Terminator robots in Tokyo

In conjunction with the upcoming release of Terminator Salvation (T4), an exhibit featuring the cyborgs from the Terminator series is now on display at Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Tokyo.

T-600 endoskeleton from Terminator Salvation

Entitled “Terminator Exhibition - Battle or Coexistence? Robots and Our Future,” the exhibit purportedly aims to inspire visitors to think about the relationship between humans and machines. Mostly, though, it offers a unique glimpse at the models and costumes used in the filming of the movies, along with details about the makeup and special effects.

T-800 endoskeleton

In the first Terminator movie, which takes place in Los Angeles in 1984, a T-800 cyborg assassin is sent back in time from the year 2029 by Skynet, an artificially intelligent military computer system that rules the world under an army of cyborgs. Its mission is to erase the existence of John Connor, who in the future becomes the leader of the human resistance forces against the machines. To alter the course of history in Skynet’s favor, the T-800 must terminate Sarah Connor before she gives birth to her son John.

T-800 endoskeleton

The T-800 cyborg — played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first three Terminator movies — consists of a metal endoskeleton under a layer of living human tissue. The robot has excellent learning capabilities, enabling it to understand and adopt human behavior and phrases. It can also mimic voices once it hears them. A slightly improved version of the T-800 — the T-850 — appears in Terminator 2 and Terminator 3.

T-800: Hasta la vista, baby

In Terminator 2, Skynet sends the latest Terminator model — the T-1000 — to Los Angeles in 1994 to eliminate the 10-year-old John Connor. At the same time, the resistance forces send a hacked T-800 from the future to protect John. The T-1000, which is much more advanced than the T-800, has no endoskeleton and consists of a shape-shifting liquid metal. The T-1000 is not displayed in this exhibit.

T-800 // T-X

In Terminator 3, the T-800 (T-850) is again sent from the future to protect John Connor. This time it does battle with the T-X, a super-powerful Terminator that combines the exoskeleton of the T-800 with the shape-shifting liquid metal of the T-1000.

T-X (a.k.a. Terminatrix)

The T-X, also called “Terminatrix,” takes the shape of a beautiful woman and incorporates a variety of weapons into its endoskeleton. In addition to conducting DNA analysis by tasting blood, the shape-shifting assassin can remotely control other machines and Terminators.

Cameron Phillips (TOK715)

Other items on display include a reproduction of Cameron Philips (TOK715), a reprogrammed Terminator from the “Sarah Conner Chronicles” TV series.

The exhibit also includes a few props and movie trailers from the forthcoming film.

T-600 endoskeleton

Set in the year 2018, Terminator Salvation will prominently feature the T-600, an early Terminator prototype. Unlike the T-800 portrayed by Schwarzenegger in the previous films, the more primitive T-600 features an endoskeleton covered in synthetic skin instead of living human tissue. At 8 feet tall, it is also much bulkier.

Moto-Terminator

Also on display is the Moto-Terminator, a motorcycle-based death machine, as well as the Hydrobot (not pictured here), a menacing eel-like underwater robot.

The final section of the exhibit introduces a variety of Japanese robot technology, mostly in the form of text-heavy exhibits (Japanese only). However, an Actroid — smartly dressed in a skin-tight black jumpsuit — is on hand to liven things up.

Actroid

Actroid

The exhibit runs until June 28, 2009.

Next Generation Of iPhone: The Most Probable Evolution

I drooled at the idea of an iPhone Pro with slide keyboard and big honkin' camera, but let's face it: It's probably never going to happen. So—using logic—how the next iPhone look like?

Probably something like this: A flatter, even more tapered and slender version of the current one. After all, if you have a winning formula, why radically change it?

Matt says that he would be disappointed if it ends being something like this, just a version of the current model. I'm going to be pessimist and expect just an evolution of the current design. The market keeps growing with what they have now, so it won't make sense for them to go through a radical design change just yet. And besides this point, there are at least three generations of smooth evolution and tweaks in Apple hardware designs until something completely new comes along (witness the iMacs, for example.)

Not that it really matters: As long as they include a bigger camera sensor while reducing the thickness to iPod touch levels, I'd be happy. But who knows, perhaps there will be a radical departure. What do you think? Do you have any original idea? Send it to us.

Intel's New Nehalem Historic, Game Changing

Intel (NSDQ:INTC)'s launch of its newest server processor is historic as much for its technical architecture as for the raw performance it offers.

A review of the CPU and the processing platform provided by Intel shows technology that should quickly vault small and large data centers into a new era of computing. The latest lineup of Nehalem processors will enable servers that can realize the full potential of virtualization and server consolidation, and should spark CIOs and companies to move sooner, rather than later, toward meaningful data center upgrades.

The CRN Test Center spent several days evaluating an Asus server built with an Intel Xeon 5570 at 2.93 GHz, with 24 GB of memory at 1.333 GHz, and two hard disk drives of 300 GB each. Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition was loaded onto the system to get started.

First, benchmark testing running Primate Labs Geekbench 2.1.1 testing software on the 64-bit software ran up a score of 14,981. That compares to a score of 7,912 that the Test Center measured in November when we tested the then-newAMD (NYSE: AMD) Opteron "Shanghai" server. The score is simply the highest benchmark ever run in the CRN Test Center lab. (In 32-bit software mode, the Geekbench score ran to 13,600.)

But Intel has designed this latest round of server processors to be about more than just benchmarking speed. The company has specifically said that the system was for, among other things, faster virtualization. We tried it out.

