iPhone 3GS customers complain of overheating

A small but vocal minority of iPhone 3GS owners are complaining of handsets overheating, so severely in some instances that the case has been discoloured.

One reviewer for a US tech website claims the phone literally became too hot too handle. "I was using a game, and then later the web browser for reading the news about Michael Jackson, all over a Wi-Fi connection while plugged in. And in those circumstances, well... toasty doesn't even describe how surprisingly hot it got," says Melissa Perenson, reviewing the 3GS for the US edition of PC World. "It was too hot to even put the phone against my face."

Despite the heating issues, Perenson noticed no marking of her handset. Other users have reportedly not been so lucky.

The discolouration problem has only affected white handsets so far, presumably because it's more susceptible to discolouration than the black version.

"I bought a 3GS the day it came out and put on an Invisishield [popular iPhone case] as soon as I got it, and by yesterday, I looked at the back of the phone and under this Invisishield, there are brown streaks and spots all over," says Andrew on the iLounge website.

Another user on French website Nowhere Else has reported the same problem, without using any case, and posted a collection of images showing brown streaks on his handset.

The most likely cause for the overheating issue is faulty battery cells. Aaron Vronko of Rapid Repair, a company that fixes Apple handsets, told Wired magazine that the issue could prompt recalls.

"My guess is there's going to be a whole lot of batteries affected because these are from very large production runs," he said. "If you have a problem in the design of a series of batteries, it's probably going to be spread to tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, and maybe more."

ANI

Read more...

Blind teenager hacker jailed

A blind teenager has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for hacking telephone networks and faking emergency calls.

Boston-based Matthew Weigman, who was also known as "little hacker", made over 60 prank emergency calls. He broke into the phone network to route the calls so as to appear as though they came from other lines.

The severity of Weigman's sentence is partly due to the fact that he was part of a group that drove to the house of a Verizon investigator collecting evidence against the hacker.

The aim of the trip, according to the Department of Justice, was to "intimidate and frighten him". Because of this, witness intimidation charges were added to computer intrusion.

Weigman had been using a number of techniques to hack into the systems, including conning phone company employees into handing out data, and war-dialing, which involves calling thousands of phone numbers in an attempt to find phone company systems.

He was sentenced to 135 months at the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Weigman had been actively hacking phone systems since he was 15, and spoke to Wired last year about how he began learning the necessary skills.

"I've been interested in phones since I've been about 8. I talked to technicians when they came down here to do things on my phone," he said.

ANI

Read more...

Jobs to "work from home" as he returns to Apple

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is back at work following a near six-month medical leave, although he will work at least initially from home for a few days a week.

The official word of his return followed months of speculation about the health of Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor who co-founded Apple more than 30 years ago.

Jobs, 54, underwent a liver transplant in Memphis, Tennessee, while on leave. He has remained involved in strategic decisions at Apple while he's been away, according to the company, and he has been seen in recent weeks at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California.

"Steve is back to work," a company spokesman says. "He's currently at Apple a few days a week and working from home the remaining days. We are very glad to have him back."

Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar says investors will be reassured that Jobs is back at the helm of the company he helped resuscitate over the past decade, with category-defining products such as the iPod and the iPhone.

Kumar notes that some investors had feared Jobs would never return. "In many ways he's irreplaceable," he claims. "Having him back brings the halo back to the company."

Jobs was treated for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004. His gaunt appearance at an Apple event last summer spurred worries the cancer had returned.

In January, after initially blaming his noticeable weight loss on a hormone imbalance, Jobs announced he was taking medical leave until the end of June, saying his health-related issues were "more complex" than originally thought.

While Jobs was on leave, chief operating officer Tim Cook handled Apple's day-to-day operations. Some analysts think Jobs may transition into an advisory role, focusing on products and strategy and Cook will formally become CEO.

The hospital in Memphis that performed Jobs' liver transplant said he "is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis," but has not provided further details.

Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves says questions remain and claims that Apple has not shown itself to be very forthcoming on the subject of Jobs' health.

"The question is whether or not he's going to be there for the next several years and I don't think they've added any clarity on that," he says.

Reuters

Read more...

Japan's Toyota unveils wheelchair steered by thought

Japan's Toyota Motor on Tuesday said it had invented a way to allow a person to steer an electric wheelchair through simple thought, using a helmet-like device that measures their brain waves.

The cutting-edge Brain Machine Interface (BMI) technology uses electrodes attached to the scalp to measure localised brain activity when a user concentrates on certain physical movements.

The signals are displayed on a panel in almost real time and translated into instructions to steer the motorised wheelchair, the researchers said.

"Such systems allow elderly and handicapped people to interact with the world through signals from their brains without having to give voice commands," Toyota said in a statement.

"This technology is expected to be useful in the field of rehabilitation, and for physical and psychological support of wheelchair drivers," it added.

The company said the system is 95 per cent accurate and able to adjust itself to the characteristics of individual users.

"Thus the driver is able to get the system to learn his/her commands (forward/right/left) quickly and efficiently," said the statement.

Several Japanese laboratories are working on BMI technology to develop new applications to make life easier for disabled people and the elderly.

Bureau Report

Read more...

'Neurologger' reads birds' brains in flight

Researchers claimed to have gained new insight into what goes through the birds' minds as they fly over familiar terrain.

An international team, led by University of Zurich, has used a "neurologger" to record the brain activity of the birds, in this case pigeons, in flight, the 'Current Biology' journal reported.

According to the researchers, the study is the first to simultaneously record electrical brain activity integrated with large-scale navigational movements of free-flying birds.

Lead researcher Alexei Vyssotski said, "We've successfully applied electrophysiological methods, previously used for investigation of brain functions in the lab, to a freely flying bird in nature.

"The approach revealed places of interest for the pigeons and the pattern of their brain activation at such locations."

Over familiar landscapes, pigeons depend on visual cues to get around, earlier studies have shown. To learn more about how the birds respond to what they see in the current study, the team devised a miniature neurologger device, designed to record and store EEG signals.

Those signals reflect the firing of neurons within the brain. Vyssotski said that a recording session with the device, which weighs a mere two grams, can last up to several days, during which time the birds' flight paths were also tracked with GPS.

The researchers got some baseline information by recording the brain activity of birds in the lab and of birds flying over the relatively featureless open sea. They then followed pigeons donning the neurologgers as they flew over a landscape including familiar and other relevant landmarks.

When pigeons pass over visual landmarks, their brains show a bi-phase activation pattern, consisting of high-frequency oscillations followed by middle-frequency activity, they said.

"The middle-frequency activity was the most reliable indicator of visual stimulation. When a pigeon looked at something with attention, this activity increased," Vyssotski said.

High-frequency brain waves showed an even more intriguing pattern, he said. That kind of activity seemed to reflect the birds' flight history and their recognition of places they had visited before. "In other words, activation of these oscillations may be associated with some memory processing or some other high-level brain functions."

