My Technology Universe

Robot mass production by Toyota

2008-03-15T07:07:00.001-07:00

Japanese concern Toyota announced plans of development for next 12 years. Company President Kazuaki Vatanabi says that in next 2 years robotics will be basic priority in development of concern. In 2010 Toyota will release wide range of robots-assistants dedicated to help humanity in most spheres - in production, at home, in hospital etc.

Company also presented 2 models of robots. One is a mobile assistant capable of free moving indoors, other is robot-musician capable to play music on violin and violoncello.

Vatanabi said:

"Our goal is to create robots highly helpful for many people in their everyday lives. Next 2-3 years we will test our robots in multiple uses. Those models, which passed tests successfully and acquire good reputation will be mass produced.

Researches render that robots will be of most use to elderly people.

Toyota hopes to draw specialists from universities to speed-up research&development.

Technorati Tags: Toyota,corporations,Japan,manufacturing,robots

Do You Want To Have Your Own Universe?

2007-10-14T10:10:00.001-07:00

If you want to broadcast your messages to the whole world you can be builder of My PC Universe(or any another blog of MyUniverseRing). We are waiting for your contribution.

Technorati Tags: Blogging , Blogger , Contribution

Physics Nobel Prize to Hard Drive Technology Pioneers

2007-10-11T16:04:00.001-07:00

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded two men who discovered Giant Magnetoresistance effect in 1988. Albert Fert from France and Peter Grunberg from Germany have discovered GMR separately each from other.

This breakthrough permitted to create hard drives with much more density of information on the disks. Although Fert and Grunberg oppend GMR in 1988 there was no hard drives working on that effect till 1997.

The GMR effect was discovered thanks to new techniques developed during the 1970s to produce very thin layers of different materials. If GMR is to work, structures consisting of layers that are only a few atoms thick have to be produced. For this reason GMR can also be considered one of the first real applications of nanotechnology.

Technorati Tags: GMR , Giant Magnetoresistance Effect , Nobel Prize , Albert Fert , Peter Grunberg

Raytheon Develops World's First Polymorphic Computer

2007-03-22T16:34:00.001-07:00

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 20, 2007 -- The world's first computers whose architecture can adopt different forms depending on their application have been developed by Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN).

The architecture of the MONARCH processor with key elements identified

Dubbed MONARCH (Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture) and developed to address the large data volume of sensor systems as well as their signal and data processing throughput requirements, it is the most adaptable processor ever built for the Department of Defense, reducing the number of processor types required. It performs as a single system on a chip, resulting in a significant reduction of the number of processors required for computing systems, and it performs in an array of chips for teraflop throughput.

"Typically, a chip is optimally designed either for front-end signal processing or back-end control and data processing," explained Nick Uros, vice president for the Advanced Concepts and Technology group of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. "The MONARCH micro-architecture is unique in its ability to reconfigure itself to optimize processing on the fly. MONARCH provides exceptional compute capacity and highly flexible data bandwidth capability with beyond state-of-the-art power efficiency, and it's fully programmable."

In addition to the ability to adapt its architecture for a particular objective, the MONARCH computer is also believed to be the most power- efficient processor available.

"In laboratory testing MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10," said Michael Vahey, the principal investigator for the company's MONARCH technology.

MONARCH's polymorphic capability and super efficiency enable the development of DoD systems that need very small size, low power, and in some cases radiation tolerance for such purposes as global positioning systems, airborne and space radar and video processing systems.

The company has begun tests on prototypes of the polymorphic MONARCH processors to verify they'll function as designed and to establish their maximum throughput and power efficiency. MONARCH, containing six microprocessors and a highly interconnected reconfigurable computing array, provides 64 gigaflops (floating point operations per second) with more than 60 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and more than 43 gigabytes per second of off-chip data bandwidth.

The MONARCH processor was developed under a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) polymorphous computing architecture contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems led an industry team with the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California to create the integrated large-scale system on a chip with a suite of software development tools for programs of high value to the Department of Defense and commercial applications. Besides USC major subcontractors included Georgia Institute of Technology, Mercury Computer Systems and IBM's Global Engineering Solutions division.

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems is the leading provider of sensor systems giving military forces the most accurate and timely information available for the network-centric battlefield. With 2006 revenues of $4.3 billion and 12,000 employees, SAS is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif. Additional facilities are in Goleta, Calif.; Forest, Miss.; Dallas, McKinney and Plano, Texas; and several international locations.

Raytheon Company, with 2006 sales of $20.3 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.

(c) www.shoutwire.com

Uni.Technology Tags: Processor, Raytheon, Polymorphic Computer, MONARCH

Google to Develop a Short Term Memory

2007-03-17T15:05:00.001-07:00

by Marcus Yam

Google to make search logs anonymous after 18 to 24 months

Google is changing its policies on storing information about its users. Each time a user conducts a search on Google, a database logs his or her keyword search, IP address and certain other bits of data stored in cookies. Currently, this information is stored indefinitely, but the new policy, which Google plans to implement over the next few months, will make the data slightly more anonymous to protect the privacy of its users.

“Previously, we kept this data for as long as it was useful,” Google officials said in statement. “Unless we're legally required to retain log data for longer, we will anonymize our server logs after a limited period of time.”

Google says it will remove the last eight bits of a user’s IP address 18 months to 24 months following the initial recording of information. All the bits before it, however, will remain intact and may still give authorities good indication on the original user. Even with the last eight bits of an IP address unknown, it is still possible to determine the approximate location and internet service provider of the user.

“Logs anonymization does not guarantee that the government will not be able to identify a specific computer or user, but it does add another layer of privacy protection to our users' data,” Google said to the media.

The U.S. government has been putting pressure on search companies to keep records of user activities in an effort to maintain national security. Privacy advocates, on the other hand, are pushing in the opposite direction and lobby for companies such as Google to maintain no records at all.

“By anonymizing our server logs after 18-24 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,” the Google statement said.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Uni.Technology Tags: Google, Privacy

Intel suffered but AMD surged in 2006, iSuppli says

2007-03-16T16:56:00.001-07:00

Press release, March 16; Rodney Chan, DigiTimes.com [Friday 16 March 2007]

It was a tale of two companies in the semiconductor industry in 2006, with leading chip supplier Intel suffering a revenue decline, while rival AMD nearly doubled its sales, according to iSuppli.

"For US microprocessor giant Intel, 2006 was the worst of times, as its global semiconductor revenue dropped by 11.1% from 2005," said Dale Ford, vice president of market intelligence for iSuppli. "The revenue decline, which was due to Intel's bleak performance in its core PC microprocessor and flash-memory businesses, erased nearly all of the company's sales gains from its strong year in 2005. Intel's 2006 revenue of US$31.5 billion was less than half a percentage point higher than its sales in 2004."

