The Canadian maker of the BlackBerry family of smartphones, Research in Motion has unveiled its first ever touch screen device ‘The Storm’ on Wednesday. 

Targeted at business and consumer markets, the newly launched device is BlackBerry’s official answer to rival touch-based smartphones launched recently including Apple's 3G iPhone, Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1, T-Mobile's Google Android-powered G1 and Nokia's 5800 music phone launched last week.

‘The 3G Storm’ will be available through Verizon Wireless in the US, and Vodafone in the European market by November 2008.

Vienna - Using quantum physics, researchers said they communicated for the first time via a completely tap-proof telephone network in Vienna on Wednesday.

Scientists involved in the SECOQC project, funded by the European Union, found a way to create an encryption key based on the polarisation of photons, subatomic particles that carry light.

"Classic keys can be hacked by supercomputers, but not in this case," said Anton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist at the Vienna University.

Mountain View, California  - Google is set to expand its lead in the online advertising market by allowing advertisements within games, the company announced Wednesday.

Google would use its new so-called AdSense for Games programme to sell in-game video ads, the world's leading search engine provider said.

The company also hopes to make profits from its YouTube video platform by introducing a new "Click to Buy" programme allowing users to buy digital tunes from Apples iTunes or Amazon. com without leaving the site.

London, Oct 8 : Scientists in Japan have unveiled a life-like robot that looks like a five-year-old girl.

The team at Osaka University''s robotics department behind the robogirl, known as Repliee R-1, has claimed that it is the most realistic robot suit ever created.

Repliee R-1 has flexible silicone skin and contains dozens of sensors and motors, enabling it to move and interact with its surroundings like a human, reports the Telegraph.

Melbourne, Oct 8 : In a remarkable discovery, scientists have for the first time unravelled bacteria''s stress buster— a "co-ordination centre” that directs a bacteria''s defence systems to fight off external threats and stresses.

The team of British and Australian researchers has shown how the centre alerts the bacteria to danger and prompts it to create proteins to negate the threat, reports ABC Online.

Washington, October 8 : Researchers at the University of Leices