8 Quick Tips For Power Users Of Google Reader

I already told you many times I switched to Google Reader. There was not much convincing required and I can vouch easily that I read three times more feeds now in one third the time since I use Google Reader. So I thought I would tell you how I use Google Reader productively.

Here is the smart way I use to read feeds, primarily by using keyboard shortcuts. Probably you do it anyway. But it should be useful for new Google readers…

1. Increase vertical screen reading area - Press F11 and the browser goes full screen to remove unnecessary toolbars and menus. Lots of space is increased on top and bottom of the browser to increase vertical reading area.

2. Increase horizontal reading area - Remove the Google Reader sidebar to gather even more reading space. Press U and behold as articles now fill the screen. Now lesser scrolling and a higher chance you can read the whole article in one go. Of course you could combine that with a high resolution screen, larger monitor to fit in even longer articles.

3. Switch to Read All Items - This the classical River of news approach. Press GA. I do not need to click each feed and check out their articles. Instead I see all of them one after the other as fast as I can. I keep the default setting “Sort by newest” so I can quickly keep going from latest to older articles I want to read. In settings, set your starting page to All Items, you can get started right away.

4. Switch to Expanded View - I like to quickly glance through all the articles text. Press 1. If you need to see the headlines only for even quicker overview - Press 2.

5. Start Browsing fast - Now I want to quickly skip from one article to another till I reach an article I like to read further into. There are 3 ways to do this. In expanded view - You can skip from article to article - Press J to go forward, press K to go back. Alternatively you might want to skip from one screen view to another instead of one article to another - Press Space key to go forward, Shift+Space to go back. In listed view - Use N to go forward and P to go back.

In the settings I have opted to mark items as read when I scroll past them in expanded view. very useful. I have also selected to “only list updated” subscriptions in the sidebar, which removes clutter in the sidebar as blogs are read. This is another great feature that works automatically. I feel limited by the pause every 20 posts…I hope Google can fix this.

6. Star it, Share it, Tag it, Read it - After I reach an article I would like to refer later, there are 5 things I can do (In listed view I need to expand it first - press O). Now I can either star it for future reference - Press S (much like gmail, later you can see all starred items together). Or I can share it with others on a link blog - Press Shift+S, like the Robert Scoble link blog (which I recommended earlier). Or I can tag it - press T, add tags to organize your selections for further review. Or I can open it a new Firefox tab and read the full article - Press V (if it is a partial feed, or I just like the blog view, or I intend to comment). Or mark as unread - Press M (may need it sometimes).

7. Refresh - After you have pressed J enough times, you might just find that there are no more new items to read. So Press R and refresh the new items. Google Reader might have caught up more new items by now.

8. Check your Starred Items - Press GS to visit your starred items list. Your entire effort of the reading session is now consolidated in your starred items. Maybe you want to read these articles in details, or blog about them. As you skip through them, Press S to unstar them, or Shift+S to unshare them.
Style Variations

# Read Your favorite blog - Press U. Google reader sidebar is back. Now you can click on the blog you want to read and continue as usual. Click “List all” to see all your subscribed blogs.

# Mark all as read - Coming after a long vacation, you might not want to read thousands of feed articles. Press 2. Click “mark all as read”. Done

# View Old articles - Since you are set to view new articles, Click “Show All” to see all the articles.

# Got Lost - go to the google reader homepage. Press GH.
Advanced Techniques

# Shift to Auto-sort - this works by prioritizing subscriptions with fewer items. It will help you read more blogs with lesser posts before you decide to read those hundred posts on few larger blogs.

# Rename Subscriptions - Many blogs you subscribe to might have long titles (keyword stuffed SEO and all!). While you are reading the blog, click “feed settings” on top and rename the title to something small which fits in the Google sidebar.

# Bulk Edit Feeds - Go to manage subscriptions on the bottom of the Reader sidebar - and a power edit screen comes to play. Delete multiple feeds, categorize into folders, manage tags.

#Smart Ways to Subscribe - Drag this bookmarklet to your browser toolbar. When you want to subscribe any blog, click it. Of course you can locate the feed url and add it from the sidebar too.

# Import Your Feeds Easily - You need not subscribe all your feeds again when switching to Google Reader. Export OPML from your previous news aggregator, and import it via Import subscriptions (via manage subscriptions)

I hope you liked this article and it will help you use Google Reader better. I am sure many of you do this already… Share your Reader tip.

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A Linux Version Of Nero Launched

Nero has launched a Linux version of its digital media software, together with the eighth iteration of its digital multimedia suite, at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.

Nero Linux 3, the latest version of the firm's software for Linux users, also includes Blu-ray and HD-DVD burning support across all of the high definition formats.

A new internet upload function lets users exchange photos and videos with other users with a single click, and to burn discs with just one click and stream multimedia data to every room in the house across the network.

The latest version also provides a variety of features for increased data security and backup, offering protection for important data should the backups be stolen.

Nero's booth at the IFA show has been set up with a beach theme where visitors are photographed while testing their abilities on a surfboard simulator.

They then have the option of uploading the photo to their personal blog in the My Nero community.

The company is also showcasing its own Nero Digital video format which supports resolutions up to Full HD 1080p, based on MPEG-4 audio and video codec technology.

This allows users to compress audio and video files to a fraction of its original size without a significant loss in quality.

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Securing Your Wireless Network Signal

With recent news reports of offenders being caught obtaining free Internet access by piggybacking someone else’s unsecured wireless broadband connection, it’s clear consumers need to take action now to secure their WiFi signal.

Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, explains, “A home wireless network can be incredibly useful and convenient but in a world where we all have to be on the lookout against identity theft, viruses and online fraud, it’s vital that you secure your WiFi signal.”

Philips continues, “Dishonestly obtaining free Internet access is an offence under the Communications Act 2003 and a potential breach of the Computer Misuse Act. Unfortunately this still doesn’t deter some from piggybacking on someone else’s wireless broadband connection.”

BroadbandChoices.co.uk five top tips for securing your wireless network:

1. Am I secured?
If you haven’t set up security passwords yourself then it’s not likely that you will be secured. To find out, simply go to ‘My Network Places’ on your PC and scan for your wireless network. In the list that appears, there should be a picture of a padlock next to the name of your network. If there is no padlock, then you need some security.

2. Use WPA
Most new routers now offer WiFi Protected Access (WPA) passwords as well as Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WPA offers increased security, and if your computer and other hardware is compatible, you should always use WPA as it is far harder to hack into than previous encryption methods.

3. Added security
You should also always have comprehensive anti-virus software such as Norton or McAfee installed on your computer to protect you from viruses that can open your PC up to hackers. Make sure that these are always kept up to date by regularly checking for updates on the provider’s website. You should also use a firewall - many routers have one built-in but you should run one on your PC too.

4. Isolate your wireless signal
Wireless isolation works to make your signal invisible to anyone searching for WiFi in your area. It is built-in to some routers but must be physically enabled by the user - so check your router’s manual for instructions on how to do this.

5. Use an access list
If you’re still worried, you can create an access list. All computers have their own Media Access Control (MAC) address - a way of identifying each individual computer - and you can tell your router which MAC addresses it can allow access to; blocking all others. This means that anyone wanting to use your wireless signal would not only have to have your password but would have to be on the access list too.

