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Hard drive evolution could hit XP
Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years but it could cause problems for Windows XP users.
Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years but it could cause problems for Windows XP users.
Porn net domain name plan revived
A plan to create a .xxx net domain for adult content will be revisited three years after it was rejected by internet regulators.
A plan to create a .xxx net domain for adult content will be revisited three years after it was rejected by internet regulators.
Nanotech 'fuse' for novel battery
A never-before-seen reaction in nanotubes could make for batteries that pack a mighty punch, say researchers.
A never-before-seen reaction in nanotubes could make for batteries that pack a mighty punch, say researchers.
Games migrate to the social side
The merging of social networks and games is set to dominate this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The merging of social networks and games is set to dominate this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Sony eyeing June launch of 3D TV
Electronics giant Sony says its new 3D television will be on sale in Japan from June, with a cost of £2,600 for a 46-inch screen model.
Electronics giant Sony says its new 3D television will be on sale in Japan from June, with a cost of £2,600 for a 46-inch screen model.
Skynet satellite system extended
Skynet 5, the UK's single biggest space project, is to get a fourth satellite to up the bandwidth available to British forces.
Skynet 5, the UK's single biggest space project, is to get a fourth satellite to up the bandwidth available to British forces.
Facebook death 'lessons to learn'
The home secretary says internet safety lessons must be learned after a convicted sex offender contacts and kills a teenager.
The home secretary says internet safety lessons must be learned after a convicted sex offender contacts and kills a teenager.
US eases sanctions for freer web
The US eases sanctions on Iran, Cuba and Sudan to help further the use of internet services and support opposition groups.
The US eases sanctions on Iran, Cuba and Sudan to help further the use of internet services and support opposition groups.
Weak questions put e-mail at risk
Questions used as security checks on websites need to be replaced by better tests to see who someone is, say researchers.
Questions used as security checks on websites need to be replaced by better tests to see who someone is, say researchers.
Final Fantasy
Costumed fans queue for launch
Costumed fans queue for launch
Wired Top Stories
FBI Defends Disruptive Raids on Texas Data Centers
Two FBI raids on Texas data centers last week took hundreds of innocent businesses offline, in a slash-and-burn investigation into $6 million in unpaid phone bills.
Two FBI raids on Texas data centers last week took hundreds of innocent businesses offline, in a slash-and-burn investigation into $6 million in unpaid phone bills.
Aussies Announce Sweeping National Broadband Network
The Australian government promises all its citizens a superfast internet connection in an ambitious, US$31 billion plan to connect the country with fiber optic cables and wireless broadband. A private, but government-owned company will build out the network over the next eight years and lease it to ISPs.
The Australian government promises all its citizens a superfast internet connection in an ambitious, US$31 billion plan to connect the country with fiber optic cables and wireless broadband. A private, but government-owned company will build out the network over the next eight years and lease it to ISPs.
Schizophrenic Brains Not Folled by Optical Illusion
A bad connection in the brains of schizophrenic patients seems to leave them unaffected by a common optical illusion that turns the concave backside of a mask into a convex face. The difference may be a disconnect in the schizophrenic brain between what it actually sees and what it expects to see based on past experience.
A bad connection in the brains of schizophrenic patients seems to leave them unaffected by a common optical illusion that turns the concave backside of a mask into a convex face. The difference may be a disconnect in the schizophrenic brain between what it actually sees and what it expects to see based on past experience.
Hands-On With the Ortlieb Velocity Backpack
If you've got more gear than you can shovel into a shoulder bag but don't want the graceless un-coolness of a typical backpack, the Ortlieb Velocity is a good choice.
If you've got more gear than you can shovel into a shoulder bag but don't want the graceless un-coolness of a typical backpack, the Ortlieb Velocity is a good choice.
Report From Antarctica: Nations Do Advance Work for 2041 Land Claims
Our first-hand account from Antarctica gives a scientist's perspective on the political maneuvering among countries hoping to position themselves for a potential land grab when the moratorium on mining expires in 2041.
Our first-hand account from Antarctica gives a scientist's perspective on the political maneuvering among countries hoping to position themselves for a potential land grab when the moratorium on mining expires in 2041.
G.M. and Segway Build an EV Only Woz Could Love
General Motors and the people who make the world's coolest scooter unveil a EV two-seater that's essentially a big honkin' Segway. Your move, Woz.
General Motors and the people who make the world's coolest scooter unveil a EV two-seater that's essentially a big honkin' Segway. Your move, Woz.
Nimoy Stuns Austin Crowd with Secret Star Trek Premiere
While a world of Trekkers believed the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek would premiere in Sydney, Australia Tuesday, Leonard Nimoy made a surprise appearance in Austin, Texas Monday night to screen the film for an unsuspecting audience.
While a world of Trekkers believed the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek would premiere in Sydney, Australia Tuesday, Leonard Nimoy made a surprise appearance in Austin, Texas Monday night to screen the film for an unsuspecting audience.
Reznor's Innovative Run Continues With Nine Inch Nails iPhone App
Musical rebel Trent Reznor puts even more power into his fans' hands with a new iPhone app and a seriously upgraded website.
Musical rebel Trent Reznor puts even more power into his fans' hands with a new iPhone app and a seriously upgraded website.