With Server 2008 running, we created 20 additional virtual Server 2008s (through cloning) in about 30 minutes.

On the test server, we set out to launch the 20 separate virtual servers, each running Windows Server 2008. We assigned each 1 GB of memory. One at a time, we launched each virtual server, started a workload, and then went on to launch the next server. All down the line, not a single server took more than a minute to boot -- even when there were 19 other servers doing work, all running off the same CPU.

We did begin to notice some slowing in the launch of VMs once we got to 20, as we reached the host systems' memory limit. However, all VMs continued running and performing their assigned workloads without a hiccup.

When we added it all up, we were able to create the equivalent of a 21-server data center, with each server running a workload, in less than an hour. (That includes the host as well as VMs.) From scratch.

To be sure, the first 30 to 60 days following a CPU launch are critical -- when the potential for any problems or defects to be discovered during early production deployment is at its highest. However, Intel's track record for the past several years has been pretty good on this front. We saw no signs of instability during our testing process.

On startup, the server consumed 118 watts of power, and that remained stable during testing on a variety of workloads. The unit never reached above 87 degrees Fahrenheit. Taken all together, the implications for next-generation data centers -- from a performance as well as an energy-efficiency point of view -- will be profound.

Ever since the launch, little more than a year ago, of Windows Server 2008, the software showed huge potential to radically transform the data center. The one, big hurdle: CPU and other hardware support to make full use of the software potential. With the Asus server, built with the Xeon 5570 processor that we examined, we believe that issue has finally been realized. Solution providers now have a single CPU solution that carries the weight of significant virtualization deployments in a highly manageable manner.

This launch by Intel looks to be historic, in what it will do for the potential of virtualization and data-center consolidation. It will also change the game in terms of value that can be delivered in the form factor of a single, 1U rack server. Bottom line: This is the most compelling piece of technology to be released onto the market this year, and will be hard to top.

China gets ad-supported music through Google

Google and the Big Four music labels have launched an ad-supported music service in China in an attempt to make online music profitable there. The venture, launched along with 14 independent labels, will have to compete with search engines that point users to thousands of copyrighted music files for free, but Google hopes that this will make it even easier for users to find what they want online while ensuring artists get paid for their work.

This appears to be the same venture that Google discussed in August of 2008. The service is actually run through the partially-Google-owned Top100.cn, which is responsible for selling advertising space and divvying up revenues between the music labels. The site will be limited by IP address to those in mainland China, however, so if you're in Taiwan or any other surrounding area and want to get a taste, you'll be out of luck.

"This is the first really serious attempt to start monetizing online music in China," Warner Music Asia president Lachie Rutherford told the Associated Press. Google China president Kai-Fu Lee agreed, adding that today's launch "complete[s] the puzzle" by offering a fully-integrated set of music and advertising services.

Google's music search is, of course, a direct response to the popular Chinese search engine Baidu, which has made a name for itself by providing deep links to seemingly unlimited quantities of illegal music. In fact, Baidu has recently come under fire for its MP3 deep-linking policies, as the Music Copyright Society of China and the IFPI have both filed lawsuits against the search engine for the practice.

The ad-supported music venture is the latest in a long string of efforts by Big Content to compete with piracy in China. In November of 2008, Warner Bros. announced that it planned to offer certain films as downloadable rentals in China for a fraction of the cost in other parts of the world (4 to 7 yuan, or roughly 58¢ to $1.02). Before that, Warner China (a joint effort between Warner Bros., China Film Group, and Hengdian Group) announced that it would start selling certain movies just days after their theatrical releases for as low as 10 yuan. Warner Bros. also joined up with Paramount to start selling legit DVDs in China for about 20 to 25 yuan, or just under $3.

One catch to Google's music service is that it will cooperate with Chinese law and block songs that have been banned by the government. This isn't exactly a surprising move, however—companies must agree to China's rules in order to do business there, or they can go home. "When you're in the music business in China you know you have to follow the regulations," Rutherford said.

Skype for iPhone: It's official

Months after teasing us at CES with an announcement of Skype's native VoIP client for the iPhone, the free Skype for iPhone will finally be available to download from the iTunes App Store sometime on Tuesday. We got a chance to sit down with the application's principal engineer before the announcement was made at CTIA 2009, to see Skype for iPhone do its thing. While most of the features aren't too surprising--Skype does want to maintain some consistency across its mobile applications, after all--there are a few capabilities that are notably missing, and a few iPhone-only perks that are refreshing to see.

At long last, Skype has come to the iPhone.

(Credit: Skype)

In terms of navigation, Skype's VoIP app for iPhone looks more like your traditional iPhone app than it does Skype 4.0 for Windows. For many who already prefer Apple's sleek interface archetype, that's a triumph, but those who enjoy Skype's branding may feel disappointed.

Skype's screens are well organized and use the iPhone's ability to add filters, for instance, to sort your contacts alphabetically, or by who's online. There's chatting as well, though Skype's flagship feature is its VoIP calling that's free to other Skype users and an inexpensive per-minute fee to landlines. Calls on Skype for iPhone work only if you're in range of a Wi-Fi network, so your call quality will in part be at the mercy and strength of wireless networks nearby--calls will not work over the cell phone network on the iPhone (but chatting will.) Assuming your connection is solid, you can dial a number or quickly call a contacts stored in your address book. iPod Touch users will need earphones with an embedded mic to talk. During a call, you can mute the line, go on hold, or put the call on speakerphone. In the My Info window, you can follow a link to buy more SkypeOut credit online.

