Technology

Recently, well-known analysts The Nielson Company asked nearly 15,000 Americans which mobile operating system they were currently using. Although several leading platforms scored very well, Google's Android narrowly took first place. The Nielson ... Company polled 14,701 Americans, asking each participant (who was also a postpaid mobile subscriber) what mobile OS was running on their primary smartphones. The race was a close one: 29 per cent reported using an Android-based device, 27 per cent said they use an (Apple) iOS phone, and another 27 per cent said they own a RIM (Reasearch in Motion) ... (view more)

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed new technology that is set to revolutionize the ways in which we manipulate certain handheld devices, by transforming the human body into an actual touchscreen platform. Skinput, the name given ... to the wireless device, allows an individual to push a few holographic buttons on their arm or hand to control their mobile phone, MP3 player and even certain video game consoles. The technology was first developed by Chris Harrison at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with Desney Tan and Dan Morris at Microsoft Research Computational ... (view more)

Do you watch Jeopardy!? For those unfamiliar, Jeopardy! is "a North American quiz show featuring trivia in history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science, sports, geography, wordplay, and more. The show has a unique answer-and-question format ... in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form." (Source: wikipedia.org ) Recently, IBM's Watson super computer brain was able to defeat two of Jeopardy's most acclaimed game show champions. One of the human champions won Jeopardy! a mind-blowing 74 times in a row, ... (view more)

A pair of Georgia-based scientists have engineered a hand-held device containing parasitic wasps able to do the work of drug-sniffing police dogs and bomb-testing robots. However, the wasps' most interesting feature may be their ability to sniff out ... bedbugs. The "Wasp Hound" is the brainchild of researchers Glen C. Rains and W. Joe Lewis, who, along with associate J.H. Tumlinson back in 1988 published a report that suggested wasps, like dogs, could be used to detect certain targets. Since then, Mr. Lewis made it a personal crusade to develop working prototypes that support his radical ... (view more)

In the end, the battle between man and machine wasn't much of a battle at all -- Watson, the IBM supercomputer specially engineered to squash humans at trivia, earlier this week easily defeated the game show Jeopardy!'s two most prolific players, ... Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Now, the question becomes: what's next for IBM's Watson? Earlier this week the long-running and very popular trivia TV show Jeopardy! switched things up by replacing one of its human competitors with a computer built by IBM. There were three intense days of competition between Watson, Jennings and Rutter (the two human ... (view more)

A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may ... vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or people to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root name ... (view more)

When Microsoft first announced it had discovered a third party was responsible for mysterious data use on some Windows Phone 7 handsets, it didn't confirm rumors that Yahoo was to blame. Now, it's firmly pointing the finger at Yahoo -- which is in ... turn passing the blame back to Microsoft. The problem emerged last month when some users noticed particularly high levels of data use even when their phones weren't being used. That led to complaints that some users risked unintentionally going over monthly data limits and facing blocks or excess use fees. Microsoft later said that the problem ... (view more)

The long-running trivia show "Jeopardy!" is trying a new tactic to woo viewers -- replacing human players with computers. Well, sort of. Starting on Monday, February 14th, two particularly dominant former human champions will take on a computer ... specially engineered by IBM to rival the way a human answers trivia questions. It's the game show version of The Terminator. Jeopardy! Winner Racks up $3M in Prizes, Wins 74 Shows NonStop Ken Jennings is perhaps the most memorable Jeopardy! player ever, setting show records back in 2004 when he won an incredible 74 games in a row. During his run, ... (view more)

A Massachusetts-based research and development facility has created a detection prototype that could determine the driving abilities of someone wishing to operate a motor vehicle after consuming alcohol. While a number of similar systems already ... exist (such as those requiring an individual to blow into a breath-testing device before the automobile can operate), the new system would use cutting-edge, sensory technology never before added to a motor vehicle. Wheel, Door Lock Sensors Measure Blood Alcohol Level The new approach, called "The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety", uses ... (view more)

Google has unveiled two new tools for its Android phone system. One is genuinely useful while the other appears to be an impressive gimmick. The first tool is an extension to the existing Google Translate feature. As well as offering traditional ... translation services, the phones could recognize voices and offer a translation of spoken words. However, as with most automated translation tools and traditional phrasebooks, this was limited in conversations with foreign speakers. That's now been solved by the introduction of a conversation mode. For example: a Spanish user can speak into the phone ... (view more)