One in 26 people around the world are now on Facebook, as the social networking site adds 100 million users this year

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that the number of people using the online social networking service has climbed to 250 million.

The California-based Facebook was founded in 2004 and has become the most popular online social networking service, eclipsing News Corporation-owned MySpace.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th-largest in the world (between United States and Indonesia).

The Web site boasts of a number of stats in the billions as well – a billion photos are uploaded each month, more than a billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, etc.) are shared each week, and 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day by users worldwide.

“The rapid pace of our growth is humbling and exciting for us,” Zuckerberg said in a message posted at Facebook’s official blog on Wednesday.

Facebook took just two years to reach an audience of 50 million by October 2007, doubling that figure in less than a year. By January 2009, the Web site had 150 million users, and has been able to add another hundred million users in just seven months.

“For us, growing to 250 million users isn’t just an impressive number; it is a mark of how many personal connections all of you have made.” He added. The average Facebook user has 120 friends, and more than 120 million users log on at least once each day

The world’s most popular social networking website recently revamped its privacy settings, giving users the ability to share as much or as little about themselves online as they want.

Many Facebook users have gotten into trouble with employers and parents who have read updates containing inflammatory remarks or tales and photos of their indiscretions.

Facebook now offers a tiered level of privacy options, including “all of your friends, your friends and people in your school or work networks, and friends of friends.” said Chris Kelly, chief privacy officer at Facebook.

The move was seen as an effort by Facebook to compete with the hot micro-blogging service Twitter.

While its number of users has grown at an amazing clip, Facebook, unlike other Web giants such as Amazon, eBay, Google and Yahoo!, has yet to prove how it is going to translate traffic into cash

A charming little click-and-solve adventure that is more than just a game
If the purpose of video games is entertainment, than Little Wheel is right up there with the best of them. In terms of skill, it demands very little. But for the 10 minutes that you play it, you will be completely enthralled.

The game has a great black-and-beige art style, which goes perfectly with the futuristic world that it portrays. The world is full of living robots, who go about everyday tasks much like humans do today. But all these robots, naturally, are linked to a central power supply.

One day, the main power generator has an accident, which shuts off all the robots. Essentially, the entire world falls into a deep sleep until a bolt of lightning strikes! As it so happens, the lightning strikes Little Wheel, our protagonist and the character you will play as.

As Little Wheel awakens and realises what has happened, a sense of duty compels him to rush to the main power generator and fix the problem.


The entire adventure is a click-and-solve affair, where one sees little items at each point circled. These items can be clicked and used to perform some task. The trick is in figuring out the right combination or sequence in which to click them, as you seek to start elevators and trains, raise bridges and break down huge piles of debris to make your way through.


The game isn’t very difficult, but the presentation is what hooks you in completely. The art is magnificent, right from the colours and tones used to the movements of all the bots, and especially Little Wheel himself.


And then there’s that brilliant jazz soundtrack playing in the background that will have you grooving along to each click. Simply marvelous.

Little Wheel is more than just a game — it’s an experience. Try it out!


Rating: 4.5/5
Site: http://armorgames.com/play/3953/little-wheel

The S100FS is a ‘DSLR-styled’ camera which offers high end features of a professional camera at an entry-level price. It features a 14.3x 28-400mm manual zoom lens, a 11-megapixel 2/3-inch CCD, a 2.5-inch tiltable LCD screen, an electronic viewfinder, and is capable of 50 continuous 3-megapixels shots at 7 frames per second.

It can shoot videos at 30 frames per second in VGA quality, and has an xD/SD compatible slot that supports SD-High Capacity/SD-HC cards. For more information on the S100FS, which comes with a 3 year warranty, and is priced at Rs 35,000, visit www.fujifilm.in

The compact and lightweight (just 29g) MP320R is fitted with a 1-inch OLED screen, and supports playback of MP3, WMA, WAV, and WMA-DRM10 music formats. The driverless MP320R can be used like a USB flash drive on any PC. The player also features a recordable FM radio, voice recorder, and boasts of 15 hours of continuous music playback on a single charge. For more information on this product, priced at Rs 4,500 for the 4GB version, visit www.transcendusa.com

This netbook is powered by an Intel Atom Processor (N270), 1GB RAM, 10.1-inch WSVGA display, a 160 GB HDD, and comes preloaded with Windows XP Home. One can plug the netbook onto an elegant dock and convert it into a desktop using a “smart manager” user interface which brings different programs onto a single guiding page. Wired connectivity options on the Z book include USB, LAN, D-SUB, and a 4-in-1 card reader, while wireless connectivity options include Bluetooth V.2.1+EDR, 3.5G support (HSDPA), Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), and 802.16 n (WiMAX). Priced at Rs 21,000, for more information on the Z Book, visit www.zenithpc.com

London: Emotion-detecting robot cars will face off against eavesdropping flying saucers in the English countryside later this year, as scientists and school children compete with their designs for the next generation of military equipment.

It’s the British Ministry of Defence’s first ever “Grand Challenge’’, aimed at encouraging scientists, inventors and academics to turn ideas into machines for army use in urban environments.

Middlesex University’s Mehmet Ali Erbil displays his unmanned flying vehicle for reconnaissance
It gave six finalists funding to build machine prototypes, such as mini-helicopters and disc-shaped flying robots fitted with heat and motion sensors that can be controlled remotely from a bunker.

And the finalists, who each received 3,00,000 pounds (Rs 2.4 crore), came to London last week to display their models.

“This project has really allowed us to broaden our vision and look at what other work is being done out there in our field,’’ said Norman Gregory, business manager for the Silicon Valley Group PLC, a small research company in southeast Britain.

His company teamed up with the Bruton School for Girls in Somerset to build an unmanned buggy that can analyse gunmen’s movements to determine whether they are angry or nervous.

“We are a small company and would not have been able to put together a consortium to develop such a sophisticated system without this competition. The government made it clear it wanted consortiums to get schools involved, and since the

Bruton school already ran its own robot design competitions, we asked them if they wanted to have a look at our research,’’ Gregory said.

Chris Jones of Bristol University poses with his vision-based control system to use unmanned rotary wing vehicles
Another group, Swarm Systems Ltd, has built a set of tiny helicopters that fly in formation into a village, recording images and audio tracks to beam back to headquarters.

Finalists will take part in a mock battle in August in Copehill Down, a village that was modelled on an East German one when it was built for military training during the Cold War. Copehill Down is near Stonehenge, about 150 kms from London.

The contestants will have their machines search for pretend gunmen and mock bombs, earning points for each find and losing points for hitting civilians or transmitting data too slowly.

The winner gets a trophy made from the recycled metal recovered from a WWII fighter jet. The best designs will also get financial backing from Britain’s defence ministry.
mumbai news

Mumbai: City scientists have developed ‘iSens’ – a low-cost biosensor which they say detects heart attacks well in advance.

Developed at IIT Mumbai’s Centre for Excellence of Nanoelectronics, the iSens is now being prepared for clinical trials and will be available by the end of this year, said Dr V Ramgopal Rao, who heads this project.

“Field trials will not take time since it is only a diagnostic tool. We are talking to some Indian and multinational companies to commercialise the product,” Rao said.

Not only is the cost kept low, he said, but the sensor also detects possible acute myocardial infarction up to six months in advance.







Dr V R Rao

The iSens is primarily a table-top box with a set of sensors, and costs between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. Blood samples are taken on disposable cartridges, and inserted into the box for a period of around 10 minutes, Rao explained.

The box comprises nano-sized sensors, smaller than a millionth of a millimetre. These sensors measure the levels of proteins and enzymes – such as myoglobin, proponin and CK-MB – which can cause myocardial infarctions. Based on the concentration of these elements, the box displays a reading to classify the risk as low, medium or high.

“Our aim is to reach the iSens to the primary health care (PHC) centres. Only five per cent of

patients are able to reach hospitals, while 95 per cent go to PHCs or small clinics,” Rao said. “We can train the PHC personnel as the device will be simple to operate.”

The project was funded by the National Programme for Smart Materials and the National Programme on Micro and Smart Systems.

In association with his colleague Soumyo Mukherjee of the university’s Bio-School, Rao and his team have also developed small silicon lockets to be worn by patients. These lockets can take an ECG of the patient, and transfer the data to a doctor via a mobile phone.

Western Digital has launched its ‘My Passport Elite’ portable hard drive range in India. Weighing in at a mere 180 gms, the USB 2.0 device comes with a large suite of software, including automatic backup, synchronisation tools to update your email and important documents, and MioNet software to remotely access files from your computer. Compatible with Windows, Macs and also game consoles, the 320GB drive retails at Rs 12,150, while the 250GB version will set you back by Rs 10,350. For more details, visit www.westerndigital.com.

Can an object speak volumes about your personality? Well, it sure can, if that object is as intimate as a mobile phone. Accessorisation is the buzzword today – be it your wardrobe and the paraphernalia that goes with it or the cozy interiors of your abode. If you aren't in the 'let-it-be-accessorised' league then are you sure living on Mars. The markets is ionised with new innovations each offering that 'extra' bit to woo 'the' mass of customer base. Mediocre pace and space is not for these high-end mobile phones that take form of a style statement going beyond a mere possession of need.

Indian mobile phone market is ripe with juicy entrants like ‘Nokia’ series, ‘HTC’, ‘LG Viewty’, ‘BlackBerry’ et al. And the flamboyant elite have added their favourite piece of jewellery to their existing grandeur.

Grand talks:

BlackBerry

The latest BlackBerry smartphones launched in India such as the BlackBerry Pearl 8120, the BlackBerry Curve 8300, 8310 and 8320, come with advanced multimedia and powerful voice and messaging capabilities. They are choices for executives and consumers who want to make the most out of their work and personal lives.

Katie Lee, RIM Asia Pacific explains, “The smartphone has become a lifestyle statement. Consumers demand robust performance and user-friendly experience for both messaging (voice and data) and entertainment (multimedia) in a stylish design and form factor.” She adds, “Smartphones come with strong consumer-friendly features, such as high resolution camera, multimedia player, ability to share photos via MMS, email and IM clients. Recently, RIM introduced a Facebook client allowing users to log onto the popular social network site on their preferable locations, as well as upload and share pictures via Facebook.” The phone ultimately helps users manage their work and lifestyle uniquely and hence has become a preferred choice in the market place.

Price range: Rs 14,990.00 to 31,990.00/-

Nokia:

Nokia believes in catering users who are looking at combination of style, class and functionality. Devinder Kishore, director marketing (India) says, “The phones suit consumers with an active lifestyle, who can use their stunning designs and cutting-edge features as a fashion statement.” He adds, “Nokia high-end products translate in a combination of ‘Style with substance’.”

Knocking deals:
Nokia 8800 Arte is built with combination of exquisite materials, glass and stainless steel. Its twin sibling, the Sapphire Arte sports an actual sapphire gemstone and a leather cover to commemorate its exclusivity.

PRISM Collection is a modernist collection of sophisticated phones with unconventional designs. It comprises of Nokia 7900 and 7500 Prism. The signature diamond-cut designs exhibit class.

Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold is 18-carat gold plated with the sapphire-coated, scratch-resistant glass display. A smooth sliding mechanism reveals a stunning colour screen (up to 262k colours), high resolution camera, exclusive ringtones by Brian Eno and a wide array of messaging functionalities.

Nokia N95 and N95 8GB - Personal entertainment has taken on a whole new meaning with this multimedia computer, optimised for enjoying videos, playing games, or even locating destinations with A-GPS.

The Nokia E90 is the first GPS enabled device from Nokia Eseries portfolio. The device offers onboard GPS along with high-speed connectivity to allow consumers to search map and navigate to a location.

Price range: Rs 20,000 to 60,000/-

LG:

Anil Arora, business group head, GSM, LGEIL is of the view that their phones offer perfect harmony of stylish design and smart technology. They cater to those who are stylish, want to flaunt the latest gizmos, are abreast with latest technology and who want to lead fashion. These customers consider themselves trendsetters and fashionable.

Arora explains, “Our products have a balanced mix of all the three aspects - lifestyle tag, smooth functionality and superior brand. ‘Viewty’ provides mobile users with high feature-led technology in the palm of their hand. The professional-level camera phone boasts of a number of 'world's first' easy-to-use features never seen before in a mobile handset.”

Price range: Rs. 10,000/- (Shine Slider) to Rs. 22,000/- (Viewty).

HTC

Ajay Sharma, country manager, HTC (India) says, “In this era of converged devices, mobiles have long transcended from being just voice and texting devices to ones that offer a multitude of applications and functionalities. Today, they serve diverse purposes - from being an entertainment medium, extending to m-commerce platform, GPS device to a device that supports business and enterprise solutions as well.” At HTC, they believe that their data-centric devices have different attributes to offer something to everybody, right from a student to a corporate honcho. It is the first phone with a touch flow technology, provides a Microsoft Windows platform, Version 6.