Gadget Gallery: The Zippy 370Z, Finger Clickin' Keyboards, and 8-megapixel Infused Camphones
: Weighing just 140 grams, the handset offers some of the best optics we've ever found crammed into a cell phone: sharp, noiseless pics (3,264 × 2,448 pixels) and decent image stabilizer punctuate video capture that puts full-figured handicams from 2008 to shame. You can even shoot VGA at 30 fps or QVGA at a whopping 120 fps (yes, 120!), including slow motion footage in 1/4 and 1/8 speeds. Amazing, sure, but not a picture perfect phone. The i8510 functions almost exactly like a standard point-and-shoot, except for the zoom button, which is placed inexplicably, and awkwardly at the bottom of the device. WIRED Beaucoup codecs, including ? wait for it ? DivX! 2.8-inch screen excellent for playback. Intuitive photo/video editing suite. Equally intuitive navigation. Automatic lens cover. MicroSD slot good for 16 GB (enough for aspiring Scorseses to go epic). All the usual smartphone suspects: 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, accelerometer, GPS. Decent earbuds with ample cord. 3.5mm audio jack. Most excellent: TV-out capability. TIRED Side-mounted headphone jack makes phone harder to pocket. Optical control pad is a tad sensitive (between us and you ? we don't want to hurt its feelings). Most bogus: Metal shell retains enough scratches to fill a DJ Shadow album. A little on the clunky side. Most bogus: Flash needs to be brighter. $500, samsung.com Read our full Samsung i8510 INNOV8 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : As the successor to Logitech's G11 and G15, this huge hunk of plastic comes with gaming hardwired in its DNA. Like its relatives, it has a blocky aesthetic that harkens to the days of the Model M. There are, however, a handful of very modern flourishes that make this latest G-board a distinctly modern marvel. In the end, the G19's main drawback is the same one that has plagued fancy keyboards since the days of yore: It's freaking huge. That swiveling LCD? It actually requires a tiny onboard Linux computer to run, which in turn requires its own power source. Should you choose to make use of the two self-powered USB ports, you'll potentially have more wires shooting out of this thing than your computer. WIRED More customizable than a box of Legos. Two self-powered USB ports. Dedicated D-pad and menu keys let you control LCD directly from the keyboard. Convenient cable management lanes carved into bottom of unit lessens clutter ? slightly. Choose-your-own-color adventure with adjustable backlighting. Keys are pleasantly clicky and responsive. TIRED Limited desktop space? This is not your keyboard. Price tag to match gargantuan footprint. Requires power brick to run. After its novelty wears off, built-in LCD becomes more of a distraction than a useful tool. $200, Logitech.com Read our full Logitech G19 Keyboard review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Want to catch the last episode of Battlestar Galactica while hanging out in the local java joint? Going to download a season of The Simpsons for viewing on the plane? Giving an impromptu screening of your vacation photos at a friend's house? The Mini 10 is your machine. But there are infuriating shortcomings to the Mini 10. The trackpad is one of the worst we've seen. Dell's decision to integrate the buttons underneath the pad itself makes using it both unpredictable and challenging. When you click on a button, the cursor may hit the target, wiggle off a centimeter or two, or teleport off into a remote corner of your screen. While it got easier to use after a week of practice, our advice is to invest in a cheap travel mouse. WIRED Bright, responsive screen. Integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam. Not gunked up with crapware. HDMI-out port shows charming, if unwarranted, optimism about the netbook's video capabilities. Light weight: Just 2.6 pounds. TIRED Infuriating trackpad with integrated buttons hidden underneath. Excessively glossy screen produces distracting glare. Windows XP is starting to look pretty tired. What, no solid-state option? Despite the HDMI port, the netbook can't deliver HD video without fits and starts. $470 (as tested), dell.com Read our full Dell Mini 10 Netbook review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The new 370Z upgrades come in the form of a sexy body with a hood, hatch and doors of lightweight aluminum and a chassis significantly stiffer to reduce performance-robbing flex. To make up for the beefier chassis, Nissan's engineers pared more than 225 pounds from the rest of the car ? even the audio system lost 3.5 pounds ? and the result is a car that weighs 88 pounds less than the previous 350Z. Every model gets the same 332-horsepower V6, an engine that makes this Z the quickest yet with a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. That kind of performance, however, is contingent on your skills as a driver. If you don't posses Lewis Hamilton levels of talent don't fret. The Z's abundant power and excellent handling will let you think you do. WIRED Insanely easy to drive, insanely quickly. You'll run out of nerve before you run out of grip. Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a gramophone. TIRED Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a vinyl record. Tympani-like tire roar, piccolo-like exhaust note. Hummer-sized blind spots make lane changes a gun-it-and-go-for-it leap of faith. Fake brushed-aluminum interior bits don't fool anyone. $33,970 (as tested), nissanusa.com Read our full Nissan 2009 370Z review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Using the BookReader is simple: Just plunk a novel on the platen, punch a button and you're relaxing to the dulcet sounds of Jill, a computerized voice with a voracious appetite for literature. All the menus read themselves off when you mouse over them, and they have keyboard shortcuts, which is useful if you have reduced vision. Jill is pretty good at recognizing words. We tried out several books, including one heavy with medical jargon, and she held her own with just a few exceptions. Useful as it is, we could not help noticing that the BookReader seems to be slightly undercooked. A few of the buttons don't really do anything, and you can't customize the dictionary to alter Jill's interpretation of commonly used, but horribly flubbed words, acronyms or numbers. The unit seems to be terribly overpriced as well. Plustek wants $600 for the BookReader, despite the fact that the OpticBook only costs $250 ? and has its own text-to-speech function. WIRED Reads books to you at the push of a button. Platen glass goes right to the edge to accommodate books without strain. Turns text into MP3s for portability. Includes several accessibility features to help the visually impaired. TIRED The included software lacks polish and seems rushed. Squat, ugly looks make it seem at home in a cubicle farm. The reader voice may not screw up often, but when it does, it's a doozy. High price nears gouging territory. $600, plustek.com Read our full Plustek BookReader V100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Photo: Dylan Tweeny/Wired.comApple's newest Shuffle (almost 50 percent smaller than previous Shuffles) could easily be mistaken for a stick of Trident, features no buttons, and pimps voice-identification technology. But even given its apparent readily consumable stature, there are a few features on the Shuffle that are a bit tough to swallow. The biggest gripe on the 