information technology

Specs of HTC’s 2009 smartphones leaked, NVIDIA phone on its way

2009-04-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

Posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 am by Mike Evans
Filed under Coming Soon, Rumours

HTC's lineup of phones for 2009 was leaked a few months ago, giving us a hint of the new smartphones that will be heading our way later in the year. However, although all leaks are good leaks, there wasn't much detail to go on, so we could only speculate what was to come in terms of specs.

Fortunately, another leak has come along that's filled a few gaps for us. The new leak shows some of the specs for the new devices - it's as if HTC themselves were listening to our cries for more info and gladly obliged!

Full details after the jump.

Motorola's new concept smartphone merges RAZR with iPhone

2009-04-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Posted by John Brownlee, December 17, 2008 11:01 AM | permalink

Courtesy of Boy Genius Report, these leaked images of Motorola's 2009 smartphone concept, which mostly impresses by the slide out QWERTY. It looks gorgeous, but also uncomfortably reminds of the revolting, rubbery T9 on Motorola's definitive excretion of design over usability, the Razer.

Upcoming 2009 Verizon Handsets from Motorola Pose for BGR [BGR]

Samsung Announces Mobile Handheld MBP200 Pico Projector

2009-04-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

In continuation to the released of Samsung projector smartphone I7410 (W7900) back in February 2009 which utilizes the DLP Pico Chipset from Texas Instruments, the Korean electronic giant had done it again with the announcement of their latest mobile handheld projector – Samsung MBP200 Pico Projector.

The MBP200 is a compact and lightweight projector cum media player. Weighing at only 160g, Samsung MBP200 is almost similar in size as the Pico Projector, which was earlier announced by Optoma back in June 2008. This portable projector is designed with easy connections directly to mobile phones and notebooks to cater for all your “on-the-go” presentations.

The Samsung MBP200 is capable of projecting images onto screen sizes ranging from 8.5×11 inch (standard sheet of paper) to as wide as 50-inch screen, depending on ambient lightings. The device also features a small screen holder, which can instantly turn an A4 size paper into a screen for viewing movies, document files or pictures. And with its 2.2-inch QVGA LCD screen, 3.5mm headphone jack and built-in speaker, the MBP200 can double-up as a portable media player.

The device also supports common audio formats like MP3, WMA and OGG, and popular video codecs such as DivX and Xvid, apart from the standard Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Words, Excel and PDF format.

Product Features:

Projection Panel: HVGA (480 x 320)
LCD: 2.2” QVGA(320 x 240)
Storage: microSD slot (up to 16 GB)
Picture Viewer: JPEG, GIF, Animated GIF, MBP
Audio Playback: MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, WAV
Video Playback: DivX, Xvid, WMV9 Simple Profile, MPEG-2, MPEG-4
File Viewer: Adobe PDF, MS PowerPoint, MS Word, MS Excel, Text
Dimension/Weight: 107.3 x 48.8 x 19 mm / 160 g

4. Sony Ericsson launches 8.1MP W995 mobile phone

2009-04-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

Walkman meets Cybershot

Sony Ericsson has kicked off Mobile World Congress by launching the W995 handset, which could be its most complete handset yet.

Not only does the traditional-looking Walkman-series mobile phone boast all of the great features you'd associate with the W series, it also has a Cybershot-esque, huge 8.1-megapixel camera.

- Also see the Sony Ericsson Idou 12.1MP handset with hands-on pics

Under the banner Entertainment Unlimited, the W995 combines the popular shake control, 3.5mm headphone jack, Album Art and TrackID features from the Walkman phones, with the face detection and image stabilisation highlights of the Cybershots. No more choosing between the two for SE fans.

It's also touting itself as somewhat of an on-the-go video player. With Wi-Fi and Turbo 3G built in, you'll be able to pick up all the latest from YouTube to watch on the 2.6-inch, 240x320 TFT screen.

This is backed up by the new MediaGo software, which was also announced at Sony Ericsson's Sunday evening press conference, and will debut on the W995. It's a Wi-Fi based service which allows owners to sync their multimedia content over the web, shifting it to and from your PC, PS3 and TV with ease.

It'll be hitting your back pockets in the second quarter of 2009 and comes in black, red and silver. Check out our full gallery of hands-on photos here.

Link: Sony Ericsson

Buy one here: Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1’s

2009-04-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

Putting an end to any further rumors about their product being delayed to a 2009 release, Sony Ericsson has went out and announced the official launch date of the Xperia X1: September 30th 2008.

September 30th will be the day the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 will be released initially to the UK, German, and Swedish markets, while availability in other markets across Europe, Asia, and Latin America will be ongoing throughout Q4 2008.

UK seems to be a favorite of mobile phone manufacturers when it comes to product and service releases. And as for the other markets which the Xperia X1 will hit throughout Q4 2008, here they are:

APAC

* Indonesia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam

Western Europe

- Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal

Central Europe

- Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic

Middle East

- UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait

Africa

- South Africa

Latin America

- Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia

Sony Ericsson also mentioned that availability in North America, China, Australia and Russia, and other countries not mentioned will be announced in the following months.

Nokia N97

2009-04-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

The dust hasn’t nearly settled on news of the mould-shattering new N97 unveiled at Nokia World yesterday. Instead we remain caught up in a sandstorm of excitement at the prospect of Nokia’s iPhone annihilator launching in 2009. We’ve played with the upcoming N97, and can categorically say (without bias or hyperbole) that it truly has the potential to be the most important mobile device of the decade.

So with the adrenaline still pumping, we thought we’d pull together all the best bits of N97 coverage into one page to ensure you don’t miss a beat on the phone announcement of the decade.

Click through for all the info, first impressions, photos and videos…

VIDEO DEMO

NOKIA N97 IS A GAME-CHANGER
Nokia hasn’t just changed the game with the N97, they’ve moved the goalposts around and changed the shape of the field. We’re not dealing with something that’s going up against the iPhone, the G1 and the pretenders - this is a device that’s taking it right to the ‘ickle laptops, the netbooks.  The N97 is set to launch with 32GB of on board memory, though Anssi said on stage it’ll have 48GB, with another 16GB coming via SD card. That’s more than ample for most people’s on-the-move needs. Add to that a slick interface, that QWERTY keyboard and the kind of hinge that’d make Jobs jealous (yeah, I’m blowing about a hinge - have you seen the action?).

So enough then to make the other phone-makers run scared, but what of the Netbooks? Tipped as one of the biggest tech growth areas for 2009 (and already one of the biggest in 2008) Nokia is walking right into a hot spot with a cracking device. Connectivity? Not a problem, it packs WiFi and HSDPA - better than most netbooks. The N97 has everything it needs to sell itself as a fully-featured phone or a laptop that can make calls. Happy days, no matter what way you look at it.

I think it’ll take a while for all this to sink in, so for now we just have to marvel at its beauty. Roll on mid 2009.

HANDS-ON FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Need to fill your boots on the Nokia N97’s specs? Then look no further as we’ve gathered everything we’ve got right here. Run your finger down the screen as this lot is quite tasty. Behind the 3.5-inch touchscreen sits a bunch of hot tech that’ll ensure this little puppy performs better than anything you’ve ever seen, or used before. The 150g weight isn’t bad either and it feels only marginally bigger than an N95 (though is much slimmer).  We had a fettle with one earlier and it feels soooo good in the hand.

There’s still a bit of work to do on it, but it’s already very plush, with a solid feel in the hand and almost perfect action around the hinge area - the start of the movement is still a little harsh, but it sounds like there might still be a bit of tweaking to go on there. Round the back the camera has a cover to keep the lens fresh (cue more lovely gliding action) and it looks (and feels) a bit like the N85.

The footprint isn’t bad, considering what you’ve got in the hand here. Much neater than a Communicator, though bigger than what we’re mostly used to, it’s still very usable in the hand. Now, for the hard core, we have a little treat. Feast your eyes boys…

HARD FACTS AND FIGURES
WCDMA 900/1900/2100 (HSDPA),
EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
OS: S60 5th Edition
Dimensions: 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm*mm (L x W x H) *18.25 mm at camera area
Weight: Approx. 150 g
Display: 3.5 inch TFT with up to 16 million colors
nHD16:9 widescreen (640×360 pixels)
Battery: Nokia Battery BP-4L, 1500 mAh

Media
Memory: Up to 48GB
(32 GB on-board memory,
plus 16GB expansion via microSDmemory
card slot)
Video playback: MPEG-4 / SP and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264,
up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution
RealVideoup to QCIF @ 30 fps
Windows Media (WMV9) up to CIF @ 30 fps
Flash Lite 3.0 / Flash Video in internet
browser
Music playback: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA
Main Camera
Lens: Carl ZeissTessar™
Image capture: Up to 5 megapixels (2584 x 1938)
JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color)
Video capture: MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 480) at up to 30 fps
Aperture: F2.8
Focal length: 5.4 mm
Flash: Dual LED camera flash and video light

Battery life
Talk time: Up to 320 min (3G), 400 min (GSM)
Standby time: Up to 400 hrs (3G), 430 hrs (GSM)
Video playback: Up to 4,5 hours (offline mode)
Music playback: Up to 37 hours (offline mode)

Connectivity & Data Services
• WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g with UPnP support
• Micro-USB connector, Hi-Speed USB 2.0
• 3.5mm stereo headphone plug and TV-out support
(PAL/NTSC)
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio,
enhanced data rates (EDR)
• GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS)

VIDEO HANDS-ON AND DESIGNER TALK
Nokia Conversations shot a close-up viddy of it in the flesh and speak to the man behind the look and feel of the N97.

Hands-on…

N97 designer

PHOTO GALLERY

New Nokia N97 Announced

2009-04-30T07:21:00.000-07:00

December 2nd, 2008 by Thomas

We’ve been hearing rumours about this phone for a while, but now that Nokia have taken the bubble wrap off of the specs, we can officially get excited. A post over on the Dial A Phone blog reveals that the Nokia N97 is due to be released in the middle of 2009, and that it comes loaded with a very impressive resume of features.

