Techno-News Blog

By Katherine Bourzac, Technology Review

IBM will work with materials manufacturer 3M to develop the necessary mortar to build much more complex three-dimensional computer chips. The companies announced this week that they will aim to develop microchips made of 100 chip layers stacked on top of each other. Stacking chips in this way could make all sorts of electronics faster and more power-efficient. Three-dimensional chips have already found their way into some niche applications, but they are expensive to make, and can only be stacked about a dozen layers high before they overheat.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38543/?p1=A4

by Brian Bergstein Technology Review

JStor, an organization that maintains a database of academic journal articles, is making about 6 percent of its content available to the public for free—articles that were published prior to 1923 in the United States or before 1870 in other countries. It’s a small step, but it’s an important one, because it is a recognition by JStor that it should make its stockpile of academic knowledge more broadly accessible. That issue has become contentious in recent years, especially with the arrest this summer of Aaron Swartz, a 24-year-old Internet activist who is charged with sneaking into MIT to download 4.8 million articles from JStor’s archive. He and other advocates of “open access” have complained that many articles in research journals are accessible only with expensive subscriptions, limiting their audience to elite readers even though the Internet should be facilitating a flourishing of access to information. Harvard scholar Lawrence Lessig blames, among other things, outdated interpretations of copyright law; Swartz has cited greed among publishers of journal articles.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27144/?p1=blogs

by David Zax, Technology Review

It’s coming! It’s coming! Tablet watchers everywhere are waiting for the Amazon Kindle tablet with bated breath. And this past week brought real news on the device, whose launch is likely for November. Most exciting is MG Siegler’s recent hands-on with the device, over at TechCrunch. He says he spent about an hour with a Design Verification Testing unit–an almost-finished version of the tablet floating around the company now. He was given time with the device, which he says roughly resembles the BlackBerry PlayBook at a first glance (also black, also with a rubbery back), on the condition that he not share any photos.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27141/?p1=blogs

By: Nicholas Kolakowski, eWeek

Could Amazon’s Android tablet revive interest in the 7-inch form factor? TechCrunch’s MG Siegler recently had the opportunity to play with a version of Amazon’s full-color tablet for an hour, and did his best to describe its capabilities; it has a custom Android user interface and deeply integrates content from Amazon, including the Cloud Player and Kindle software. It will cost $250, and offer 6GB of internal storage for books and applications—in essence, forcing users to rely on the cloud for the majority of their media content.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Amazons-Android-Tablet-Could-Revive-Interest-in-7Inch-Form-Factor-676924/?kc=rss

By Don Reisinger, eWeek

The mobile device market keeps expanding at an astounding rate. Each year, new companies come into the marketplace with mobile products that they believe can trump all the others that came before their own. This can confuse consumers and enterprise users trying to find the right models for their needs. Over the last several years, the mobile marketplace has been of special interest to consumers and enterprise users. More and more smartphones are entering the market—and as of late tablets have become increasingly popular. Companies hoping to capitalize on the growth of that marketplace have continued to deliver new devices that appeal to the desires of customers. Because of that, customers need to think seriously about which devices they should buy. Should they opt for the iPhone 4 or go with something like the Samsung Galaxy S II? Will the RIM PlayBook do the job, or will the iPad 2 be their necessary tablet companion? Prospective tablet buyers will find the answers in this eWEEK slide show.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/10-Mobile-Devices-Worth-a-Closer-Look-From-Enterprises-Consumers-502909/?kc=rss

By: Chris Preimesberger, eWeek

It was bound to happen, but it probably came to the fore earlier than most storage industry experts expected. The first single-platter hard disk drive for high-performance desktop PCs with a full terabyte of capacity is now shipping as of Sept. 6, courtesy of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Hitachi’s 3.5-inch Deskstar 7K1000.D drive is now being supplied for use in its own new 1TB Deskstar and CinemaStar product lines. Hitachi also will OEM these to other drive makers via its channel partners, said Brendan Collins, Hitachi GST’s vice president of product marketing.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/Hitachi-Starts-Shipping-1TBPlatter-Hard-Drives-289589/?kc=rss