Interestingly, the brain recordings revealed that the pigeons took unusual interest in a couple of locations that did not seem to be relevant to finding their way home.

Bureau Report

Read more...

Microsoft to offer Windows 7 on USB thumb drives

Microsoft is reportedly considering offering Windows 7 on USB thumb drives to allow netbook owners to upgrade their machines.

Windows has, until now, only been distributed on DVDs or via download. However, netbooks don't come with optical drives and downloading an operating system is a frankly painful experience.

The Windows 7 ISO weighs in at 2.3GB, which would take several hours to download on an average broadband connection and potentially do serious damage to a customer's broadband data cap.

Consequently, the company is exploring alternative means of distributing the OS, including USB flash drives.

Microsoft UK was unavailable to comment on the speculation at the time of publication.

Windows 7 could prove an attractive option for netbook owners whose machines are plodding along with Windows Vista. PC Pro's tests have shown that Windows 7 runs perfectly well on machines with only a single core processor and 1GB of RAM, whereas we have found Vista frustratingly slow on the same spec.

Microsoft has designed Windows 7 Starter especially for the netbook market, which doesn't include many of the more demanding features, such as Aero Glass and Media Center.

However, we've installed Windows 7 Ultimate RC on several netbooks and not experienced any significant performance issues. Microsoft itself is urging customers to upgrade to the more expensive versions on the mini-laptops.

ANI

Read more...

The baldness calculator

Scientists have created a pioneering computer programme that promises to predict men's hair loss, a development that will bring some cheers to those anxious about their receding hairline.

Devised by German scientists, the baldness calculator promises to predict the exact age at which a person will go bald or have lost most of their hair or provides reassurance by predicting that they will still have a full head of hair in old age.

The male baldness calculator will come as a relief for those with recedingz hairline, particularly young men at the peak of their social lives, said Dr Adolf Klenk, head of research and development at hair care firm Dr Kurt Wolff.

Male pattern is characterized by hair receding from the lateral sides of the forehead, known as "receding hairline". Receding hairlines are usually seen in males above the ages of 20 but can be seen as early as late teens as well.

"We have developed the male baldness calculator to raise awareness among men," he was quoted as saying by a newspaper.

According to the report in the British daily, the programme asks users about their age, marital status, occupation, where they live, what their current hairline is, hair loss in their family and their stress levels.

"Genetic predisposition is by far the most common cause of baldness. But other factors include severe, long-term emotional stress, perhaps associated with a divorce or the loss of a close relative," said Dr Klenk. However, some scientists advice caution, saying it preys on the nearly universal fear among men that they'll go bald.

Bureau Report

View article on single page

1 | 2 |

Read more...

Personal questions undermine webmail security

The personal security questions used by all four major webmail services are insecure, according to a paper from Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University - but the company has done nothing to change the system it criticises.

"All four of the most popular webmail providers - AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo - rely on personal questions as the secondary authentication secrets used to reset account passwords," explains the paper.

"We ran a user study to measure the reliability and security of the questions used by all four webmail providers," it continues.

The experiment involved pairing up account holders with a partner, who had to guess the answer to various examples of the questions used by webmail services.

These partners, who were not well known to the account holder, were able to provide the correct answer almost one in five times. Conversely, one in five users forgot their own security questions within only six months.

For webmail services it's difficult to authenticate users who lose their passwords, as many have only one email address that acts as a hub for their online activity.

"While other web services may authenticate users who have forgotten their passwords via their email addresses, webmail services cannot always do so; many of their users employ their accounts as a primary email address," says the paper.

The two largest services tested here, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, have a combined user base of over half a billion people, leaving a huge amount of accounts vulnerable.

Sarah Palin's Yahoo Mail account was hacked last year using the same personal question vulnerability detailed in the paper. That attack exposed personal emails belonging to the Republican vice-presidential candidate, including a draft of an email to the California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"The secret questions employed by the top four webmail services are not sufficiently reliable authenticators. The security of personal questions appears significantly
weaker than passwords," warns the paper.

Since being shown an advance copy of the paper, Yahoo has changed all nine of its previous personal questions, claim the authors.

However, GMail, AOL and Microsoft have failed to make any changes to their own questions. Microsoft was not available for comment at the time of writing.

ANI

Read more...

IT professionals fail to protect smartphones

Security professionals are barely better than the general public at keeping data on their smartphones safe, shows a new survey.

More than a third of IT workers who responded admitted they do not use a password on their work or personal smartphones, despite knowing the amount of sensitive data they contain.

This is only marginally better than the public at large, 40% of whom don't bother to password-protect their phones. The lack of security has been blamed on "password fatigue".

Four out of five admitted that their phones contained business contacts' names and addresses, while around a quarter said that business emails were also stored on their phones.

Worryingly, five per cent also said that credit card information was hidden on their phones, and one percent admitted that they stored passwords and PIN.

"It is alarming to note that the very people who are responsible for IT security are not much better at protecting the information on their business phones than most of their co-workers, who don't necessarily know any better," said Andrew Kahl, of Credant Technologies, the company behind the new survey.

"If a mobile or smartphone goes missing and isn't protected with a password, and contains business names and addresses and other corporate data such as business emails, then the company is immediately in breach of the Data Protection Act by failing to meet some of its principals on electronic data," he warned.

ANI

Read more...

US creates Cyber Command to defend against hackers

The Pentagon will create a Cyber Command to oversee the US military's efforts to protect its computer networks and operate in cyberspace, under an order signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The new headquarters, likely to be based at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., will be responsible for defending US military systems but not other US government or private networks, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Asked if the command would be capable of offensive operations as well as protecting the Department of Defense, Whitman declined to answer directly.

"This command is going to focus on the protection and operation of DoD's networks," he said. "This command is going to do what is necessary to be able to do that."

US officials have voiced growing concern in recent years about being vulnerable to attacks on the country's civilian or military networks as technology takes on an ever-increasing role, including in military operations.

President Barack Obama said last month he would name a White House-level czar to coordinate government efforts to fight cybercrime.

The United States has said many attempts to penetrate its networks appear to come from China but it has stopped short of accusing Chinese authorities of being responsible.

Whitman said the new command will consolidate existing Pentagon efforts to protect its networks and operate in cyberspace.

Those efforts currently come under the auspices of US Strategic Command in Nebraska, which will also oversee the new headquarters.

The US Department of Defense runs some 15,000 electronic networks and runs some 7 million computers and other information technology devices, Whitman said.

"Our defense networks are constantly probed. There are millions of scans every day," he said.

"The power to disrupt and destroy, once the sole province of nations, now also rests with small groups and individuals, from terrorist groups to organized crime to industrial spies to hacker activists, to teenage hackers," he said.

"We also know that foreign governments are trying to develop offensive cyber capabilities," he added, saying more than 100 foreign intelligence services were trying to hack into US networks.

The new command should begin initial operations by this October and be fully up and running a year later.