"For Intel's smaller US rival, AMD, 2006 was the best of times as it achieved a whopping 91.6% increase in revenue for the year, partly due to a major acquisition, but also because of strong gains in microprocessor market share," Ford added.

This robust increase in revenue caused AMD's ranking to rise to eighth place in 2006, up seven positions from the 15th rank in 2005.

The divergent performances of Intel and AMD came during a 2006 when global semiconductor industry revenue rose by 9.3% to reach US$260.2 billion, up from US$237.98 billion in 2005. This is slightly higher than the 9% growth iSuppli predicted in its preliminary market share estimate compiled in November and released in early December.

Intel in 2006 faced hard times in its microprocessor and flash-memory businesses, which together accounted for 83% of total company revenue last year. The company's combined microprocessor and flash revenue in 2006 fell to its lowest level since 2003 as Intel faced rising competitive pressure in those markets. The revenue decline resulted in Intel's market share falling to 12.1 percent, its lowest level since before 2000.

Meanwhile, AMD in 2006 gained PC microprocessor market share at Intel's expense. AMD's PC microprocessor revenue rose by 35.5% in 2006 and its market share in that product segment increased to 16.1%, up 5 percentage points from 11.1% in 2005.

AMD's revenue also was boosted substantially by its acquisition of graphics chip seller ATI Technologies in 2006.

Looking beyond Intel and AMD, 2006 was a banner year for the leading pure-play memory chip suppliers.

Memory supplier Hynix Semiconductor of South Korea leapt to the seventh-place position in 2006, up from 11th in 2005 as its revenue surged by an impressive 41.5%. Hynix's memory revenue growth of US$2.3 billion surpassed the US$1.8 billion memory sales increase posted by memory-chip leader Samsung Electronics in 2006.

Germany's Qimonda, a newly created pure-play memory company formed from the spin-off of Infineon's memory business, increased its revenue by 54.9% in 2006.

However, the fastest growing memory supplier in 2006 and the quickest expanding supplier among the world's top-25 chip sellers-was Japan's Elpida Memory. Elpida's revenue nearly doubled in 2006, rising by 98.6% from 2005. This caused the company's ranking to rise to 19th in 2006, up from 28th in 2005.

Memory ICs were the key segment driving the growth of the overall semiconductor industry in 2006, with revenue in this area rising by 22.7%. A stronger-than-anticipated revenue increase in the fourth quarter boosted annual growth for DRAM to 35.2% in 2006.

(c) www.digitimes.com

Uni.Technology Tags: Intel, AMD, Semiconductor, Toshiba, Samsung, Rating

NVIDIA GeForce 8600-Series Details Unveiled

2007-03-15T18:38:00.001-07:00

by Anh Huynh

NVIDIA prepares its next-generation mid-range and mainstream DirectX 10 GPUs

Earlier today DailyTech received it's briefiing on NVIDIA’s upcoming GeForce 8600GTS, 8600GT and 8500GT graphics processors. NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600GTS and 8600GT are G84-based GPUs and target the mid-range markets. The lower-positioned G86-based GeForce 8500GT serves as the flagship low to mid-range graphics card.
The budget-priced trio feature full support for DirectX 10 features including pixel and vertex shader model 4.0. NVIDIA has yet to reveal the amount of shaders or shader clocks though. Nevertheless, the trio supports NVIDIA SLI and PureVideo technologies.

NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS

NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT

NVIDIA touts three dedicated video engines on the G84 and G86-based graphics cards for PureVideo processing. The video engines provide MPEG-2 high-definition and WMV HD video playback up to resolutions of 1080p. G84 and G86 support hardware accelerated decoding of H.264 video as well; however, NVIDIA makes no mention of VC-1 decoding. G84 and G86 also feature advanced post-processing video algorithms. Supported algorithms include spatial-temporal de-interlacing, inverse 2:2, 3:2 pull-down and 4-tap horizontal, and 5-tap vertical video scaling.
At the top of the mid-range lineup is the GeForce 8600GTS. The G84-based graphics core clocks in at 675 MHz. NVIDIA pairs the GeForce 8600GTS with 256MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1000 MHz. The memory interfaces with the GPU via a 128-bit bus. The GeForce 8600GTS does not integrate HDCP keys on the GPU. Add-in board partners will have to purchase separate EEPROMs with HDCP keys; however, all GeForce 8600GTS-based graphics cards feature support for HDCP.
GeForce 8600GTS-based graphics cards require an eight-layer PCB. Physically, the cards measure in at 7.2 x 4.376 inches and available in full-height only. NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS graphics cards feature a PCIe x16 interface, unlike ATI’s upcoming RV630. GeForce 8600GTS-based cards still require external PCIe power. NVIDIA estimates total board power consumption at around 71-watts.
Supported video output connectors include dual dual-link DVI, VGA, SDTV and HDTV outputs, and analog video inputs. G84-based GPUs do not support a native HDMI output. Manufacturers can adapt one of the DVI-outputs for HDMI.
NVIDIA’s GeForce 8600GT is not as performance oriented as the 8600GTS. The GeForce 8600GT GPU clocks in at a more conservative 540 MHz. The memory configuration has more flexibility, letting manufacturers decide between 256MB or 128MB of GDDR3 memory. NVIDIA specifies the memory clock at 700 MHz. The GeForce 8600GT shares the same 128-bit memory interface as the 8600GTS. HDCP support on GeForce 8600GT is optional. The GPU and reference board design support the required HDCP keys EEPROM, however, the implementation is up to NVIDIA’s add-in board partners.
GeForce 8600GT-based graphics cards only require a six-layer PCB instead of the eight-layer PCB of the 8600GTS. The physical board size is also smaller too – measuring in at 6.9 x 4.376 inches. GeForce 8600GT-based cards do not require external PCIe power. NVIDIA rates the maximum board power consumption at 43-watts – 28-watts less than the 8600GTS.
The GeForce 8600GT supports similar video outputs as the 8600GTS, however, the 8600GT does not support video input features.
NVIDIA has revealed very little information on the GeForce 8500GT besides support for GDDR3 and DDR2 memory. It supports dual dual-link DVI, VGA and TV outputs as well.
Expect NVIDIA to pull the wraps off its GeForce 8600GTS, 8600GT and 8500GT next quarter in time to take on AMD’s upcoming RV630 and RV610.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Uni.Technology Tags: nVidia, GeForce, RV630, RV610, GeForce 8600 GT, GeForce 8600 GTS, GPU, DirectX 10

Intel to Sample Phase Change Memory This Year

2007-03-15T18:28:00.001-07:00

by Marcus Yam

Intel claims it will mass produce phase change memory before the end of 2007

This week Intel privately shared parts of its roadmap for memory technologies through 2008. Intel’s progress on phase-change memory, PCM or PRAM, will soon be sampled to customers with mass production possible before the end of the year.

