Also: New vid of unsold P-791 Walrus suck-belly ship US aero-weapons goliath Lockheed, builder of the famous P-791 airship prototype, was beaten to a half-billion-dollar deal to supply spy ships above Afghanistan earlier this year - but the firm is still marketing its P-791 technology aggressively.…

Qi gets branded products The wireless power consortium, Qi, is celebrating the launch of a solution with a known brand - Energizer - attached, but the technology is still a long way from the mainstream.…

The SD Association should rev its flash card specification in 2011 with faster cards arriving the year after. Also at IFA, Toshiba announces faster cards using today's SD technology.

The Royal Mail launches the world's first "intelligent" stamp, the first to work with image recognition technology.

eldavojohn writes "A new paper up for prepublication from the controversial solid-state physicist Godfrey Louis claims that the cells Louis collected from a Keralan red rain incident divide and produce daughter cells at 121 degrees Celsius. While unusual, this is not unheard of as the paper recalls cells cultivated from hydrothermal vents are known to reproduce at 121 C as well. Of course, caution is exercised when dealing with the possible explanation surrounding the theory of panspermia but the MIT Technology Review says researchers 'examined the way these fluoresce when bombarded with light and say it is remarkably similar to various unexplained emission spectra seen in various parts of the galaxy. One such place is the Red Rectangle, a cloud of dust and gas around a young star in the Monocerous constellation.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tablet computers to rival Apple's iPad are creating a stir as one of Europe's largest technology shows, the IFA, gets under way in Berlin.

adeelarshad82 writes "IBM revealed details of its 5.2-GHz chip, the fastest microprocessor ever announced. Costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, IBM described the z196, which will power its Z-series of mainframes. The z196 contains 1.4 billion transistors on a chip measuring 512 square millimeters fabricated on 45-nm PD SOI technology. It contains a 64KB L1 instruction cache, a 128KB L1 data cache, a 1.5MB private L2 cache per core, plus a pair of co-processors used for cryptographic operations. IBM is set to ship the chip in September." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 On Monday, Australian telecommunications company Telstra has introduced dual carrier HSPA+ standard for broadband Internet business customers in the Next G network. This is the first time this technology is being introduced on national scale. The bandwidths the users can deploy increased into two to three times, with Telstra becoming the world’s fastest national mobile broadband service. The switch started with enabling the service for premium users. After some feedback, Telstra may expand the plan. The higher speeds for wireless are intended to simplify and ease multitasking of users. More...

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 Every September, the Apple iPod is redesigned. Last year saw the release of the iPod Nano 5th generation, bringing a video camera and a large range of colours to the Nano for the first time. But as Apple again prepares to unveil a redesigned product, the company has released their quarterly sales figures—and revealed that they have sold only 9m iPods for the quarter to June—the lowest number of sales since 2006, leading industry anylists to ponder whether the world's most successful music device is in decline. Such a drop in sales is not a problem for Apple, since the iPhone 4 and the iPad are selling in high numbers. But the number of people buying digital music players are concerning the music industry. Charles Arthur, technology editor of The Guardian, wrote that the decline in sales of MP3 players was a "problem" for record companies, saying that "digital music sales are only growing as fast as those of Apple's devices – and as the stand-alone digital music player starts to die off, people may lose interest in buying songs from digital stores. The music industry had looked to the iPod to drive people to buy music in download form, whether from Apple's iTunes music store, eMusic, Napster or from newer competitors such as Amazon." More...

At Apple's press event Wednesday in San Francisco, CEO Steve Jobs shows off the latest version of the iPod Touch. The new Touch shares many features with the iPhone 4, including Apple's Retina Display technology, a front-facing camera, and FaceTime.

Fifteen months after Air France Flight 447 went down over the Atlantic, there's still no sign of the plane's black box recorders. That has the industry wondering if it's time to update the technology with a satellite-based system.

The British company behind the Hawk-Eye ball-tracking technology used in tennis and cricket is to be put up for sale.

