Techno-News Blog

by Will Knight, Technology Review

Online protests mobilized by Google, Wikipedia, and many other websites yesterday have at least slowed the progress of two controversial antipiracy bills, with more than 30 senators quickly dropping support for them. Entire sites, logos, and website backgrounds were “blacked out” in protest by opponents of the near-identical Stop Online Piracy Act in Congress and the Protect I.P. bill in the Senate. Most participating sites also posted lengthy criticism of the bills. Legislators who went public with their opposition to the bills in response to the protests included several who had either cosponsored or helped write them. But the bills still have support, and they are likely to be amended rather than dropped altogether.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27509/?p1=blogs

by David Zax, Technology Review

A “smart window” from Samsung took away the award for innovation at CES this year. What’s a smart window, and why do you need one right away? Samsung’s concept of a smart window is very different: basically, it would turn your window into something a lot more like an iPad. If windows and touchscreens had offspring, Samsung’s product would be it. The inevitable references to Minority Report abound. The device is really a transparent touchscreen LCD that can be fitted to any window, so long as it’s no longer than some 46 inches. Resolution is 1366 x 768 pixels, reportedly. During the day, illumination is provided from outside. At night, built-in lights kick in. A video from Samsung video gives a nice overview.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27515/?p1=blogs

by David Zax, Technology Review

All this talk of late about how our devices are hurting us is making me think I need to revamp my workspace. I already use a standing desk, but I have yet to take the crucial step of elevating my laptop screen and buying an external keyboard, meaning I’m forever hunched over. A new series of external keyboards from a company called Matias might just be the trick to ending my–and your–ergonomic inefficiencies at home or at the office, all while adding the ability for you to type straight to your iPhone with the press of a button.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27516/?p1=blogs

By Katia Moskvitch, BBC News

A rat lies motionless on a sterile, spotless table. It is alive, but heavily sedated. Closer inspection reveals that this is no ordinary rodent. Electrodes are being used to stimulate its brain, creating waveform readings on a nearby computer screen. The rat is part of a research project at Israel’s Tel Aviv University psychology department. Scientists are attempting to replace part of this and other rats’ brains with digital equipment, effectively turning them into cyborgs. Anti-vivisection campaigners have described the tests as “grotesque” but the researchers claim the work will eventually help them make repairs to what is possibly the world’s most complex computer – the human brain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16305299

by the BBC

Internet firms carried out a successful trial of the new net address system last June. Leading internet firms have set 6 June as the World IPv6 launch day. IPv6 is the new net address system that replaces the current protocol IPv4, which is about to run out of spaces to allocate. Web companies participating in the event have pledged to enable IPv6 on their main websites from that date. The Internet Society, which made the announcement, said the day represented “a major milestone” in the deployment of the standard.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16601636

byJon Kelly, BBC

Wikipedia last week pulled its English-language articles in protest against a US anti-piracy bill. Wikipedia blacked out its English-language site for 24 hours. So how will its regular readers get information? Work-averse students, corner-cutting journalists and people who simply enjoy wasting time online are in for a testing day. Wikipedia, the user-generated internet encyclopaedia, has taken part in a temporary “blackout” in protest against the proposed US anti-piracy laws known as Sopa and Pipa. Users attempting to access the site see a black screen and a political statement: “Imagine a world without free knowledge.” It might be an inconvenience for those who rely on it – although for those with the wherewithal to turn off Javascript or access the site via Google cache, there are still ways into Wikipedia. But the blackout still acts as a reminder that there are plenty of other places to look for information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16601517

By: Nathan Eddy, eWeek

People logging in through mobile devices and those accessing the Web in rural areas also increased compared with 2010. More Chinese are using the Internet than ever before, with more than 500 million users in China accessing the Web, according to a report by the state-run China Internet Network Information Center. The report said the number of people using the Web rose 12 percent in December to 513 million people. The report also provides information on China’s uptake of microblogging sites called “weibo” sites that are akin to Twitter—nearly half of Chinese Web users logged into the sites in 2011, up from 63 million in 2010.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Web-Users-in-China-Pass-500-Million-Report-481052/

