two thousand people in the control center and about three-quarters of them think I'm crazy," Suffredini joked. On a more serious note, he said that because the halfway-retracted array is structurally sound, he can take the time to think about various solutions.

In its first two spacewalks, the Discovery crew installed a 2-ton, US$11-million addition to the space station and rewired half of the orbiting space lab. A third spacewalk is scheduled for Saturday to rewire the other half.

Astronauts on the 12-day mission are due to return to Earth on Thursday.

© 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
© 2006 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.

[Thanks goes to www.technewsworld.com for this article]

Facebook Would Like To Remind You It Isn't For Sale (Wink Wink), But Is Now Worth $8 Billion

It was reported earlier this week that Yahoo was prepared to shell out up to $1.62 billion to buy Facebook, based on the inflated expectation that it could generate a billion-dollar profit by 2015. Apparently Yahoo's offer of $1 billion to Facebook got rejected, and the company never got another chance to bid. While most rational people would have taken the money and ran, Facebook now says it's no longer for sale, with a board member saying they want to build the company up. We'd like to again take this opportunity to point Facebook to the history of Friendster, which is the classic example of not knowing when to sell out -- the company was being shopped around for $5 million earlier this year, after Google had offered to buy it for $30 million worth of pre-IPO stock in late 2003, and a price of $200 million was mentioned for it in 2005. But, true to form, Facebook is following the Skype billion-dollar buyout plan (most recently enlisted by YouTube): a board member says that the company isn't for sale... but that it's worth $8 billion -- as much as that fly-by-night youth-oriented business MTV. Clearly the Skype blowout buyout business model is seeing the effects of inflation (otherwise known as a bubble), which is mildly amusing given talk that Skype is having some trouble meeting the targets to trigger the $1.5 billion earnout that was on top of the $2.6 billion eBay paid for it in cash and stock. Getting the cash up front, then running as far and as fast as you can, really seems like the best play for these companies.

[Thanks goes to  www.techdirt.com for this article]

Sony, Toshiba, NEC Electronics Develop 45nm Chip Platform

Sony, Toshiba and NEC Electronics Corp., said on Thursday they had jointly developed technology to mass produce cutting-edge chips.

The platform developed by the three Japanese companies will be used to make system chips, which combine multiple functions on a sliver of silicon, using 45-nanometre technology, the firms said in a joint press release. This technology was unveiled on December 13 (US Pacific Standard Time) at Session 27.2 of the 2006 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco, CA.

Chip makers worldwide are locked in a race to lower production costs on 90-, 65- and 45-nanometre chips, with the smaller circuitry widths allowing more power per chip for complex devices.

The three companies are developing a platform for low-power system chips, to be completed in early 2007.

Toshiba and NEC Electronics are also working to standardize technology to make advanced chips with circuitry width of 45-nanometres or finer with Fujitsu and Renesas Technology Corp.

The key elements of the new platform are a fully renovated MOSFET integration scheme, and a hybrid structure with a low dielectric constant (low-k) film that assures high performance and reliability.

The MOSFET integration process applies strained silicon technology to the transistor, utilizing crystal lattice distortion to induce performance-boosting local strain at key locations. Optimization of the strain boosts transistor performance to a level 30% faster than that achieved in the present generation of technology.

Application of a low-k film in the intermediate metal layer of the chip during the back-end process reduces parasitic capacitance and improves circuit performance. The three partners confirmed a dielectric gate film with an effective 15-year lifetime, a span surpassing the average lifetime of a high performance LSI. They also carried out tests of the platform and proved a layer yield of over 98% for the challenging back-end process, confirming that the technology achieves the reliability essential for mass production.

In addition, the partners have led the industry in applying immersion lithography technology with an ultra-high numerical aperture (NA) of over 1.0 to formation of the transistor node, achieving a cell with an area of 0.248 micron m2 in an ultra high density SRAM. The new cell is the smallest yet achieved.