ALK Technologies today is releasing a new version of the CoPilot Live app with a feature called ActiveTraffic. It uses real time traffic flow information that mates with dynamic routing technology to get you to your destination by selecting alternate routes, then accurately estimating your new arrival time. The traffic information comes from INRIX, which is a leading provider of traffic data. I tried the new app, and it certainly showed some traffic snarls. But here in southern Arizona, things don't get too dicey even at rush hour, so there wasn't any need to select a new route. I could see very detailed information in Phoenix, where traffic can be downright hellish. The ActiveTraffic feature is US$9.99 for a 12 month subscription. Current owners of CoPilot Live v8 US Traffic subscribers will get upgraded to TrafficLive for free. Gallery: CoPilot Live screen shotsTUAWCoPilot GPS nav app adds ActiveTraffic originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Can you hear me now? Orange UK has launched an HD Voice service, so now a mobile phone can sound as clear as a good Skype connection if the technology is available end-to-end.…Free On-Demand Webcast - Virtualizing the Hard Stuff

Creative on Wednesday introduced two new gaming headsets and two headphones. The high-end Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Alpha and Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Sigma gaming headsets feature THX TruStudio Pro technology and customizable profiles. The two new full-size headphones include the HQ-1600 and HQ-1450.... Apple - IPhone - MacNN - IPod Touch - Video Games

3-year joint development HP is partnering with Hynix to bring Memristor technology from lab to fab.…

adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft unveiled a new wireless Xbox 360 controller, which features a revamped D-pad that transforms from a plus to a disc. The new D-pad was developed to address complaints from users. Other new features include: A, B, X, and Y buttons that are gray instead of the standard red, green, yellow, and blue; and a matte silver color. The controller includes 2.4-GHz wireless technology with a 30-foot range." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lucas123 writes "Researchers at Rice University said today they have been able to create a new non-volatile memory using nanocrystal wires as small as 5 nanometers wide that can make chips five times more dense than the 27 nanometer NAND flash memory being manufactured today. And, the memory is cheap because it uses silicon and not more expensive graphite as been used in previous iterations of the nanowire technology. The nanowires also allow stacking of layers to create 3-D memory, even more dense. 'The fact that they can do this in 3D makes makes it highly scalable. We've got memory that's made out of dirt-cheap material and it works,' a university spokesman said." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mobile firm Orange becomes the first UK network to use a new technology that claims to offer higher quality voice calls.

"When it comes to Apple products, the iPad and the iPhone get all the headlines. But in recent years, the company's Macintosh line of computers has enjoyed a remarkable revival that has been vital to Apple's emergence as the most valued technology company on Wall Street. In the latest sign of that comeback, Autodesk plans to announce on Tuesday that it is bringing its flagship AutoCAD design and engineering software to the Mac for the first time in nearly two decades."

OpenSearch is a collection of technologies that allow publishing of search results in a format suitable for syndication and aggregation. It is a way for websites and search engines to publish search results in a standard and accessible format.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 Every September, the Apple iPod is redesigned. Last year saw the release of the iPod Nano 5th generation, bringing a video camera and a large range of colours to the Nano for the first time. But as Apple again prepares to unveil a redesigned product, the company has released their quarterly sales figures—and revealed that they have sold only 9m iPods for the quarter to June—the lowest number of sales since 2006, leading industry anylists to ponder whether the world's most successful music device is in decline. Such a drop in sales is not a problem for Apple, since the iPhone 4 and the iPad are selling in high numbers. But the number of people buying digital music players are concerning the music industry. Charles Arthur, technology editor of The Guardian, wrote that the decline in sales of MP3 players was a "problem" for record companies, saying that "digital music sales are only growing as fast as those of Apple's devices – and as the stand-alone digital music player starts to die off, people may lose interest in buying songs from digital stores. The music industry had looked to the iPod to drive people to buy music in download form, whether from Apple's iTunes music store, eMusic, Napster or from newer competitors such as Amazon." More...

Sony has officially unveiled three new e-readers, the Reader Pocket Edition PRS-350, the Reader Touch Edition PRS-650, and the Reader Daily Edition PRS-950. They all feature next-generation touch-screen E-Ink technology.

An anonymous reader writes "Ksplice, the technology that allows Linux kernel updates without a reboot, is now free for users of the Fedora distribution. Using Ksplice is like 'replacing your car's engine while speeding down the highway,' and it can potentially save your Linux systems from a lot of downtime. Since Fedora users often live on the bleeding edge of Linux development, Ksplice makes it even easier to do so, and without reboots!" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HP has announced a new partnership with Hynix Semiconductor that aims to commercialize its "remristor" technology. The memory resistors are said to be a potential alternative to existing transistors, promising speeds up to 100 times faster than flash storage. Project scientists also highlight power savings, as memristors reportedly use a fraction of the energy compared to current technology.... HP 3000 - FlashMemory - Random-access memory - Hardware - Hewlett-Packard

Over at ComputerWorld UK, Simon Phipps says there is nothing to celebrate in the recent announcement [PDF] that MPEG-LA will not charge royalties on "web uses" of the H.264 codec for the remaining life of the patents it administers. "First, the H.264-format video needs to be created - but that isn't free under this move. Then it needs to be served up for streaming - but that isn't free under this move. There then needs to be support for decoding it in your browser - but adding that isn't free under this move. Finally it needs to be displayed on your screen. [...] The only part of this sequence being left untaxed is the final one. Importantly, they are not offering to leave the addition of support for H.264 decoding in your browser untaxed. In particular, this means the Mozilla Foundation would have to pay to include the technology in Firefox." He also posits that MPEG-LA may try to join forces with Oracle and Paul Allen's Interval Research to create a three-way patent attack on Google—this time against WebM.