Phase change memory wafer manufactured at 90nm

Phase-change memory is positioned as a replacement for flash memory, as it has non-volatile characteristics, but is faster and can be scaled to smaller dimensions. Flash memory cells can degrade and become unreliable after as few as 10,000 writes, but PCM is much more resilient at more than 100 million write cycles. For these reasons, Intel believes that phase-change memory could one day replace DRAM.

“The phase-change memory gets pretty close to Nirvana,” said Ed Doller, CTO of Intel’s flash memory group. “It will start to displace some of the RAM in the system.”

For its implementation of phase-change memory, Intel has since 2000 licensed technology from Ovonyx Inc.. The Ovonyx technology uses the properties of chalcogenide glass, the same material found in CD-RW and DVD-RW, which can be switched between crystalline and amorphous states for binary functions.

Every potential PCRAM memory maker thus far licenses Ovonyx technology. According to Ovonyx’s Web site, the first licensee of the technology was Lockheed Martin in 1999, with Intel and STMicroelectronics in the following year. Four years after that, Nanochip signed an agreement. Elpida and Samsung were the next two in 2005, and Qimonda marks the latest with a signing this year.

IBM, Macronix and Qimonda detailed last December its recent developments on phase-change memory. Researchers at IBM’s labs demonstrated a prototype phase-change memory device that switched more than 500 times faster than flash while using less than one-half the power to write data into a cell. The IBM device’s cross-section is a minuscule 3 by 20 nanometers in size, far smaller than flash can be built today and equivalent to the industry’s chip-making capabilities targeted for 2015.

Intel’s initial phase-change technology, however, is already a reality, as the chipmaker revealed that it has produced a 90 nanometer phase-change memory wafer. At the 90 nanometer process size, the power requirements to write are approximate to that required for flash. Intel said that its early test work shows data retention abilities of greater than 10 years even at temperatures of 85 degree Celsius.

Intel touts PCM as a “new category of memory,” as its attributes are distinctly different, and typically superior to many of the memory technologies today as it combines the best attributes of RAM, NOR and NAND. Intel wouldn’t give a firm date on the availability of its phase-change memory as several details still need to be finalized after the sampling process.

“We're going to be using this to allow customers to get familiar with the technology and help us architect the next generation device.” Doller said. “We're hoping we can see [mass] production by the end of the year, but that depends on the customers.”

(c) www.dailytech.com

Uni.Technology Tags: Intel, Phase Change, Memory, Nanotechnology

The Future of HDMI

2007-02-22T16:05:00.001-08:00

by Tuan Nguyen

Is 2007 the year of the display format wars? A look at the licensing structures of these formats reveals more

Unfortunately, consumers will be faced a total of three display standards in 2007 -- and even more in 2008. Along with HDMI, computers will start to ship with DisplayPort and the Universal Display Interface (UDI) this year. UDI is electrically compatible with DVI and HDMI, but does not carry the same licensing fees as either and has a stripped down feature set. DisplayPort is not compatible with any existing signaling format.
One of the primary concerns for these new standards is cost and interoperability. Expensive HDMI and HDCP certification is cited as one of the culprits delaying AMD 690G motherboards.
High fidelity signaling backers are split into two licensing camps: one supporting the DVI-derivatives (DVI-HDCP, HDMI, UDI) and the other supporting DisplayPort. AMD, Dell, Genesis Microchip, Hewlett-Packard, Molex, NVIDIA, Philips, Samsung and Tyco Electronics are supporters of DisplayPort; Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Silicon Image, Thomson and Toshiba compose the primary backers of HDMI. A significant portion of the DisplayPort supporters also have interests in HDMI. Earlier last year, several manufacturers including Sapphire and PowerColor announced HDMI-enabled graphics cards based on ATI GPUs. MSI also announced HDMI cards based on NVIDIA GPUs.
When DailyTech asked why HDMI was taking a long time to appear in PC products, Leslie Chard, president of HDMI Licensing LLC, said "Right now most manufacturers are considering the cost of adding HDMI to their graphics products. Since HDMI is based mainly on DVI signals, the technology is already available in graphics processors. HDMI is everywhere -- consumer electronics, home entertainment and now companies are demanding the technology for smaller handhelds. You can't beat HDMI's cross platform compatibility."

Joe Lee, director of marketing for Silicon Image, added "Card manufacturers now only have to consider ways of grabbing the sound output through the PCI Express bus and adding the cost of the physical connector. If card manufacturers can finish writing the special [drivers] needed to grab the audio, everything would be set. Windows Vista should help drive HDMI forward."
According to initial reports, DisplayPort was heralded as a royalty-free technology. As it stands today, DisplayPort is royalty free but is composed with well over 200 patents. According to VESA, the committee that overlooks over the DisplayPort standard, the intellectual property (IP) holders are not held fixed and can and may charge a "reasonable" fee for the technologies used in DisplayPort.
Chard took a shot at DisplayPort, claiming "These IP holders are free to charge royalties under RAND [Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory] terms. Until these IP holders make a public commitment, manufacturers have no idea what this rate will be. Moreover, additional IP holders may come forward and charge additional royalties in the future; this is especially true if the DisplayPort standard ever evolves to incorporate advanced new technologies."
HDMI's fees are already disclosed -- $0.04 per product and a small minimal fee for the HDCP keys, if used. HDMI Licensing LCC reduced the fees associated with using the technology late last year.
The largest hurdle DisplayPort faces, besides getting out the door, is interoperability with other devices. DisplayPort is not compatible with HDMI, UDI or DVI. The hurdle in jumping from one signaling protocol to the other is that the DVI-derivative protocols use HDCP, DisplayPort uses DPCP and HDCP. VESA partners claim they will develop devices that allow HDMI to DisplayPort conversion, though doing so would mitigate DPCP. Lee points out that this is essentially against the whole principle of a content protection protocol in the first place: if someone can freely negotiate between multiple or non-existent protocols that aren't under the same certification umbrella, then why have a certification process at all?
It has not been disclosed yet as to whether or not DisplayPort implementers may be required to pay royalties for the HDCP and Display Port Content Protection (DPCP) conversion either.
As of right now, the consumer electronics playing field is blanketed with HDMI-enabled products. The technology also recently entered its 1.3 revision, supporting features such as higher resolution and deep-color (wider color gamut) -- Sony's PlayStation 3 supports HDMI 1.3. Philips, the inventor of DisplayPort's content protection scheme DPCP, recently announced a wireless version of HDMI.
AMD is expected to launch DisplayPort compatible GPUs later this year with NVIDIA opting for the standard as well. Early last year, Silicon Image stated that UDI will end up replacing both HDMI and DVI standards on the PC when it becomes available to reduce licensing fees, though it will still be compatible with the older standards.