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Managing Server In A Distributed Data Centre (2)

Flexible, Scalable and Cost Effective.
The dynamic nature of the distributed data centre and cost constraints demands any remote server management solution to provide flexibility and scalability as part of the solution, without requiring the purchase of additional elements. A distributed solution should provide:

• No special software licenses to buy or maintain (client software, remote users, etc.)
• No special cabling limitations (supports CAT5 cabling)
• No special hardware or dongles to purchase and install
• Incremental ‘add-as-you-grow’ capability with no sudden cost increase to scale and add additional servers or remote administrators
• No conflict with existing server management solutions (no ‘rip-and-replace’)
• Ability to enhance existing server management solutions (local KVM)
• Ability to integrate into larger remote (OOBI10) management architecture 10 Out Of Band Infrastructure

Fault Tolerant and Secure.
Distributed remote assets must be fault-tolerant and secure by providing the following benefits:

• Allows management access when server, OS, or network stack is compromised
• No single point of failure (e.g. unit failure doesn’t effect other systems)
• Designed for high MTBF (Mean Time before Failure) (e.g. no moving parts, cooling fans, power supplies)
• No special security software or infrastructure to purchase, install and maintain
• Uses existing IT security services (RADIUS, LDAP, Active Directory)
• Optional out-of-band access in case of network failure (e.g. serial modem access)

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Managing Server In A Distributed Data Centre (1)

In the distributed data centre, there are many elements to consider when developing an overall server IP-based KVM management strategy. Guaranteed Anytime Anywhere Access.

A server management solution should support guaranteed access (anytime, anywhere) to servers regardless of how many users are logged in. Criteria to look for include:

• Secure administrator access to servers over an IP network - from LAN or the Internet
• Non-blocked access to servers (e.g. no conflict for remote access)
• BIOS level access to servers
• No limitations on locations of servers (across the room, across the globe)

Simple and Non-Invasive.
Any server management strategy should reduce complexity and lower the overall IT workload. Deployment, installation and usage of a server management solution should minimize or eliminate impact on the server, its operating systems, services and applications. The solution should offer:

• Simple and quick installation
• No special hardware (management cards, etc.) to install in server
• No special software (drivers, application software) to install and maintain on server
• Operating system and application independent
• Simplified remote maintenance (e.g. Virtual Media support)
• No special software to install and maintain on clients
• Small size (form factor)
• Minimal power consumption and heat generation
• Flexible cabling (utilize CAT5 cabling)
• No special training required to install or operate

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Microsoft Releases Free Group Policy Best Practice Analyzer

Microsoft just released a free Group Policy best practices analyzer. The Microsoft Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GPDBPA) is designed to help you identify Group Policy configuration errors that may prevent policy settings from being applied as expected or may prevent features from functioning as expected.

The GPDBPA can provide information to help you respond to situations such as:

· Policy settings are not being applied as expected.

· A feature is not functioning as expected. (For example, a mapped drive is not visible on client computers.)

· A computer has:

o Stopped responding during logon or startup.

o Restarted during logon or startup.

o Experienced delays during logon or startup.

· You need to determine whether:

o Policy settings are configured in a way that poses a security risk.

o Necessary services are running.

o You are connecting over a slow link.

o Loopback mode is in effect.

o Using the GPDBPA, you can scan the Group Policy configuration on either a client computer (managed node) or domain controller, and view a report of potential issues. Additionally, you can schedule a scan to run at a future time, or schedule scans to run on a recurring basis.

Click to download the appropriate version of the Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer:

· Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows XP

· Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows XP x64 Edition

· Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows Server 2003

· Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition

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Nintendo At The Tops Of US July Console Sales

425,000. That is the number of Nintendo Wii consoles shifted in July in U.S., 11 % more than in June according to NPD. With that they completely outran Sony and Microsoft. PS3 and XBOX360 together did not manage to match that number.

Xbox sales number was 170,000 and, shortly after, comes PS3 which sold 159,000. PS3 sales riced 59 % which presumably was because of their drop on price on their console.

Nintendo is doing great business with their DS taking the second place on the chart.

Here is the consoles listed after how many sold in U.S. in July.

Nintendo Wii - 425,000
Nintendo DS - 405,000
Playstation 2 - 222,000
PSP - 214,000
Micorsoft XBOX360 - 170,000
GameBoy Advance - 87,000

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iPod To Replace TV And Newspapers In The Near Future

One of the internet's founding fathers, Vint Cerf, is predicting the end of TV as we know it as convergence between the internet and other forms of media continues.

Cerf was a founding member of the Internet Society and is Google's chief internet evangelist. He made his prediction when speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival last weekend.
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He expects the television industry to change rapidly as it enters its "iPod moment". He warned television executives that television is approaching the same kind of tipping point the music industry has struggled with following the arrival of the iPod.

"85 per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time," he said, according to The Guardian's Bobbie Johnson. "You're still going to need live television for certain things - like news, sporting events and emergencies - but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later," he added.

He warned television media moguls that they should approach this as an opportunity that needs to be exploited, rather than as a threat to their future.

His predictions emerge as UK broadcasters move to offer their programming online through such systems as the BBC's heavily-criticised Windows-only iPlayer service.
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Cerf expects that most television will in future be broadcast over the internet, noting that this will lead to an explosion in new interactive broadcast media.

Cerf also dismissed ISP's concerns that the existing infrastructure wouldn't be able to support such uses as "scaremongering", observing that this argument was also raised when the internet first appeared.

"We're far from exhausting capacity," he said.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger issued a similar warning at the event, observing that the newspaper industry could also face its own iPod moment, when future devices read text so effectively that print could be threatened, the Press Gazette reports.

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China Seeks to Buy One of Two US Disk Drive Makers

China is seeking to buy one of two US disk drive makers in a move sparking new concerns about transfers of sensitive technology, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Citing William Watkins, chief executive of Seagate, one of the two disk drive manufacturers in the United States, the Times said the overture by an unidentified Chinese firm to buy one of them is adding to tensions over China's ambitions to develop advanced industrial and military technologies.

"The overture ... has resurrected the issues of economic competitiveness and national security raised three years ago when Lenovo, a Chinese computer maker, bought IBM's personal computer business," the Times said.

The report did not identify which disk drive maker the Chinese firm sought to buy -- Western Digital is the other one -- and Watkins said that Seagate is not for sale, though he added that if an offered price was high enough shareholders could be enticed to sell.

The report also noted that disk drives are not included on a government list of export-controlled technologies.

Nevertheless, it said, because the newest generation of hard disk drives include built-in security and encryption software and hardware, "the attempted purchase of an American disk drive company would require a security review by the federal government, according to several government officials."

"The US government is freaking out," said Watkins, whose company recently began marketing drives with built-in encryption capabilities.

Washington took note of but ultimately did not interfere with the partly government-owned Lenovo's takeover of IBM's personal computer unit in 2005.

But that same year resistance among the US government, Congress and public forced the China National Offshore Oil Corporation to give up in its attempt to take over US oil company Unocal, which was eventually merged into Chevron.

"Seagate would be extremely sensitive," an unidentified technology industry executive told the Times. "I do not think anyone in the US wants the Chinese to have access to the controller chips for a disk drive."

Michael Wessell, who sits on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which reviews the national security implications of US-China trade for Congress, told the Times that "the purchase by the Chinese or other nations (of a disk drive maker) merits a full review to determine what our risks are."

But Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert on the National Security Council in the 1990s, told the paper he doubted that China would be willing to face more controversy over a takeover, even as Beijing is pushing to make use of tens of billions of US US dollars in foreign reserves to acquire strategic and commercial assets around the world.

"The Chinese have been very concerned about how to invest in the United States without producing the kind of political firestorm they ran into when they tried to buy Unocal," said Lieberthal.

"The government really does not want to confront the kind of situation it ran into with Unocal."

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Morris Iemma Missing from Wikipedia

If you believe the NSW Premier's Department's version of history, a profanity-laden outburst Morris Iemma had at a media conference last year never happened.

Just after staff at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet were caught by the Herald editing Wikipedia articles to remove details that might be damaging to the Government, it has been revealed staff in Mr Iemma's department have been doing the same.