He adds, “Our device should offer them total connectivity with mobility in terms of Internet email access etc. Devices should have appealing form factors, which the customer would like to flaunt. And, business capabilities, which they would like to have, a simple user interface that is easy to use, and good multi media capabilities to pass their free time.”

Price range: Rs 13, 000 to 28, 000/-

Though the mobile revolution is just a decade old in India, its growth has been phenomenal attracting the best of the world. Consumer is the king and nothing but the best can appeal to these masters, who are on the better end of the stick.

Kishore aptly concludes, “While a lot of focus today is on the volumes of new consumers in India, we are also seeing a silent revolution of discerning consumers picking phones not only on the basis of capabilities but also design and form factor. Today, consumers are increasingly becoming more sophisticated in their selection of handset so that they can get best blend of technology and style.”

Creative recently launched the MuVo T200 MP3 player in India.Weighing in at around 20 gms, the device is equipped with a tiny 65k-colour LCD screen that can change between six colour themes. The gadget can store upto 500 MP3 songs, and also supports WMA and Audible music formats. The device also offers FM radio with 32 presets, and voice recording capability. The T200, which boasts of a battery life of up to 9 hours, retails in two memory capacities – 2 GB for Rs 3,399 and 4 GB for Rs 4,999.For more info, visit in.creative.com

No more waiting: New discovery in electronics could lead to computers that start instantly, and with the same programs running as when you shut it off

For nearly 40 years, scientists have speculated that basic electrical circuits have a natural ability to remember things even when the power is switched off. They just couldn’t find it.

Now, US researchers at Hewlett-Packard have proven them right with the discovery of an electrical circuit that could lead to a computer you never have to boot up.

The finding proves what until now had only been theory – but could save millions from the tedium of waiting for a computer to find its “place”, the researchers said.

The newly discovered circuit element – called a memristor – could enable PCs that start up

instantly, and laptops that retain your session information long after the battery dies.

Lasts long, really long

Basic electronics theory teaches that there are three fundamental elements of a passive circuit – resistors, capacitors and inductors.

But in the 1970s, Leon Chua of the University of California at Berkeley, theorised there should be a fourth called a memory resistor, or ‘memristor’, and he worked out the mathematical equations to prove it.

Now, the HP team – led by Stanley Williams – has proven that ‘memristance’ exists. They developed a mathematical model and a physical example of a memristor, which they described in the journal Nature.

“It’s very different from any other electrical device,” Williams said. “No combination of resistor, capacitor or inductor will give you this.”

It’s like water flowing in a pipe...

Williams likens the memristance to water flowing through a garden hose. In a regular circuit, the water flows from more than one direction.

But in a memory resistor, the hose remembers what direction the water (or current) is flowing from, and it expands in that direction to

improve the flow. If water or current flows from the other direction, the hose shrinks.

“It remembers both the direction and the amount of charge that flows through it… That is the memory,” Williams said.

The discovery is more than an academic pursuit for Williams, who said the finding could lead a new kind of computer memory that would never need booting up.

Conventional computers use Dynamic Random Access Memory or DRAM, which is lost when the power is turned off, and must be

accessed from the hard drive when the computer goes back on.

But a computer that incorporates this new kind of memory circuit would never lose it place, even when the power is turned off.

“If you turn on your computer it will come up instantly where it was when you turned it off. That is a very interesting potential application, and one that is very realistic,” Williams said.

But he said understanding this new circuit element could be critical as companies attempt to build ever smaller devices.

“It’s essential that people understand this to be able to go further into the world of nanoelectronics,” referring to electronics on the nano scale – objects tens of thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair.

“It turns out that memristance gets more important as the device gets smaller. That is another major reason it took so long to find,” Williams said.

Chua, who wrote the first paper on the topic when he was a new professor at Berkeley, is now 71 years old and says he’s nearing retirement from the university.

“I never thought I’d live long enough to see this happen,” Chua said with a laugh. “I’m thrilled because it’s almost like vindication. Something I did is not just in my imagination, it’s fundamental.’’

Scientists have developed technology that could speed-up the detection of the virus that causes cervical cancer by using just a single molecule; method could also be used to detect other viruses such as HIV and avian flu

Researchers in the US have developed a technology that detects a single molecule of the virus associated with cervical cancer in women. The development, they say, could help in the early detection of diseases.

The advancement is a significant improvement over the current test for the human papillomavirus (HPV), said Edward Yeung, a professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, and leader of the research team that developed the new test.

About the pathogen...

Papillomaviruses are a diverse group of DNA-based viruses that infect the skin and mucous membranes of humans and a variety of animals.

Over 100 different human papillomavirus (HPV) types have been identified so far.

Research scientist, Edward Yeung, uses laser beams to light up tags that indicate molecules of human papillomavirus are present in a cell

Some HPV types may cause skin warts while others may cause an infection resulting in precancerous lesions. All HPVs are transmitted by skin-to-skin contact.

A group of about 30-40 HPVs is typically transmitted through sexual contact. However, some HPV types, which may infect the genitals, do not to cause any noticeable signs of infection.

Notably, HPV infection is a necessary factor in the development of nearly all cases of cervical cancer.

Researchers believe that the human papillomavirus is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections the world over.

When one molecule is better than fifty The current test, the Nobel Prize-winning polymerase chain reaction technique, requires 10 to 50 virus molecules for detection.

“We are always interested in detecting smaller and smaller amounts of material at lower and lower concentrations,” Yeung said. “Detecting lower levels means earlier diagnosis.”

The discovery by Yeung, Jiangwei Li, an Iowa State doctoral student; and Ji-Young Lee, a former Iowa State doctoral student; was published in the Nov 1 issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Their work was funded by a five-year, $9,50,000 grant from US’ National Institutes of Health.

The project advanced rapidly just as the human papillomavirus made headlines in scientific circles: In June of 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine – for females up to the age of 26 – that was developed to prevent cervical cancer, precancerous lesions and genital warts caused by four types of the virus.

Yeung said single molecule detection of the virus could help earlier detection of disease and could help prevent serious consequences.

The new detection technology improves current technology by eliminating a step to amplify DNA samples for testing.
Although the current test is efficient and well understood, the amplification can cause small contaminants to create test errors.

Yeung’s single molecule technique involves creating chemical reagents that recognise and fluorescently tag the genetic sequence of the human papillomavirus.

Test samples pass through a laser beam that lights the tags. Cameras capture the images for computer analysis.

The research team tested the technique using

samples from normal Pap smears. They also spiked some of those samples with the virus to make sure the tests picked up known amounts of the virus.

Although this test concentrated on detecting the human papillomavirus, Yeung said it should detect HIV, avian flu and other viruses as well.

Will the tech make it to medical labs?

Yeung said he won’t be directly involved in taking the detection technology to market. But he said companies have expressed some interest in licensing and developing the technology.

As that project moves on, Yeung will continue looking for ways to detect chemical targets at the smallest limits. He said the next challenge is to figure out how to detect single molecules of proteins.

Autonomous robotic cars race through simulated life-like road conditions, throwing up the possibility of unmanned vehicles for military as well as civilian purposes

Cape Canaveral, USA : NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour blasted off Wednesday sending the first teacher into space 21 years after the Challenger explosion tragically ended the dream of another pioneering teacher.

Teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan, 55, has become the star of the second shuttle mission to the International Space Station this year. Her chance to fly into space finally came with Endeavour’s launch at 6:36 pm (2236 GMT) Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral.

“Class is in session,” said a NASA mission control spokesman after the external fuel tank separated from the shuttle and the Endeavour entered its orbit less than nine minutes into the flight.

The shuttle is to reach the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) on Friday at 1753 GMT.

Morgan had trained alongside fellow teacher Christa McAuliffe in the 1980s as a backup for the Challenger shuttle mission.

NASA had hoped that sending a teacher into space would fire the imaginations of millions and keep up support for its shuttle program. But on January 28, 1986, Challenger exploded and broke up 73 seconds after blast-off, killing all seven aboard.

After the Challenger disaster Morgan went back to teaching, and then rejoined NASA in 1998.

Once in space she will operate robotic arms on the ISS and the shuttle to unload and install new equipment and supplies on the space station.

Endeavour is on an 11-day mission to continue the expansion of the ISS. The mission will carry a truss section about the size of a small car to extend the space station to a length of 108 metres, about the size of a football pitch.
The astronauts will also replace a defective gyroscope, one of four keeping the space station on an even keel, and install an exterior stowage platform.

NASA could prolong the mission by three days to include a fourth space walk that will allow crews to inspect for potential damage to the shuttle’s heat shield.

The US space agency has been leery of damage to shuttle heat shields since February 2003, when a broken thermal tile led to the disintegration of shuttle Columbia on re-entry, killing all seven aboard and putting the shuttle program on hold for two-and-a-half years.

NASA finally resumed ISS construction missions last year after conducting two missions aimed at improving safety.

Besides Morgan, the Endeavour crew includes US Navy Cmdr Scott Kelly, the commander; Marine Lt Col Charles Hobaugh, the copilot; Rick Mastracchio, Tracy Caldwell, Air Force Col Alvin Drew and Canadian physician Dave Williams.

Researchers have found a way to create electricity using only body heat. Future applications could include cell phones with no battery, powered by the heat from your hand…


New circuits transform body heat – such as that of a hand – into electrical energy simply from the temperature difference between a hot and a cold environment. The technology could result in wireless health monitoring systems that are powered by your body heat alone.
Picture a hospital’s Intensive Care Unit: Numerous items of medical equipment are attached to the body of a patient. They monitor his heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, pulse and breathing rate. Now also picture the jumble of power cables in that room. All these devices require their own electricity supply, after all.

But if certain German scientists have their way, medical sensors – in the near future – may be able to function without power from a wall socket.

Instead, they will draw all the power they need from the warmth of the human body. And the respective data will be sent by a radio signal to the central monitoring station.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits – in collaboration with colleagues from the Physical Measurement Techniques section and the Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research team – have developed a way to harness natural body heat to generate electricity.

The new system works on the principle of thermoelectric generators (TEG), made from semiconductor elements.

The TEGs extract electrical energy simply from the temperature difference between a hot and a cold environment.

Normally, a difference of several tens of degrees would be required in order to generate enough power, but the differences between the body’s surface temperature and that of its environment are only a few degrees.

“Only low voltages can be produced from differences like these,” explains Peter Spies, a manager with this project. A conventional TEG delivers roughly 200 millivolts, but electronic devices require at least one or two volts.

The engineers have come up with a solution to this problem.

“We combined a number of components in a completely new way to create circuits that can operate on 200 millivolts,” says Spies. “This has enabled us to build entire electronic systems that do not require an internal battery, but draw their energy from body heat alone.”

The scientists are making further improvements to this system: Circuits that are “excited” at 50 millivolts already exist. Spies believes that in future, when further improvements have been made, a temperature difference of only 0.5 degrees will be sufficient to generate electricity.

The scientists have set their eyes on a wide range of possible applications.

“Electricity can be generated from heat, any place where a temperature difference occurs,” claims Spies. “That could be on the body, on radiators to meter the heating costs, when monitoring the cooling chain during the transport of refrigerated goods, or in air conditioning systems.”

Cupertino, United States: Apple on Tuesday unveiled a new line of iMac computers and slick software, hoping the glow of iPod MP3 players and iPhones will help shine Apple’s core products.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, in his trademark blue jeans and black shirt, demonstrated the offerings to reporters and analysts at the company’s headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino.

“The iMac has a tremendous amount of momentum,” Jobs said. “We’d like to make it better.”

Apple is replacing its white, plastic iMac with a more powerful, slimmer aluminium-and-glass machine for either the same price or lesser than its predecessors, depending on the model.

Apple calls iMac the “all-in-one” desktop because the hardware – now driven by Intel Core 2 Duo processors – is built into the screen that is also equipped with a Web camera and a
microphone.

That’s right, there’s no bulky CPU to attach to your monitor.

“The iMac has been really successful for us. And we’ve managed to make it even thinner than before,” Jobs said.
In the past, environmental groups have criticised Apple for not doing more to eliminate electronic waste. Jobs replied with the new iMac’s recyclable aluminium-and-glass components.

“It’s really been thought through from a recycling point of view,” he said.

He also showed upgrades and innovations packed into Apple iLife software for organising and editing digital movies, pictures or music.

The company also launched a ‘Web Gallery’ where people can easily share videos and images online using its programs. The software lets people use Google’s AdSense to profit from online advertising on blogs or other personal Web sites.

Another software introduced was a spreadsheet program called ‘Numbers’, in a bid to make Apple computers more attractive to offices and business.

“The overriding message here is, there is an Apple ecosystem,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research.

“It’s not just iPods and iPhones. Sometimes people forget that Apple still makes great computers too.”

Screening paintings (left) with infrared light reveals the watermarks (right) of the paper mills. These enable works to be dated and examined for authenticity without risk of damage


Recovered paintings of the famous Dutch artist Rembrandt have a unique feature about them: Experts are never really sure which ones he created himself.

