UPI Hi-Tech articles from July 2006

UPI Hi-Tech archives from July 2006

India starts media outsourcing services.
July 3, 2006... Byline: AMBIKA BEHAL NEW DELHI, July 3 (UPI) -- India's barrage into the global service sector continues to extend, most recently to include an offering of media-based services. "We at NDTV...have been thinking for a while about...

Internet promoting pseudo-epidemics?
July 3, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 3 (UPI) -- You see the signs promoting cancer screening nearly everywhere you go these days -- airports, bus stations and online. The ads promote cancer screening as a form of preventive medicine, and...

Cell phones may be as bad as drunk driving.
July 3, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 3 (UPI) -- Some U.S. states have banned drivers from chatting on their cell phones while behind the wheel, at least without using headsets. But according to the latest research findings, it may be...

Apple releases new Mac configuration.
July 5, 2006... WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- Apple introduced Wednesday a new $899 configuration of the 17-inch iMac designed for education customers. Replacing the eMac, it will feature a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, a built-in iSight video camera...

The Web: Niche search tools proliferating.
July 5, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 5 (UPI) -- You're exceptionally bored at work and want to search the Internet for tonight's TV listings to see when the reruns of "Law & Order" are on the Bravo cable network. Typing the name of the...

D.C. aims to go wireless citywide.
July 5, 2006... Byline: ALECIA DARM WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- The spread of wireless access throughout the entire D.C. metro area is under way. The nation's capital has always had the infrastructure for this sort of project but hasn't taken advantage of...

Tech File: HD Radio.
July 5, 2006... Byline: MICHELLE ALEXANDRIA WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- Most radio listeners can't turn on the radio these days without hearing a commercial about this new finagled thing called HD Radio. While the commercials may peak curiosity, they...

Nano World: Nanomagnets in chips, antenna.
July 5, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 5 (UPI) -- Magnetic particles only nanometers or billionths of a meter wide promise to help electronics continue to pack ever closer together for more powerful microchips and other devices, experts...

Indian broadband market could explode.
July 6, 2006... Byline: INDRAJIT BASU CALCUTTA, India, July 6 (UPI) -- The telecom world may still be marveling at India's mobile telephony growth, which at 100 million connections has emerged as the fastest growing in the world, but the other scorching...

New video site will pay content creators.
July 6, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- As YouTube, Google Video and other video Web sites continue to explode in popularity, a lot of content production is being asked of users with nothing in return. Enter Kevin Flynn....

Microsoft backs cross-platform initiative.
July 6, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- Microsoft announced Thursday it will sponsor with its partners an Open Translator project between Microsoft Office Open XML Formats and the Open Document Format (ODF). Pushing document...

Superman scores big on IMAX screens.
July 7, 2006... NEW YORK, July 7 (UPI) -- "Superman Returns: An IMAX 3D Experience" is flying high in the IMAX department. IMAX Corporation and Warner Bros. Pictures announced Friday that of the grossed $108 million made by "Superman Returns" at the...

Wireless World: WiFi now in rural areas.
July 7, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 7 (UPI) -- Just two years ago, wireless fidelity technology was an utterly urban phenomenon. Urbane computer users in the cities frequented coffee houses and Kinko's shops, whenever they were about...

Windows anti-piracy tool causes controversy.
July 7, 2006... Byline: CHRIS BARYLICK WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- When Microsoft released its WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) anti-piracy tool in July of 2005, its goal was to attempt to find a way to track and help reduce the illegal use of its Windows...

Globe Talk: The push for seniors online.
July 7, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- Going online is no longer a choice, but a necessity for those living in highly wired societies. What's more, old age should not be an excuse to be cut off from cyberspace, or so argues the...

Mobile content searches come to Argentina.
July 7, 2006... Byline: LEAH KRAUSS BINYAMINA, Israel, July 7 (UPI) -- Cellular customers in Argentina with a color screen and Internet capabilities can now search for news and sports content on their mobile phones, thanks to a deal between Argentine...

Blinkx to lead in video search engine.
July 10, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- When it comes to video searching on the Net, blinkx is big. Deeming itself the smartest and largest video search engine on the Web, blinkx.tv delivers 4 million hours of searchable...

Nano World: Nano replacement for petroleum.
July 10, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 10 (UPI) -- The petroleum used to make adhesives, coatings and in the future, inks and even plastics, could get replaced with nanoparticles of sugar and starch, experts told UPI's Nano World. The...