The online encyclopedia's entry on Mr Iemma had previously included details of an outburst he had at a media conference last year, where he called the then chief executive of Sydney's Cross City Tunnel a "f---wit", unaware that his microphone was switched on.

But on September 12 last year someone using a computer in the NSW Premier's Department - which includes Mr Iemma's office and those of his cabinet ministers - removed all traces of the outburst from Wikipedia.

The revelations come thanks to a new website, Wikiscanner, which traces the digital fingerprints of those who make changes to entries in Wikipedia.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet was found to have made 126 edits on subjects ranging from the children overboard affair to the Treasurer, Peter Costello.

On June 28 an employee of the department modified Mr Costello's entry to remove a reference to the nickname "Captain Smirk".

And in an embarrassing act of vandalism, another employee last year modified an entry on a style of martial arts to add the sentence "Poo bum dicky wee wee".

Meanwhile, in the Premier's department, an employee edited Bob Carr's entry to change a sentence which read "The Bank reportedly pays him $AUD500,000 per annum" to "Media reports claimed that someone of Mr Carr's experience would be likely to be paid around $AUD500,000 per annum, but neither this nor any other figure has been confirmed by the Bank or Mr Carr".

And on July 1 someone in the department stepped in to clean up abuse targeted at Morris Iemma on the NSW Department of Education and Training entry.

The Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, appeared on Channel 7 this morning to accuse Prime Minister John Howard of "engaging public servants to change Wikipedia".

"My own personal staff, I'm sure, look through Wikipedia to make factual changes, no excuses about that, but using public service departments to make sure the truth is delivered according to Howard?," he said.

"It is entirely legitimate for your personal political staff to make changes of a factual nature, but to engage public servants to go out there and re-edit history, it strikes me as odd to say the least."

A spokesman for Prime Minister John Howard said he did not ask any of the staff of his department to make any changes or edits to Wikipedia.

A spokesman for Mr Iemma said he did not initiate any of the edits traced back to the NSW Premier's Department and they could have been made by any of the 4000 State Government employees on the network.

Some changes made by staff in the Premier's department were not political in nature but could be considered pure vandalism.

In the entry for the "Sydney Roosters" football club, a departmental employee repeatedly replaced all of the text with sentences claiming the history of the club "revolves around them promoting mens heath care and skin cleansing products" and that they "base their pride on things such as stealing players from other clubs and calling them their own, and cheating the NRL salary cap and getting away with it because no one gives a Shit about them".

Around the same time in July this year, someone on the same network updated Bulldogs player Willie Mason's entry with the sentence: "Mason used to have a huge afro hair-style that made him appear over 200cm tall."

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Goobuntu - Google Version Of Linux, In The Making

Google is preparing its own distribution of Linux for the desktop, in a possible bid to take on Microsoft in its core business - desktop software.

A version of the increasingly popular Ubuntu desktop Linux distribution, based on Debian and the Gnome desktop, it is known internally as 'Goobuntu'.

Google has confirmed it is working on a desktop linux project called Goobuntu, but declined to supply further details, including what the project is for.

It's possible that it's just one of the toys Googleplex engineers play with on Fridays, when they get time off from buffing the search engine code or filtering out entries about Tiananmen Square.

It could be for wider deployments on the company's own desktops, as an alternative to Microsoft, but still for internal use only.

But it's possible Google plans to distribute it to the general public, as a free alternative to Windows.

Google has already demonstrated an interest in building a presence on the desktop. At CES Las Vegas this month, it announced the Google Pack, a collection of desktop software bundled together for easy downloading.

The pack includes many apps which compete directly with the Windows bundle, such as Google Talk, Google Desktop, Mozilla Firefox, the Trillian instant messenger client, RealPlayer, and Picasa photo management.

Going the whole hog and distributing a complete desktop software suite would merely be another step down the same path.

However, entering the desktop software world would be a huge step. Making Goobuntu as easy to use as XP will require a lot more development. It's unlikely to be ready for showtime any time soon, and it's possible Google itself hasn't finalised where the project should go.

Whatever Google's intentions, the input of Google engineers and developers, writing new features and fixing bugs, will be a huge boost to the Ubuntu project.

Ubuntu, funded by the South African internet multimillionaire and occasional cosmonaut Mark Shuttleworth, is already emerging as a leader in the desktop Linux world.

It has built considerable momentum in the Linux community, and is starting to appear more widely. Shuttleworth is seeking to persuade white-box PC manufacturers to start shipping machines with Ubuntu preinstalled.

It is top of the Distrowatch download chart, is installed on up to six million computers, and doubling every eight months, according to estimates from Shuttleworth's company, Canonical.

It has spawned a number of different offshoots, including Xubuntu, Kubuntu and Edubuntu (for schools).

The word Ubuntu means "humanity to others" in several African languages, including Zulu and Xhosa. It's one of the founding principles of post-apartheid South Africa. The origin of the word 'Goobuntu' is not clear, though it does not appear in online Zulu dictionaries.

The Goobuntu.com domain has been registered in the past couple of days, though presumably not by Google. It now redirects to a Cuban portal. Perhaps Google will have to think of a new name for the system before they launch it to the wider public.

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Sony PSP (With GPS) Hits The Market February 2008

Sony Corp plans to sell a satellite navigation accessory from February 2008 that turns its handheld PSP games console into a navigation device, the company announced at the Leipzig Games Convention on Wednesday.

The PSP equipped with the global positioning (GPS) accessory will compete with dedicated navigation devices such as those made by TomTom and Garmin Ltd.

David Reeves, head of Sony's European games unit, said the accessory would be priced between 100 and 150 euros ($A166 - $A249).

Sony separately announced an accessory for its flagship PlayStation 3 that will turn the games console into a digital video recorder. The accessory is a receiver for terrestrial digital broadcasts such as the Freeview service in Britain.

The move sets Sony apart from Microsoft Corp, which offers downloadable movies and television shows for its Xbox 360 console but no live TV.

A player that also owns a PSP will be able to transfer recorded programs to the handheld device and watch them on the go, Sony said. The product is to be launched in early 2008 in selected European markets.

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INDEX Prizes Winners Of An International Award Honoring Innovative Designs

An electric sports car, a prosthetic foot for land mine victims and a potentially lifesaving device known as the "Tongue Sucker" were among the winners Friday of an international award honoring innovative designs.

The INDEX prize, which is given out in five $136,000 categories, also awarded an inexpensive laptop designed for children in the developing world and a water purification bottle.

The award, which is funded by private and public companies in Denmark, was first given out in 2005 "to celebrate design that not only looks good but also improves lives of people all over the world," said Kigge Hviid, manager of the award foundation.

The winning designers had been informed before the award ceremony Friday.

"Great design is a way to tell people that you value them," said Yves Behar, a Swiss designer who was part of the team behind the "XO" portable computer.

He said the prize money would be donated to the Massachusetts-based One Laptop Per Child program, which has been trying to line up governments in several countries to buy the machines, which for now cost $175.

Philip Greer, one of the British designers behind the "Tongue Sucker," said the first-aid device could be used to open the airways of an unconscious person by sucking the tongue from the back of the mouth.

Canadian Sebastien Dubois said his prosthetic foot was designed for land mine victims, and could be produced for as little as $8 in developing countries using local materials.

The other winners were the "Solar Bottle," which disinfects water with the help of sunlight and the Tesla Roadster electric sports car made by California-based Tesla Motors.

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Teen 'Unlocks' AT&T,s iPhone And Sells On Ebay

Armed with a soldering iron and a large supply of energy drinks, a slight, curly haired teenager has developed a way to make the iPhone, arguably the gadget of the year, available to a much wider audience.

George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., spent his last summer before college figuring out how to "unlock" the iPhone, freeing it from being restricted to a single carrier, AT&T Inc.

