TopNews - Technology News

Google buys Motorola Mobility for $12.5 bln

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:11:38 +0000

Washington, May 23: Google has announced its acquisition of Motorola's mobile arm for 12.5 billion dollars, few days after the Internet search received approval from the Chinese government.

Google co-founder Larry Page confirmed in a blog post that the deal has now closed.

"Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone," Page wrote.

Apple to drop Google Maps from upcoming mobile platform

Jamie Williamson — Sat, 12 May 2012 09:10:17 +0000

San Francisco, May 12 - Apple will drop Google Maps from its upcoming mobile platform iOS 6 in favour of its own mapping system, it was reported Friday.

The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps programme on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster and more reliable experience, said technology news website 9to5mac, citing its sources.

Microsoft quarterly earnings top estimates

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:37:44 +0000

San Francisco, April 20 - Microsoft Thursday reported a modest revenue increase and profit decline in its quarterly earnings with numbers still topping analysts' estimates.

For the quarter ending March 31, the software giant reported quarterly revenue of $17.41 billion, a 6 percent increase on a year-on-year basis, reported Xinhua.

"We're driving toward exciting launches across the entire company, while delivering strong financial results," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft.

Soon, smart homes that act as `intelligent agents` to foresee our needs

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:54:27 +0000

Washington, Mar 30 : It wouldn't be long before our homes act as "intelligent agents" that use sensors and software to anticipate our needs and tend to tasks that improve our health, energy efficiency, even social media.

Many homes are already halfway there, with computer chips helping microwave popcorn, record TV shows, and turn on coffee makers and thermostats.

"If you have a programmable thermostat, you have the beginnings of a smart home," said Diane Cook, Washington State University's professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

6 MIT scientists to address EmTech India in Bangalore

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:22:21 +0000

Washington, March 23 - Six outstanding scientists and researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including two Indian Americans, will participate in the fourth emerging technologies conference of MIT Technology Review's EmTech India in Bangalore.

The conference starting March 27 will see over 500 innovators getting an insight into the work being done in digital transformation; network designs in the social world and the innovation ecosystem and how it can impact society.

Apple's new iPad brings 4G, better camera, more pixels

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 04:11:22 +0000

Washington, March 9 - With 4G LTE wireless, retina display, and a high-definition camera, Apple's third tablet is no doubt the best iPad yet, say those in the industry.

Apple CEO Tim Cook who introduced the new iPad in San Francisco Wednesday, called it the "poster child of the post-PC world", the Christian Science Monitor reported.

The new iPad has a breathtaking screen. Weighing in at 2048 by 1536 pixels, it boasts 3.1 million, one million more than a 1080p HDTV, which has only 1920 by 1080 pixels.

"The most ever in a mobile device," said Cook.

Apple plans new-generation iPad event

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:45:37 +0000

San Francisco, Feb 29 - Apple Tuesday announced an event March 7 that may see the introduction of the company's next generation of iPad tablet computer.

The event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, reported Xinhua.

According to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, an Apple invitation to the event read that "We have something you really have to see. And touch".

The highly-anticipated new iPad is expected to have a faster processor, improved graphics processor and a high-definition retina display.

Internet firms agree to install ‘do-not-track’ browser button

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:06:31 +0000

Washington, Feb 24 : A coalition of Internet firms, including US-based Google, have agreed to support a "do-not-track" button to be installed in web browsers that would help protect the privacy of computer users across the globe.

The `do-not-track' feature has been announced as part of the White House's call for Congress to pass a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights" that will allow Internet users greater control over how their personal information is collected and used online.

For more than a year, Internet browser companies have resisted embedding the button.

Google to become top online ad seller in US by 2013

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:44:56 +0000

Washington, Feb 23 - The online advertising business of search engine giant Google is growing faster than anticipated and is expected to surpass Facebook to be the top display ad seller in the US by 2013, a study has said.

Display ad is a form of graphical advertising on the internet usually appearing next to web content as banners or short video clips.

Research firm eMarketer said Facebook crossed Yahoo to be the top display ad-selling internet company in the US last year, and is set to continue the lead in 2012 with a revenue of $2.58 billion, Xinhua reported.

Wikipedia shuts for 24 hours

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:14:46 +0000

Washington, Jan 18 - Wikipedia, which describes itself as the largest encyclopaedia in human history, has blacked out its English-language site to protest proposed US anti-piracy laws.

