LiveScience is reporting out of NextFest on a Japanese-built power suit that amplifies the strength of its wearer. The onboard computer is hooked up to sensors that monitor natural movements, then it inflates cuffs to boost lifting power. The Power Assist Suit could be used by hospital workers to move heavy patients
Paypal settled a suit with Maryland and 27 states. Among other things, they’ll conspicuously advertise a contact phone number and staff it 14 hours a day and be much more forthcoming about when they will debit your bank account. For those of you who think Paypal Sucks, well, starting soon it sucks just a little less
It seems the alien invasion of the Earth has just started! A 50m insect has been spotted roaming the German countryside! Let the I, for one, welcome our new giant insectoid overlords
joke contest begin! A moderator at a Keyhole forum identifies the bug as a thrip, about 1mm long, squished under a glass plate during scanning — via Slashdot
Symantec claimed this week that Microsoft is withholding information about its new Vista operating system in an attempt to create an unfair advantage for its own security software
Google has launched an Australian version of its video hosting site, Google Video, which will feature a range of content from local media groups
Yahoo has acquired Jumpcut, a site that provides simple-to-use online video-editing tools, its latest bid to enhance its web video services
A new product called MojoPac from RingCube Technologies lets iPod users take control of any desktop computer running Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system
A messaging service called VaporStream announced today at DEMOfall will allow any two parties to communicate electronically without leaving any record of their interaction on any computer or server. Messages cannot be forwarded, edited, printed or saved. After they’re read, they’re gone — via Slashdot
EEStor is working on a revolutionary new kind of battery. The most significant benefit would be its efficiency: a car powered by the EEStor unit could run on the equivalent of 45 cents per gallon, driving 500 miles on $9 worth of electricity after just five minutes to charge
In UMG v Lindor, the defendant Marie Lindor has made a motion to preclude the RIAA from introducing into the case songs as to which it has failed to produce the song files. Ms Lindor’s lawyers submitted to the Court the RIAA’s interrogatory responses where the record companies had stated under oath that their case was based upon (a) Media Sentry’s detection of song files being distributed
and (b) Media Sentry’s allegedly making perfect digital copies
of those files. Ms Lindor’s attorneys argued that the RIAA cannot prove that it made perfect digital copies of the songs if it doesn’t have the song files — via Boing Boing
A robot that glides along a layer of mucus inside the human intestine could make medical examinations like colonoscopies less painful for patients, say Dutch scientists. They are working on a snail-inspired robot that should be far gentler on the gut’s delicate lining
It seems Wal-Mart is threatening retaliation against studios who decide to offer movies on iTunes. The retailer seems a bit miffed that someone would dare to undercut their prices. This wouldn’t be the first time they’ve turned on a supplier for dealing with Apple — via Slashdot
Time Warner said Thursday that it had agreed to sell AOL France’s Internet access business to Neuf Cegetel, a French telecommunications network operator, for about $365 million in cash
A copyright dispute between Google and a group of publishers in Belgium escalated Friday as the Internet search engine defied a court order to publish an earlier decision in the case on its Belgian web sites
It looks like Microsoft is once again looking to save a few bucks at the expense of minimising piracy, as the company has reportedly confirmed to IDG News Service that every version of Vista — from Home Basic to Ultimate — will ship on a single DVD when the OS is finally released. Of course the downside to this strategy is that somehow, somewhere, some clever hacker is going to figure out a way to get Ultimate onto his/her machine without the upgrade fee (after disabling WGA of course), and people the world over will gleefully follow suit
Torpark is a modified version of Firefox that automatically routes you through the EFF’s TOR servers, thereby anonymising everything you do online
The head of an organisation that fights unwanted bulk e-mail said Friday that an Illinois company will remain on its block list despite a court order and a steep monetary judgment. Spamhaus suggested it did not defend the case because it did not believe a court in Illinois had jurisdiction over the UK-based organisation. Steve Linford, the head of the UK-based Spamhaus, insisted the company sends spam that is illegal in the United Kingdom and said Spamhaus will continue to list the Illinois company on its block list
Hackers are taking advantage of a newly discovered vulnerability in Internet Explorer to install spyware on PCs that visit any of a number of Russian porn sites. The malware, first reported yesterday by researchers at Sunbelt Software, takes advantage of an unpatched flaw in the way IE processes Vector Markup Language (VML) code. VML is a language used to display graphic information on the Web. The attack appears to work on all versions of Windows running the IE 6 browser
Hackers using computer worms sneakily implanted via AOL instant messages were building a potentially evil botnet
, a Silicon Valley Internet security firm said on Tuesday
A burning laptop that frightened passengers at Los Angeles International Airport over the weekend was a ThinkPad, Lenovo confirmed Wednesday, and that notebook ships with Sony’s battery technology
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