(c) www.dailytech.com

CES 2007: Pioneer demos the future of plasma

2007-01-10T18:50:00.001-08:00

Pioneer made some bold claims on Sunday about its brand spanking new plasma technology that should shoo of those pesky LCD and SED screens that have been sniffing around its turf. We were taken into a back room of the the Pioneer to witness the spectacle. Here, Pioneer had stood two 60" TV side by side, one using the current system, and the new one next to it.

The first me thing that struck me was that while the TVs sat idle, with nothing showing on the screen, you could still see the faint glow of luminance on the older tech one. The new plasma screen, however, actually offers such dark blacks that you can't tell whether it is showing a blank screen or has been switched off.

We kicked things off with a demo movie designed to show off all of its new features, such as the contrast ratio (which apparently is so good it can't be measured with standard equipment) and the richer colours. Then it was time for the side by side comparison and it became clear quite how much difference the new system makes. The colours are so much more vivd, skintones are a lot more distinctint and of course blacks look quite considerably darker.

To demonstrate how much better the new contrast works, the lights were turned up and down, and it was only when lights came up quite a long way that you could even begin to see any effect on the new screen.

One thing I did notice was that the new plasma was perhaps a little too black, and the colours a little too deep, which meant that the demo started to gain an unreal quality to it. Of course, you're unlikely to ever watch anything that even remotely resembles what they showed on the demo, so it might be best to take the results of this comparison with a pinch of salt. However, as it currently stands, it looks like Pioneer has delivered on its promises.

(c) www.techdigest.tv

Westinghouse Quad HD on display

2007-01-10T18:43:00.001-08:00

In the all hype that built up before CES this year we were really excited to check out the Quad HD display from Westinghouse. We went by the Westinghouse booth to check it out, the odd thing was the display was in the back of the booth and not marked very well. After receiving some help we found the display with some scientific data showing. Other than industrial uses we're not sure what we would use this 52" display with a resolution of 3840 x 2160. It would take one good scaler to scale the image that big.

(c) www.engadget.com

Nakamichi Kimono LCD display

2007-01-10T18:35:00.001-08:00

CES 2007 - Nakamichi is well known for its line of home entertainment systems (especially those on the audio front), and this 42" LCD display comes with a hand-lacquered display which shimmers like the finish of a grand piano (read: fingerprint magnet). According to Nakamichi, the Kimono LCD display is pretty hardy as the 7-coat lacquer bezel is more than capable of standing against the test of time while retaining its beauty. You get the full 1080p experience as well as SRS TruSurround multi-channel audio which ought to keep you entertained for hours on end. The design looks rather weird to me, but it was still enough to pick up the Design and Engineering Showcase Award for a Video Display. I suppose I don't have a knack for appreciating abstract art. What do you think?

(c) www.ubergizmo.com

Meccano to unveil WiFi-enabled Spyke Robot Set

2007-01-07T07:31:00.001-08:00

Meccano is all set to unveil a WiFi-controlled, Erector-branded robot kit at CES. The Spyke certainly improves on Meccano's earlier metallic attempts at robot sets: this little fella is capable of feeding a webcam video stream to a PC over the aforementioned wireless connection, as well as climbing stairs with its triangular tank-track; that's right parents, your staircase can no longer keep your kids safe. These basic specs combined with the teaser image on the right should be enough to perk up the ears of all the consumer robot enthusiasts out there -- who are now no doubt waiting to hear how competitively priced the Spyke will be in comparison to Lego's Mindstorm series of robot kits -- but unfortunately there's no other information (availability, pricing, etc.) about the Spyke as of yet. Don't fret though, because when CES kicks off in a couple of days, all will be revealed.

(c) www.engadget.com

Norcent readies new plasmas / LCD HDTV for CES

2007-01-07T06:26:00.001-08:00

by Darren Murph

While it seems we really only hear from Norcent when CES is approaching, the California-based outfit is kicking it up a notch this year as well, as it plans to showcase a duo of new plasmas and a flagship LCD HDTV as well. Both PDPs will feature integrated ATSC / NTSC tuners, HDMI, component / S-Video / composite, VGA, 160-degree viewing angle, SRS-enhanced stereo speakers, and a "3D digital comb filter" for color processing. Additionally, the 50-inch PT-5045HD plasma will sport a 1,366 x 768 resolution, 1,000 cd/m2, and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, while the 42-inch PT-4246HD gets stuck with a 1,024 x 768 resolution and 8,000:1 contrast ratio, but picks up a Clear-QAM tuner and a 1,200 cd/m2 brightness rating. Over on the LCD side, the 37-inch VION LT-3790 one ups the LT-3725 we saw just recently by touting a larger panel, 1,366 x 768 resolution, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 500 cd/m2 brightness, 176-degree viewing angle, built-in ATSC / NTSC (Clear-QAM) tuners, HDMI, component / S-Video / composite inputs, VGA, and the same SRS-enabled speakers as on the plasmas. For those interested in picking one up, the PT-4246HD is on the streets right now for a very reasonable $1,199.99, while the 50-inch flavor will land next month for $1,899.99, and the $1,199.99 VION LCD will hit stores sometime Q2 2007.

(c) www.engdaget.com

GE90-115B Gas Turbine Jet Engine Testing & Evaluation

2007-01-06T14:36:00.001-08:00

Toshiba unveils world's first HD DVD writer

2007-01-06T02:10:00.001-08:00

Always expect firsts from Toshiba America, the maker of computers/storage/projectors and so much more. The company announced the world's first HD DVD burner for desktop computers. (Wondering what HD DVDs are? Catch up on a story I wrote last year)

We knew this was coming. High-def DVD players has been available for since April 2006 (mostly thanks to Toshiba's computer and consumer electronics divisions). Toshiba says more than 1.5 million HD DVD movies have been sold. But who can resist using the same discs for storage purposes? Since high-definition video needs oodles of gigabytes, the discs can hold 30 GBs of digital files (that's approximately up to five full-length standard DVD films, up to 7,500 MP3 songs or up to 30,000 high-quality images, according to Toshiba).

The SD-H903A internal drive will be sold to computer companies and manufacturers beginning in February. The good news for consumers, we may start seeing PCs with HD DVD burners in the spring or summer.

Other specs:
It only writes HD DVD content in real time (that's 1x speed)
Also compatible with all older DVD and CD formats.