The head of the Cyber Command would also be the director of the US National Security Agency, which conducts electronic surveillance and communications interception and is also based at Fort Meade.

Reuters

Read more...

Wikipedia to add video-editing tool

Wikipedia is to launch video editing and embedding support within articles in the next three months.

The new feature will allow users to select copyright-free video from one of three sources, including the Internet Archive, and perform simple editing before embedding it into an article.

This would allow historic political speeches, archive footage and documentaries to be placed in articles, as long as the video is in an open-source format and free of copyright restrictions.

Eventually the service will allow video from other sources to be added, as well as subsequent editing and reorganising of clips, as is already possible with text on the site.

One other source of video will be the Wikimedia Commons, an online repository of videos and images run by Wikimedia, the umbrella organisation that controls Wikipedia.

The video feature is to be partly funded by the Mozilla Foundation, the organisation behind the Firefox browser.

"It is sad and unfortunate that the public broadcasters are not the ones leading this movement," said Erik Moeller, deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation, speaking to Technology Review. "The mission should be to do whatever they can do to maximise distribution, and I'm not seeing that right now."

ANI

Read more...

Spotify doubles sound quality

Spotify has launched CD-quality sound, claims the company, by doubling its streaming bit-rate to 320Kbits/sec.

However, only monthly subscribers will be given access to the higher bit-rate tracks. Free users will still hear only 160Kbits/sec.

At first only the most popular tracks on the service will be upgraded, with the service's entire back catalogue being switched over in the next few weeks. Lilly Allen's The Fear is one of the first to be upgraded.

"Providing great sound quality has always been an important goal for us. Now, we're taking the next step in offering an unparalleled listening experience," said chief executive Danial Ek.

Most of Spotify's 1 million UK users are currently opting for the ad-supported, free version of the service, rather than the $16 monthly subscription. Higher bit-rate services held back for premium accounts is one way in which the company hopes to encourage more free users to switch.

Spotify users can enable the higher bit-rate option by checking "enable high bit-rate" in the preferences window.

Yesterday, bosses at the Official UK Charts Company, which compiles the weekly Top 40 music sales chart, said that streaming services are "bound to" be taken into account at some point.

ANI

Read more...

Chinese surfers call for web boycott

Chinese surfers are calling on fellow web users to stay offline on July 1, the date controversial censorship software is required to be shipped with every new PC.

New regulations from Beijing mandate "Green Dam", a program sold by Jinhui, be shipped with personal computers after July 1. China says the filter is designed to block pornography.

But many web users and activists both inside and outside China fear a campaign against "unhealthy" sites is a pretext for a wider crackdown on groups and websites that the government fears or disapproves of.

The US embassy said it viewed with concern any attempt to restrict the free flow of information, and was worried about both the potential impact on trade of the software and the serious technical issues raised by the use of Green Dam.

Outspoken Beijing artist Ai Weiwei, who helped design the landmark Olympic Bird's Nest stadium but has become an increasingly vocal critic of the government, called on web users to boycott use of the internet on the day of Green Dam's debut.

In a post on Twitter, Ai called for the low key protests to mark a day that is also the anniversary of the founding of China's Communist Party.

"Stop any online activities, including working, reading, chatting, blogging, gaming and mailing," Ai wrote in the Chinese-language post. "Don't explain your behavior."

"It's an online protest without any cost or risk," Ai said. "It aims to oppose internet censorship."

"I haven't counted the number of supporters, but there are many of them," he added.

His message has already been picked up and passed on by other internet users backing the call for a day offline.

According to the makers of the software, it already has 50 million users. However, the company admitted last week that a flaw in the code left users vulnerable to hackers.

The rollout of Green Dam has come on the heels of a wider, long-running campaign to "clean up" the internet.

The government last week condemned the Chinese-language version of Google and several domestic sites, including high profile Mop and Tencent, for "disseminating pornographic and vulgar information" and asked them to remove some content.

Analysts say the Communist Party is fighting to stifle dissent in a year of sensitive anniversaries, including the 20th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

ANI

Read more...

BT turns cash machines into Wi-Fi hotspots

BT has signed a deal to convert fee-charging cash machines into Wi-Fi hotspots on its Openzone network.

AIM-listed firm Cashbox has 2,500 cash machines across the UK, mostly installed in restaurants, bars and shops. The company turns a profit by charging a commission on cash withdrawals, and so tends to place its machines where traditional ATMs are absent.

Initially only 10 of its cash machines will be converted into Wi-Fi hotspots, although it intends to increase this number in time.

"Some of our sites lend themselves to becoming hotspots more than others," says Ciaran Morton, CEO of Cashbox. "It's really just the start of our rollout. We will look at extending coverage over the coming months."

BT broadband customers are given an Openzone allowance with their broadband packages, while iPhone users are given unlimited access to the hotspots. Access can also be bought for $10 for 90 minutes, or $16 for 24 hours.

The deal will see BT and Cashbox share revenue from the sites, based on usage levels.

"BT will give us a proportion of income based on minutes used per site," said Morton, adding that the current contract between the companies is to last five years.

ANI

Read more...

Software programme to help combat jet lag

Those who travel frequently across several time zones no longer need suffer jet lag. Researchers have developed a software programme that prescribes a regimen for avoiding jet lag using timed light exposure.

Jet lag includes trouble sleeping at night and difficulty remaining awake during the day. These effects largely reflect de-synchronisation between the body's internal time clock and local environmental cues.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the University of Michigan have developed a programme which re-synchronises the body with its new environment, considers inputs like background light level and the number of time zones travelled. The programme then uses a mathematical model which advises users the precise time of day when they should apply counter-measures such as bright light to intervene and reduce the effects of jet lag.

The programme can reset an individual's internal clock to align with local time. When used properly, the result is more efficient sleep, decreased fatigue and an increase in cognitive performance.

"Although this method is not yet available to the public, it has direct implications for designing schedules for jet lag, shift-work, and extreme environments, such as in space, undersea or in polar regions," said lead author Dennis Dean.

IANS

Read more...

Cabbage fuel-powered jets can cut carbon emissions by 84%

Jet fuel’s grave carbon emissions can be reduced by about 84 percent by refining it from the seeds of a lowly weed, which is a cousin to the cabbage, says a Michigan Technological University researcher.

David Shonnard, Robbins Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering, came to this conclusion after analysing the carbon dioxide emissions of jet fuel made from camelina oil over the course of its life cycle, from planting to tailpipe.

"Camelina jet fuel exhibits one of the largest greenhouse gas emission reductions of any agricultural feedstock-derived biofuel I've ever seen. This is the result of the unique attributes of the crop--its low fertilizer requirements, high oil yield, and the availability of its coproducts, such as meal and biomass, for other uses," he said.

Originated in Europe, Camelina sativa is a member of the mustard family, along with broccoli, cabbage and canola.

Also known as false flax or gold-of-pleasure, it thrives in the semi-arid conditions of the Northern Plains. The camelina used for the research was grown in Montana.