4-GB Shuffle we tested is definitely the control set. First off, it's completely counterintuitive; Apple says you can easily use it without looking. We still don't have the hang of it after a few days of testing. What's worse, if you have a decent set of earbuds (say, a pair of Shures or Ultimate Ears) you're totally hosed — you'll have to endure the 'buds that come with the Shuffle or pick up specially made third-party headphones. Our recommendation? Pick up a new Shuffle only if you're prepared to deal with proprietary headphones and ambiguous controls. WIRED Thumb-drive size. Can double as a tie clip. Battery life lasts for 12 freaking hours. Short USB sync cord is sexy. Yes, we'll admit, it's another beautifully designed piece of hardware from Apple. Battery bonked out after 11 constant hours of blasting Thunderstruck on loop. TIRED Proprietary headphones required. Control set awkward to use, hard to get used to. So small, it nearly gets lost in the packaging it comes in. $80, apple.com Read our full Apple iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Rather than foam, gel or compressed-air cushioning, the soles on Newtons have a series of "actuator lugs" just below the ball of the foot. The lugs are designed to help encourage you to land on your forefoot, to protect that part of the foot, and (best yet) to propel you forward. When you land, the lugs push into hollow chambers in the midsole. This cushions your landing, and helps make it comfy to land midsole or forefoot rather than on the heel as you might be accustomed. As your foot moves forward, these lugs then essentially lever out, and as you lift your foot, they return the energy by pushing up and out in the same direction as your stride. Newton claims this makes them more efficient than traditional foam or gel soles that simply absorb energy but don't return it. WIRED So cozy they're like a Snuggie for your feet. Actuator lugs get you off your heels better than a La-Z-Boy. Lightweight at 10.2 ounces. Designed for all stride types. Stomps cold weather like global warming, and keeps out the drizzle for shizzle. TIRED Not waterproof. Worse on single-track trails than a skateboard. $175??? OMG, for that much money I could just pay somebody to run for me. $175, newtonrunning.com Read our full Newton All Weather Trainer review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The Firebird features a hybrid design — using 2.5-inch hard drives (two 320-GB models) and dual graphics cards originally designed for laptops — but powers it all with a desktop CPU and desktop-sized DIMMs. As with a laptop, wireless is built in, but the power supply is not: To save on wattage, HP breaks out the (enormous) power adapter instead of integrating it into the box. As cool as the Firebird is on the whole, it isn't without some foibles. The inclusion of an ExpressCard slot is on the baffling-to-useless side, and the external power supply (it's huge) is more annoying to deal with than it sounds. But our biggest gripe is that the Firebird's streamlined shell means it includes no front-mounted ports at all, not even a single USB slot for your thumb drive. Seriously HP, even the Mac Pro finds room for that. WIRED Amazingly quiet and conscientious in its power consumption. Outstanding design; belongs on top of the desk, not beneath it. Solid all-around performance at a fair price. TIRED No front USB port. Curvy design means you can't put anything on top of the case. Functionally locked down, with no real upgrade path. $2,100 (as tested), hp.com Read our full HP Firebird 803 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : I shouldn't love this truck. I should hate it. I purposely do not own a car, and this all-black behemoth represents everything I hate about SUV culture: conspicuous consumption, insensitivity to our rapidly shrinking world and crowded cities, middle finger raised at global warming. You could slap a cold fusion generator under Big Poppa Cadillac's hood and the first two issues would still apply, but I was kind of wrong about that last one. Have you ever seen Godzilla vs. Megalon? Where Godzilla fights on behalf of the people of Japan against a giant rhinoceros/cockroach? Sure, Tokyo's favorite monster still smashes a bunch of buildings and steps on some people, but he's trying to be good. Same goes for this Hybrid Chromedaddy. WIRED Decent pickup for a motorized bomb shelter. Combined ABS and regenerative braking system do a terrific job of hauling the beast down from speed. Trick motorized step makes it easy for shorties to climb into your rolling condo. TIRED Thing has a car phone. No, not Bluetooth, but an actual phone built into infotainment system. (It's actually just Onstar, but there was no other option for hands-free calling.) What is this, 1989? Cadillac — God love 'em — uses the fact that this is a hybrid as an excuse to bling up the truck even more: Hybrid badges are plastered on every hard surface, on the sides of the door, even the windshield. —Joe Brown $74,085 (as tested), Cadillac.com Read our full Cadillac Escalade Hybrid review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The Kindle 2 is zippier, with pages turning 20 percent faster (yes, you can tell the difference). It has more memory (2 gigabytes, enough for storing more than 1,500 books onboard). And it flaunts a more powerful built-in battery: Amazon claims that the Kindle lasts four to five days with the wireless on (we got 4.5 days in our first test) and up to two weeks with it off. After a week of limited wireless, my meter is around 50 percent. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice. That means that most users won't have to replace the battery (a $60 procedure) for about a decade or so. Looking over the horizon, it's clear that Amazon's biggest competitor in selling digital books will be Google, whose recent agreement with publishers and authors will make it the virtually exclusive seller for millions of books in copyright but not in print. But right now at least, the Google and Amazon formats aren't compatible: I was unsuccessful in getting a PDF of a public-domain book downloaded from Google to appear in readable form on my Kindle. WIRED The best e-reading system on the market. Welcome improvements to aesthetics, more functional industrial design, better graphics and longer battery life. Sleeker than the original: One-third of an inch thick and 10 ounces. TIRED Quite expensive. Book content shackled with DRM. Interface is improved, sure, but it could be even better. $360, amazon.com Read our full Amazon.com Kindle 2 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The iWOW adapter from SRS Labs promises to coax more "immersive" sound from your iPod, and it actually delivers — provided you're listening to the right kind of music. Setup is easy: Snap on the slick little 1-inch extension, plug in some spendy headphones, press a button, and you do indeed get a fuller sound with more depth — especially if you enjoy songs like Sting's "Fragile," a track hand-picked by SRS to highlight the effect. But when iWOW was applied to songs that were heavy on low-end thump or had multilayered sound (Exhibit A: Beck's "Cold Brains") the iWOW performed more like iMeh. At top volume, bass beats splintered, while at lower volumes tracks sounded muddled and crowded. SRS claims the device "dynamically locates and restores audio detail" and creates a more natural sound. We're not buying it — most of the audio we threw at the iWOW was punctuated with a subtle hiss