The first thing that you’ll have noticed from the above pic is that Nokia have decided to grace the N97 with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a backwards-tilting touchscreen display, a configuration that’s reminiscent of the T-Mobile MDA Vario III. The 3.5″ screen of the N97 has a 16:9 widescreen display ratio, meaning that video content is bound to look a treat. The attendant 3G and HSDPA means that you’ll be able to easily watch YouTube clips and stream video from the net. Wi-Fi support also comes included, and did we mention that the screen comes with haptic feedback?

Perhaps the most exciting feature of the new Nokia N97 is the sheer size of the available memory; 32GB of on-board internal memory comes as standard, along with the capacity to expand this up by a further 16GB to 48GB. Yes, 48GB – that’s a lot of storage.

The same 5 Megapixel camera that put the N95 on the map makes a welcome return, and like the camera on that phone it comes with a dual LED flash and a Carl Zeiss lens. Again, the camera is also capable of video shooting at 30fps, and the same TV-Out feature makes a welcome return.

The N97 also comes with A-GPS with Nokia Maps v3, and N-Gage compatibility – as you can see from the image above, that directional pad positioned at the left hand side of the keypad is itching to double up as a gaming control.

Though little has been confirmed about the music playback capabilities of the phone, we can assume by virtue of the 3.5mm jack plug that Nokia haven’t overlooked this, and judging by the return of the camera and GPS functionality that we’ve seen on previous Nseries handsets, we can at least expect the N97 to be able to play what the N96 does (i.e. all of the AAC variants, MP3s and WMAs).

Something of a magic bullet, the Nokia N97 seems designed to appeal to everyone – the keyboard and the fast connections available will appeal to business users and social networkers alike, who will be able to easily respond to emails and effortlessly update profiles, and music fans will no doubt be enthralled by the possibility of cramming several gigs worth of tunes into the phone.

With its large touchscreen, GPS and sat-nav features, and connectivity options, the Nokia N97 looks set to take on the T-Mobile G1, the Apple iPhone 3G and the BlackBerry series all at the same time.

Everyone knew that after the 5800 Tube, Nokia were going to return to the touchscreen arena with a vengeance, and everybody knew it was going to be something good, but nobody predicted that it was going to be quite this good.

The countdown to Q2 2009 begins now!

Unlocked Android G1 to launch this month, for £285

2009-04-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

December 8th, 2008 by Peter

If you’ve been longing to put an Android phone through its paces, but don’t want to sign up for the T-Mobile service, the only option has been to obtain a code to unlock the phone – but this comes with serious compromises in functionality.

Now, if you’re prepared to shell out £265 (plus a £20 sign-up fee), you can get a G1 with its hardware and SIM completely unlocked, and no need to commit to a T-Mobile data contract for two years (although the minimum contract was reduced recently from £40 to £30 a month, that still makes the unlocked version cheaper over a year).

Officially, the unlocked G1 – the HTC handset that is currently the only device available based on Google’s Android software platform – is for developers only, but anyone can register as a developer for a one-off fee of $25 (likely to be £20 in the UK). This option will also be available to users in countries where there is no T-Mobile network – 18 countries at first, with more to follow next year, including India.

The Android DevPhone 1 is SIM and hardware unlocked, but otherwise identical to the T-Mobile model. This shows Google’s level of control over Android – T-Mobile seems to have had little say in the decision to unleash an unlocked G1 just as the operator is reaching the peak of the product’s sales cycle, pre-Christmas. It also shows off Google’s determination to take a different approach to the tightly closed strategy of Apple for the iPhone – and to rely on this contrast heavily in its marketing and its appeal to developers.

To get a DevPhone 1, users need to register as Android developers at the Android market applications store site. There is a limit of one device per developer account. The scheme will be available initially in 18 markets –the US, UK, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland and Hungary.

New iPhone likely as O2 and T-Mobile slash prices

2009-04-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

March 16th, 2009 by Peter

The hottest smartphones could be coming to UK users at rockbottom prices from May, with O2 set to slash the cost of owning a 16Gb iPhone 3G, reportedly in advance of a new iPhone launch, and T-Mobile doing the same for the G1.

It looks increasingly likely that Apple will release an upgraded iPhone 3G this June or July in the UK, but it is still very unclear what this will look like. The pundits are split between those who expect a ’superphone’ to fend off the Palm Pre, LG Arena and others – with heavyweight memory, video, camera and other features where the iPhone has lagged behind the big hitters of the smartphone market; plus enhancements to the browser, widgets and multitouch experience.

After all, Apple’s place at the top of the multitouch pile, which has been proven to drive mobile web usage, is now threatened by Palm, LG and others, and even the lawsuits that Apple is said to be preparing won’t stop the challengers if users take to their upgrades.

But most major players, like the Android community and Nokia, are still lagging behind on multitouch and other important user interface features, and so other commentators think Apple will stick with its advantage at the high end and focus on a whole new format for the iPhone to increase its appeal to the midrange mobile web users and those feeling the credit crunch.

This could be then, the long rumored iPhone Nano, which was even pre-emptively cloned early this year, but never materialized for real. This would be small and slim, as it name suggests, but would come with less memory, screen size, presumably camera Megapixels and so on than its big brother.

This could extend the iPhone’s overall reach and prolong the life of the larger devices, but would do less to explain the price cutting at O2 and also at Austria’s iPhone carrier, T-Mobile. And since at least some of the iPhone’s success comes from its appeal as a multifunctional product – replacing music players and even notebooks for some users – it might defy the downturn more effectively by packing in new features rather than cutting them down, bringing the iPhone head-to-head with Android, which will see a host of new handsets in the second half of the year, targeted at every segment of the user base.

So just how cheap will a current iPhone model come, if O2 implements the reported price cuts from next month, to clear its shelves for new models – and boost volumes, giving it a better chance of keeping its exclusive deal for another year. According to Mobile Today, the current iPhone is 100% subsidized for customers taking out a tariff of at least £75 per month, while those taking out £35 or £45 monthly plans must pay between £59 and £159. From May, O2 will reportedly offer the iPhone free with any tariff above £35.

But despite O2’s best efforts, its exclusive may not cover the new model. Sources say that Orange – which lost its French exclusive after a legal challenge – is talking to Apple about being able to offer the new iPhone in the UK, alongside O2. Orange currently sells the iPhone in 27 countries, including France.

One aspect of any new iPhones, the software, will become clearer tomorrow when Apple hosts a briefing on release 3.0 of the platform, plus a new software development kit. AT&T carried out a user survey last year to see which features customers wanted for the 3G iPhone, and some of these may be included in the new release. Prominent among them is cut and paste capability, while many are also hoping for true background processing – Apple had promised a feature that would support a quasi-version of this feature, but it never appeared, sparking speculation that Apple was readying the real thing.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile is promising major firmware updates for the G1 Android-based phone, including virtual keyboards and stereo Bluetooth support, plus an upgrade of the underlying Linux kernel. Stealing a march on Apple, it will introduce cut and paste to the browser as well as supporting the latest iteration of the Webkit browser core, and adding support for the new Squirrelfish Javascript engine. The updates, which will be available next month, are based on the ‘Cupcake’ changes to Android, which Google outlined last autumn, and which are now joining the mainstream Android platform.

A host of new Android products will appear in the second half of the year, but once again these are led by HTC, with Vodafone launching the Magic in the UK and other places from next month, and T-Mobile going with the upgraded G1. In preparation for this, T-Mobile USA recently cut G1 pricing and is likely to do the same in the UK soon. Last week, US wholesaler Costco cut the cost of the black G1 by $100 to just $79.99 with a new or upgraded two-year contract of $24.99 or more; and retailer Amazon also reduced its price tag on G1 to $98 with contract, or $399.99 unlocked.

T-Mobile offers a range of tariffs for the handset in the UK, the lowest being the 18-month Combi 20 contract, where the phone is free with a monthly spend of at least £48.92. T-Mobile will be looking to steal thunder from the Vodafone Magic launch with its lower cost Androids, as it waits for ‘G2′.

hot video 2009

2009-04-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

tranformers movie 2009

2009-04-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

WHO raises pandemic alert level; more swine flu cases feared

2009-04-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- The World Health Organization on Monday raised its pandemic alert level in response to the outbreak of swine flu that originated in Mexico.

A man wearing a protective mask reads a newspaper Sunday outside a hospital in Mexico City.

1 of 3

more photos »

The move from level three to level four on the WHO's six-level threat scale means the world body has determined the virus is capable of significant human-to-human transmission -- a major step toward a flu pandemic, said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the agency's assistant director-general.

A pandemic is not considered "inevitable," Fukuda said. But U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the move "does indicate that we have a serious outbreak of swine flu on our hands."

WHO confirmed 73 cases of swine flu Monday, but health officials in Scotland, California and Texas confirmed nine more, bringing the worldwide total to 81.

The total includes 40 cases in the United States, confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control. Health officials in California confirmed four additional cases and three more in Texas, but those were not immediately added to the CDC's total.

WHO confirmed 26 cases in Mexico, six in Canada, and one in Spain.

The total was expected to rise as more cases are confirmed, especially in Mexico, where as many as 149 deaths are thought to have been caused by the virus, the country's health secretary said.

Dr. Gupta in Mexico

Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports from Mexico on the spread, treatment and prevention of the swine flu.
Monday 10 E.T.

see full schedule »

"Sadly, 149 people have died, of which we are working to confirm if they are linked to the swine flu," Mexico Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said.

Scottish Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon said two cases of swine flu have been confirmed in that country. Both patients are "recovering well," she said at a news conference in Edinburgh.

The U.S. government is urging travelers to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico because of the swine flu outbreak, and it has started distributing antiviral medications from its strategic stockpile in response to the outbreak, Napolitano said.

The confirmed cases in the United States have been mild so far but, "Scientists can't tell us right now why this is presenting so severely in Mexico City and not as severely up here," she said.

Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said of the 40 U.S. cases, only one has been hospitalized, and all have recovered.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday 28 cases have been confirmed at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens. More than 100 students at the school were out with flu-like symptoms last week.