Shonnard points out that it is possible to convert oil from camelina to a hydrocarbon green jet fuel that meets or exceeds all petroleum jet fuel specifications.

According to the researcher, the fuel is a "drop-in" replacement that is compatible with the existing fuel infrastructure, from storage and transportation to aircraft fleet technology.

"It is almost an exact replacement for fossil fuel. Jets can't use oxygenated fuels like ethanol; they have to use hydrocarbon replacements," Shonnard said.

Given that camelina needs little water or nitrogen to flourish, Shonnard says that it can be grown on marginal agricultural lands.

"Unlike ethanol made from corn or biodiesel made from soy, it won't compete with food crops. And it may be used as a rotation crop for wheat, to increase the health of the soil," the researcher added.

Shonnard conducted the life cycle analysis for UOP LLC, of Des Plaines, Ill., a subsidiary of Honeywell and a provider of oil refining technology.

When asked whether people will soon be flying in plant-powered aircraft, Tom Kalnes, a senior development associate for UOP in its renewable energy and chemicals research group, said: "It depends."

Kalnes added: "There are a few critical issues. The most critical is the price and availability of commercial-scale quantities of second generation feedstocks."

He further said that more farmers would be require to be convinced to grow a new crop, and refiners must want to process it.

"But if it can create jobs and income opportunities in rural areas, that would be wonderful," he said.

ANI

Read more...

Woman faces $1.9 million file-sharing fine

A woman accused of illegally downloading 24 songs gasped as a judge ordered her to pay $1.9 million in damages to the RIAA.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset stood trial in the US for downloading and sharing 24 songs, and was ordered to pay $80,000 per track in damages.

This is Thomas-Rasset's second trial. The first - in which she was ordered to pay $222,000 in damages - was declared a mistrial by the judge.

In that case she argued that a third party may be to blame, hacking their way into her Wi-Fi connection. However, she did not own a wireless router at the time.

In the second case she suggested that perhaps it was her children who had used Kazaa to download the files.

"They did their job," she said, speaking about the RIAA outside court. "I'm not going to hold it against them."

However, she was quick to point out the likelihood that the RIAA would collect the unprecedentedly large sum.

"Good luck trying to get it from me," she said. "It's like squeezing blood from a turnip."

Despite winning the case, the RIAA has said that it is still willing to settle the case out of court.

"Since day one we have been willing to settle this case... and we remain willing to do so," said Cara Duckworth, a spokesperson for the RIAA.

Under US law a jury is entitled to request damages of up to $150,000 per track, although in out-of-court settlements the RIAA typically asks for $3,500 for each song.

ANI

Read more...

Parcelforce fault leaks customer details

A serious fault on Parcelforce's website has exposed the name, address and signatures of customers, the company has admitted.

The problem affected the "track and trace" feature of Parcelforce's website, which is designed to allow people to track the location of their packages.

The fault caused the tool to give out details of the wrong packages when a reference number was entered, along with the personal details of the sender. For packages that had already been delivered, the signature of the recipient was also shown.

As well as exposing sensitive data, many customers were left confused by messages that said their packages were in unexpected locations, or, inaccurately, that they had already been delivered.

The fault left Parcelforce in violation of strict data protection rules which state that any organisation handling data pertaining to customers must put safeguards in place to protect that information.

Parcelforce has blamed the fault on work carried out to the system late on Wednesday night. The company stopped access to the tool until it was rectified on Thursday night.

"We can confirm that the problem was rectified and the service restored last night," said a Parcelforce spokesperson. "We apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused."

The Information Commissioner's Office has said that it will be contacting the company to investigate exactly how the security breach occurred.

ANI

Read more...

75,000 energy customer details lost on laptop

An unencrypted laptop containing account details of 75,000 customers has been stolen from an Irish energy company.

The machine was one of four taken from the offices of Bord Gais Energy in Dublin, and contained the names, addresses and account numbers of the affected customers.

"We have had an aggressive system of encrypting since last July and this computer should have been encrypted before it was given to the staff member; it was a flaw in the system," said managing director Dave Bunworth, speaking to the Irish Times.

Bunworth said that the machine was "not a normal laptop that you could break into that easily", as it was protected with a username and password.

The company has said that it will write to all customers affected tomorrow, and is advising anyone contacted to monitor their bank account for any suspicious transactions. The company has also contacted banks to inform them that customers' details were stolen.

ANI

Read more...

Intel launches Core i3 and Core i5

Intel has admitted it has a "mind boggling array" of confusing chip names, and has vowed to make its line-up simpler to understand for customers.

The Core 2, Solo, Duo and Quad names will all be retired as and when current chips go end-of-life, with a new naming scheme being phased in as new products emerge.

"The fact of the matter is, we have a complex structure with too many platform brands, product names, and product brands, and we've made things confusing for consumers and IT buyers in the process," says Intel's corporate communications manager Bill Calder in a blog post.

"Today the Intel Core brand has a mind boggling array of derivatives (such as Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, etc). Over time those will go away and in its place will be a simplified family of Core processors spanning multiple levels: Intel Core i3 processor, Intel Core i5 processor, and Intel Core i7 processors," he adds.

Intuitively, entry-level chips will become Core i3, mid-level will be Core i5 and high-end processors will carry the Core i7 branding.

The upcoming desktop chip, codenamed Lynnfield, will be labelled as an Intel Core chip, coming in i5 and i7 flavours, depending on the feature set. Clarksfield, the next mobile chip, will also be a Core chip, designated as an i7.

However, things will not be that simple. Celeron will also survive, remaining an entry-level brand, while Pentium also stays as a "basic computing" processor.

The smartphone and netbook chip, Atom, also survives the alleged simplification of chip names.

The Centrino brand also remains, but will no longer have anything to do with processors, instead being relocated to Wi-Fi and WiMAX products.

Because of the gradual change, both the old and new systems will also operate in tandem for the next couple of years.

ANI

Read more...

Nine Ball infects over 40,000 websites

Over 40,000 websites have been compromised by a new attack called Nine Ball, warns security firm Websense.

The exploit attempts to install malicious code when a user visits one of the infected sites, including a keylogger and Trojans. It also evades investigation by security professionals by only allowing one visit - IP addresses are tracked, and repeating visitors are harmlessly redirected to Ask.com.

"If a user visits one of the infected sites, they are redirected through a series of different sites owned by the attacker and brought to the final landing page containing the exploit code," warns Websense in an alert on its website.

"After redirection, the exploit payload site returns highly obfuscated malicious code," it says.

Nine Ball is the latest in a string of similar exploits to have been unearthed by the company, including Gumblar and Beladen, leading it to believe that the same people could be behind all of them.

"These Trojans have a very low detection rate," says Stephan Chenette, manager of security research at Websense, speaking to Network World. "Many are polymorphic or created on the fly."

Earlier this week it emerged that virus writers are increasingly taking advantage of large capacity and highly mobile USB flash drives to spread malicious code.