Taking a photo from within Skype to serve as your avatar image, or pulling a picture in from the camera roll are two iPhone-only features that makes use of the phone's hardware attributes. Another imperfect, but still neat, feature is the ability to accept incoming conference calls. While you won't be able to initiate a call, we're told, you will be able to jump on one if a buddy invites you in. We hope the next version includes placing conference calls from the iPhone.

Skype left a few more skills out of its maiden iPhone voyage. SMS, setting up a conference calling group, purchasing SkypeOut credit directly, and being able to field a second incoming Skype call are a few. File transferring and getting Skype voicemail native on the phone are two more. We expect to see at least two of these added in the next version, but we'll hope for more.

Skype versus the competition
Here's the big question on our minds: will Skype's iPhone app replace competitors like Nimbuzz and Fring, which focus on cross-network IM but also include VoIP calls with Skype pals even though they've been available for the iPhone for months? Kurt Thywissen, the principal engineer for Skype for iPhone, thinks so. He says what the other apps use is a workaround that requires them to channel calls through a server and transcode audio, resulting in poorer-quality calls than Skype can do in its own app. He may be right, but those who IM more than they vocalize probably won't ditch the likes of Fring too soon. They might, however, let Skype handle the calls and let another app take care of the multinetwork chatting.

Action video games sharpen eyesight: U.S. study

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Adults who play a lot of action video games may be improving their eyesight, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

They said people who used a video-game training program saw significant improvements in their ability to notice subtle differences in shades of gray, a finding that may help people who have trouble with night driving.

"Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery -- somehow changing the optics of the eye," said Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York, whose study appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"But we've found that action video games train the brain to process the existing visual information more efficiently, and the improvements last for months after game play stopped."

For the study, the team divided 22 students into two groups. One group played the action games "Call of Duty 2" by Activision Blizzard Inc and Epic Games' "Unreal Tournament 2004." A second played Electronic Arts Inc's "The Sims 2," a game they said does not require as much hand-eye coordination.

The two groups played 50 hours of their assigned games over the course of nine weeks. At the end of the training, the action game players showed an average of 43 percent improvement in their ability to discern close shades of gray, while the Sims players showed none.

Bavelier found very practiced action gamers became 58 percent better at perceiving fine differences in contrast.

"When people play action games, they're changing the brain's pathway responsible for visual processing. These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it," Bavelier said in a statement.

She said the findings show that action video-game training may be a useful complement to eye-correction techniques.

No Givens As Obama Steps Onto World Stage

After 69 days in which international issues have taken a back seat to attempts to rescue the economy at home, President Obama takes the world stage this week as a wildly popular figure among the people of Europe, but one who faces a difficult task in selling his plans to the continent's leaders.

The president plans to push for a new approach to the war in Afghanistan, aggressive action to stop the proliferation of weapons and a more united European effort to combat the global recession.

But if the U.S. president thought his popularity would cause foreign governments to fall quickly into line behind a new American leadership, experts warn, he could be in for a rude awakening.

The German government has resisted calls to deploy more combat troops to Afghanistan. Russia is pushing back against a NATO missile defense system in Poland. And the Czech prime minister last week described the U.S. plans for global economic recovery as the "road to hell."

On Saturday, the White House made clear that it is not trying to dictate spending in European capitals to revive the economy, after facing strong resistance from France, Germany and other nations.

"The notion that Europe is going to rally around this administration is being exploded," said Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation. Gardiner predicted "a rapturous welcome" for Obama from the European public but said that "when it gets down to the discussions . . . there are going to be very tense discussions."

Obama's election was heralded by many European leaders as a clean break from the administration of President George W. Bush, who angered many in foreign capitals with what they viewed as slight regard for their input. They saw Obama's Republican predecessor as reckless and too willing to act without first achieving consensus.

White House officials describe Obama's trip as a way of confronting those "inherited challenges" left over from the Bush administration, and they said they expect the three summits he will attend to produce broad agreement on new approaches to economic recovery, fighting terrorism and securing peace in unstable regions.

"We think [the trip] is obviously going to be a fundamental part of the president's agenda of restoring America's standing in the world, and particularly in Europe," said Denis McDonough, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.

Longtime observers of cross-Atlantic presidential trips say Obama retains much of the star power he exhibited during his campaign swing through Europe last summer, when he delivered a speech to more than 200,000 people in a German square.

"It's still a case that European leaders want to be seen next to Obama, preferably with Obama, his arms around their shoulders and a big smile, because he's so popular in Europe," said Reginald Dale, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But replacing Bush with Obama has not erased the substantial disagreements that remain between the United States and Europe.

"That's an invitation to disillusionment," said Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "These are complicated times. There's an anger in the world . . . about how people think our country has helped create these problems. The president has to lift heavily to get us over the Bush hurdle."

Throughout the presidential campaign, Obama's rivals repeatedly questioned whether his youth and relative inexperience would make him a pushover when he came face to face with world leaders.

Obama's mission now is to lay those doubts to rest, in part by making good on his campaign promise to improve the sometimes-strained relations with U.S. allies.

Aides point out that Obama has been engaged in that effort since he took office, calling world leaders almost daily. Last week, he discussed his trip and the global economic crisis with French, German and British leaders, among others.