Bloomberg and New York City Health Commissioner Tom Frieden said all of the students who were ill had mild symptoms and none had been hospitalized.

The school is remaining closed through Tuesday.

"This remains an isolated incident," Bloomberg said at a news conference. "There is no reason for anyone outside of the St. Francis community to stay home or alter their routine."

"The city is safe and open for business," he said, adding that "for the general public, masks are simply not needed."

Public Health Emergency

According to the World Health Organization, a public health emergency is an occurrence or imminent threat of illness or health conditions caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease, or highly fatal infectious agents or toxins that pose serious risk to a significant number of people.

At a White House news conference Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the emergency declaration is standard procedure -- citing that one was declared for the inauguration and for recent flooding.

The outbreak is a particular concern because of who it is hitting hard, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday.

"We are concerned that in Mexico, most of those who died were young and healthy adults," he said. Watch Mexican officials discuss flu plan »

The median age of all the U.S. cases is 16 years, Besser said.

Officials in North Carolina and South Carolina are also testing suspected cases, including 22 suspected cases from a South Carolina school's spring break trip to Cancun, Mexico. Officials said results from those tests are expected Tuesday.

President Obama said Monday that the swine flu outbreak is a "cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert," but is not a "cause for alarm."

He added that the federal government is closely monitoring emerging cases and had declared a public health emergency as a "precautionary tool to ensure that we have the resources we need at our disposal to respond quickly and effectively." Watch bloggers discuss U.S. response »

Meanwhile, Andorra Vassiliou, the European Union's health commissioner, on Monday urged people "to avoid nonessential travel to the areas which are reported to be in the center of the clusters" of a swine flu outbreak.

The EU later said that Vassiliou's remarks were her personal comments and that travel advisories can be issued only by member states and not by the EU itself.

Swine influenza, or flu, is a contagious respiratory disease that affects pigs. It is caused by a type-A influenza virus. Outbreaks in pigs occur year-round. The current strain is a new variation of an H1N1 virus, which is a mix of human and animal versions.

Don't Miss

When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it harder to treat or fight, because people have no natural immunity.

The symptoms are similar to the common flu. They include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Learn more about swine flu and how to treat it »

The virus spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes around another person. People can become infected by touching something with the flu virus on it and then touching their mouth, nose or eyes.

The WHO has called the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern."

Researchers are trying to determine how easily it can jump from person to person. Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director-general, said it was too early to predict whether there will be a mild or serious pandemic.

In Mexico, authorities closed all schools until at least May 6. Officials are considering whether to suspend other public activities but are analyzing what economic effects could result, Health Secretary Cordova said.

Military troops distributed 4 million filter masks in Mexico City, which has 20 million residents. Watch CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the outbreak in Mexico »

In Washington, the government Sunday declared a public health emergency -- a step Napolitano said, "sounds more severe that really it is."

"This is standard operating procedure and allows us to free up federal state and local agencies and their resources for prevention and mitigation," she said.

Meanwhile, Israel and New Zealand were investigating unconfirmed cases of swine flu.

Health Library

MayoClinic.com: Influenza (flu)

Concerns about the virus prompted Canada to issue a travel health notice, and South Korea to say it will test airline passengers arriving from the United States.

In New Zealand, officials said 22 students and three teachers, who returned from a three-week language trip to Mexico, might have been infected. The group remains quarantined at home, and Health Minister Tony Ryall said 10 students tested positive for influenza A -- the general category of strains that includes the H1N1 swine flu.

In Spain, six people -- all recently returned from Mexico -- were being isolated in hospitals, the country's Health Ministry said. Lab tests confirmed that one of the people had tested positive. In Israel, doctors are running tests on a man who recently returned from Mexico with light flu symptoms. iReport.com: Do you think we should be worried about swine flu?

In 1968, a "Hong Kong" flu pandemic killed about 1 million people worldwide. In 1918, a "Spanish" flu pandemic killed as many as 100 million people.

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CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Ariel Crespo, Ted Rowlands, Al Goodman and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.

All About Mexico • Influenza • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

What you need to know about swine flu

2009-04-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - A never-before-seen strain of swine flu has turned killer in Mexico and is causing milder illness in the United States and elsewhere. While authorities say it's not time to panic, they are taking steps to stem the spread and also urging people to pay close attention to the latest health warnings and take their own precautions.

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President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, Monday, April 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

"Individuals have a key role to play," Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday.

Here's what you need to know:

Q: How do I protect myself and my family?

A: For now, take commonsense precautions. Cover your coughs and sneezes, with a tissue that you throw away or by sneezing into your elbow rather than your hand. Wash hands frequently; if soap and water aren't available, hand gels can substitute. Stay home if you're sick and keep children home from school if they are.

Q: How easy is it to catch this virus?

A: Scientists don't yet know if it takes fairly close or prolonged contact with someone who's sick, or if it's more easily spread. But in general, flu viruses spread through uncovered coughs and sneezes or — and this is important — by touching your mouth or nose with unwashed hands. Flu viruses can live on surfaces for several hours, like a doorknob just touched by someone who sneezed into his hand.

Q: In Mexico, officials are handing out face masks. Do I need one?

A: The CDC says there's not good evidence that masks really help outside of health care settings. It's safer just to avoid close contact with someone who's sick and avoid crowded gatherings in places where swine flu is known to be spreading. But if you can't do that, CDC guidelines say it's OK to consider a mask — just don't let it substitute for good precautions.

Q: Is swine flu treatable?

A: Yes, with the flu drugs Tamiflu or Relenza, but not with two older flu medications.

Q: Is there enough?

A: Yes. The federal government has stockpiled enough of the drugs to treat 50 million people, and many states have additional stocks. As a precaution, the CDC has shipped a quarter of that supply to the states to keep on hand just in case the virus starts spreading more than it has so far.

Q: Should I take Tamiflu as a precaution if I'm not sick yet?

A: No. "What are you going to do with it, use it when you get a sniffle?" asks Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University Langone Medical Center and author of "Bird Flu: Everything you Need To Know About The Next Pandemic." Overusing antiviral drugs can help germs become resistant to them.

Q: How big is my risk?

A: For most people, very low. Outside of Mexico, so far clusters of illnesses seem related to Mexican travel. New York City's cluster, for instance, consists of students and family members at one school where some students came back ill from spring break in Mexico.

Q: Why are people dying in Mexico and not here?

A: That's a mystery. First, understand that no one really knows just how many people in Mexico are dying of this flu strain, or how many have it. Only a fraction of the suspected deaths have been tested and confirmed as swine flu, and some initially suspected cases were caused by something else.

Q: Should I cancel my planned trip to Mexico?

A: The U.S. did issue a travel advisory Monday discouraging nonessential travel there.

Q: What else is the U.S., or anyone else, doing to try to stop this virus?

A: The U.S. is beginning limited screening of travelers from Mexico, so that the obviously sick can be sent for treatment. Other governments have issued their own travel warnings and restrictions. Mexico is taking the biggest steps, closings that limit most crowded gatherings. In the U.S., communities with clusters of illness also may limit contact — New York closed the affected school for a few days, for example — so stay tuned to hear if your area eventually is affected.

Q: What are the symptoms?

A: They're similar to regular human flu — a fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people also have diarrhea and vomiting.

Q: How do I know if I should see a doctor? Maybe my symptoms are from something else — like pollen?

A: Health authorities say if you live in places where swine flu cases have been confirmed, or you recently traveled to Mexico, and you have flulike symptoms, ask your doctor if you need treatment or to be tested. Allergies won't cause a fever. And run-of-the-mill stomach bugs won't be accompanied by respiratory symptoms, notes Dr. Wayne Reynolds of Newport News, Va., spokesman for the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Q: Is there a vaccine to prevent this new infection?

A: No. And CDC's initial testing suggests that last winter's flu shot didn't offer any cross-protection.

Q: How long would it take to produce a vaccine?

A: A few months. The CDC has created what's called "seed stock" of the new virus that manufacturers would need to start production. But the government hasn't yet decided if the outbreak is bad enough to order that.

Q: What is swine flu?

A: Pigs spread their own strains of influenza and every so often people catch one, usually after contact with the animals. This new strain is a mix of pig viruses with some human and bird viruses. Unlike more typical swine flu, it is spreading person-to-person. A 1976 outbreak of another unusual swine flu at Fort Dix, N.J., prompted a problematic mass vaccination campaign, but that time the flu fizzled out.

Q: So is it safe to eat pork?

A: Yes. Swine influenza viruses don't spread through food.

Q: And whatever happened to bird flu? Wasn't that supposed to be the next pandemic?

A: Specialists have long warned that the issue is a never-before-seen strain that people have little if any natural immunity to, regardless of whether it seems to originate from a bird or a pig. Bird flu hasn't gone away; scientists are tracking it, too.

___

EDITOR's NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

On the Net:

U.S.

the Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor

2009-04-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

The “Nehalem” advantage.

Many quad-core processors are composed of two separate dies, which means some cached data has to travel outside the processor to get from core to core. That’s an inefficient way to access information. Enter the Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor. Its single-die, 64-bit architecture makes 8MB of fully shared L3 cache readily available to each of the four processor cores. The result is fast access to cache data and greater application performance. Combine that with the other technological advances and you get a Mac Pro that’s up to 1.9x faster than the previous generation.¹

Memory bottlenecks begone.

System memory is often connected to a processor through a separate I/O controller. But each Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor features an integrated memory controller — another leap forward for workstation system architecture. By connecting memory directly to the processor, the new Mac Pro processors have faster access to data stored in memory, and memory latency is reduced by up to 40 percent.

The integrated memory controller, along with fast 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM, also gives Mac Pro up to a 2.4x increase in memory bandwidth over previous generations.² More bandwidth allows for more data to be fed to the processor faster, helping each core spend its time processing data, not waiting for information to arrive. And Error Correction Code (ECC) corrects single-bit errors and detects multiple-bit errors automatically. That’s especially important in mission-critical and compute-intensive environments.

Power when (and where) you need it.