(c) blogs.ocregister.com

Three Intel quad-cores coming Monday

2007-01-06T01:48:00.001-08:00

Intel plans to launch three quad-core processors on Monday, covering two Xeons for lower-end servers and one mainstream model for desktop computers, sources familiar with the plan said.

As expected, the desktop chip is called the Core 2 Quad 6600 and will join the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 model Intel already ships. The new processor will run at 2.4GHz, and the front-side bus that links the chip to the rest of the system will run at 1066MHz, the company is expected to announce at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week.

Also set to arrive are two low-end Xeons, the 2.13GHz 3210 and 2.4GHz 3220. Both are designed for single-processor servers. The chips have 8MB cache and a 1066MHz front-side bus.

Intel declined to comment for this story.

The chipmaker began its quad-core product launch in November but now is fleshing out the lineup. It often launches desktop products with extreme models geared for demanding video game systems, then adds more moderately priced mainstream models later.

"I expect, with respect to the desktop quad-core, it's mostly a matter of maintaining a certain cadence, even if, practically speaking, there won't be a whole lot of near-term buyers," Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff said.

Intel's quad-core processors combine two dual-core chips into a single package. Rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices has a quad-core processor code-named Barcelona under development that puts all four cores on a single slice of silicon. However, that chip won't arrive until midway through this year.

Servers, which often juggle multiple independent tasks, are well-suited to taking advantage of multiple processing cores. With desktop machines, however, the benefits aren't as clear because software often isn't able to use all the cores effectively.

(c) news.com.com

Toshiba Designing New Reactor

2007-01-06T01:40:00.001-08:00

Japan's Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO) said Friday it was independently designing a new boiling-water reactor, or BWR, for use in nuclear power plants.
"We are making a preliminary conceptual design for a next-generation" BWR, a company spokesman said.
Toshiba, a Tokyo-based company whose businesses run from consumer electronics to large industrial infrastructure, has developed its nuclear reactor business together with General Electric Co. (GE) for over 40 years.
But in November, GE agreed to integrate its nuclear operations with Hitachi Ltd. (6501.TO), fueling speculation that GE and Toshiba could eventually become rivals. A report Friday in The Nikkei said Toshiba would market a BWR on its own by 2015.
The Toshiba spokesman said the new reactor was being chiefly designed for the domestic market, as the Japanese government was planning to upgrade its current generation of reactors from around 2030.
"It is too premature to discuss competition" with GE, he said, adding that the two companies are still jointly developing boiling water reactors.

(c) neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com

Here comes the terabyte hard drive

2007-01-06T01:25:00.001-08:00

Last year, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies predicted hard-drive companies would announce 1 terabyte drives by the end of 2006. Hitachi was only off by a few days.

The company said on Thursday that it will come out with a 3.5-inch-diameter 1 terabyte drive for desktops in the first quarter, then follow up in the second quarter with 3.5-inch terabyte drives for digital video recorders, bundled with software called Audio-Visual Storage Manager for easier retrieval of data, and corporate storage systems.

The Deskstar 7K1000 will cost $399 when it comes out. That comes to about 40 cents a gigabyte. Hitachi will also come out with a similar 750GB drive. Rival Seagate Technology will come out with a 1 terabyte drive in the first half of 2007.

The two companies, along with others, will tout their new drives at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and will show off hybrid hard drives, as well.

A terabyte is a trillion bytes, or a million megabytes, or 1,000 gigabytes, as measured by the hard-drive industry. (There are actually two conventions for calculating megabytes, but this is how the drive industry counts it.) As a reference, the print collection in the Library of Congress comes to about 10 terabytes of information, according to the How Much Information study from U.C. Berkeley. The report also found that 400,000 terabytes of e-mail get produced per year. About 50,000 trees would be necessary to create enough paper to hold a terabyte of information, according to the report.

Who needs this sort of storage capacity? You will, eventually, said Doug Pickford, director of market and product strategy at Hitachi. Demand for data storage capacity at corporations continues to grow, and it shows no sign of abating. A single terabyte drive takes up less space than four 250GB drives, which lets IT managers conserve on computing room real estate. The drive can hold about 330,000 3MB photos or 250,000 MP3s, according to Hitachi's math.

Consumers, meanwhile, are gobbling up more drive capacity because of content like video. An hour of standard video takes up about 1GB, while an hour of high-definition video sucks up 4GB, Pickford said.

Consumers, though, tend to be skeptical of ever needing more storage capacity.

"We heard that when we brought out 1 gigabyte drives," Pickford said.

The boost in capacity for desktop drives comes in part through the introduction of perpendicular recording technology to 3.5-inch-diameter drives. In perpendicular drives, data can be stored in vertical columns, rather than on a single plane. Drive makers have already released notebook drives, which sport smaller 2.5-inch-diameter drives, with perpendicular recording. The 1 terabyte drives will be Hitachi's first 3.5-inch drives with perpendicular recording.

Currently, Hitachi sells 3.5-inch drives that hold 500GB of data, while Seagate has come out with a 750GB data drive.

Drive makers convert to perpendicular recording when the need for areal density, the measure of how much data can be crammed into a square inch, passes 125 gigabits. The terabyte drive (and the 750GB drive) can hold 148 gigabits per square inch, or 148 billion bits. Hitachi's previous 3.5-inch drives maxed out at 115 gigabits per square inch.

The hard drive turned 50 last year, and over the past five decades data capacity has increased at a fairly regular and rapid pace. The first drive, which came with the RAMAC computer, weighed about a ton and held 5MB of data.

Hard-drive scientists say that increases in capacity will continue because of technologies like heat-assisted recording and patterned media.

(c) www.netscape.com

Samsung announces double-sided LCDs

2007-01-05T17:59:00.001-08:00

by Ken Fisher

If two heads are better than one, are two faces on a single LCD a no-brainer? Samsung today announced that it has created thin-film transistor, liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels capable of showing independent images on both sides of an LCD screen. Unlike other two-faced LCDs which only show an image and its reverse on the flipside, the Samsung solution can display two different images. According to Samsung, the dual-sided LCDs have been designed primarily for use in mobile products. One obvious application would be cell phones that currently have two separate displays.

Is this a battery-life nightmare in the making? Samsung says no. Although there are two visual surfaces, the new dual-sided LCD uses one backlight. One side of the LCD also helps out with illumination, using the light trapped by one side's "transmissive mode" projection to illuminate the reflective side. Transmissive LCDs are those which are actively illuminated from behind LCDs cells, and make up most LCDs that we look at these days. Reflective LCDs are just the opposite: they rely on ambient light for illumination, and therefore are less clear and offer less contrast than transmissive LCDs. You've seen these on digital watches or on the exteriors of many flip phones (some have backlights that can be activated).

