The inventors of MP3 are taking portable music listening one step further with the introduction of two surround sound enhancements. Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits and France’s Thomson SA have added two new elements to MP3 Surround demonstration software: MP3 SX (MP3 Stereo eXtended), which enhances MP3 stereo files for multichannel playback; and Ensonido, which provides portable MP3 Surround sound using stereo headphones
eMagin has developed a wearable headset system, dubbed the EyeBud 800, that plugs into the iPod and displays video from it in front of one eye, using optical technology designed to give the picture a higher resolution and make it appear larger than on the iPod’s screen. Scheduled to debut in the first half of this year, the EyeBud is expected to retail for as much as US$599 — US$200 more than the cost of a 60-gigabyte iPod
Recent research conducted by Yahoo! and Ipsos reveals that while 12% of surveyed Yahoo users know what RSS is, only 4% of surveyed Internet users use it [PDF] and know they use it. Podcasting is also reviewed, with the conclusion that 2% of surveyed people use it. The increasing number of blogs should go with an increasing number of syndicated readers, as they are now an important part of the web
An unidentified man swore at crew and passengers after being refused a bottle of wine on the four-hour flight from Manchester to Tenerife. He became so abusive the fed-up pilot diverted the Monarch Airlines Airbus to Porto Santo island off West Africa. After the plane touched down, the man was marched off by police and had his luggage dumped on the tarmac. The plane and its remaining passengers then took off again for Tenerife, where it landed almost four hours late after the unscheduled stop — via Boing Boing
GM crops under test in the UK have cross pollinated to weeds, giving them the same resistance to herbicide as the GM crops. This has been reported as occurring in Canada, which like the US is well past the test stage and allows widespread use of GM crops. What’s worse, in Canada crop rotation has conferred multi-herbicide resistance to some of the weeds
A hoax press-release claiming Narnia had walked out of the World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong because it was fed up with being bullied by the US and Europe was picked up and run as news by many outlets including Forbes — via Boing Boing
US Government backed policy changes have led ICANN to redelegate top level domains in such a way as to provide greater state-controlled censorship on the internet, reduce people’s ability to use the internet to communicate freely, and leave expansion of the internet in the hands of the people least capable of doing the job
Microsoft has big plans for the trusty old C:\ prompt. For its upcoming Windows Vista operating system, the company is developing a new command-line interface, or shell — the text-based controls typically accessed by clicking Command Prompt (under Start Menu, Programs, Accessories) in Windows XP
Millions of Australians who tape TV shows and copy CDs will soon get the right to do it with a clear conscience. The Federal Government will next year legalise the video recording of television shows for personal use, and the transfer of songs from CDs to MP3 players, in a bid to overturn a ban which has made criminals of much of the population
Maglite will soon be adding LED flashlights to their product line — via digg
Vincent Schiavelli, the droopy-eyed character actor who appeared in scores of movies, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Ghost, died Monday of lung cancer at his home in Sicily. He was 57. He also wrote three cookbooks and many food articles for magazines and newspapers — via Boing Boing
Europe is planning to build their own satellite-navigation network that will be backward and forward compatible. There’s going to be five levels ranging from free (1m accuracy) to commercial (1cm accuracy). Provision is also being made for a search and rescue mode where a signal can be sent to confirm that help is on the way. The system will supposedly even work with existing US network after upgrades to the network
As the Fish and Wildlife Service ponders a delisting plan that would turn over management of the wolves to the states, federal officials are baulking at plans they fear would allow hunters to exterminate whole packs
Australia’s wealthiest man, Kerry Packer, has died at the age of 68. Mr Packer, who was head of the Nine Network and PBL, died peacefully at home last night with his family by his bedside
Deep in a remote, fog-layered hollow near Sugar Grove, West Virginia, hidden by fortress-like mountains, sits the United State’s largest eavesdropping bug. Located in a radio quiet
zone, the station’s large parabolic dishes secretly and silently sweep in millions of private telephone calls and e-mail messages an hour. Run by the ultra-secret National Security Agency, the listening post intercepts all international communications entering the eastern United States. Another NSA listening post, in Yakima, Washington, eavesdrops on the western half of the country. Both are part of ECHELON
The volume of information that the NSA has harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged
The US government has been collecting information on peaceful war protest groups reminiscent of the Vietnam-era investigations. Is anyone surprised? — via morons.org
The US Department of Transportation has been handing millions of dollars to state governments for GPS-tracking pilot projects designed to track vehicles wherever they go. So far, Washington state and Oregon have received fat federal checks to figure out how to levy these mileage-based road user fees
. The Office of Transportation Policy Studies, part of the Federal Highway Administration, is about to announce another round of grants totaling some $11 million — via digg
G-Gnome — creator of the previously mentioned Orac³ — is hard at work on another casemodding masterpiece. His Weapon of Mass Destruction is designed to look like the archetype doomsday device; all tough, machined, stainless steel complete with keylocks, illuminated warning lights … and a huge timing device that blinked away the hours, minutes and seconds with glowing red finality
Hard-drive specialist Seagate is to acquire storage company Maxtor in an all-stock transaction valued at around US$1.9 billion
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