The new Mac Pro introduces Turbo Boost: a dynamic performance technology that automatically boosts the processor clock speed based on workload. If you’re using an application that doesn’t need every core, Turbo Boost shuts off the idle cores while simultaneously increasing the speed of the active ones, up to 3.33GHz on a 2.93GHz Mac Pro.

The virtue of virtual cores.

The new Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processors support Hyper-Threading, which allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core. So an 8-core Mac Pro presents 16 virtual cores that are recognized by Mac OS X. Performance is enhanced because Hyper-Threading enables the processor to take better advantage of the execution resources available in each core.

Path of least resistance.

A new bidirectional, point-to-point connection — called QuickPath Interconnect — gives the Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor quick access to the disk, I/O, and other Mac Pro subsystems. In the new 8-core Mac Pro, there’s a QuickPath Interconnect between the two quad-core processors as well. This connection acts as a direct pipeline, so processor-to-processor data doesn’t need to travel to the I/O hub first. It’s another way the new Mac Pro boosts performance across the board.

Powerfully efficient.

Based on an industry-leading 45-nm process technology and combined with improved power management capabilities, the new Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processors are more energy efficient than before. So the Mac Pro is faster than ever, while using less energy when idle.

View all performance charts

STREAM. Memory throughput.

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHzBaseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz2.4x

Up to 2.4x greater than previous-generation Mac Pro

Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using preproduction Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz units and shipping Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz units. Systems were configured with 6GB of RAM for Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz and 8GB of RAM for Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz. Results are based on the STREAM v. 5.8 benchmark (www.cs.virginia.edu/stream/ref.html) using OMP support for multiprocessor-compiled builds. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

CINT2006 Rate and CFP2006 Rate.
Integer and floating-point calculation results.

	Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz (previous generation)	Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz	∆
SPECfp_rate_base2006 Floating-point calculation (estimate)	77.3	144	1.9x
SPECint_rate_base2006 Integer calculation (estimate)	106	158	1.5x

Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using preproduction Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz units and shipping Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz units. SPEC® is a registered trademark of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC); see www.spec.org for more information. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using preproduction Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz units and shipping Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz units. SPEC® is a registered trademark of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC); see www.spec.org for more information. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.
Testing conducted by Apple in February 2009 using preproduction Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz units and shipping Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz units. Systems were configured with 6GB of RAM for Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz and 8GB of RAM for Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz. Results are based on the STREAM v. 5.8 benchmark (www.cs.virginia.edu/stream/ref.html) using OMP support for multiprocessor-compiled builds. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Graphics

LED cinema Display

2009-04-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

An LED display that turns your notebook into a desktop and has a built-in iSight camera, microphone, and speaker system is one must-have DSI MacBook Pro Crystal Cover Case Red, 15.4 ".

One cable that replaces three. Ready, set, go.

Mini DisplayPort

The LED Cinema Display connects to your new MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air with the ultracompact Mini DisplayPort connector. Other display connectors have you lining up pins or fumbling with screws. The new Mini DisplayPort connector is easy in, easy out. Now, you can also attach your LED Cinema Display to new Mac desktops with Mini DisplayPort, including Mac Pro, Mac mini, and iMac.

MagSafe connector

The LED Cinema Display includes a MagSafe connector that powers and charges your new MacBook. The connector sits on your desk, ready and waiting. No need to unravel the cord to the power adapter that came with your notebook. Leave it exactly where it is, in your bag.

USB 2.0 ports

On the back of the display, you’ll find three self-powered USB ports. You enable them — along with the built-in iSight camera, microphone, and speakers — the moment you plug the USB connector into your new Mini DisplayPort-enabled Mac, including the MacBook family as well as the new Mac Pro, Mac mini, and iMac. Connect a printer, camera, iPod, iPhone, whatever you like. And they can stay connected, even if you grab your MacBook and go.

A 24-inch widescreen display with LED backlight technology. Stunning is an understatement.

Extended desktop

When you connect your new MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or Mini DisplayPort-enabled Mac desktops (Mac Pro, Mac mini, iMac) to the LED Cinema Display, it’s like upgrading your screen to first class. The 24-inch glossy widescreen display gives your work room to move. And the 1920-by-1200 resolution gives it room to impress.

LED advantages

All this talk about LED technology. What’s so great about it? A lot. LEDs are solid-state light sources that light up very quickly, so there’s no waiting for your display when you connect it to one of the Mini DisplayPort-enabled Mac notebooks or desktops. You experience full screen brightness instantly. And because LEDs are mercury-free, this harmful toxin isn’t released during recycling or disposal.

Built-in iSight, mic, and speakers

With the built-in iSight camera, microphone, and speakers, you can connect your MacBook — leaving it open or closed — and engage in video chats^* or listen to music. And now you can also connect it to a Mini DisplayPort-enabled Mac Pro or Mac mini to instantly enjoy these convenient video and audio features.

Smooth-motion hinge

Tilt the LED Cinema Display to get the viewing angle that’s best for your work environment. With its smooth-motion hinge, adjustment is effortless. Choose an angle anywhere from -5 to 25 degrees.

Environmental Status Report

The LED Cinema Display is designed with the following features to reduce its environmental impact:

Arsenic-free display glass
Mercury-free
BFR-free
PVC-free internal cables
Highly recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure
Meets ENERGY STAR requirements
Rated EPEAT Gold

The LED Cinema Display is the most environmentally friendly display Apple has ever created.

Free of harmful toxins

One thing that makes the LED Cinema Display so remarkable is what it lacks. Namely, environmentally harmful mercury. And like the latest-generation iPod, iPhone, and Mac computers, the glass used in the display is arsenic-free. Even the internal cables and components are BFR- and PVC-free.

Highly recyclable

Because of its glass and aluminum construction, the LED Cinema Display is highly recyclable. So when you eventually part with it, rest assured it can be remade into something new.

ENERGY STAR

The LED Cinema Display is designed to meet the low power requirements set by the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy, giving it the ENERGY STAR certification. The result is a display that reduces energy consumption and your carbon footprint.

EPEAT Gold

The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, or EPEAT, ranks the performance of a product throughout its lifecycle according to its environmental attributes. The LED Cinema Display earned the highest rating of EPEAT Gold.learn more DSI MacBook Pro Crystal Cover Case Red, 15.4 "

mac book

2009-04-06T22:03:00.000-07:00

Redesigned. Reengineered. Re-everythinged.

To build something truly different, you need to work in a truly different way. Apple designers and engineers work together through every stage of product development. It’s a partnership that makes innovation possible. And it’s exactly how the new DSI MacBook Pro Crystal Cover Case Red, 15.4 "was created. With its breakthrough unibody enclosure, industry-first features, and environmentally sound design, it’s a revolution in the way notebooks are made.

The New MacBook

Watch the video

The New MacBook

Watch again>

Until now, all notebooks were designed the same way. By assembling multiple pieces to create a single enclosure. But once you include all the necessary parts, you add size, weight, complexity, and more opportunities for failure. Solving a problem like this required more than an incremental change. It required a breakthrough. To create the new DSI MacBook Pro Crystal Cover Case Red, 15.4 ", the design and engineering teams devised a way to replace many parts with just one. That one part is called the unibody — a seamless enclosure carved from a single piece of aluminum.

Unibody Enclosure

Every MacBook starts its life as a single piece of aluminum. View

Of course, building only one part creates its own set of challenges. When you have multiple parts that are fastened together, tolerances don’t need to be perfect. You have wiggle room, both literally and figuratively. But when one part is responsible for many functions, it’s critical to manufacture that part with absolute precision, down to the micron. Every time. Millions of times over. There was only one way to achieve this level of precision: mill the unibody from a solid block of aluminum using computer numerical control, or CNC, machines — the kind used by the aerospace industry to build mission-critical spacecraft components.

When you pick up a new MacBook, you immediately notice the difference. The entire enclosure is thinner and lighter. It looks polished and refined. And it feels strong and durable — perfect for life inside (and outside) your briefcase or backpack.

Interactive Gallery

Explore all the design innovations of the new MacBook. View

The thickness of a notebook depends on the technology inside. LCD displays typically use cold cathode fluorescent lamps, or CCFLs, to create light and project a picture onto a screen. But that poses two problems. First, these lamps require more space, so the display can be only so thin. Second, just like the fluorescent lights in your home or office, the ones inside a CCFL display take time to warm up before they reach full brightness. That’s a lose-lose situation. And it’s why Apple engineers chose LED backlight technology for the new DSI MacBook Pro Crystal Cover Case Red, 15.4 ".

An LED backlight creates the same amount of brightness in less space. So you can make the structure that houses an LED display much thinner. And unlike fluorescent lamps, an LED backlight reaches maximum brightness instantly.

Look at the DSI MacBook Pro Crystal Cover Case Red, 15.4 " display and you’ll see another big difference. Glass. That edge-to-edge, uninterrupted glass display does more than look good. It also adds structure to the LED display beneath it. And there’s no metal frame (another extraneous part) to distract you from what’s onscreen.

Multi-Touch Trackpad

The spacious glass MacBook trackpad is also a button. View

The new MacBook trackpad has no button because it is the button. That means there’s more room to track, more room to click — left, right, center, and everywhere in between — and one less part. Apple designers and engineers spent countless hours considering things like sensitivity (how much pressure triggers a click?), audio feedback (what does the click sound like?), and friction over the smooth glass surface (what does it feel like?).

And that’s just the hardware. Apple software engineers had a large part to play in the development of the trackpad, too. They incorporated Multi-Touch gestures, including swipe, pinch, rotate, and the new four-finger swipe. The result is the largest, smartest, most ergonomic MacBook trackpad ever. It’s one of many details considered and reconsidered during the design process.

There’s a story behind each part. Take the thumbscoop, for example. It’s the indentation that allows you to open the display. If the scoop is too deep, you put too much pressure on the display to open it. If it’s too shallow, you struggle to open the display. It may seem incidental, but if the thumbscoop is well designed, it makes the difference between a bad experience and a good one. The challenge of the thumbscoop was to create a crisply machined scoop that was still comfortable to use. The designers at Apple worked on hundreds of versions of the thumbscoop — even examining them under an electron microscope — to get it right.