The procedure, which the 17-year-old posted on his blog Thursday, raises the possibility of a cottage industry springing up to buy iPhones, unlocking them and then selling them to people who don't want AT&T service or can't get it, particularly overseas.

The phone, which combines an innovative touch-screen interface with the media-playing abilities of the iPod, is currently sold only in the U.S.

An AP reporter was able to verify that an iPhone Hotz brought to the AP's headquarters on Friday was unlocked. Hotz placed the reporter's T-Mobile SIM card, a small chip that identifies a phone to the network, in the iPhone. It then connected to T-Mobile's network and placed calls using the reporter's account.

T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology, but smaller carriers also use the technology, known as GSM. In Europe and Asia, GSM is the dominant network technology.

The hack is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software, and missteps may result in the iPhone becoming useless, so few people will be able to follow the instructions.

"But that's the simplest I could make them," Hotz said.

Technology blog Engadget on Friday reported successfully unlocking an iPhone using a different method that required no tinkering with the hardware. The software was supplied by an anonymous group of hackers that apparently plans to charge for it.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel and Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said their companies had no comment on Hotz' exploit. Hotz said the companies had not been in touch with him.

Apple shares rose $4.23, or 3.2 percent, to close at $135.30 on Friday. AT&T shares gained 26 cents, or 0.7 percent, to close at $40.36.

The iPhone has already been made to work on overseas networks using another method, which involves copying information from the SIM chip, or Subscriber Identity Module.

The SIM-chip method does not involve any soldering, but does require special equipment, and it doesn't unlock the phone _ each new SIM chip has to be reprogrammed for use on a particular iPhone.

Both hacks leave intact the iPhone's many functions, including a built-in camera and the ability to access Wi-Fi networks. The only thing that won't work is the "visual voicemail" feature, which lists voice messages as if they were incoming e-mail.

Since the details of both hacks are public, Apple may be able to modify the iPhone production line to make new phones invulnerable.

Analysts said it's unlikely Apple would overhaul the iPhone's wiring to thwart the new hack because the difficulty of the procedure is likely to keep it confined to hardcore hobbyists.

"I'm having a hard time figuring out where the real pain is going to come from in this," said David Chamberlain, principal analyst with market researcher In-Stat who follows mobile devices and services. "Just selling the piece of hardware, they've made a nice profit off that."

Apple has said it plans to introduce the phone in Europe this year, but it hasn't set a date or identified carriers.

There is apparently no U.S. law against unlocking cell phones. Last year, the Library of Congress specifically excluded cell-phone unlocking from coverage under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Among other things, the law has been used to prosecute people who modify game consoles to play a wider variety of games.

Hotz collaborated online with a large number of people to develop the unlocking process. Of smaller core group, two were in Russia.

"Then there are two guys who I think are somewhere U.S.-side," Hotz said. He knows them only by their online handles.

Hotz himself spent about 500 hours on the project since the iPhone went on sale. On Thursday, he put the unlocked iPhone up for sale on eBay, where the high bid was at $12,600 late Friday. The model, with 4 gigabytes of memory, sells for $499 new.

"Some of my friends think I wasted my summer but I think it was worth it," he told The Record of Bergen County, which reported Hotz's hack Friday.

Hotz heads for college on Saturday. He plans to major in neuroscience _ or "hacking the brain" as he puts it _ at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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Yahoo China & MSN China Sign Code Of Conduct Agreement With Chinese Govt

Yahoo China and MSN China confirmed Friday they had signed a code of conduct for their blogging operations that committed them to protecting the interests of the Chinese state.

The firms and other blog providers in China this week signed the "self-discipline" pact, under which they pledged to "safeguard state and public interests," according to a statement from the China Internet Society.

The pact "encourages" Internet firms to register the real names, addresses and other personal details of the bloggers, and then keep this information.

The firms also committed to delete any "illegal or bad messages," according to a copy of the pact posted on the society's website.

Along with sex and violence, China's communist rulers have also deemed that opinions critical of it or the spreading of democratic ideology are not allowed.

Yahoo China and MSN China told AFP they had signed the pact, but did not give any further comment.

"I can confirm that we signed the pact this week," said spokesman Dou Xiaohan of Yahoo China.

MSN China spokesman Feng Jinhu said: "We've signed the pact but there is no press release on that."

Some Internet companies have caused uproar abroad for bowing to the Chinese government's demands by agreeing to censor websites and content banned by the nation's propaganda chiefs.

They have repeatedly insisted that they have no choice but to follow local rules and regulations in China.

Yahoo has been criticised for passing on information to Chinese authorities about one its users, who got a 10-year jail sentence for divulging state secrets.

The user had posted a Chinese government order, forbidding media organisations from marking the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising, on the Internet.

International press freedom group Reporters Without Borders condemned the new blogging pact.

"The Chinese government has yet again forced Internet sector companies to cooperate on sensitive issues. In this case blogger registration and blog content," it said in a statement.

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Microsoft Replace XBox 360 If 50 Customers Complain

Microsoft will send out replacement parts for its Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel after 50 reports that the video game controllers overheated and released smoke when plugged in, the software maker said Thursday.

The steering wheel-shaped controllers mimic the physical sensations of race car driving for games such as Forza Motorsport 2. About 230,000 have been sold to consumers, according to the company.

The Redmond, Washington-based company said owners of the controller should stop plugging it in, but said it is safe to use with battery power.

This is the second Xbox 360 problem this summer. In July, the company said it expects to spend more than $1 billion ($A1.22 billion) to repair hardware problems in the video game console.

Microsoft Corp didn't offer any estimate of the cost of fixing the controller problems.

Gamers can register online to receive a "retrofit," which Microsoft would send with instructions "if necessary." The company would not say what replacement parts it plans to send to customers.

Microsoft said it has not received reports of fire, injury or property damage as a result of the defect, and it is working with regulatory agencies such as the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The consumer product safety commission said the smoking controllers were only reported in Japan, but that it is monitoring the situation.

"Any time that a company is taking individual action to offer their consumers something to be proactive...we're big fans of proactive," said Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the commission. "If the company is making recommendations to its consumers, by all means consumers should respond to it."

In July, Microsoft extended the warranty to cover shipping and repairs for the Xbox 360 console to three years, from two. The company said it fixed production problems that caused consoles to lock up and display three flashing red lights, which gamers have referred to as "the red ring of death."

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16-Years-Old Schoolboy Cracks Australian Government $84 Million Internet Porn Filter

A 16-year-old schoolboy has cracked the federal government's $84-million internet porn filter.

Tom Wood, a Year 10 student, told News Ltd newspapers it took him about 30 minutes to break through the government's new filter, released on Tuesday.

Tom, who attends a Melbourne private school, can deactivate the filter after several clicks.

His method ensures the software's toolbar icon is not deleted.

He can leave his parents believing the filter is still working.

Tom, a former cyber bullying victim, fears a computer-savvy child could put the bypass on the internet for others to use.

"It's a horrible waste of money," he said. "They could get a much better filter for a few million dollars made here rather than paying overseas companies for an ineffective one."

Communications Minister Helen Coonan said the government had anticipated children would find ways to get around the NetAlert filters.

Suppliers were contracted to provided updates, Senator Coonan said.

"The vendor is investigating the matter as a priority.

"Unfortunately, no single measure can protect children from online harm and ... traditional parenting skills have never been more important."

Family First senator Steve Fielding, a cyber safety campaigner, said cracking the software highlighted the need for compulsory filtering by internet providers.

"You need both. You need it at the ISP and at the PC level," Senator Fielding said. "The Government has not listened to common sense and it leaves kids exposed."