By Katherine Bourzac, Technology Review

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and one of the largest manufacturers of computer memory, Samsung, have created a new kind of flash memory that uses graphene—atom-thick sheets of pure carbon—along with silicon to store information. Incorporating graphene could help extend the viability of flash memory technology for years to come, and allow future portable electronics to store far more data. Chipmakers pack increasing amounts of data in the same physical area by miniaturizing the memory cells used to store individual bits. Inside today’s flash drives, these cells are nanoscale “floating gate” transistors. Recent years have seen the rapid miniaturization of flash cells, enabling, for example, the iPhone 4 to store twice as much data as the iPhone 3. But below a certain cell size, silicon becomes less stable, and this has the potential to halt the march of miniaturization.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38471/?p1=MstRcnt

by David Zax, Technology Review

That idea, or something like it, is what animates Sony’s forthcoming device, “the HMZ Personal 3-D Viewer,” a headset that runs from ear to ear and delivers a 3-D viewing experience to an audience of one. The almost ostentatiously futuristic device–it “looks like it could have been created and worn by Daft Punk,” in IGN’s assessment–goes on sale in Japan on November 11, where it will retail at the equivalent of $780. The device weighs just under a pound, and creates its 3-D effect by delivering different images to each eye via two OLED displays inside the visor. Though the displays are tiny, 0.7-inch panels, the fact that they’re so close makes them seem like an enormous, 150-inch screen. 5.1 virtual surround sound is delivered via a pair of embedded, over-ear speakers. If you’re the kind of person who likes spectacle but doesn’t want to share it with others, you can plug the HMZ into a DVD player, Blu-ray device, or gaming system and enjoy your private, immersive experience.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27136/?p1=blogs

By John D. Halamka, Technology Review

In 2009, President Obama signed the HITECH act, creating a $27 billion stimulus package to accelerate health-care information technology in the United States. The law pays doctors to adopt electronic records, and penalizes those who don’t. Fueling the change are data standards that make it easier to share health information, maturing software, rapid innovation linked to mobile computing, and policies to protect patient privacy. As a consequence of this perfect storm of incentives and disincentives, the next five years will see an unprecedented acceleration of electronic medicine in the U.S. Other countries are moving along a similar path. Some wealthy nations with socialized medicine are far ahead; in the Netherlands, 98 percent of primary-care doctors already use electronic records. But most nations—including Japan and China—are just beginning to bring IT to bear on health care in a systematic way.

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/38473/?p1=BI

by Christopher Mims Technology Review

With a tiny-enough GPS sensor, it’s possible to track the location of anything from your lost keys to a runaway pet. That’s because the world’s smallest GPS receiver is now smaller than a penny and weighs only 0.3 grams. But that’s just the chip — what about all the electronics required to make it truly useful, like a system for remotely downloading the data it has logged?

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27134/?p1=blogs

by Christopher Mims, Technology Review

Canvas, the image sharing-and-remix site built by the founder of infamously freewheeling Internet hangout / message board 4chan (picture Mos Eisley Cantina, but with more porn) is not the next Twitter. (“The next Twitter” would be Instagram. But I digress.) But that doesn’t really matter, because Canvas is something pretty interesting all on its own: A super slick, super fast way to share and remix images in the childish, bizzaro-to-anyone-older-than-18 way that is so popular among all those young people who will some day control the nukes. Just a brief visit to the site will reveal a visual chaos not seen since the heydey of MySpace, and that’s deliberate: Canvas is for creating and sharing visual messages, memes and jokes.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27137/?p1=blogs

By Ian E. Muller, Technology Review

Many people struggle to remember scores of passwords for different websites. They often have to reset an account or dig through years of e-mail to find stored log-in information. A common trick is to use the same password for lots of accounts, but this can be a security risk, potentially allowing many accounts to be hijacked at once. Even as identity becomes increasingly important online, it is becoming more fragmented, with users signing up for ever more websites and services. Account Chooser, a new service launched by the OpenID Foundation, an organization that includes the major websites Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo, is the latest effort to solve this problem. Instead of having to create yet another account, Account Chooser lets users choose one account—their Gmail or Facebook log-in, for example—and then use it to log in to many other sites.

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/38511/?p1=A2

By JOSHUA BRUSTEIN, New York Times

Computers, electronic whiteboards and other interactive technologies are fundamentally changing American education . That is the view of the experts whom The Times spoke with about what the classroom will look like 10 years from now. Listen to excerpts from their predictions below, and share your own thoughts in the comments section.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/what-will-school-look-like-in-10-years/

By SOMINI SENGUPTA, New York Times

Social networks have crossed another milestone. For the first time, half of all adults in the United States said they used a social networking site, according to a survey released on Friday by the Pew Research Center. That is 50 percent of all Americans, not just those who say they are online. Six years ago, when Pew first conducted a similar survey, only 5 percent of all adults said they used social sites, like Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace. It is a sign of how deeply and widely social networking companies have penetrated the lives of ordinary people and, in turn, transformed the ways in which people communicate, authorities govern and companies sell things.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/half-of-america-is-using-social-networks/

by the BBC

Bible quotes, Torah chants and Buddhist prayer wheels can all be accessed on the go following an increase in faith-based phone apps. Carmen Roberts examines how app developers in Singapore are creating software designed to help people make the most out of religion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9578162.stm