Then there’s the sleep indicator light. An indicator is functional only when it’s indicating something. Look to the right of the thumbscoop. You see nothing. Until you close the display and your MacBook goes to sleep. Then an LED glow appears from inside the enclosure. How? During the CNC process, a machine first thins out the aluminum. Then a laser drill creates small perforations for the LED light to shine through. These holes are so tiny that the aluminum appears seamless when the light is off.

The marriage of electronics and mechanical design makes the new MacBook as advanced on the inside as it is on the outside. The internal architecture has been reengineered from the silicon up. There’s a new logic board. A new chipset. And a new integrated graphics processor — a feat of engineering in itself.

Many notebook computers sacrifice graphics performance in order to save battery life. The new MacBook offers the best of both worlds. The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor provides up to five times the performance of the previous-generation MacBook without draining your battery. So you can experience high-performance graphics ideal for playing 3D games or watching video.

Because Apple designs both the hardware and the software for the new MacBook, it’s easier to improve things like energy efficiency. Software tells the hard drive to spin down when it’s not in use. It tells the display and battery indicator lights to dim in low-light conditions. And it helps decide whether the CPU or the graphics processor would be best suited to the task at hand. That’s the kind of smart, integrated design that sets MacBook apart from other notebooks.

A Greener Notebook

Made from recyclable aluminum and glass, the new MacBook is greener than ever. View

Top-to-bottom integration also makes MacBook greener than other notebooks. Complete control over how the new MacBook is designed, how it’s manufactured, and how it’s packaged gives Apple an environmental edge. Take the MacBook display, for instance. Conventional CCFL displays use mercury to create a backlight and arsenic to prevent irregularities in the glass. The LED-backlit display on the new MacBook, on the other hand, is both mercury- and arsenic-free. LED backlight technology also conserves energy: This display requires 30 percent less power than a CCFL display.

Mercury and arsenic aren’t the only toxins absent from the new MacBook. Many computer manufacturers have only pledged to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their enclosures and circuit boards. Apple is removing not only PVC and BFRs, but all forms of bromine and chlorine throughout the entire MacBook.

Just how green is the new MacBook? It’s ENERGY STAR compliant, which means it meets the government standard for energy efficiency. It’s also earned EPEAT Gold status, the highest standard for environmental performance in the electronics industry. And every new MacBook is shipped in packaging that’s 41 percent smaller than any previous generation. That translates to fewer trees used for boxes and less fuel used to transport more MacBooks on fewer planes. And at the end of its long, productive life, you can recycle almost all of your MacBook.

Only Apple could make a notebook like this. Hardware and software. Design and engineering. Production and manufacturing. They’re all part of a single process at Apple. When you start using your new MacBook, you’ll discover what that means. The light and sturdy unibody protects the components inside. The LED-backlit display — along with the graphics processor that helps power it — gives you faster games and a brilliant canvas for your photos, movies, and more. The glass Multi-Touch trackpad feels as good as it functions. From the smallest detail to the biggest engineering breakthrough, the new MacBook truly is the next generation of notebooks.

Sony Ericsson 890i

2009-04-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Play it your way

It's your music. So have it your way: SensMe™ lets you create playlists based on mood. When you want new songs for your phone, just click the PlayNow™ icon, pre-listen and buy.

Music intelligence
Tune in the Sony Ericsson Unlocked W890i Espresso Black with 2GB M2 Memory Card
FM radio to your favourite station. Hear something you like, but don't recognise? Identify the artist in a snap with TrackID™.

Stylish and fast
Soft, curved edges, metal finish - the slim W890i oozes elegance. Use this stylish phone to get online. With turbo 3G, your Web connection is fast.

Thin elegance, full-fledged Walkman®
Thin as a CD case and dressed up for grand openings. And this beauty has brains too - on the Sony Ericsson Unlocked W890i Espresso Black with 2GB M2 Memory Card
inside, you find a Walkman® player, turbo 3G and a 3.2 megapixel camera.

Walkman® phone
Have your favourite sounds with you – always, whenever, wherever you go. Your Walkman® phone is not only a mobile phone. It’s a portable music device, too.

3G
Quick and easy access to broadband Internet. Say hello to video calls, audio and video streaming, Internet surfing, multimedia messaging and email on the go.

Integrated camera
Built-in digital camera with screen viewfinder, dedicated menus and direct interaction with in-phone imaging and messaging features.

Music recognition
What’s that sound? Just record a few seconds of music and TrackID™ (powered by Gracenote Mobile MusicID) returns the song name, artist and album to your phone within seconds.

PictBridge - print straight from your phone
Skip the computer and photo editing software. Just connect your phone to a printer, choose an image and print.

Video call
See who’s talking with your 3G phone. During a video call, you see a live video stream of the person you're talking to - and they can see you.

Video blog
You get your own personal blog site with your phone. So why not add some moving pictures to it? Shoot a video clip, and all it takes to upload it is a few clicks.

Podcasts in your phone
Subscribe to music and video podcasts. Transfer them to your phone via Sony Ericsson Unlocked W890i Espresso Black with 2GB M2 Memory Card
Media Manager software (included on CD in phone kit) and enjoy on the go.

Web wherever
Truly mobile Internet lets you enjoy browsing the Web and manage your email effectively with the convenience of your phone, wherever you are.

In the kit
All you need for a full music experience is included in the phone kit. You get a 2GB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) - room for up to 1800 songs*. There's also a USB cable, a stereo portable handsfree and PC software. * 1800 songs assumes eAAC+ encoded files.

Playlists for your mood - SensMe™
Create playlists based on tempo and mood. Slow or fast, happy or sad - SensMe™ lets you choose songs from a two-axis mood map.

Media manager
With your phone kit you get a CD with software for managing music, photos and video clips. Transfer music, videos and photos to and from your phone.

Discover what your phone can do

The convenient PlayNow™ download service is the fastest and easiest way to personalise your mobile phone with an MP3 music tone. In just three clicks you'll have a new ringtone ready to play. *PlayNow™ availability depends on your location, and network operator support.

Keep up with the latest hits
Choose from a constantly updated list of hit music. The PlayNow™ icon is an easily recognisable green “play” arrow button on your phone’s desktop. It starts a dynamic Web application, effectively going online for new content without your having to use a browser.

Use it how you like
Once you’ve purchased a new ringtone, you’ll be asked whether you want to set it as your default ringtone. You can add it to a friend’s number, so you only hear it when they call, or you can simply listen and enjoy your favourite song whenever you feel like it.

Try before you buy
Can’t make up your mind? Listen to as many ringtones as you want! When you select a song, it downloads in seconds, and you can listen to it before you decide to purchase it. The price is clearly stated onscreen for you to read. Press “Yes” to buy, and the amount is charged to your mobile phone bill.

3G high-speed Internet

The third generation of mobile networks brings the convenience of broadband Internet to your mobile phone. Fast data transfer speeds - up to 384 kbps - give you quick, easy access to a world of video calls, audio and video streaming, Web surfing, multimedia messaging and email wherever you go.

Always online
Your 3G phone has an ‘always on’ Internet connection with high-speed data transfer. This gives you a fuller mobile Internet experience, making it practical to access large files or use complex remote services, no matter where you are.

Talk and browse
Quickly and easily send or receive a file on your mobile phone without interrupting your voice call. Multitasking means you can talk while you download or share videos, games and music, so the fun never has to stop.

Streaming video
Your mobile phone doubles as a media player for streaming movie trailers, the latest sports news, music videos and more. Choose the news and entertainment you want, and have it delivered straight to your mobile phone. Why wait?

Small is beautiful
As everyday technology becomes increasingly compact, a memory card is the ideal storage device – compatible with many devices such as mobile phones, IC recorders, PDAs, e-books, games and audio players. But small physical size doesn’t mean compromised storage capacity!

High capacity, high speed
Memory cards are IC recording media that use flash memory to record various digital media on a single stick. Also known as silicon media, IC uses an Integrated Circuit to store data and offer compact high-capacity, high-speed data read/write, expandability and copyright protection.

Unlimited connectivity
Send and receive text messages – even while browsing the Web or writing email – and edit your phonebook from the Wireless Manager interface.

How it works
Every Bluetooth™ device has a unique name, enabling devices to recognise each other once they have been paired, and avoiding interference with other devices. Bluetooth™ enables communication across distances of up to 10 metres, and at speeds of up to 720 kb/s per channel.

Essential in the car
Pair your phone with a handsfree unit for safe, convenient communication while driving. Phone and unit connect instantly, even with your phone in your bag, letting you keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road while you make, take and reject calls.

The versatile technology
In the spirit of co-operation, Sony Ericsson Bluetooth™ products are compatible with other brands such as Sony, TDK, Apple™ and Palm. Connect easily to a PC or PDA to browse the Web and sync files, and print wirelessly from a Bluetooth™-enabled printer.

The freedom to have fun
Bluetooth™ lets you loose for downtime: enjoy multiplayer games with your friends, phone-to-phone, or control and race a Bluetooth™ car via your phone. And QuickShare™ lets you share your favourite images easily with drag and drop.

Synchronised magic
With Bluetooth™, you can synchronise your work tools quickly and effortlessly. Once paired, your devices remember each other’s unique names and connect seamlessly every time, just as we recognise our friends. Many Sony Ericsson phones are also compatible with Apple® iSync.

Bluetooth™ headset
Lose those ugly wires! A Bluetooth™ headset gives outstanding audio quality for both you and the person you’re talking to, and complements your outfit with stylish design. Manage calls easily with buttons and voice control, up to 10 metres from your phone.

Listening is a pleasure
Pump up the volume with confidence when listening to your favourite song – your Bluetooth™ device will automatically mute the music for incoming calls. There’s no need to lunge for the volume control.

Why is it called Bluetooth™?
The Viking king Harald Bluetooth united Norway and Denmark. He was renowned as a great communicator, skilled at bringing people together to talk to each other – but he would never have guessed that a thousand years later a powerful technology would be named after him!

