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Safety tips for travelers' protections
2008-05-30 20:45:00 BOSTON - If you're traveling overseas, try to leave your computer at home. If you must have it, put only a few files on it and leave as many as possible behind. Encrypt the files you do bring.These are some of the steps that computer security analysts advise for international travelers anxious to avoid being the victim of data espionage. The AP reported Thursday that U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez.Such incidents illustrate the care that business executives or government officials should take when they travel to places where rivals might try to filch vital trade secrets or sensitive information. Dangers exist even if travelers keep their laptops closely held the whole time but connect to Internet networks abroad."Unlike several years ago, people are traveling with the entire contents of their office in their briefcase and pluggi... More About: News , Safety , Tips
Mozilla Aims For Firefox 3.0 Download Record
2008-05-30 20:43:00 For the upcoming release of Firefox 3, Mozilla aims to set a new world record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours.The company has put out a call to its global community of users to pledge to download the new 3.0 version of Firefox on the day the browser is made available to the public.Given that there's no established Guinness World Record for software downloads, Mozilla is destined for the record book no matter what happens. A Mozilla spokesperson said the company is working with the Guinness Book Of World Records to verify the record attempt and will be furnishing 10% of the company's download logs for an extrapolated final download count.Justin Fitzhugh, director of IT for Mozilla, is confident that Mozilla will be able to handle the bandwidth surge, which he said is likely to be a fraction of the load Mozilla bears when it releases automated browser updates to its installed base of users. "We've scaled for this already," he said, noting that in addition t... More About: News , Download , Firefox 3
India, Brazil next to take issue with Open XML
2008-05-30 20:41:00 After South Africa voiced its objections to how the Open XML standards ratification proceedings were conducted, the standards bodies of both India and Brazil are registering similar complaints.The IEC has confirmed that it received two additional appeals from India and Brazil before the deadline. A fourth country is said to have considered filing an appeal, but the standards body has not confirmed this, and declined to say how many appeals it had received.It should be noted that the deadline was actually last night, and not Saturday as originally reported by BetaNews : there was some confusion both among the standardization bodies and in the media over when the appeals needed to be received. Thus, some say additional appeals could arrive late: it is not clear whether or not they will be accepted, however."At the [ballot resolution meeting], the Brazilian delegation was not allowed to present an important proposal regarding the legacy binary mapping," reads an important paragraph from... More About: Issue
Google clicks up 20 per cent ? and another lawsuit looms
2008-05-30 20:39:00 Google's paid clicks are up 20 per cent on last year, according to comScore, the international web data company.But the search engine is being sued for ?49m (£38m) in past damages by Copiepresse, a company made up of several Belgian newspaper publishers, for the way it publishes aggregated news.The problem is not Google as a search engine, but the way the news content is stored and published."The newspaper publishers, members of Copiepresse, give free access to their internet sites for normal use. They never had any problem with the search engines as such," said Margaret Boribon, secretary general of Copiepresse.Google is also facing a $1bn (£500m) lawsuit from US media conglomerate Viacom over copyright infringement through YouTube. More About: Google , Lawsuit , Cent , Clicks
AT&T shows thinking on new iPhone subsidy
2008-05-24 16:50:00 AT&T (T) laid out the case for a subsidy that would lower the price for consumers to buy the next iteration of Apple?s (AAPL) iPhone.Speaking to Reuters at a tech conference in New York Thursday, AT&T CFO Rick Lindner acknowledged that the phone has not yet been unveiled and neither has the pricing. But speaking more generally, Lindner said subsidies or promotional discounts on phone prices are a common element even in smartphone sales like Research in Motion?s (RIMM) BlackBerry phones.The buzz is growing ahead of Apple?s debut of the sleeker 3G iPhone, expected during the company?s worldwide developers conference starting June 9. The iPhone is expected to go on sale on the anniversary of the original iPhone introduction on the last weekend of June. As Fortune first reported, AT&T - the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier - has plans to sell the new iPhone for about $200 by subsidizing about $200 of the customers? cost of the phone.AT&T came a step closer to confirming the move as Lindner... More About: News , Iphone , Thinking
Microsoft?s Zune Gets The Boot From GameStop
2008-05-24 16:50:00 GameStop has decided to stop selling the Microsoft ?s iPod killer, Zune , due to its poor performance in terms of sales.Last year Microsoft has announced that its Zune has sold one million in just six months after the launch, but since then it seems like the sales have slowed down considerably. It took almost a year for Zune to reach its second million of units sold.Late last year, Microsoft has revamped its Zune lineup by introducing new models and a brief period it seemed like the company had found its way to success.In November 2007 the 80 GB version of Zune media player ranked as the No. 1 bestseller in Amazon?s list of top-selling MP3 players and it was a sold-out at various retailers in the US such as Best Buy or Circuit City.However, Zune failed to be a match the iPod sales. According to the latest financial results announced by Apple in the second quarter of 2008 the company sold 10,644,000 iPods. Despite GameStop?s decision, Microsoft seems to be determined to stand by its Z... More About: News , Boot