By eWEEK

Reacting to customer demands and complaints is the standard operating procedure in most companies. Increasingly, businesses want to be pro-active instead of reactive – taking actions that increase or improve the business without needing an event to trigger a response. To make this change, smart businesses are turning to predictive and real-time analytics, which help figure, given a set of circumstances, what is going to happen next. This video looks at one example, where a regional food chain was able to increase its average order total while simultaneously upping the frequency of orders per customer by using real-time analytics.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/Analytics-Turns-Pie-Charts-Into-Increase-Sales-of-Pizza-Pies/?kc=rss

by the BBC

Apple has put an older version of its Final Cut video editing software on sale, after complaints that its replacement was not good enough for professional work. Final Cut Studio, which includes Final Cut Pro 7 is available for £834 through the company’s telephone sales line. Its recently introduced Final Cut Pro X received mixed reviews, with editors criticising the removal of key features Apple has said it is simply clearing stock of the old software.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14762758

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Google’s Chrome browser cracks the 15 percent market for its third birthday. Net Applications is now counting mobile device browser share separately, with Apple Safari leading. Google’s Chrome browser hit 15.5 percent market share through August, jumping more than a whole percentage point from the 14.3 percent the Web surfing software hit in July. Chrome just turned three years old Sept. 1 and it’s been a remarkable rise to this point, with the browser gaining share nearly every month for the last two years. What’s responsible for the latest share gains? It’s tough to pinpoint, but it could be an uptick of Chromebook sales from Samsung and Acer. It could also be the rapid, six-week release cycles that pump out new features, such as voice recognition capabilities.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Google-Chrome-Browser-Hikes-to-155-546552/?kc=rss

By Nathan Eddy, eWeek

It’s that time of year again, when the lazy days of summer recede into memory and it becomes time to crack the books back open and settle down into the school year. Just how many books you’ll actually physically be carrying is up for debate, though, as e-readers and tablets start to enter more prominently onto college campuses and into lesson plan formats. Now more than ever, college students have an abundance of gadgets to suit their studies—or distract them from what they should be doing. In an increasingly digital world, connectivity to the Internet is a must-have capability for many students, as well as the ability to easily pick up their devices and carry them around without taking up lots of space. And of course, no college student wants to lug around something that isn’t hip. Whether it’s a notebook, smartphone or even an external hard drive, the “cool factor” is never far from their minds. With that in mind, take a look at this list of must-have gadgets for anyone heading back to school this fall.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/10-MustHave-Gadgets-for-Back-to-School-436825/?kc=rss

By: Fahmida Y. Rashid, eWeek

VeriSign’s quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief said there were more than 215 million domains registered at the end of the second quarter 2011, 16.9 million more than 2010. The Internet expanded by 2.5 percent in the second quarter of 2011 over the first quarter, VeriSign reported in its latest report. There were 5.2 million more domains by the end of the second quarter, the report found. More than 215 million domain names were registered across all top level domains at the second quarter of 2011, VeriSign found in its quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief released Aug. 31. Registrations have grown by more than 16.9 million, of 8.6 percent, since the second quarter of 2010, VeriSign found. However, the way VeriSign counts domains makes it hard to tell how many of the 215 million domains are actually being used.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Internet-Keeps-Expanding-With-52-Million-More-Addresses-VeriSign-700854/?kc=rss

By Clint Boulton, Week

eSony Aug. 31 unveiled its first Android “Honeycomb” tablets in the form of the Sony Tablet S and Tablet P, known formerly as the S1 and S2 back in April. These are not your typical Honeycomb tablets. Available for $499 in a 16GB version and $599 for 32GB later this month, the Tablet S resembles a paper pad with folded sheets. The Tablet P, which does not have pricing or a formal launch date beyond the end of 2011, offers two 5.5-inch touch-screen displays and weighs only 0.83 pounds. The S has a 9.4-inch, 1,280×768-pixel touch-screen display and weighs a light 1.33 lbs. Both are powered by Nvidia’s 1GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor, which has become ubiquitous among Android tablets from Motorola, Samsung and others. The Tablet S and Tablet P have front- and rear-facing cameras. Both are WiFi- and 4G LTE-capable (4G Long Term Evolution-capable) and will be available only on AT&T’s network in the U.S.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Sony-Tablet-S-Tablet-P-Bring-New-Twist-to-Todays-Honeycomb-Tablets-320401/?kc=rss