Comment Re:Two words: (Score 3, Insightful) 250
It's a gift for the lawyers really... who is dumb enough to go against three litigiously-experienced heavy weights with a frivolous patent lawsuit.
Indonesians Want To Microchip AIDS Patients 120
Lawmakers in Papua, Indonesia have thrown their support behind a bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips in order to better monitor the disease. In addition, legislator John Manangsang said by implanting chips in "sexually aggressive" patients, authorities would be in a better position to identify, track and punish those who deliberately infect others. Health workers and rights activists sharply criticized the plan. It would make the dating scene a lot less scary if you could carry your AIDS chip reader into the club.
Comment i loved my capsela. (Score 1) 785
capsela is why i am an electronic engineer.
Comment Re:This result isn't surprising. (Score 1) 301
While the newton, geoport modem, scanners and displays come to mind, I am thinking of Apple's larger skill set here in producing electronic devices. Such as laptops, chips and at a more basic level many electronic standards. They have a very wide tool set of experience to call upon.
Comment Re:bias. (Score 5, Informative) 301
actually, the apple consumers are usually very pedantic about their product and rightly so, the product is usually marketed as a premium item and costs a little more than the competitor.
So far even minor issues found in the iphone have been turned into a maelstrom of users, fanboys and haters all cashing in their feedback. There are people actively petitioning the iPhone for the following: Canadian pricing, the autocorrection feature having a disable switch, iphone unlocking/drm, 3rd party application NDAs, iphone in china & other providers, chrome for iphone, mms, 802.1x NACS, etc etc.
The blackberry is not getting anywhere near this much attention, petitions for the blackberry are aimed at the service providers disablement of a particular BB feature.
However all this vocal activity is a good thing for apple, as it gives them ways they can improve their product.
Comment This result isn't surprising. (Score 1) 301
Apple have many years of experience in making small electronic devices that users run with, drop, hit, sweat into, cover in dirt, dust and sand, sit on and so on. They've learnt and studied reliability significantly from and for all those iPods.
Combining this with apple's experience in electronics and software and I'm not surprised that the iPhone is failing less than a company who only have experience in producing one kind of product for a significantly shorter amount of time with a much smaller research & development budget.
Magnetic Portals Connect Sun and Earth 235
MaxwellEdison writes "Scientists have discovered evidence of magnetic portals connecting the Earth and the Sun every 8 minutes. 'Several speakers at the Workshop have outlined how FTEs form: On the dayside of Earth (the side closest to the sun), Earth's magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. Approximately every eight minutes, the two fields briefly merge or "reconnect," forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth. The European Space Agency's fleet of four Cluster spacecraft and NASA's five THEMIS probes have flown through and surrounded these cylinders, measuring their dimensions and sensing the particles that shoot through.'"
How Vampire Bats Evolved To Live On Blood Alone 82
New research has discovered some of the genetic changes that allowed vampire bats to live on a diet of pure blood. One of the bats' most important evolutionary traits is the ability to manipulate an anticoagulant protein in their blood and saliva. In humans similar proteins protect against heart attack by breaking up blood clots and clearing vessels.
Google Negotiating With Justice Department 83
mikesd81 writes "Cnet reports that to avoid being sued by the US Justice Department, Google is negotiating with them. The Justice Department and a multistate task force are still reviewing the proposal to decide whether to oppose the partnership. Under the non-exclusive partnership Google would supply Yahoo with some search ads, a move that could increase Yahoo search revenue, but that also gives Google even more power in the market. Yahoo expects the 10-year deal to raise revenue by $800 million in its first year and to provide an extra $250 million to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow. Google's share of the US search market reached 71 percent in August, compared with Yahoo's 18.26, according to Hitwise's most recent numbers."
The Joy of the Flash Drive 332
An anonymous reader writes "A post to the C|Net site covers the numerous benefits of flash drives, such as speed, temperature, and battery consumption. The perk author Michael Kanellos is most fond of? The distinct lack of noise. 'The notebook I'm testing--a Dell Latitude D830 with a 64GB flash hard drive from Samsung--hasn't emitted a sound in three days. Flash drives, which store data in NAND flash memory, don't require motors or spinning platters. Thus, there are no whirring mechanical noises. Compare that with my T42 ThinkPad. It sounds like a guinea pig got trapped inside, particularly during the start-up phase. Vzoooot. Cronk, cronk, cronk. Zip, zip. (Pause.) Gurlagurlagurla...zweeee. '"
Submission + - Kodak unveils brighter CMOS color filters (eetimes.com)
brownsteve writes: Eastman Kodak Co. unveiled what it says are "next-generation color filter patterns" designed to more than double the light sensitivity of CMOS or CCD image sensors used in camera phones or digital still cameras. The new color filter system is a departure from the widely used standard Bayer pattern — an arrangement of red, green and blue pixels — also created by Kodak. While building on the Bayer pattern, the new technology adds a "fourth pixel, which has no pigment on top," said Michael DeLuca, market segment manager responsible for image sensor solutions at Eastman Kodak. Such "transparent" pixels — sensitive to all visible wavelengths — are designed to absorb light. DeLuca claimed the invention is "the next milestone" in digital photography, likening its significance to ISO 400 color film introduced in the mid-1980's.
Senate Discusses Third Pipe Using 700MHz Spectrum 78
Freebird writes "The US Senate Commerce Committee held hearings on the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction today, and much of the discussion centered around Frontline Wireless' proposal to create a commercial wireless broadband network that would also be used for public safety. 'Under Frontline's proposal, the FCC would auction off 10 MHz from the commercially available spectrum and offer that to the highest bidder. The winner would also be given (free) 12 MHz out of the 24 MHz currently allotted to public safety.' Some senators were skeptical, especially Ted Stevens of Alaska who had a 'long and testy interchange' with Frontline CEO James Barksdale. 'He seemed to be zeroing on criticisms that the Frontline proposal was simply a way for a new company to get a huge discount on a prime chunk of spectrum by playing the "public safety" card.'"
Submission + - Intel V8 Octa-Core System, Full Performance Tests
MojoKid writes: In the April time frame,
details of Intel's dual-socket 8-core system dubbed
"V8" became available but only preliminary performance numbers were shown.
The platform consists of quad-core Xeon processors in an Intel 5000X
chipset-based motherboard, along with FBDIMM (Fully Buffered DIMM) serial
memory. This
follow-on article goes into significantly
more detail on the platform and showcases many more performance metrics on a
Windows Vista 64-bit installation. The
POV-Ray and Cinebench 95 benchmark numbers alone are something to smile
about.
Liquid Lens Can Magnify at the Flick of a Switch 108
An anonymous reader writes "German engineers have designed the first liquid camera lens with no moving parts that provides two levels of zoom. 'Liquid lenses bend light using the curved boundary between watery and oily liquids. When the two liquids are held in the right container, the boundary between them can be made to curve in a way that focuses light simply by applying a voltage. Liquid lenses have attracted much attention because they are potentially smaller than conventional optics and cheaper to build. Samsung has already built them into some cellphones.'"
File Sharing — Harmful to Children and a Threat to National Security 342
jkrobin writes to mention that a recent report from the US Patent office calls peer-to-peer file sharing harmful to children and a threat to national security. "Interestingly, the report makes numerous references to RIAA and MPAA legal actions against file actions, as well as cites a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge."
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