The three companies are simultaneously developing two 45nm processes -- the current platform, which is ideal for high performance LSIs, as well as a platform for applications with low power consumption requirements, which is expected to be completed in early 2007.

[original post: www.cdrinfo.com]

Mind Controllable Robots: Too Late?

In the war between robots and humans, the humans just scored a major victory. Researchers at the University of Washington have successfully demonstrated a robotic interface operated through mind control. Utilizing an electrode cap (a non-invasive tool generating a noisy signal), mental powers commanded the robot to walk to a block, pick it up, and set it down in a designated area.

Hit the link for the video demonstration. Now we just need scientists to hone the "don't blow my head off with that laser" command and we'll be all set. – Mark Wilson

[original post: www.gizmodo.com]

Researchers speed up healing

By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer

High-tech UA bandage could be manufactured by 2008, professor says

The first clinical trials of a medical bandage that heals wounds faster concludes this month, bringing two University of Akron researchers closer to commercializing a product years in the making.

Professors Daniel Smith and Darrell Reneker used electricity to spin ultrafine polymer fibers while infusing them with chemicals that open a wound to oxygen.

The treated fibers reduce inflammation, kill bacteria and repair slow-healing wounds faster than conventional methods, Smith said.

The ``nanofiber bandage'' is particularly helpful for diabetics because the dressing releases nitric oxide gas, a natural chemical diabetics don't produce enough of, but one that is crucial for body repair.

As a bonus, the electrospun fibers are inexpensive, lightweight and elastic, and conform to any wound without sticking, he said.

The first human trials are winding up in Colombia. The South American country was chosen because it was easier to find people suffering parasitic lesions, a challenging wound that will highlight the bandage's strengths.

Smith and Reneker hope the results of those trials will win them FDA approval for clinical trials in the United States.

The university has found a Minnesota firm to make the bandages, but is encouraging the company to build the plant here.

The company, which Smith didn't want to identify yet, has a reputation for awarding plants to the areas where the technology is developed. He predicted the bandages will be ready for production by 2008 ``at the latest.''

``The company that makes these dressings will be making tens of millions of them, and that will require a lot of blue-collar workers,'' Smith said. ``And there's a good chance that work will be here.''

The university is working on other ``not-so-sexy'' nanofiber products, Smith said, and it's possible one factory could produce all of them.

The UA effort won a 2006 Innovation Award from NorTech, an economic development organization dedicated to spurring invention in Northeast Ohio.

[original post: www.ohio.com]

University Researchers Develop Multi-Terabyte DVD-size Disc

Technology shows great promise but still under long term research

Researchers at the University of Central Florida announced this week that they have developed a way to store massive amounts of data onto a disc roughly the size of a typical DVD. This sounds like another competitive format to Blu-ray or HD-DVD, but in fact, the new technology can store thousands of times that of a DVD.

The technique, say researchers, is called 3D multi-layered storage technology. Although this sounds similar to holographic storage, the technology relays on stacking ultra-thin recording layers on top of each other in a typical disc form factor. Using two lasers of different wavelengths, information can be recorded at ultra-high densities. While multi-layered discs are available today, there's an issue of cross-talk, which is when reading layer interferes with the reading or writing of another layer. According to the report:

The challenge scientists faced for years was that light is also used to read the information. The light couldn’t distinguish between reading and writing, so it would destroy the recorded information. Belfield’s team developed a way to use light tuned to specific colors or wavelengths to allow information that a user wants to keep to stay intact.

Professor Kevin D. Belfield and his research team at the university claim that they are able to solve the fundamental issue of layer interference by using two lasers of varying wavelengths (color). This way, interference is avoided, and multiple layers can be used on the same disc, allowing for massive amounts of data to be written in a small space.

Belfield and his team have received roughly $270,000 in grants for the research project. The team is busy trying to reduce the size of the device as well as make the system more economical. There's no word however on when the developing 3D technology will show up as a marketable prototype.