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Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device, To Reduce Drunk Driving

Technology that prevents a drunken driver from starting a vehicle holds the promise of greatly reducing alcohol-related deaths, the US government and auto safety groups say.

So far, however, the criminal justice system has not widely embraced alcohol ignition interlock devices because of long-standing questions about their cost and effectiveness, experts said at a meeting led by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The agency's chief, Nicole Nason, said technological developments and educating people in the legal system could help overcome many obstacles.

"They're not that easy to defeat but there is a perception out there that they are," Nason said.

About 1.4 million people in the United States are arrested for drunken driving each year. Only about 100,000 interlock devices, however, are in use.

They require drivers to blow into an instrument that measures alcohol. A vehicle will not start unless the driver's blood alcohol concentration is below a set level.

Judges and legal experts said the systems need to work together with broader treatment programs for repeat offenders.

"There is no silver bullet, one tool that is going to eliminate DUI offences," said Georgia judge Kent Lawrence, who started the state's first DUI/drug court in 2001.

The states of New Mexico, Arizona, Louisiana, and Illinois have passed laws to require the use of the interlock devices for first-time offenders. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia allow the device for some offenders.

Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said preventing people with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 and higher from driving could save an estimated 9,000 lives per year.

The offender usually pays for the devices. They typically cost $US100 ($A125) for the installation and about $US80 ($A100) per month for monitoring.

Richard Freund, president of LifeSafer Interlock Inc, a company that markets the devices, said the equipment requires drivers to be tested about 10 times to 12 times per day.

Drunken driving killed more than 13,000 people in the US last year. The level has held steady for the past decade and led to a renewed interest in the technology.

For example, Nissan Motor Co has shown experimental systems that measure alcohol levels in a driver's sweat from sensors in the gearshift.

"We are really working on a vaccine for drunk driving. Not on the drunk, but on the vehicle," said Chuck Hurley, chief executive officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

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Power of Pellets For Future Hydrogen Fueled Vehicles

Hydrogen may prove to be the fuel of the future in powering the effi cient, eco-friendly fuel cell vehicles of tomorrow. Developing a method to safely store, dispense and easily "refuel" the vehicle's storage material with hydrogen has baffl ed researchers for years. However, a new and attractive storage medium being developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists may provide the "power of pellets" to fuel future transportation needs.

The Department of Energy's Chemical Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence is investigating a hydrogen storage medium that holds promise in meeting long-term targets for transportation use. As part of the center, PNNL scientists are using solid ammonia borane, or AB, compressed into small pellets to serve as a hydrogen storage material. Each milliliter of AB weighs about three-quarters of a gram and harbors up to 1.8 liters of hydrogen. Researchers expect that a fuel system using small AB pellets will occupy less space and be lighter in weight than systems using pressurized hydrogen gas, thus enabling fuel cell vehicles to have room, range and performance comparable to today's automobiles.

"With this new understanding and our improved methods in working with ammonia borane," said PNNL scientist Dave Heldebrant, "we're making positive strides in developing a viable storage medium to provide reliable, environmentally friendly hydrogen power generation for future transportation needs."

A small pellet of solid ammonia borane (240 mg), as shown, is capable of storing relatively large quantities of hydrogen (0.5 liter) in a very small volume.

PNNL scientists are learning to manipulate the release of hydrogen from AB at predictable rates. By varying temperature and manipulating AB feed rates to a reactor, researchers envision controlling the production of hydrogen and thus fuel cell power, much like a gas pedal regulates fuel to a car's combustion engine. "Once hydrogen from the storage material is depleted, the AB pellets must be safely and effi ciently regenerated by way of chemical processing," said PNNL scientist Don Camaioni. "This 'refueling' method requires chemically digesting or breaking down the solid spent fuel into chemicals that can be recycled back to AB with hydrogen."

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Aussie Government Provides Free internet filters online

Free internet filtering programs are now available on the internet, Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan said.
The software is designed to block black-listed material and material parents deem unsuitable for their children.
Parents and carers can get access to free internet content filters and advice about managing online safety by visiting the website www.australia.gov.au/netalert or telephoning 1800 880 176.
"Today's launch of practical measures ensures that Australian families can reap the benefits of the online world but at the same time be armed with the information and tools they need to limit the very serious risks the internet can pose to children and vulnerable young people," Senator Coonan said in a statement.
Labor communications spokesman Stephen Conroy welcomed the government's decision to make internet filters available but said there were more effective ways to protect children from inappropriate online material.
Senator Conroy said internet service providers (ISPs) should filter material which had been identified as prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
"Under Labor's ISP filtering policy Australian internet users will be prevented from accessing content that has been identified as prohibited by ACMA, including violent and pornographic sites," he said.

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Skype's Network Was Knocked Down By A Bug

In a posting on the company's Heartbeat blog, Skype said: "even though it is too early to call out anything definite yet we are now seeing signs of improvement in our sign-on performance."

The company, a division of online auction company eBay Inc, said that while some of its estimated 220 million users had reported successfully connecting, others were unable to do so.

Skype has nearly 220 million accounts, with 5 million to 6 million users usually online at given time. In January, Skype reported that it had counted 9 million users online at one time. The computer program lets its users make long-distance phone calls over the Internet

The worldwide problem began on Thursday. Users from Vietnam to the US said they could not log on and make phone calls or send instant messages.

Skype said that the issue was a problem with its software and not the result of a cyberattack. It urged users to allow the program to continue running and said they would automatically be logged on when the problem is resolved. It also temporarily disabled new downloads for the program.

Skype, founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, uses peer-to-peer technology to connect phone calls, instant messages and videos between its users. It runs on a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, PocketPC and Linux.

Besides computer-to-computer calls, Skype users also can use the program to connect to mobile phones and traditional land line telephones.

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Digital Black Market, Where You Get Anything Soft

ONE gets the sense from chatting with Canadian Gary Fung that he is waiting for the tide to change. Great expectations are imbued in his answers, as if a single sweep of the moon could change his website from a black market to a media warehouse, convert his profile from digital pirate to entrepreneur, and turn the legal threats he receives into partnership offers.

The 24-year-old has ample reasons for hope. The website isoHunt.com, which he created to help visitors find downloadable BitTorrent files (often containing illegally copied movies, music or software), has grown to 12 million visitors a month in just four years. While he won't disclose earnings, he says he still earns a profit despite a recent $33,000 hardware upgrade, $6640 each month for hosting, and legal fees that he has estimated at $22,000 a month.

But perhaps the greatest promise lies in the shifting sands of media distribution, stirred by disruptive models including Napster and YouTube, which have many experts believing that the shared processing power of peer-to-peer (P2P) networking is the inevitable path forward for mainstream media.

Mr Fung longs for the day when big media players become buyers rather than a barrier.

"BitTorrent really helps make content distribution cheaper and faster," he says. "The natural progression, as we've seen with YouTube and MySpace, is a lot more media distribution is going to be done online, and that's going to converge with the client and P2P technologies."

He envisions a model for fee-based "premium" torrents, where corporations distribute higher-quality torrents than those currently uploaded by amateurs, using corporate bandwidth as well as the scalable efficiency of P2P networks to deliver downloads faster. Yet aside from some pay-per-download partnerships at BitTorrent.com, the entertainment industry has been slow to embrace P2P technology.

While Mr Fung waits for success and recognition, his court date awaits him. In February 2006, a lawsuit was initiated against isoHunt.com by the Motion Picture Association of America, an advocacy group representing entertainment giants including Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox. The MPAA press release cites a study by Smith Barney estimating losses of $US5.4 billion ($A6.3 billion) due to film piracy in 2005. "Mr Fung has chosen not to enter into any negotiations with anybody, but rather to steal that creativity and to use it for his own ends in an unlawful manner," MPAA spokesman John Malcolm said in a televised interview.

