UPI Hi-Tech articles from April 2006

UPI Hi-Tech archives from April 2006

Company's robots want to do your chores.
April 3, 2006... Byline: LEAH KRAUSS TEL AVIV, Israel, April 3 (UPI) -- Slobs and housework-haters rejoice: If one company has its way, in the near future there will be robots to set the dinner table, clear it after dinner, shovel snow and mop the floor....

Networking: Convergence on Wall Street.
April 3, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 3 (UPI) -- Federal regulations and a stream of lawsuits by New York's exceptionally ambitious Attorney General Elliott Spitzer seem to be having an unintended consequence on Wall Street -- a surprising...

Lucent takes steps to ensure Alcatel deal.
April 3, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Alcatel and Lucent Technologies took their first step towards merging into one giant global telecommunications equipment manufacturer, which most likely will be a sound financial move but...

Digital revolution takes on movie industry.
April 4, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- With Hollywood's largest studios launching a download-and-own film service via rivals Movielink.com and Cinemanow.com, the move towards digital distribution also means the move toward...

Britain feels heat of NTL's Virgin buyout.
April 4, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- Getting more services for less money. That could well be what many British customers will be getting if NTL's buyout of Virgin Mobile works out as planned as they propose to offer mobile,...

D.C. ranked No.1 for teleworking potential.
April 4, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- The nation's capital was ranked "Best City For Teleworking" according to a recent nationwide study. It was followed by Boston, Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco respectively,...

The Web: An iPod for your car.
April 5, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 5 (UPI) -- Would you like some digital music downloaded directly to your dashboard -- not just your desktop? That may be the next phase of mobile music, as automotive aftermarket suppliers and computer...

Nano World: Nanoparticle toxicity tests.
April 5, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, April 5 (UPI) -- Scientists have for the first time compared how toxic several different kinds of nanoparticles are with known toxic and nontoxic items and found certain nanoparticles appeared surprisingly...

World Bank: Competition key to IT growth.
April 5, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- Poorer countries still fall short when it comes to making full use of various available information technologies, according to a World Bank study. In its latest report, entitled...

Love on the Web for STD sufferers.
April 5, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- While many are turning to the Internet for love, those with a sexually transmitted disease can now find themselves in less awkward position thanks to a new dating site, MatchSTD.com. ...

Dell, Apple winners in tech-brand survey.
April 6, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- In the technology name game, Dell reigns supreme, Apple continues to rise, and Microsoft is in trouble, according to the results of a study by Forrester Research. The study, titled...

Vodafone's restructuring brings good cheer.
April 6, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- Vodafone has had more than its share of drama in recent weeks as senior executives rushed to air their grievances publicly about the state of affairs at the mobile group. So investors were...

AtomFilms going mobile.
April 6, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- AtomFilms and Verizon Wireless announced Thursday plans of a multi-year exclusive agreement to bring AtomFilms original short films to Verizon's mobile content service V CAST. The...

Netflix, Blockbuster at a crossroads.
April 7, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- Netflix and Blockbuster are set to do battle for the DVD-by-mail business model -- though ultimately they may be at a larger crossroads as the video-rental business changes as a whole....

Wireless World: Free cell phones for all?
April 7, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 7 (UPI) -- Broadcast television has always been free for consumers -- courtesy of advertising sponsors, ranging from the makers of Alka-Seltzer to the purveyors of Viagra and Propecia. Now that mobile...

Israel: Intel to spend $810 million here.
April 7, 2006... Byline: LEAH KRAUSS BINYAMINA, Israel, April 7 (UPI) -- Global chip-making giant Intel has promised to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in Israel over the coming years for procurement, the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor...

Nano World: Virus builds nanowire battery.
April 7, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, April 7 (UPI) -- Scientists have reprogrammed ancient hunters of bacteria to manufacture nanowire lithium ion battery components with properties two or three times better than ones in commercially...

Cablevision to test remote DVR service.
April 7, 2006... Byline: CHRIS BARYLICK WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- In the continuing struggle for dominance in the digital-video-recorder market, industry giant Cablevision is about to try something different. The firm, which has offered conventional...

Globe Talk: Tech no panacea to preparedness.
April 7, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- Be prepared for the next big one to strike. That's been the rallying cry of the government ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and yet public confidence in the public...

Networking: Gamers get satisfaction.
April 10, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 10 (UPI) -- Special agent Ethan Hunt -- a.k.a. Tom Cruise -- suddenly appears on your mobile phone's color screen. You're being recruited to be a non-official cover intelligence asset. As Hollywood...