By: Nicholas Kolakowski, eWeek

While many enterprises in the past year have turned to Apple’s iPad for their business tablet needs, Microsoft is looking to change that in 2012 with its Windows 8 operating system. Despite a host of challengers entering the marketplace throughout 2011, Apple’s iPad remained the top choice among consumers and businesses in the market for a tablet. However, 2012 could witness the beginnings of a seismic change in the tablet landscape: If everything proceeds according to rumored schedule, Microsoft will release Windows 8 on tablets in addition to traditional PCs—forcing Apple into a harder fight to preserve its dominant market share.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/iPad-Windows-8-Tablets-Could-Alter-the-Business-Tablets-Landscape-in-2012-647429/

By: Fahmida Y. Rashid, eWeek

A day after the primary house sponsor of the controversial online piracy bill said he was dropping DNS blocking from the legislation the White House said it would not support any legislation that tampered with the naming system. Opponents of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act circulating in the House of Representatives got a boost after the White House said it would not support any legislation that would result in online censorship or posed cyber-security risks to the Internet’s infrastructure. The Obama administration was concerned about proposed legislation that sought to “tamper” with the Internet by manipulating the Domain Name System, according to a letter released Jan. 14. DNS-filtering could pose a “real risk” to cyber-security and was not the way to fight online piracy, wrote White House cyber-security coordinator Howard Schmidt; Victoria Espinel, intellectual property enforcement coordinator; and Aneesh Chopra, federal CTO.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/White-House-Opposes-DNS-Blocking-in-SOPA-314876/

By Antonio Regalado, Technology Review

Smart phones are creating radical new ideas for getting around. Technology Review picks five of the most promising. Click through the five reviews – all very intriquing; great potential as the mobile smart phone evolves it is creating all kinds of new business values added and new business opportunities.

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/39447

by David Zax, Technology Review

Reviews are coming in of the Nokia Lumia 710, a low-end smartphone and Nokia’s first to run Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. The L.A. Times, for instance, gives it a nice little review, saying, “Is the Lumia 710 a good smartphone or not? Simply put, it is.” At $49.99 on a two-year T-Mobile contract, the phone is not hugely ambitious, but the specs are all there: a 3.7-inch touchscreen, a single-core 1.4-gigahertz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, 512 MB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, a 5-megapixel camera with flash. The whole thing performs well, per the Times; and the reviewer was especially impressed with Nokia Drive, a turn-by-turn voice navigation app.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27494/?p1=blogs

By Brian Bergstein, Technology Review

An organization that maintains a huge database of academic research plans to soon let the public view some of the trove of information for free—a big boost for the idea of “open access” to the world’s knowledge. As part of its new program, which is expected to enter beta mode in the coming weeks, the JStor service will let anyone view articles from 70 journals after registering with the website. The reader then can view up to three documents at a time in a “frame” on the site.

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/39448/?p1=A2

by Stephen Cass, Technology Review

While the picture quality and screen size is likely to be the most immediately striking thing about the 55-inch Super OLED TV Samsung unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, some of the less visible technologies in the TV could prove to be more significant in the long term. The Super OLED is, like virtually all new high-televisions, a smart TV, capable of running local applications and accessing the Internet. What’s new is Samsung’s approach to the thorny challenge of the smart TV interface, using motion and voice control. The interface problem arises because TV is what’s been dubbed as a “lean back” experience. But navigating a video streaming service, or sending a tweet, are relatively complex activities typically associated with the “lean forward” experience of computers where at least a keyboard (even if only an on-screen tablet one) is available.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27492/?p1=blogs

by David Zax, Technology Review

As soon as things get smart, something stupid also happens: they become vulnerable to attack. This was the case (though over-hyped, perhaps) of printers that cybersecurity researchers warned could be hijacked and theoretically set on fire. And now, argues Willie D. Jones of IEEE Spectrum, it could be the fate of our latest smart devices: our cars. One research team at UC San Diego and University of Washington demonstrated it was possible to do an absurd attack that could allow criminals to locate cars’ GPS coordinates, override their security systems, unlock their doors, and start their engines–in other words, a carjacker’s dream come true.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27488/?p1=blogs