Unlike many small enterprises that the MPAA has litigated into extinction, Mr Fung has dug in his heels, hiring a Los Angeles-based legal firm to represent him.

As a portal to more than 500 terabytes of torrent files, isoHunt.com is an obvious target. The distributed nature of P2P sharing, in which hundreds of users will simultaneously upload and download the same file with each other, is a daunting challenge for the MPAA. Its strategy has been to attack the enablers, such as newsgroups listing torrent file locations and search engines that index torrent files.

Mr Fung maintains that his site is nodifferent from a typical search engine like Google or Yahoo. IsoHunt.com is a searchable index of files shared by millions worldwide. When you find and connect to the latest blockbuster film on isoHunt.com, you can download a small torrent file, but this file only contains information on where the actual media content will be downloaded from. "It's all search engines," he says, pointing out that you can also find torrent files by searching Google's index.

Bolstering his defence, Mr Fung employs a copyright policy modelled after the Digital Millennium Copyright Act created by US Congress in 1998, a stricter policy than required under Canadian law. When violations are submitted, he removes the listing from the search engine index, a process similar to Google's for handling copyright complaints, but with greater efficiency. "Google's process is to return documents through snail mail, whereas we use email," Mr Fung says.

Mr Fung is confident he'll win his case. But that potential outcome probably won't erase his frustration with the litigious antics of an industry that, he feels, suppresses innovation in order to save a distribution model in need of reinvention. "I think copyright holders will have to accept the internet as a new way of distributing content and not just look at it as a liability," he says.

For now, it's a David and Goliath-like battle. Mr Fung is accountable to perhaps even more imposing advisers, his parents. He lives at home with his parents who emigrated from Hong Kong to British Columbia, Canada, 13 years ago. "I've explained what I can to them," he says. "I think the copyright issue is something that's going to come up more and more with the internet and I think they understand that I'm already doing what I can."

Mr Fung's persistence is evident, but his motives are less clear. It's hard to tell whether current profit, future potential or a simple love of new technology drives him. One thing is clear - the hobby he began as a computer science student at the University of British Columbia has become a day job, taking more than eight hours each day. In perhaps the same way that Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web became Yahoo, Mr Fung's enterprise has changed from a hobby to a business based on an enthusiastic community of early-adopting users.

With his name high on the MPAA's most-wanted list, one wonders how much long-term career risk the young man is taking on. Phil Morle, CTO of online storage company Omnidrive, has an answer for that. He cut his teeth in P2P with a popular client Kazaa, a role that earned him fame in P2P circles but also earned him an appearance in Australia's Federal Court in 2004.

He believes innovation will go far in the marketplace.

"P2P platforms were the origin of the two-way web," Mr Morle says. "People who have worked in the fires of P2P understand how the web is changing and will never be out of work on the modern internet."

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Fighting Iraqis By Jamming Communication Systems

A silent, invisible battle is being fought against roadside bombs in Iraq. Though the military doesn't like to advertise their use, electronic jamming systems are playing a key role in neutralizing the threat.

"Any weapon we had against IEDs, [Improvised Explosive Devices] was utilized including jamming technology," said Jason Spencer, 29, an Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, engineer who served with the Army in Iraq in 2005.

Vehicle mounted electronic jammers attempt to block a signal going to a radio-controlled IED. The military also uses portable backpack jammers.

"The sophistication of IEDs definitely increased during my time in Iraq," said Spencer. "There was a definite increase in remote detonation."

A signal going to a remote-controlled IED operates on a radio or infrared frequency.

Jamming devices, known as Counter Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare, or CREW systems, attempt to intercept or block a signal before it reaches its intended target, preventing detonation.

One common method is barrage jamming, which knocks out a broad range of radio signals. However, it also knocks out communications used by U.S. troops putting them at increased risk.

"Ideally what you want to be able to do is have something that can grab very precise signals, capture the signals and render them irrelevant without knocking out your own communication," said CNN military analyst retired Army Brig. Gen. James "Spider" Marks.

These technologies represent the last line of defense, said Marks. "We don't want to give our potential enemies an understanding of what we are doing to counter their efforts," he said.

Along with jammers, troops use air surveillance, robots, blast-resistant vehicles and mine rollers as countermeasures. PhotoSee counter-IED technologies in Iraq »

IEDs are the No. 1 source of U.S. and alllied casualties in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. From July 2003 to July 2007, 1,565 coalition forces were killed by IEDs, according to iCasualties.org. See the casualty toll inflicted by IEDs »

"We dealt with hundreds of IEDs while in theater," said Spencer. "IEDs were always on our minds during every patrol."

Spencer says IEDs come in a variety shapes and sizes. "From a simple mortar round on the side of the road with a fuse and a wire running to a push-button, to complex explosives poured into concrete (shaped like curbs) with remote detonators and booby traps."

Most roadside bombs are remotely detonated using common household devices: cell phones, garage door openers, burglar alarms, key fobs, doorbells, or remote controls for toy cars. Learn more about the IED threat »

"Our enemy hides in plain sight. He buys his bomb parts in stores. It's standard commerce," said Marks.

U.S. forces are dealing with an adaptive, innovative and flexible enemy, according to the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO, which is leading the counter-IED effort for the military.

As insurgents modify their devices to outwit the military, the military in turn adapts its own jamming technologies.

Many companies have been tapped to supply jammers to coalition forces. JIEDDO is interested in technologies that can be used in the field within two to eight months -- "light speed" in Defense Department terms.

The Army's main CREW system is the Warlock Duke, a vehicle- mounted radio jammer developed by Syracuse Research Corporation. It's capable of jamming most radio-controlled IEDs, according to the Pentagon.

The Navy, which oversees the CREW program, contracted BAE Systems to produce 3,800 wearable jammers to be fielded in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2008.

Canadian firm Med-Eng is building jammers for the Marines, reports military contractor General Dynamics.

By the end of 2007, JIEDDO will have funded more than 30,000 jammers for Marine and Army units. They have spent $1.6 billion on jamming technology for this fiscal year.

"This gear saves lives every day," wrote retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs, director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization, in a column titled "On the Offensive: The Battle Against IEDs."

One in six IEDs causes casualties in Iraq, JIEDDO reports. To remain effective the enemy "must expose himself more and take higher risks to do his ugly work," Meigs said.

In January, the Government Accounting Office launched a review of JIEDDO and its efforts to counter IEDs. The Defense Science Board criticized the agency for focusing too much on defensive countermeasures "to which the enemy quickly adapts, making these efforts less effective," in an April 2006 report.

JIEDDO is fully cooperating with the GAO, said Col. Dewey Ford, director of strategic communications for JIEDDO. He added that Congress has long supported eliminating the IED threat.

JIEDDO said it is aggressively going after the bomb makers, working to destroy their networks. The agency acknowledges that the mission won't be achieved merely by technical means.

"The best way to counter the IED threat is through understanding the network that allows an IED to even be assembled," said Marks, who supports JIEDDO's work.

"I'd rather have the guy who is going to put that IED in place get killed long before he's even part of the network. And I don't want him to know how I found him out because I want to find out where all his buddies are and kill them too."

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Runescape's Clan Chat Released

The long-awaited Clan Chat for RuneScape was released this week.
A place where both Members and Free Players can have their very own channel for chatting to friends and talking as a group, and can even assign each other ranks. Players can setup and name their channel and, once up and running, other players can join in the fun. Joining someone's channel is as simple as typing their username in!
Like private chat, Clan Chat works whether you and your friends are on the same game world or all spread across many different worlds.
The new Clan Chat interface can be accessed by clicking on the two smiley faces at the bottom-left of your in-game controls.
To get a proper understanding of the Clan Chat system, we advise you to read the Knowledge Base article here.
You may well notice, in addition to the Clan Chat, that the interfaces have had a tidy up. The dwarves of Keldagrim have produced a fine new tablet in place of the chat scroll, there are more chat filters at the bottom of the screen, and the general controls have been improved, making your day-to-day RuneScaping that much smoother and easier to look at.