"Imagine a world without free knowledge," says a statement posted against a black background when one tries to access the site.

Wikipedia is opposing the US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) being debated by Congress.

Jimmy Wales, who founded the site, told the BBC: "Proponents of SOPA have characterised the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy".

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigns

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:10:27 +0000

San Francisco, Jan 19 - Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang has resigned from its Board of Directors and all other positions with the company, it was announced Tuesday.

The 43-year-old Yang also resigned from the Boards of Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba Group Holding limited, Xinhua quoted the company as stating in a press release.

Having founded the online company in 1995 with David Filo, Yang was Yahoo's chief executive from June 2007 until January 2009. (IANS)

World’s smallest magnetic data storage unit beats modern hard drive

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:49:04 +0000

Washington, Jan 13 : Scientists have succeeded in developing the world’s smallest data storage unit, which uses just twelve atoms per bit and squeezes a whole byte (8 bit) into as few as 96 atoms.

In comparison, a modern hard drive still needs more than half a billion atoms per byte.

The nanometre storage unit was developed by scientists from IBM and the German Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL).

Everyday microwave ovens to make future solid-state refrigerators

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:41:22 +0000

Washington, Jan 11 : Advanced nanomaterials could now open the door to a new generation of high-performance, cost-effective solid state refrigeration and air conditioning, requiring no refrigerants and no moving parts, a new study led by Indian origin researcher has revealed.

The key ingredients for this innovation by engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are a dash of nanoscale sulfur and a normal, everyday microwave oven.

Now, endoscopic pill that allows doc tour our insides and take pics

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:11:16 +0000

Washington, Jan 11 : Drawing inspiration from science fiction, researchers have developed a controllable endoscopic capsule that patients can swallow like a pill and let doctors explore inside of their bodies.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have successfully tested a prototype of the capsule that has the ability to "swim" through the body and could provide clinicians with unprecedented control when photographing the inside of the human body.

The capsule can be equipped with a camera.

Once inside the patient's digestive track, a doctor can "steer" the capsule through the body using an MRI machine, photograph specific areas of interest, and view those pictures wirelessly.

Now, micro-thin coatings that make your mobile phones toilet-proof!

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:16:21 +0000

Washington, Jan 10 : Three start-up gadget makers are now offering micro-thin coatings that protect cellphones from moisture even when they are completely immersed in water.

The special coatings are made of nanomaterials that can seamlessly and invisibly encase iPhone or Android phone and keep it safe from water.

HzO, P2i, and Liquipel will be putting their technology on display this week at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“We can’t see why every cellphone on the planet shouldn’t be using our technology,” Paul Clayson, president and CEO of nanotech firm HzO told FoxNews. com.

Living robots may be coming within 15 or 20 years

Jamie Williamson — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 11:08:10 +0000

Washington, Dec 31 : We are a lot closer to living robots than we may realize, says a scientist who has developed a robot that uses the same words, expressions and movements that humans do to communicate with each other.

Philip K. Dick Andriod, built by Hanson Robotics, is a state-of-the-art robot with a large vocabulary, complex facial expressions, a sense of humour and something of an ego, ABC News reported.

He is, well, surprisingly human, not just in mechanics, but also in appearance.

Soon, undersea telescope will be second in size to Great Wall of China

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:28:06 +0000

Washington, Dec 23 : A new under sea telescope that will be the second largest structure ever built after the Great Wall of China, is currently under development.

The KM3net telescope planned for the sea bed under the Mediterranean will be a network of detectors with a volume of several cubic kilometres, built to detect neutrinos - tiny, fast-moving particles that pass straight through water and even solid rock.

Yahoo reportedly plans to slash Alibaba stake to 15 percent

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:00:10 +0000

Washington, Dec 22 : Yahoo is reportedly planning to cut its 40 percent stake in Chinese Internet firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to about 15 percent.

Yahoo, which has been shopping itself to a slew of private-equity suitors, is considering cutting its stake as part of a tax-free transaction worth between 17 billion and 18 billion dollars, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Yahoo’s current stake in Alibaba represents a 40 percent investment and is valued at about 13 billion dollars, according to the paper.