ANI

Read more...

Scientists break light modulation speed record

A team of scientists has broken the light modulation speed record, that too twice, with a signal-processing modulation speed of 4.3 gigahertz, breaking the previous record of 1.7 gigahertz held by a light-emitting diode.

The team, comprising of researchers at the University of Illinois and at U. of I. licensee Quantum Electro Opto Systems in Melaka, Malaysia, constructed a light-emitting transistor to set the new record.

By internally connecting the base and collector of a light-emitting transistor, they created a new form of light-emitting diode, which modulates at up to 7 gigahertz, breaking the speed record once again.

“Simple in design and construction, the tilted-charge light-emitting diode offers an attractive alternative for use in high-speed signal processing, optical communication systems and integrated optoelectronics,” said Nick Holonyak Jr, a John Bardeen Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Illinois.

The modulation speed of either a light-emitting diode or a light-emitting transistor is limited by the rate at which electrons and holes (the minus and plus charges – the carriers of current) recombine.

The recombination lifetime is important in determining device speed.

With a usual “slow” recombination process, the speed of a light-emitting diode is limited to approximately 1.7 gigahertz, which corresponds to a carrier lifetime of 100 picoseconds.

For more than 40 years, scientists thought breaking the 100-picosecond barrier was impossible.

To achieve high recombination speeds, an extremely high injection level and a very high charge population are required in light-emitting diodes.

These conditions are not necessary in transistors, however.

“Unlike a diode, a transistor does not store charge,” said Milton Feng, the Holonyak Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“Charges are delivered to the transistor’s quantum well active region, where they either recombine almost instantly, or they are kept moving on out of the device. The charges do not become stacked-up, waiting to recombine with their oppositely charged twins,” he added.

To increase the modulation speed of their light-emitting transistor, the researchers reduced the emitter size, increased the so-called collector thickness (the third terminal region), and utilized a special internal common collector design.

These changes resulted in a faster signal at a very low current level, and at low heat dissipation.

Having a “fast” recombination process, the modulation speed of the light-emitting transistor was measured at 4.3 gigahertz, which corresponds to a recombination lifetime of 37 picoseconds, well under the “100-picosecond barrier.”

The tilted-charge light-emitting diode achieved a record-breaking modulation speed of 7 gigahertz, corresponding to a recombination lifetime of 23 picoseconds.

ANI

Read more...

Sun cancels Rock processor

Sun has cancelled its "Rock" server chip project after more than five years of development.

The UltraSparc-RK chip, codenamed Rock, consisted of 16 cores and was intended to compete with Intel in the server processor market.

Several release dates have come and gone with no sign of a commercial product, and the company is now thought to have ended development entirely. If that is the case, Sun will be forced to continue relying on processors from Fujitsu.

Sun is currently going through a takeover bid from database firm Oracle, which is likely to see $5.6bn change hands. Sun shareholders will vote on the purchase in four weeks.

The loss of the chip will be unlikely to discourage Oracle from continuing with its proposed takeover. Released documents earlier this year showed that the firm was only interested in Sun's software assets when it initiated its takeover bid.

However, Oracle boss Larry Ellison has denied that he will sell off the remaining hardware business once the deal completes.

"We are definitely not going to exit the hardware business," said Ellison. "If a company designs both hardware and software, it can build much better systems than if they only design the software. That's why Apple's iPhone is so much better than Microsoft phones."

ANI

Read more...

Linux first to support USB 3

Linux will be the first operating system with official support for USB 3, an Intel open-source developer has announced.

Sarah Sharp, who works in Intel's Open Source Technology Centre, says on her blog that support of USB 3 would soon be integrated into the Linux kernel.

"This is a giant project that I've been working on for the past year and a half. It's gratifying to see the code finally released, and exciting to know that hardware is on its way," she writes. "I hope that some USB vendors who have prototypes will test with my driver."

To that end, she offered instructions for those interested in implementing USB 3 support on current Linux builds.

It was at the end of last year that the USB 3 Promoter Group, which counts HP, Intel and Microsoft among its members announced the completion of the USB 3 specification - a technical map for device manufacturers looking to replicate the technology and bring it to market.

USB 3, or SuperSpeed USB, should bring significant power and performance enhancements to the USB standard. Data transfer rates are up to ten times faster than USB 2, with potential potential data transfer rates of up to 4.8Gbits/sec being touted.

ANI

Read more...

Microsoft to strip Internet Explorer browser from European Windows

Microsoft is to strip its Internet Explorer browser from the new version of its Windows 7 operating system that it sells in Europe, the company announced Thursday.

Microsoft said the move was designed to meet criticism from European Union (EU) regulators who have launched an investigation into whether bundling the browser with the operating system is in breach of European anti-trust rules.

"Given the pending legal proceeding, we've decided that instead of including Internet Explorer in Windows 7 in Europe, we will offer it separately and on an easy-to-install basis to both computer manufacturers and users," Microsoft said in a statement.

"This means that computer manufacturers and users will be free to install Internet Explorer on Windows 7, or not, as they prefer."

Windows 7 is scheduled to be generally available Oct 22. Ironically, Microsoft is making the changes as rival firms like Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome chip away at Internet Explorer's once unassailable lead.

IANS

Read more...

Soon slithery ‘robo snake’ to spy on the battlefield

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is developing a robot snake, which is capable of recording video and sound on the battlefield, working as an effective spy.

The spying robot, which is about two meters long and covered in military camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of real snakes, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, while at the same time sending images and sound back to a soldier who controls the device through a laptop computer.

Able to bend its joints so well that it can squeeze through very tight spaces, the new device will be used to find people buried under collapsed buildings.

The snake is also able to arch its body, allowing it to see over obstacles through its head camera.

Researchers studied the movements of live snakes in order to create the most natural and realistic robotic version.

The snake’s cost has yet to be determined, as it is still being developed; however, the IDF plans to provide combat units with these devices.

Besides recording multimedia, the snake may also be used to carry explosives.

The Defense Ministry, with experts from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, based their intelligence-gathering robot on a previous project of Ben-Gurion University, which created a slew of robotic animals with special abilities.

Eight months ago, researchers at Ben-Gurion University reported they had developed “robot snakes” capable of navigating through pipes and narrow openings.

The Ben-Gurion report also detailed other robot animals, including, a cat that climbs walls using its claws, and a “dog-droid” that responds to the human movements.

ANI

Read more...

Microsoft to unveil free anti-virus software soon

Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would "soon" make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added, but declined to provide a specific date.

Symantec shares fell 0.5 percent on Nasdaq and McAfee fell 1.3 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, while Microsoft was up 2.1 percent. The Nasdaq composite index was down 0.47 percent.

Investors are closely monitoring the free service, code-named Morro after Brazil's Morro de Sao Paolo beach, amid concern it could hurt sales of products from Symantec and McAfee, which generate billions of dollars of revenue a year protecting Windows
PCs from attacks by hackers.

"It's a long-term competitive threat," said Daniel Ives, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets, though he added that the near-term impact was minimal.

Microsoft has said that Morro will offer basic features for fighting a wide range of viruses, which would likely make it comparable to low-end consumer products from Symantec and McAfee that cost about $40 per year.

Their top-selling products are security suites that come with features including encryption, firewalls, password protection, parental controls and data backup.

Three years ago, Microsoft entered that market with Live OneCare, which turned out to be a commercial flop. It announced plans in November to kill that product suite, saying it would launch the free Morro service by the end of 2009.

Analysts said they are looking forward to Morro's beta to see exactly how its features compare to those in products from competitors.

Microsoft has said it will provide protection from several types of malicious software including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Officials with Symantec and McAfee have said they do not see Morro as a threat.

"Microsoft's free product is basically a stripped down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from the shelves," said Symantec Consumer division president Janice Chaffin. "A full Internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected."

Joris Evers, a spokesman for No. 2 security software maker McAfee, said his company is already enjoying strong growth despite competition from free anti-virus products that are on the market.

"On a level playing field, we are confident in our ability to compete with anyone who might enter the marketplace," he said.

A spokeswoman for Trend Micro Inc, the No. 3 player, declined to comment.

Bureau Report

Read more...

Google targets Exchange with new Outlook Sync

Google is attempting to wean companies off Microsoft Exchange Server with a new Outlook synchronisation tool for business users.

Google has been aggressively wooing companies to its Premier Edition Apps service over the past couple of years, which it claims is far cheaper to manage than a dedicated Exchange Server.

The service offers hosted email, calendaring, online word processors/spreadsheets and more for $50 (£30) per user, per year.

However, corporate customers have sometimes struggled to convince employees to migrate from their familiar Outlook environment, forcing firms to maintain Exchange servers for employees who are reluctant to make the switch.

Google hopes to crack that problem with a free Outlook plug-in for Premier Edition and Education Edition customers.

The plug-in synchronises the user's Google email, contacts and calendars with Outlook. It means the employee can carry on using Outlook as before, but the company no longer needs to maintain an Exchange Server.

The plug-in supports even relatively advanced Outlook features, such as global address lists and automatically checking colleagues' calendars for free meeting slots.

The plug-in works with Outlook 2003 and 2007, although only on Windows XP and Vista machines, leaving Mac users with no choice but to battle on with the web interface.

The Outlook Sync tool can be downloaded here.

ANI

Read more...

Web host loses data of 100,000 websites after hack

Web-hosting firm Vaserv has lost the data of nearly 100,000 websites, after hackers attacked a zero-day vulnerability in its virtualisation software.

Hackers gained root access to Vaserv's servers by exploiting a vulnerability in the HyperVM virtualisation software used by the company.

Once they'd hacked into the system the attackers promptly set about destroying both user and system data. Engineers for the web host are currently working to restore their systems, and expect to be back online within 24 hours.

Vaserv estimates that almost half of the data hosted on its servers has been destroyed by the attack. Engineers are still working to get all servers back online, and claim to have had no word from those who conducted the attack.

A posting on the site places blame for the attack firmly on the shoulders of LXLabs, the company that makes the virtualisation software: "We do appreciate everyone being patient and please be assured this is something that was totally outside of our control as we believed that our infrastructure was up to date and fully patched in line with LXLabs announcements."

LXLabs was unavailable for comment at the time of writing, though it has been reported that the founder of the company was found hanged this morning.

The Times of India is reporting that KT Ligesh was upset after losing a contract, and still devastated after the suicide of his mother and sister five years ago.

ANI

Read more...

US physicists create thinnest superconducting metal

A superconducting metal sheet with just two atoms thick has been developed by physicists at the University of Texas in Austin.

The university said in a statement on Monday that it was the thinnest superconducting metal layer ever created.

The development of the thin superconducting sheets of lead lays the groundwork for future advancements in superconductor technologies.

The superconductors are unique as they can maintain an electrical current indefinitely with no power source. They are used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, particle accelerators, quantum interference devices and other applications.

Professor Ken Shih and his colleagues first reported about their creation in the June 5 issue of Science.

"To be able to control this material - to shape it into new geometries - and explore what happens is very exciting," says Shih. "My hope is that this superconductive surface will enable one to build devices and study new properties of superconductivity."

In superconductors, electrons move through the material together in pairs, called Cooper pairs.

One of the innovative properties of Shih's ultra-thin lead is that it confines the electrons to move in two dimensions. Quite uniquely, the lead remains a good superconductor despite the constrained movement of the electrons through the metal.

Shih and his colleagues used advanced materials synthesis techniques to lay the two-atom thick sheet of lead atop a thin silicon surface. The lead sheets are highly uniform with no impurities.

"We can make this film, and it has perfect crystalline structure - more perfect than most thin films made of other materials," says Shih.

IANS

Read more...

A research team has developed a new method that converts cellulose into chemical feedstock for fuels and plastic

A research team has developed a new method that converts cellulose into chemical feedstock for fuels and plastic.

The researchers, from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, developed the new method.

It is a one-step process to convert cellulose found in plant material and other biomass into a chemical that can serve as a precursor to make fuels and plastics.

A simpler process means scientists can provide alternatives to economists and investors who are looking to make smart decisions about biofuel production as fossil fuel resources become more limited.

On June 8, at the North American Meeting of the Catalysis Society, PNNL scientist David King will discuss recent work with copper and chromium chlorides in an ionic liquid called [EMIM]Cl.

These recyclable catalyst components work more effectively in tandem to break down cellulose into glucose, and then convert the glucose into HMF, or 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, in a one-step process.

This single-step process avoids the hurdles of current multi-step approaches, and provides for the possibility of a cost effective HMF synthesis from cellulose.

ANI

Read more...

Supersecret codes that can't be hacked

The future might see supersecret codes made of light, which can't be hacked without revealing the hackers, thanks to a team of Austrian physicists who sent pairs of entangled photons across a distance of 89 miles (144 kilometers).

Entangled photons are pairs of ordinary light particles that are mysteriously connected at the quantum level.

For each pair, one photon seems to "know" what has happened to the other no matter how far apart they are, an effect Albert Einstein once referred to as "spooky action at a distance."

Cryptographers believe that this property makes entangled photons ideal for sending secret messages.

While the method won't prevent people from intercepting a communique, if someone does, the entangled pair will instantly reveal the spy.

"You immediately know that there was somebody on the line," team member Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna told.

Transmitting photons over long distances is difficult, because the beam quickly loses intensity, like the fading reach of a flashlight.

This makes the entangled photons harder to detect the farther they travel.

"We lose many photons by scattering in the atmosphere and absorption," Zeilinger said. "Only about one in ten million arrive on the other side," he added. Making detectors that can "find" the key photons among the background light is therefore a crucial part of the experiment.

The team had previously managed to detect lone members of entangled pairs sent over a 90-mile (144-kilometer) distance.

For their new research, Zeilinger and colleagues made their detectors sensitive enough to send both members of a pair and find them together at a defined location. The next step would be to send each entangled photon to a different receiver, opening the door for distant allies to send coded messages to each other via a satellite link.

According to award-winning science fiction writer and futurist Robert J. Sawyer, the biggest short-term benefit of quantum messages will be in e-commerce, where coded data transmissions are vital for theft prevention.

But, coded transmissions spanning Earth are just the beginning.

"Theoretically, entangled particles will retain their bonding regardless of how far apart they are," Sawyer said.

Thus, they might someday be used for interstellar communications.

"A little more sophistication would allow text messages. More would allow voice or even video," said Science fiction writer Jerry Oltion of Eugene, Oregon.

"With the right encoding, I see no reason why complex, real time messages can't be sent via 'spookygram'," he added.

ANI

Read more...

How about an alert search engine to help you

Having problems with a search engine, then change the search terms to get the information you need. But what if the search engine did it for you?

A Penn State researcher analysed nearly one million web searches to detect patterns of query reformulation and create models to predict them -- models that may help create more advanced search engines.

"The key finding in the research is that we are moving from descriptive aspects to predictive models in web searching," said Jim Jansen, associate professor of information sciences and technology and study co-author.

Researchers found that the search terms in 22 percent of queries were reformulated or changed to more precisely convey the information for which the user was searching.

"They typically moved to narrow their query at the start of the session, moving to reformulation in the mid and latter portions of the sessions," Jansen said.

"It appears that the assistance to narrow the query and alternate query terms would be most beneficial immediately after the initial query submission."

Researchers also found low rates of users asking for system assistance in helping to find the desired information -- perhaps because they are too focused on using their own search terms to find information.

"The implication is that system assistance should be most specifically targeted when the user is making a cognitive shift because it appears users are open to system intervention," Jansen said.

Jansen said this research is a critical step in helping to design more advanced search engines, said a Penn State release.

These findings have been published in the online edition of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

IANS

Read more...

Light-driven "molecular nanomotor" created

A team of University of Florida chemists has created a new type of "molecular nanomotor" driven only by photons, or particles of light, which would be able to transform light straight into motion.

According to scientists, while it is not the first photon-driven nanomotor, the almost infinitesimal device is the first built entirely with a single molecule of DNA - giving it a simplicity that increases its potential for development, manufacture and real-world applications in areas ranging from medicine to manufacturing.

"It is easy to assemble, has fewer parts and theoretically should be more efficient," said Huaizhi Kang, a doctoral student in chemistry at UF and the first author of the paper.

To make the nanomotor, the researchers combined a DNA molecule they created in the lab with azobenzene, a chemical compound that responds to light.

A high-energy photon prompts one response; lower energy another.

To demonstrate the movement, the researchers attached a fluorophore, or light-emitter, to one end of the nanomotor and a quencher, which can quench the emitting light, to the other end.

Their instruments recorded emitted light intensity that corresponded to the motor movement.

"Radiation does cause things to move from the spinning of radiometer wheels to the turning of sunflowers and other plants toward the sun," said Richard Zare, distinguished professor and chairman of chemistry at Stanford University.

"What Professor Tan and co-workers have done is to create a clever light-actuated nanomotor involving a single DNA molecule. I believe it is the first of its type," he added.

The scale of the nanomotor is almost vanishingly small.

In its clasped, or closed, form, the nanomotor measures 2 to 5 nanometers - 2 to 5 billionths of a meter. In its unclasped form, it extends as long as 10 to 12 nanometers.

Although the scientists say their calculations show it uses considerably more of the energy in light than traditional solar cells, the amount of force it exerts is proportional to its small size.

But that won''t necessarily limit its potential.

In coming years, the nanomotor could become a component of microscopic devices that repair individual cells or fight viruses or bacteria.

Although in the conceptual stage, those devices, like much larger ones, will require a power source to function. Because it is made of DNA, the nanomotor is biocompatible.

Unlike traditional energy systems, the nanomotor also produces no waste when it converts light energy into motion.

"Preparation of DNA molecules is relatively easy and reproducible, and the material is very safe," said Yan Chen, a UF chemistry doctoral student and one of the authors of the paper.

ANI

Read more...

Digg lets members fine advertisers

Social-news website Digg has launched a novel new advertising service that allows the site's visitors to vote for their favourite ads - and financially punish those that they don't want to see.

Digg's entire modus operandi is based on the wisdom of the crowd. Members are invited to submit links to stories they find of interest, and the submissions that earn the most votes (or Diggs) from fellow users are promoted to the site's homepage.

The company is now taking a similar approach to advertising. Sponsored stories will now start appearing on the Digg homepage, and users are being invited to Digg or 'bury' them.

However, Digg is practically inviting members to punish poor adverts by imposing a financial penalty on adverts that are unpopular.

"The more an ad is Dugg, the less the advertiser will have to pay," says Mike Maser, the site's chief strategy officer. "Conversely the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, pricing it out of the system."

The idea has received a mixed reaction from Digg members. "So the bury brigade will come in and bury all the ads to infinity, so the ad people will have to pay a lot and eventually stop paying for ads here? How is this a good thing for Digg?" asks one of the members, on a Digg story announcing the new scheme.

"To all the people thinking about just burying all the ads: if Digg doesn't profit at some point it'll die," replies another user. "This is is a pretty sleek ad solution that gives us users some control over the ads that are shown."

ANI

Read more...

10 most dangerous web search terms revealed

Web searches including terms like lyrics, free music downloads are most likely to put your computer at risk of virus or even malicious software, for security firm McAfee, Inc. has listed these words as some of the most dangerous search terms on the internet.

In a recent report, McAfee has revealed Web search terms that put users most at risk for accidentally downloading unwanted or malicious software.

The report, titled ''The Web''s Most Dangerous Search Terms'', reveals that the researchers analysed over 2,600 of the most popular search terms of 2008 from a range of sources, including the Google Zeitgeist and the Yahoo! 2008 Year in Review.

"Search engines are our on-ramp, our highway and our off-ramp -- they''re everything for Web travel. The hacking community is very smart -- they can spot a trend as well as any trendspotter," the Telegraph quoted Shane Keats, the research analyst with McAfee who led the study, as saying.

After analysing the search terms, the researchers found that hackers looking for crowds.

They are also attacking Internet surfers who are ready to take an online action, like downloading a ringtone or logging in to a site with a name, address and social security number.

For example, people searching for free music downloads are easy targets for hackers because they are expecting to download an mp3.

In order to evaluate the risk associated with each keyword, the researchers looked at the search results generated by each keyword, and then calculated the percentage of links that would take users to Web sites with unwanted adware, spyware or other malicious software.

For example, the term "lyric," had an average risk of 14.8 percent, meaning that nearly 15 out of 100 search results would take users to risky sites.

The most dangerous categories of search terms include online games, free downloads, song lyrics, and screensavers.