How do you display two images on a single LCD? Normal LCDs have TFT gates that each operate a single pixel, but Samsung's dual-sided LCDs put two control gates on each pixel, allowing it to control each side independently without having to double the circuitry. Complex calculations take care of the rest.

Samsung's dual-sided LCD panels

Samsung will begin mass production of a 2.6mm thick and 2.22" wide QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) dual-sided panel in the first half of this year. The company said it will show off the display at CES, so we'll be sure to check it out and ask them if they expect this technology to ever make its way outside of mobile devices.

(c) www.arstechnica.com

Samsung to unveil large LCD TVs

2007-01-04T03:55:00.001-08:00

by Eric A. Taub

Samsung, the world's largest seller of televisions, will introduce at next week's Consumer Electronics Show a new line of rear-projection liquid crystal display televisions that will not be much thicker than flat-panel TVs but will cost about 30 percent less.

The new sets, aimed at those who want a bigger set but cannot afford a plasma TV, will come in 50- to 60-inch sizes. At 10 inches deep, they can be hung on a wall.

While consumers are embracing LCD flat-panel TVs in ever-larger sizes, Samsung has also recommitted itself to plasma TV and will double its current plasma production capacity later this year, said G.S. Choi, the company's president for digital media, in an interview from South Korea.

Plasma will continue to dominate in larger sizes, and the company will add an 80-inch model to its lineup this year, Choi said. To help consumers fit these larger sizes in their homes, Samsung said it was redesigning the TV frames to make them up to 30 percent thinner.

At the electronics show, held annually in Las Vegas, Samsung will also introduce a wireless plasma TV that will be able to receive HDTV programming sent from an HD DVD or Blu-ray player or set-top box. Because there will be no cables to hide, consumers may be more likely to hang such a plasma display on a wall.

The company, which was the first to introduce a Blu-ray high-definition DVD player last year, will announce its second-generation player next week. The new model is expected to cost about 20 percent less than the current version, but will have more interactive functions.

Although LG will introduce a dual format HD DVD/Blu-ray player, Samsung has no plans to do the same. "If the market is still divided, we could do a dual-format player, but we will wait and see," Choi said.

LG to Launch Dual-format Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD Player

2007-01-04T03:51:00.001-08:00

It was bound to happen: In the mess known as the high-def format wars, eventually, it was clear a manufacturer would cross party lines and release a single player capable of handling both Blu-ray Discs and HD DVD discs. The question wasn't if; it was a question of when.

LG Electronics is the first to cross that line: The company has just announced it will be launching the first dual-format high-definition disc player at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. The LG press release issued in Korea early Thursday morning is short on details--the player will launch in "early 2007", but beyond that, we have no information on pricing--but that's of little consequence for now. I imagine the details will become clear by Sunday, when LG holds its press conference at CES.

LG stated it was considering a dual-format player at the CeBIT show last March, but the company has been quiet about its progress until now. The company is the first to formally announce a dual-format player; prior to this, Ricoh and NEC had both announced they had developed components that could read both Blu-ray and HD DVD media, but neither had announced actual products. Samsung had also made rumblings about coming out with a dual-format player, but the company backtracked on those reports early last year.

The LG announcement dramatically alters the competitive landscape for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. The mere announcement of a dual-format player could stall the market for high-definition players and discs, as consumers anticipate the dual-format player's arrival. A dual-format player would offer consumers a hedge against obsolence, in the event one of the disc formats dies out over time.

And once the dual-format player does come out, it could ignite the market for high-definition players and discs, a market that's still in its infancy.

Price will likely play a big role, though, in the dual-format player's success. If the player is expensive--and, certainly, I expect it to carry a premium over a standalone player, at least at launch--its high price may deter consumers from buying right now. However, if the dual-format player's premium is an acceptable one to consumers, then the player could take off--in turn driving consumers to buy movies in high-definition, without having to worry about which studios are backing which disc format.

However, while a dual-format player will help consumers worried about buying into the wrong format, it won't help content producers. Dual-format players will remain a rarity, for at least the next year. If dual-format players do become the norm, studios will be faced with a quandary: Continue to support both formats, a costly endeavor, or release new and catalog content in just one of the disc formats--thereby foregoing support of those early adopters who bought into whichever disc format falls by the wayside.

Are you itching to buy a high-def disc player? Does news of a dual-format player make you more likely to buy a high-def disc player in the next year?

(c) blogs.pcworld.com

Samsung Samples 50nm 16Gb NAND Flash

2007-01-03T15:42:00.001-08:00

Samsung inches closer to making SSDs more mainstream

When it comes to storage technology on computers, hard drive technology has advanced the slowest as far as performance is concerned. Companies like Samsung are looking to Flash Solid State Disks (SSDs) to replace the spinning disk and reduce loading times for applications.

SSDs have the advantage of rapid response times without having to wait for a hard drive to spin up/seek and have drastically reduced power consumption compared to traditional hard drives. SSDs use zero watts when not being accessed, and as little as 200 milliwatts during read/write activities.

Given the lower power requirements, company’s like Sony and Fujitsu are looking to Samsung to provide SSDs for their mobile computers. Samsung also uses its SSD drives on the Q30 notebook and Q1 UMPC.

Samsung announced today that it has produced samples of the world's first 16Gb NAND flash memory device built on a 50 nanometer process. The multi-level cell (MLC) design uses a 4KB page size instead of the 2KB used in competing designs. As a result, read speeds are double that of 2KB designs while write speeds are increased by 150%.

The increased storage capacity and faster write speeds will help Samsung reach its goal of producing 128GB SSDs by the first half of 2008.

Samsung will begin mass production its new MLC 16Gb NAND flash memory chips in Q1 2007.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Cheaper LEDs from breakthrough in ZnO nanowire research

2007-01-03T15:39:00.001-08:00

SEM image of p-type ZnO nanowires created by electrical engineering professor Deli Wang at UC San Diego . Note: the blue color was added in photoshop. Credit: Deli Wang/UCSD

Engineers at UC San Diego have synthesized a long-sought semiconducting material that may pave the way for an inexpensive new kind of light emitting diode (LED) that could compete with today's widely used gallium nitride LEDs, according to a new paper in the journal Nano Letters.