Adobe Unveils Flash Player 10, 3-D Features
2008-05-18 20:23:00 Adobe unveiled the latest version of its Flash Player browser plug-in Thursday, pushing a series of new graphical features such as 3-D animated effects with a beta version of Flash Player 10 in an effort to stay ahead of increasing competition.The new Flash Player, which has no set final release date, has several new features Adobe hopes will help maintain the plug-in's dominance -- its penetration is more than 98% -- among an ever-expanding group of competitive rich Internet application platforms and development methodologies, including Microsoft Silverlight, Ajax, and Sun's forthcoming JavaFX. "Adobe has a long track record of creating technologies that influence market direction, and we believe this beta release of Adobe Flash Player 10 raises the bar once again," David Wadhwani, general manager and VP of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe, said in a statement.Significantly, Adobe added support for three-dimensional animated effects. Graphical objects can be rotated or manipul... More About: News , Adobe , Features
Google Maps Could Cross EU Privacy Laws
2008-05-18 20:21:00 Global search engine colossus Google has been warned by the EU data protection chief that the "Street View" feature on its Google Maps service could run up against European privacy laws if it launches in EU countries.Street View allows users of Google's online map service to have a full-colour, 360-degree look around city streets. Users can digitally walk up and down the virtual street, which is built from composites of photographs taken by roaming Google cars with roof-mounted cameras.Peter Hustinx, the EU data protection supervisor, told reporters while presenting his annual data protection report on Thursday (15 May) that if Google launched such a feature in Europe, the company would first have to comply with European privacy legislation, which in many member states is stricter than in the United States."I would encourage Google to think about how to do this," Mr Hustinx said, AP reports. "Making pictures on the street is in many cases not a problem, but making pictures everywhe... More About: News , Laws , Cross , Privacy
Xbox 360 Outsells Original Xbox
2008-05-18 20:21:00 According to official NPD data, which tracks North American console sales, the Xbox 360 took 30 months to reach the 10 million units sold milestone, 20 percent faster than the original Xbox, which didn't achieve the same mark until month 36.While an improvement, the mild increase casts doubt on Microsoft's assertion last week in which Xbox vice president Don Mattrick said: "History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle."Assuming the Xbox 360 maintains its 20% sales margin over its predecessor, taking into consideration steady global sales, the 360 will go on to sell 28.8 million worldwide units over a four-and-a-half-year life span.If current sales velocity and history are to be believed, the projected life-to-date sales of Xbox 360 would be a far cry from the 125 million-selling PlayStation 2, which "won" the last generation battle, and the Nintendo Wii, which has sold 24 million units worldwide in only 18 months, this... More About: News , Original
Free Conference Call
2008-05-18 20:15:00 Foonz a group calling service once reputed for providing free international calls unveiled a cheap ?conference call like? service using VoIP More About: News , Free , Call , Conference Call , Conference
Cheap Auto Insurance
2008-05-18 20:14:00 Getting an automobile insurance quote used to be a lot more complicated than it is today. At one time, you either had to visit several company offices to speak with insurance agents, or spend the day on the telephone calling around to various insurance companies inquiring about quotes.Nowadays, we are fortunate enough to have the Internet, and we can go on the web and visit the insurance companies in order to get an online quote easily and quickly. That gives us two choices for obtaining an auto insurance policy. We can deal with either a human agent or a computerized one to get our quote. Sometimes though, the quote we receive is a little more than we had planned or expected to spend. Most people are looking for a cheap auto insurance quote ? the cheaper the better, in fact. How can you manage to get the cheapest auto insurance possible that will still protect your vehicle and you from financial loss?One piece of advice that could help to make your insurance rate as low as possible... More About: News , Insurance , Auto Insurance , Auto , Cheap
MS pulls plugs on XP SP3 mass launch
2008-04-30 21:02:00 Microsoft has pulled the general release of Windows XP service pack three (SP3) at the eleventh hour, blaming a ?compatibility issue? for the cock-up.The software giant said late yesterday it was suspending mass download of the long-awaited service pack while it investigates the problem between its point-of-sale app ? Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) ? and both XP SP3 and Vista SP1.It said in an email that the update, which was released to manufacturing and volume licensing customers a week ago and was supposed to be generally available from yesterday, will not be pumped out to the masses via its Windows Update (WU) website as planned until the company fixes the bug.However, the firm hasn?t pinpointed when XP SP3 will be available, much to the chagrin of Vista-shy customers who have been patiently waiting for the update to land.?In the last few days, we have uncovered a compatibility issue between Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) and both Windows XP SP3 and W... More About: News , Launch , Mass
The $199 iPhone: Cool! Possibly Imaginary!
