The Hong Kong International Airport has taken a fairly interesting approach to keeping waiting, angry passengers from staging mutiny in the terminals. It's partnered with Sony to install 14 playable PS3 consoles, according to The Moodie Report. This is part of a long-lasting partnership between the airport and Sony Computer Entertainment. As it's one of the most trafficked international airports in the world it makes sense that corporations like Sony would use it as a venue to show off their wares--in this case, the latest games.
It's good for the airport, too, as it distracts passengers from their desire to kill the ticketing-booth reps. Currently, the PS3 "poles" feature the PS3's top games, including Final Fantasy XIII, James Cameron's Avatar, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Assassin's Creed 2.
As a guy who flies a lot I'd like to see this idea pick up here in the States. I remember that one smaller airport I flew through in California (Sacramento? Oakland?) had a pretty impressive video arcade that was a lot of fun, but free-to-play latest titles win any day over 20-year-old, broken-down Mortal Kombat arcade units.
Acer has a prime competitor in the ultra-affordable Netbook market, and that's MSI. The just-announced MSI Wind U135 doesn't add much that's new to the Netbook equation, swapping out the previous Atom N270 processor for a next-generation battery life-extending N450, nicknamed Pine Trail. Starting at $309.99, the Wind U135 comes with a 160GB or 250GB hard drive, plus 1GB of RAM.
The very Netbook-looking Netbook comes in charcoal, silver, ruby, or sapphire, aka black, silver, red, or blue, with a film-printed shiny coating. New to the Wind U135 is a raised chiclet keyboard, so that the Netbook joins the ranks of nearly every other laptop nowadays. A new, larger touch pad has also been added. Five different power management settings are built in--not that we have ever had to concern ourselves with power efficiency on a Netbook.
A 10-inch screen with a standard 1,024x600-pixel resolution, three USB ports, a 1.3 megapixel Webcam, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi round out the features. And, of course, for a price this low, the Wind U135 runs Windows 7 Starter.
The MSI Wind U135 is available for purchase starting today on a variety of retail Web sites.
Think Silly Putty, and you'll probably have a very good idea what the brains at Japan's Tokyo University have created. The new material, called "elastic water," retains its Flubber-like consistency by mixing a few grams of clay and organic matter to H20, essentially binding the whole into a jelly-like putty.
The aqua substance isn't headed for toy retail outlets, though we won't be surprised if it does spin off in that direction. For now, its intention is more visionary and intended to facilitate quick tissue attachment.
The Japanese scientists--who detail their findings in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature--are also looking to increase the density of the substance for use as an ecological plastic material.
We say it'll be even more brilliant if they find a way to convert their creation back into potable liquid at a snap, so elastic water can be easily ferried to disaster zones where water supplies have been disrupted.
Google Inc., which is the owner of the popular search engine Google has been unveiling different services, features and tools in the recent days. This week, they have declared to acquire the ownership of Admob firm and on Tuesday, also launched a new site for helping people with information related to H1N1 virus and vaccination.
Now the company has released an ‘open source programming language’ for the developers and named it ‘Go’. It is an excellent news for the developers yet sources stated that the programming language is still in an experimental stage. Experts are conducting studies on it and one can expect the language to become better once it reaches the final stage.
In a blog post, Google officials have given an overview of the new programming language that is expected to benefit the developers. It has been stated that ‘Go’ is launched with the aim of combining C++, a compiled language, with another computer language called Python. They also stated that they have designed the new programming language so that one can do the work faster. ‘Google Go’, which will provide support to multiple processing, is expected to be an useful language and would help people in conducting their works in a better manner.
According to the sources, the programming language ‘Go’ is not only memory safe but also type safe. The language is mainly aimed for running software on different multi-core machines. Experts at Google always consider that programming languages need to be productive and fast. Users should derive fun while using the programming languages and it is expected that the new programming language would provide all these.
A disagreement between Google and Mozilla is making a once-obscure debate into a real issue for those who watch Web video or host it on their own sites.
Last week, Google's YouTube announced early support for HTML5 video, which can be built directly into Web pages and viewed with browsers without relying on a plug-in such as Adobe Systems' Flash, Microsoft's Silverlight, or Apple's QuickTime. Another Web video site, Vimeo, followed suit.
Native video on a Web page sounds nice, and many Web companies support the effort broadly. But there's one big devil in its detail: the HTML5 specification, still under development, doesn't say which "codec" technology should be used to encode and decode video, and different browsers and Web sites support different standards.
YouTube, which delivers vastly more video streams over the Web than any competitor, has come down on one side of the divide, supporting the H.264 codec for HTML5 video on its TestTube site. But after Google made the move, several involved in developing Mozilla's Firefox browser began preaching a royalty-free alternative called Ogg Theora.