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Add (Special) Comments On Google News Soon

Google News is getting an interesting feature this week, they are rolling out an experimental feature that lets people or organizations who are part of a news story add a comment to the news. Users of the U.S. version of Google News will now be able to comment on a story, that is assuming they're somehow involved in it. The process is not for everyone, and in fact requires a lengthy verification process of sending off your comment and credentials to a special Google e-mail address, and later verifying your identity via domain name and an e-mail follow-up from Google staff. If you pass the test, your comment will show up alongside the article.
Philipp Lenssen over at Google Blogoscoped has spotted two examples (1, 2) of these comments in the wild. They show up underneath the story description with the person's real name and title.
Will this work? Yahoo tried out a somewhat similar feature with forums dedicated to each story, but shut it down late last year when the amount of spam and off-topic conversation became overwhelming. There were plans to bring it back earlier this year, but the feature remains defunct. Google's approach is almost entirely on the other side of the spectrum, keeping comments tied down to experts.
My only questions are who on Google's end will be doing moderation, whether or not they're capable of those editorial decisions, and if they'll be able to handle the onslaught of incoming e-mail. I also question if going to Google first instead of the story's source for things like corrections or comments is really the best way to add context to a story. While Google may be linking to the content, keeping the system too closed might keep the real story from coming out.

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Panasonic maker Matsushita Launches 37-inch LCD TVs in September

Panasonic maker Matsushita , the world's largest plasma TV supplier, said it will launch 37-inch LCD TVs in September, modifying its policy of covering demand for 37-inch and larger flat TVs with plasma models.

Matsushita has been offering LCD TVs for the market of 32-inch and smaller flat televisions, while catering to demand for larger flat TVs mainly with plasma models, missing out on strong growth in large-sized LCD TV demand.

The 37-inch full high-definition LCD TV will go on sale in Japan on September 1 for an estimated price of 300,000 yen ($2,508). Osaka-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. aims to offer the model in overseas markets by the end of the year.

Plasma TVs once dominated the large-sized flat TV market with cheaper price tags and a more natural picture quality. They have lost ground as LCD TV makers have been able to roll out bigger models at cheaper prices by introducing larger and more cost-efficient production lines.

Global LCD TV sales grew 54 percent from a year ago to $13.6 billion in January-March, while plasma TV sales fell 9 percent to $3.6 billion, according to data from DisplaySearch.

But Matsushita, which competes with Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp. in the $82 billion global flat TV market, said on Thursday it has no plan to abandon its basic strategy of covering demand for big-screen TVs with plasma.

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Endeavour Up and away!

Former West Islander Dave Williams marked another Canadian cosmic milestone last night, as the astronaut blasted off on the space shuttle Endeavour from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The mission's fiery birth was welcomed with cheers and clapping by about 200 employees and their friends in a packed auditorium at Canadian Space Agency headquarters in Longueuil.
"It's exciting. It's kind of like final exam time after all this preparing," said Mathieu Caron, 35, a mission controller who will monitor the operations of the Canadarm2 from the CSA starting at 6 a.m. today and during the 11- to 14-day mission.
The mission will include a lot more space time for Canada and the Maple Leaf.
Williams will be the first Canadian to ride the Canadarm during one of three spacewalks, the most by any Canadian. And he will perform a Canadian-conceived hand-eye coordination test on a shuttle computer.
But after the shuttle's two solid rocket boosters fell away from the craft like spent birthday candles last night, some in the room in Longueuil couldn't help but feel a sense of uncertainty.
With just 12 more missions planned and only eight not yet staffed, Williams could be the last Canadian in space for quite a while.
Among Endeavour's five-man, two-woman crew will be the first teacher sent into space since the 1986 Challenger explosion tragically ended the dream of another pioneering educator.
Teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan, 55, trained alongside fellow teacher Christa McAuliffe in the 1980s as a backup for the Challenger shuttle mission. McAuliffe was killed in the Challenger explosion.
Williams, 53, a former lifeguard at the Pointe Claire Aquatic Centre, is poised to spend up to 191/2 hours spacewalking during the mission if, as expected, the International Space Station's power system is successfully upgraded on Saturday.
If that operation succeeds, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will extend the mission to 14 days.
A longer mission would give Williams the opportunity to be part of the mission's fourth spacewalk - and it would be a record-setting third for Williams.
Saturday, Williams and fellow astronaut Rick Mastracchio will take a 61/2-hour spacewalk - Williams's first - during which they will help guide the installation of the S5 truss, a van-sized aluminum part of the space station structural spine weighing nearly 2,270 kilograms.
They'll guide the truss to its new home by talking to Charles Hobaugh, who will be at the controls of the Canadarm 2.
Once the truss section is installed, the astronauts will take a stroll along the rest of the truss, using handrails to guide them to the centre of the space station. From there they will climb to the highest point on the station, fold a solar panel heat radiator and stow it for future use.
Saturday will also see the first tryout of a new power distribution module for the space station. The part will enable the shuttle to convert electricity from the space station so the shuttle can stay docked for longer periods.
On Monday, Williams will ride a small platform on the end of the Canadarm 2, from where he will replace a defective component, the Control Moment Gyro 3, a gyroscope the orbiting outpost uses to position itself.
Williams will lift the new 600-kilogram CMG 3 - about the size of a washing machine - out of the shuttle's payload bay using just his arms - thanks to the microgravity, or near weightlessness, of space.
He'll slowly be moved by the Canadarm so that he can install the new CMG and then remove the old one.
Steve MacLean, one of Canada's four currently active astronauts, said last night in Longueuil that Williams's first spacewalk will probably be the emotional highlight of the mission for the Canadian.
"When the Canadarm flips him around from looking out at the universe and he faces the Earth, it'll probably an unbelievable sight," said MacLean, 52, who has flown on two shuttle missions but never spacewalked.
If nature calls during the lengthy spacewalks, the astronauts simply let go in their suits.
"Oh, yeah, we wear diapers," Canadian astronaut Julie Payette said in Cape Canaveral.
Payette, 43, said the astronauts stay hydrated during the spacewalks by using a straw to drink water that is a by-product created by the space station's liquid hydrogen fuel cells.
On Aug. 17, in the mission's fourth and final spacewalk, Williams will wrap up the outside work on the station with the installation of a new wireless transmission assembly, a new antenna system used with helmet cameras during spacewalks.
They will also outfit the station's hull with new foot restraints and toolboxes for future construction work.
After the relief of a smooth launch last night, Caron said his focus was on this mission, not the long term. But he admitted he is not sure exactly what he or the Canadian space program will be up to after the current crop of shuttles is retired in 2010 and the space station is completed by Russian Soyuz space crews by 2015.

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Avoid Cunning VOIP Service Providers

You can find offers for VOIP service all over the place. You get them in various monthly bills, you see them scattered all over at Best Buy and Circuit City, and your DSL or cable provider is probably offering it to you as well. How to choose which one is best?

The answer to this is that the one that is most convenient to purchase is RARELY going to be your most cost effective option. People like "easy", but at the same time, "easy" costs more money than you need to be spending. Let's look at some examples.

With my cable bill every month, the cable carrier includes a flyer about how great their VOIP service is and offer me a gazillion reasons I should sign up for it. Oh really? What they offer for $39.95 per month is less than what I would get from Packet8 VOIP service or SunRocket VOIP service, yet they want me to pay $15 more each month for getting less. But I have the convenience of ordering through my cable provider, and the convenience of having my VOIP bill on the same invoice as my cable bill. While I like convenience, is paying $15 more per month, or $180 more each year, really worth it, especially when I am getting LESS service than I would for less money with VOIP options? I don't think so.