[original post: http://dailytech.com]

xRez - extreme high resolution images

xRez is a collection of insanely high resolution panoramic images in various categories covering natural and urban subjects. If you’re into zooming down into a gigapixel image to look up a person’s nostrils, then this is for you. Well OK, we exaggerate a tad. Awesome project though.

xRez is a consortium of digital artists committed to exploring new creative opportunites made available by the advent of extremely high-resolution gigapixel digital photography. We believe this is clearly the next revolution in photography, allowing photographic experiences with a deeper level of fidelity and impact than previously seen. Further, by combining powerful 3d tools and techniques appropriated from the visual effects field, possibilites arise of new imagery and animation that are truly novel and unprecedented.

[original post: www.redferret.net]

Google Starts Selling Domains For $10 Per Year

Google has entered the domain business with partners GoDaddy and eNom. An already crowded industry, Google has begun allowing people to register ‘.com’, ‘.net’, ‘.biz’, and ‘.info’ Web site addresses. Web sites that register their domains directly with Google for $10/year will automatically be setup to use Google Apps for Your Domain, which includes Google’s Page Creator (for easily making a Web site), Calendar, Email, and IM.
With this move, look for Google to tap more into the domain parking business using their Google AdSense for Domains product a bit more. I’d also imagine their Blogger product will integrate this announcement and allow you to easily setup a blog with your own domain for $10/year.

[original post: www.techcrunch.com]

Sony patents LED-infused, motion-tracking controller

While the PS4 might be "just around the corner," and Nintendo's Wiimote is sure to give you all the (potentially dangerous) controller flinging fits you can handle, it appears that Sony's giving the whole "controller innovation" thing another go. Sure, Sony's faced its fair share of lawsuits (hasn't everyone?), and had noticeable trouble with Dual Shock in particular, but the less-than-revolutionary SIXAXIS controller is apparently lacking a heavily-desired feature: motion tracking. We're fairly certain that Sony is watching its toes to make sure the next lawsuit to hit doesn't come from the big N, but its latest patent describes a "handheld controller having detectable elements for tracking purposes," which admittedly sounds awfully familiar. The design looks simply like a revamped version of the current SIXAXIS, with embedded LEDs on the front of the device and an "external camera (Sony's sensor bar patent?) to capture the movements" of the user. After combing through the patent jargon, there's little doubt that the goal here is to deliver a controller that allows gamers to maneuver and react with more than just button mashes, but whether or not this development will actually be realized (or if games / lawyers will end up supporting it) remains to be seen.

[original post: www.engadget.com]

Bosch Parking Space Measurement System

By Andrew Liszewski

Those new Lexus 460L sedans that can parallel park themselves are pretty cool but from what I’ve read they’re missing a key feature that Bosch is now offering as part of their own Parking Assistant option. The Bosch system already uses four ultrasound sensors on the vehicle to help drivers avoid collisions while parallel parking but now adds two additional ones for measuring the size of a prospective parking spot. I don’t care how accurate your auto-parking system is, if the car’s not gonna fit into the spot you have a problem.

With the Bosch system once an available spot is found the driver simply has to activate his turn signal so the vehicle knows what side the spot is on and then drive past at a speed of up to 20 km/h. The sensors will precisely measure the gap between the two vehicles and will let you know if the spot is big enough, a tight squeeze or too small.

The Parking Space Measurement System is currently available on the Citroen C4 Picasso but there’s no information on when other vehicles will adopt it.

[original post: www.ohgizmo.com]

Yahoo Releases Video 3.0

 Yahoo launched Video 3.0 in beta today. The company sent us the screenshots below to give us a preview of the new video player.

Video 3.0 will have both Firefox and Mac compatibility through flash technology, higher quality video streams, and tailored playlist capabilities. It will also allow users to control the player’s video sequence, much like Yahoo Music Unlimited and, to an extent, LAUNCHcast. There is also a social element in that it will allow for video recommendation between users.

Yahoo will distribute a media alert about the new player on Friday, at which time we will learn more about its capabilities. But we are certainly grateful for the early look!

