A sea-going robotic glider that harvests heat energy from the ocean has been tested by US scientists.

The yellow, torpedo-shaped machine has been combing the depths of seas around the Caribbean since December 2007.

The team which developed the autonomous vehicle say it has covered “thousands of kilometres” during the tests.

The team believe the glider - which needs no batteries - could undertake oceanographic surveys for up to six months at a time.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Robot glider harvests ocean heat

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Ocean, Science, Exploration

Amazon.com, which has been rapidly adding digital downloads to its vast Web store, said on Thursday that it had agreed to buy Audible, the largest online seller of audiobooks.

Amazon will pay $300 million in cash for the company, or $11.50 a share, a 23 percent premium to the stock’s closing price on Wednesday.

Audible, based in Newark, offers 80,000 audiobooks and spoken-word products from magazines, radio shows and newspapers, including The New York Times. It sells its digital files through its own Web site and, since 2003, through Apple’s popular iTunes service.

The move could also allow owners of the Kindle, Amazon’s cream-colored electronic book reader, to download audiobooks directly to the device. Amazon introduced the Kindle to great fanfare late last year.

Amazon to Buy Audiobook Seller for $300 Million - New York Times

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Amazon, Audiobooks, Apple

Apple has postponed the release of the Apple TV software update by a week or two, saying it needed more time to finish the upgrade that would let people rent movies directly from their televisions.

In delaying the Apple TV upgrade, the company said the software wasn’t quite finished. “Apple now plans to make the free software download available to existing Apple TV customers in another week or two,” the company said in a statement. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had said during his Macworld keynote that the software would be ready by the end of January.

Apple Delays Apple TV Software Update — Apple — InformationWeek

Blogged with Flock

Tags: DamnYouApple!, IWantMyATV, Apple, AppleTV

The wireless data network operated by AT&T Mobility had returned to service for most customers by Thursday afternoon, a company spokeswoman said, and should be working for the rest of the customers by evening.

“Service for our Edge and 3G networks was disrupted for customers in the Midwest and Southeast, but our technicians have begun to restore service,” said Meghan Roskopf, an AT&T spokeswoman.

Cause of the outage, which was discovered about 5:30 a.m. Central Standard Time, is still unknown, she said.

AT&T says Edge data network is back up — chicagotribune.com

Blogged with Flock

Tags: AT&T, Edge, Noooo!, MyiPhoneIsBroken!

Large swathes of Asia, the Middle East and north Africa had their high-technology services crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.

Dubai has been hit hard by an Internet outage apparently caused by a cut undersea cable.One major telecommunications provider blamed the outage, which started Wednesday, on a major undersea cable failure in the Mediterranean.

India’s Internet bandwidth has been sliced in half, The Associated Press reported, leaving its lucrative outsourcing industry trying to reroute traffic to satellites and other cables through Asia.

Reports say that Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain are also experiencing severe problems.Nations that have been spared the chaos include Israel — whose traffic uses a different route — and Lebanon and Iraq. Many Middle East governments have backup satellite systems in case of cable failure.

Internet failure hits two continents - CNN.com

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Internet, Nooooo!

The way people interact with computers is going to dramatically change in the next five years, Microsoft chief Bill Gates has told BBC News.

He predicted that the keyboard and mouse would gradually give way to more intuitive and natural technologies.

In particular, he said, touch, vision and speech interfaces would become increasingly important.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Gates hails age of digital senses

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Microsoft, Bill Gates, YeahOnAMac

CES 2008 runs all this week from Las Vegas. If you can’t be at CES this year, then follow the action online.

CES 2008 Coverage at Engadget
Veronica Belmont’s Daily Coverage
Official Audio and Video Podcasts
Official Blog of CES 2008
CES on the (You)Tube

Blogged with Flock

Tags: CES2008

A new battery/case product to extend your iPhone’s battery life will be shipping in a few weeks.  The unit will set you back around $100.

The Juice Pack is a colorful soft-grip case for cushioning and improving the gripability of your iPhone. Inside, there’s a rechargeable lithium-ion battery capable of providing enough juice for an additional 250 hours of standby time, 24 hours of audio playback or seven hours of video. Upshot: Go ahead and take the iPhone with you on your next camping trip.

iPhone Case Includes Battery Extender | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

Blogged with Flock

Tags: iphone, batteries

Las Vegas this week becomes the tech capital of the world as the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show and an estimated 140,000 conventioneers take over Sin City.

This giant tech confab features an estimated 27,000 gadgets that range from a cell-phone-sized projector from Microvision and sleek OLED displays from Samsung, to dueling wireless technologies (WirelessHD and Wireless USB) that aim to eliminate all those wires behind your HDTV.

Pre-show events start tomorrow. The show floor opens Monday.

PC World - 2008 CES: More Tech Than You Can Handle

Blogged with Flock

Tags: CES2008, CES, LasVegas

Flying well-equipped for business and pleasure gets a bit more complicated on Jan. 1, as the U.S. Transportation Department bars travelers from packing loose lithium batteries in checked luggage.

The move is designed to help minimize the risk that such batteries could overheat and catch fire on board, the agency’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in a statement on Friday.

The new rules say travelers can bring a laptop computer, digital camera, cellphone and other equipment on board or in checked luggage if their lithium batteries are installed in the items.

And flyers can bring spare batteries in carry-on luggage if they’re stored in plastic bags or if they’re in the original retail packaging. But travelers can bring only as many as two such spare batteries, and each must be packed separately.

Travelers Advisory: U.S. limits lithium batteries on flights - MarketWatch

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Airlines, Security, Hysteria, Travel