What about Vonage, with their huge TV advertising budget, and offers all over the place, is Vonage a good deal? In my own use of the Vonage VOIP system, I am not impressed. There are more features to be found for the same or less money with other VOIP services, and the quality of the Vonage connection was not as good as even my cell phone. That is my personal experience and your mileage may vary, but I am just reporting what I have found.

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VOIP Tricks You Cant Wait To Try

The really nice thing about VOIP is that it is a service that you can take with you when you travel. For example, most hotels now have high-speed Internet service, and if you take your VOIP phone with you, you can plug in at the hotel and continue to make and receive calls at your regular phone number as if you had never left home. Keep in mind that if the hotel offers ONLY a wireless Internet connection, as many of them do as your only option, this presents another problem and you will need additional hardware to convert that wireless signal into an RJ45 jack that you can plug your VOIP DTA box into.

I know of one business person who does not leave home without his VOIP phone, it is always one of the first things that gets packed. So when he gets to his hotel in Chicago or New York or Denver or even Germany or Hong Kong, he plugs in his VOIP phone and is back to work. While it may seem strange to have a VOIP phone plugged into your Hong Kong hotel room, and have people call you on it by dialing an Orlando phone number (if you live in Orlando), that is how VOIP works and it really is nice.

Another thing you can do is say you have relatives in Europe or the UK that you like to talk to but it is prohibitively expensive to call overseas very often. To solve this problem, what you should do is get a VOIP phone for you, and have them get a VOIP phone from the same provider. Now even though they are living in London or Munich, they will have a Detroit or Houston phone number. They can call you and talk as long as you want, or you can call them on their assigned phone number (which might appear to be Detroit or Denver) and talk as long as you want. The only thing they need is that high-speed Internet connection, and of course an electrical adapter to accommodate the different voltages overseas.

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Toshiba 3G HD-DVD Player Released

Toshiba fired a new salvo in its battle with the Blu-Ray format by announcing its third generations of HD-DVD players for US market.
All the three models are cheaper compared to their predecessors and Toshiba refined also the design with new changes like rounded edges, slim chassis (only 59.5 mm - nearly half as tall as first generation players) and high gloss, black acrylic face plates.
The entry-level model, called HD-A3, features 1080i output capability and it will be available for a suggested price of $299.99 in October 2007
Toshiba HD-A30 is the mid-level model, but it offers an output 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080p), the highest HD signal currently available and includes also features "CE-Link" (HDMI-CEC), allowing two- way control between the HD DVD player and a TV through an HDMI connection. With a recommended price of $399.99 HD-A30 will be the first to arrive on the market sometime next month
The top of the line, Toshiba HD-A35 includes all the features of HD-A30 and more. It has support for Deep Color via HDMI and offers 5.1 channel analog output and High Bit Rate Audio (up to 7.1 channel) via HDMI. With content encoded in 7.1ch, this advanced surround sound is achieved through the HDMI connection bypassing the player's internal audio processor and sending the signal to a 7.1 capable A/V receiver. The price of this player is $499.99 and it will be available in October 2007.
"With a majority market share in unit sales of next generation DVD players, consumers are speaking loud and clear, and they are adopting HD DVD as their HD movie format of choice," said Jodi Sally, VP of Marketing for Toshiba's Digital A/V Group. "Because of the proven manufacturing efficiencies of the HD DVD format, Toshiba can bring this level of innovation in technology to a new generation of players with cutting-edge functionality at affordable prices."
Last month Sony, the main supporter of Blu-Ray format, slashed the price of its BDP-S300 by $100, invoking lower-than-expected manufacturing costs.

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Xbox 360 Now Officially $50 Cheaper

After more than 18 months of presence on the market, Microsoft’s next-gen gaming rig is getting a $50 price cut, confirming rumors that the Redmond giant is not only losing a lot of money with the console, but is also in danger of losing its supremacy in favor of Nintendo.
Although the price cut will affect only the US territory and is only half the size of the one operated by Sony for its PS3, it is still significant and shows that tough competition from Nintendo (which managed to climb to the third place in a top of Japan’s most important companies) is seriously endangering the profitability prospects established for the Xbox division at Redmond.
The price cut will be effective starting Wednesday, August 8 at US retailers nationwide, in anticipation of EA’s craved sequel for the NFL franchise, Madden NFL 08. The game will debut on August 14 and is expected to boost sales for the Xbox 360! , not only because the console is now cheaper, but because of the immense popularity that Madden NFL enjoys in the US (it was the top-selling game of 2006 and is still one of the top-selling franchises over the past 10 years). Madden NFL 08 has also been chosen as the best sports game at this year’s E3, receiving the Game Critics Award.
"The fact that we have been able to keep our launch price longer than any other console while retaining our leadership position demonstrates that consumers believe in the value of Xbox 360," said Mitch Koch, corporate vice president, Global Retail Sales and Marketing Group, Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.. "On the eve of the best holiday games lineup ever and the launch of 'Madden NFL 08,' there has never been a better time to jump into Xbox 360."
The 20GB Xbox 360 pack will now cost $349.99, offering a wireless controller and a headset, while the Core Pack will retail for $279.99. The Black Elite Xbox 360 will have an estimated retail price (ERP) of $449.99, while the highly anticipated Halo 3-themed console, which will hit stores’ shelves in September, will be available for $399.99. The latter will also include, besides the Spartan green-and-gold finish, a matching wireless controller, a headset and an Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit.
Microsoft also announced the games line-up that should make the acquisition of a (now) cheaper Xbox 360 even more enticing. Among the titles readied for the end of this summer, for this fall and for the critical holyday season are: "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" (RedOctane/Activision), "Halo 3" (Bungie), "Madden NFL 08" (EA) and "Rock Band" (MTV Games), "Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation" (NAMCO BANDAI Games), "BioShock" (2K Games), "Lost Odyssey" (Mistwalker and feelplus Inc.), "Blue Dragon" (Mistwalker and feelplus Inc.), "Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action," (Screenlife), "Naruto: Rise of a Ninja" (Ubisoft), "Project Gotham Racing 4" (Bizarre Creations Ltd.) and "Mass Effect" (BioWare Corp.).
The software behemoth also boasts with the latest estimates provided by NPD Group, which give the Xbox 360 a strong lead in front of its next-gen rivals (namely Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii), with a record-setting attach rate of 6.1 games per console sold. At the beginning of July, Microsoft also extended the warranty period for its console to three years, due to the high failure rate (or the “red ring of death” problems)- a move which will cost the company around $1.15 billion. Later that month, during a meeting with financial analysts and investors, Robbie Bach president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Redmond allegedly admitted that every console sold out there is suffering from design flaws that could eventually lead to the red ring of death.
Despite these facts, Bach is confident that Microsoft will overcome the difficulties and that the 2008 profitability target is still reachable:
"If you think about consumer spending on the platform, compare since the launch of the Wii and the PlayStation 3 to date, so a little over, what, seven or eight months, people have spent $2.6 billion in the U.S. on Xbox 360 all up during that period.”
"That's almost double what they spent on either the Wii or PlayStation 3. There's a lot of traction with consumers around this product. We've launched in 11 more countries. We're now in 37 countries worldwide. We're in a very good position on the fundamentals of that business."
However, according to VGChartz.com, Xbox 360 is in danger of losing the top spot in favor of Wii, when it comes to the install base. The Wii is vertiginously closing in to the Xbox 360, with 9.94 million units sold for Nintendo’s console, in a bit more than 8 months, compared to 10.29 million units for Microsoft’s console, which was launched in November 2005.

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