Indian American launches a virtual tutoring portal

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:45:21 +0000

Washington, Dec 22 : Though originally aimed at teaching Hindi to Indian children in the US, an Indian American has launched a virtual tutoring portal for teaching various academic levels as well as 18 languages.

TheETutor. com, an educational online tutoring company, started by Harry Aurora, CEO, and Preeti Aurora, managing director, was launched by Nassau county executive, Edward P. Mangano, at a function in Long Island, New York last week.

Describing the state-of-art virtual portal as a revolution in learning, Aurora said the students participate in one-on-one tutoring led by superb tutors from the comfort of their home.

Intel-powered smartphone, tablet to enter market in 2012

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:38:24 +0000

San Francisco, Dec 22 : Smartphones and tablets running Intel's chips will enter the mobile market early next year, posing a challenge to the dominance of Apple's iPhone and iPad, US media reported Wednesday.

Technology Review, a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it had tested prototype smartphones and tablets equipped with Intel's latest mobile chip, dubbed Medfield. The products run Google's Android mobile operating system, reported Xinhua.

Yahoo considers selling Asian assets: Report

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:18:47 +0000

San Francisco, Dec 22 - Yahoo's board is expected to meet Thursday to discuss selling its holdings in China's Alibaba Group and its Japanese affiliate back to their majority owners in a transaction valued around $17 billion, US media reported Wednesday.

Under the current proposed terms, Softbank, Yahoo Japan's majority owner and Alibaba would create new legal entities consisting of both cash and certain operating assets. Yahoo would swap out most of its stake in Alibaba and all of its stake in Yahoo Japan for these entities to sell those holdings, the New York Times reported.

AT&T drops bid for T-Mobile

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:19:46 +0000

New York, Dec 20 : AT&T Inc. abandoned Monday its $39 billion bid for T-Mobile USA, a deal that sparked opposition from the US government and consumer groups.

The Dallas-based giant said it decided to withdraw its offer for the US wireless unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom after a thorough review of the options.

"The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the US wireless industry," AT&T said in a statement.

Apple, Google working on wearable devices

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 06:55:18 +0000

San Francisco, Dec 20 - Apple and Google are working on wearable technology that would send data to their smartphones, US media reported Monday.

Researchers in Google's secret Google X lab, a facility where Google is reportedly working on projects pertaining to future technologies, have begun working on peripherals that would communicate information back to Android smartphones when they are attached to one's clothing or body, said Bits, a technology blog of the New York Times, citing sources.

Facebook shifts to new headquarters in California

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:36:32 +0000

Washington, Dec 20 - Facebook has announced that its final wave of employees have moved into its new headquarters in the one million-square foot Menlo Park city of California.

The world's largest social network is now officially headquartered at 1601 Willow Road in Menlo Park, Xinhua reported.

The new campus consists of 10 eco-friendly buildings with no private offices and cubicles. Over 2,000 local employees moved to the campus from its previous location in Palo Alto, California, US.

"This morning, the final wave of employees walked through the doors of the new Facebook Menlo Park campus," said the company Monday in its official blog.

Amazon sells over one mn Kindles per week

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:59:08 +0000

San Francisco, Dec 16 - US online retail giant Amazon announced Thursday that it has been selling over one million Kindle devices per week for the third week in a row.

According to the company's press release, Kindle Fire, Amazon's latest tablet computer, has been the No. 1 bestselling product on Amazon. com since its launch 11 weeks ago.

The company noted Kindle Fire is the most successful product it has ever launched and is "building millions more to meet the high demand", reported Xinhua.

Microsoft announces automatic upgrades for Internet Explorer

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:18:39 +0000

San Francisco, Dec 16 - Microsoft Thursday announced that it will automatically upgrade the Internet Explorer (IE) to the latest version to give Windows customers more protection against malicious software.

According to the company's blog post, starting from Australia and Brazil next January, users of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 will get the IE updates if they have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update.

Epic `God particle` discovery now ‘closer than ever’

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:44:13 +0000

Washington, Dec 14 : Holy Grail of high-energy physics — the predicted but elusive Higgs boson — is almost within reach, according to CERN Physicists.

CERN, the international agency in Geneva that oversees experiments in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), announced Monday in a progress report the news of mounting experimental evidence for the existence of this critically important speck of nature.

Computer simulated image of a cutaway section of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) depicts a Higgs particle as it decays.