Many of the paintings, etchings and drawings attributed to the artist were actually created by his pupils.

And to add to that, several other works - attributed to him - were actually painted by imitators, many decades after the master’s death.

These imitations are so brilliant, that at times, it is even difficult for art historians to distinguish the original works of art from the fakes.

However, German research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut (WKI), in collaboration with colleagues from the TU Braunschweig, have developed a simple way of exposing fake paintings.

The new method screens the pictures with infrared radiation, which exposes the watermarks of the paper mills, thus allowing researchers to date the works without risk of damage.

The watermarks in the paper were woven into the wires of the screen moulds that were used to scoop paper fibres out of the pulp.

“Every paper mill had several different watermarks at any one time - often a different one on each screen mould,” says WKI project manager Peter Meinlschmidt. “We know a lot about which watermarks were used by which paper mill at which period of time.”

Paper can be dated even more accurately by studying tiny changes in the watermarks that were caused as the screen moulds progressively wore out.

Art historians usually hold the drawings against the light to see the watermark. However, the marks are often obscured by ink, handwriting and paints on the front and back of the painting to the point where they are indecipherable.

The former solution was to trace them, which may leave pressure marks on the picture.

X-rays also reveal the watermark, but the X-ray technique is not usually possible in museums for technical reasons and for the sake of radiation protection.

On the other hand, it is risky to remove the works of art from their air-conditioned environments and take them to a laboratory.

“Most inks are transparent in infrared light,” says Meinlschmidt, explaining the crucial feature of the new method. “So we put a warm plate with a temperature of 35 to 40 degrees Celsius behind the picture and use an infrared camera to register how much heat the picture allows to pass through. This shows up the differences in paper density, and thus also the watermark.”

This exposure to heat is perfectly safe for the picture: As it is placed at a distance of one centimetre from the hot plate for the duration of only one second, it absorbs less heat than if it were touched briefly by someone’s fingers.

The Bavarian State Library in Munich is considering using this method to file the watermarks with the respective pictures in its digital archive.

Seoul: With the advent of robots in the service sector – from those guarding borders to those caring for the elderly – their interaction with humans is on the rise.

Now, South Korea – which has set an ambitious goal of a robot in every home by 2013 – is attempting to draw up a code of ethics for robotic technology.

“We are setting rules on how far robotic technology can go and how humans live together with robots,” said Kim Dae-Won, a professor at Myongji University who heads a team of 12 scientists, doctors, psychologists and robot developers that is writing what it believes will be the world’s first Robot Ethics Charter.

It will be released by year’s end.

“A society in which robots and humans live together may come soon, probably within 10 years,” Dae-Won said.

Many scientists expect the use of babysitting or dishwashing robots by 2050.

The Korean charter will set guidelines to curb the use of robots for undesirable or dangerous purposes.

“The purpose of this charter is to find ways of coexistence between humans and robots, not to restrict the development of robotics,” Kim said.

Key considerations include ensuring that humans maintain control over robots, preventing their illegal use, protecting data acquired by robots and ensuring they can be clearly identified and traced.

Military robots will require separate rules not covered in the charter, Kim said, as the question of legal liability may create hurdles.

Future Robots, now South Korea last year unveiled a high-tech, machine gun-toting sentry robot designed eventually to support troops guarding their borders.

Min Young-Gi, a manager of the Korea Advanced Intelligent Robot Association set up by manufacturers, does not oppose a charter but noted: “The robot industry requires practical guidelines, not a broad, non-binding declaration.”

The association forged a deal with a nursery school chain in July to provide 8,000 network robots that are programmed to play with or teach kids, and provide extra security.

Korean scientists have developed a variety of robots – some devoted to work and others to play.

The state-run Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed EveR-2 Muse, a robot version of a woman in her 20s who can hold a conversation, sing a song, make eye contact and express emotions.

Claiming a breakthrough, KAIST said in July it had developed an artificial brain system which enables a robot to make a decision based on context, or check its surroundings before opting how to behave.

Also, about 300 Korean scientists are working on developing robot caregivers which could tackle chores and monitor the health of the elderly. The project is due for completion in 2013.

Sim Hag-Bong, director of the Commerce Ministry’s Robot Industry Division, said the proposed charter “reflects our determination to secure the upper hand in the field of service robots.”

Motorists tempted to get behind the wheel after one alcoholic drink too many could soon get a ticking off from an unlikely source: Their car.

A new concept car, manufactured by Japan’s Nissan Motor Co, with its breathalyser-like detection systems may aid policing systems, the world over, to keep impaired drivers off the road.

Nissan’s prototype alcohol-detection sensors check odour, sweat and driver awareness, issuing a voice alert from the navigation system and locking up the ignition if necessary.

Rivals Toyota and Honda are also researching anti-drink driving systems, said Credit Suisse auto analyst Koji Endo.

“Everybody’s concern nowadays is with safety and environmental issues,” he said.

ALCOHOL ODOUR SENSORS
Nissan’s hi-sensitivity alcohol odour sensor is built into the gear shift knob, which is able to detect the presence of alcohol in the perspiration of the driver’s palm as he or she attempts to start driving.

When the alcohol-level detected is above the pre-determined threshold, the system automatically locks the transmission, immobilising the car.

A ‘drunk driving’ voice alert is also issued via the car navigation system.

Additional alcohol odour sensors are also incorporated into the driver’s and passenger seats to detect the presence of alcohol in the air. When it is detected, the system issues both a voice alert and a message alert on the navigation system monitor.

“We’ve placed odour detectors and a sweat sensor on the gear shift. But, for example, if the gear-shift sensor was bypassed by a passenger using it instead of the driver, the facial recognition system would be used,” Kazuhiro Doi, Nissan’s General Manager, said.

FACIAL RECOGNITION SYSTEM

A camera is mounted behind the steering wheel to monitor the driver’s face. The system is calibrated to monitor the driver’s state of consciousness through the blinking of the eyes.

Upon detecting signs of drowsiness, it issues a voice and message alert. Additionally, a seat-belt mechanism is activated which tightens around the driver to gain his or her immediate attention.

But the system doesn’t become dormant once the car is in motion.


DRIVING BEHAVIOUR

The system constantly monitors the operational behaviour of the vehicle, such as sensing if the vehicle is veering out of its driving lane. It thus identifies signs of inattentiveness in the driver.

Upon detecting such behaviour, voice and message alerts as well as the seat-belt alert mechanism are activated.

NOT YET FOOL-PROOF

However, the car company is still in the process of distilling exactly what impairment means.

“If you drink one beer, it’s going to register, so we need to study what’s the appropriate level for the system to activate,” said Doi.

The automaker is also testing a new on-board breathalyser that will prevent inebriated motorists from starting up their cars.

Nissan has no specific timetable for marketing, but aims to yoke all technology to cut the number of fatalities involving its vehicles to half 1995 levels by 2015.

Arguably, the most widely used productivity suite in the world, Microsoft Office is now available in its newest avatar – and this time around, it’s got a complete makeover
MATTHEW FORDAHL

With each update to its Office suite, Microsoft has piled on features aimed at boosting users’ productivity and goosing sales of the world’s most widely used collection of programs for handling documents, spreadsheets, e-mail and presentations.
Office 2007 for Windows-based PCs, launched Tuesday alongside the company’s new Windows Vista operating system, is no different, except for one feature, called “Ribbons”, that makes it vastly easier to figure out what these programs have to offer.

RIBBON ME THIS, RIBBON ME THAT

Most of the suite’s applications – Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook – have done away with the old, familiar menus and toolbars. In their place is the Ribbon – a horizontal strip of screen real estate populated with tabs and icons grouped by function.
Want to add clip art to a Word document? Just click on the “Insert” tab and choose the “Clip Art” icon, which, incidentally, is hard to miss. Creating a complex formula in Excel? Click on “Formulas” and pick your poison – all broken down by type.
It’s also dynamic: When handling a photo in Word, the Ribbon presents the tools suitable for that task. No more clicking on the “View” menu, choosing “Toolbars” and then figuring out which of the tiny icons might be of use.
The Ribbon ranks among the most significant improvements to Office to date. It’s not the first software to break out of the “File,” “Edit,” and “View” mould, but it’s the most convincing alternative I’ve seen. Other programs will surely follow suit.
The Ribbon isn’t customisable and can’t be repositioned, though it can be minimised. There’s no option to switch back to “classic” view, and it isn’t universal – the old menus and toolbars can be found in parts of Outlook, for instance.
It took me a few weeks to get used to it, but after trying out Office 2007 for a couple months, the Ribbon has revealed features of the suite that I didn’t know existed.

ONLY CHANGE IS CONSTANT

The Ribbon isn’t the only enhancement. In many of the programs, when text is selected, a faint “Mini Toolbar” appears above it. Hover the mouse pointer over the toolbar, and you can change the formatting of the selected text. For those easily annoyed, it can be switched off.
Office 2007 also stores documents in a new format – one more compact and safer than before. Colleagues who haven’t upgraded must download a free converter program to open the files. You can also save files in the older formats with Office 2007 – important because the converter isn’t available yet for Apple’s Macintosh computers.
There’s also a new way of adding graphics magic to your documents – once everyone upgrades. “SmartArt” allows you to easily insert graphics that can be easily edited and repositioned. If the typed-in text doesn’t fit, it automatically shrinks the size of the font so that it does.

IN CONCLUSION

Of course, a big selling point, mainly for businesses, is how the Office programs work together. Microsoft is updating its servers that act as the glue, enabling easier sharing of documents and information.
But is Word, Excel and PowerPoint necessary for the average consumer or student? Actually that depends on what you’re used to. Microsoft has seen increasing competition lately from Web-based and open-source software. All those work fine for basic word processing and number crunching. And you can’t beat the price – free.
Office 2007, however, goes a step further: It not only helps you produce the content but also present it in ways unequalled by its rivals. At least, not without a lot of work.


OFFICE 2007 HIGHLIGHTS



WORD


Even the most boring document can be spiffed up quickly in Word 2007 by applying several new themes. And you can get a preview simply by hovering over the theme with the mouse. Word also has a new tool to instantly strip away any metadata, such as snarky comments thought hidden, that might have been attached as notes by people reviewing your work.



EXCEL


The popular spreadsheet can now handle a grid of 10,48,576 rows by 16,384 columns of data – a 16-fold increase in one direction, 64-fold in the other. Improved charting functionality supports 3-D, transparency and shadows.And when working with a large table, it keeps the headers in view when you scroll down.



POWERPOINT


There’s good news for those of us who dread meetings where speakers rely too heavily on PowerPoint: A boatload of new templates helps jazz things up. It’s easier to create the presentations, too, thanks to SmartArt and themes. A boring bulleted list, for instance, can be transformed into a diagram – such as timelines – with a click or two.


OUTLOOK


Outlook 2007 now supports “Instant Search,” to find old e-mail in seconds. Also, it displays a to-do bar that highlights the tasks you should be doing, precluding the need to fish for some function on the Ribbon. It offers many more options for categorising messages. And yes, it also supports Really Simple Syndication feeds, so you can catch up on the latest news and blogs.

The flying car of science fiction may be reality by 2010. An Israeli company envisions its creation – the X-Hawk – saving thousands of lives in urban rescue operations

Rafi Yoeli has a solution to saving people from burning high-rises, flooded cities or rescuing soldiers trapped behind enemy lines: A flying car.
Yoeli already has gotten a rudimentary vehicle off the ground – about three feet – and hopes to see a marketable version of his X-Hawk flying car by 2010.
Although his dream might seem farfetched, US-based Bell Helicopters is taking a serious look, teaming with Yoeli’s privately held Urban Aeronautics to explore X-Hawk’s potential.
Think of the people trapped in the World Trade Centre. Think of ground patrols in Iraq blown up by roadside bombs. Think of citizens stranded in 26 July Mumbai floods.
X-Hawk and its smaller version, Mule, might one day offer the same capabilities as helicopters, but without the serious operating limitations – like exposed rotors – that helicopters face in urban terrain.
As of now, there isn’t any aircraft that can operate optimally in urban environments. Yoeli is trying to address that need by designing a kind of vehicle that can get close to buildings and skyscrapers, and provide some type of relief for people stranded in them.

