Web

Microsoft Announces New Mouse, Webcams, and Mouse Tech

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Microsoft has been working overtime today. It has officially unveiled a proprietary tracking technology for a computer mouse it calls BlueTrack that promises to combine the width and power of optical mice with the precision of laser mice allowing for tracking on virtually any surface. The technology will debut in the Microsoft Explorer Mouse and Explorer Mini Mouse this fall. The two mice will be available with the full size mouse going for $99.95 and the mini going for $79.95.

Microsoft also officially announced its Wireless Arc mouse that was leaked a few months back. The mouse is a crescent shape and comes in either red or black. The mouse folds down for easier portability when not in use. The wireless mouse uses 2.4GHz technology and has a carry case. The Arc Mouse will ship in September for $59.95. Read more

Posted on Tue, 9 Sep 2008 13:32:34 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

NVIDIA and Opera Team Up for Web Acceleration on Mobiles

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NVIDIA and Opera announced today that the two firms have teamed up to accelerate video on mobile devices. The companies are looking to bring full function web browsing to the mobile market including support for Java, accelerated vector graphics, and video content.

NVIDIA will offer an enhanced version of Opera 9.5 in a suite of applications integrated into the NVIDIA Tegra chip. NVIDIA says the Tegra chip will accelerate 3D and web browsing while conserving battery life. Read more

Posted on Tue, 9 Sep 2008 11:27:03 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Angel Baby 1.3MP Webcam is Strange

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Weird webcams are all over the place these days. The Angel Baby 1.3MP webcam is certainly right up there with some of the odd ones around. The little plastic figurine has a webcam shoved in its mouth.

The camera uses a 1.3 megapixel CMOS sensor and the head rotates in a complete circle for mobility of the camera. Power comes directly from the USB port so no AC adapter is needed. The cam can record at a max of 1280 x 960 at 15 fps. At a lower 320 x 240 resolution the cam can record at 30 fps. Read more

Posted on Tue, 2 Sep 2008 06:18:26 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Google set to introduce its own Web Browser

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By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is set to introduce on Tuesday a new Web browser designed to more quickly handle video-rich or other complex Web programs, posing a challenge to browsers designed originally to handle text and graphics.
Google officials confirmed news of long-rumored plans to offer its own Web browsing software, entitled Google Chrome, in a company blog post after it mistakenly mailed details of the plan to a Google-watching blog, called Blogoscoped.com.
Read more

Posted on Tue, 2 Sep 2008 06:01:07 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Web News Aggregators rise despite papers woes

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By Robert MacMillan

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Local newspapers may be faced with hard times, but the ability to get news on a mobile device is flourishing, with several outlets providing context that helps explain particular stories' places in the larger universe of world events.
The need for this becomes more apparent when you consider the thousands of newspapers, broadcasters, wires, and blogs around the globe. Until recently, few sites tried to make it easier for you to negotiate through the thicket.
Read more

Posted on Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Watching the Olympics Online shows the invisible Borders of the Web

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The Olympic Games 2008 are underway in Beijing and you can actually watch the Olympics online in case you live in the right country.
Like with the movie services which are more and more becoming real alternatives to discs, the Olympic coverage is restricted to the boundaries of countries. If you believe that the web is supposed to link us globally and make us global citizens this country specific rights selling of media is really worrying and annoying me. I want to watch online what I want and not be limited by where my computer is located. Read more

Posted on Sat, 9 Aug 2008 10:33:39 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Brangelina Babies finally unveiled on Web

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The most famous babies on the planet, the latest spawn of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, made their world premiere on the Internet on Sunday, having outfoxed the paparazzi since they were born three weeks ago.
Read more

Posted on Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:53:37 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

IOC ''surprised'' by Games Web Censorship

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By Paul Radford

BEIJING (Reuters) - The media should have been told they would not have total Internet freedom before arriving for the Beijing Olympics, a senior IOC official said on Thursday, as rights groups piled criticism on both the IOC and host China.
Read more

Posted on Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:06:11 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Amazon Mechanical Turk Launches New Web-Based Tools

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Amazon Web Services LLC ("AWS"), a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., today launched a new set of web-based tools for Amazon Mechanical Turk that make it easy for businesses to use Mechanical Turk to outsource work to an on-demand, scalable workforce via a simple graphical interface--in just a few minutes and without writing any code. Read more

Posted on Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:43:09 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

AMD Claims Record Breaking Web server Performance with Quad-core Parts

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Big and popular websites can generate huge amounts of traffic, requiring a high-performance server behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. AMD says that it has set a new record for web server performance by breaking the SPECweb 2005 scores for 2p and 4p server configurations.