New data transfer record paves way for high-speed network technology

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:39:03 +0000

Washington, Dec 14 : An international team of high-energy physicists, computer scientists and network engineers has set a new world record for data transfer, paving way for the next generation of high-speed network technology.

The team transferred data in opposite directions at a combined rate of 186 gigabits per second (Gbps) in a wide-area network circuit at the SuperComputing 2011 (SC11) conference in Seattle during mid-November.

The rate is equivalent to moving two million gigabytes per day, fast enough to transfer nearly 100,000 full Blu-ray disks—each with a complete movie and all the extras—in a day.

Flexible, stretchable ‘plastic electronics’ come closer to reality

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:16:17 +0000

Washington, Dec 14 : A new reasonably priced technique for fabricating large-scale flexible and stretchable backplanes shows promise to revolutionize a number of industries, making smart applications for ‘plastic electronics’ almost omnipresent, researchers say.

Among the applications that have been envisioned are electronic pads that could be folded away like paper, coatings that could monitor surfaces for cracks and other structural failures, medical bandages that could treat infections and food packaging that could detect spoilage.

Researchers transmit record 186 GB data per second

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:16:36 +0000

Washington, Dec 14 : Researchers have successfully transmitted 186 gigabits of data per second (GBps), accomplishing a new world record and helping usher in the next generation of high-speed network technology.

The rate is equivalent to moving two million gigabytes per day, fast enough to transfer nearly 100,000 full Blu-ray discs - each with a complete movie and all the extras - in a day.

Microsoft co-founder announces space-travel venture

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:14:11 +0000

Washington, Dec 14 : Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft, announced Tuesday that he and entrepreneur Burt Rutan are set to develop a giant airplane from which to launch spacecraft into orbit.

The airplane will have a wingspan of more than 380 feet and its creators hope to make the first trial flight in 2016.

Rutan and Allen previously built SpaceShipOne, the first civilian rocket to take passengers into space.

"I have long dreamed about taking the next big step in private space flight," Allen said in a statement.

Apple eyes Israeli flash memory maker Anobit

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:17:06 +0000

San Francisco, Dec 14 - Apple is in talks to acquire Israeli fabless semiconductor maker Anobit for $400-500 million, Xinhua reported.

Apple is likely interested in Herzliya Pituach, Israel-based Anobit for an exclusive access to its embedded flash controllers which can significantly boost memory performance of smartphones and tablet computers, said technology news site TechCrunch, citing Israeli newspaper Calcalist.

Apple already uses Anobit's technology in iPhone, iPad and the MacBook Air.

If the deal works out, it could be Apple's largest acquisition ever, surpassing its $404 million purchase of NeXT in 1997.

Apple's Mac App Store downloads top 100 mn

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:25:28 +0000

San Francisco, Dec 13 - Over 100 million apps have been downloaded from Apple's Mac App Store since its launch in January, Xinhua reported.

"With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world," Apple said in a statement Monday, adding that "Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry."

Apple launched the Mac App Store in January as a free download for Mac OS X users, allowing users to sift through free and paid applications and download them to their devices like Apple mobile App Store.

Tiny silica chip brings programmable quantum computers closer to reality

Jamie Williamson — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:48:02 +0000

Washington, Dec 12 : A multi-purpose tiny silica chip will soon serve as the building blocks of programmable quantum computers of the future, a new study has revealed.

The fundamental resource that drives a quantum computer is entanglement—the connection between two distant particles which Einstein famously called ‘spooky action at a distance’.

The Bristol researchers have, for the first time, shown that this remarkable phenomenon can be generated, manipulated and measured entirely on a tiny silica chip.

Apple gets setback in patent war

Jamie Williamson — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 07:14:15 +0000

San Francisco, Dec 10 - Apple Friday suffered a setback in its global patent war, as a German court ruled over its copyright infringement battle in favour of Motorola Mobility.

The German court ruled that Apple's iPhone and iPad infringe a Motorola patent and issued an injunction banning the import of iPhones and 3G-capable iPads into Germany, reported Xinhua.

Yahoo to get $610mln in ‘larcenous lottery’ spammer case

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:30:09 +0000

New York, Dec 8 : A New York court has ordered spammers to pay 610 million dollars to Yahoo for running a larcenous lottery scheme, using the internet firm’s name.