THE MACHINE

X-Hawk – currently just a full-size mould in Urban Aeronautics’ headquarters in the Israeli town of Yavne – looks like a futuristic space car, with its streamlined design, two fans rising from the rear and cockpit-style driver’s seat.
But Yoeli envisions X-Hawk and Mule as more of a truck, pulling up to dangerous combat or terror arenas to ferry in personnel and supplies and ferry out people at risk. Like a similarly sized helicopter, X-Hawk will be able to take-off vertically, fly up to 155 miles an hour and as high as 12,000 feet and remain aloft about two hours, Urban Aeronautics says.
But encased fans will replace the exposed rotors that keep helicopters from manoeuvring effectively in urban areas or dense natural terrain. And a patented system of vanes is designed to afford the vehicle greater stability. Urban Aeronautics says vehicles will be able to sidle right up to a building.
“The X-Hawk also will be quieter, offering a stealth advantage over helicopters,” said Janina Frankel-Yoeli, the company’s vice president for marketing. “But because the rotor diameter is smaller, the new vehicle will use about 50 per cent more fuel.” Rafi Yoeli expects an unmanned Mule prototype to be flying in two or three years and in production within five. He projects a manned X-Hawk will first hover in 2009 and hit the market within eight years.

THE MAN

The 55-year-old designer says he’s been fascinated by flight since childhood and got into the flying car business after two years at Boeing, five at Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd and 14 at a company he co-founded to develop unmanned airborne vehicles and helicopter applications. His initial fantasy was a flying sports car. But because of all the regulatory issues that would have to be resolved before masses of commuters could start whooshing through the sky, he tucked that dream aside to develop something that could hit the market earlier. The company headquarters are dominated by a large, white-domed flight simulator and the proof-of-concept vehicle that Yoeli says he built in his second-floor living room so he could spend more time with his family. What’s compelled Yoeli on this project is the urge “to get up vertically,” without needing a runway or a rotating mechanism overhead. “You sit in a traffic jam, and everyone gets this urge: I want to get up now, and over this,” he said. “You need a certain kind of machine. I think X-Hawk can do it.” AP

SAN FRANCISCO: US President George Bush is no longer Google’s top response to Internet searches for “miserable failure.”
Queries for French military victories no longer take one to “defeats.” And Russian Internet users that type “enemy of the people” into Google are not directed to a biography of that nation’s leader, Vladimir Putin.
The California-based search colossus says it has finally defused such “Googlebombs”, that is, search term results rigged by clever outsiders to make comic or critical commentary.
“By improving our analysis of the Web, Google has begun minimising the impact of many Googlebombs,” Ryan Moulton and Kendra Carattini of Google wrote in a company Web log.
Googlebombs, also referred to as “link bombs”, provide links to unrelated sites under the guise of solving the query. For example, searches for “failure,” “fiasco,” and “miserable” in various languages resulted in links to various countries’ current or former leaders.
“Because these pranks are normally for phrases that are well off the beaten path, they haven’t been a very high priority for us,” Moulton and Carattini explained in their blog.
“But over time, we’ve seen more people assume that they are Google’s opinion, or that Google has hand-coded the results for these Googlebombed queries. That’s not true.” To deactivate Googlebombs, Google engineers developed a search algorithm to neutralise them. “Computers can process lots of data very fast, and robust algorithms often work well in several languages,” Moulton and Carattini wrote. “That’s what we did in this case, and the extra effort to find a good algorithm helps detect Googlebombs in many different languages.” Google ranks search results based on a mathematical model that factors in key words and popularity of Web sites. While Google has known about link bombs for years, it had previously expressed reluctance to defuse them individually because it didn’t want to tinker with the objectivity of its Internet search model. Google, however, cautioned that some link bombs will slip past the algorithm net, which will be tightened based on feedback from searchers. AFP

LONDON: Fancy trying your hand at creative writing but can’t quite find the time? Tired of scribbling away all by yourself?
British publisher Penguin may have the answer – a Web-based, collaborative novel that can be written, edited or read by anyone, anywhere thanks to “wiki” software, the technology behind Web encyclopaedia Wikipedia.
The novel, “A Million Penguins,” went live on Thursday and its first lines are already being written, edited and rewritten by enthusiasts on www.amillionpenguins.com.
Penguin, which embarked on the project with a group of creative writing and new media students, says it is using the novel as a test of whether a group of disparate and diverse people can create a “believable fictional voice.”
“This is an experiment. It may end up like reading a bowl of alphabet spaghetti,” Jeremy Ettinghausen, head of digital publishing at Penguin UK said, adding there were no plans as yet to publish the completed work.
“We are not making any predictions. It would be utterly fantastic if we could, at the end, create a print remix.”
So far, the first chapter includes Carlo, a troubled man walking his dog, and “on the other side of the globe” a seductive murderer, Tom Morouse, “known as the Tango poisoner.”
The experimental novel, which Penguin says is the first “wiki novel” to be started from scratch by a major publishing house, will be online for at least six weeks.
But it warns budding artists that the work is not a talent search and insists it expects a variety of tones and abilities.
“In an ideal world we could throw in a sense of plausibility, balance and humour,” Penguin’s blogger, Jon Elek, wrote in an entry earlier this week.
“That’s asking a lot, and in truth I’ll be happy so long as it manages to avoid becoming some sort of robotic-zombieassassins-against-African-ninjas-inspace-narrated-by-a-Papal-Tiara type of thing.” REUTERS

TOKYO: Researchers have developed a device based on the videogame – Whack-A-Mole – that they believe will help senior citizens who have lost their physical coordination.
The new gadget, invented by Kyushu University and game machine maker Namco is an exclusive pastime apparatus designed for the elderly in which the players stomp on snake heads popping up in rapid succession on the floor and try to outscore others in play.
The device helps invigorate players as they use their toes and muscles in their thighs while playing the game, researchers say.
The objective is to enable elders who have lost some of their physical mobility to enjoy moving their bodies and restore body movement functions.
Shinichiro Takasugi, an instructor in the rehabilitation department at Kyushu University Hospital in Japan, initially set up a “Whack-a-Crocodile” machine at a day-care centre in 2000 hoping it would be effective in helping senior citizens to spontaneously enjoy and continue exercises.
He divided those who came to the centre for rehabilitation into two groups – one which used the game machine and the one which did not – and measured their functionality in body movements for a year.
Takasugi said members of the group who used the machine began demonstrating their superiority and agility over those who did not use the game.
He concluded that the users got themselves in shape in the sense of balance and reflexes since they had to stretch their arms and quickly strike the pop-up crocodiles on the head with a mallet while bending forward.

Gadget freaks have never had it so good. Cut throat competition between manufacturers of phones, consoles and other sundry devices only mean good tidings for consumers: Better toys, competitive prices and myriad choices.
Here’s a look at some of the devices that are really hot in the gadget world


MOBILE PHONES

No gadget list would be complete without mention of the new generation of mobile phones. In fact, experts believe that the mobile phone will eventually replace stand-alone music players as the portable device of choice. The more notable devices:
LG has positioned its Chocolate phone as the flagship handset for music. The reason for calling it “Chocolate”, however, escapes us completely.
Not positioned as a phone, but as a “portable computer” instead, the Nokia N80 includes an FM radio receiver and a miniSD memory card slot. It also boasts a Wi-Fi wireless connection that among other things will let users stream music and video directly off their home PCs via special software from Orb Networks.
With Blackberry Pearl, RIM seems to have entered the mainstream mobile phone fray with its new size and shape. Of course, the Quadband GSM/GPRS/ EDGE device is still primarily suited for business executives, but seriously, the device packs quite a punch and comes with e-mail and browser capability, voice dialling, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a media player, expandable micro SD slot, etc.
In fact, the BlackBerry Pearl is expected to be available in India from Airtel later this month at Rs 24,999

ZUNE

Microsoft’s media gadget, the 30GB Zune, most notably features a wireless connection which lets users immediately share songs with one another. Shared songs can be played three times and stored for up to three days before users are prompted to either buy the track or subscribe to the Zune service for unlimited listening.
The debate rages over how big a draw this functionality will be, but already Microsoft has succeeded in capturing a great deal of awareness over the product, something the Apple iPod is accustomed to having all to itself.


SANSA

From nowhere, SanDisk has emerged to become the second-biggest seller (after Apple) of MP3 players with its Sansa, boasting a market share of slightly less than 20 per cent. A budget alternative to the iPod, Sansa is a great combination of looks and functionality. The device features a user-replaceable, rechargeable lithium ion battery, a microSD expansion slot for additional memory, digital FM tuner, on-the-fly FM and voice recording – all housed in a pretty durable package.



SONY PLAYSTATION 3

After many delays, the much anticipated PlayStation 3 is finally on the market. The videogame console features not only the most advanced graphics display and processing power yet, it also has Internet connectivity, a 20GB or 60GB hard drive, and doubles as a Blu-ray DVD player.
But it doesn’t come cheap at $500 (Rs 22,200 approx) for the basic version and $600 (Rs 26,700 approx) for the more advanced unit. Additionally, available games for the system could run as high as $75 (Rs 3,300 approx). Almost everyone expects a major distribution shortage in the first few months after the console’s launch. The company expects to ship about 2 million devices by the end of the year.


NINTENDO WII

The dark horse of the next-generation consoles is Nintendo’s Wii.
Its demo wowed users at this year’s Electronics Entertainment Expo, generating the longest lines at the show to try out the innovative system. The greatest buzz is over the Wii’s controller, which essentially is a wand that players can wave around to control the action on the screen.
At $250 (Rs 11,100 approx), half as much as the cheapest PlayStation 3, there’s certainly a good chance that Nintendo might challenge Sony’s dominance.
The company plans to ship 4 million of the devices by the end of the year. Unlike the PS3, the Wii is not aimed at hard-core gamers, but rather at videogame newcomers, with both the lower price and easier-to-play games.



BLUE-RAY/HD-DVD PLAYERS

The first round of high-definition DVD players will hit retail shelves this year, although with steep price points.
Cooling the market a bit is the ongoing standards war, with Sony leading the charge for the Blu-ray format, while Microsoft and Toshiba rally the flag for the HD-DVD format. Also stunting immediate mass adoption are the prices, expected to average around $800 (Rs 35,600 approx).
The benefits of these next-generation DVD systems are fairly straightforward: better storage, clearer pictures and better digital rights management. But with the entertainment market moving increasingly toward digital delivery, the future of even the most sophisticated physical distribution format seems a bit limited.


IPODS

Whether it’s the new line of Nanos, the new-andimproved video iPod or the new Shuffle, Apple’s digital entertainment product break new ground each year.
Apple’s Nano line has undergone a makeover, featuring a thinner design, better display and battery life, and a range of five colours available in 2GB (Rs 9,800), 4GB (Rs 13,200) and 8GB (Rs 16,400).
Additionally, the revamped video iPod holds a whopping 80GB of capacity, good for 20,000 songs, 25,000 photos or 100 hours of video, and features a brighter screen.
Ah yes, the iPod Shuffle has been downsized.

In the market for a new 19-inch LCD monitor? Check this one out, the BenQ FP92W. The widescreen monitor has a fast response time of 5 seconds which in turn reduces the ghosting on moving images. The FP92W also boasts of a high contrast ratio and high brightness which supposedly improves the visual experience. The monitor is available in stores around the city and retails for Rs 13,999. For more information, visit www.benq.com

The PlayStation 2 was literally heaven for RPG gamers, but now with the PlayStation 3 launching soon, we look at some of the last RPG titles to be launched for the PlayStation 2....


LOU KESTEN

It's been a good ride for the PlayStation 2 and much of the PS2's success can be attributed to its remarkably diverse software lineup including its overwhelming supremacy of the RPG genre.

VALKYRIE PROFILE 2: SILMERIA

Valkyrie Profile 2 actually a prequel to the 2000 cult favourite begins with the valkyrie Silmeria being exiled from Valhalla and forced to share the human body of a wimpy princess named Alicia. Outsiders think Alicia's gone nuts, and Odin, king of the Norse gods, wants Silmeria dead all while an apocalyptic battle is brewing between the gods and the humans. As Alicia flees her persecutors, Silmeria has the power to free doomed souls called 'einherjar', who then fight alongside the princess/goddess. The level of invention goes beyond the story line: The 2D dungeons are cleverly designed, while the 3D battles are fast-paced but allow plenty of opportunity to strategise. Each of your fighters is controlled by a different button, and you can mash them all at once or time them to execute powerful combos. Valkyrie Profile 2 is a complex and challenging experience that will find an appreciative audience among players who've grown weary of RPG clichés.


VALKYRIE PROFILE 2: SILMERIA

Rating: 4/5

Developer: Tri-Ace

Publisher: Square Enix

Platform: Sony Playstation 2


RPG fans have depended on Sony machines since 1997, when Square moved its beloved Final Fantasy franchise from Nintendo to the PlayStation. Almost every major RPG series since has been PlayStation only, from blockbusters like Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts to cults titles like Shin Megami Tensei and Shadow Hearts.

SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI: DEVIL SUMMONER

A title like that should tell you one thing: You're in for some serious weirdness. The setting is 1920s Japan, where Western influences are beginning to crowd out Eastern traditions. The hero, Raidou, works at a cut-rate detective agency, and his first case looks like a simple kidnapping before evolving into a much grander conspiracy. As Raidou unravels the mystery he's under constant attack by demons, which he can capture, control and even combine into more powerful monsters. In each battle you can select one demon to fight alongside you, and you can switch between allies with different powers, adding a strategic element to otherwise generic combat. Devil Summoner doesn't quite meet the high standard set by its predecessor, last year's brilliant Digital Devil Saga, but its likeably bizarre story has enough twists and turns to satisfy anyone looking for an unusual adventure.

SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI: DEVIL SUMMONER

Rating: 4/5

Developer: Atlus

Publisher: Atlus

Platform: Sony Playstation 2


Until the PS3 arrives, we're still being treated to some good RPGs on the PS2. The just-released Final Fantasy XII is the colossus, of course, but there are some alternatives. AP

TALES OF THE ABYSS

Those clichés we mentioned before are in full effect in the latest instalment of Namco's endless Tales series. Let's start with a teenage protagonist who has no memory of his childhood but could be the key to saving the world. Abyss does throw a few interesting twists into the story mainly by making the hero, Luke, so insufferably bratty that it pains you to think he could be the messiah but for the
most part it will seem awfully familiar to any RPG. The battles seem overly simple at first, but ramp up nicely in difficulty, and there are plenty of places to explore and missions to accomplish. Abyss is well put-together, but it's tough to find time for a merely adequate RPG when there are so many more innovative games out there.


TALES OF THE ABYSS

Rating: 2.5/5

Developer: Namco Bandai

Publisher: Namco Bandai

Platform: Sony Playstation 2

Watch out Pranoy Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt. New technology from researchers at US-based Northwestern University provides individual users with an automated, personalised newscast that is completely virtual – including a virtual anchor.
Invented by Kristian Hammond, co-director of Northwestern’s Intelligent Information Laboratory (InfoLab), and graduate students Nathan Nichols and Sara Owsley, ‘News at Seven’ collects, edits and organises existing news stories based on a user’s interests, then passes the formatted content to the virtual anchor that’s based on video game characters.
Using Web resources like Google and YouTube, the system utilises the text of news stories to retrieve video, images and blogs related to the content.
“It’s a completely personalised and automated news report using Web resources,” explains Hammond. “The system can create a news package based on someone’s interest; then deliver it on demand. It is the first step in creating a world in which information is automatically gathered, edited and delivered to people based on their interests and needs.”
Once it has assembled the materials, the system edits the news stories, replacing abbreviations and other phrasings that are appropriate for written text but not meant to be spoken.
News at Seven virtual anchors then present a performance that combines techniques of modern news programming with features made possible by the fact that the system is completely virtual.
With further research and development, the creators of News at Seven hope to offer a commercially viable replacement to the typical televised news show, offering instead a show tailored to a user’s specific interests. A brand new news package could be delivered daily or even every half hour. To view a News at Seven newscast, visit: www.youtube.com/profile?user=NewsAtSeven

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo is making it easier to choose between e-mail and instant-messaging tools by bringing the two together in its Mail program.
Yahoo Mail, which counts 250 million active users, plans in coming months to incorporate the Yahoo Messenger instant-messaging program inside the e-mail service, Yahoo executive Brad Garlinghouse announced.
Consumers will be able to run the two programs in one Web browser. There will be no need to download Yahoo Messenger software.
Yahoo’s melding of e-mail and instant messaging follows the lead of rival Google, which merged its Google Talk instant-message chat service with its Gmail e-mail program. But Yahoo’s audience is roughly 10 times larger than Google’s base of e-mail users, according to industry data.
In the first public demonstration of the combined service at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, Garlinghouse and a colleague showed how, when a user opens up and addresses an e-mail, an icon appears if he or she is online.
Clicking the icon instantly transforms a conversation from the delayed, “read-it-whenyou-have-a-chance” way people use e-mail into the immediate back-and-forth of an instant message conversation.
The existing version of Yahoo Messenger also offers Web-calling capabilities.
Yahoo is considering how and whether to incorporate these calling features inside the merged Yahoo e-mail and instant messaging system, a spokeswoman said. REUTERS

LONDON: Patients are not the only people turning to the Internet for medical information.
Searching the World Wide Web with engines such as Google may also help doctors to diagnose perplexing medical conditions, Australian researchers said on Friday.
“Our study suggests that in difficult cases, it is often useful to google for a diagnosis,” said Hangwi Tang, of the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.
To test how good Google is, Tang and his colleagues selected three to five search terms for 26 difficult-to-diagnose illnesses reported in a medical journal and did a Google search.
The disorders ranged from cirrhosis and the degenerative brain disorder, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, to cat-scratch disease, infective encephalitis and obscure conditions such as Henoch-Scholein purpura, Churg-Strauss syndrome and extrinsic allergic alveolitis.
After recording the top ranked answers that seemed to fit the symptoms and comparing them with the correct diagnosis, they found the Google searches came up with the right answer in 15 out of the 26 cases – an accuracy rate of 58 per cent.
The researchers did add a caveat, however: The results from Google are only as good as the knowledge base of the searcher – a caution that especially applies to patients who try to self-diagnose their problems.
“Web-based search engines such as Google are becoming the latest tools in clinical medicine, and doctors in training need to become proficient in their use,” Tang said in the study published online by the British Medical Journal.

That’s what 19-year-old pro gamer Tom Taylor, aka Tsquared, has to say about being a professional gamer...

Professional video gamer Tom Taylor, aka Tsquared, is the envy of every young video game player. But he wants to debunk the myth that wielding a joystick for a living is all fun and games.
The self-taught player, who has been playing competitively since aged 14 and turned pro at 16, dropped out of school to concentrate on building a career in gaming.
Taylor, 19, now earns $1,20,000 to $1,50,000 (Rs 53,50,000 to Rs 66,88,000 approx) a year between prize money reaped playing Halo 2 and Gaming-lessons.com, an online site he founded last year to teach people gaming skills – and he is about to almost double the hourly tutoring rate he charges.
But he says he has had to be disciplined to succeed, sometimes playing games for up to 12 hours a day ahead of competitions and sticking to an exercise regime and good diet to keep a mental and physical edge.
“A lot of people think playing video games isn’t a lot of work. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for vacation. In five years, I’ve never had any downtime for myself,” Taylor said.
But putting in the hours has paid off for Taylor.
In June 2004, he signed a $2,50,000 (Over Rs 1.11 crore!) contract with Major League Gaming and, as team leader of Str8 Rippin, he is one of the league’s top-ranked players.
He appears on Stuff magazine’s list of the 20 most influential people under the age of 30 and, after the MLG National Championships later this month, he’s raising his video game tutoring rate to $115 (Rs 5,100 approx) an hour from $65 (Rs 2,900 approx).
Taylor is also shifting to a different screen soon with USA Networks, which will start airing coverage of the MLG 2006 Pro Circuit. The TV series chronicles the eight-month competition that culminates in Las Vegas where gamers battle for the title and a $2,34,000 (over Rs 1.04 crore) purse.
Florida-based Taylor, whose handle started out as T and evolved to T2 – Tsquared – says he now finds himself at home just seven to 10 days a month between travelling for competitions, training, media appearances or personal reasons.
But while his work schedule has decimated his personal time, he admits the publicity has its benefits.
“I guess it works to your advantage,” he said when asked if his profile with women has been enhanced by his fame.
On an average day, Taylor plays two to three hours of video games – usually from 11 pm. That time investment jumps to 10 to 12 hours ahead of tournaments.
If not training, then it’s a couple hours teaching game lessons, blogging and returning fan e-mail.
Taylor works to keep a mental and physical edge with running, weight-lifting and eating well. He also limits energy drinks to competitions.
While Taylor says no age is too old to be a pro gamer, he admits the average competitor is college-aged.
“You’ll notice that there are not too many people over 30 placing well at the tournaments,” said Taylor, who isn’t spending much time worrying about his life post-pro gaming.
“I try to focus on what’s ahead of me when I’m in tournaments instead of daydreaming about what’s going to happen 15 years down the road,” he said. REUTERS

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft declared its longawaited Vista operating system finished.
“This is a good day,” Microsoft co-president of platforms Jim Allchin said at a press conference less than an hour after Vista was given final approval by the software giant.
“It is rock-solid and ready to ship. This is a significant milestone for Microsoft.”
Vista would be available worldwide in PCs on January 30, 2007, Allchin said. “We’ve made some big claims about Vista and I truly believe we will deliver them,” he said.
Microsoft originally targeted a 2005 launch for Vista, then pushed the release out to 2006 before announcing in March that Vista would again be delayed. There was also speculation among analysts that Microsoft would find it difficult to meet its early 2007 target.
Vista was more secure from hackers, performed more reliably, was more energy-efficient, and worked with more devices and applications than the Windows XP OS it was replacing, Allchin claimed.
The OS will be available in 18 languages by its official release next year. However, Allchin said, Vista eventually would be available in 100 languages.
“There is no question this is the most reliable system we have ever shipped,” Allchin said. “We’ve done more testing than on any other product.”
Power management software built into Vista reduced energy consumption and provided a “quick on-off experience” that users craved, according to Allchin.
Microsoft said it beefed up security on Vista to thwart attempts to break into the PC or infect them with malicious software such as viruses or worms.
“This is an escalating situation,” Allchin said of protecting computers from online attacks. “The hackers are getting smarter and there is more at stake.”
Testing of the OS included letting an army of outside computer security specialists attack it at will, according to Microsoft. A common lament among Windows users has been vulnerabilities exploited by hackers. “Customers will not only feel safer when they are running Vista, they will be safer,” Allchin said. It has been five years since Microsoft introduced the Windows XP OS that Vista will replace. Windows is used by approximately 90 percent of the world’s PCs with 70 percent of them running on Windows XP. AGENCIES

Read this if you’re planning a holiday and don’t mind sleeping on couches that are on offer for ‘free’...

NEW YORK: Jim Stone, a 29-year-old US citizen, has been travelling non-stop since March of 2004.
He’s travelled in a pickup truck and – at other times – on a motorcycle. He’s trekked through much of the US, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, but he’s slept in a hotel just one night over that stretch of nearly 1,000 days.
That’s because Stone is part of a growing online network of people who’ve gone a step beyond hotels and hostels in their travel planning: They sleep on each others’ couches.
A number of Web sites have sprung up to match travellers with hosts who have a spare couch to offer.
Sites like hospitalityclub.org, couchsurfing.com, globalfreeloaders.com and place2stay.net are often free, serving only as middlemen and offering tips on how to find successful matches.
The sites aren’t money-makers. They’re largely the creations of 20-somethings bitten by wanderlust – and they often depend on volunteers to help manage the Web operations.

THE IDEA

One of the biggest is hospitalityclub.org – a site founded in 2000 by Veit Kuehne, who was then a 22-year-old business student.
Kuehne wanted to use the Internet’s reach to help encourage cultural exchanges through travel. The result was the site that grew from 1,300 members in 2002 to two lakhs by September 2006.
From his home in Germany, Kuehne said hospitalityclub.org funds itself through online ads. “We’re not really soliciting donations yet,” he said.
Kuehne doesn’t get a salary from the site and was living off savings till recently. He plans to spend the winter in India working on the site and benefiting from lower living costs.
Stone however, uses another site, couchsurfing.com, which has over 1,28,700 members – from across the globe.
Couchsurfing.com – launched officially in January 2004 – got its indirect start, when US-native, Casey Fenton, found a cheap airplane ticket to Iceland.
When looking for a place to stay, Fenton chanced upon the student directory of the University of Iceland.
He sent e-mails to about 1,500 students, asking for a place to crash and within a day received dozens of responses. Through staying with a local, Fenton said he was able to see “their” Iceland rather than the tourist’s view.

BUT, IS IT SAFE?

Sites do offer some safeguards to help members: Members can vouch for each other and leave references for someone they’ve stayed with or hosted.
But Web sites warn that they are not liable for any possible dangers that could arise between host and traveller.
“We can’t guarantee what will happen,” couchsurfing.com’s Fenton said. “We’ll do as much as we can to provide data (about the person), but beyond that, there’s not much we can do.”
Lesage, a photographer and a volunteer administrator for couchsurfing.com, said the best way to stay safe is to read closely the information available on members’ profiles. He also sets a general three-day limit for how long people can crash on his couch.
As for Jim Stone, he hasn’t had a permanent address since 2004.
“I haven’t found another lifestyle that I enjoy this much,” he said. AP

London: The popular reality TV show “Big Brother” plans to expand into virtual reality with a new edition in the online world of Second Life, television programmer Endemol said on Monday.

Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual world with more than 1 million registered users and its own economy and currency. It was created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab.

Endemol will select 15 international Second Life contestants to spend at least eight hours a day inside a specially constructed glass-walled house for one month. As in the real-world version of “Big Brother,” the contestants will be voted off until only one remains. The winner will receive a virtual island within Second Life, worth about US$1,675.

A number of real-world companies have entered Second Life in recent months, drawn by its rapid growth and large pool of tech-savvy consumers, including Toyota Motor Corp, Adidas and Sony BMG. Reuters also recently launched its own news bureau in Second Life.