Between dealing with economic crises, Obama has made moves that have been generally well received across the Atlantic: ordering the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, closed; announcing a drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq; and crafting a new policy for dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan, which he announced Friday.

"This is his first major multi-lateral summit," said one senior foreign policy adviser. "But he's been working the issues all the way back to the transition."

Michael Froman, Obama's deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, said the president plans to "lead by example," offering his actions domestically -- including a stimulus package, regulatory reform, housing proposals and financial stability plans -- as motivation for global action.

"He's going first and foremost to show U.S. engagement to the rest of the world. Be open-minded, listen, but also to lead, lead by example," Froman said.

The question is whether that will be enough to create enthusiasm among leaders faced with their own struggles.

Obama's counterparts are grappling with economic crises at least as severe as the one in the United States. That has led to political instability throughout much of Europe that complicates Obama's upcoming meetings.

Governments have collapsed in Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland and, most recently, the Czech Republic, where Mirek Topolanek, the prime minister, lost a vote of no confidence. Topolanek serves as the president of the European Union and is expected to remain the host for the organization's summit in Prague today despite his political problems.

"[Obama's] problem is that everyone is weak. His main allies are very weak. Even his rivals are weak," said Moisés Naím, editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine. "In the weakness of rivals loom large risk."

The danger, Naím said, is that European leaders are in no position to deliver what the United States wants on the economy or security issues, despite their desire to please the U.S. president.

In addition, Naím said, many of the foreign leaders have their own domestic reasons to pick a fight with the new American leader, if only to show that they are not bowed by his celebrity.

That could be particularly evident when Obama holds a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in London.

"Medvedev also has to show that he is as tough as [Prime Minister] Vladimir Putin," Naím said. "The 500-pound gorilla that's not in the room is Putin. Everyone knows, and Putin makes sure that everyone knows, that he calls the shots."

Still, Obama and Medvedev are expected to reach an agreement that could lead to a new arms reduction treaty between the two nations. The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires at the end of this year.

In Prague, Obama will make what aides describe as a "major address" on the proliferation of dangerous weapons. At a summit of NATO leaders, Obama will urge a modernization of the alliance to better fight the security threats from terrorists and rogue nations.

And at the summit of the Group of 20 major economies, he will call for a new approach to reviving the global economy through government spending, tougher regulation of financial institutions and an embrace of free trade.

In between, the White House promises a series of one-on-one conversations with the leaders of Turkey, Spain, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China, India and Britain. On Wednesday, Obama will meet privately with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. In Istanbul, he is expected to hold a global, video-based town hall meeting that will allow students from across Europe and Asia to ask questions.

"This is a real test of his leadership," Dale said of the eight-day, five-country trip. "Particularly, I think, in the economic section, where the whole world is suffering and there's a real opportunity for the president to show global leadership."

The Most Advanced Mixing Board

Listen Up: Boards like these make movies sound like real life

Consider a scene from a hypothetical Hollywood thriller: Our heroine, filled with dread and whispering into her cellphone, walks slowly down a dark hallway toward a closed door. The sounds that make this scene come alive—-her voice, her footsteps, the creaking floorboards, the background music—-began as a bunch of prerecorded digital files on a hard drive. It took a sound engineer’s touch-—and a machine like the Euphonix System 5—-to blend them into the final, seamless soundtrack.

The System 5 works as a giant keyboard for controlling a computer called the DSP SuperCore, which sits in a separate rack and stores recordings of music, dialogue and sound effects. Each recording, called a channel, can be assigned to one of the 1.5-inch-wide channel strips on the System 5's surface. Each strip works like an ultra-sophisticated version of your home stereo’s controls; one dial adjusts bass, another treble, and so on. Faders, the sliding controls at the bottom of each strip, control volume.

Sound and Screen
While mixing our hypothetical thriller, the sound engineer turns a knob on the strip assigned to the actor’s voice to make it sound fuller and cut through the background music. On another strip he adds bass to her footsteps, which were recorded in a sound studio and sent to the DSP SuperCore as digital files. Then he adjusts the panning controls slowly so the sound fades from right speaker to left, mirroring the on-screen action. Using a different channel strip, the engineer raises the volume of the background music. On another he adds new, muffled voices—-they’re coming from behind the door. You slide closer to the edge of your seat.

How the Mixing Magic Happens

Electric Slide: Each fader controls the volume of a different sound source

Control-surface Modules
Each control-surface module contains eight channel strips that sound engineers use to tweak audio files stored on another computer, the DSP SuperCore. Each channel strip is assigned to a single audio file—-a voice, for example, or the sound of footsteps.

Channel Strips
The fader and the eight knobs on each strip are customizable, so engineers can push a button and turn any given channel strip from an eight-knob equalizer—which could be used to adjust the characteristics of a voice to make it deeper and more audible over the background music—to an effects processor that adds little tricks like echo, reverb and delay.

Film Module
This module can assign sounds to different speakers in a surround-sound system, to make it seem like that onrushing airplane flew right over your head.

Master-control Module
module This module takes the various audio files assigned to different channels and combines them into a single exportable stream of audio that eventually makes it into the final movie soundtrack.

LCD Screens
Each module has a screen that can display signal volume, frequencies and other channel information, so that engineers can know at a glance when to make adjustments, like raising the volume of dialogue in relation to the level of gunfire.

The Thinnest, Most Colorful TV Yet

Channel Vision: Layer 1 (first circle on left) has a charged plate with electrons. Electron injection and transport take place in Layer 2, where materials move electrons toward the middle of the screen. In Layer 3, electrons and holes meet, and the light-emitting molecules release energy as photons of visible light.

