A new chip uses so little power, it could enable sensors, communication devices and other gadgets that run on body heat and movement alone. The chip uses 70 percent less voltage than current chip technologies. It could lead to an order-of-magnitude increase in energy efficiency for electronics in the next five years
The first big steps on the road to overhauling the net’s core addressing system have been taken. On Monday the master address books for the net are being updated to include records prepared in a new format known as IPv6. Widespread use of this format will end the shortage of addresses that sites can be given. The net’s current addressing scheme is expected to exhaust the pool of unallocated addresses by 2011
The final resting place of three German U-boats, nicknamed Hitler’s lost fleet
, has been found at the bottom of the Black Sea. The submarines had been carried 2,000 miles overland from Germany to attack Russian shipping during the Second World War, but were scuttled as the war neared its end. Now, more than 60 years on, explorers have located the flotilla of three submarines off the coast of Turkey
Yahoo would consider a business alliance with Google as one way to rebuff a $US44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft. Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft’s bid
Another Middle East undersea internet cable has been damaged, adding to disruption in Indian online services caused when several lines were cut earlier this week. The Falcon cable was cut 56 kilometres from Dubai, between Oman and the United Arab Emirates, according to its owner FLAG Telecom, part of India’s Reliance Communications
A journalism student in Afghanistan has been sentenced to death by a Sharia court for downloading and sharing a report criticising the treatment of women in some Islamic countries. The student was accused of blasphemy and tried without representation — via Slashdot
The Italian parliament may have unwittingly legalised sharing music over P2P networks. A new copyright law, passed by both houses of parliament, would allow Italians to freely share music over the Internet as long as it was noncommercial and the music degraded
Remarkable new footage of Canada’s Arctic wolves has been caught on camera by a BBC crew. The team managed to film the wolves taking to the water to hunt waterfowl — behaviour that has never been seen before
A new species of mammal has been discovered in the mountains of Tanzania. The bizarre-looking creature, dubbed Rhynochocyon udzungwensis, is a type of giant elephant shrew, or sengi. The cat-sized animal looks like a cross between a miniature antelope and a small anteater
TechCrunch reports that News Corp is also frantically trying to put together a competing bid for Yahoo, with the help of private equity firms. This makes sense, given News Corp’s previous interest in trading MySpace for a big Yahoo equity stake
Amazon’s just bought audiobook provider Audible, the exclusive provider of audiobooks to iTunes, Amazon’s rival for audio downloads. Even though Apple says it prefers that its suppliers deliver non-DRM media (and even though Audible’s DRM does nothing to prevent piracy), Audible has a mandatory DRM policy for the books it sells. That is to say, even if they author doesn’t want DRM on his or her books, Audible will only deliver those books with DRM on them. As part of the deal, an Amazon spokesman said: Audible’s audio books are wrapped in a layer of DRM, which Amazon does not plan to remove unless customers start to complain
— via Boing Boing
Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $44.6bn in cash and shares. The offer, contained in a letter to Yahoo’s board, is 62% above Yahoo’s closing share price on Thursday. Yahoo cut its revenue forecasts earlier this week and said it would have to spend an additional $300m this year trying to revive the company. It has been struggling in recent years to compete with Google, which has also been a competitor to Microsoft
A team of scientists at Stanford University has tracked the movement of carbon nanotubes through the digestive systems of mice. They’ve determined that the nanotubes do not exhibit any toxicity in the mice, and are safely expelled after delivering their payload. As a result, the study paves the way toward future applications of nanotubes in the treatment of illnesses — via Slashdot
LAN technology recently passed a milestone — it has been around for 30 years, some of them tumultuous. But while the LAN seems ubiquitous now, there are those who think its future may be more troubled than its past
Tens of millions of internet users across the Middle East and Asia have been left without access to the web after a technical fault cut millions of connections. The outage, which is being blamed on a fault in a single undersea cable, has severely restricted internet access in countries including India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and left huge numbers of people struggling to get online
In an few hours from now The Pirate Bay team will probably be charged with aiding or facilitating copyright infringement. If they are found guilty, they could receive sentences of up to two years in prison, but the site will remain online, no matter what
Seven green groups have sued over a US Fish and Wildlife Service plan that would loosen restrictions on killing grey wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming
Swarms of robots that use electromagnetic forces to cling together and assume different shapes are being developed by US researchers. The grand goal is to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together — via Warren Ellis
Sellers Give Negative Feedback on eBay Changes
EBay’s highly touted cut in sellers’ fees is not so clearly a boon for sellers as it may appear at first look. However, in some scenarios, sellers actually will end up paying more than they did before. In one comparison, the fees increased by 33 percent. What is more, eBay’s changes to its feedback system have many sellers up in arms. Feedback, of course, has been the centre of the self-policing aspect of eBay through which buyers and sellers rate each other. Now, for the first time, sellers will not be able to leave negative or neutral feedback about buyers
Foxtel has officially unveiled its new HD service, including the new Hi-Def box, at a media conference in Sydney. The new service is called Foxtel HD+, but pricing and release date haven’t been announced yet
RSS – Posts