Technology

Wildlife researchers have created the first ever "smart" collar for animals in the wild that is able to track and record their daily patterns in ways never before thought imaginable. Thanks to a series of tests featuring a ten-year-old captive ... female mountain lion, researchers were able to develop a "library of signatures" to identify nearly every kind of animal movement. The collar itself utilizes a combination of global positioning technology and accelerometers to measure the metabolic inner life of the animal when leaping, running or sleeping. The end result, as University of California ... (view more)

Just when it seemed things couldn't get much worse for BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM), the company has been slammed by a massive service outage that has left smartphone users around the world unable to make calls or send text messages. ... Reports suggest BlackBerry users in Europe, the Mid East, South America and Africa have been the hardest-hit by the recent outage. It's estimated that about 10 million Research in Motion customers are affected by the outage, which started early Monday morning, Eastern Standard Time. The problem has prevented BlackBerry users from completing phone ... (view more)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs passed away last Wednesday at the age of 56. Although Jobs had been suffering on-and-off from pancreatic cancer for seven years, the news of his death sent most people -- techies or not -- into a head spin. Virtually every media ... outlet and Apple fan have taken considerable time to remember the popular businessman and innovator. (Source: mercurynews.com ) To get an idea of how important Steve Jobs was to the tech industry, you don't necessarily need to focus on all the nice things said about him by U.S. President Barack Obama or fellow Apple founder Steve Wozniak. Just pay ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced that Windows 8 will allow users to create multiple virtual machines on a single computer. It's a feature that's previously only been available on Microsoft's server version of Windows. The tool, which is referred to as ... Microsoft's "Hyper-V," allows users to make virtual copies of PCs -- all within 1 PC (hence, it's "virtualized"). Virtualization, more importantly, addresses major security issues in that it separates the host hardware (your computer) from the operating system (Windows) and the applications which run within Windows. Run 5, 10, 5,000 ... (view more)

A hardware manufacturer has revealed that applications designed for smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system (OS) will work on PCs running the next edition of Windows. It's believed that this could encourage developers to ... turn their attention to the phone OS. At the moment, there are an estimated 30,000 applications available on smartphones running Windows Phone 7. That may sound a lot, but it's only around one-eighth of the number available on Android phones, and less than one-tenth of those available for Apple's portable devices. Chicken and Egg Situation This ... (view more)

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has launched a legal bid to block a planned merger of cellphone giants AT&T and T-Mobile. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has hinted it may also raise objections. The proposed merger between ... the second- and fourth-largest cellphone networks respectively would create a new market leader, with a combined subscriber base of 130 million overtaking the current number one, Verizon. From the moment the deal was announced, speculation began that regulators would be wary of the "big four" becoming the "big three". Concerns Result in ... (view more)

Many adults avoid regular visits to the dentist -- oftentimes because they're afraid of discovering a cavity, or worse. Having a tooth cavity filled can be time-consuming, costly, and an unpleasant experience. But the fears of many might soon ... subside, as scientists have been working to create a high tech dental gel that makes trips to the dentist virtually painless. The anti-cavity dental gel, developed at the University of Leeds' School of Chemistry, penetrates the microscopic pores of a decaying tooth. The gel actually contains a peptide (called P 11-4) that develops into fibers and acts ... (view more)

The number of organ donors in North America is consistently lower than the number awaiting a donation. Now Organovo, a biotech company based in San Francisco, is attempting to save thousands of lives with their "organ printer" that is supposedly ... able to create artificial blood vessels made entirely from human cells. While it might sound like a wishful, futuristic endeavor, the way an "organ printer" operates is incredible. An Assortment of Printable Cell-Types Instead of dispensing ink (as with a traditional printer) the "organ printer" uses two robotic tips that deposit an ... (view more)

A recently published report from NASA's Planetary Science Division and Pennsylvania State University suggests that poor pollution habits on Earth could not only lead to the destruction of humanity as whole, but may even result in a preemptive strike ... fired by environmentally-friendly alien life forms. (Source: about.com ) The idea of aliens saving the galaxy from polluting humans is certainly a unique perspective. The completed study, entitled "Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis," suggests that aliens might destroy humanity before it ... (view more)