Q: What is OLED?

A: OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, is a display technology using man-made, carbon-based molecules that emit light when charged with electricity.

Q: How thick are OLEDs?

A: The latest prototypes are as thin as a credit card (0.3 millimeter), because OLED pixels produce their own light, with nothing behind the screen. LCDs need a fluorescent or LED lamp to illuminate the pixels, and plasmas need compartments of electrically charged gas.

Layer 4. Hole Injection and Transport: Having lost electrons to the anode, these materials acquire replacements from the emissive layer.

Q: Does an OLED look better than other TVs?

A: Significantly. The light-emitting molecules glow in color rather than sending white light through a filter, as an LCD does, which limits brightness and color purity. And the molecules create deeper colors than the phosphor material used in plasmas.

Q: Why are OLEDs so efficient?

A: The screen itself lights up on demand. In LCDs, the backlight is turned on even when the screen is black; OLED pixels switch off to display black. And charging the molecules in an OLED requires less energy than ionizing gas in a plasma TV.

Q: Are OLEDs expensive?

A: Yes—for example, Sony’s 11-inch TV sells for $2,500—mainly because glass suitable for OLED displays is currently made only in small quantities. Building a large-capacity factory would cost about $3 billion.

Q: When can I buy a large OLED TV?

A: LG, Samsung, Sony and others may sell models of up to 50 inches as soon as 2012. First, they need new factories and an efficient method for applying the light-emitting molecules to large screens.

Layer 5. Anode: This plate removes electrons from the screen, leaving "holes" where they had been.

Layer 6. Thin-Film Transistors: This circuitry regulates the amount of current passing through the red, green and blue parts of each pixel to vary how brightly they glow.

Layer 7. Substrate: This sheet of glass forms the front of the panel. Future substrates made of plastic may enable super-thin, flexible screens that could fold up or be applied like wallpaper.

How Do OLED Screens Work?

Like any electric lamp, OLEDs convert the energy of electrons into light. To do that, an OLED has to provide two things: a source of electrons, and empty spots within the screen where those electrons can land.

The cathode, a charged plate at the back of the screen, releases electrons that move toward the light-emitting layer. Meanwhile, the anode sucks electrons out of the front of the screen, leaving holes for new electrons to fill.

When the electrons and holes combine in the emissive layer, the electrons transfer some energy to the light-emitting molecules, which then glow.

Each pixel on the screen contains molecules that emit red, green and blue photons. A layer of circuitry controls the brightness of each color, mixing the hues to display virtually any color that the eye can see.

Drag Net

To Catch a Suspect: The Safe Undercarriage Immobilization Device (SQUID) helps cops stop fugitives without a shoot-out.

With cop cars disappearing from his rearview mirror and an open road ahead, a fugitive thinks he’s in the clear—until his car comes to a sudden halt. A sheriff, hiding in the bushes, has activated a road trap that sprung a ball of straps into the car’s undercarriage, immobilizing its drive shaft and axles.

Strap: As the vehicle approaches SQUID, an officer remotely triggers an explosion to unfurl the straps across the road. Small barbs on the straps grab the wheels. Rotation of the wheels wraps the straps around the car’s suspension and axles.

Trap: Infrared sensors in SQUID detect when the car is directly above it and automatically deploy fishing-line-like tendrils, weighted at their ends with rubber balls . The car’s rotating components pull the tendrils into a tangle around the drive shaft.

Tighten: The tendrils tighten the attached fabric straps around the drive shaft and axles, locking them in place to bring the car to an immediate stop.

Putting an End to the Chase

With funding from the Department of Homeland Security, engineers at the Engineering Science Analysis Corporation in Arizona are almost ready to end dangerous car chases in just this way. Their prototype manhole-size trap, called SQUID (for Safe Quick Undercarriage Immobilization Device), can bring a pickup from 35 mph to a standstill. With the trap engaged, the driver can’t accelerate, limiting the risk of injuring perps or bystanders as the car comes to a stop.

The device is constructed from mostly off-the-shelf materials. The straps, which are made from a fabric that secures crates on trailer trucks, are unfurled by the mechanism that inflates car airbags. By next year, the team plans to make SQUID strong enough to stop a 120mph, 5,000-pound truck. The device is now an obvious white disk, but because it spans a traffic lane, it’s hard to avoid. The final version will blend into the street, explains the company's president, Martin Martinez, "but we don’t want to tell bad guys what it’s going to look like."

Disguised as perhaps a speed bump or manhole cover, SQUID could give officers a safe alternative to tire-spike strips and concrete barriers, which take too long to set up and often cause cars to crash into innocent people. Last year, Luis Aguilar, an Arizona-Mexico border-patrol agent, was laying down spikes to burst the tires of a Hummer suspected of smuggling drugs. Before Aguilar could finish, the driver of the Hummer rammed into and killed him. "We want to make sure that doesn’t happen again," Martinez says. With that in mind, his team will have a smaller, one-armed version of the device ready by this summer.

China criticised over YouTube

YouTube is the site that is most often banned or blocked

China's move to block YouTube has been criticised by a leading advocacy group that promotes constitutional liberties in the digital age.

The Centre for Democracy and Technology told the BBC: "China's actions fail to live up to international norms."

The video sharing site has been off limits in China since Monday.