Automakers are loathe to discuss it, but they still use cadavers to test vehicle safety technology because dummies don't have organs and computer modeling isn't there yet.

egil writes "Chris Fenton built his own fully functional 1/10 scale Cray-1 supercomputer. True to the original, it includes the couch-seat, but is also binary compatible with the original. Instead of the power-hungry ECL technology, however, the scale model is built around a Xilinx Spartan-3E 1600 development board. All software is available if you want to build one for your own living room. The largest obstacle in the project is to find original software." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tisha_AH writes "For the past fifty years the technology behind aircraft flight data recorders has remained stagnant. Some of the advances of cloud computing, mesh radio networks, real-time position reporting and satellite communications are held back by a combination of aircraft manufacturers, pilots unions and the slow gears of government bureaucracy. Many recent aircraft loss incidents remain unexplained, with black boxes lost on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, buried under the wreckage of the World Trade Centers or with critical information suppressed by government secrecy or aircraft manufacturers. Many devices still rely upon tape recorders for voice and data that only record a very small sampling of aircraft dynamics, flight and engine systems or crew behaviors. Technologically simple solutions like battery backup, continual telemetry feeds by satellite and hundreds of I/O points, monitoring many systems should be within easy reach. Pilot unions have objected to the collection and sharing of detailed accident data, citing privacy concerns of the flight crew. Accidents may be due to human error, process problems or design flaws. Unless we can fully evaluate all factors involved in transportation accidents, it will be difficult to improve the safety record. Recommendations by the NTSB to the FAA have gone unheeded for many years. With all of the technological advancements that we work with in the IT field, what sort of best practices could be brought forward in transit

Can technology and music happily coexist?

Marketcircle has launched Billings Pro 1.0, a new application for company-wide time billing and invoicing. The application's user interface is built from Marketcircle's Billings title and the synchronization technology is borrowed from the company's Daylite CRM application, adding support for large numbers of users. The software introduces Timecard, a web interface for multiple users to track time, mileage and expenses. Users can access Timecard from desktop browsers like Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer as well as mobile browsers on the iPhone, iPad, An... Accounting - Time Tracking - Apple - IPhone - Business and Economy

Speech technology efforts are top of mind as the company searches for ways to improve the most natural computer input method of all.

coondoggie passes along this excerpt from Network World: "Today I bring you a story that has it all: a solar-powered, low-cost, open source cellular network that's revolutionizing coverage in underprivileged and off-grid spots. It uses VoIP yet works with existing cell phones. It has pedigreed founders. Best of all, it is part of the sex, drugs and art collectively known as Burning Man. ... The technology starts with the 'they-said-it-couldn't-be-done' open source software, OpenBTS. OpenBTS is built on Linux and distributed via the AGPLv3 license. When used with a software-defined radio such as the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP), it presents a GSM air interface ("Um") to any standard GSM cell phone, with no modification whatsoever required of the phone. It uses open source Asterisk VoIP software as the PBX to connect calls, though it can be used with other soft switches, too. ... This is the third year its founders have decided to trial-by-fire the system by offering free cell phone service to the 50,000-ish attendees at Burning Man, which begins today in Black Rock City, Nevada. " Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Toshiba has announced that it has begun mass production of NAND flash components constructed using 24 nanometer technology. The manufacturing process is said to be used for 2 bit-per-cell 64-gigabit components, which are claimed to reach the highest density (8GB) on a single chip.... Toshiba - Android - Laptop - Operating Systems - Linux

yolink, “a next-generation search technology,” has added CC license support to its updated browser plugin. yolink’s browser plugin allows you to quickly scan your search results by specific key terms, effectively simplifying your more complex or advanced searches. Once you’ve found a relevant article, you can then share it with others via social media sites [...]