According to Yahoo, the default judgment, which meant no one showed up to defend against the accusations, was declared on Tuesday by a federal district judge in New York.

The California-based company said in the scheme, email messages were unlawfully sent to internet users with the intent of deceiving them into believing they had a lottery prize offered by Yahoo.

US shuts down 150 websites to fight counterfeiting

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 04:49:50 +0000

Washington, Nov 29 : US authorities have shut down 150 websites engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and copyrighted works, Xinhua reported.

The operation, executed by the Justice Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and other federal agencies, was timed to coincide with "Cyber Monday", the biggest on-line shopping day of the year.

Microsoft files patent on monitoring employee behaviour

Jamie Williamson — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:48:32 +0000

Washington, Nov 28 : Microsoft has filed a patent for covering a computer system that can monitor the behaviour of employees while also assigning positive or negative scores to each action.

The patent filing, discovered by GeekWire, could include flagging someone who repeatedly cuts off colleagues during conversations, or raising the alarm over a supervisor who repeatedly bugs underlings during their lunch break, Live Science reported.

Such scoring would presumably rely upon subjective criteria set by the employer regarding what counts as “good” or “bad” work habits.

Lighting ‘sprites’ in outer space may signal alien life

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:43:22 +0000

Washington, Nov 24 : Colourful bursts of sprites, which are one of the most indefinable phenomena occurring in earth’s atmosphere, may also flash in outer space, signalling the existence of alien life, a new study has revealed.

Sprites are large electrical discharges that flash high in the upper atmosphere -- usually above powerful lightning storms. Often bright red in colour with streaming tendrils of blue and purple stretching down beneath, they hadn’t even been photographed in colour until 1995, Discovery News reported.

Google abandons project aiming to make renewable energy cheaper than coal

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:32:05 +0000

Washington, Nov 24 : The Internet search giant, Google, has abandoned a project aiming to make renewable energy cheaper than coal.

The ‘Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal’ project, which aimed at producing good-value renewable energy, is one of the seven projects that were called off by Google.

“This is our third off-season spring cleaning. We''re in the process of shutting a number of products which haven''t had the impact we''d hoped for,” the Daily Mail quoted a Google statement, as saying.

“Over all, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive truly beautiful Google user experience,” it added.

Computers could be 100 times less energy-hungry by 2017

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:26:05 +0000

Washington, Nov 23 : By 2017, a quantum phenomenon known as the tunnel effect will help reduce energy consumption of consumer electronics, such as computers and cellular phones, by up to 100 times less than now, experts have claimed.

The next revolution will likely come from tunnel-FET, a technology that takes advantage of a phenomenon referred to as “quantum tunneling.”

Research is well underway at the EPFL, and also in the laboratories of IBM Zurich and the CEA-Leti in France.

Los Angeles wants to promote clean technology with India

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:04:38 +0000

Washington, Nov 17 - The Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, has highlighted the interest of America's second largest city in closely working with India, particularly in the area of clean technology.

"The future of Los Angeles was connected to the East and to the Asia-Pacific, including India," he told Indian ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao, during her recent visit to Los Angeles, according to the Indian Embassy.

He mentioned that the emergence of Los Angeles as the centre for clean technology offered significant opportunities for cooperation with India.

Apple releases iTunes Match

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:55:51 +0000

San Francisco, Nov 15 - Apple Monday released a new version of its media player programme iTunes, adding the much-anticipated scan-and-match service for music iTunes Match.

The feature, included in iTunes 10.5.1, can scan a user's library to find music and match the content to the music available in an iTunes Store.

If it finds a match, users don't need to upload the music and can listen to them anywhere, even better-quality versions, on any devices running Apple's iOS operating system. Music that doesn't match is automatically uploaded, reported Xinhua.

Apple recalls first-gen iPod nano

Jamie Williamson — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 02:24:51 +0000

San Francisco, Nov 13 - Apple has unveiled a worldwide replacement programme for the first-generation iPod nano music player due to overheating battery issues, telling owners to stop using the product and get it replaced for free, Xinhua reported.

"Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk. Affected iPod nanos were sold between September 2005 and December 2006," said Apple in a notice posted Friday on the support section of its official website.