2008-04-30 21:01:00 As nifty as the current iPhone is, there are muliple reasons not to buy it: It's got a slow data connection, it doesn't yet run third-party applications...and at $399 with no subsidy from AT&T, it's kinda pricey. We know that a 3G iPhone is on its way, and that Apple's upcoming iPhone SDK will make the phone into a first-rate platform for apps of all kinds. And now it looks like that 3G iPhone might be downright affordable.In theory, at least. A Fortune blog is reporting that a source has told it that AT&T will offer a $200 subsidy for iPhone buyers who sign up for a two-year contact, bringing the price of the hip handset down to $199. That would also address one of the most irritating things about the first-generation iPhone: The fact that AT&T currently makes you sign up for a two-year contract and doesn't offer any sort of price break in recognition of that commitment.(I hate phone contracts myself, so I'm assuming and hoping that you'll also be able to pay the full-freigh... More About: News , Iphone , Cool
Blu-ray player sales down despite end of format war
2008-04-30 20:56:00 Looks like it wasn't the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle that was keeping potential customers away from high-definition video players after all.The NPD Group released some of its retail sales tracking data Wednesday that showed sales of Blu-ray standalone players (not a PlayStation 3, combo player, or PC with Blu-ray drive) had mostly decreased since the beginning of the year.Standalone Blu-ray player unit sales in the U.S. decreased 40 percent from January to February and saw a very slight increase (2 percent) between February and March, according to NPD.HD DVD players fared even worse--player unit sales dropped 13 percent from January to February, and 65 percent from February to March--which was expected. Toshiba stopped production of HD DVD units in February, and the format's promotional group disbanded in March.So what does this mean for Blu-ray player vendors? Why haven't sales experienced any sort of substantial uptick without a competitor? Prices offer one clue. Blu-ray player price... More About: News , Sales , Player , Format
Virtual World Gets Another Life
2008-04-03 07:50:00 Call it virtual business 2.0.Not long ago, companies were racing to set up storefronts and showrooms in computer-generated environments such as Second Life . Few found big profits.But commercial interest in such simulations seems to be morphing, not diminishing. Rather than selling goods and services to users -- who typically take on animated shapes known as avatars -- companies are turning to virtual offices and landscapes as tools for employees and business partners to collaborate and learn.[Photo]Qwaq's technology helps employees collaborate in virtual meeting rooms.The shift, in some cases, requires big changes in the way computer simulations are designed and used. Where companies may be happy to hold the equivalent of parties or trade shows in public virtual spaces, for example, conducting confidential business over a network of servers that another company controls can be worrisome."I can think of a few reasons to not use public infrastructure with no guarantee of security," s... More About: News , World , Virtual , Virtual World
A Phone With TV, Radio, Music, G.P.S. and Camcorder
2008-04-03 07:49:00 The Apple iPhone may have raised the ante for smartphone design last year, but the competition is not just sitting around. Although it has a similar slablike form and touch screen function, the new Samsung Instinct has a few special features of its own, as well as a monogamous marriage with Sprint as its wireless carrier.Skip to next paragraphIf you don?t actually have any calls to make, the phone offers plenty of multimedia options to pass the time, like e-mail, Sprint TV for live and on-demand video, the Sprint Music Store for wireless song downloads and Sprint Radio with 150 streaming channels. The Instinct has a G.P.S. function that gives you directions on screen or by voice, as well as a built-in camcorder and 2-megapixel camera with a 2x zoom.Pricing is not yet final, but the phone will be available in June; details are available at www.nowisgood.com.As for high-speed surfing, the Instinct can use Sprint?s EV-DO mobile broadband network for zippier download speeds than the iPh... More About: News , Camcorder
Yahoo's Mobile Search, Take Two