The Cochrane Library is a collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making, and a seventh database that provides information about groups in The Cochrane Collaboration: •Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews •Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials •Cochrane Methodology Register •Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects •Health Technology Assessment Database •NHS Economic Evaluation Database

phy_si_kal writes "Now Microsoft must love free software. Indeed, Office 2011 for Mac (beta 5 at least) uses Freetype! Somehow they figured out the free software 'clean room implementation' of their own (patented) TrueType technology must better suit their needs." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft has begun enabling Exchange ActiveSync support for Hotmail users, reports say. The technology should allow push synchronization with a number of mobile devices, most notably the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Also supported are Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile 6.x devices, as well as Nokia E-, S- and N-series phones.... Microsoft - ActiveSync - Hotmail - Microsoft Exchange Server - IPhone

phy_si_kal writes "Now Microsoft must love free software. Indeed, Office 2011 for Mac (beta 5 at least) uses Freetype! Somehow they figured out the free software "clean room implementation" of their own (patented) TrueType technology must better suit their needs." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

eldavojohn writes "The New York Times is reporting on a new kind of web ad that takes products you were looking at purchasing on one site and continually advertising them in front of you at subsequent sites. After looking at shoes at Zappos, a mother in Montreal noticed the shoes followed her: 'For days or weeks, every site I went to seemed to be showing me ads for those shoes. It is a pretty clever marketing tool. But it's a little creepy, especially if you don't know what's going on.' The spreading ploy is called 'retargeting ads' and really are just a good demonstration of how an old technology (all they use are leftover browser cookies) are truly invasive and privacy violating. Opponents are clamoring for government regulation to protect the consumer and one writer mentioned a consumer 'do not track' list — adding that retailers really show little fear of turning off customers with their invasion." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SocialDeck becomes the latest start-up to join Google, as the search giant works feverishly over the summer months to build out its social-technology portfolio.

A new wave of App Store offerings, including Proloquo2Go, is gaining favor over clunky and uberexpensive devices for those with communication disorders--and making assistive technology cool.

Emil Dudek, a technology enthusiast, has spent the last eight years acquiring 583 calculators of 128 brands made in the 1970s, analyzing the technology and posting it all to his website.

Společnost ZhongDe Waste Technology, jeden z hlavních výrobců a provozovatelů spaloven komunálního, průmyslového a nebezpečného odpadu sídlící v Číně, zveřejnila dne 30.08.2010 hospodářské výsledky za Q2 2010. Tržby meziročně vzrostly o 15 % na 11,3.

The next SRI/CALO app to launch may be TrapIt, a news feed reading and recommendation service designed to act as a "cognitive prosthetic" to "adapt to unexpected events" in situations of "intense information overload". The US Navy has used the core technology TrapIt is based on to parse through huge quantities of information for what's most relevant. Soon you'll be able to use it to find the best news about your obscure interests, in the web's otherwise overwhelming ocean of Justin Bieber references. The spin-off company has lots of high-profile backing (including Li Ka-shing), will launch later this or early next year and we've got the first screenshots below.

"Affective computing" standards and technology could help computers grasp human emotion. An intuitive user interface sounds nice, but what about information overshare?

telomerewhythere writes "Stanford mechanical engineer Mark Cutkosky is using the biology of a gecko's sticky foot to create a robot that climbs. In the same way the small reptile can scale a wall of slick glass, the Stickybot can climb smooth surfaces with feet modeled on the intricate design of gecko toes. The team's new project involves scaling up the material for humans. A technology called Z-Man, which would allow humans to climb with gecko adhesive, is in the works." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

pickens writes "Forbes reports that the same technology used at airport check points, capable of seeing through clothes and walls, has also been rolling out on US streets where law enforcement agencies have deployed the vans to search for vehicle-based bombs. 'It's no surprise that governments and vendors are very enthusiastic about [the vans],' says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. 'But from a privacy perspective, it's one of the most intrusive technologies conceivable.' Rotenberg adds that the scans, like those in the airport, potentially violate the fourth amendment. 'Without a warrant, the government doesn't have a right to peer beneath your clothes without probable cause,' Rotenberg says. 'If the scans can only be used in exceptional cases in airports, the idea that they can be used routinely on city streets is a very hard argument to make.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

pickens writes "The NY Times reports on a digital camera put together at Kodak's Elmgrove Plant labs in Rochester, NY during the winter of 1975 from a mishmash of lenses and computer parts and an old Super 8 movie camera that took 23 seconds to record a single digital image to its cassette deck and using a customized reader could display the image on an old black and white television. Called 'Film-less Photography,' it took a 'year of piecing together a bunch of new technology' to create the camera which ran off 'sixteen nickel cadmium batteries, a highly temperamental new type of CCD imaging area array, an a/d converter implementation stolen from a digital voltmeter.' When the team of technicians presented the camera to Kodak audiences they heard a barrage of curious questions including — 'Why would anyone ever want to view his or her pictures on a TV?'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.