and fuzzy bass. WIRED Relatively small adapter. Snaps easily onto your iPod and lends some oomph to certain tunes. TIRED The effect is nearly lost when using ear buds, the device won't work with older generation iPods, and music that already has a fair share of bass sounds muffled. $70, srslabs.com Read our full SRS Labs iWOW Adapter for iPod review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Leaps ahead of other cam phones, the Memoir's not limited to the 8 megapixels it captures. In shooting mode, the touchscreen has shutterbug controls — zoom, brightness, timer and flash — that float around the image. And just hitting the shutter will take you into camera mode. The Memoir includes a 1-GB microSD to augment the phone's 100 MB of storage (and it's an easy-access slot, rather than hidden under the battery). But for all its convenience, the Memoir simply isn't a competitor for even the lowliest of dedicated cameras. First off, it's pokey: slow to focus, slow to snap and very touchy when it comes to movement. And though it touts a 16x digital zoom, it has no optical-zooming option. WIRED Cool touchscreen and accelerometer helps you shoot or view pictures. Compact, pocket-friendly shape, even for hipsters in painted-on jeans. TIRED Vampiric light sensitivity makes for washed-out shots. Slow to focus, shoot and recover. E-mail functions are even slower. The screen is hard to see in sunlight. Lens cover doesn't close all the time, so the lens can get dusty. $300 (with 2-year contract), t-mobile.com Read our full Samsung Memoir. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : From the outside, the 1000HE doesn't look much different from other netbooks. But it's the machine's heart — the brand new 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor — that makes it faster, stronger, smarter than its opponents. Intel claims the silicon slab boosts computing power across the board, especially HD video playback — something that has been woefully horrid in past machines using Atom processors. It's not lying. This is the fastest netbook we've tested (by about 7 percent) in our benchmarks. And HD video playback was noticeably smoother and devoid of chop. WIRED The first netbook to feature the new Atom N280 chip. MMC and SD media reader slots. Attractive, pearly finish. Decent 1.3-megapixel webcam. TIRED At 3.1 pounds, it's one of the heaviest puppies in the netbook litter. Lame keyboard. $400 as tested, asus.com Read our full Asus Eee PC 1000HE review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The R50 is remarkably easy to set up and use. As you program each component into the remote using the setup wizard, you test a few controls to make sure it has the right code. The remote instantly recognized all our components, and it took us about 10 minutes to get the AV rig up and running. As part of the setup, you name each component, which then appears as an icon on the screen: in my case, a Sony HDTV, Yamaha amp/receiver, Squeezebox, Oppo DVD player and Soundmatters speaker. WIRED Cool, reddish backlight perfect for nighttime navigation. No computer or web connection needed for operation. No charging cradle required. TIRED No user manual means gizmo novices might get lost in setup. $150 price point isn't super pricey, but then it's not the cheapest universal remote out there. $150, universalremote.com Read our full Universal Remote Digital R50 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Like other watches in the 25-year-old G-Shock line, the MTG-1500 is forged with Mr. T levels of toughness: It can easily survive being banged clumsily against tabletops or whacked against a surfboard in a wipeout. And it's water-resistant to 200 meters. But unlike most other G-Shock watches, which are primarily plastic, the MTG-1500's body and band are stainless steel, with a few tasteful black plastic accents. We half expected to find the MTG-1500 lacking in minor features. Surprisingly, it didn't. It's got a stopwatch mode, dual time-zone support, five different alarms and a countdown timer. Free abundant sunlight or bright artificial light recharges the battery as you wear the watch. Once fully charged, the battery should be able to power the watch for 6 months without additional light. WIRED Handsome, two-toned steel-and-black styling doesn't blare "nerd," "Swatch-wearing poser" or "too lazy to take off my gym watch." Self-syncs with superaccurate official time stations. Gives you an excuse to say "solar" and "atomic" in the same sentence. TIRED Digital display too small and can be obscured by watch hands. LED provides uneven illumination in the dark. $500 can buy a timepiece that's much fancier, albeit not atomic. $500, casio.com Read our full Casio G-Shock MTG-1500 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The skinny on this countertop unit is pretty straightforward: It's the touch-based kitchen computer that won't put you out of house and home. Don't go rushing out to cash in that 401(k), though ? despite a recession-friendly price, the Eee Top still feels a little light in the loafers. The glossy white, semi-opaque keyboard and mouse look stylish out of the box, but after extended handling their light, plastic-y build became annoying. The slim chassis sat solid on our countertop, while the bright, 15.6-inch screen and the integrated speaker bar make up the majority of the Top's sleek profile. Rounding out the device are six USB ports, memory card reader, 1.3-MP web cam and integrated Wi-Fi. We were pretty bummed at the lack of an optical drive, though. WIRED An all-in-one for the Top Ramen set. Quick, responsive touch interface. Compact design has integrated storage for both keyboard and stylus. Integrated 802.11n and gigabit ethernet ensure throughput thrashings. One-touch shutoff button for hiding porn er, convenience. Runs whisper-quiet. TIRED Underpowered for heavy web video. A wired keyboard and mouse ? on an all-in-one?!? Heats up after extended poke/prod sessions. Anemic 160-GB hard drive. Even a cheapy, noisy optical drive would've been nice. No battery means no mobile computing. $600 (as tested), asus.com Read our full Asus ET1602 Eee Top review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : This camera is about the size and shape of a pack of chewing gum, and weighs just 0.68 ounces. It records videos at 352 x 288 pixels, encoding them in the 3-GP format used by many cellphones (the videos can be played on your computer using most media-player software, including QuickTime and RealPlayer). But the MovieStick is oozing with design flaws. The pinhole-sized lens is located on the long side of the device, rather than the short end, limiting your ability to go truly undercover. Add to that a confusing series of lights that supposedly indicate when the cam is charging, turned on or recording, and you end up with more than one inadvertent video of the floor. WIRED The smallest video camera we've seen yet. Simple to set up and use. Makes you look like a double agent. TIRED Location of camera lens makes it hard to go covert. No internal storage or memory card included. Recorded video is shakier and blurrier than outtakes from The Blair Witch Project. $120, swannsecurity.com Read our full Swann Micro-VideoCam Recorder review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Kodak?s Theatre HD's raison d'être is straightforward: to shuttle the contents of your PC directly to your television using ethernet or Wi-Fi. Pictures, videos, podcasts, music or any other digital content that may be