3G high-speed Internet

Sizes

104 x 46.5 x 9.9 mm
4.1 x 1.8 x 0.4 inches

Weight

78 g
2.8 oz

Available colours

Mocha Brown
Sparkling Silver

Screen

262,144-colour TFT
240x320 pixel

Memory

26 MB Phone Memory
Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) support

*Actual free memory may vary due to phone pre-configuration

Networks

EDGE
GSM 850
GSM 900
GSM 1800
GSM 1900
HSDPA
UMTS 2100

Performance

Talk time:

Standby time:

Battery performance may vary depending on network and phone usage.
** To be announced.

Camera
* Camera 2-megapixel
* Digital zoom 4x
* Photo fix
* Picture blogging
* Video record

Entertainment
* 3D gamesJava
* MediaRadio FM radio RDS
* Video Clip
* Video streaming

Connectivity
* Bluetooth™ technology
* ModemPictBridge
* Synchronisation PC
* USB mass storage
* USB support

Communication
* Polyphonic ringtones
* Speaker phone
* Vibrating
* Alert
* Video call

Music
* Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
* Media Player
* MegaBass™
* Music tones MP3, AAC
* PlayNow™
* TrackID™

Design
* Navigation key
* Picture wallpaper
* Wallpaper animation

Internet
* Access NetFront™
* Web Browser
* RSS feeds
* WAP 1.2.1
* WAP 2.0 WAP 1.2.1

Messaging
* Email:
* Instant messaging
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive text input
* SMS long (Text Messaging)
* Sound recorder

Organiser
* Alarm clock
* Calculator
* Calendar
* Flight mode
* Notes
* Phone book
* Stopwatch
* Tasks
* Timer

Sony Ericsson Unlocked W890i Espresso Black with 2GB M2 Memory Card

Black In News - Blackberry Curve 8900

2009-03-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

Black In News. Popularity "Balckberry (BB)" seem more crowded only in the country. But for the Blackberry Curve 8900, make this step for the fans well as users. Ditelinga fact that the Blackberry is not separated from the words of a PIN, the PIN BB-its ...? Words - words that often sounded more everyday, the material at Bang Ir deliberately to seek Handphone 3G for IndosatM2, the sales center in Bandung, Handphone, the more often a word is heard. Not a luxury anymore. Blackberry Curve 8900 is the entry tag in Black Bang Ir Blog News. Because the view from the BB dibalut with all this dark and chrome, crystal clear screen, no video vocalist John Mayer, the key ingredients of atomic trackball. But unfortunately this is not a BB Bang Ir search, soalnya not have 3G technology is only 2.5 G, which have the support network Quad-Band EDGE, WiFi, GPS, Prosesornya 512Mhz and 3.2 megapixel camera. But see QWERTYnya keyboard, more likely another type of thin. And slots for memory cards up to 16GB can digeber. Wah also advanced. Hopefully Black In News this can serve as reference for the purchase akan Blackberry Curve 8900 this type. But if interested in the design of the fold, there are a Blackberry Pearl 8200 that type 2 megapixel berkamera. In addition Black News In this news also spread that Indosat has issued a product over the two new products monthly Blackberry On Demand Bonus Pulsa Mentari for the user. Contact CS-nya . Nb: BlackBerry operating system OS 4.6 more.... Want to see a picture just click the zoom though its great!

Robots could flex muscles that are stronger than steel

2009-03-25T05:44:00.000-07:00

18:00 19 March 2009 by Kurt Kleiner
For similar stories, visit the Robots Topic Guide

Video: Nanotube ribbons flex their artificial muscles

A metre long ribbon of a carbon nanotube 'aerogel' that could make a robust artificial muscle. This ribbon more than trebles its width when a voltage is applied (Image: Ray Baughman)

A new material that is weight for weight stronger than steel and stiffer than diamond, and weighs little more than its volume in air, could be the perfect artificial muscle for robots.

"We've made a totally new type of artificial muscle that is able to provide performance characteristics that have not previously been obtained," says Ray Baughman, a materials scientist at the University of Texas, Dallas, and co-developer of the new muscle.

Baughman and colleagues have developed a technique to make ribbons of tangled nanotubes that expand in width by 220% when a voltage is applied and then return to their normal size once it is removed. The process takes only milliseconds.

Tough workers

Collections of those ribbons could act as artificial muscle fibres – for example, to move the limbs of a walking robot, says Baughman. And the material has other impressive properties.

It is extremely stiff and strong in the "long" direction – that in which the nanotubes are aligned – but is as stretchy as rubber across its width. It also maintains its properties over an extreme range of temperatures: from -196 °C, at which temperature nitrogen is liquid, to 1538 °C, above the melting point of iron.

This means any robot equipped with the nanotube muscles could potentially keep working in some very extreme environments.

The new material has some advantages over previous artificial muscles. Some of those work only when bathed in methanol fuel, others are capable of only very small changes in size and none of them work well at extreme temperatures.

Space construction

The tangled nanotubes are constructed into a film that can be described as an aerogel, meaning it contains more air than anything else. Each cubic centimetre weighs only 1.5 milligrams and, given the film's thinness, a single gram would cover 30 square metres.

Ribbons of the aerogel are made by first growing "forests" of carbon nanotubes that resemble a dense thicket of bamboo stalks. The researchers then stick a length of adhesive to the sides of those stalks and pull gently to draw out a long, thin film of the tubes, which tangle during the process. So far, ribbons a 50th of a millimetre thick by 16 centimetres wide and and several metres long have been made, but it should be possible to form larger sheets by starting with more nanotubes.

Electrical engineer John Madden at the University of British Columbia, who was not involved in developing the material, says that resilience and low density could make it a good material for building structures in space – its lightness keeping down the cost of sending a payload into orbit.

However, the low density could be a problem, says Boris Yakobson, a materials scientist at Rice University in Houston. The new material is roughly as strong as human muscle by weight, but, because it is 1000 times less dense, a large volume would be needed to match the strength of, say, a human arm.

Research should focus on making a denser material with the same properties, he says. "What they present sounds great and motivating. Yet, I would say, for applications it still needs a lot of improvement."

Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1168312)

90 seconds from catastrophe

2009-03-25T05:15:00.000-07:00

23 March 2009 by Michael Brooks
Magazine issue 2700. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Solar System Topic Guide

Read full article

Continue reading page |1 |2 |3

Video: When plasma is flung at Earth

Related editorial: We must heed the threat of solar storms

A fierce solar storm could lead to a global disaster on an unprecedented scale (Image: SOHO Consortium / ESA / NASA)

1 more image

IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.

A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.

It sounds ridiculous. Surely the sun couldn't create so profound a disaster on Earth. Yet an extraordinary report funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in January this year claims it could do just that.

Over the last few decades, western civilisations have busily sown the seeds of their own destruction. Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences.

The projections of just how catastrophic make chilling reading. "We're moving closer and closer to the edge of a possible disaster," says Daniel Baker, a space weather expert based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and chair of the NAS committee responsible for the report.

It is hard to conceive of the sun wiping out a large amount of our hard-earned progress. Nevertheless, it is possible. The surface of the sun is a roiling mass of plasma - charged high-energy particles - some of which escape the surface and travel through space as the solar wind. From time to time, that wind carries a billion-tonne glob of plasma, a fireball known as a coronal mass ejection (see "When hell comes to Earth"). If one should hit the Earth's magnetic shield, the result could be truly devastating.

The incursion of the plasma into our atmosphere causes rapid changes in the configuration of Earth's magnetic field which, in turn, induce currents in the long wires of the power grids. The grids were not built to handle this sort of direct current electricity. The greatest danger is at the step-up and step-down transformers used to convert power from its transport voltage to domestically useful voltage. The increased DC current creates strong magnetic fields that saturate a transformer's magnetic core. The result is runaway current in the transformer's copper wiring, which rapidly heats up and melts. This is exactly what happened in the Canadian province of Quebec in March 1989, and six million people spent 9 hours without electricity. But things could get much, much worse than that.

Worse than Katrina

The most serious space weather event in history happened in 1859. It is known as the Carrington event, after the British amateur astronomer Richard Carrington, who was the first to note its cause: "two patches of intensely bright and white light" emanating from a large group of sunspots. The Carrington event comprised eight days of severe space weather.

There were eyewitness accounts of stunning auroras, even at equatorial latitudes. The world's telegraph networks experienced severe disruptions, and Victorian magnetometers were driven off the scale.

Though a solar outburst could conceivably be more powerful, "we haven't found an example of anything worse than a Carrington event", says James Green, head of NASA's planetary division and an expert on the events of 1859. "From a scientific perspective, that would be the one that we'd want to survive." However, the prognosis from the NAS analysis is that, thanks to our technological prowess, many of us may not.

There are two problems to face. The first is the modern electricity grid, which is designed to operate at ever higher voltages over ever larger areas. Though this provides a more efficient way to run the electricity networks, minimising power losses and wastage through overproduction, it has made them much more vulnerable to space weather. The high-power grids act as particularly efficient antennas, channelling enormous direct currents into the power transformers.

The second problem is the grid's interdependence with the systems that support our lives: water and sewage treatment, supermarket delivery infrastructures, power station controls, financial markets and many others all rely on electricity. Put the two together, and it is clear that a repeat of the Carrington event could produce a catastrophe the likes of which the world has never seen. "It's just the opposite of how we usually think of natural disasters," says John Kappenman, a power industry analyst with the Metatech Corporation of Goleta, California, and an advisor to the NAS committee that produced the report. "Usually the less developed regions of the world are most vulnerable, not the highly sophisticated technological regions."

Robot body language gives humans a clue

2009-03-25T04:53:00.000-07:00

18:00 22 March 2009 by Colin Barras
For similar stories, visit the Robots Topic Guide

Video: Robots are easier to get along with when their eyes signal their intentions

Despite becoming increasingly lifelike in appearance, robots still have terrible body language.

But Bilge Mutlu and colleague's team at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, is changing that with robots that "leak" non-verbal information through eye movements when interacting with humans. The eyes of a robot may not provide a window into its soul, but they can help humans guess the machine's intentions.