[original post: www.techcrunch.com]

A terabyte of data on a regular DVD?

This is the promise of the 3-D Optical Data Storage system developed at the University of Central Florida (UCF). This technology allows to record and store at least 1,000 GB of data on multiple layers of a single disc. The system uses lasers to compact large amounts of information onto a DVD and the process involves shooting two different wavelengths of light onto the recording surface. By using several layers, this technique will increase the storage capacity of a standard DVD to more than a terabyte.

This technology has been developed by Kevin D. Belfield, Department Chair and Professor of Chemistry at UCF, and his colleagues in the Belfield Research Group. So how does this work?

The process involves shooting two different wavelengths of light onto the recording surface. The use of two lasers creates a very specific image that is sharper than what current techniques can render. Depending on the color (wavelength) of the light, information is written onto a disk. The information is highly compacted, so the disk isn’t much thicker. It’s like a typical DVD.

The challenge scientists faced for years was that light is also used to read the information. The light couldn’t distinguish between reading and writing, so it would destroy the recorded information. Belfield’s team developed a way to use light tuned to specific colors or wavelengths to allow information that a user wants to keep to stay intact.

Below is a picture showing how this two-photon 3D optical system reads the data. "This 3D image was reconstructed from successively two-photon fluorescence imaging (readout) of 33 XY data planes along the axial direction (1 micron distance between each image). The principle for this novel two-photon 3D optical storage device was based on a bichromophoric mixture consisting of diaryletheneand fluorene derivative, suitable for recording data in thick storage media." (Credit: Dr. Zhen-Li Huang, UCF)

This research work has been published by Advanced Materials under the title "Two-Photon 3D Optical Data Storage via Fluorescence Modulation of an Efficient Fluorene Dye by a Photochromic Diarylethene" (Volume 18, Issue 21, Pages 2910-2914, Published online on October 30, 2006). Here is a link to the abstract.

This work has also been reviewed by Rachel Pei Chin Won in Nature Photonics under the title "Two photons are better than one" (November 16, 2006). Here are more details about this "Two-Photon 3-D Optical Data Storage" system.

[The researchers] have fabricated a two-photon three-dimensional optical data system using a photochromic polymer. They show that the system is suitable for recording data in thick storage media and for providing a readout method that does not erase existing stored information — they perform 10,000 readout cycles with only a small reduction in contrast. Also, contrary to other techniques, this method allows reading and writing of data at the same wavelength, which is achieved by changing the intensity of the laser light.

Nature Photonics also describes what kind of lasers were used by Belfield and his team.

Although the authors used a relatively expensive femtosecond Ti-sapphire laser to both read and write the information, they suggest that the data could be read using cheaper nanosecond laser diodes with comparable laser intensity, making this high density data-storage system more cost effective.

But when will we able to use DVDs with a terabyte capacity? Not before several years. In fact, the researchers just received a $270,000, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to continue its work.

In the mean time, you can still visit — virtually — Belfield's lab. In particular, you should take a look at this page about High-Density Optical Data Storage, from which the above illustration has been extracted, and a photo gallery about One vs Two-photon Excitation.

[original post: http://blogs.zdnet.com]

Foreigners 'power space industry'

Foreigners 'power space industry' Britain's space programme is becoming increasingly reliant on scientists from India and China, MPs have been told.

The Commons science and technology committee heard there was a shortage of high-end science graduates from the UK.

MPs are examining the future of the UK's space industry, which is worth an estimated Ј120m in exports.

Avanti chief David Williams said 80% of its graduates are from India and China, adding: "They are the best qualified and hardworking and they turn up."

"There's a lot of work needs to be done to encourage young people to come in this industry," Mr Williams, who is chief executive, added.

Satellite technology

Avanti owns the Hylas spacecraft, which will deliver broadband internet services to rural Europe.

The satellite, which should launch in the November 2008, will cost Ј75m (110m euros) and will be built by EADS-Astrium. It should deliver hundreds of high-definition TV channels.