living on your hard drive (as long as it's not squelched by some DRM straightjacket) can be whisked away by this tiny little box to your television with little to no fuss. What really sets the Theatre HD Player apart from the rest of the field is how immaculately it performs its tasks. Once you've downloaded Kodak's EasyShare display software, everything is pretty much taken care of. Have a hard drive filled with extra content? No problem. Simply hook it up to one of the player's USB ports and you're ready to go. WIRED Intuitive UI coupled with a handy RF remote makes setup and playback of multimedia a Zen-like experience. Wealth of connectivity options: component, HDMI, optical or RCA audio, dual USB ports. Transforms crappy YouTube video into semi-watchable content. TIRED Requires Kodak EasyShare software to get the streaming party started. No Mac compatibility (for now). Pricey, especially for a device without a hard drive. Needs more internet content. $300, Kodak Read our full Kodak Theatre HD Player review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.: Skidding in at 53 pounds (on the lighter side for this category), Ohm's mountain bike-inspired geometry and its nine-level power-assist and regeneration system make it a smart, nimble and efficient two-wheeler. On pavement and trail the BionX power plant, mounted on the rear hub, employs a unique sensor technology that is constantly adjusting the level of assistance it gives you based on the terrain. Encountering some mushy road? More power is delivered to the gears. Gliding down paved asphalt? The juice is dialed back. And if your thighs are flushed with lactic acid on a sheer hill, a flick of the trusty thumb throttle cracks the whip and the motor totally takes over, no pedaling required. But for all this innovation and comfort, you will, however, have to part with a spouse-enraging $3,450. Is it worth it? Well, it is a ton of fun. WIRED Excellent Shimano parts mix with disc brakes and RockShox suspension fork. Lockable battery compartment hides space for mobile phone, wallet, media player and your other little stuff. Regeneration mode gives extra on-bike battery life. Comfortable suspension seat post. Four- to six-hour charge time. TIRED Throttle position needs to be improved for optimal bike handling. Price steeper than any hill the bike can handle. $3450, Ohm Cycles Read our full Ohm Cycles XS700 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : For about $300 more than the average netbook, the UC7807u offers a scintillating array of grownup specs. Intel 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU? Check. 250-GB hard drive? Yep. 3 GB of memory, a glossy 13.3-inch display, a slot-loading optical drive and ports galore (three USB and an HDMI)? You betcha! Best of all, with its fetching brushed aluminum chassis, no one will mistake this for a budget notebook. Unfortunately, the UC7807u also has all the telltale signs of some obvious corner cutting. Forget about gaming. Due to Intel's torpid integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics card, even moderately intensive titles won't run properly. But our main beef with the UC7807u is the feeble 6-cell battery which clocked in at a disappointing 3 hours, 25 minutes — a full hour shorter than most other notebooks in this category. WIRED Recession-worthy price. Built like a tank. Slick, touch-sensitive volume and multimedia controls. TIRED Tips the scales for a notebook in this category. Battery drains faster than an ATM at a strip club. Epic fail on the tiny circular touchpad. It's cramped and serves no discernable purpose. Onboard speakers spit out tinny, distorted sound. HDMI, but no Blu-ray? $800 as tested, Gateway Read our full Gateway UC7807u review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : It's no wonder this watch ran away with my heart; for the competitive runner or multisport athlete seeking a personal best in 2009, the Polar RS800CX is the required training device. Because of incredibly robust desktop software, tracking of obscure performance metrics, and a wide variety of add-on sensors, the RS800CX can help you measure, analyze and improve nearly every aspect of your training program. WIRED Offers better heart-rate monitoring than your average hospital. Incredibly customizable from in-watch display, to software interface, to training programs. GPS and barometric altimeter combined with location tracking mean you'll never wonder where you wandered. Extensible pods make watch more sport-versatile than Lance Armstrong. TIRED Even beer goggles won't pretty up this ugly watch face. May need to hire a coach anyway — just to teach you how to use the PC-only desktop software. $500, Polar Read our full Polar RS800CX MULTI review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The pocket rocket we've been packing in our pants recently (full name: Optoma DLP EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector) is one of the first mini projectors to hit the market. It's also one of the best, even though a number of flaws spill from the tiny device. Styled like a '40s-era Zippo, the piano-black portable feels more natural in the hand than a lot of cellphones. But it's not size that matters to us, it's the video components! The projector is comprised of a combo-rig LED lamp and a DLP chip (courtesy of Texas Instruments) that sets the resolution at 480 x 320 pixels with a range output of 9 lumens. Yes, we know this is low compared to full-bodied projectors like Benq's gargantuan MP512 ST 2500-lumen projector but for something this small, it's remarkable. WIRED Perfect projector for parties. Rectangular lens creates wide image that keeps the image from stretching. Fine picture quality, 8-96 inches. Startup time > 4 seconds. Dead-sexy hardware. TIRED Lithium-ion batteries die after 2 hours' use; how are we supposed to watch our Battlestar marathon? Battery recharge time 4 frakkin' hours. Suck-tastic speaker. Unless you have a video-out adapter, you can't project Office docs from your PC. Projector gets hot enough to fry bacon after running 30 minutes. $400, Optoma Read our full Optoma EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Are you the schlemiel who's always dropping his cellphone or camera at parties? Or maybe you're the schlemazel who always gets the drink spilled on him? Either way, if you're looking for a camera to fit a clumsy or accident-prone lifestyle, the shockproof, waterproof, and cold-resistant Stylus 1050 SW can take the beating from fumbles, faceplants or full-speed crashes, and still keep clicking. About the size and shape as a pack of smokes, the 1050 is equipped with an accelerometer letting you tinker with settings by tapping on the top and the sides. This lets you do useful stuff like turn the flash on and off with a gloved mitt or preview pictures with one hand while you fend off a tiger shark with the other. WIRED Shockproof to 5 feet and waterproof 10 means you can bang it on the edge of the pool as you fall in with no harm done. Tap feature lets you change settings without futzing with buttons, and the camera can handle alpine frigidity with aplomb. Comes with a microSD adapter for greater media versatility. TIRED Lens cover slides more easily than Ricky Henderson. The battery is easily inserted backwards, making you think it's dead or the camera is malfunctioning. Weak zoom and poor macro ability; this camera could use a bifocal upgrade. $300, Olympus Read our full Olympus Stylus 1050 SW review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Touted as the thinnest and lightest BlackBerry yet, the Curve 8900 has some much-needed upgrades over its predecessor, but also some disappointments. Wi-Fi is hot and easy to set up, the camera got a bump to 3.2 megapixels, the 16 GB MicroSD storage can hold up to 20 hours of video, and the high-res screen is fantastic in any light. On the other hand, callers were hard to hear, documents were difficult to create, and RIM's revamped proprietary browser is good for surfing the Internet but isn't as smart about automatically resizing webpages as the browsers on competing smartphones. WIRED Slick, sexy design mashes the best of the Bold and Curve 8830. Brilliant, high-resolution screen is one of the best we've seen on a RIM device. Full HTML-rendering on websites. 