Now, a robot face that looks like a real talking person

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:57:44 +0000

Washington, Nov 7 : Researchers at the Institute for Cognitive Systems (ICS) at TU Munchen in collaboration with a group in Japan have developed a new robot face that can talk and respond like humans.

Mask-bot can already reproduce simple dialog. For example when researchers Dr. Takaaki Kuratate says “rainbow”, it flutters its eyelids and responds with an astoundingly elaborate sentence on the subject: “When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow.”

And when it talks, Mask-bot also moves its head a little and raises its eyebrows to create a knowledgeable impression.

Chipmaker AMD to cut workforce

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:58:33 +0000

San Francisco, Nov 4 - Computer chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) said it plans to cut its global workforce by about 10 percent in a move to reduce operational costs.

The layoff will occur across all functions globally and is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2012, the company said Thursday.

The cuts will amount to about 1,400 jobs, according to estimates by analysts.

Combined with implementing efficiencies across the company's operations, AMD expected that the workforce reduction will result in operational savings of more than $200 million in 2012, reported Xinhua.

HP unveils tablet

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:35:05 +0000

San Francisco, Nov 4 - Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) Thursday introduced its Slate 2 Tablet PC, a business-targeted tablet computer running Windows operating system.

Looking like the previous version, Slate 2, featuring an 8.9-inch screen, is upgraded with Intel Atom Z670 processor to deliver faster boot times and improved battery life up to six hours, said HP.

It also has a Bluetooth keyboard dock and Swype keyboard which allows users to enter words by sliding a finger or stylus from letter to letter, lifting only between words, reported Xinhua.

The device will be available to customers worldwide for $699 later this month, according to HP.

Yahoo to acquire Interclick for $270 mn

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:26:55 +0000

San Francisco, Nov 2 : Yahoo has announced that it is buying data-driven advertising network Interclick for around $270 million.

Interclick is a technology company providing data targeted solutions and optimization technologies, reported Xinhua.

"This investment underscores our focus on enhancing the performance of both our guaranteed and non-guaranteed display business across Yahoo and our partner sites and, combined with Yahoo's reach and advertising leadership, will deliver a powerful solution for marketers," said Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo's executive vice president for the Americas region.

HP to keep PC business

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:08:50 +0000

San Francisco, Oct 28 - Hewlett-Packard (HP) Thursday announced that it will keep its personal systems group (PSG) and continue to sell personal computers.

"HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It's clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees," Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

On Aug 18, former CEO Leo Apotheker said HP was considering to spin-off the PC business, which drove shares of the company to plunge 20 percent the following day, reported Xinhua.

Google launches ‘self-driving’ car technology

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 06:26:48 +0000

Washington, Oct 21 : Search giant Google has now unveiled a self-driving car technology that is designed to help people with mobility issues and to combat congestion.

The website''s co-founder, Sergey Brin, recently announced that ten percent of the company is working on innovative projects outside the web domain, the first of which is the building of “autonomous” cars.

The driverless vehicles would travel through normal roads under the instruction of computers and would help people to combat congestion.

Motorola launches world's `thinnest' smartphone

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 05:20:37 +0000

Washington, Oct 19 - Motorola has launched what it called an "impossibly thin" Droid RAZR phone with a stainless-steel core, a Gorilla Glass screen and a nanotechnology Splash-guard that protects even the electrical boards inside.

Motorola Mobility's Indian-American president Sanjay Jha declared the 7.1mm-thick mobile device the world's thinnest smartphone. Not only is it thinner than other 3G phones, it will run on Verizon Wireless's 4G LTE network in the US.

In other countries, the phone will be called the Motorola RAZR. The details on international carriers and network compatibility will come soon.

Despite record profits, Apple disappoints Wall Street

Jamie Williamson — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:52:14 +0000

Washington, Oct 19 - Despite setting new sales and profit records over the last three months and blowing past the $100 billion mark Apple's revenue and earnings on the last quarter fell far short of Wall Street's forecasts.

With an all-time record sale of Macs and iPads, Apple said Tuesday its net income for the quarter rose to $6.6 billion, or $7.05 per share, up 54 percent from a year earlier, but lower than $7.39 per share forecast by analysts.

Apple's iPhone 4S sales top four mn in three days

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 04:13:14 +0000

Washington, Oct 18 - Though Apple iPhone 4S failed to wow pundits when it was unveiled, the company sold more than 4 million units over the weekend, making it the fastest-selling iPhone ever.

