InsideTech

Q. The other day, my Internet service went down as it does from time to time. But this particular time, I needed to check my e-mail for an important reply I was expecting. After some frustrating time passed, I happened to notice that there was a Wi-Fi signal available. I have no idea to whom the service belonged but I suspected ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Power-hungry TVs will be banned from store shelves in California after state regulators Wednesday adopted a first-in-the-nation mandate to reduce electricity demand. On a unanimous vote, the California Energy Commission required all new televisions up to 58 inches to be more energy efficient, beginning in 2011. The requirement will be tougher in 2013, with only a quarter ...

SAN FRANCISCO - Scientists say they've made a breakthrough in their pursuit of computers that "think" like a living thing's brain - an effort that tests the limits of technology. Even the world's most powerful supercomputers can't replicate basic aspects of the human mind. The machines can't imagine a wall painted a different color, for instance, or picture a person's ...

Intel is suing NVIDIA in an effort to get them dropped from chipset licensing on Nehalem boards.  NVIDIA has filed countersuit against Intel.  NVIDIA has even gone as far as to sponsor cartoons lampooning Intel. NVIDIA particularly enraged Intel when it convinced Apple to dump Intel's integrated graphics from its product lineup in favor of NVIDIA designs.   Intel vows it ...

Just about all of the gadgets that we take for granted each day from cameras to our notebooks and mobile phones use lithium-ion batteries. These batteries have been around for many years and for the most part are trouble free. However, last year and in 2007 a number of fires and explosions caused  by overheating lithium-ion batteries resulted in some of ...

Most every computer user is a whiz at pointing and clicking with a mouse. If Microsoft has a say, you'll become equally adept at touching and tapping the PC screen directly with your fingers. As part of the company's recent launch of Windows 7, the vastly improved successor to Windows Vista, Microsoft hopes to usher in a new era for ...

Nowadays, computing has entered the portable world. Nearly everyone has an access to a laptop or a netbook. Of course, more often than not, that portability comes at a cost of lesser features than their desktop counterparts. One way to make up for this is through the purchase and use of the various laptop accessories that are available all over. ...

A new company called Cranberry is claiming it can build a DVD that will last one thousand years. Cranberry's transparent DiamonDisc, with a non-reflective layer, has already passed key tests using the ECMA-379 temperature and humidity standards. Regular DVDs use dyes, adhesive layers, or reflective materials (like silver and gold) that can deteriorate over time. The DiamonDisc stores the standard 4.7GB ...

SEATTLE - Dell Inc. is officially jumping into the "smart" phone market this month in a deal with China's biggest wireless carrier, China Mobile Ltd. The Dell Mini 3, a keyboardless touch-screen phone that runs Google Inc.'s Android operating system, will also be available in Brazil later this year. The computer maker, based in Round Rock, Texas, would not say ...

LONDON - Rogue employees at a major mobile phone company illegally sold millions of customer records to rival firms, Britain's information watchdog said Tuesday. Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, said the case was a serious breach of data privacy, and he called for harsher punishments for offenders. "The existing paltry fines ... are simply not enough to deter people from engaging ...

Emo Labs is presenting an Edge Motion speaker system that is embedded into a flat panel display product that produces sound from the surface of the display.  It can be embedded into TV's, Monitors, Picture Frames and portible devices.  Their own web site has more videos and information on the speaker system.  http://www.emolabs.com/ The will not be selling direct to consumers ...

Chief Engineer Andrew Farah and Battery Engineering Group Manager Bill Wallace recently gave members of the press an update on the status of the 2011 Chevy Volt and its battery pack.  Designed with the goal of providing a 40 mile range from a 16 kWh (8 kWh usable) charge, the pack and its supporting systems have evolved greatly over the past ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The most power-hungry television sets could soon be banned from store shelves in California as state energy regulators on Wednesday consider a first-in-the nation mandate intended to lower electricity demand. If adopted, the regulations will require televisions sold in California to be more energy efficient beginning in 2011. The requirement would be tougher in 2013, with only ...

AT&T's Christmas wish to take its main competitor's aggressive ads off the air has been met with disappointment. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Batten Sr. handed the telecom a lump of coal, denying their request for an injunction, commenting that while Verizon's commercials were "sneaky" they weren't misleading. Judge Batten Sr. commented that people might "misunderstand" the commercials, "but that doesn’t ...

TOKYO - Sony said it aims to be profitable in gaming and flat-panel TVs by the fiscal year ending March 2011, pushing 3-D technology as a way to showcase its strength in entertainment and surface from deep losses. "Our work is already bearing fruit," Chief Executive Howard Stringer said Thursday in outlining Sony's turnaround strategy at the electronics giant's Tokyo headquarters. ...

NVIDIA and Intel, two of the electronics industry's largest veteran powers, have never been too warm or close.  Recently, the pair can't seem to stop stepping on each other's toes.  The pair's troubles started last year with NVIDIA releasing its Ion integrated graphics platform, which NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang likened to opening a "can of whoop-ass".  Intel was not too happy ...

Apple has long opted for a system of closed computer hardware, disallowing third party OS X computers.  Nonetheless, small companies retailing cheaper OS X boxes have continually popped up, the latest of which is Psystar.  Legal pressure from Apple has typically succeeded in eventually killing such companies, but it typically isn't long before a new one pops up. Individual users also ...

Nov. 16 - Ever wonder how much Google knows about you? If you have a Gmail account, watch videos on YouTube, store presentations on Google Docs or make calls through Google Voice, it's no wonder. The first Web site on this month's Seven Sites list may not put your mind at ease, but it will enlighten you. 1. www.google.com/dashboard: I ...

Research In Motion Security Chief Scott Totzke recently said there is a chance smartphones could one day be hijacked and turned into rogue phones on a much larger scale than what is being discovered now. Totzke, who is RIM's VP of BlackBerry Security, claims summer DDos attacks against South Korea and the United States, reportedly led by North Korea, could also ...

SAN FRANCISCO - Some of the computer industry's biggest players - such as IBM Corp., Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. - have wowed Wall Street this fall with stronger-than-expected profits. Dell Inc. didn't join them Thursday. The company reported a 54 percent drop in net income and a 15 percent decline in revenue in its latest quarter, both steeper than ...