The MPs' inquiry comes a week after science minister Malcolm Wicks met Nasa chief Dr Michael Griffin to discuss the possibility of Britain's involvement in further Moon exploration.

Nasa has said it plans to start work on a permanently-occupied base on the Moon after astronauts begin flying back there in 2020.

[original post: www.hitech-news.info]

Intel Develops Mobile WiMAX Chipset

Intel Corp. moved one step closer to developing its own mobile WiMAX solution on Wednesday when the company announcing it had completed the design of its first WiMAX baseband chipset for use in laptops and other mobile devices.

According to Intel's executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officers Sean Maloney, the new WiMAX Connection 2300 is a combination of the company's new chipset design and the previously announced single-chip, multi-band WiMAX/Wi-Fi radio.

The chipset design was demoed on Wednesday during Maloney's keynote at the 3G World Congress and Mobility Marketplace in Hong Kong, where he showed a Centrino Duo mobile laptop with mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005), Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), and high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) 3G capabilities successfully accessing the Internet at broadband speeds over a mobile WiMAX network.

According to Dave Hofer, director of wireless marketing for the mobile platforms group at Intel, the announcement of Intel's WiMAX Connection 2300 will help further speed the deployment of mobile WiMAX, which is already moving along at a steady pace he said.

"Our aim with WiMAX is to provide personal anytime/anywhere broadband connectivity," said Hofer. "This is a step along the way. We're at a point where, in 2007 and 2008, you're going to start seeing product samples."

Sprint Nextel has announced plans to build the first nationwide mobile WiMAX network by the end of 2008. Intel, who is helping to build Sprint's WiMAX infrastructure, says that its testing and validating timeline will correspond with the cellular industry's network rollout.

"Standards ratification, infrastructure, it's all moving along at a good pace," Hofer said. "We believe that WiMAX is going to be a cost-effective and appealing multi-megabit service for delivering mobile content."

Intel says that it added multiple input/output (MIMO) functionality to its baseband chip to amplify the signal quality and throughput of wireless bandwidth. The company also said the chip will use the same software for Intel's WiMAX and Wi-Fi solutions in order to help ensure unified management for connectivity.

With the design of the Connection 2300 chipset now complete, Intel says it now plans to sample the chipset in both card and module forms will begin in late 2007.

[original post: www.hitech-news.info]

Panasonic Develops “World’s Thinnest Speaker”

The whiz-kids at Panasonic have created the world’s thinnest speaker. Measuring only 1.5mm thick, the PED (Panasonic Electronic Device) reduces their previous 2.5mm thin micro-speaker by 40%. Panasonic claim that despite the size, there is no reduction in sound quality. Intended for use in mobile phones, the speaker will go into production May 2007.

[original post: www.plasticbamboo.com]

Nvidia unveils nForceR 680a SLI MCP

Nvidia introduced its new nForce 680a SLI media and communications processor (MCP), designed specifically for the new AMD Quad FX Platform with Dual Socket Direct Connect Architecture.

The nForce 680a SLI MCP provides processing capabilities on a massive scale, by allowing users to harness the power of up to four GPUs, eight displays, 12 SATA hard drives, and four gigabit Ethernet connections, all from a single consumer desktop PC, according to the company.

The nForce 680a SLI MCP is a motherboard core-logic solution providing a host of technologies, which include support for Nvidia SLI multi-GPU technology, with four PCI Express slots that can be used to drive up to eight independent, high-resolution displays for extended work spaces and advanced networking and storage capabilities, including support for up to four gigabit Ethernet connections and 12 SATA hard drives for a combined eight terabytes of media storage, according to Nvidia.

Additionally, the nForce 680a SLI MCP has been architected to take advantage of the power behind the AMD Athlon 64 FX-70 series processors, allowing users to also run multiple multi-threaded, CPU-intensive applications simultaneously without compromising performance, according to the company.

[original post: www.digitimes.com]