2008-04-03 07:47:00 Yahoo is living up to claims it's going about business as usual, despite the uncertainty of Microsoft's controversial buyout offer. At this week's big CTIA Wireless show, Yahoo announced version 2.0 of its oneSearch mobile search service and enhancements designed to improve search on mobile devices.The stakes in the burgeoning mobile market are huge. For example, mobile advertising revenue was $347 million in the U.S. in 2007, according to IDC estimates. But the research firm forecast that total could grow to $4 billion by 2011 and there is not yet a dominant player as Yahoo rival Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in desktop search.The iPhone changed a lot of people's view of mobile devices once they saw you can truly access the Internet on your phone," Joy Ghaneker, product manager for Yahoo oneSearch, told InternetNews .com. "Now we want to be a catalyst to enable hundreds of millions of users to see what can be done on a mobile device."Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) launched oneSearch last year as... More About: Mobile , Mobile Search , S mobile
AT&T Conference Call
2008-04-03 07:41:00 Working in a foreign country during the holiday season can be very lonely and stressful. While your family and friends maybe having such a grand time at home, you can find yourself feeling really homesick and alone in a foreign country. Although you may have made some new friends at work, nothing could really replace the presence of family members during the holiday season.To help you cope with loneliness and homesickness this holiday season, ask your family and friends all over the globe for an AT&T conference call. The good thing about the AT&T conference call is that you get to talk to money people at the same time. Even if you your friends and family members are scattered all over the globe, you can converge together using the AT&T conference call services.How To Set Up An AT&T Conference Call Setting up an AT&T conference call is very easy. All you need to do is register either online or through the toll free number o the company. . The good thing about the AT&T conference call ... More About: News , Conference Call
Northern Rock nationalisation
2008-04-03 07:40:00 Contrary to what the Tories may say, this is not a return to the past or a sudden thrust of socialism from the Government; it is in fact reflecting the reality of the situation faced by the government in making a decision that was necessary. Despite valiant efforts by the Government to find a buyer, nationalisation is like to best protect taxpayers' money. What happened in the case of Northern Rock was mismanagement by the company on a grand scale coupled with the financial crisis that had engulfed the US mortgage market.This should hopefully be a temporary solution and provide the necessary stability for the Northern Rock to be a viable bank again. Yes, shareholders' will have lost out in terms of the share value but the alternatives could have been far worse and if the bank had collapsed it would've had widespread ramifications for the whole financial market and the UK banking sector. This option was effectively the only one that was viable.In terms of Gideon Osborne and David ... More About: News , Nationalisation
Windows Mobile 6.1 Phones
2008-04-03 07:35:00 Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.1 this week, improving the operating system's stability and adding various features to make the Windows smartphone experience more enjoyable. While there aren't a ton of huge visible changes with this iteration of the OS, Windows Mobile handheld users, especially those with non-touch screen devices, will want to upgrade. The increased stability, threaded text messaging, and copy-and-paste functions alone make it worthwhile. For the low-down on all the new features, read our full review. (Microsoft and service providers have said that free upgrades will follow for most Windows Mobile 6 devices. Keep an eye on your carrier's support Web site for details.)If you're entering the smartphone market or looking to change platforms, Windows Mobile has some cool attributes to consider. Thanks to its huge developer community, WM is your best bet if you want to add third-party software to your device. It's also the only operating system available on all ... More About: News , Phones
Maruti Suzuki unveils Swift sedan 'Swift DZiRE'
2008-03-20 10:13:00 Pictures of Swift Sedan DZiREMaruti Suzuki today unveiled a new sedan, Swift DZiRE, which is expected to be launched on March 29 priced between the company's existing cars Swift and SX4. "The image of a hatchback and styling of Swift is carried forward to the Sedan. The new car will be available in both petrol and diesel variants,"Maruti Suzuki India Ltd Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek told reporters here.According to the company sources, the petrol variant is expected to be priced between Rs 4.75 to Rs 5 lakh, while the diesel variant would be available for above Rs 5.5 lakh.The company is also expanding the capacity of its plant in Manesar to three lakh units per annum by 2010, up from the existing about 1.4 lakh units in an year.Official website:- http://www.marutidzire.com/Where you can also register for an exclusive preview of the car. (reminds me of Fabia) More About: News
Could Google Buy Yahoo's Stake in Alibaba?