Asia wakes up to digital-music piracy.
April 10, 2006... Byline: INDRAJIT BASU CALCUTTA, India, April 10 (UPI) -- That hi-tech mobile handset you recently bought, which can do everything from surfing the Net to downloading actual music, may be your latest wonder-gadget, but these cutting-edge...

Swisscom faces fine by Swiss government.
April 10, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- Swisscom has flatly rejected accusations by the Swiss government that it has deliberately and systematically overcharged foreign competitors for using its network. Whether or not the Swiss...

Hi-tech tunnels ads, an alternative to TV.
April 10, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- Imagine watching a man being pulled by a team of dogs as you travel in a metro train under the streets of Washington, D.C. That's what the Travel Channel hopes when metro riders see...

Carphone's broadband plan shakes up sector.
April 11, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- The slogan is tantalizing enough. "Free broadband, forever," or so declared Carphone Warehouse, one of Europe's biggest mobile group based in London. For the past few weeks, the...

Nano World: Nano-drugs cure mouse prostate.
April 11, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, April 11 (UPI) -- A single injection of nanoparticles loaded with drugs completely eliminated prostate tumors in mice, experts told UPI's Nano World. Annually some 230,000 people get prostate cancer,...

2006 Webby Awards nominees released.
April 11, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Top blogs and podcasts will be decided at this year's 10th Annual Webby Awards on May 9. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences released Tuesday its nominations for...

The Web: Sue Me, Sue You, Blues.
April 12, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 12 (UPI) -- George Harrison, after leaving The Beatles, wrote a song called the "Sue Me, Sue You, Blues" for his album, "Living in the Material World." "Hold the block on the money flow. Move it into...

Skype's $27M gamble for voice technology.
April 12, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- Even for the technically challenged, making calls over the Internet is no longer a daunting task, and the cheap price offered by Voice over Internet Protocol providers has made VoIP a must...

Apple embraces Windows XP with Boot Camp.
April 12, 2006... Byline: CHRIS BARYLICK WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- Sometimes the impossible happens. And as confusing as the change may be, it actually turns out not to be the end of the world. Earlier this month the nearly unthinkable occurred for...

Tandberg: Be there now.
April 12, 2006... Byline: T.K. MALOY WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- For global videoconferencing company Tandberg, the company slogan of "Be there now" is more than just a motto -- it's almost a calling. The company has experienced a yearly growth in...

Analysis: Google performs virtual kowtow in China.
April 13, 2006... Byline: EDWARD LANFRANCO BEIJING, April 13 (UPI) -- Google's chief executive officer performed the modern-day equivalent of the kowtow in the Chinese capital this week, saying his firm would obey the laws of the land calling itself a...

Analysis: British law may hurt Indian outsourcers.
April 13, 2006... Byline: INDRAJIT BASU CALCUTTA, India, April 13 (UPI) -- A law introduced in Britain last week to protect the rights of workers laid off by offshoring and outsourcing could not only potentially leave Indian business process outsourcing...

Iceland tops broadband access list.
April 14, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- Simply going online isn't good enough to make full use of cyberspace. Without the high-speed connectivity that broadband offers, it's difficult, if not downright impossible, to make full...

Globe Talk: Robots answer to immigration?
April 14, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- Can robots do the dirty work most Americans don't want to do and meet some of the low-wage labor shortage facing the United States? Or better still, could robotic technology be part of the...

Wireless World: VCs eye mobile TV, WiFi.
April 14, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 14 (UPI) -- The number of new wireless companies funded by venture capitalists is rising, indicating that a "pre-dot-com" boom level of confidence has returned to the market, experts tell United Press...

Qualcomm, DOJ $1.8M settlement.
April 14, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- Qualcomm Inc. and Flarion Technologies Inc. agreed to the pay a $1.8 million settlement in civil penalties in a suit filed by the Department of Justice, the companies announced Thursday....

Nano World: Generators powered by vibes.
April 14, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, April 14 (UPI) -- Generators fabricated from wires only nanometers or billionths of a meter wide can convert vibrations to electricity, experts told UPI's Nano World. These nanogenerators could help...

Networking: Human error largely to blame.
April 17, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 17 (UPI) -- What's the most grave IT security threat today? Hackers? Overly complicated corporate networks? None of the above, experts are telling United Press International's Networking column. Good,...