3.2-megapixel camera is even better when paired with video-recording capabilities; 3.5mm headphone jack means no clumsy adapters. Near 5-hour battery life is most impressive. TIRED 3G is MIA. Despite the powerful 512-Mhz processor, the software still lags. New website and software don't perform as well as they should. Phone quality was mixed and loud speakers fail to compensate for somewhat distorted music playback. $200 with a two year contract, RIM Read our full RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : This handset (which arrives in some of the most gorgeous packaging I've ever seen a consumer electronic encased in) is almost laughably banal in its actual construction. A silver slider with wide-spaced keys, it posses a passing resemblance to the Nokia 5200, albeit with a larger (2.2-inch) screen. But, once you switch it on and start using it, things begin to get interesting. The operating system orbits around Facebook synchronization. Basically you take the phone online, pair it with your Facebook account, and all of your various Facebook applications become active on the mobile. Your Facebook address book syncs up with the phone's address book. Events from your Facebook calendar become part of the phone's calendar. Take a picture with the 3.2-megapixel camera, and you can automatically upload those shots to a Facebook album. WIRED Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile picture. Extremely cheap for an unlocked device. TIRED Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype. $112 (estimated), Three Read our full INQ1 Facebook Phone review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : HP has been tinkering with touch tech for a couple of years. But they have yet to nail the bull's eye with a machine that mixes mature hardware with a haptic interface that feels like more than just a half-assed effort. So, we were cautiously optimistic with the TouchSmart tx2z. The good news? As HP's first multitouch convertible tablet, it's got a lot of potential. Converting from notebook to tablet proved painless, thanks to a solid hinge and the included pen. After swinging the 1280 x 800 screen around (and folding it back), we found two goodies. First, using the pen automatically disables the touchscreen (to prevent palm-related havoc), and second, HP included an active digitizer for handwritten input. This made reckless activities like e-mailing while strolling around the block surprisingly easy. Even jotting down quick notes using a finger (instead of the pen) gave us minimal hassle. WIRED Fully baked as both a touch and tablet device. Travels well with its compact and stylish chassis. Includes quick keys for rotating screen orientation. Mini media remote and pen conveniently hide away in chassis. Altec Lansing speakers strike decent balance between volume and clarity. Extra goodies aplenty: biometric security, webcam, dual headphone jacks, 802.11n compatibility and 5-in-1 card reader. TIRED Bloated OS hinders performance of otherwise decent specs. Occasionally laggy switches between notebook and tablet mode. No multitouch love for the trackpad. Terrible viewing angles and weak visibility in direct sunlight. Fan sounds like a leaf-blower at a My Bloody Valentine show. $1550 (as tested), HP Read our full HP TouchSmart tx2z review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Nero's LiquidTV TiVo PC looks like a TiVo and acts like a TiVo, but, brother, it ain't no TiVo. Actually, the package makes your PC act like a TiVo by adding a USB TV tuner and the same TiVo software that drives the set-tops. You also get a for-reals TiVo remote and an IR receiver so you can command content from the couch. Ironically, that's where you're gonna get pissed. The remote can't launch the software, so you'll have to physically walk over and mouse it open. The remote can be programmed to turn your TV on and off, but it can't put your PC in standby mode or wake it up again. If you do that manually, the IR receiver fails to wake up with the rest of the system. WIRED Includes a one-year TiVo subscription, and after that it's a cheaper-than-set-top $99 per year. The software can auto-convert recordings to iPod or Sony PSP format. Integrates with any TiVo boxes you already have. Extra storage is just an external hard drive away. TIRED The remote lacks necessary PC controls. Not measurably better than Windows Media Center — which, incidentally, is free. The tuner supports ClearQAM, but the software doesn't, so forget digital channels unless you hook up the antenna. $125, Tivo Read our full Nero LiquidTV TiVo PC review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.
: Weighing just 140 grams, the handset offers some of the best optics we've ever found crammed into a cell phone: sharp, noiseless pics (3,264 × 2,448 pixels) and decent image stabilizer punctuate video capture that puts full-figured handicams from 2008 to shame. You can even shoot VGA at 30 fps or QVGA at a whopping 120 fps (yes, 120!), including slow motion footage in 1/4 and 1/8 speeds. Amazing, sure, but not a picture perfect phone. The i8510 functions almost exactly like a standard point-and-shoot, except for the zoom button, which is placed inexplicably, and awkwardly at the bottom of the device. WIRED Beaucoup codecs, including ? wait for it ? DivX! 2.8-inch screen excellent for playback. Intuitive photo/video editing suite. Equally intuitive navigation. Automatic lens cover. MicroSD slot good for 16 GB (enough for aspiring Scorseses to go epic). All the usual smartphone suspects: 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, accelerometer, GPS. Decent earbuds with ample cord. 3.5mm audio jack. Most excellent: TV-out capability. TIRED Side-mounted headphone jack makes phone harder to pocket. Optical control pad is a tad sensitive (between us and you ? we don't want to hurt its feelings). Most bogus: Metal shell retains enough scratches to fill a DJ Shadow album. A little on the clunky side. Most bogus: Flash needs to be brighter. $500, samsung.com Read our full Samsung i8510 INNOV8 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : As the successor to Logitech's G11 and G15, this huge hunk of plastic comes with gaming hardwired in its DNA. Like its relatives, it has a blocky aesthetic that harkens to the days of the Model M. There are, however, a handful of very modern flourishes that make this latest G-board a distinctly modern marvel. In the end, the G19's main drawback is the same one that has plagued fancy keyboards since the days of yore: It's freaking huge. That swiveling LCD? It actually requires a tiny onboard Linux computer to run, which in turn requires its own power source. Should you choose to make use of the two