2008-03-20 10:12:00 Google hasn't been shy about its ambitions in China: It desperately wants to own the market. In fact, just this week Eric Schmidt was in Beijing, trying to drum up interest in a redesign of the local Chinese web property. Meanwhile, Google has made little progress. It's been creamed by Baidu (in terms of traffic), and the company is scrambling to catch up. But if Alibaba .com is really looking to buy the stake currently owned by Yahoo (as reported by Reuters), Google would likely be the perfect fit. "The Chinese market is strategically important for Google, and Alibaba would be a valuable partner. Google also has plenty of cash and could write a check for it," says Laura Martin, an analyst with Soleil-Media Metrics. Some background: Yahoo agreed to buy a 40 percent stake of Chinese web company Alibaba.com for $1 billion in August 2005. Alibaba.com CEO Jack Ma (above), had previously vowed to squash Yahoo and Google "for fun." More About: Google
Windows Vista SP1 Wreaks Havoc On Some PCs, Users Complain
2008-03-20 10:10:00 A day after it was released for public download, Windows Vista SP1 is drawing barbs from some computer users who say the software wrecked their systems."I downloaded it via Windows Update, and got a bluescreen on the third part of the update," wrote "Iggy33" in a comment posted Wednesday onMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s Vista team blog.Iggy33 was just one of dozens of posters complaining about Vista Service Pack 1's effect on their PCs. "What a disaster," wrote "SeppDietrich" of the update. "It exiled all my Nvidia drivers to the Bermuda Triangle.""Bikkja" said that "after installing SP1 things seem to go really slow, even though my computer shouldn't have any problems."Other troubles reported by Vista SP1 users ranged from a simple inability to download the software from Microsoft's Windows Update site to sudden spikes in memory usage. "Went from using 650 MB RAM idle to 1 Gig... I'll be switching back," said "Kurrier."It's not uncommon for major software patches to cause problems ... More About: News , Windows Vista , Users
Nokia to help move Silverlight to Symbian S60 devices
2008-03-04 20:16:00 Every day, it seems, Microsoft is incrementally adding to its interoperability message. Tomorrow, as Nokia blurted out this morning, its regularly scheduled increment is a demonstration of Silverlight on a mobile platform other than Windows.Today, Nokia provided something of a spoiler for tomorrow's keynote address at Microsoft's MIX '08 convention in Las Vegas: The two companies will be demonstrating Silverlight, Microsoft's runtime environment for rich graphics and functionality, running on the Symbian S60 mobile platform.It will not be Silverlight's mobile premiere -- last April, Microsoft demonstrated Silverlight running on Windows Mobile. But it will be a major demonstration of the flexibility of the principal challenger to Adobe's Flash platform, whose video distribution has become all but ubiquitous.An extension of Silverlight to Symbian S60 would give the platform access to an estimated 7% of the mobile phone market, with 77.3 million total units shipped last year, acc... More About: News , Devices
On second thought, IE8 will default to full Web standards
2008-03-04 20:16:00 In a complete reversal of policy that will probably be reflected in later builds sent to private beta testers, the team building Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 has decided to make its Web standards-compliant mode -- the one reported to have passed the Acid2 standards compliance test -- the browser's default operating mode. The team made this choice apparently knowing full well that some existing Web pages -- those designed to work well with the majority browser rather than with written W3C standards -- may break."The technical challenge here is how can IE determine whether a site's content expects IE8's Standards mode or IE7's Standards mode?" wrote IE8 general manager Dean Hachamovitch this morning. "Given how many sites offer IE very different content today, which should IE8 default to?"The problem is that IE8 will try harder, to borrow a phrase from Avis Rent-a-car, to comply with certain standards than did IE7; but at the same time, Web developers will typically write thei... More About: News , Thought , Full
Google Dials Up Free Phone Numbers, Voicemail For SF Homeless
2008-03-01 20:00:00 Google has announced plans to provide permanent telephone numbers and voicemail services to homeless people in San Francisco through its Project CARE initiative.Project CARE was created in April 2006 by GrandCentral Communications, which Google acquired in July 2007. As of last August, the initiative had provided more than 5,000 phone numbers and served close to 100,000 voicemail messages to Bay Area residents."We're firm believers in the power of technology to improve the daily lives of individuals and communities as a whole, and we recognize that access to phone and voicemail services is one way that GrandCentral can help San Francisco's homeless stay connected with family, friends, social workers, health care providers, and potential employers," wrote Craig Walker, a senior product manager at Google, on the company's corporate blog.On Thursday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced plans to give every homeless person in San Francisco a local phone number and voicemail acc... More About: Google , Phone , Free , Numbers , Homeless
All about iPhone!