Mozilla grew to its present status of second-place browser in large measure by the power of word of mouth, and there's evidence the Mozilla community has begun making itself heard. After an Ogg Theora petition request on a Mozilla mailing list, requests for Ogg Theora support are on both on the YouTube product top ideas and hot ideas list.
Google wouldn't comment on whether it plans to add Ogg Theora support or what it would take to convince it to do so. However, it did leave the door open.
"Support for HTML5 is just a TestTube experiment at this time and a starting point. We can't comment specifically on what codecs we intend to support, but we're open to supporting more of them over time. At the very least we hope to help further this active and ongoing discussion," the company said in a statement.
$5 million licensing fee Mozilla would have to pay $5 million to license the H.264 codec from MPEG-LA, the industry group that oversees the technology, said Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of engineering in a blog post, and that doing so wouldn't grant rights of those such as Linux operating system companies who build products employing Mozilla's browser.
"These license fees affect not only browser developers and distributors, but also represent a toll booth on anyone who wishes to produce video content. And if H.264 becomes an accepted part of the standardized Web, those fees are a barrier to entry for developers of new browsers, those bringing the Web to new devices or platforms, and those who would build tools to help content and application development," Shaver said.
Nothing requires only one video technology to prevail. After all, different graphics formats including JPEG, GIF, and PNG are in wide use today on the Web, and today's widely used Flash technology for video will remain a fixture for years.
But supporting multiple standards takes developer time and makes Web sites more complicated. So, in the absence of a prevailing standard, Web site developers are more likely to sit on the sidelines.
Microsoft is so concerned about the future of cloud computing that it's urging the government to step in.
In a speech Wednesday, Microsoft general counsel and senior vice president Brad Smith called on government and business to shore up confidence in cloud computing by tackling issues of privacy and security--two major concerns that have been voiced about the cloud.
During his keynote speech to the Brookings Institution's "Cloud Computing for Business and Society" form, Smith also appealed to Washington to pass new laws and update existing ones to address problems such as computer fraud and cyberattacks as more businesses and consumers hop onto the cloud.
to modernize the laws, adapt them to the cloud, and adopt new measures to protect privacy and promote security," Smith said. "There is no doubt that the future holds even more opportunities than the present, but it also contains critical challenges that we must address now if we want to take full advantage of the potential of cloud computing."
To back up his position, Smith cited the results of a recent Microsoft survey that gauged feelings about cloud computing among business executives and the general public. Commissioned by Microsoft, the survey questioned 700 members of the public, 200 IT executives, and 200 senior business leaders in December.
Microsoft's survey found that 58 percent of the public and 86 percent of business leaders are excited about the possibilities of cloud computing. But more than 90 percent of them are worried about security, availability, and privacy of their data as it rests in the cloud. Microsoft said it also found that most of the people surveyed believe the U.S. should set up laws and policies to govern cloud computing.
During his speech, Smith proposed that Washington create a Cloud Computing Advancement Act that would protect consumers and give the government tools to handle issues such as data privacy and security. He added that an international dialogue is crucial in addressing data security so that information is protected no matter where it resides.
"The PC revolution empowered individuals and democratized technology in new and profoundly important ways," Smith said. "As we move to embrace the cloud, we should build on that success and preserve the personalization of technology by making sure privacy rights are preserved, data security is strengthened, and an international understanding is developed about the governance of data when it crosses national borders."
In proposing legislation, Microsoft is looking to the government to enact specific measures, including to:
Beef up the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to more clearly define and protect the privacy of consumers and businesses.
Update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act so that law enforcement has the resources it needs to combat hackers.
Establish truth-in-cloud-computing principles so that consumers and businesses know how their information will be accessed and secured.
Set up a framework so that differences in regulations on cloud computing among various countries can be better clarified and reconciled.
Microsoft's survey and the speech by Smith echo sentiments about cloud computing that have certainly been seen elsewhere. Other studies have found that businesses view the cloud as a viable way to save money and rely less on internal IT. But those same businesses cite privacy and security as the biggest concerns of using a cloud-service provider.
Microsoft, of course, acknowledges that an external provider with the right expertise can often provide better security than many companies can internally. But with incidents of providers hit by outages or losing data, businesses are likely to remain cautious about storing data in the .
Acer has a prime competitor in the ultra-affordable Netbook market, and that's MSI. The just-announced MSI Wind U135 doesn't add much that's new to the Netbook equation, swapping out the previous Atom N270 processor for a next-generation battery life-extending N450 Nicknamed Pine Trail The Wind U135 comes with a 160GB or 250GB hard drive 1GB of RAM Comes in charcoal, silver, ruby, or sapphire, aka black, silver, red, or blue, with a film-printed shiny coating Starting at $309.99