More than 25 million people have also downloaded iOS 5 to their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches in the five days since the operating system's release, the technology giant announced Monday.

And more than 20 million people have signed up for iCloud, Apple's free service that syncs data such as calendars, contacts and photos wirelessly across a user's computer and portable Apple gadgets, the company said. The service was also launched five days ago.

Scientists use Google Earth to map typhoid outbreaks in Nepal

Jamie Williamson — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:33:51 +0000

Washington, Oct 17 : Scientists have for the first time accurately mapped typhoid outbreaks in Nepal using Google Earth and new gene sequencing technology.

In the new research, scientists at the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme in Vietnam and the Oxford University Clinical Research Units in Kathmandu, Nepal, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, combined DNA sequencing technology and GPS signalling, and mapped the data onto Google Earth.

Two bacteria – Salmonella typhi and Salmonella paratyphi– cause typhoid fever.

Google to close down Google Buzz

Jamie Williamson — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 02:34:34 +0000

San Francisco, Oct 15 - Google Friday announced to shut down the highly-controversial social networking product Google Buzz, along with several other services in the coming weeks, Xinhua reported.

Google on its official blog, Google announced the death penalty to its code search engine, Buzz, Jaiku which let users send updates to friends, the Google personalised homepage feature iGoogle, and the University Research Program for Google Search.

The shut-downs came as part of Google's housecleaning effort announced in early September, in which the company said it will shut down a number of products and merging others into existing products as features.

Twitter a tool to map epidemics

Jamie Williamson — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:09:54 +0000

Washington, Oct 14 : Marcel Salathe turned to Twitter to conduct a unique analysis of how the popular mircroblogging site records the spread of an epidemic or its users' receptivity to new vaccines.

Salathe, assistant professor of biology, Penn State University, then tracked how the users' thinking correlated with vaccination rates and how microbloggers with the same negative or positive feelings seemed to influence others.

Considered the first ever study in how social-media sites affect and reflect disease networks, the method could be utilised to track other diseases, reports the journal Public Library of Science Computational Biology.

New cloaking device ‘can erase history’ by hiding event in time

Jamie Williamson — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:42:16 +0000

Washington, Oct 13 : US researchers have successfully demonstrated a so-called “history editor” cloaking device that is able to “hide” a singular event in time for 20 trillionths of a second.

In a feat of Einstein-inspired physics, Moti Fridman and his colleagues sent a beam of light traveling down an optical fiber and through a pair of so-called “time lenses.”

Between these two lenses, the researchers were able to briefly create a small bubble, or gap, in the flow of light. During that fleetingly brief moment, lasting only the tiniest fraction of a second, the gap functioned like a temporal hole, concealing the fact that a brief burst of light ever occurred.

Apple iPhone 4S pre-orders top 1 mn in 24 hours

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:08:18 +0000

San Francisco, Oct 11 - Apple announced Monday that pre-orders of its iPhone 4S have topped one million in a single day, surpassing the previous single-day pre-order record of the company's smartphone, Xinhua reported.

The iPhone 4S pre-orders surpassed one million in the first 24 hours and the previous single day pre-order record held by iPhone 4 is 600,000, according to Apple.

"We are blown away with the incredible customer response to iPhone 4S," Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in a statement.

Computer virus hits US drone station

Jamie Williamson — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:03:52 +0000

Los Angeles, Oct 8 - A stubborn computer virus has reportedly hit the US Nevada control station that remotely pilot US military drone aircraft on missions in Afghanistan and other war zones, Xinhua reported.

The virus has infected the cockpits of American Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke.

According to Wired magazine, the virus, first detected about two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. However, the virus has proven very difficult to eradicate.

iPhone transformed into high-quality medical imaging device

Jamie Williamson — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:17:26 +0000

Washington, Oct 4 : A team of researchers from the University of California, Davis has transformed everyday iPhones into medical-quality imaging and chemical detection devices.

With materials that cost about as much as a typical app, the decked-out smartphones are able to use their heightened senses to perform detailed microscopy and spectroscopy.

The enhanced iPhones could help doctors and nurses diagnose blood diseases in developing nations where many hospitals and rural clinics have limited or no access to laboratory equipment.