2008-03-01 19:57:00 Queries related to iphone? Non-avaliability of iPhone wallpapers or iPhone mods or all other contain for your iPhones? Make these questions a thing of past. Yes, Planet-iPhones is the right place for all iphone related stuff. Its the latest buzz over internet, its Planet-iPhones.com!Here you can find one of the most active iPhone forum and community for latest applications, games, downloads, news and more.There are two main categories: Native and Web applications. Some native categories are development, dictionaries, games, multimedia, network, productivity, sports, system, toys, and utilities. Web categories are bookmarking, cars, chat, communication, daily, design, education, email ,entertainment, food, games, health, local, media, movies, music, news, office, personal, religion, shopping, RSS, sports, travel, sites, utilities and weather.More and more games are updated regularly. Planet iPhones offers hundreds of iPhone mods for your gadget including themes, icons and firmware, s... More About: Iphone
Firefox crosses 500 million download mark
2008-02-22 19:49:00 It's an arbitrary but interesting milestone for the open-source Web browser, whose development is overseen by Mozilla but that's also developed and extended by a large number of outside programmers. In September 2007, Firefox crossed the 400 million download mark, indicating an average rate a bit shy of 20 million per month at present.According to the Spread Firefox site, there had been 500,168,448 downloads as of 6:15 a.m. PST. About 12 hours earlier, there had been more than 499,900,000.Firefox has spread widely in the years since its release. The project originally was named Phoenix to symbolize a rising from the ashes of the Netscape open-source browser project that began in 1998 but languished for many years as Microsoft's Internet Explorer solidified its lead.Now Firefox programmers are working on version 3, which brings performance improvements and interface changes, and Mozilla also is working on a mobile version of the browser for handheld devices.A sister subsidiary of ... More About: News , Download , Mark , Million
Blu-ray Won the Battle, but Now Comes the War
2008-02-22 19:49:00 There is a concept rattling around the blogosphere that Sony?s victory over Toshiba in the war to define the high-definition video disc format is moot because soon people will be downloading high-definition videos rather than buying them on discs.I suspect Blu-ray will have a hard time for a few years, but not because of downloading. That is simply too hard for the mass market. Buying discs is easy to do and easy to understand.The competition for Blu-ray players is the latest generation of DVD players which can generate a high-definition signal from a standard-definition disc.Right now, Blu-ray players cost $350 to $400. Sony PlayStation 3 game machines, which also play Blu-ray discs, also cost about $400.I called Mike Abt, the president of Abt Electronics, the big Chicago-area electronics retailer, to ask about his take on demand for Blu-ray players in the wake of the withdrawal of Toshiba?s HD DVD format.He said the biggest question is how Sony and the other manufacturers approach... More About: News , Battle
Google lunar challenge gets under way
More articles from this author:2008-02-22 19:47:00 MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--A privately funded race to land a rover on the moon could cost each team well more than the $20 million grand prize they're vying for, but all of the contestants view Google 's Lunar X Prize as a new engine for business in space.On Thursday, the X Prize Foundation announced the first 10 teams entered in the Google Lunar X Prize. Unveiled in September 2007, the Google Lunar X Prize requires contestants to land a privately funded robotic spacecraft on the moon, explore the terrain for at least 500 meters, and transmit results of the trip back to Earth. The grand prize is $20 million, with a second prize of $5 million and bonuses of $5 million.While several teams had already thrown their hats in the ring, the 10 official registrants talked here Thursday at Google headquarters about their plans. Team Astrobotics, for example, said it plans to launch its mission as early as 2009. The teams were joined in a ceremony by X Prize President Peter Diamandis and Google c... More About: News , Challenge 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |



