The device connects to the Internet and fetches Flash, image and text files based on certain time-varying constraints as well as users' keyword search queries. It then shows the fetched information on the cylinder display and reads relevant text information with a synthesized voice.

¶ 10:40 PM 0 Comments

For the first time, the Windows operating system will wall off some audio and video processes almost completely from users and outside programmers, in hopes of making them harder for hackers to reach. The company is establishing digital security checks that could even shut off a computer's connections to some monitors or televisions if antipiracy procedures that stop high-quality video copying aren't in place.

¶ 11:44 PM 0 Comments

MSN’s instant messenger offering already has voice chat, which allows people to talk from one computer to another. A VoIP offering would be an improvement because it would allow consumers to make cheap calls to landlines and cell phones through their computers.

¶ 11:30 PM 0 Comments

The car has automatic cruise control of the sort fitted to many expensive cars such as Jaguars and BMWs. These use either radar or infrared beams fitted to the front of the car to measure the distance to the car in front. That distance is kept constant by automatic acceleration and braking.

But conventional automatic cruise control fails at speeds of less than 30kph (20mph). To circumvent this problem, the new car uses lidar—short for “light detection and ranging”—a measuring technology similar to radar but which uses laser beams rather than radio waves to measure distance and determine the speed of other vehicles. As light waves have shorter wavelengths than radio waves, the technology works at shorter distances and lower speeds. Indeed, the prototype has a distance-keeping system that will brake to a standstill, and move off again when the car in front moves.

¶ 10:59 PM 0 Comments

But what if everyone is mainly wrong? What if search and PageRank and AdSense are Google's corporate apex. Most companies would be content with that, but Google isn't supposed to be like most companies. But what if they are? I hear a lot of talk about Google doing deals for video and music distribution, but where are those deals? So far it is all just talk.

Here's where I go out on a limb, but I think Microsoft's clearest threat still comes from Apple, though not the way most people expect. Yes, Apple is about to take Microsoft to the woodshed when it comes to Internet movie distribution. Yes, Apple already super-dominates the music player market where Microsoft doesn't even really exist. But the real jewel is one Microsoft has to lose, not gain -- the PC platform, itself.

in other news

¶ 11:43 AM 0 Comments

We’re Gladiators in this business. Real entrepreneurs fear NOTHING. If we get thrown in the ring with 12 opponents who are twice our size we don’t look at it as sure defeat—we look at it as the opportunity to show the world how quickly we can overcome odds other people see as insurmountable.

¶ 8:45 PM 0 Comments

I am planning to use this devices as a constant companion for on-the-go email, instant messaging, and other tasks that forced me to carry laptop around. A few RSS reader suggestions have come my way, and once I settle on one, it would be a good way to stay on top of news. I am still looking for a blogging client, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find one. With 1.3 megapixel camera built into the device, which makes it a nifty way to take photos for moblogging. I have already installed an IM client and find it easier to respond to IM messages with the keyboard, than with a phone.

¶ 6:31 AM 0 Comments

virtual guard dog that can sense break-ins using infrared sensors, notify homeowners by calling their cellular phones, and send the owner's cell phone videos from its digital camera.

¶ 6:00 AM 0 Comments

"There is no commercial agreement between Nokia and Apple to integrate iTunes into the N-series devices," said Kari Tuutti, spokesman for Nokia's multimedia division. "But since this is based on a computer platform, anybody -- including Apple if they so wish -- can very easily develop this kind of application and offer it to consumers, via the Internet for example."

¶ 5:58 AM 0 Comments

Steve Wynn chats up his $2.7 billion Vegas hotel, the Wynn hotel, to the team at Wired and boasts that his hotel is THE most complex structure ever built . How can he make that claim? Well, he stuffed his hotel with a plethora of technial goodies and prowess. Get this, the Wynn hotel is the first hotel in the Vegas hotel industry to combine the room key and the casino frequent-player card in the same piece of plastic. Well I'll be...Wynn is right!

¶ 12:44 PM 0 Comments

CANN board members were scheduled to consider the proposal later Tuesday at a meeting in California, but an ICANN spokesman noted that the proposed administrator of the domain, ICM Registry, had already agreed to a one-month delay.

Backers of the site argue that use of the .xxx extension would be voluntary, but would create a clearly identifiable area of the Internet that could be blocked for certain users.

ICM chairman Stuart Lawley said the company agreed to the delay to allow ICANN to hear all views but added that he was "disappointed that concerns that should have been raised and addressed weeks and months ago are being raised in the final days before the board is scheduled to approve the agreement negotiated with staff."

¶ 2:38 PM 0 Comments

Testing urine can reveal the identity of illnesses, and the new paper battery could allow the sample being tested to also power the diagnostic device, Lee says. It could be a useful power source for cheap healthcare test kits for diseases like diabetes, and could be used in emergency situations to power a cell phone.

¶ 6:44 AM 0 Comments

We are sponsoring [Feeva] because [it is] trying to make free Wi-Fi available in San Francisco, and this matches Google’s goal to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible. We don't have anything to add at this point about future plans." To which we speculate: Today San Francisco, tomorrow the world.

¶ 6:09 AM 0 Comments

DTV is a new, free and open-source platform for internet television and video.

¶ 5:29 AM 0 Comments