"China's apparent blocking of YouTube is at odds with the rule of law and the right to freedom of expression," said CDT president Leslie Harris.

"Anytime a country limits or takes down content online , it must be forthright and specific about its actions and do so only in narrowly defined circumstances consistent with international human rights and the rule of law," stated Ms Harris.

Google, which owns YouTube, told the BBC that it had no idea why the Chinese government had taken this action.

"We don't know the reason for the block and are working to restore access to users in China as quickly as possible," said spokesperson Scott Rubin.

Tibet

Earlier in the week, the BBC reported from Beijing that China cut off access to the website because it carried a video showing soldiers beating monks and other Tibetans.

The graphic video was released by Tibetan exiles and showed hundreds of uniformed Chinese troops swarming through a Tibetan monastery. It included footage of a group of troops beating a man with batons.

Tibetans say they have little religious and political freedom under China

In another scene a group of men, including a monk, were beaten, kicked and choked, while they lay on the ground. Some had their hands tied and appeared to be unconscious.

The date and locations of the film have not been confirmed.

Google said it noticed that traffic to China started slowing down on Monday and that by Tuesday morning, it was totally blocked.

When asked about YouTube at a news conference at the beginning of the week, a Chinese government spokesman said: "We encourage the active use of the internet but also manage the internet according to law."

A report published by China's official Xinhua news agency accused the Tibetan government of faking the wounds. No reference was made to YouTube.

"Suppression of speech"

This is not the first time the popular video sharing website has been censored in China.

In 2007, YouTube was blocked during a meeting of the Communist Party Congress in Beijing according to Congressional testimony given last year by Google's deputy counsel Nicole Wong.

At the same time the Dalai Lama was being awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.

"While we were not informed of the exact cause of the suppression of speech and we did not ourselves remove any videos, access to the site in China was reinstated only following the conclusion of the party congress," said Ms Wong.

That incident lasted for 14 days while another incident last year lasted for 6 days and occurred around the same time as this latest one.

China is not alone in prohibiting access to YouTube. Over the years several other countries have done the same thing.

Earlier this month Bangladesh blocked the site for 36 hours after a video was posted showing a tense meeting between the prime minister and angry army officials after a mutiny by border guards in Dhaka that left more than 70 people dead.

The site is presently being blocked in Turkey.

This pointed to a worrying trend said Ms Harris.

"China is not alone in blocking content including YouTube. Online censorship threats are increasing worldwide. YouTube remains blocked for example in Turkey. But China alone refuses to acknowledge or explain its actions."

Paris based Reporters Without Borders also condemned China's action and branded the country an "enemy of the internet" in a report published earlier this month.

The group reported that more than 2,600 websites, blogs, or forums were closed down or blocked around the world in 2007.

Streaming games service launched

The service will be available later in the year and charge a monthly fee

After seven years in stealth mode, a Silicon Valley start-up has launched a "revolutionary" video game service that offers new competition to consoles.

OnLive, which launched at the Game Developer Conference, promises to deliver on demand video games via the cloud to the PC, Mac or TV.

The company said it can provide high quality gaming on low end machines.

"We think this moment, this day will be remembered as the beginning of a new era," said OnLive boss Steve Perlman.

"This is huge. This is transparent cloud computing. This is really really important for the industry.

The MicroConsole connects the TV to the internet

"This will open up creativity, allow for new experiences and new kinds of expression that have never been available before," Mr Perlman told an audience of analysts, industry types and journalists at a ritzy unveiling of the product at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art.

The innovation behind OnLive rests in its video compression technology which instantly streams video via the internet so that it appears "effectively instantaneously."

"Perpetually, it appears the game is playing locally."

The reality is that all the heavy lifting is done by remote data centres that can be up to a thousand miles away while players use a simple PC or TV hooked up to a broadband connection.

This removes the need for paying hundreds of dollars for traditional disc-based consoles made by the likes of Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

"We're giving access to people who don't have access. We've moved hardware out of the equation," said Mr Perlman.

"Digital strategy"

For around an hour Mr Perlman and his chief operating officer Mike McGarvey put OnLIve through some of its paces.

Too various "oohs" and "aahs" from the audience, the two men played games ranging from Crysis Wars to Lego Batman from a cheap laptop and from a Mac notebook.

So far nine big game publishers have signed up to the service

With the data being sent from servers just fifty miles away, the men boasted of being able to play with one-millisecond of lag.

Community tools like leaderboards and avatars along with the ability to share 'brag clips' which are short videos of your game highlights, are also part of the service. Users can also have multiplayer matches and watch other gamers play.

Users will need a high-speed broadband connection of at least 1.5 megabits per second for standard definition results or 5 megabits per second for high definition.

Players who want to use their television will have to purchase a small OnLive MicroConsole that connects the TV to the internet and is about the size of a pack of cards.

So far ten publishers have signed up to provide titles for OnLive. They include familiar names like Atari Interactive, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive Software and Warner Bros.

"OnLive fits our digital strategy, which is to bring content to as many distribution points as possible," Scott Guthrie, vice president of software publishers THQ told the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Amazing"

In the run up to the Game Developer Conference, or GDC, the company has been giving demos of the service.

Sarju Shah of GameSpot has had a test run and said "It seems pretty amazing. From this closed test it works really well . You can actually stream gameplay like Crysis, which is a struggle for most high end computers to do but in this scenario all you need is a little tiny box and an internet connection.