self-powered USB ports, you'll potentially have more wires shooting out of this thing than your computer. WIRED More customizable than a box of Legos. Two self-powered USB ports. Dedicated D-pad and menu keys let you control LCD directly from the keyboard. Convenient cable management lanes carved into bottom of unit lessens clutter ? slightly. Choose-your-own-color adventure with adjustable backlighting. Keys are pleasantly clicky and responsive. TIRED Limited desktop space? This is not your keyboard. Price tag to match gargantuan footprint. Requires power brick to run. After its novelty wears off, built-in LCD becomes more of a distraction than a useful tool. $200, Logitech.com Read our full Logitech G19 Keyboard review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Want to catch the last episode of Battlestar Galactica while hanging out in the local java joint? Going to download a season of The Simpsons for viewing on the plane? Giving an impromptu screening of your vacation photos at a friend's house? The Mini 10 is your machine. But there are infuriating shortcomings to the Mini 10. The trackpad is one of the worst we've seen. Dell's decision to integrate the buttons underneath the pad itself makes using it both unpredictable and challenging. When you click on a button, the cursor may hit the target, wiggle off a centimeter or two, or teleport off into a remote corner of your screen. While it got easier to use after a week of practice, our advice is to invest in a cheap travel mouse. WIRED Bright, responsive screen. Integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam. Not gunked up with crapware. HDMI-out port shows charming, if unwarranted, optimism about the netbook's video capabilities. Light weight: Just 2.6 pounds. TIRED Infuriating trackpad with integrated buttons hidden underneath. Excessively glossy screen produces distracting glare. Windows XP is starting to look pretty tired. What, no solid-state option? Despite the HDMI port, the netbook can't deliver HD video without fits and starts. $470 (as tested), dell.com Read our full Dell Mini 10 Netbook review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The new 370Z upgrades come in the form of a sexy body with a hood, hatch and doors of lightweight aluminum and a chassis significantly stiffer to reduce performance-robbing flex. To make up for the beefier chassis, Nissan's engineers pared more than 225 pounds from the rest of the car ? even the audio system lost 3.5 pounds ? and the result is a car that weighs 88 pounds less than the previous 350Z. Every model gets the same 332-horsepower V6, an engine that makes this Z the quickest yet with a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. That kind of performance, however, is contingent on your skills as a driver. If you don't posses Lewis Hamilton levels of talent don't fret. The Z's abundant power and excellent handling will let you think you do. WIRED Insanely easy to drive, insanely quickly. You'll run out of nerve before you run out of grip. Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a gramophone. TIRED Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a vinyl record. Tympani-like tire roar, piccolo-like exhaust note. Hummer-sized blind spots make lane changes a gun-it-and-go-for-it leap of faith. Fake brushed-aluminum interior bits don't fool anyone. $33,970 (as tested), nissanusa.com Read our full Nissan 2009 370Z review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Using the BookReader is simple: Just plunk a novel on the platen, punch a button and you're relaxing to the dulcet sounds of Jill, a computerized voice with a voracious appetite for literature. All the menus read themselves off when you mouse over them, and they have keyboard shortcuts, which is useful if you have reduced vision. Jill is pretty good at recognizing words. We tried out several books, including one heavy with medical jargon, and she held her own with just a few exceptions. Useful as it is, we could not help noticing that the BookReader seems to be slightly undercooked. A few of the buttons don't really do anything, and you can't customize the dictionary to alter Jill's interpretation of commonly used, but horribly flubbed words, acronyms or numbers. The unit seems to be terribly overpriced as well. Plustek wants $600 for the BookReader, despite the fact that the OpticBook only costs $250 ? and has its own text-to-speech function. WIRED Reads books to you at the push of a button. Platen glass goes right to the edge to accommodate books without strain. Turns text into MP3s for portability. Includes several accessibility features to help the visually impaired. TIRED The included software lacks polish and seems rushed. Squat, ugly looks make it seem at home in a cubicle farm. The reader voice may not screw up often, but when it does, it's a doozy. High price nears gouging territory. $600, plustek.com Read our full Plustek BookReader V100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Photo: Dylan Tweeny/Wired.comApple's newest Shuffle (almost 50 percent smaller than previous Shuffles) could easily be mistaken for a stick of Trident, features no buttons, and pimps voice-identification technology. But even given its apparent readily consumable stature, there are a few features on the Shuffle that are a bit tough to swallow. The biggest gripe on the 4-GB Shuffle we tested is definitely the control set. First off, it's completely counterintuitive; Apple says you can easily use it without looking. We still don't have the hang of it after a few days of testing. What's worse, if you have a decent set of earbuds (say, a pair of Shures or Ultimate Ears) you're totally hosed — you'll have to endure the 'buds that come with the Shuffle or pick up specially made third-party headphones. Our recommendation? Pick up a new Shuffle only if you're prepared to deal with proprietary headphones and ambiguous controls. WIRED Thumb-drive size. Can double as a tie clip. Battery life lasts for 12 freaking hours. Short USB sync cord is sexy. Yes, we'll admit, it's another beautifully designed piece of hardware from Apple. Battery bonked out after 11 constant hours of blasting Thunderstruck on loop. TIRED Proprietary headphones required. Control set awkward to use, hard to get used to. So small, it nearly gets lost in the packaging it comes in. $80, apple.com Read our full Apple iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Rather than foam, gel or compressed-air cushioning, the soles on Newtons have a series of "actuator lugs" just below the ball of the foot. The lugs are designed to help encourage you to land on your forefoot, to protect that part of the foot, and (best yet) to propel you forward. When you land, the lugs push into hollow chambers in the midsole. This cushions your landing, and helps make it comfy to land midsole or forefoot rather than on the heel as you might be accustomed. As your foot moves forward, these lugs then essentially lever out, and as you lift your foot, they return the energy by pushing up and out in the same direction as your stride. Newton claims this makes them more efficient than traditional foam or gel soles that simply absorb energy but don't return it. WIRED So cozy they're like a Snuggie for your feet. Actuator lugs get you off your heels better than a La-Z-Boy. Lightweight at 10.2 ounces. Designed for all stride types. Stomps cold weather like global warming, and keeps out the drizzle for shizzle. TIRED Not waterproof. Worse on single-track trails than a