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January |
Newsletter |
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Issue
50 |
Included in this months issue:
'Avatar' introduces new technologies to 3D production
Technology has never looked so human in film.
After all the online buzz (some good, others bad), after all the focus on box office receipts (as ever, Deadline's Nikke Finke has the most comprehensive run-down), after all the attention on whether Hollywood's reigning techno-geek could create a worthy successor to his Oscar-winning, record-shattering "Titanic," "Avatar" snowballed through the pre-winter snowstorm of 2009. James Cameron didn't just make a sci-fi epic. He's created a wholly believable, realistic world, at once marking a new cinematic era and expanding the possibilities of film in our technology-dependent, digital entertainment-driven 21st century. From here on out, movies will be divided into two epochs: B.A. and A.A. Before "Avatar," After "Avatar."
Asked where "Avatar" stands in the history of technology and movies, Roger Ebert, a film historian and arguably the country's pre-eminent movie critic, wrote me in an e-mail: "It inaugurates the next generation and raises the bar. A milestone in the same sense as 'Star Wars.'"
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Solar cells made through oil-and-water 'self-assembly'
Researchers have demonstrated a simple, cheap way to create self-assembling electronic devices using a property crucial to salad dressings. It uses the fact that oil- and water-based liquids do not mix, forming devices from components that align along the boundary between the two.
The idea joins a raft of approaches toward self-assembly, but lends itself particularly well to small components. The work is reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Crucially, it could allow the large-scale assembly of high-quality electronic components on materials of just about any type, in contrast to "inkjet printed" electronics or some previous self-assembly techniques.
By Jason Palmer
Google scores an own goal with Nexus One
Potential internet overlord Google seems to be having a spot of bother with its Nexus One smartphone. Apparently some of the buyers of the gadget want to complain about it or get help and Google's telephone help line is total rubbish.
It is not that the phone is breaking, according to the BBC, but just that Google stupidly thought it could run its Nexus One help operation like it does its web pages. Google is only responding to questions by email and the outfit lacks phone-based support. So of course support forums that Google has set up for the Nexus One are filling up with complaints.
By Nick Farrell
Hackers take China's Baidu offline
China's largest search engine, Baidu, was hacked on Tuesday morning by a group calling itself the 'Iranian Cyber Army'.
The same group attacked Twitter in mid-December using a similar Domain Name System hijack.
Baidu users were unable to access the site's offerings, and were greeted with a message from the hacking group with a black and red background and a flag, all connected with the Iranian party of Mir Hossein Mousavi, which challenged president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's power and protested against his election in June. Baidu has now responded to the hack, and said that the site is now running normally.
By Rosalie Marshall
Welcome to the out-of-control decade
We have seen the future, and it doesn't belong to you
Back in the turbulent 1960s, the anti-establishment rabble was often derided as being "out of control." Fast-forward 50 years to the 2010s, when that same phrase will soon be back in vogue.But with a very different meaning.
The coming decade is shaping up to be one in which we, as consumers and citizens, will see our control over choice and privacy eroded by business and government. Some of the effects will be mere annoyances, but others will transform society. And not for the better.
This unwelcome transformation is already underway in the personal-technology sector, led by two of the most secretive companies in our industry: Apple and Google. Waiting in the wings are corporate entities eager to exploit your personal information, and government agencies watching your every step.
Welcome to the out-of-control decade.
By Rik Myslewski
Reporter breaks an 'unbreakable' mobile phone at CES
Reporter Dan Simmons from the BBC's technology show Click managed to break a mobile phone marketed as "unbreakable", during a demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Taken from BBC Technology News
Twitter job postings suggest new products are on the way
In no more than 140 characters, tell us why you deserve this job
Micro-blogging wonder Twitter looks set to improve on a hugely successful 2009, after a series of job vacancies posted on the site called for new technical staff to work on 'cutting edge monetization projects.'
A total of 27 vacancies have been listed, ranging from engineers to a product marketing manager who can enhance business users' understanding of the value of Twitter.
By Michael Sawh
Chemical computer that mimics neurons to be created
A promising push toward a novel, biologically-inspired "chemical computer" has begun as part of an international collaboration.
The "wet computer" incorporates several recently discovered properties of chemical systems that can be hijacked to engineer computing power. The team's approach mimics some of the actions of neurons in the brain. The 1.8m-euro (£1.6m) project will run for three years, funded by an EU emerging technologies programme.
The programme has identified biologically-inspired computing as particularly important, having recently funded several such projects. What distinguishes the current project is that it will make use of stable "cells" featuring a coating that forms spontaneously, similar to the walls of our own cells, and uses chemistry to accomplish the signal processing similar to that of our own neurons.
By Jason Palmer
Facebook: Is the age of privacy over?
Facebook can't seem to help getting itself into a heap of trouble over the the privacy of its 350 million users.
Rather than detail the growing litany of problems, let's just look at the changes made by the the world's largest social networking site last month. Facebook privacy settingsIn December, Facebook changed its privacy settings - to make it easier, it said, for users to control their profiles. The choice was whether to open information to friends, to friends of friends as well, or to everyone.
Facebook recommended that for status updates, photo albums and basic information, users should choose the third, and most open, setting, while contact information should be reserved just for friends.
By Maggie Sheils
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