To build an LED, you need both positively and negatively charged semiconducting materials; and the engineers synthesized zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoscale cylinders that transport positive charges or "holes" – so-called "p-type ZnO nanowires." They are endowed with a supply of positive charge carrying holes that, for years, have been the missing ingredients that prevented engineers from building LEDs from ZnO nanowires. In contrast, making "n-type" ZnO nanowires that carrier negative charges (electrons) has not been a problem. In an LED, when an electron meets a hole, it falls into a lower energy level and releases energy in the form of a photon of light.
Deli Wang, an electrical and computer engineering professor from UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering, and colleagues at UCSD and Peking University, report synthesis of high quality p-type zinc oxide nanowires in a paper published online by the journal Nano Letters.
"Zinc oxide nanostructures are incredibly well studied because they are so easy to make. Now that we have p-type zinc oxide nanowires, the opportunities for LEDs and beyond are endless," said Wang.
Wang has filed a provisional patent for p-type ZnO nanowires and his lab at UCSD is currently working on a variety of nanoscale applications.
"Zinc oxide is a very good light emitter. Electrically driven zinc oxide single nanowire lasers could serve as high efficiency nanoscale light sources for optical data storage, imaging, and biological and chemical sensing," said Wang.
To make the p-type ZnO nanowires, the engineers doped ZnO crystals with phosphorus using a simple chemical vapor deposition technique that is less expensive than the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique often used to synthesize the building blocks of gallium nitride LEDs. Adding phosphorus atoms to the ZnO crystal structure leads to p-type semiconducting materials through the formation of a defect complex that increases the number of holes relative to the number of free electrons.

"Zinc oxide is wide band gap semiconductor and generating p-type doping impurities that provide free holes is very difficult – particularly in nanowires. Bin Xiang in my group worked day and night for more than a year to accomplish this goal," said Wang.
The starting materials and manufacturing costs for ZnO LEDs are far less expensive than those for gallium nitride LEDs. In the future, Wang expects to cut costs even further by making p-type and n-type ZnO nanowires from solution.
For years, researchers have been making electron-abundant n-type ZnO nanowire crystals from zinc and oxygen. Missing oxygen atoms within the regular ZnO crystal structure create relative overabundances of zinc atoms and give the semiconductors their n-type, conductive properties. The lack of accompanying p-type ZnO nanowires, however, has prevented development of a wide range of ZnO nanodevices.
While high quality p-type ZnO nanowires have not previously been reported, groups have demonstrated p-type conduction in ZnO thin films and made ZnO thin film LEDs. Using ZnO nanowires rather than thin films to make LEDs would be less expensive and could lead to more efficient LEDs, Wang explained.
Having both n- and p-type ZnO nanowires – complementary nanowires – could also be useful in a variety of applications including transistors, spintronics, UV detectors, nanogenerators, and microscopy. In spintronics applications, researchers could use p-type ZnO nanowires to make dilute magnetic semiconductors by doping ZnO with magnetic atoms, such as manganese and cobalt, Wang explained.
Transistors that rely on the semiconducting properties of ZnO are also now on the horizon. "P-type doping in nanowires would make complementary ZnO nanowire transistors possible," said Wang.

(c) www.physorg.com

Google Misses YouTube Anti-Piracy Deadline

2007-01-03T15:28:00.001-08:00

Google rings in the new year without its promised anti-piracy protection scheme

Although YouTube rang in 2007 with a virtual New Year's Eve festival complete with a performance from Warner Music, live performances and participation from hordes of online members, the company failed to meet its self-imposed deadline to implement anti-piracy protection on its site. In an agreement with Warner Music Group, YouTube promised in September to have an anti-piracy system in place that would feature an "advanced content identification and royalty reporting system."

The anti-piracy system to be in place by the end of 2006 was a part of a deal which allowed Google to distribute Warner music videos, artist interviews and other music-related content. When Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion USD in October, it was widely expected that Google's deeper pockets would give YouTube the financial backing to implement such anti-piracy measures.

Missing the year-end deadline could be seen as a virtual pothole on the road to a more controlled distribution channel, but YouTube still can save face by getting the system live within the opening weeks of 2007. "It is hugely important, especially from the rights holders' perspective, that the best efforts are being made to corral the stuff flowing through YouTube," said Michael McGuire of Gartner Research. "Rights holders are making specific bets on paths of distribution and are expecting serious effort to make uncontrolled distribution difficult for most folks to do."

For now, YouTube is leaving the ball in the user's court when it comes to copyrighted music by telling users that uploading content "shall be at your sole risk."

(c) www.dailytech.com

Rich Skrenta: Google won already

2007-01-03T01:33:00.001-08:00

by Anders Bylund

Computer industry heavyweight Rich Skrenta thinks that Google has essentially won the online search and advertising war, and that the entire Internet is Google's to enjoy, direct, and profit from. Does he mean "won" in the sense of Athens at the battle of Marathon, or how the Iraqi information minister used it? Let's have a closer look.

Skrenta, who played instrumental parts in Netscape's search strategy, building the Open Directory, and developing the Amiga Unix OS, bases his claim on Google's technological lead and, in turn, the massive mindshare the company has built up over the years. He cites a study reporting that users looking at Google search results under a Yahoo logo are inclined to think the results less relevant, and vice versa. Following this, he argues, it doesn't really matter if Ask or Microsoft can beat Google at the search game, because it has already won that battle in the hearts and minds of consumers.

And what follows from Google's position at the center of the 'Net is a massive monetizing opportunity—which Google nailed down as well. The AdSense program is undeniably successful, though Skrenta may overstate its position. He claims that "Google's CPMs are $90-120, vs. $4-5 for an average browse page view elsewhere." We're somewhat suspicious of those figures here at the Orbiting HQ, and they may be his own best guess based on ad revenues at his own sites.

Skrenta keeps repeating his pithy mantra, "Google is not your competition, Google is the environment." He then says that Yahoo, for example, should follow the lead of Ask.com and surrender to the Google money machine. By his calculations, the Y is leaving $1.7 billion of annual revenue on the table by trying to run its own advertising network rather than letting AdSense/AdWords run the show.

By making advertising partners out of even potential competitors, and backing the whole thing up with arguably the best search engine available (though you may have other favorites), the Mountain View online Brobdingnagian has cemented its place as the central point of the Internet, the one place where all the buyers and the vendors, the readers and the publishers, meet up to conduct their business. To beat Google now, somebody would have to come up with a better search and a better advertising solution, and then convince the general public and the business world, respectively, of these feats.

It sounds daunting indeed, and Mr. Skrenta makes sense on many levels. I use and like a lot of Google's products every day. The company has plans to grow beyond the invisible borders of the online world pretty soon, starting with some tentative radio and print advertising programs. Call it the world's librarian, making a few pennies off every piece of information we all consume. Still, no victory is everlasting. We'll just have to see how long Google can sit on this throne. 10 years on the 'Net is epoch. Will Google still be the leader 10 years from now?

(c) www.arstechnica.com

China residents logging on in greater numbers

2007-01-03T00:25:00.001-08:00

The number of Internet users in China increased by 30 percent last year, according to one of the country's government-sponsored news agencies. The total number of Internet users in China is now approximately 132 million, of whom 52 million (about 39 percent) are using broadband. By comparison, there are approximately 207 million Internet users in the United States.