Networking: Consumers eying home networks.
July 10, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 10 (UPI) -- New research indicates that demand for home networks -- to connect home theaters, security cameras, home lighting systems, and the like -- is increasing rapidly, even though the percentage...

Push for free mobile broadband on the rise.
July 10, 2006... Byline: GEORGINA VOSS LONDON, July 10 (UPI) -- As some cities go out of their way to provide free wireless broadband, telecommunications operators should stop opposing government-sponsored municipal wireless access, a recent report from...

Greek information society expanding.
July 10, 2006... Byline: T.K. MALOY WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- Greece is known for many things -- its sun-kissed islands, lively Athens, and as the birthplace of democracy -- but its latest reputation may become its quick climb up the...

Women's mobile gaming love not enough.
July 10, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- No longer just the domain of teenage boys, video games lead to big profits for many companies, and manufacturers of mobile game players are no exception. In fact, more women are playing...

Touch-screen tech coming to cellphones.
July 11, 2006... Byline: GEORGINA VOSS LONDON, July 11 (UPI) -- Still getting excited about being able to send an e-mail from your cell phone? That's so 2005. The life cycle of cell-phone thrills is getting shorter and shorter as users become more blase...

War for talent in Indian IT goes on.
July 11, 2006... Byline: INDRAJIT BASU CALCUTTA, India, July 11 (UPI) -- The increasing global IT spending and the trend towards outsourcing may have triggered ambitious expansion plans of big local as well as multinational IT companies in India, but their...

Alcatel battered by Lucent's poor results.
July 11, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- Sometimes marriage can make a couple stronger than they could be on their own, while some unions end up being destructive for both parties. In the case of Alcatel tying the knot with Lucent...

Satellite debacle hits India's DTH plans.
July 11, 2006... Byline: INDRAJIT BASU CALCUTTA, India, July 11 (UPI) -- The failure of the launch of the Indian Space Research Organization's communications satellite INSAT-4C that was made to explode since it veered off course soon after launch Monday...

Disney puts together 'Pirates' online game.
July 12, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- Disney has a long history of taking popular films and extending their long-term value by creating rides and theme-park attractions based on the films. They hope to take that...

HCL: Indian tech innovators.
July 12, 2006... Byline: AMBIKA BEHAL NEW DELHI, July 12 (UPI) -- Calling itself "the original garage IT start-up," HCL Enterprise was started more than 30 years ago in Noida, now a boom town adjacent to the country's capital of New Delhi. With annual...

The Web: Net neutrality discriminatory?
July 12, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 12 (UPI) -- The idea of Net neutrality sounds fair in the abstract, but experts are telling UPI's The Web column the policy proposals emanating from Congress and the federal bureaucracy may actually be...

Infosys lifts Bombay from bomb shock.
July 12, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- Even as Bombayites struggle to get back to their normal lives following Tuesday's terrorist bombings, the country's stock market is raring to go as it quickly shook off the tragedy, thanks...

House passes anti-online-gambling bill.
July 12, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- The House of Representatives Tuesday voted to pass a bill aimed at curbing online gambling, but there is already concern that the legislation is long on tough talk and short on real...

Emergency alert system goes digital.
July 13, 2006... Byline: LISA CHUN WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- The Association of Public Television Stations, together with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, launched a digital emergency alert system that would supplement the existing emergency...

Internet risks too big for bill.
July 13, 2006... Byline: MICHAEL MCLAUGHLIN WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- Legislation designed to protect children from Internet predators could actually widen the digital divide without significantly reducing the exposure of young people to dangerous...

Nano World: Painted-on electronics.
July 13, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 13 (UPI) -- The first electronics painted on with liquids to outperform their conventional electronic counterparts are made possible via crystals only nanometers or billionths of a meter in diameter....

Snags remain with Internet calling.
July 13, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- Making phone calls over the Internet is cheap or simply free and getting ever more convenient, so it's hardly surprising that the number of Voice over Internet Protocol fans continues to...

The case for heating up a chip race.
July 13, 2006... Byline: SARA GORECKI WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- The United States needs to bolster its capacity to manufacturer and develop cutting-edge semiconductors not just for economic reasons, but for national-security purposes as well, or so...

Globe Talk: Appetite not always profitable.
July 14, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- Competition usually means more choices and cheaper prices for customers, but for companies, it can mean a hard slog ahead even at the best of times. So while mobile-phone manufacturers...

Internet TV more accessible in U.S.
July 14, 2006... Byline: LEAH KRAUSS Customers of one of the United States' three largest telecommunications service providers will now have access to high-quality Internet Protocol television services, following a deal signed this week by the service...