Australia's Babcock & Brown eying Eircom.
April 17, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- Eircom may finally be close to finding a partner and saviour, ending months of searching and speculation on the part of analysts. On Monday, Australian and Irish media reported that...

Microsoft subpoenaed by AMD in Intel suit.
April 17, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- Microsoft is the latest company to be subpoenaed by chip maker Advanced Micro Devices for its antitrust lawsuit against rival Intel Corp. AMD filed the suit Monday with the U.S....

Door closes on Japan's Livedoor.
April 18, 2006... Byline: HIROSHI YAMAZAKI TOKYO, April 18 (UPI) -- Scandal-plagued Japanese Internet group Livedoor was removed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday, together with its subsidiary Livedoor Marketing Co. The company's last day on the bourse...

Burst.com files counterclaim against Apple.
April 18, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- Burst.com Inc. announced it has filed a counterclaim alleging that Apple's iTunes Music Store, iTunes software, iPods, and Apple QuickTime applications has infringed on four of Burst's 10...

Eisner makes foray into Internet TV.
April 18, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- He was ousted from the House of Mouse, but the entertainment industry remains an integral part of business deals that Michael Eisner pursues. In his first deal since he stepped down as the...

Google, Sony create online 'Da Vinci' game.
April 18, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- In a new twist on movie marketing, Columbia Pictures has paired up with Google to create a series of live online games and puzzles for fans to partake in, leading up to the release of...

Nano World: Graphite nano-electronics.
April 18, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, April 18 (UPI) -- The carbon sheets that make up the graphite in pencils could serve as the foundation for a new class of electronics just nanometers or billionths of a meter in scale, experts told UPI's...

Report finds turnaround in tech industry.
April 19, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- A new report found that 61,000 net jobs were added to the hi-tech industry for a total of 5.6 million tech jobs in 2005, indicating a turnaround in the industry, according to a trade...

The Web: WTO's gambling deadline missed.
April 19, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 19 (UPI) -- A deadline imposed by The World Trade Organization for the Bush administration to clarify its stance on online gambling passed earlier this month, without a public response from the...

Sanctions won't stop China violating IP.
April 19, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- Imposing trade sanctions is no solution to getting China to comply with intellectual-property rules. Rather, by encouraging Chinese companies to tie up with U.S. rivals on the one hand and...

Skype joins in self-censoring in China.
April 20, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- From the White House to business leaders in Seattle, policymakers and executives across the United States have been rolling out the red carpet for Chinese premier Hu Jintao. But even as...

XM Radio swings into baseball season.
April 20, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- It's April, and the great American pastime is back in action. Major League Baseball's season is under way, giving fans a chance to partake in the ritual experience of enjoying baseball...

BitTorrent gaining more acceptance.
April 20, 2006... Byline: CHRIS BARYLICK WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- In the world of the Internet, a new idea can be either an asset or a threat. It depends on your perspective. BitTorrent, the popular peer-to-peer file sharing technology, poses...

China wireless standard trial to end in Q3.
April 21, 2006... BEIJING, April 21 (UPI) -- Trials of China's TD-SCDMA 3G wireless standard will wrap up in the third quarter, it was reported Friday. The success of the standard is being closely watched by the telecom industry since it is being developed...

Wireless World: 'Black hole' of convergence.
April 21, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 21 (UPI) -- For decades, it seems, esteemed techno-sages have been touting the coming of "convergence." Personal computers were said to be poised to merge with home stereo systems -- back in the 1980s....

Asia, U.S. high on spam-relaying report.
April 21, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- Asia has the worst record for helping to relay spam, according to a new report from a computer threat solution management firm. Abingdon, U.K.-based company Sophos released a report...

Mobile music a cell-out in India.
April 21, 2006... Byline: INDRAJIT BASU CALCUTTA, India, April 21 (UPI) -- Partly helped by illegitimate downloads and partly because it has become an outright fad, mobile music is set to overtake legal conventional music in India in the next few months....

Nano World: Breath test for breast cancer.
April 21, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, April 21 (UPI) -- Breath tests for breast cancer might arise via pockets only square nanometers or billionths of a meter in size, experts told UPI's Nano World. "If this is successful, this could lead...

Globe Talk: Internet TV coming of age?
April 24, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) -- The jury is still out on whether Internet television is the next best thing in cyberspace or simply a buzzword that will fizzle out. One project that has made full use of Internet...