Humans constantly give off non-verbal cues and interpret the signals of others – but without realising it at a conscious level, says Mutlu. The trembling hands of a public speaker betray their nerves even before a word is uttered, while poker players leak subtle signs such as eye flickers or twitches that can be used to spot bluffers.

But when faced with a robot all our interpretive skills are irrelevant. Robots leak no information, so it is virtually impossible to read their intentions, which makes them hard to get along with.

Dead giveaway?

Mutlu's team tested strategies to improve robot body language using a guessing game played by a human and a humanoid robot. The robot is programmed to choose one object from around a dozen resting on a table, without making a move to actually pick it up.

The human must work out the object it has mentally selected, through a series of yes and no questions.

The 26 participants involved in the study took on average 5.5 questions to work out the correct object when the robot simply sat motionless across the table and answered verbally.

In the second trial, it answered in exactly the same way, but also swivelled its eyes to glance at its chosen object in the brief pause before answering two of the first three questions. When faced with a robot "leaking" information like that, the same 26 participants needed fewer questions to identify the correct object – an average of just 5.0 and a statistically significant result.

When the robot in question was the lifelike Geminoid with realistic rubbery skin, around three-quarters of participants said they hadn't noticed the short glances. But the fact their scores improved suggests they subconsciously detected the signals, says Mutlu.

Improved interactions

The study suggests that people make attributions of intentionality and mental states to robots like they do humans, he says, although apparently only as long as the robot appears to be lifelike.

When the same experiment was repeated with Robovie – a less lifelike robot with large glassy eyes – the participants' efficiency at completing the guessing game was the same whether or not Robovie took short glances at the chosen object.

Sylvain Calinon works on human-robot interactions at the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.

"From my experience I would say that some communication cues do not necessarily have to be subtle," says Calinon. Simply giving robots the ability to turn towards a user or nod during a conversation are important for improving the efficiency and quality of human-robot interactions, he says.

Calinon thinks that the subtle cues explored by Mutlu's team could improve the quality of interaction further, although to be most useful the robot would have to be able to "read" the human's body language.

Mutlu presented his work at the Human Robot Interaction 2009 conference in La Jolla, California, last week.

A Zimbabwean cholera patient sits in his bed at a hospital in Harare in 2009 (Image: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty) A Zimbabwean cholera patient sits in

2009-03-25T04:47:00.000-07:00

24 March 2009 by Linda Geddes
Magazine issue 2700. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

A Zimbabwean cholera patient sits in his bed at a hospital in Harare in 2009 (Image: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty)

AID workers in Zimbabwe need all the help that they can get, so a website that enables them to share information could be a big boost. Although Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak is finally showing signs of abating, the site could help relief groups as they attempt to rebuild the country's shattered infrastructure.

Launched this month, WikiMapAid will use collaborative wiki software to enable humanitarian workers and others to add health, welfare and education information to a version of Google Maps that can be viewed by anyone. The hope is that by circumventing official information channels, a clearer picture of what is happening on the ground can develop.

As went to press, a total of 89,649 cases of cholera and 4041 deaths had been reported in Zimbabwe since the outbreak began in August. But new cholera cases have fallen from around 8000 a week at the start of the year to 2151 in the first week of March. A central control centre was also recently set up in Harare with help from the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health.

Nevertheless, collecting data is still proving difficult, says Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization. "A crucial element for the control of cholera in Zimbabwe is the need to improve access to information, and the monitoring of new cases and suspected cases in the country," he says. "Any system that improves data collecting and sharing would be beneficial."

A crucial element for the control of cholera in Zimbabwe is improving access to information

That's where WikiMapAid could help. Users can create markers to show the location of places such as schools, hospitals or refugee centres, and they can attach links to video or photos of that place, or post a report of the current situation in the area. Similar services, such as the website HealthMap, have recently been developed to map disease outbreaks around the world.

At the moment, WikiMapAid is focusing on Zimbabwe, and as well as schools and suchlike, the tool lets you create other categories of marker to show not only the location of cholera outbreaks but also places like food and water distribution centres, says Rupert Douglas-Bate of Global Map Aid, the organisation leading the project. Users can also create new marker categories to show, say, public buildings, or to mark disease outbreaks in other countries.

The website is based on a Brazilian project called Wikicrimes, launched last year, in which members of the public share information about crime in their local area. It is designed to provide an alternative source of crime figures to official statistics, which some suspect of government manipulation, according to Vasco Furtado at the University of Fortaleza in Brazil, who developed the software for Wikicrimes and WikiMapAid. "Wikicrimes is a way of showing citizens that a particular area is a problem and to push the government to do something about it," he says.

Douglas-Bate hopes a similar approach in Zimbabwe could help ensure that aid is distributed correctly. "If we've all got the same situation report then we're all singing from the same hymn sheet," he says. Also, if people feel they will attract attention from the authorities by posting information, they could perhaps get friends on the outside to post information for them, he says.

As with all wikis, the integrity of the data will depend on the people supplying it. Although moderators will edit and keep track of postings, Douglas-Bate admits unreliable reporting could be a problem. To lessen this risk, Furtado is developing an algorithm that will rate the reputation of users according to whether the information they post is corroborated, or contradicted. "But even if we're just 80 per cent perfect, we will still have made a huge step forward in terms of being able to galvanise public opinion, raise funds, prioritise need and speed the aid on those who need it most," Douglas-Bate says.

A licence to print gadgets

2009-03-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

15:20 24 March 2009 by Paul Marks
For similar stories, visit the Invention Topic Guide

Video: See printed circuits in action (Credits: Guido Aelbers, Richard Kirk)

This gadget's fold out screen is possible thanks to being able to print flexible electronics (Image: Readius)

Innovation is our new column that highlights the latest emerging technological ideas and where they may lead

Wallpaper with changing designs, bulbless lamps that shed light from their shades, mediaeval-looking scrolls that unroll to become flexible full-colour displays… These are just a few of the new devices the approaching era of printed electronics could bring.

Conventional electronics is somewhat like chipping a sculpture from a block of marble – a large volume of material is laboriously etched away and wasted on the way to the final, rigid design. But squirting out circuits using polymer "ink" from an inkjet print head produces electronics that are less wasteful, flexible and very cheap.

Polymer transistors, organic LEDs (OLEDs) and other printed components can already be combined into displays, lights, sensors, batteries, RFID tags and more. But much more is to come. I got a glimpse of the inkjet-printed future last week at a new research centre in Sedgefield, UK, set up to test the potential of exotic printable materials.

Flexible future

"Printed electronics potentially has tremendous advantages in terms of costs – perhaps up to three orders of magnitude cheaper than silicon," says Vivek Subramanian of the University of California at Berkeley.

What's more, when electronics are no longer rigid and delicate, it is possible to put them into entirely new places. Subramanian and colleagues are working on putting sensors inside wine bottles that radio the content's chemical condition to the checkout.

The flexible, thin displays that feature in the ebook readers made by Dutch firm Polymer Vision are another example (see video, top). One version of the Readius prototype unrolls scroll-like from the cellphone-sized gadget, while another has a screen that, when not in use, is wrapped around the device.

Impressive, but still only black and white, just like the upcoming printed ebook reader from Plastic Logic we wrote about recently. Similarly the exhibition of the latest printed electronics at the centre in Sedgefield was impressive, but also demonstrated there is clearly more development work to be done.

Best to come

On show were colourful patterned wall panels that provide illumination as well as decoration, and an "active dinner table" with decorative displays beneath each place setting. However, they won't be on sale just yet – the displays currently use high alternating voltages that create radio interference for wireless computing systems.

Light-emitting textiles for lampshades and clothing were also on show, but are not yet very bright and were displayed only in a darkened room. Dutch electronics firm Philips says it will be three to five years before the first lamps based on thin sheets of printed polymer LEDs rather than bulbs make it into homes.

Between now and then, the "inks" used to print electronic screens and other devices need to improve. But it's already clear that printing will change our idea of what electronics can do, and where they can go.

Paul Marks' visit to Sedgefield was funded by the UK's Centre for Process Innovation, a government-supported not-for-profit organisation that owns and operates the Printable Electronics Technology Centre.

DNA origami comes to life

2009-03-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

18:00 16 March 2009 by Colin Barras

In the natural world, DNA provides a kind of blueprint that directs a complex molecular dance which culminates in the creation of a much larger, more complex object – be it bacterium or elephant.

Now, using a method known as "DNA origami", chemists have managed a similar if much simplified version, creating artificial DNA that can also build itself into larger, more complex structures.

DNA with those capabilities could provide new ways of manufacturing on a small scale – for example, in the field of nanoelectronics – or performing calculations.

The new method has been developed by Paul Rothemund and Erik Winfree, both at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Snowball effect

Rothemund showed in 2006 how mixing a single, long DNA with many smaller strands could create a 2D "canvas", 100 nanometres across, that could display patterns such as a map of the Americas.

Now the researchers have shown that such canvases can behave like programmable "seeds" – smaller DNA tiles attach to the seed and the structure snowballs in size to make a structure up to 100 times bigger than the original segment.

To make that happen, the team created two kinds of artificial DNA molecule – a long sequence that folds into the flat "seed" and a number of short sequences that each fold into smaller tiles.

When the two unwound types of DNA undergo cycles of temperature variation between 40 and 90 °C, they fold into seeds and tiles, and then begin to accrete together into the much larger structure. The "growth" process is directed by the sequence of information written into the seed's DNA.

That seed information coordinates which tiles attach on the first layer of tiles, explains Winfree. The sequences that make up that first layer then carry the information that directs the formation of the next layer of tiles, and so on.

Chinese whispers

A seed can build a coat for itself out of different types of tiles arranged into a regular pattern. That pattern is then repeated, as the first tile layer coordinates the formation of the second layer into a scaled-up mirror of the original one.

As well as simply scaling up a pattern, sequences can have "counting programs" built into their code that makes it possible for a seed to specify a particular pattern or arrangement after a given number of layers.

"It's sort of like the telephone game [also known as Chinese whispers]," says Winfree.

Anyone that has played that game will know that it doesn't take long for the original message to become distorted. To prevent that, he says, the team has designed the tile DNA sequences to "proof read" their own work and spontaneously reject most erroneous assembly steps.