China now boasts more Internet users than any other country in Asia, followed by Japan with 86 million. Larger than the Internet populations of Africa, Australia, and the Middle East combined, China's 132 million makes up over 30 percent of the total Internet population of Asia, which is approximately 387 million. The total global number of Internet users is thought to be just over a billion—less than a sixth of the planet's inhabitants.

Although Internet access isn't quite ubiquitous yet in China, other communications technologies are extremely pervasive. According to statistics provided by the Chinese embassy, the number of cell phone users in China isgreaterr than 430 million, which means that the country could potentially account for almost half of all cell phone purchases around the world.

As China's Internet population continues to increase, it could become more difficult for the Chinese government to enforce and maintain its censorship mechanisms. Often criticized by the international community for jailing Internet journalists who criticize state policy, the Chinese government uses complex firewalls to limit the accessibility of content that is sexual or critical of the country's government. According to United Press International, Chinese Internet users are increasingly using fake identity card numbers in order to access web sites and Internet games anonymously.

(c) www.arstechnica.com

Microsoft Gives Free Laptops to Bloggers

2007-01-03T00:20:00.001-08:00

In a move to get favorable spins from key bloggers, Microsoft began sending them high-end notebooks loaded with Windows Vista Ultimate. Think it rubbed some people the wrong way?

One of the little publicized facts of the technology industry is that manufacturers and distributors routinely send out review hardware to press outlets, influential media figures, and others as a way to get publicity and raise awareness of their products. Many of these exchanges are on the up-and-up: journalists have to sign review agreements to return the units in a certain amount of time, and sometimes even provide credit information in the event the item is damaged or stolen. However, some manufacturers—particularly of low-cost or commodity items—don't care if the review units are returned, and sometimes items just arrive unsolicited: marketing and PR people are taking the chance that jut putting a product in proximity to a publisher or reviewer will make good things happen.

As common as these practices are, they create a bit of conundrum for journalists, since keeping or selling the items is effectively accepting a bribe and raises interesting ethical and tax issues.

This week, Microsoft has been rather publicly "outed" for sending full-loaded Acer Ferrari notebook computers pre-loaded with Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 to selected high-profile bloggers. Microsoft contacted the bloggers directly and offered the "review units" with no strings attached, saying bloggers could write about them (or not), return the systems (or not), or give away the notebooks on their sites. Of course, since Vista is not yet available to consumers and a high-end laptop with everything pre-installed is a tempting offer, many of the bloggers jumped.

Some critics have argued Microsoft's practice is unethical; ethics aside, it certainly isn't uncommon in the technology industry, and is no doubt viewed by many as a savvy public relations move. A more pressing concern might be when reviewers fail to disclose how they receive review units, the terms attached to them, and any other conflicts of interest associated with their work. At least most of the bloggers Microsoft contacted have been up-front (even giddy) about their newfound boons; several say they plan to return the units to Microsoft.

Microsoft and PR firm Edelman have refused to say how many laptops were given to bloggers, or the units' value. Published reports have the number of systems between 80 and 100, with street prices ranging frm $2,000 to $2,4000 apiece.

(As a rule, I rarely review hardware or software, but, for the record, any review items I receive are either returned to the manufacturer or, with permission, donated to a charity or user group, and I disclose any relationship with the manufacturer or developer in the text of the review.)

(c) news.digitaltrends.com

No Longer "Made in Taiwan"

2007-01-01T22:51:00.001-08:00

Innovation over simple contract manufacturing is the key to Taiwan's economic future, or demise

"Made in Taiwan," the label ingrained in every American, is quickly becoming an icon of the 90's rather than the everyday slogan it once was.

Contract manufacturing now sits in Taiwan’s rear view mirror as the country enters its first age away from just manufacturing. Taiwan’s industry was primarily based on manufacturing but since the late 1990's Taiwanese companies have taken the turn to cell phone development and PC designs, adding innovation to their list of operations.

Four Taiwanese manufacturers control over 70% of notebook manufacturing currently. The other Taiwanese notebook brands control another 10% of the manufacturing development. As early as 2001 the capacity in Taiwan to build notebooks all but vanished. The "Big 4" in notebook assembly builds exclusively in China.

One of the largest outsourcers to Taiwan is Dell, the world’s second largest PC maker. Over 50 percent of Dell's product development is done in its Taiwan branch according to CNET. That branch began with 50 employees in the early 2002 and currently has over 300.

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute announced that Taiwan had overtaken Japan in mobile phone PCB production earlier this year. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, better known as TSMC, has a 50% global market share for semiconductor foundries alone. Taiwanese manufacturers have nearly a 100% global market share for retail motherboards, power supplies, PC cooling and enclosures. However, there is a trend with all of these big Taiwan claims: virtually all of the production is done inside China.

Taiwanese companies were barred from manufacturing technology outside of Taiwan on less than 0.25 micron nodes until yesterday. The Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairsjust declared the 180nm node legall for Taiwanese-owned, Chinese-based manufacturing.

Even with all of these strong indicators that Taiwan has controlling interests in the world of PC manufacturing; investment analysts are already weary of Taiwanese companies in 2007. The TAIEX, or Taiwan Capitalization Weighted Stock Index, has lagged behind other Asian markets for five consecutive years -- about the same time the country began moving its manufacturing base from Taiwan to China.

(c) www.dailytech.com

Google v. Technorati (and Hitwise v. Comscore)

2006-12-30T17:54:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-30T17:21:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-30T17:14:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-30T17:10:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-30T17:05:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-30T16:44:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-30T14:44:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-26T13:23:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-26T13:16:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-26T12:10:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-26T11:38:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-24T14:31:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-23T12:07:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-22T17:04:00.001-08:00

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.

Samsung Unveils Mobile Phone With 'Optical Joystick'

2006-12-22T16:26:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-22T12:38:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-21T15:18:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-20T11:08:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-18T12:20:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-18T07:45:00.001-08:00

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.

[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

2006-12-18T07:40:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-17T06:32:00.001-08:00

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?

2006-12-16T16:48:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-16T11:54:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-15T15:01:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-15T14:28:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-15T14:11:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-14T15:51:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-14T14:28:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-14T11:37:00.001-08:00

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?

2006-12-07T17:28:00.001-08:00

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.

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'

2006-12-07T17:19:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-07T17:11:00.001-08:00

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”

2006-12-07T17:06:00.001-08:00

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

2006-12-07T17:00:00.001-08:00

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]

Birthday!

2006-11-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

Today is "My Technology Universe" birthday!