Haier recently launched their M2000 model cell phone in India. The dual-band GSM device is different from other cell phones in the sense that it has no buttons. Instead, it relies on its 1.8-inch touch-screen to do the job. The M2000’s features include handwriting recognition, an MP3 player, an organiser, integrated hands-free and an impressive battery life of 150 hrs standby time with 2 hours and 50 minutes talk-time. Surprisingly, the M2000 does not have a camera or Bluetooth. For more details on this fashion-conscious gadget that’s currently available in pink and black and retails for Rs 6,900, visit mobile.haier.com.

Will offer thousands of searchable recipes, advice, videos and other tools for help in the kitchen.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -- Yahoo Inc. is going into the food business.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said Wednesday it was offering Yahoo users thousands of recipes, advice from regional celebrity chefs, video cooking guides and easy-to-use Web tools to help cooks answer the daily question: What's for dinner?

The Web media giant is looking to create a new lifestyle business in a category that, while well-established in Internet terms, is largely fragmented among food industry players and niche recipe sites, with few big independent media players.

Yahoo Food will be served up to the U.S. market initially. Early in 2007, it aims to move into other English-speaking countries like Australia, Britain and Canada, then expand into other global markets, officials said.

Among Web users, the U.S. food reference category is dominated by cable television's Food Network, suppliers such as Kraft Foods (Charts), BettyCrocker.com and Williams-Sonoma (Charts) and specialist cook sites like Cooks.com and Epicurious, according to U.S. data from audience measurement firm Hitwise Inc.

Other than the Food Network, independent media companies are not big players online. AOL Food, a division of CNNMoney parent Time Warner (Charts), is active but has a tiny market share, according to Hitwise. Gadget review company Cnet Networks Inc. recently relaunched Chow.com.

"This is very much of an extension of Yahoo's media business," Deanna Brown, general manager of Yahoo Lifestyles, said in an interview. "It's a very compelling experience for Yahoo advertisers."

It's a category Brown knows about as well as anyone. She founded Epicurious in 1995. She went on to launch AOL Food. A year ago, she was hired to develop Yahoo's lifestyle business.

Media partners include Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., (Charts) Wolfgang Puck, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Food & Wine, Epicurious, allrecipes.com, Cook's Illustrated, Eating Well, Taste of Home, and Reader's Digest.

Yahoo offers a searchable recipe database, personalized features that remind Yahoo users of their prior searches for recipes or articles on the site, and a potentially vast social network of people united by common interests around food.

It's Yahoo (Charts), so search underpins the workings of the site. The technology indexes thousands of recipes via a partnership with allrecipes.com. Users can search by ingredient, cuisine, foods for special occasions, or by taste or mealtimes.

Food joins technology as the first of two in a line of new lifestyle businesses that Yahoo is developing to both drive greater usage of its network of sites among existing customers and woo attractive new online demographics - the hungry, in this case - that its blue-chip advertiser base covets.

Yahoo Tech and Food are the first new Yahoo media properties launched in five years. Since it was introduced earlier this year, Yahoo Tech has grown to become one of the top three U.S. properties in the gadget review category.

"We think we will go to No. 1 with some promotions we are doing over the holidays," said Scott Moore, Yahoo's vice president of content operations, based in Santa Monica.

"In the next six months, we will have several launches, new categories or extensions of existing categories," he said.

Moore estimates Yahoo Tech already attracted about 2.5 million monthly users. "One of the reasons we did Tech was not that it was a big user category, but it is massive with advertisers," he said.

When a handful of politicians, trustees and parents heard Rockstar Games, the maker of the controversial "Grand Theft Auto" series, was creating a game about dealing with school bullies, many feared it would glorify gun violence in the schoolyard.

But this is not the case: "Bully" is no "Columbine simulator," as one activist has said (without playing the game).

This "Teen"-rated title game does contain some violence, as well as foul language and crude humor -- so it's not for children -- but those overly concerned about this Sony PlayStation 2 game need not be.

In fact, after spending some time at Bullworth Academy, the many missions proved varied and challenging, the colorful and over-the-top characters and dialogue highly entertaining, and the openness of this campus quite liberating.

"Bully" follows a troubled teenager, Jimmy Hopkins, who's been expelled from every school he's ever attended. So it's no wonder his mother and new stepfather decide it's best he spend a year at the toughest boarding school in the country.

Fifteen-year-old Jimmy must survive his stay at Bullworth by climbing up the social ladder (among the Jocks, Greasers, Preps and Nerds), avoiding bullies or confronting them with some moves or pranks of his own, and outsmarting the corrupt Bullworth faculty and student body, including the principal, teachers and prefects.

"Bully" borrows elements from "Grand Theft Auto" by letting you roam around a huge map and take on dozens of missions as you work your way up to ruling the school. You also can use transportation, such as a skateboard or BMX bike.

As you protect yourself from bullying students who don't like the new guy, you can use fisticuffs (and unlock new fighting techniques throughout the game) or a slingshot (the training mission has you pegging off the football team while perched in a tree) or other weapons you may find on the grounds, such as a garbage can lid (used like a Frisbee to knock down baddies), a fire extinguisher, baseball bat and so on.

The game contains no blood and you cannot kill anyone. Victims, who usually instigate these attacks, lie moaning on the ground when defeated.

The game makers also provided a benefit to attending classes: Not only do you get to play minigames (such as a word game in English or a "Dance Dance Revolution"-style rhythm game in chemistry) but you also can unlock new skills, items and missions. Hey, you can even use your newly learned verbal skills on getting the girl.

Pranks, such as throwing a firecracker or stink bomb, will land you in hot water if caught by the staff. The same goes if you're caught skipping class, breaking into a locker, trespassing in areas of the school you're not allowed in or staying out past curfew. If you're still out of bed at 2 a.m., you pass out from exhaustion.

Hoopla aside, "Bully" is a fantastic debut title from Rockstar Vancouver, but one main issue is the frequent and sometimes lengthy load times. This, however, is likely due to the technical limits of the aging PlayStation 2 platform.

Overall, "Bully" is a fun, fresh and lengthy single-player adventure for teenagers and adults.

While the game isn't as controversial as many feared it would be, it will still push a few buttons for its rebellious attitude. But, after all, this is what Rockstar Games does -- and well at that.

The long-awaited upgrade to Microsoft’s Web browser is here, introducing the masses to features available for years in rival products.

My initial thought to Microsoft’s game of catch-up was “no big deal.” But after trying out Internet Explorer v7 – the first major release since 2001 – I found a number of improvements to like.

The most noticeable change in IE is a redesign that replaces menus like “file” and “edit” with task-oriented buttons for printing, searching and the like.

Just as Google’s folder-less approach to e-mail took getting used to, Microsoft’s new interface initially will seem odd. But, in no time, I started questioning the old ways – why, for instance, was “print” under “file” and not “view”?

Microsoft’s new features include the display of small, thumbnail versions of all open pages at once. It catches up with rivals, Opera and Firefox, in letting you save related tabs in groups to reopen at once. But IE7 lacks Firefox’s and Opera’s ability to reopen a tab you’ve accidentally closed.

Search still Firefox-ed

When it comes to search, Firefox is tops; offering the easiest ways to add search engines and organise them within your search box. In addition, as you start typing in your search, Firefox offers suggestions to finish the query.

All three now support Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, a technology for notifying users of new entries on their favourite news sites and blogs.

The three Web browsers also have easy ways to clear private data, such as cookies and browsing history, and to restore open pages the next time you use the browser.

IE7 now lets you enlarge and shrink images along with the text, a feature Opera had before. And IE7 matches Firefox’s and Opera’s ability to automatically shrink Web pages when you print so margins don’t get cut off.

Not so Active X anymore...

Microsoft introduced a number of security features: Active X controls, which are used to make Web sites more functional, but can let in spyware and other malicious programs, are disabled by default. But there’s a nice touch: Microsoft built in exceptions for well-known, trustworthy sites so most people will never have to turn Active X on – only to forget to shut it off.

Other features include displaying the special codes behind non-English Web addresses, preventing a scam artist from substituting the “a” in the Latin alphabet with the “a” in Cyrillic, so users might think they are visiting the real PayPal site, for instance.

Firefox 2, meanwhile, sports a universal spell checker. Misspelled words are underlined in red, whether you’re composing an e-mail or a blog entry. With Opera 9, you get support for an emerging file-sharing mechanism called BitTorrent along with widgets – Web-based applications for checking weather, sports results or anything else. Plus, Opera lets you easily block individual images – like an annoying graphic – from specific sites, rather than being forced to block all or none.

There are things to like about each browser, and I recommend that IE users at least upgrade to version 7. They may find features to like in Firefox or Opera, but the gap is much narrower now, so IE7 may be satisfactory.

I’ll stick with Firefox, however, because IE7 and Opera 9 don’t offer enough novel features to break inertia. Firefox 2’s improvements are minor but show that its developers aren’t resting and waiting five years for the next breakthrough.

Japanese electronics giant, Sony, displayed the world’s lightest B5-sized notebook PC ‘Vaio typeG’, weighing only 898g on 1 November.

The notebook which boasts of a carbon-fibre, light-weight, robust body sports a 12.1-inch LCD display. Other features of the typeG include integrated Intel 945GMS graphics, 80GB HDD, 1.5GB RAM, fingerprint reader, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The laptop range will go on sale next month at a price of 1,64,800 yen (Rs 63,200) for the basic model.

The MPS 1002 – a 1GB MP3 player from Mitashi – sports stereo speakers as well as headphones. The player, which supports MP3 and WMA music formats, also boasts of an FM radio tuner and comes complete with a voice recorder function. When connected to a PC via USB, the player can also be used as a flash-based file-storage device. For more information on the 1002 that retails for Rs 4390, visit www.mitashi.com.

BOSTON, Massachusetts: Cheap little servers handle so much of the Internet's dirty work that giant computers known as mainframes, which debuted 50 years ago and often cost more than $1 million, are supposed to be passe.

When Hoplon Infotainment, a startup video game company in Brazil, let it be known that it uses a mainframe to operate its signature online game, "People would actually take a step back and say, 'What? Did I hear correctly?"' said Tarquinio Teles, Hoplon's CEO.

Yet mainframes are inspiring new ways of doing things at organizations like Hoplon. The trend is driven by and anxiously watched at IBM Corp., which makes the vast majority of the world's remaining mainframes and continues to be hugely reliant on them.

After dropping nearly 8 percent in 2005, IBM's mainframe revenue is up 10 percent this year. That includes a 25 percent gain in the most recent quarter.

Mainframes were IBM's fastest-growing hardware segment after the microchip division, which is enjoying a nice ride making microprocessors for the top three video game consoles.

IBM does not release precise figures, but analysts estimate mainframe revenue at roughly $2.3 billion in the first nine months of 2006. While that is a small chunk of IBM's overall sales of $65 billion so far this year, mainframe revenue is especially precious because the machines drive huge software and maintenance deals, making them IBM's most profitable line of hardware.

Of course, the huge third-quarter boost is unlikely to be sustained. IBM is benefiting from having released two new mainframes in the past year, and sales eventually should taper until an upgrade comes, at least a year from now.

Such ups and downs are typical: Unisys Corp., a much smaller vendor, has seen mainframe sales drop this year, but spokesman Brian Daly said the numbers strengthened in the third quarter with the release of a new model.

Still, for IBM to be having success with mainframes at all is somewhat surprising. Because if you were to break modern computing history into its simplest terms, it would go something like this: There was the centralized-mainframe era, and then there was the distributed-computing era. And the former ended a while ago.

Mainframes emerged in the 1950s as room-sized hubs that did it all. They crunched numbers, administered transactions, ran simulations and stored data.

By the 1980s and '90s, however, information technology was flourishing with flexible and smaller pieces of hardware that took on traditional mainframe duties.

Cheaper server computers could calculate stuff and serve up Web pages. New communications gear ferried information around networks. Separate storage machines made more efficient use of memory. Millions of desktop computers flowered.

Sun Microsystems Inc., a leading maker of servers, denigrated mainframes as "dinosaurs," prompting IBM to call its next mainframe line the "T-Rex."

As mainframes ceased to be the center of gravity, they mainly lived on in government agencies, banks or complex networks like airline travel systems.

Many such places needed mainframes' heavy-duty security and processing ability, but others were locked into the specialized programs they had written in mainframes' unique language.

"Where the mainframe still has a long-term home is running long-term code," said John Parker, chief information officer for A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., a financial services firm that recently dropped its French-made mainframe but still runs key functions on a mainframe operated by a third-party hosting service. "Every industry has it, in my experience."

Since inertia is not growth, the market for mainframes and servers costing more than $500,000 dropped from $19 billion in 2000 to less than $12 billion last year, according to analysts at IDC.

One huge challenge has been the machines' old-school reputation. Programming mainframes still involves typing code on a green screen, much like early versions of DOS, the operating system that dominated PCs before the visual "windows" approach.