by David Zax, Technology Review

One of the joys of the Kindle, as I’ve discovered anew while traveling in summery Argentina, is that it enables you–indeed, encourages you–to read in the brightest of sunlight. Now, with a new cover called SolarKindle, that benefit becomes a gift that keeps on giving. You’ve probably already guessed what SolarKindle does, but I’ll tell you anyway. It’s simple enough: an elegant case with a large solar panel in the front that gathers up energy even while in shade. There are two ways you can use that energy: at night, you can turn on the 800 lux LED reading lamp inside the case, if the bedside lamp bothers your bedmate. During the day (or really anytime), the energy can also serve as reserve battery power for the Kindle itself.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27486/?p1=blogs

by the BBC

Tom Clarke has appealed for the man in the photograph to help him trace his iPad An IT consultant is attempting to track down his missing iPad by using photos taken on it. Tom Clarke, 26, from Hove, in Sussex, either lost or had his iPad stolen while shopping in a Tesco store. Several days later photos taken on the device – showing a man in a woolly hat – were automatically streamed to his mobile phone through Apple’s iCloud software. Mr Clarke has appealed for the person in the photo to help him trace it. He said: “All I want is for Sussex Police to be able find the guy in the woolly hat because he knows who has got my iPad.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-16536953

by the BBC

There are two WiFi frequencies that are used. That’s 2.4Ghz, a lot of people know it as 11bg, and there’s something called 5Ghz. [The challenge is] convincing the world to use 5Ghz and the 24 channels offered in this band, versus the 3 usable channels in the 2.4Ghz band. Unfortunately, the continued proliferation of legacy 802.11bg client technology continues, with the entire world sharing just three channels. This leads to performance problems because of all the client devices are packed on those three channels.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16532774

by the BBC

The groups of atoms were built using a scanning tunneling microscope Researchers have successfully stored a single data bit in only 12 atoms. Currently it takes about a million atoms to store a bit on a modern hard-disk, the researchers from IBM say. They believe this is the world’s smallest magnetic memory bit. According to the researchers, the technique opens up the possibility of producing much denser forms of magnetic computer memory than today’s hard disk drives and solid state memory chips.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16543497

By Clint Boulton, eWeek

At last year’s Consumer Electronics Show here, Toshiba piqued attendees’ curiosity by showing off a prototype tablet with a rubberized back and removable battery. That reference device evolved into the Toshiba Thrive, a 10.1-inch Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablet. Launched in the summer of 2011 at more than half an inch thick and 1.6 pounds, the Thrive was targeted at enterprise users, offering ports for USB 2.0, High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cables and an SD card. Toshiba launched a 7-inch model in the fall that wasn’t much different from the original model. At CES 2012, eWEEK took a tour with Duc Dang, senior manager of product development for Toshiba, to view four tablets encased in plastic cubes. What you’ll immediately see in these prototypes is that Toshiba has shed the clunky, easy-grip frame and extra weight that turned off fans of thin, lightweight tablets such as the Apple iPad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab lineup. Now, all are fitted with lightweight magnesium alloy casings.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Toshiba-Android-Tablet-Prototypes-Pique-Interest-at-CES-271753/

By: Darryl K. Taft, eWeek

IBM researchers have created what they claim is the world’s smallest memory bit using only 12 atoms. This accomplishment by IBM scientists is the culmination of nearly 30 years of nanotechnology research, IBM said. By demonstrating the ability to store information in as few as 12 magnetic atoms, IBM shows that it can deliver an environment that is significantly less than today’s disk drives, which use about one million atoms to store a single bit of information. This can lead to the creation of smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices, IBM said.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Oracle-Plans-78-Bug-Fixes-in-Januarys-Giant-Critical-Patch-Update-214779/

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

MIPS Technologies had reason to be proud when earlier this month after it launched the world’s first tablet computer to run Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Indeed, even at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show this past week, it was hard to find ICS running on many tablets. I saw the latest OS on the Intel Atom-based Lenovo IdeaTab K210 beta machine, which doesn’t have a launch date. Velocity Micro was supposed to have its 7-inch Cruz Tablet T507 and 9.7-inch Cruz Tablet T510 at CES, but they weren’t ready for display.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Ice-Cream-Sandwich-Novo7-Tablet-is-Budget-Friendly-612344/