Smart cars to rule the roads.
July 14, 2006... Byline: GEORGINA VOSS LONDON, July 14 (UPI) -- It's been more than 20 years since Knight Rider hit the airwaves, but the next generation of KITT-style cars may be seen on freeways very soon. The next generation of autonomous "smart cars"...

Wireless World: A looming 'cell hell'.
July 14, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 14 (UPI) -- You may have left it in the back seat of the cab. Or in the booth at the restaurant at lunch. Or even at your client's office. Whatever the case may be, it is likely that you lost your...

Handsets tapping into MP3 market.
July 14, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- Mobile music phones charging onto the music scene could put a dent into the MP3 player market, taking steam away from industry giants Apple and Microsoft. Already, many consumers are...

Nano World: Acid sensors for cells.
July 17, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 17 (UPI) -- Scientists have devised the first sensors only nanometers or billionths of a meter long that can detect how acidic the environment around them is, experts told UPI's Nano World. These...

Networking: Downloading movies a hit.
July 17, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 17 (UPI) -- Consumer spending on mobile networking applications -- mobile search, movie downloads and other innovative applications -- surged in the United States and overseas during the just-completed...

Video site creates 'shows' of user content.
July 17, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, July 17 (UPI) -- As online video sites have exploded in popularity, many have been left wondering if a successful business model will emerge. Pay-for-content and putting commercials in the videos have...

High spam levels choke business broadband.
July 18, 2006... Byline: LEAH KRAUSS Businesses experiencing long delays in receiving and sending e-mail messages may have an unexpected culprit to blame: spam. The main reason spam, or junk e-mail, can take such a heavy toll on bandwidth is that the...

Microsoft announces alliances, lawsuits.
July 18, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Microsoft and XenSource said Tuesday they will collaborate to develop technology for interoperability between Xen-enabled Linux and Microsoft's new Windows hypervisor technology-based...

India clamps down on bloggers, cell users.
July 18, 2006... Byline: INDRAJIT BASU CALCUTTA, India, July 18 (UPI) -- In a knee-jerk reaction to the recent terror-related blasts in India, the government is stepping up control on the online community that according to the country's telecom regulator,...

Firm: Flash memory has great potential.
July 19, 2006... SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 19 (UPI) -- Just one day after admitting the company earned $18 million less than first reported, M-Systems released survey results Wednesday that show a growing market. The flash memory maker said the survey of...

The Web: Indian tech M&As growing.
July 19, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 19 (UPI) -- Indian technology companies are no longer just taking computer-related projects -- Web development, software coding and IT drudge work -- from their U.S. and European counterparts as...

Nano World: Nano risk blueprint proposed.
July 19, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 19 (UPI) -- Instead of a general call for more federal research into the risks of nanotechnology, a new strategy proposes a move beyond to recommend how these investigations should get prioritized and...

Tech File: Sony's Playstation Portable.
July 19, 2006... Byline: MICHELLE ALEXANDRIA WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- Tech File caught up with Peter Dille, senior vice present of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., to grill him about the future of Sony's portable multimedia device...

Intel to debut Core 2 Duo chips in August.
July 19, 2006... Byline: CHRIS BARYLICK WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- Despite the inevitable complaints and grumbling from some quarters, change is a necessary thing -- especially in the microprocessor industry. This August, Intel will release the Intel...

Internet businesses promote Net neutrality.
July 19, 2006... Byline: ALECIA DARM WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- Internet businesses are expressing concern over the government's lack of interest in Net neutrality. With the Telecommunications Act under way, these businesses and the public in general are...

Youth are best judges of cellular content.
July 20, 2006... Byline: LEAH KRAUSS BINYAMINA, Israel, July 20 (UPI) -- Downloading cellular content like ringtones, games and wallpaper is getting easier, and for that you have a Swedish 15-year-old to thank. The young Swede, Tobias, is part of "the...

A year later, still no cybersecurity czar.
July 20, 2006... Byline: ELLIOT SMILOWITZ WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Just over a year after the Department of Homeland Security announced it would create a position for a cybersecurity czar, the Cyber Security Industry Alliance is lobbying for DHS to...

More bloggers get more personal.
July 20, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Elly is: in the city...engaged... the boss... active... girly... friendly... slightly sarcastic... interested... a writer... a reader... proficient. That's in part how Buffalo,...

Wireless World: PDA makers eye small firms.
July 21, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 21 (UPI) -- Christopher Bennett started two small businesses this year and recently made the executive decision to drop the BlackBerry wireless device he had been using to communicate with his clients...