To try to encourage younger software developers to write programs for the machines, IBM recently announced a $100 million effort to simplify and modernize mainframe programming. Earlier it began encouraging customers to run Linux, Java and other low-intensity software on mainframes, in hopes of keeping the machines from falling deeper into specialized niches.

IBM also is trying to get creative in luring customers. In April it launched a "business-class" mainframe that costs $100,000 and up, targeted at smaller companies that want mainframes' high level of security and reliability.

One key pitch is that mainframes can do so many tasks at once that they are more energy efficient and take up less space than a comparable cluster of smaller servers.

"For every application, many times it takes five servers in a distributed environment," said Jim Stallings, who runs IBM's mainframe division. "Many customers are saying, 'I can't deal with the complexity."'

The University of Toronto recently bought a business-class mainframe to manage enrollment and other administrative functions. Eugene Siciunas, director of computing services, said the main attraction was flexible pricing.

The university saved money upfront by selecting a mainframe that runs at less than top capacity. Then on days when computing loads are heavier, the school can buy a short-term boost of extra processing power. Network managers call IBM, which remotely tunes the mainframe to deliver better performance.

Hoplon, the Brazilian company, is using a mainframe's processing might to build a complex "massively multiplayer" online game. But rather than shelling out precious startup capital to own a mainframe, Hoplon is remotely accessing one stashed in an IBM data center in Brazil. The same machine manages a retirement fund for IBM's Brazilian employees and handles operations for a building-tools manufacturer.

Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Inc., said IBM has had to adopt such sales methods to "maintain the platform's viability."

"The company has done a good job of continuing to gain leverage out of the mainframe," King said. "For a platform that a lot of folks have claimed is essentially moribund or headed into a very dark, bad future, it's got remarkable legs."

Los Angeles: MySpace.com will use “audio fingerprinting” technology to block users from uploading copyright music to the social networking site, the company said Monday.

MySpace said it will review all music files uploaded by community members to their online profiles. The files will be run through a music database from Gracenote Inc.

“MySpace is staunchly committed to protecting artists’ rights, whether those artists are on major labels or are independent acts,” said Chris DeWolfe, MySpace CEO and co-founder.

The company said users who repeatedly attempt to upload copyright music files will be permanently barred from the site.

The site has come under fire from major record labels who have sued in some cases to prevent copyright music from being included as the soundtrack to user-generated content.

The challenge of policing its users’ music choices, however, is just one issue facing MySpace, which has skyrocketed in popularity over the past year.

The social networking site must address concerns that it has become a tool for paedophiles to establish first contact with children.

MySpace has also been grappling with frequent spam attacks and has had to take steps to limit invitations from bogus “friends” sent to thousands of users at a time.

BOSTON, Massachusetts: The cameras capture the young man walking down the stairs, reciting a monologue about the three things people should know about him: His favorite movie is "Gone with the Wind," he loves roller coasters and he hates when people don't take him seriously.

The shot is complicated and takes several attempts to perfect. But there's no big camera equipment, no expert sound system and no reels of film to capture the moment.

Instead, everyone involved, from the three cameramen and the sound guy to the extras, is producing the miniature movie with -- and for -- cell phones.

The exercise is part of a new Boston University class created through a unique partnership with cellular company Amp'd Mobile and taught by director Jan Egleson. During the semester, the students will produce a series of short episodes that eventually will be distributed by the company for its cellular customers.

The students have challenged each other to shoot it using only the phones, despite obstacles surrounding sound and video quality.

The class, which the university believes is the only one of its kind in the country, offers students credit and a chance to be part of the new media culture -- where anyone, anywhere, can create, distribute and view entertainment using a variety of emerging technologies. Amp'd benefits by getting mobile content created by one of its targeted audiences: young, tech-savvy adults.

Amp'd, whose backers include Qualcomm Inc. and Viacom Inc., is trying to compete with mainstream cellular players like Cingular Wireless by branding itself as a youth-oriented company offering more than just phone service.

It sells comedy clips, cartoons and music videos for subscribers to watch on cell phones for prices that start at 45 cents for a single download to $20 for unlimited access.

Most content is geared toward people ages 18 to 35.

"They're all about anywhere, anytime," said Seth Cummings, Amp'd Mobile's senior vice president for content, who helped start the program at his alma mater. "They want to be able to take their media with them."

Amp'd has hired established writers to create original content, but Cummings said the company decided to work with BU to target budding artists.

"I know that when I was there, there was this stuff that we'd create that there was no outlet (for)," Cummings said. "There's a real outlet here."

The medium is so new, the students and Egleson spent some time in a recent class debating what to call their work. Options included mobisodes (mobile episodes), mobilettes or cellenovelas (cellular telenovelas).

"We're on the cutting edge of a new era of film medium," said Mark DiCristofaro, a 21-year-old BU film student. "Why not get on board early?"

And because anyone with a cell phone can make a video and upload it to the Internet to watch on computers or phones, the students said they felt a greater opportunity to get people to see their work. Television production graduate student Chris Miller said cell phones give young filmmakers a new way to distribute their work.

"It's so hard to get the studios to really pay attention, especially the beginning filmmakers," Miller said. "So if they don't want to go that route, you don't have to."

In some respects, Egleson's film class is like any other. In the first hour, he guides the students through a discussion of editing, graphics, music and tone. They work on their series, centered on a group of diverse students who each harbor a secret.

"The bottom line is always that if it's a good story and you get involved, it doesn't matter what format it is," said Egleson, who has directed films and television shows.

Other times, though, the students and teacher run into challenges unique to working with their black, shiny cell phones provided by Amp'd:

# The phones film for just 15 seconds at a time. For longer scenes, such as the monologue in the stairwell, multiple phones are used.

# The phones don't pick up sound well. During this class, the students try putting a phone in an actor's pocket or using a makeshift boom created with a tiny microphone and a bendable, green stick.

# In some scenes, cameramen can be seen in the shots. So when they finish filming, they quickly put their cameras to their ears and become extras casually chatting on the phone.

The picture quality isn't as good as film, either, because the phone's camera records 15 frames per second, compared with the typical 24 to 30 frames per second in movies or on television.

"I wish I could tell you I've done this a million times," Egleson tells the class as they watch him upload their footage stored on the phone's memory cards onto his laptop, done by connecting the phone to the computer with a USB cable.

Miller said the students also have had to adapt their film-making style for the small -- very small -- screen. Scenes are shorter, cuts are quicker and visuals are larger. Nobody is trying to make a "Saving Private Ryan" epic, and the students refuse to edit out the quirks, saying they want to create videos the average phone user could make themselves.

"It's not quite as clean as what you'd expect from television. It's a little more raw," Miller said. "It's not your 'Everybody Loves Raymond' sitcom."

On the other hand, Egleson said, the phones give the cameramen more flexibility because they aren't lugging around large equipment and can easily whip a phone out of their pocket for spontaneous scenes. And Egleson expects the phone technology to improve quickly.

Paris recently held its second film festival devoted exclusively to movies shot with cell phones. But it's too early to say how popular mobile programming will become in the United States, said Linda Barrabee, an analyst at the Yankee Group, a Boston-based technology research firm.

Although cell phones are ubiquitous, a much smaller percentage of people own phones with the technology to watch videos or subscribe to services to do so.

Current trends, she said, lean toward people being most interested short programming, such as sketches or sports highlights, that they can watch in line at the store or on the subway.

"For the most part, what we're talking about is snacking," she said.

But Barrabee wouldn't rule out feature films watched in segments _ or even attracting older people, who have more buying power than young adults.

Despite the challenges and uncertain future, a wave of enthusiasm traveled through a recent three-hour BU class, from the experimental filming to the writing session.

"I feel like I should pay $7 for this," one student said as the class crowded around cell phones and computers to watch their edited footage.

Which is exactly what Amp'd Mobile wants to hear.

Palm Treos once came in any color you wanted as long as it was silver. With the new Treo 680, however, trend-setters can also get their smartphones in red, orange and white.

The 680 is considerably smaller than earlier Treos and does not have an external antenna. It has a full alphabetic keypad, a basic camera and a color touchscreen. The device is less than an inch thick and weighs 5 ounces.

The 680’s battery lasts for about four hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby. It has Bluetooth and infrared wireless networking, as well as a slot for memory cards, and it can synchronize contact information with Macs and Windows PC’s.

Palm has not said which wireless company will sell the 680 or how much it will cost when it is released in the next few weeks. Its G.S.M. technology means it is compatible only with the networks of T-Mobile and Cingular Wireless in the United States.

The Treo 680 is aimed at casual users and, thanks to its flashy colors, it is more likely to end up in a backpack or a purse than strapped to a chief executive’s hip.

When it’s time to blast your music through something louder than those little white earbuds, connecting your iPod to your home entertainment system with a stereo cable is the most common approach. To cut that cord, Belkin’s TuneStage II lets you beam music wirelessly to the stereo over a Bluetooth connection from as far as 30 feet away.

To set up the wireless link, you plug TuneStage’s Bluetooth receiver into the stereo, connect a small transmitter to the bottom of the iPod and then pair up the two devices. You can roam around the house for up to seven hours if the iPod is fully charged, and change the song or playlist right from the player’s own controls.

The TuneStage II ($150 at www.belkin.com, and due out in retail stores late next month) works with most recent iPod models, including the video iPod, the iPod Mini, the iPod Nano and early color-screen players. It can also pair up with compatible Bluetooth headphones and car stereos.

Midway Games' "Mortal Kombat: Armageddon," now available for the Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox, boasts a full roster of playable characters.

"Armageddon" is the first in the series to feature every character from the 14-year-old "Mortal Kombat" universe. There are more than 50 3-D fighters in all including Scorpion, Kung Lao, Sub-Zero and Motaro.

Like any good fighting game, however, only a handful of characters are available at the start. Part of the fun is unlocking the rest, each of whom has a unique look, fighting style and weapon preference.

And if you don't want to go with a preexisting character, "Armageddon" is the first "Mortal Kombat" game with a "Kreate-a-Fighter" mode. You can select from thousands of physical features and attributes to design a custom fighter, give him or her a name, and then start a game to test their skills against others.

The fighting, which is fast-paced, requires mastery in three key areas: hand-to-hand combat, weapons and magic. Learning how to punch, kick, jump and spin -- not to mention linking successive moves into "combos" -- takes some time to get right. Therefore, you won't get very far in this title if you try your luck by random "button mashing."

It's also fun to learn how to fight in the air with the many aerial moves offered in this game.

Another "Mortal Kombat" calling card is the notorious "fatality" move, which refers to the way one fighter can kill the other. In "Armageddon," a new Kreate-a-Fatality system gives players the ability to create custom fatalities by stringing together button combinations.

Midway has also expanded a few of its game modes. Aside from the single-player game (against the game's artificial intelligence) and a two-player mode (on the same television), "Armageddon" also offers a deeper Konquest game (a story-based adventure) and expanded online play for head-to-head matches over the Internet - with faster response times than found in 2004's "Mortal Kombat: Deception," and the ability to play your custom fighter in cyberspace.

But even with all of these additions, "Mortal Kombat" is still the same old 3-D fighting game: Each player picks a character and fights in a number of different environments. In other words, "Armageddon" just gives the player a lot more of the same stuff. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; but if you are looking for a revolutionary new game, this is not it.

Also, while this game's graphics look OK (better on the Xbox than the PlayStation 2), it doesn't compare to fighting games on the Xbox 360 such as Tecmo's "Dead or Alive 4."

"Mortal Kombat" fans can pick up "Armageddon" for $39.95, or they may opt for the Premium Edition ($49.95), which also includes a playable version of the original "Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3," more than 60 minutes of bonus DVD video content, a collectible metal case (with four unique box fronts in total), and an animation cell cover art autographed by franchise co-creator Ed Boon.

Peter Jackson, who defied all Hollywood expectations by bringing “The Lord of the Rings” to the silver screen, may have a tougher challenge on his hands: Delivering the first blockbuster video-game movie.

When Jackson signed on to produce the film version of the game “Halo,” the project looked unstoppable – until co-financers Universal and Fox abruptly backed out.

Hollywood trade paper, Variety, reported rumours of an out-of-control budget, but a representative for Jackson and his partner, Fran Walsh, said that the studios had demanded a pay cut for the filmmakers at the last minute.

Microsoft issued a statement saying, “We are disappointed that Universal and Fox wanted to significantly renegotiate the financial points of the deal,” but added that Jackson, Walsh and “the rest of the creative team are dedicated to ensuring the Halo movie becomes a reality.”

There are still a lot of questions surrounding the Nov 17 launch of the PlayStation 3 – in particular, just how many people will be able to buy one. But Sony is proceeding as though the PS3’s production issues are nonexistent.

Sony, instead, has been emphasising on the console’s online PlayStation Store, which will allow users to download arcade games, demos and bonus content for store-bought titles – stuff that’s been available on Microsoft’s Xbox Live for a while now.

