Technology

Adobe, Inc. is dropping most restrictions on the use of its Flash technology on mobile devices. The firm hopes the move will help boost the technology's appeal on cellphones, handheld PCs and set-top television boxes. Flash, which allows developers ... to produce interactive content and animations that appear the same way on all computers, is already widely popular on the web: around 98% of desktop computers with an Internet connection have the software installed. There's already a cut-down edition called Flash Lite for mobile devices, but licensing restrictions mean the full-scale Flash software ... (view more)

If you are a Microsoft Outlook user and let your emails build up by the dozens (like me), going back to locate an important message in a sea of junk mail can be an arduous task. Even if you are meticulous about storing and filing your emails, saving ... hundreds of "important" messages and having to locate a specific one can have the same effect. Xobni is here to help. Xobni -- "inbox" spelled backwards -- is a small Internet start-up company based in San Francisco and is introducing a new application that works together with Outlook to give users a better emailing experience. The software ... (view more)

For more than half a century, digital electronic devices have been based on a binary paradigm -- that is, electronic switching of a signal either 'on' (1) or 'off' (0). Everything we know about computing is based on this simple concept. Now that's ... about to change. As first reported this week by our own John Lister , scientists at Hewlett-Packard's Information and Quantum Systems Lab have discovered a new type of electrical resistor: one that has memory properties. The so-called "memristor" exploits the curious memory-like properties of a thin coat of titanium dioxide when a current is passed ... (view more)

Hewlett Packard has uncovered a new form of electrical circuit which could allow them to make even smaller memory chips that consume less power than existing chips. The discovery could allow cell phones to run for weeks on a single charge, or give ... PCs the chance to start-up in an instant. Though the chips would be smaller, they will be able to store information once the power is turned off, similar to the Flash system used in camera memory cards or USB sticks. The advancement is tied to the way an electrical circuit works. Scientists have always known a circuit involves three basic components ... (view more)

Microsoft has reportedly developed a small plug-in device that can be used by investigators to quickly extract forensic data from computers that may have been used in crimes. The Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) is a USB "thumb ... drive" that Microsoft quietly distributed to a handful of law-enforcement agencies last June. The COFEE device contains 150 commands that dramatically cut the time it takes to gather digital evidence. It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer's Internet activity and data stored in the computer. COFEE lets the investigator scan for evidence on ... (view more)

Indian auction centers have been peddling tea the old fashioned way since 1861, selling it in crowded halls filled with traders and auctioneers. A good auctioneer can usually sell up to three lots in one minute, making tea trading a quick, but ... time-consuming process. But low tea prices, high government sanctions, and evolving times have led to online trading becoming an acceptable medium in India. The high-tech shift is much more economy-driven than it is fashionable. Electronic trading promises fairer prices and lower transaction costs for farmers. (Source: nytimes.com ) The advantage of ... (view more)

Microsoft has joined the revolution, creating their own version of a data storage and web software system called "Live Mesh". Microsoft aims to further blur the distinction between software running on the Windows operating system and a number of ... other services that will be offered to all sorts of present and future electronic devices. Located through a web browser, Live Mesh will not be so much an online operating system as it will be a control page for document files. What is unique about the documents stored on Live Mesh is that they will have no specific location, allowing them to be sent ... (view more)

Wonder what it takes to win a high school world robotics competition? A St. Catherine's, Ontario, Canada team recently found out, awarded first prize for the construction of a robot capable of moving while aiming oversized balls at a target. The ... competition was held last weekend in Atlanta, Georgia and featured representation from an astounding eight countries totalling 344 teams (including a number of prominent U.S. high schools). However, it was the 25-member Canadian team from Governor Simcoe Secondary School in St. Catherines that captured the judges and the crowd with its 'Simbotics' ... (view more)

It appears Apple will sell an unlocked edition of the iPhone in Italy, which raises the question of whether the company will adopt a similar policy elsewhere in the world. An unlocked phone is one that will work with any telephone carrier. So far, ... Apple has always sold the phone in a locked state. For example, in the United States it only works on the AT ... (view more)

Remember those annoying TV interruptions testing the Emergency Broadcast System? Well, now federal regulators have approved a plan that would make your cell phone part of the emergency alert system by allowing blanket text messages to be sent to all ... cell subscribers within a given geographic area. Although cellular customers would be allowed to "opt-out" of the plan, the Warning Alert and Response Network Act of 2006 required the FCC to upgrade the ways the public can be alerted about emergencies. With more than 200 million cell phones in use in the U.S., and with texting becoming more ... (view more)