Hoping to get a jump on Google and other competitors, Adobe plans to release a hosted version of its popular Photoshop image-editing application within six months. The online service is part of a larger move to introduce ad-supported online services to complement its existing products and broaden the company reach into the consumer market
New technology developed by Keio University researchers that creates artificial bacterial DNA that can carry more than 100 bits of data within the genome sequence. The researchers claimed that they encoded e= mc² 1905!
on the common soil bacteria, Bacillius subtilis. The bacteria-based data storage method has backup and long-term archival functionality
Virtualisation software vendor Parallels has released an update to its Parallels Desktop virtualisation software for Intel-based Apple Macs. The biggest update to the new version is Coherence, a feature that enables Mac users running Parallels to run and access Windows applications from their Mac desktops via virtualisation rather than switching between operating systems
When Firefox 3.0 is released later this year, the open-source browser is likely to contain a host of new features, including offline support for Web applications and new bookmark and search features. Mozilla released the second alpha version of Firefox 3.0 earlier this month
Australia Post is planning to expand its use of radio frequency identification tags following their successful use in monitoring mail. The organisation has already set up much of the infrastructure it will need to broaden its use of radio frequency identification
Google is planning to sell Australian users licences for its web-based office productivity suite, Google Apps, under a local-currency pricing scheme
A US federal appeals court noted that a federal law was designed to ensure that within broad limits, message board operators would not be held responsible for the postings made by others on that board
, adding that, were the law otherwise, it would have an obvious chilling effect
on blogger speech
University of Washington Scientists are reporting that they have a new autonomous underwater vehicle that increases both the attainable depth and duration of deployment over current submersibles. Weighing in at just under 65kg, the Deepglider
is able to stay out to sea for up to a year and hit depths of 2,700m
The latest breed of surveillance cameras, known as intelligent video
, could transform cameras from passive observers to eyes with brains, able to detect suspicious behavior and potentially prevent crime before it occurs
BitTorrent, makers of a technology often used to trade pirated copies of Hollywood movies, is launching a Web site that will sell downloads of films and TV shows licensed from the studios. The BitTorrent Entertainment Network was set to launch Monday with films from Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate and episodes of TV shows such as 24
and Punk’d
The appalling delays Australian TV viewers are experiencing getting overseas-produced series is driving many of them to download the shows via BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks. The problem is compounded by the fact that Australian viewers are unable to download legal copies of the episodes from the US iTunes web site. According to a survey based on a sample of 119 current or recent free-to-air TV series, Australian viewers are waiting an average of almost 17 months for the first-run series first seen overseas. Over the past two years, average Australian broadcast delays for free-to-air television viewers have more than doubled from 7.9 to 16.7 months
Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective? This is exactly how North Otago’s newest television station 45 South is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow, in a bid to keep costs down. 45 South volunteer Ken Jones designed the wok transmitter in his spare time last year when he wanted to provide wireless broadband to his Ardgowan home
The Citizenr company will install a solar generator on your roof, completely for free. You then buy power from it, instead of a regular power company, at a fixed rate that’s likely to be lower than the usual power fees. The company will make money on these usage fees, as well as credits from the federal government for spreading the use of solar power. If it sounds too good to be true to you, you’re not alone. A number of financial analysts have warned people away from the company — via Slashdot
The recent surge of video sites such as Youtube and Google video are pushing the limits of the Internet’s bandwidth, or soon will be. Pieter Poll, chief technology officer at Qwest Communications, says that traffic volumes are growing faster than computing power, meaning that engineers can no longer count on newer, faster computers to keep ahead of their capacity demands. Further, a recent report from Deloitte Consulting raised the possibility that 2007 would see Internet demand exceed capacity. Admittedly, this seems a bit sensationalist, but are we headed for a massive slowdown of the whole internet?
Xerox is developing a new printing technology which does not require ink of any kind. The new technology includes reusable paper which can be printed and erased dozens of times and has the potential to revolutionise printing
Google’s online productivity suite (Google Apps) has already replaced Microsoft products at more than 100,000 small to medium enterprises. Additionally, it’s been deployed for serious work-related projects at two of the largest companies in the world. Product manager for Google Enterprise Kevin Gough was quick to point out that although the premier edition of Google Apps only just launched, it’s already been adopted by companies like GE, Procter & Gamble, Prudential and Loreal
Vision Robotics, a San Diego company, is working on a pair of robots that would trundle through orchards plucking oranges, apples or other fruit from the trees. In a few years, troops of these machines could perform the tedious and labour-intensive task of fruit picking that currently employs thousands of migrant workers each season. The robotic work has been funded entirely by agricultural associations, and pushed forward by the uncertainty surrounding the migrant labour force
A federal jury in San Diego has ordered Microsoft to pay $1.5 billion to Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute over MP3 audio technology used in Windows. In its verdict, the jury assessed damages based on each Windows PC sold since May 2003. The case could have broader implications, should Alcatel-Lucent pursue claims against other companies that use the widespread MP3 technology
Telstra’s rivals have challenged the telecoms giant to prevent a rerun of the $7 billion cable wars of the 1990s by creating an independent infrastructure company to bring fast broadband services to up to 6 million Australian homes. A consortium led by Optus, iiNet and Macquarie Telecom, known as the G9, announced the proposal in July and yesterday provided financial details of the network which would stretch further than one originally mooted by Telstra
The father of the Internet, Vint Cerf, is overseeing efforts by NASA to build a permanent Internet link to Mars by 2008. InterPlaNet (IPN) will serve as a backbone for a future inter-planetary system of Internets. Google vice president and Internet evangelist, Cerf co-wrote the TCP/IP protocol which underpins the Terran internet in the 1970s and began work on the InterPlaNet in 1998. A collaboration between NASA and the Advanced Research Project Agency, the InterPlaNet project is underway at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Houston, Texas. The InterPlaNet protocol is designed to cope with delays caused by the vast distances of space, with data taking up to 20 minutes to travel between the Earth and Mars depending on how far apart the two planets are
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