Gaming is showing strong sales despite an economy heading south

"If they can pull this off in the wild, given everyone's internet connection in the home, they will truly wreck stuff for everyone. This is the tip of the iceberg. If they can stream gameplay to anybody then basic stuff like streaming video, a joke. Music? A joke," stated Mr Shah.

Mr Perlman said he understood why some people might be wary of what they are selling but that he wants people to question what OnLive can do.

"What we have is something that is absolutely incredible. You should be sceptical. My first thinking was this shouldn't work, but it does."

Analysts believe the success of OnLive could go one of two ways depending on pricing models.

"Depending on what business model these guys adopt, they could be wildly successful or a footnote in history," said Michael Pachter an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities.

Mr McGarvey was coy on the issue but did say it would be subscription based and that pricing "would be worked out in due course."

Over the next few days at the Game Developer Conference, attendees will get the chance to test out the service. The company is also inviting gamers to sign up for an external beta over the summer.

Mr Perlman ended his presentation with one plea to the audience and the wider gaming community. "This is thinking out of the box, help us make it out of the box."

"The benefits of what we are doing are just huge so we've got to at least see if we can make this thing work. It's just too cool," stated Mr Perlman.

iWork '09

iWork '09

Long-time Mac users will remember AppleWorks, the venerable office suite first released for the Apple II way back in 1984, which gave the best-selling Lotus programs a good run for its money. While AppleWorks is no longer available, there is a modern successor in iWork, Apple's answer to Microsoft Office.

What's included?
It would be much easier for everyone to understand the component programs of iWork in terms of their Microsoft Office equivalents.

Here's the table:

Pages	Microsoft Word
Numbers	Microsoft Excel
Keynote	Microsoft PowerPoint

For SGD138, you get a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation program. Some will scoff at the missing database, but who uses Microsoft Access these days? (For folks who have such needs, a good database program for OS X would be FileMaker, published by FileMaker Inc., an Apple subsidiary.)

Everything is sealed in a sleek, eco-friendly package. It doesn't provide much of the fabled Apple "unboxing" experience... but at least it's easier to open than the newer Microsoft plastic cases.

Installation
While not as easy as a drag-and-drop into the Applications folder, the installation process is simple and uncomplicated. What's surprising here is Apple's decision to do away with serial numbers altogether - iWork will never ask for that indecipherable string of letters and numbers, before and after installation. Whether that will affect sales is anyone's guess, but kudos to Apple for making life easier for their honest customers.

Hardly a dent

A quick Get Info through the Finder shows iWork '09 weighting in at approximately 660 megabytes, which is slightly more than half of what is stated in the official requirements (1.2 gigabytes), and nothing a modern hard drive can't handle.

So how much productivity punch is packed in those 660 megabytes? Flip (or rather click) to the next page.

Apple iPod Shuffle (3rd Generation)

The iPod Shuffle was introduced into the market in 2005 and was positioned as an affordable digital audio player in the iPod family. (The second generation also claims to be the world's smallest MP3 player when it was launched in 2006). And it was just about two weeks ago that Apple announced the new iPod Shuffle, the 3rd generation since its first appearance.

So what's the difference between the new one and its older siblings? If you look at the above pic, you can tell that the 3rd generation iPod Shuffle is slimmer in size and the manufacturer has done away with the volume and track controls.

The new iPod Shuffle has the tagline "The first music player that talks to you". Well, not exactly "talk" to you, but it has a cool VoiceOver feature that will announce your song title, artist name and playlist when you want. It will even tell you if your battery is low and needs charging too.

Here's a brief overview of its specifications:

Input and Output	3.5mm stereo headphone jack
Capacity	4GB flash drive (holds up to 1,000 songs
	in 128kbps AAC format)
Supported audio formats	AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes
	Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible
	(formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF
Battery	Built-in rechargeabe lithium polymer; up to 10hr
	playback time; charging via USB to computer
Dimension	45.2 x 17.5 x 7.8mm (including clip)
Weight	10.7g
System requirements	Mac computer with Mac OX X (v10.4.11 or later) or
	PC with Windows XP or Vista, USB port, iTunes 8.1
	or later and Internet access

Who Has The Best Holiday Logos?

Google and Yahoo! have for a long time customized their logos on numerous holidays throughout the year. This practice has been going on for years, and its hard to tell who was doing it first (Google's first "doodle" logo appeared in 1999, for Yahoo! that information is harder to come by -- if anyone knows when they first started modifying their logo for holidays, please chime in!). More recently, Ask got in on the act.

Today, being Thanksgiving (a major US holiday) is no different. All three have spruced up their logos in the celebratory spirit (they are the only members of the "big 5" search engines to do so). Presented below are the Thanksgiving day logos from Google, Yahoo! and Ask. [Correction: AOL also has a holiday logo, and the post has been updated to include it!] Which is your favorite? Which company consistently provides the best holiday logo modifications? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Google

Google's logos have for a long time been drawn by in-house graphic designer Dennis Hwang. Today, Hwang is in charge of all of Google's web masters, but designing logo doodles is still about 20% of his job. This year, Google takes a traditional approach with a couple of turkeys sitting down to a Thanksgiving meal (but, I wonder what they're eating?).

Yahoo!

For the past few years, Yahoo! has taken to using Flash to animate its holiday logos. That makes for some really fun results, and today is no exception. Their Thanksgiving logo includes a cornucopia spilling traditional holiday fare, and some food (corn, potatoes, pumpkin, pie) that is magically transformed into a group of happy dancers by a falling buckle hat. A bit odd? You bet, but it's a lot of fun, too.