Sony also demonstrated its motion-detecting Sixaxis controller, showing how you would tilt and jerk the device to control a dragon in the forthcoming medieval fantasy “Lair.”

Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo’s new mobile phone, P903i, comes with anti-theft technology in the form of a security key card. To use the phone, owners have to keep it in close proximity with the card (which can be kept in their bags or pockets).

The phone recognises when the card moves too far away and automatically locks the handset (in case it’s lost or stolen).

The phone also comes with Global Positioning System satellite navigation to help look for the missing cell phone. NTT DoCoMo plans to launch the new device in the next few months

"Advances in processors let developers achieve new sense of realism in games"

Virtual versions of Ronaldinho and Wayne Rooney are dribbling and scoring goals more like they would in real life thanks to a makeover of thousands of international soccer stars in the latest ‘FIFA Soccer’ video game.

In ‘FIFA Soccer 07,’ this year’s addition to Electronic Arts’ blockbuster soccer franchise, a new physics and data-driven engine allows the players to move less like robots and more like individuals with their own playing styles.

That’s because Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 3 next-generation video game consoles can process a lot more information on each athlete’s unique traits than current-generation consoles, the game’s senior producer said.

“With the processing power of the next-generation platforms we can now get a level of physics on the player that we could not get before,” said EA’s Andrew Wilson. “When you are watching it, you start to recognise them not by how they look, but how they move.”

Not only are the players programmed to shift their weight, drop their shoulders and plant their feet the same way their real personas do, they also make decisions on things like what runs to make and how to shoot the ball based on their real-life performances on the field.

“People like Rooney or Ronaldo or Beckham make plays in the game based on how they would in real life,” Wilson said. “What time of the game is it? Are they at home or away? All these things change how a player makes decisions on the pitch.”

Because of the vast number of traits that can now be assigned to each player, the time it takes to develop the athletes has skyrocketed.

As a result, ‘FIFA 07,’ which will on sale from November 1, has just 3,000 or 4,000 players compared with more than 10,000 in the previous version.

Still, Wilson said the new player attributes make the game less predictable because gamers will have new in-game experiences even after racking up 200 hours of play.

“We are trying to offer a rewarding learning curve,” Wilson said “People in the hundredth hour are seeing things they’ve never played before.”

In addition, the game features new ball physics that allow the soccer ball to be passed between team-mates or shot at the goal more naturally.

Previously, the ball had to be “attached,” as if with an invisible rubber band, to a specific player when being dribbled, passed or shot. Now, the ball moves independently.

“No longer does the (processor) know where the ball is going to end up,” Wilson said. “You now have to play ‘FIFA’ the way you would play real football.”

This business-minded portable offers top performance and better-than-average battery life.

HP's new flagship business portable has a 17-inch WXGA screen and weighs 7.4 pounds, so it ranks among the lightest notebooks in its category. If no other surface is available, the HP Compaq nx9420 feels perfectly comfortable perched on your lap, huge screen and all.

The nx9420's keyboard is terrific: Its mouse buttons are extremely comfortable because of their soft texture and ability to depress deeply. The separate numerical keypad is topped by a button that handily launches the Windows calculator.

The notebook's battery life is above average at 3 hours, and its speed is excellent. Equipped with the fastest of Intel's new dual processing chips (the 2.16-GHz Core Duo T2600) and 1GB of RAM, the nx9420 earned a WorldBench 5 score of 101, one of the highest marks we've ever recorded for a portable.

The nx9420's design is as elegant as its charcoal-colored case, with pale but readily discernible icons stenciled on top of the case to identify side connections, and with a plastic bottom sleeve to hold your business card.

Our $2399 (as of March 27, 2006) review unit included a smallish 80GB hard drive (100GB is the largest size available), a fixed DVD burner, a FireWire port, four USB ports, a front-mounted seven-in-one memory card slot, and a SmartCard reader. The nx9420 lacks the great sound and music buttons of the notebook it replaces, the 2-pounds-heavier Compaq nx9600. It also omits the nx9600's side connection for HP's xb2000 docking station with stereo speakers (though it does work with a different HP docking station that offers a modular bay and an ExpressCard slot.)

Still, with its superb combination of weight and a big screen, the nx9420 will probably soon have its own loyal fans among on-the-go professionals who need a great presentation notebook.

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- An experimental helmet from Toshiba Corp. gives its wearer the visual experience of being someplace else.

Inside the headgear from the Japanese electronics maker, a 40-centimeter (16-inch) screen can show a vista that is synched with the wearer's head movements, giving the illusion of actually being there.

The 3 kilogram (6 pound) helmet -- squared off in the back and rounded, bubble-like, in the front -- has infrared sensors at the top that detect which way the wearer's head is moving, said company spokeswoman Kaori Hiraki.

The projector in the back of the helmet shows images corresponding to the head movements on the screen inside the helmet, giving the wearer an illusion of immediacy and realness, according to Tokyo-based Toshiba.

If the night city landscape is being shown, and the person turns to the left, the image will also swivel in time to show what would be seen toward the left.

Toshiba has no plans yet to turn the technology into a commercial product. But it believes it will come in handy for computer games or enhancing the impact of movies. There is no price estimate for the gadget.

"I tried wearing it watching video of outer space," Hiraki said. "I felt like I was flying. It felt so real."

Part of the effect comes from how the helmet shuts out the real world, she said.

Although the headgear looks bulky, it is smaller than older versions of the technology that uses sensors to detect head moves, Toshiba said.

Hoping to leave an even bigger imprint on the Internet, Google is opening up its vast online index so other Web sites can build their own specialty search engines.

“Now people can get the power of Google search even when they’re not on Google.com,” said Shashi Seth, group product manager for the custom search engine.

The free custom tools, available at www.google.com/coop/cse, will allow other Web sites to limit the range of material that they want to include in their search indexes as well as rank the importance of specific pages.

Google said it simplified the process so even technological neophytes should be able to tailor their own search engines in 10 minutes or so.

Hundreds of Web sites already rely on Google’s search technology, but most of those arrangements either focus exclusively on content posted within a partner’s site or span the billions of pages indexed in Google’s complete database.

Google designed its customising system to appeal to Web sites that want their search engines to focus on specific topics. For instance, a fishing site might tailor Google’s customised search engine so it doesn’t scan music sites to minimise the chances for confusion when the term “bass” is entered.

Software maker Intuit Inc already has used Google’s customised tools to create a specialty search engine for a new Web site, JumpUp.com, devoted to small business issues.

In return for providing a tailor-made search index, Google will display short, text-based ads tied to the search requests entered at participating Web sites.

The revenue generated from those ads will be shared with the Web site owners – the same approach that has enabled Google to build the Internet’s biggest advertising network and establish itself among the world’s most valuable companies with a market value of nearly $150 billion after just eight years in business.

Web sites run by government agencies, universities and non-profit groups will be permitted to deploy the custom search tools without being forced to run Google’s ads.

Google is buying video-sharing website YouTube for $1.65bn (£883m) in shares after a weekend of speculation that a deal was in the offing.

The two companies will continue to operate independently, Google said as it announced the news on Monday.

YouTube, launched in February 2005, has grown quickly into one of the most popular websites on the internet.

It has 100 million videos viewed every day and an estimated 72 million individual visitors each month.

'Natural partners'

"The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.

He said the two companies were "natural partners" to offer a media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers.

Mr Schmidt also told investors that YouTube will be "one of many investments" Google plans to make in the video field.

However, the company will keep operating its own Google Video as a separate operation.

YouTube will retain its brand, and its 67 staff, including co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, will keep their jobs.

"Our community has played a vital role in changing the way that people consume media, creating a new clip culture," said Mr Hurley.

"By joining forces with Google, we can benefit from its global reach and technology leadership to deliver a more comprehensive entertainment experience for our users and to create new opportunities for our partners."

According to Comscore World Metrix, YouTube's audience has soared from 2.8 million unique users one year ago to 72 million users in August 2006.

Music tie-ups

The announcement came after a day of distribution deals drawn up by the pair.

Universal Music Group has signed a distribution deal with YouTube, which will protect the rights of the music firm's artists.

YouTube also says it has signed a deal with CBS, which will offer short-form video programming, including news, sport and entertainment on YouTube.

Google has also signed distribution deals of its own, with Sony BMG and Warner Music to offer music videos.

The Google deals should enable internet users in the US to view music videos, artist interviews, and other footage from the two firms on Google video for free from this month.

The content is sponsored through a Google advertising-supported revenue-sharing agreement.

Google also said that in addition to the advertising-supported video content, music videos from Warner would be available for purchase as downloads at $1.99 each.

As part of YouTube's deal with CBS, the companies will share revenue from advertising sponsorship of CBS Videos.

Microsoft has made Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) available to the general public.

The new version is the first upgrade to the web browsing program for more than five years.

New features include tabbed browsing, the ability to search the net directly and an anti-fraud system to thwart phishing attacks.

The new program is available as a free download on 19 October, but many will get it as an automatic update to Windows XP in November.

Phish fighter

The new version of the browser has gone through a long testing regime and five test or "beta" versions have been made available in the last 14 months.

Despite this IE 7 is still seen as an attempt by Microsoft to catch up with rival browsers as it includes features that have long been seen in competitors such as Firefox and Opera.

With the new version, it is possible to open up tabs rather than windows for new webpages and subscribe to RSS feeds via the browser.

One feature is the addition of a box that lets people search the net directly from the browser rather than through a dedicated webpage.

In early releases of IE 7 this defaulted to Microsoft's own search engine, but the software company has let users choose which search site this feature should call upon.

Built in to the browser is an anti-fraud system that changes the colour of the address bar to red when a user visits a known phishing site. Other warnings will pop-up if an IE 7 user strays onto a site displaying suspicious activity.

The security features on IE 7 mean that many people will get the browser as part of the monthly updates Microsoft issues to address bugs in its software. Home users will get the option to install the browser, and businesses will be able to block its installation on their machines.

Version 6 of Microsoft's browser has regularly been hit by a series of attacks by malicious hackers that attempt to exploit weaknesses in it to take over users' PCs.

IE 7 will also be the default browser for the next version of Microsoft Windows, known as Vista, that is due to be launched in 2007.

The release comes at a time when the numbers of people using Microsoft's Internet Explorer are shrinking. In 2004, 93% of net users browsed the web via IE. Now that proportion has dropped to 86%. Much of that market share has been taken by the Firefox browser, which is used by 11% of net users.

On the day IE 7 was released, a trial version of Version 2.0 of Firefox was also put online for downloading. The finished version is due to be released in the next couple of weeks.

Well, at least in the video-game world he does! Scarface: The World is Yours gives you a chance to play Tony Montana from the movie Scarface and expand his empire of drugs and crime

-AP, Matt Slagle

Pretend for a moment that Tony Montana somehow survived the bloodbath between his “little friend” and hundreds of rival gangsters at his sprawling Florida mansion in the movie Scarface.

That’s the premise behind Scarface: The World is Yours, a thrilling video game sequel that’s brimming with enough action (and four-letter expletives) to give Grand Theft Auto a run for the money.

Anyone who views Scarface as the seminal gangster flick will find a rich “what if” story here as you become the foul-mouthed, hot-tempered Montana in a quest to rebuild his empire and once again rule the world. A lucrative, drug-fuelled slice of it, anyway.

As with the movie, this game isn’t one you’d want children playing.

From the moment Scarface loads, the F-bombs start dropping like the London Blitz. If anything, it shows just how versatile the same four-letter word can be in a conversation.

Appropriately, there’s a large cast of Hollywood talent doing the voices in the game version, including Ice-T, Jay Mohr, James Woods and even a reunion of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong.

But aside from his digital likeness, Al Pacino is notably absent from this project. Doing a convincing fill-in job is Andre Sogliuzzo, a veteran of video-game voice-overs.

The core of Scarface, of course, is organised crime. You’ll spend plenty of time in frantic gun battles, but as the aspiring leader of Miami’s drug trade, a penchant for business is just as important.

Making drug deals, operating “fronts” disguised as legitimate businesses, keeping the police at bay and building a reputation are all crucial elements to success in this fully realised, 3D world.

This is a process that will take days, if not weeks, of constant playing to accomplish.

As you restore Montana’s wealth, you’ll even have the option to model his mansion with all sorts of gaudy furniture and accessories.

But let’s be real: the action is where most of the fun lies, mainly because of the game’s superb controls and the sheer number of enemies and variety of missions thrown your way. Throughout, a special meter fills during the action, allowing Montana to unleash an invincible killing frenzy once filled.

There’s a long history of movies becoming mediocre, if not downright terrible video games. Scarface finally breaks that curse.

Scarface: The World is Yours
Rating: 4/5
Developer: Radical
System Requirements:
2.8 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM,
DirectX 9 compatible video and audio, DVD drive, 5GB HDD space