Universal machine

Although the team has so far used the technique to build simple pipes (see image, top right), much more is possible, Winfree says. "Metaphorically, this is similar to how genetic programs within cells direct the growth of an organism."

Winfree and Rothemund speculate that the technique could provide a way to assemble molecular components into useful structures such as tiny electric circuits. It is also possible to use the self-assembling DNA structures to perform computational tasks, adds Winfree.

"It is very powerful for information processing," he says. "It's what's known as a Universal Turing Machine, which means it can carry out any information processing task."

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0808736106)

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DNA cages guide nanoparticle self-assembly

2009-03-18T03:27:00.000-07:00

17 March 2009 by Jessica Griggs
Magazine issue 2699. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Nanotechnology Topic Guide

TRAPPING nanoparticles in cages made of DNA could finally allow them to self-assemble into transistors, metamaterials and even tiny robots. The technique should prevent the nanoparticles clumping together at random, one of the biggest problems with nanoscale self-assembly.

One idea for making nanoscale building kits is to coat gold nanoparticles with short sequences of single-stranded DNA. The idea is to design the DNA strands in such a way that they will bond with other strands and join the nanoparticles together in a 3D structure. But the technique has never worked well because the random position of the DNA strands on the nanoparticles makes them tend to stick together in clumps.

Now, Alexei Tkachenko and Nicolas Licata from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, have come up with a solution: trap the nanoparticles in a cage where the bars are made of DNA, and then stack the cages to form nanostructures.

To create the cage, they start with DNA helices tipped at each end with a short sequence of single-stranded DNA. Because these strands only stick to their complementary sequences on the other DNA helices, the strands bind together in a way that forms a cage structure. Only when the single strand attached to the nanoparticle binds to its partner will the cage close.

The result is a nanoparticle trapped inside a tetrahedral cage which has a single strand of DNA sticking out at each vertex. This symmetrical arrangement of strands is important because it prevents the cages clumping together at random. Instead, the strands bind to strands on other cages, linking the cages together forming a 3D structure (Physical Review E, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.79.011404). Eventually, says Tkachenko, you should be able to feed a design into a computer which will choose the type of cage and the sequences of DNA needed to build your structure.

Oleg Gang from the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state says this avoids random clumping because the strands on the vertices can only bind when the relative positions and orientations of the cages are correct. Tkachenko is confident that they can now move from the drawing board to the test tube.

That will mean tackling various challenges such as ensuring that the mixture produces caged particles rather than other possible structures, perhaps by controlling the temperature of the mixture to favour certain structures over others. It may then be possible to make devices such as nano-circuits and metamaterials.

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2009-03-18T03:07:00.000-07:00

16:15 17 March 2009 by Rachel Courtland
For similar stories, visit the Solar System , Climate Change and Spaceflight Topic Guides

Video: Find out how the GOCE mission will map Earth's gravity in unprecedented detail (Courtesy of ESA)

A sleek satellite that is set to make the most detailed map of the Earth's gravity took to the skies on Tuesday. The probe is expected to make important contributions to ocean current measurements and climate models.

After a day's delay to work out problems with the probe's launch tower, the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), launched on Tuesday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, which lies some 800 km north of Moscow.

If all goes well, the satellite will assume an orbit some 285 km above the Earth, gradually falling to an altitude of 268 km, where the probe will take much of its science data. It will remain in orbit for at least two years, beginning science operations in late August or early September when the probe will have sufficient solar power to do its observations.

The Earth's mass is not uniformly distributed. By flying low, GOCE will be able to map these variations in unprecedented detail.

Aerodynamic shape

But this orbit will also subject GOCE to the drag of tenuous gas at the edge of Earth's atmosphere. If its orbit were uncorrected, the probe might only last a few months before falling back to Earth, says mission manager Rune Floberghagen.

To counteract this drag, the satellite has an aerodynamic shape and an ion-propulsion engine that continuously jettisons charged xenon atoms to keep its orbit stable.

Stability is important for the probe, which was built to have no moving parts that could interfere with the measurements of the satellite's three pairs of accelerometers.

Unprecedented detail

The team hopes GOCE will measure deviations in the Earth's gravity field at a spatial resolution higher than 100 km. That is a factor of three better than NASA's GRACE satellites, a pair of probes that launched in 2002 to measure how Earth's gravity field changes in time, largely as water is transported around the globe.

GOCE will map the Earth's average gravity field to build up a picture of the geoid, an idealised model of the Earth's surface where the gravitational potential is identical at every point (see this illustration). If the Earth were covered with a perfectly still ocean, not subject to winds or ocean currents, the water would naturally take this shape.

The lack of a high-resolution geoid has hampered measurements of ocean currents, says Lee-Lueng Fu, chief scientist for the US-European Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites, which are used to map ocean levels.

Ocean currents

Over the last 15 years, satellites have been using sea level changes to measure ocean currents. Currents may cause swells or troughs on the order of metres high, but spatial variations in Earth's gravity mean some points on the ocean are naturally 100 or more metres higher than others, Fu says.

"We cannot really compute the current [ocean current] speed because this sea surface shape is primarily determined by gravity," Fu told New Scientist.

By measuring this background shape, GOCE could refine measurements of ocean current, which could be used to get a better estimate of how heat is transported by the oceans.

Since oceans absorb most of the Earth's excess heat, the gravity map will ultimately help refine climate models. "This mission is an important step forward to allow us to make more reliable projections," Fu says. "We've been waiting for such a mission for a long time."

Copy-and-paste ability to be added to iPhone

2009-03-18T03:01:00.000-07:00

Peer-to-peer connectivity for gaming will also be part of 3.0 software

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March 17: CNBC's Jim Goldman discusses the iPhone's new OS 3.0, which allows developers to create more complex applications for the mobile platform.

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Hubble snapshot shows the moons transiting in front of planet

2009-03-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Hubble snapshot shows the moons transiting in front of planet

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Information technology (IT)

2009-03-18T02:12:00.000-07:00

,as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware."^[1] IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.

Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems.

When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information Technology (IT) is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.

The term Information Technology (IT) is sometimes said to have been coined by Jim Domsic of Michigan in November 1981.^{[citation needed]} Domsic, who worked as a computer manager for an automotive related industry, is supposed to have created the term to modernize the outdated phrase "data processing". The Oxford English Dictionary, however, in defining information technology as "the branch of technology concerned with the dissemination, processing, and storage of information, esp. by means of computers" provides an illustrative quote from the year 1958 (Leavitt & Whisler in Harvard Business Rev. XXXVI. 41/1 "The new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology.") that predates the so-far unsubstantiated Domsic coinage.

In recent years ABET and the ACM have collaborated to form accreditation and curriculum standards for degrees in Information Technology as a distinct field of study separate from both Computer Science and Information Systems. SIGITE is the ACM working group for defining these standards.

Definition and usage

2009-03-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

In general technology is the relationship that society has with its tools and crafts, and to what extent society can control its environment. The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers a definition of the term: "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge".^[1] Ursula Franklin, in her 1989 "Real World of Technology" lecture, gave another definition of the concept; it is "practice, the way we do things around here".^[2] The term is often used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics, rather than technology as a whole.^[3] Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time, 1, defines technology in two ways: as "the pursuit of life by means other than life", and as "organized inorganic matter."^[4]

Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems. It is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material; virtual technology, such as computer software and business methods, fall under this definition of technology.^[5]

The word "technology" can also be used to refer to a collection of techniques. In this context, it is the current state of humanity's knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants; it includes technical methods, skills, processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. When combined with another term, such as "medical technology" or "space technology", it refers to the state of the respective field's knowledge and tools. "State-of-the-art technology" refers to the high technology available to humanity in any field.

Technology can be viewed as an activity that forms or changes culture.^[6] Additionally, technology is the application of math, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known. A modern example is the rise of communication technology, which has lessened barriers to human interaction and, as a result, has helped spawn new subcultures; the rise of cyberculture has, at its basis, the development of the Internet and the computer.^[7] Not all technology enhances culture in a creative way; technology can also help facilitate political oppression and war via tools such as guns. As a cultural activity, technology predates both science and engineering, each of which formalize some aspects of technological endeavor.

information technology

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the Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor

The “Nehalem” advantage.

Memory bottlenecks begone.

Power when (and where) you need it.

The virtue of virtual cores.

Path of least resistance.

Powerfully efficient.

STREAM. Memory throughput.

Up to 2.4x greater than previous-generation Mac Pro

CINT2006 Rate and CFP2006 Rate. Integer and floating-point calculation results.

LED cinema Display

Mini DisplayPort

MagSafe connector

USB 2.0 ports

Extended desktop

LED advantages

Built-in iSight, mic, and speakers

Smooth-motion hinge

Environmental Status Report

Free of harmful toxins

Highly recyclable

ENERGY STAR

EPEAT Gold

mac book

Redesigned. Reengineered. Re-everythinged.

The New MacBook

Unibody Enclosure

Interactive Gallery

Multi-Touch Trackpad

A Greener Notebook

Sony Ericsson 890i

Black In News - Blackberry Curve 8900

Robots could flex muscles that are stronger than steel

Tough workers

Space construction

90 seconds from catastrophe

Worse than Katrina

Robot body language gives humans a clue

Dead giveaway?

Improved interactions

A Zimbabwean cholera patient sits in his bed at a hospital in Harare in 2009 (Image: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty) A Zimbabwean cholera patient sits in

A licence to print gadgets

Flexible future

Best to come

DNA origami comes to life

Snowball effect

Chinese whispers

Universal machine

DNA cages guide nanoparticle self-assembly

Aerodynamic shape

Unprecedented detail

Ocean currents

Copy-and-paste ability to be added to iPhone

Peer-to-peer connectivity for gaming will also be part of 3.0 software

Hubble snapshot shows the moons transiting in front of planet

Hubble snapshot shows the moons transiting in front of planet

Information technology (IT)

CINT2006 Rate and CFP2006 Rate.
Integer and floating-point calculation results.