Tech Industry News: September 2007

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Yahoo takes on Google on ads

Yahoo strengthens its service to advertisers by buying online advertising business BlueLithium for $300m.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Facebook opens profiles to public

Social networking site offers profiles to search engines and gives users chance to opt out.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Apple overhauls entire iPod line

New versions of the iPod are unveiled including one with a touch screen and a wi-fi connection.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Nintendo dominates console war

Nintendo's Wii continues to dominate the Japanese console market, according to latest sales figures.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

China denies Pentagon cyber-raid

China dismisses reports that its military hacked into the Pentagon's computer network.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Yahoo takes on Google on adverts

Yahoo strengthens its service to advertisers by buying online advertising business BlueLithium for $300m.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Cyber crime tool kits go on sale

Cyber criminals are cashing in on their expertise by offering tool kits that let anyone craft attacks.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

New boom-time for British tech?

How investment in technology firms can help the UK recreate Silicon Valley.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Natasha Dantzig of TED (Technology,
Entertainment, and Design) writes,
"We've released a new talk by Dean Kamen ... (plus video clip)
about the robotic prosthetic arm he's building for Iraq veterans. This
project has
been boingboinged, but no one has seen this clip in all its
glory." The TED Dean
Kamen talk is viewable in MP4
format (22MB download) from the TED website. If you don't have the
latest video codec or don't want to wait for a 22MB download, try
viewing the YouTube version of the
talk, which should be viewable in almost any browser. The wars in
Iraq and Afganistan have generated over 30,000 US
casualties, (not to mention the estimated 70,000+ Iraqi deaths). This has
created a booming market for prosthetics of all types.
We've reported previously on DARPA's Prostethics
Program, Toyoto's leg,
RIC's bionic arm, C-Leg and other robotic
prosthetic limbs, and the Open Prosthetics Project.

Source: http://www.netchain.com

Fedora Electronic Laboratory

The next version of Red Hat's Fedora
Linux will offer a feature called
Fedora
Electronic Laboratory that should be of interest to robotics and
electronics hobbyists. Fedora Electronic Lab will include free software
for ASIC and VLSI design, verilog and VHDL hardware design, SPICE
simulation, PCB layout, schematic capture, timing and waveform
visualization, 3D layout visualization, and microcontroller programming
tools including Atmel AVR and PIC tools. Many of the free software tools
were already available but required compilation or complex installation
to use. Now they'll be available to all Fedora Linux users without any
extra work. A LiveCD version will also be available. Over 250
Universities are know to already use the VLSI tools in this collection,
so having a
complete Linux distro with the tools included should be a big time
saver. Fedora Electronic Lab is largely the result of efforts by Chitlesh Goorah to collect
useful existing free software for electronic engineers.

Source: http://www.netchain.com

Talking Robots: Jean-Christophe Zufferey

In the new Talking Robots
podcast, Jean-Christophe
Zufferey presents his 10g micro-flyer
which uses vision as main source of information to autonomously navigate
in indoor environments. As can be seen from this video, it looks
similar to a plane but its flight dynamics have much more in common with
a fly. In the interview
Jean-Christophe Zufferey explains how his bio-inspired approach has
allowed him to develop this ultra-light, autonomous platform, and gives
us an inside view of developments for flying robots today and in the
future.

Source: http://www.netchain.com

Robot Land, S. Korea, 011001

In an effort to boost its competitive edge in the robotics industry,
a South Korean government committee will pick a site for

"Robot Land" soon. Robot Land will be a place for
manufacturers, suppliers and research labs to move up into the ranks of
Japan and others. Also planned are exhibition halls and even a stadium
where robots can compete in public events. As for the postal code, I
made that part up.

Source: http://www.netchain.com

Roller-Walker: A Leg-Wheel Hybrid Walking Robot

This week's video was brought to our attention by a post on the
DPRG mailing list. The video shows a 2006 Japanese research robot
called Roller-Walker,
developed at the Hirose-Fukushima
Robotics Lab. The robot has a hybrid locomotion system with legs
that end in wheels. The wheels can be rotated so that the hubs
face the ground and they act as feet for walking. The wheels can
also rotate
to act as normal wheels, allowing the robot to roll like a roller
skater when the legs move appropriately. The result is remarkably graceful.

Source: http://www.netchain.com

Artificial brains for robots?

Roland Piquepaille writes, "An international team of European
researchers has implanted
an artificial cerebellum -- the portion of the brain that controls
motor functions -- inside a robotic system. This EU-funded project is
dubbed SENSOPAC, an acronym for
"SENSOrimotor structuring of perception and action for emerging
cognition". One of the goals of this project is to design robots able to
interact with humans in a natural way. This project, which should be
completed at the end of 2009, also wants to produce robots which would
act as home-helpers for disabled people, such as persons affected by
neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease." For more
details on this story, see Roland's blog entry on
SENSOPAC.

Source: http://www.netchain.com

EngineeringTV Robot Episodes

Twice a week, Engineering TV
produces a mini-episode about Engineers doing their thing. Episodes
61-67 covered robot-related research and products including an
anthropomorphic hand built by the German Aerospace Institute,
autonomous balancing robotics from Ologic, artificial muscles
from the
University
of Michigan, the CoroBot
unmanned mobile PC, and more.

Source: http://www.netchain.com

Soldiers in Iraq Give Their Robots Female Names

A recent Stars
and Stripes article about robots in Iraq talks about the usual
things we've heard; there are now thousands of robots in Iraq, they're
saving lives (at least the robots that aren't killing people are saving
lives), and soldiers love 'em. There's one
interesting new item in this story though. The ground forces are
beginning to give their robots female names, following the WWII
tradition that led to naming bombers after women. Will robots with sexy
nose art be next?

Source: http://www.netchain.com

Monday, September 3, 2007

Man versus machine

Former Edge magazine editor Margaret Robertson on computers are being taught to play computer games.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Row over German spyware plans

German government plans to spy on terror suspects by deploying malicious e-mails draw sharp criticism.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Gadgets 'ruin' film, claims Scott

Director Ridley Scott claims technology which allows people to watch films on mobiles is killing cinema.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Nintendo dominates in console war

Nintendo's Wii continues to dominate the Japanese console market, according to latest sales figures.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Mobiles to become digital wallets

A payment system that allows users to spend cash via their handsets is launched across the UK.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Sony confirms security problem

Electronics giant Sony confirms a recently discovered security flaw in its products and says it will issue a fix.

Source: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk

Dell Treat Malaysian Differently…

This picture was taken by The Sun newspaper early July this year. Staffs of Dell corp and models were promoting the latest colorful Inspiron laptops at the launching event in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Dell launching Inspiron laptops in Malaysia

Today I received a forwarded email with some pictures taken at the same launching event in Korea :-

Dell launching Inspiron laptops in Korea

Though the event in Korea is more like an event for automobile, at least it catches more attention, no?

Oh ya, do you see the difference in quality between the models in yellow? Haha…

Well, there are more pictures after the jump.