Ask

Ask has always been sort of the odd man out, doing things their own way. Not content to modify their logo, they often modify their entire page. Today's page sports a background made of turkey (well, a very close up picture of a turkey). Honestly, it's a bit creepy -- I mean, really, whose turkey is that shiny in real life?

AOL

Thanks to reader Boris who pointed out that AOL does indeed have a holiday logo (I had only checked their search page -- whoops!). Presented below in all its plainness, AOL's holiday alteration is certainly the most "safe" on our list. A buckle hat and some fallen leaves. Cute, but hardly lighting the world on fire (or inspiring acid flashbacks, like one of the logos above -- wait, maybe that's a good thing).

Which is your favorite? Do you know of any other sites that decorate for the holidays? Let us know in the comments!

Most expensive laptop in the world - 1 Million Dollars

This is so far the most expensive laptop I’ve ever heard.

March 23, 2007 UK-based bespoke luxury goods creator Luvaglio has created the first million dollar laptop. That’s what the first of their luxury laptops will sell for. Full details of the laptop have not been released at this point, but it is known that it incorporates a 17" widescreen LED lit screen with a specially designed anti-reflective glare coating for clear and brighter image, 128GB of Solid State Disk space and a slot loading Blue-Ray drive. There is an integrated screen cleaning device and a very rare coloured diamond piece of jewellery that doubles up as the power button when placed into the laptop and also acts as security identification.

Family's Faucets Spew Flames

What would you do if you turned on your faucet only to find that your water was flammable?

That's exactly what's happening to a family in Colorado.

The Ellsworth family says their water is flammable. Amee Ellsworth can turn on a faucet in her kitchen or bathroom, flick a lighter and watch flames shoot up from the sink.

"I'm terrified. There are no other words for it. I am absolutely terrified," Ellsworth said.

"There's clearly a safety issue if you've got a flammable gas building up," said Dave Neslin, with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Experts said they think the gas is leaking from one of the eight natural gas wells in the area.

The companies that own the wells have offered to build the family a water treatment facility.

Most Expensive Technology On Earth

Welcome to most expensive technology on earth!

most expensive watch

The Moon Rider watch might not look all that flash, but it has a secret. It’s made from moon dust. Real, proper moon dust, from the actual Moon.

That goes into making the face of the watch, while the casing is created using metal from the Apollo XI and Soyuz spacecrafts. Just for good measure, the strap is made using fibres from old spacesuits. While prices start at 15,000 Swiss francs, a unique version will set you back 500,000 Swiss francs.

Its maker, Swiss jewellery firm Romain Jerome, is well known for creating unusual watches. It previously made a range of timepieces from metal recovered from the Titanic

most expensive watch

If you’re sporting a diamond-speckled laptop, you’ll need a mouse to match. The Diamond Flower mouse is cast from 18 carat white gold and set with 59 diamonds - with a price tag to match.

most expensive mobile phone

Less of an iPhone more of a me!me!me!Phone, the Vertu Signature is the kind of mobile that would make footballers jealous of your wealth.

The gemstone encrusted phone is available in three different casings. Budget conscious shoppers will opt for the stainless steel model at €9,500 (£8,000), but those with a bit more cash to splash can go for the white gold version at €29,000 (£22,000).

Each has a “sea of sapphire” face that can only be cut or scratched with a diamond. So don’t leave the phone in the same pocket as your golden USB stick.

most expensive USB Stick

Memory costs are dropping through the floor, which means any old Tom, Dick or Harry can wander around with 16GB of solid storage in their back pocket.

If you want your USB stick to stand out from the crowd, you’re going to have to be a little more creative. That’s where this tasteful little number comes in.

Its case is made of 14 carat gold and is studded with five polished diamonds. You can get a cheaper version without the gems, but when you’re spending this kind of money on a memory stick why cut corners?

most expensive laptop

Ego laptops are exclusive pieces of kit - the standard Tulip model goes for $5,000 (£3,250).

But if you want to really stand out, you’ll be after the Ego Diamond. It’s decorated with white gold, and embossed with 470 diamonds (including those in the tulip motif on the outside of the case).

most expensive tv

If you want to buy a gadget that just screams “BLING!” at anyone who enters your living room, there’s only one choice.

The name of the Yalos Diamonds LCD television is a bit of a giveaway, its frame is studded with 160 of those sparklies. Diamonds not your bag? Yalos also does a version with 155 rubies.

most expensive mp3 player

This is the i.Beat organix Gold, a unique MP3 player created exclusively for Russian-Canadian billionaire Alex Shnaider. Dubbed “the most expensive MP3 player in the world”, it has an 18 carat gold casing, studded with 63 diamonds.

However, it has only 2GB storage space, which doesn’t seem much given the stellar price tag.

most expensive speakers

With property prices collapsing around our ears, why not put your money in something more rewarding? This pair of Kharma Grand Exquisite speakers will cost about the same as a four-bedroom semi in Watford, but have the added bonus of making your music sound just peachy.

most expensive record players

There are plenty of music lovers who still consider vinyl to be the peak of sound reproduction. For those, the Continuum Caliburn turntable is the stuff of dreams.

It’s a heavy item, with the record sitting on a judder-free platter that weighs 80 lbs. However, you won’t have to move it yourself. The purchase price includes the Continuum installation team flying out to wherever you live in the world (they’re based in Australia) to help you set up.