Techno-News Blog

by Ben Muessig, AOL News

In Manhattan, police reports are becoming a little bit more like “Minority Report.” The New York City Police Department unveiled iris-scanning technology on Monday designed to prevent criminal suspects from assuming false identities. Authorities decided to start photographing suspects’ eyes after two detainees facing serious charges were able to escape custody during arraignment by using the names of suspects facing minor charges, The New York Times reports. New York City police are using iris-scanning machines to determine the identities of criminal suspects. Police say the devices help ensure that suspects don’t assume false identities, but civil rights groups worry the machines could be invasive of privacy. So now, alongside the standard mug shots and fingerprints taken after arrest, some Manhattan detainees will peer into a device that looks something like “an ophthalmologist’s eye machine,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/new-york-police-unveil-sci-fi-style-iris-scanning-technology/19720318

by Jackie Cohen, All Facebook

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave, you know Facebook announced a social inbox today, promising a real-time conversation that combines the messaging communications already available on the social network with texting, instant messaging, email and chat. The social network’s new service will encompass more than 20 additional infrastructure services. Now you can see why the company needed to buy its own data center. Even before today’s announcement, the magnitude of data that Facebook has been handling has required continually expanding infrastructure. The rate at which the company needs to increase database capacity almost defies description. One of the company’s database software engineering experts, Kannan Muthukkaruppan — not surprisingly, he’s an Oracle alumnus

http://www.allfacebook.com/new-technology-behind-20-billion-daily-facebook-messages-2010-11

by Amanda Roth, Brock Press

Microsoft Kinect

Microsoft’s new product – launched on Nov. 4 – is the newest addition to the motion control gaming world. It comes in the form of a horizontal bar that sits below the television on a motorized pivot. The device includes a video camera, infrared depth sensor and multi-array microphone. Together, these allow for full-body motion capture and facial and voice recognition. The device plugs into Xbox console USB ports.

The product is for sale in Canada for about $150.

http://media.www.brockpress.com/media/storage/paper384/news/2010/11/16/Technology/Whats.New.In.The.World.Of.Technology-3959437.shtml

by Angela Gartner, News-Herald

Paperback and hardcover books aren’t the only things library patrons can check out. E-book readers, tablet computers and various downloads are becoming the new trends at local libraries. Most libraries are using the Internet or text services to let people know their books arrived. Library websites have expanded to include at-home learning services for children, and patrons can check out books from home as well. Audio books for MP3 players, CDs and Playaways have been part of libraries for several years. Playaway is an individualized preloaded digital audio recorder that holds single book title downloads for readers. It is a product of Findaway World, a Solon-based company.

http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/11/16/news/nh3296959.txt

by Norma Kamali, Huffington Post

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! Every year, each person on our staff cooks a meal from their ethnic background and the multi-ethnic mix of amazing tastes and aromas are matched by the love that is put into each presentation. Before the feast, we take turns giving thanks for something in our lives we appreciate and silently meditate. Then we choose from the incredible selection and eat until we are filled. We try seconds and thirds and as the take-home containers are filled, we moan about how full we are.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norma-kamali/lets-give-thanks-for-new-_b_783774.html

by News of the North

Facebook, the world’s largest social networking company, has developed an addition to their social network messaging, provided emails to all of its 500 million users with an @facebook e-email address. The new edition ties together your mail, instant-messaging, cell phones, and Facebook’s own messaging and conversations. Even though this new system is e-mail, it is modeled after chat, keeping conversations going as well as social networking in general at your finger tips.

http://newsofthenorth.net/article/US_World_News/US_World_Story_Links/Facebook_Unveils_New_Technology_Combining_Email_Texting_and_IM/59833

By: Wayne Rash, eWeek

Acer’s announcement that the company would begin selling a line of tablet computers as well as a large-screen smartphone is another indication that Apple is going to find itself under ever increasing pressure to deliver more and charge less. According to Nick Kolakowski’s story in eWEEK, two of these will be Android devices similar in general design to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablets, while the largest of the three, with a screen a little more than 10 inches, will run Microsoft Windows 7.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Acers-Android-Windows-7-Tablets-Heat-Up-the-Tablet-War-149294/

By: Michelle Maisto, eWeek

The International Telecommunication Union, in a meeting in Switzerland this week, ratified 3GPP Release 10 — less cumbersomely known as LTE-Advanced — as a 4G technology, the 4G America wireless industry trade association announced Nov. 23. “This day is a milestone to remember for mobile broadband connectivity,” Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas, said in a statement. The group expects LTE-Advanced to be the “pre-eminent ITU-sanctioned 4G mobile broadband solution for information, communications and entertainment.” Nine official commercial LTE launches have occurred in 2010, said the group, with 11 more expected before the end of the year. Additionally, more than 250 companies, including Greenfield, CDMA, WiMax and GSM operators, have expressed interested in deploying LTE networks.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/LTEAdvanced-is-a-4G-Technology-ITU-Says-745327/

By Maggie Shiels, BBC

A former Facebook executive aims to turn the world of social networking on its head by making it more personal. Dave Morin’s new company Path has launched a photo-centric social hub that limits the number of friends you can have to 50. The aim is to enable more effective communications with people who are part of your trusted enclave. It contradicts the ethos of most social networks which includes loose acquaintances and colleagues.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11793847