Podcasts gainning on radio's heels.
July 21, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 21 (UPI) -- Kopper, host of weekly rock 'n' roll show "The Wayback Machine" at KDHX-FM 88.1 in St. Louis, Mo., is also the owner of GaragePunk.com, which features a slew of syndicated podcasts updated...

Nano World: Chemical sensing transistors.
July 21, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 21 (UPI) -- Hybrid transistors using stacks of organic molecules for wires and carbon nanotubes as electrodes could serve as ultrasensitive sensors for explosives and other compounds, experts told...

Nano World: Composites with nano-graphite.
July 24, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 24 (UPI) -- Strong, lightweight plastic-like composites made with highly electrically conductive sheets of carbon just one atom thick could find use in electronics and protect aircraft from lightning...

Networking: Protecting your MP3s.
July 24, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 24 (UPI) -- You probably have a lot of MP3 files -- like the smash hit "Crazy" by the U.K.'s Gnarls Barkley -- on your PC. Maybe some oldies too, and a lot of other computer files, with extensions like...

Analysis: High hopes for AMD's ATI buyout.
July 24, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- Intel still dominates the chip market, but Advanced Micro Devices is slowly trying to chip at the monolith's dominance, with some success. What's more, AMD's latest decision to buy out a...

Cellphone 'bells and whistles' confusing.
July 24, 2006... Byline: GEORGINA VOSS LONDON, July 24 (UPI) -- It used to be the case that only the die-hard Luddites scorned cell phones, preferring something simpler and less technological to stay in contact. Now, according to a recent report from Neena...

New search engine to track down viruses.
July 25, 2006... Byline: GEORGINA VOSS LONDON, July 25 (UPI) -- The hundreds of thousands of computer users whose PCs have been torn asunder by viruses could now have a new weapon in their arsenal against online attacks. A new search engine has been...

Pajamas Media on the live edge.
July 25, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- "Live from an Israeli Bunker"... it's Eugene. Who? Seventeen-year-old Eugene, blogging at www.israelibunker.blogspot.com from a bunker in Haifa, is one of several bloggers...

Vodafone's CEO survives -- for now.
July 25, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Vodafone hasn't shied away from making its grievances over personnel matters very public, but the world's biggest mobile carrier group Tuesday continued to air its dirty laundry out in the...

For FTC, e-commerce means managing 'mice'.
July 25, 2006... Byline: DAVID GRANT WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Only on the Internet could a site hawking dancing hamster animations, accompanied by hamster-sung harmonies, be paid advertising royalties from corporate giants like Wal-Mart and American...

The Web: Designing like an expert online.
July 26, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 26 (UPI) -- Design and graphics software used to be targeted solely at commercial art professionals -- creative directors at ad agencies and magazine production editors. And, perhaps, rightly so. But...

'Long Tail' of music comes to cell phones.
July 26, 2006... Byline: LEAH KRAUSS HERZLIYA, Israel, July 26 (UPI) -- Lots of people would download music to their phones, if they could find something other than Gnarls Barkley, according to one mobile download infrastructure firm. The proof of this...

Nano World: Nano helps keep cells alive.
July 26, 2006... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 26 (UPI) -- Encasing living cells in networks of silica and fatty layers only nanometers or billionths of a meter in size could help keep them alive longer for use in novel chemical factories or...

Analysis: Big appetite paying off for AT&T.
July 26, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 26 (UPI) -- Marriage seems to suit AT&T, if the latest earnings results from the telecommunications giant are any indication. Since it was bought out by SBC in November 2005, AT&T has seen its...

Online travel sites' report released.
July 27, 2006... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- While Travelocity had the highest sponsored click-through rate for April 2006 among the most-visited online travel agencies, according to a recent report from comScore Media Metrix, Orbitz...

'Paint-on' antennas help communications.
July 27, 2006... Byline: GEORGINA VOSS LONDON, July 27 (UPI) -- The next generation of high-altitude airships may be arriving sooner than the boffins predicted, and all due to the wonders of -- paint? Yes, researchers at RTI International, based in...

Wireless World: Aisle displays for shoppers.
July 28, 2006... Byline: GENE KOPROWSKI CHICAGO, July 28 (UPI) -- Wireless retailing is growing beyond mere point-of-sale service and inventory management, as new displays are coming to market that interact directly with customers in the shopping aisles,...

Globe Talk: Broadband holds carriers' key.
July 28, 2006... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI) -- It used to be that charges made for phone calls were what could make or break a telecommunications company. But gone are the days when simply encouraging people to talk longer and more...