It’s not a Can’t beat ’em? Join ’em
scenario but it’s pretty close. In a move that will most likely anger DVD buyers in western markets, Warner Home Video is trying to compete with film pirates in China as they launch a trial program. A new release movie, sans all the normal packaging, is available for the equivalent of US$1.50
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered a material that gives a whole new complexion to the term fridge magnet
. When this alloy is placed in a magnetic field, it gets colder. Karl Sandeman and his co-workers think that their material — a blend of cobalt, manganese, silicon and germanium — could help to usher in a new type of refrigerator that is up to 40 percent more energy-efficient than conventional models
Bob Cringely offers an intriguing reason behind Apple’s recent strategy of Boot Camp. I believe that Apple will offer Windows Vista as an option for those big customers who demand it, but I also believe that Apple will offer in OSX 10.5 the ability to run native Windows XP applications with no copy of XP installed on the machine at all. This will be accomplished not by using compatibility middleware like Wine, but rather by Apple implementing the Windows API directly in OSX 10.5
A group of telecoms companies — Optus, Macquarie Telecom, PowerTel, Primus, Internode, Soul and TransACT — has joined together to form a plan for upgrading broadband around the nation. Telstra’s nose has been put out of joint by the move and responded with a childish rant that the plan is a scam
LiveJournal recently introduced ads on some pages for free users. More interestingly, they also added a new restriction to their TOS (XVI 17 b.) banning users from using or providing ad-blocking software. The new TOS also permits them to immediately terminate the account of anyone they catch doing this
Holographic data storage pioneer InPhase Technologies, has announced that it has demonstrated the highest data density of any commercial technology by recording 515 gigabits of data per square inch. The first generation drive will have a capacity of 300 gigabytes on a single disk with a 20 megabyte per second transfer rate — via digg
Higher education, technology companies, and a consumer group are the latest to band together in an attempt to fight the growing problem of viruses and spyware plaguing the Internet
iiNet’s broadband customers have for several weeks been experiencing slow speeds to some international Internet sites as the telco wrangles with a congested connection in the United States
Rupert Murdoch has made another foray into e-commerce, with an investment in the world’s largest job search engine. Simply Hired received a total AU$18.11 million from New Corp’s Fox Interactive Media and venture capital firm Foundation Capital
A rat nerve cell attached to a semiconductor chip has exchanged a signal with the chip, an achievement that could lead to organic computers that process information like a brain — via Discovery
A legal spat over a Web site criticising Jerry Falwell for his antigay views won’t ascend to the US Supreme Court. The justices on Monday declined without comment to take up the evangelical preacher’s appeal, which challenged the operator of Fallwell.com, a site that aims to explain why Rev. Falwell is completely wrong about people who are gay or lesbian
. The televangelist had claimed the domain name’s spelling was too close to that of his official Web presence and asked the courts to shut it down
Vespa has unveiled two prototype hybrid scooters that deliver 25% more power and use 20% less petrol. You plug them into a standard European 220V socket for three hours to charge them or run them on normal gas-engine mode. They can run battery-only at low speeds, which is useful in indoor/zero-emissions environments. The helmet-space under the seat has been replaced with a stack of 12V/26Ah batteries — via Boing Boing
Scientists studying organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) have made a critical leap from single-colour displays to a highly efficient and long-lived natural light source. If the device can be mass-manufactured cheaply interior lighting could look vastly different in the future. Almost any surface in a home, whether flat or curved, could become a light source: walls, curtains, ceilings, cabinets or tables — via Warren Ellis
Users thinking of pirating the next version of Windows may have a surprise in store: no Aero for you. The upcoming Microsoft OS will run a check to ensure the copy was legally purchased. If it comes up short, the shiniest part of the OS will not be available. The Aero display also won’t be available to those who buy Windows Vista Basic, the low-end consumer version of the operating system. Let’s see how long that security feature
takes to crack
US forces in Afghanistan are checking reports that stolen computer hardware containing military secrets is being sold at a market beside a big US base. Shopkeepers at a market next to Bagram base, outside Kabul, have been selling memory drives stolen from the facility
Google has launched a Web-based calendar service that allows users not only to input and track events, but also to coordinate schedules with others and create automatic event alerts
Internet shoppers accustomed to tax-free purchases from Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store soon may be in for an unpleasant surprise. State legislatures and tax officials, eager to find new ways to boost government spending and curb budget shortfalls, are eyeing the burgeoning market for digital downloads as a potentially lucrative source of revenue
Sitting in a culture dish, a layer of chicken heart cells beats in synchrony. But this muscle layer was not sliced from an intact heart, nor even grown laboriously in the lab. Instead, it was printed
, using a technology that could be the future of tissue engineering. Droplets of bio-ink
— clumps of living cells a few hundred micrometres in diameter — flow together and fuse when squirted close to each other. They can be made to form layers, rings and tubes — which could serve as blood vessels — depending on how they are deposited. Bioprinting could develop into a fast and cheap way to engineer a variety of tissue types
Microsoft has developed Oklahoma’s Computer Spyware protection Act. The law will supposedly protect people from unwarranted hackers or virus attacks and can fine individuals up to $1M who are found guilty of breaking into a computer without the owners knowledge. At the same time, it also allows some of the better known capable companies to look
into your computer for possible virus/spyware and fix the problem without informing you. And, while these friends are doing their job, they can also take the moment to do other things — via Slashdot
An ultralight autonomous aircraft that mimics the navigational abilities of a fly could one day become a real fly on the wall. The 10gm microflyer, being developed by a team of researchers lead by Dario Floreano at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, has a 36cm wingspan. But it could one day be shrunk to insect size and used for search and rescue
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