148137
submission
SpeedyTrain writes:
Magnetic trains zooming at a landscape-blurring 310 miles an hour will connect Tokyo and Nagoya by 2025, one of Japan's biggest railway operators said Friday.
The new magnetically levitated, or "maglev," trains would slash the 100-minute travel time down the country's busiest transportation corridor and are envisioned as a successor for Japan's iconic bullet trains, or shinkansen, first introduced to the world in 1964.
148133
submission
GreenTea writes:
Some of the latest mobile phones in Japan come with motion sensors that let users detect motion or play action games like those on the Nintendo Wii console.
The D904i from NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile carrier, contains a tiny motion sensor that detects shaking and tilting, company spokesman Nobuyuki Hatanaka said.
146579
submission
MosiMosi writes:
A group of researchers led by the University of Tokyo has broken Internet speed records — twice in two days. Operators of the high-speed Internet2 network announced Tuesday that the researchers on Dec. 30 sent data at 7.67 gigabits per second, using standard communications protocols.
146565
submission
GoIBMPS3 writes:
The powerful "'Cell"' microprocessor that fuels Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 video game console will be available in IBM mainframe computers so those high-performance machines can run complex online games and virtual worlds.
142883
submission
Hotspots writes:
In a big win for a little Wi-Fi startup called Fon, Time Warner Cable Inc. will let its home broadband customers turn their connections into public wireless hotspots, a practice shunned by most U.S. Internet service providers.
For Fon, which has forged similar agreements with ISPs across Europe, the deal will boost its credibility with U.S. consumers. For Time Warner Cable, which has 6.6 million broadband subscribers, the move could help protect the company from an exodus as free or cheap municipal wireless becomes more readily available.
139725
submission
MicroBarcode writes:
Microsoft Corp. has finally found a taker for a colorful barcode technology the company shelved two years ago because it failed to catch on
Microsoft said this week that the small square symbols, filled with red, green, yellow and black triangles, will appear on DVD and video game cases later this year, thanks to a licensing deal with the ISAN International Agency. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
139313
submission
SushiVSYamcha writes:
Japan is set to launch its first lunar orbiter this summer, but exploring the moon is just part of the mission.
The other goal is to catch up with China, the new leader in Asia's space race.
Japan's space agency JAXA announced last week that the much-delayed SELENE probe will be launched in August aboard an H-2A rocket, the mainstay of Japan's space program.
138073
submission
ComeBack writes:
Steaks, pork chops, milk and other products from cloned livestock would have to be clearly labeled on grocers' shelves under a bill pending in the California Legislature.
If passed, the requirement could be more stringent than federal rules. The Food and Drug Administration is poised to give final approval to meat and milk from cloned animals without any special labeling, though a bill introduced in Congress would require it.
137081
submission
NoMoreGuns writes:
Gov. Eliot Spitzer will take a shot at violent videos and video games as part his remaining 2007 legislative agenda that includes campaign finance reform, streamlining the courts, and energy development.
Spitzer said he will soon provide a bill that would target the ratings of video movies and video games "that are often violent and degrading" and can hurt children who repeatedly use and view them.
136291
submission
MicroAdobe writes:
It has not escaped Microsoft's attention that some of the coolest sites on the Web — YouTube and MySpace included — get much of their flash from Flash and other design programs sold by Adobe Systems Inc.
But as Microsoft Corp. gets ready to ship its own line of tools for designers and Web developers, the world's largest software maker finds it must also defend against Adobe on its home turf, the desktop. At the same time, the line between Internet and desktop programs is blurring — and both companies see an opportunity to capture new business.
132455
submission
KingKong writes:
Scientists have unraveled the DNA of another of our primate relatives, this time a monkey named the rhesus macaque — and the work has far more immediate impact than just to study evolution.
These fuzzy animals are key to testing the safety of many medicines, and understanding such diseases as AIDS, and the new research will help scientists finally be sure when they're a good stand-in for humans
130849
submission
GoSun writes:
Sunlight has never really caught fire as a power source, mostly because generating electricity with solar cells is more expensive and less efficient than some conventional sources.
But a new solar panel unveiled this month by the Georgia Tech Research Institute hopes to brighten the future of the energy source.
130835
submission
VictoryDone writes:
More than 2.5 million ".eu" Internet addresses have been registered since the European domain name launched just over a year ago, the European Commission said Wednesday.
Many worldwide brands — from companies like Air France and Versace to environmental campaigners Greenpeace — now have a ".eu" address, officials said, singling out non-European brands Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus for also choosing an ".eu" address in ad campaigns.
128537
submission
SkillZ writes:
The group behind security measures for next-generation DVDs said Monday it has fixed a leak that allowed hackers to discover the keys for unlocking movies on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs.
Makers of software for playing the discs on computers will offer patches containing new keys and closing the hole that allowed observant hackers to discover ways to strip high-def DVDs of their protection.
128503
submission
Dumpling$9 writes:
Breaking up with your Internet service provider isn't hard to do — but it may cost you.
Customers who subscribe to a high-speed Internet plan may pay $150 or more if they terminate their service before their contract has expired, according to a new survey from Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.