AMD says the record setting performance proves that you don't need proprietary hardware that coast a lot to set up a world-class data center for business use. AMD says that the 2p AMD Opteron system scored 30007 in a HP server using Opteron Model 2356 processors. The 4p system scored 43854 using Opteron Model 8356 CPUs. Read more

Posted on Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:16:04 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Private Social Network Facebook to go Web wide

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By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The leader of a youth movement that swept the world this past year by encouraging Web users to share bits of their lives with selected friends, spoke on Wednesday of spreading his service across the Web, even while apologizing for past excesses.
Read more

Posted on Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:17:15 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Web Star famed for silly Dance eyes new Gig: Charity

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By Frederick H. Katayama

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Matt Harding has won cult celebrity status by filming himself dancing badly around the world to the amusement of millions of Internet viewers but now he wants to get serious -- raising money for laptops for the poor.
Read more

Posted on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:01:52 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Web Pioneer Gross revitalized by Green Energy

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By Nichola Groom

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In 1973, when Bill Gross was 15 and cars were lined up at every gas station in Southern California, the aspiring engineer wanted to do something about spiking energy prices.
Read more

Posted on Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:31:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

IPhone UK websites swamped before Friday launch

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LONDON (Reuters) - Apple's new iPhone sold out online in Britain ahead of its Friday launch, defying general consumer gloom as the country's economy threatened to tip over into its first recession in more than a decade.
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Posted on Tue, 8 Jul 2008 21:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Seth MacFarlane partners with Google on Cavalcade Web Cartoon Series

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Google has partnered with Family Guy Creator Seth Macfarlane for a cartoon web series that will be delivered through Google's Adsense advertising network.

According to the NY Times the project is calleld "Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy." Read more

Posted on Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:43:05 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Logitech Introduces Its First Mac Webcam

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Logitech pulled the wraps off its first Mac compatible webcam today that features premium autofocus technology and Carl Zeiss Optics. The camera is called the Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro webcam for Mac. Logitech says that the webcam uses a voice coil for autofocus rather than a stepper motor.

The camera is designed to work with iChat and Skype services on Mac systems. Logitech says focusing is fast and fluid and that the camera can focus on things as close as 10cm to the lens. Focusing occurs in less than 3 seconds. The sensor in the camera is a 2-MP unit and RightLight technology is included as well. Read more

Posted on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:55:58 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Telco CTOs see Web Traffic Growth as Key Challenge

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By Ritsuko Ando

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Chief technology officers of top U.S. phone companies say dealing with growing Internet traffic is a key challenge, as they work on preventing services like video downloading from bogging down the network.
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Posted on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:55:06 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

CBS and Yahoo in Web Video Sharing Deal

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - CBS Corp said on Wednesday it reached a deal to allow its Web videos to be carried by Yahoo Inc , part of a broader plan by the media company to add new outlets for its television shows.
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Posted on Wed, 4 Jun 2008 08:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Panasonic Viera PZ850 web-enabled Plasma 1080p HDTV

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Panasonic announces the web-enabled PZ850 series of VIERA Plasma HDTV to be available at retail beginning in mid-June.

The Panasonic PZ850 features VIERA CAST, which provides access to YouTube, Google’s Picasa Web Album, and Bloomberg directly on the HDTV.
The PZ850 is available in four screen sizes: the 46-inch class TH-46PZ850 (46.0” measured diagonally), the 50-inch class TH-50PZ850 (49.9” measured diagonally), the 58-inch class TH-58PZ850 (58.0” measured diagonally) and the 65-inch class TH-65PZ850 (64.8” measured diagonally). Read more

Posted on Wed, 21 May 2008 11:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Yahoo lets Websites customize how Searches work

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc has introduced a software development tool that lets outside parties create customized views of Yahoo Web search results, the company said on Thursday.
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Posted on Thu, 15 May 2008 12:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Web Start-up unveils Semantic Wikipedia Search Tool

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By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Powerset on Sunday unveiled tools for searching Wikipedia that use conversational phrasing instead of keywords, marking the first step of its challenge to established Web search services such as Google.
Read more