Networking: Content filtering grows.
April 24, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 24 (UPI) -- A gullible young employee sends out a confidential document -- over the Internet -- that should have been sent only by overnight courier. A spy, hired by a rival firm, snags the file, with...

HGTV growing more broadband.
April 24, 2006... Byline: T.K. MALOY WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) -- Scripps Networks announced Friday the launch of a second comprehensive broadband channel -- the HGTV BathDesign channel. According to the Scripps Network, the channel will be in trial...

Deutsche Telekom welcomes Blackstone stake.
April 24, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) -- It's no longer just the small telecommunications companies that are seeking partners with deep pockets. On Monday German giant Deutsche Telekom announced that U.S. investment group...

Sharp in Japan mobile's top spot.
April 25, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp has overtaken some of its largest domestic rivals in the industry to become the biggest mobile-phone maker in terms of shipments within Japan for...

Google search use up 41 percent from last year.
April 25, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- As Google continues to expand and offer more products, its original function continues to boom. Google search-engine use in March 2006 grew 41 percent from last March's figure,...

Nano World: Nanotubes may unfold proteins.
April 25, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, April 25 (UPI) -- Bottling proteins in nanotubes may cause them to unfold, which may drive researchers exploring nanotubes as drug-delivery vehicles to rethink their strategies, experts told UPI's Nano...

New Windows tool checks for piracy.
April 25, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- In an attempt to curb piracy of its Windows operating system, Microsoft Tuesday put out a tool that checks whether a PC is running a copy of Windows that is fully licensed. If a PC...

The Web: Webcasting a 'viable' secondary market.
April 26, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 26 (UPI) -- The Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Television Group is making a major foray into Internet television -- this spring and summer -- but the aggressive marketing move may be premature, experts are...

Wallop takes on next-gen social networking.
April 26, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- Microsoft hopes to thump competition with its spinoff Wallop, which the company says will bring about the next generation in social networking. Wallop is a spinoff for Microsoft IP...

Nations celebrate International IP Day.
April 26, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- Wednesday marks the International Day of Intellectual Property recognized by the World Intellectual Property Organization. Celebrated on the 26th of April each year since its...

AT&T, TeliaSonera earnings delight.
April 26, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- It may have been tumultuous, but it's been a profitable quarter too for most telecommunications companies on both sides of the Atlantic. On Tuesday U.S. behemoth AT&T announced that...

Nokia's latest mobile dazzle.
April 27, 2006... Byline: MICHELLE ALEXANDRIA WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- Nokia, a company that isn't known for creating slick and sexy phones, has recently released its latest endeavor, the Nokia 6682. Nokia calls it a multimedia computer and not a...

HD DVD titles emerge in marketplace.
April 27, 2006... Byline: CHRIS BARYLICK WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- For the most part, major changes are never planned for. They just happen. This is especially true with technology, the next generation of DVD players and titles having been quietly...

Online data-broker bill passes in House.
April 27, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- In a unanimous vote Tuesday the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4709, the Law Enforcement and Phone Privacy Protection Act of 2006. The bill introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith,...

Net neutrality provision dumped.
April 27, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- Telecom companies won a round in Congress late Wednesday when the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted down the Democratic-backed Net neutrality amendment to a telecom-reform bill in...

Globe Talk: Keeping it simple.
April 28, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, April 28 (UPI) -- Early-childhood education is big business these days, and no age group seems to be spared of being a target of even some of the most high-tech of products, from videos geared at babies who...

Wireless World: Bundled services market 'makeover'.
April 28, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, April 28 (UPI) -- A swift makeover in the communications world is under way, as traditional boundaries that once separated wired and wireless services are fast fading away, leading to a creative new era of...

Nano World: Roadmap for nano-imprinting.
April 28, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, April 28 (UPI) -- Scientists could soon easily fabricate electronics and other structures only nanometers or billionths of a meter in size by stamping them out, following a new strategy that could help...

Interview: Voom HD, cutting edge of tele programming.
April 28, 2006... Byline: MICHELLE ALEXANDRIA WASHINGTON, April 28 (UPI) -- Voom HD is the little network that's trying hard to push high-definition programming to the masses. At one point they were struggling to get channel space, until EchoStar --...

Stake tussle erupts on Hutch India network.
April 28, 2006... Byline: INDRAJIT BASU CALCUTTA, India, April 28 (UPI) -- The two-month-long battle for control at Hutchison-Essar, the Indian cellular venture of the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa Group, increased its tempo this week with Hutchison...