Search terms involving online games were among the riskiest because online games often prompt users to install plug-ins or register with a name or e-mail address.

Keywords that include lyrics were risky because Web sites featuring the words to songs sometimes host links that take users to sites with unwanted pop-up ads or spyware.

The 10 Most Dangerous Web Searches in the United States are: 1. Word Unscrambler

2. Lyrics

3. MySpace

4. Free Music Downloads

5. Phelps, Weber-Gale, Jones and Lezak Wins 4x 100m Relay

6. Free Music

7. Game Cheats

8. Printable Fill in Puzzles

9. Free Ringtones

10. Solitaire


ANI

Read more...

AMD introduces first dual-core Phenom

CPU underdog AMD has added two new dual-core CPUs to its ballooning range of 45nm processors, at the Computex expo in Taipei.

The Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition is the first dual-core Phenom. It's based on the same design as existing triple- and quad-core parts, using the Socket AM3 interface and bringing 6MB of L3 cache, along with 1MB of L2 cache, divided evenly between its two cores.

Its stock speed is 3.1GHz, but as with all of AMD's 'Black Edition' CPUs, the multiplier is unlocked, allowing enthusiasts to push the chip as fast as they dare.

The second CPU introduces the new Athlon II brand. To date, Athlon CPUs have been less sophisticated than Phenom chips, but the new Athlon II X2 250 uses fundamentally the same silicon design as the Phenom II X2 550.

There are a few key differences: the Athlon II range has no L3 cache whatsoever, but L2 cache is doubled to 1MB per core. The 250 ships with a stock speed of 3.0GHz; slower chips are expected to follow shortly.

As usual, pricing has initially been announced only in US dollars, but AMD is clearly aiming for the value market: the Phenom II X2 550 sells for around $100, while the Athlon II comes in at a little under $90.

In the UK those prices could well translate to around £70 and £60 respectively, putting the new chips up against Intel's Pentium Dual Core range.

ANI

Read more...

Google Docs accommodates Office 2007 file formats

Google has added support for the DOCX and XLSX file formats to the Google Docs office suite.

The Microsoft-developed file formats have been knocking around since the launch of Office 2007, but trying to import a document or spreadsheet using one of these formats into Google Docs would simply bring up a message saying that they weren't supported.

This was despite the fact that they can be opened through Gmail and Google Search using the company's HTML viewer.

Google has now rectified this situation following the ratification of the Open XML standard last year, but anybody looking to import the PPTX files used by PowerPoint 2007 will need to wait. The files can be converted into a Google Docs-friendly format, but you'll lose formatting, themes and transition effects.

Despite its short life, the Open XML format has proved remarkably controversial. Microsoft's attempt to have it fast-tracked as an international standard was plagued with claims of voting irregularities and accusations of technical flaws in the standard itself.

ANI

Read more...

Twitter to be used for a psychic test on users

Thousands of Twitter users will test their psychic powers in the first scientific experiment to be conducted via the social messaging service.

Experts will use the website to investigate "remote viewing"-the psychic ability to identify distant locations.

During the experiment, members of the public will be asked to "tweet" their impressions of a randomly chosen spot in the UK visited by one of the researchers.

The users will then vote for which of five photographs on a website shows where the visitor was standing, and the trial will be repeated with visually different locations four times.

If at the end of the experiment the votes correctly identify at least three targets, the existence of extra-sensory perception would be proved.

"Personally, I'm sceptical, but three hits would be against odds of one in 125, which would be quite impressive," the Telegraph quoted study leader psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire, as saying.

Wiseman is expecting as many as 10,000 people to take part in the research, being conducted in collaboration with New Scientist magazine.

He will be travelling to each target location and send a message to thousands of participants to "tweet" their thoughts about his surroundings.

After twenty minutes of sending this message he will transmit another containing a website address on which participants can view photographs of the actual location and four decoys. They will then cast their votes.

Wiseman said: "I have staged several mass participation studies over the years, but this is the first to use Twitter. The instant nature of tweets allows thousands of people to take part in real time, making it perfect for an extra-sensory perception experiment. If the effect does exist then having so many people participate will help detect it."

The results of the experiment are expected to be revealed on June 5.

Sumit Paul-Choudhury, online editor at New Scientist, said: "There have been mass participation experiments since the start of mass communication and this is the next step. If we find some sort of effect then we can get into speculating about how it works."

ANI

Read more...

Now, email on the move!

Ever attempted to walk down the sidewalk while composing an email? Well, with a smartphone in your pocket, you can now email on the move.

But even the best multitasker will find it tricky to keep an eye on the phone's screen as well as the path ahead -- now, thanks to Apple, you won't have to stop, just download their new application Email 'n' Walk and keep moving.

This package takes a live feed from the phone's camera which is mounted on the rear of the device, to show the user what's in front of them as they type.

In fact, the text of the email appears as white lettering superimposed on top of the video feed -- and is more than clear enough to read without blocking view of the path or road ahead.

This way one can type and walk without worrying about what may be in front of one. Once one's finished composing the message, one has to tap the send button and the message will be placed into the iPhone's Mail application where one can add recipients and send it away, say its developers.

The application works surprisingly quick when sending the message to one's iPhone's Mail application, so even if one is still moving one can get the email sent rather smoothly.

While reviewers say the software works as advertised, they hope the creators don't get carried away. "I hope they don't come up with Email 'n' Drive," one of the reviewers was quoted as saying.

Bureau Report

Read more...

CO2 to be turned into liquid for underground storage

Using a new carbon capture technology, scientists would be able to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from a working coal-fired power station using chemicals and turned into a liquid, ready for storage underground.

Energy company Scottish Power wants to test technology which could lead to a full scale carbon capture plant becoming operational by 2014.

The UK government recently gave the go-ahead for a new generation of coal-fired power stations provided they were able to limit their CO2 emissions.

The scientists have focussed on the post-combustion method of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which aims to trap greenhouse emissions after fossil fuels have been burnt.

The plant, developed by Aker Clean Carbon, will enable them to assess the effectiveness of chemicals, known as amines, at removing CO2.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh will join the project, testing three different types of amine solution over the next three months.

“This is the first time that CCS technology has been switched on and working at an operational coal-fired power station in the UK,” said Scottish Power chief executive Nick Horler.

“It’s a major step forward in delivering the reality of carbon-free fossil fuel electricity generation,” he added.

Scottish Power’s parent company Iberdrola said the UK would be its global centre of excellence for CCS development, bringing together academics, industry experts and engineers.

A professorship of CCS will be based at Edinburgh University, but other academic institutions will also be involved including Imperial College, London.

According to Iberdrola Chairman Ignacio Galan, “We believe that the UK can lead the world with CCS technology, creating new skills, jobs and opportunities for growth.”

“There is the potential to create an industry on the same scale as North Sea Oil, and we will invest in Scotland and the UK to help to realise this potential,” he said.

ANI

Read more...