skateboard. $175??? OMG, for that much money I could just pay somebody to run for me. $175, newtonrunning.com Read our full Newton All Weather Trainer review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The Firebird features a hybrid design — using 2.5-inch hard drives (two 320-GB models) and dual graphics cards originally designed for laptops — but powers it all with a desktop CPU and desktop-sized DIMMs. As with a laptop, wireless is built in, but the power supply is not: To save on wattage, HP breaks out the (enormous) power adapter instead of integrating it into the box. As cool as the Firebird is on the whole, it isn't without some foibles. The inclusion of an ExpressCard slot is on the baffling-to-useless side, and the external power supply (it's huge) is more annoying to deal with than it sounds. But our biggest gripe is that the Firebird's streamlined shell means it includes no front-mounted ports at all, not even a single USB slot for your thumb drive. Seriously HP, even the Mac Pro finds room for that. WIRED Amazingly quiet and conscientious in its power consumption. Outstanding design; belongs on top of the desk, not beneath it. Solid all-around performance at a fair price. TIRED No front USB port. Curvy design means you can't put anything on top of the case. Functionally locked down, with no real upgrade path. $2,100 (as tested), hp.com Read our full HP Firebird 803 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : I shouldn't love this truck. I should hate it. I purposely do not own a car, and this all-black behemoth represents everything I hate about SUV culture: conspicuous consumption, insensitivity to our rapidly shrinking world and crowded cities, middle finger raised at global warming. You could slap a cold fusion generator under Big Poppa Cadillac's hood and the first two issues would still apply, but I was kind of wrong about that last one. Have you ever seen Godzilla vs. Megalon? Where Godzilla fights on behalf of the people of Japan against a giant rhinoceros/cockroach? Sure, Tokyo's favorite monster still smashes a bunch of buildings and steps on some people, but he's trying to be good. Same goes for this Hybrid Chromedaddy. WIRED Decent pickup for a motorized bomb shelter. Combined ABS and regenerative braking system do a terrific job of hauling the beast down from speed. Trick motorized step makes it easy for shorties to climb into your rolling condo. TIRED Thing has a car phone. No, not Bluetooth, but an actual phone built into infotainment system. (It's actually just Onstar, but there was no other option for hands-free calling.) What is this, 1989? Cadillac — God love 'em — uses the fact that this is a hybrid as an excuse to bling up the truck even more: Hybrid badges are plastered on every hard surface, on the sides of the door, even the windshield. —Joe Brown $74,085 (as tested), Cadillac.com Read our full Cadillac Escalade Hybrid review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The Kindle 2 is zippier, with pages turning 20 percent faster (yes, you can tell the difference). It has more memory (2 gigabytes, enough for storing more than 1,500 books onboard). And it flaunts a more powerful built-in battery: Amazon claims that the Kindle lasts four to five days with the wireless on (we got 4.5 days in our first test) and up to two weeks with it off. After a week of limited wireless, my meter is around 50 percent. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice. That means that most users won't have to replace the battery (a $60 procedure) for about a decade or so. Looking over the horizon, it's clear that Amazon's biggest competitor in selling digital books will be Google, whose recent agreement with publishers and authors will make it the virtually exclusive seller for millions of books in copyright but not in print. But right now at least, the Google and Amazon formats aren't compatible: I was unsuccessful in getting a PDF of a public-domain book downloaded from Google to appear in readable form on my Kindle. WIRED The best e-reading system on the market. Welcome improvements to aesthetics, more functional industrial design, better graphics and longer battery life. Sleeker than the original: One-third of an inch thick and 10 ounces. TIRED Quite expensive. Book content shackled with DRM. Interface is improved, sure, but it could be even better. $360, amazon.com Read our full Amazon.com Kindle 2 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The iWOW adapter from SRS Labs promises to coax more "immersive" sound from your iPod, and it actually delivers — provided you're listening to the right kind of music. Setup is easy: Snap on the slick little 1-inch extension, plug in some spendy headphones, press a button, and you do indeed get a fuller sound with more depth — especially if you enjoy songs like Sting's "Fragile," a track hand-picked by SRS to highlight the effect. But when iWOW was applied to songs that were heavy on low-end thump or had multilayered sound (Exhibit A: Beck's "Cold Brains") the iWOW performed more like iMeh. At top volume, bass beats splintered, while at lower volumes tracks sounded muddled and crowded. SRS claims the device "dynamically locates and restores audio detail" and creates a more natural sound. We're not buying it — most of the audio we threw at the iWOW was punctuated with a subtle hiss and fuzzy bass. WIRED Relatively small adapter. Snaps easily onto your iPod and lends some oomph to certain tunes. TIRED The effect is nearly lost when using ear buds, the device won't work with older generation iPods, and music that already has a fair share of bass sounds muffled. $70, srslabs.com Read our full SRS Labs iWOW Adapter for iPod review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Leaps ahead of other cam phones, the Memoir's not limited to the 8 megapixels it captures. In shooting mode, the touchscreen has shutterbug controls — zoom, brightness, timer and flash — that float around the image. And just hitting the shutter will take you into camera mode. The Memoir includes a 1-GB microSD to augment the phone's 100 MB of storage (and it's an easy-access slot, rather than hidden under the battery). But for all its convenience, the Memoir simply isn't a competitor for even the lowliest of dedicated cameras. First off, it's pokey: slow to focus, slow to snap and very touchy when it comes to movement. And though it touts a 16x digital zoom, it has no optical-zooming option. WIRED Cool touchscreen and accelerometer helps you shoot or view pictures. Compact, pocket-friendly shape, even for hipsters in painted-on jeans. TIRED Vampiric light sensitivity makes for washed-out shots. Slow to focus, shoot and recover. E-mail functions are even slower. The screen is hard to see in sunlight. Lens cover doesn't close all the time, so the lens can get dusty. $300 (with 2-year contract), t-mobile.com Read our full Samsung Memoir. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : From the outside, the 1000HE doesn't look much different from other netbooks. But it's the machine's heart — the brand new 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor — that makes it faster, stronger, smarter than its opponents. Intel claims the silicon slab boosts computing power across the board, especially HD video playback — something that has been woefully horrid in past machines using Atom processors. It's not lying. This is the fastest netbook we've tested (by about 7 percent) in our benchmarks. And HD video playback was noticeably smoother and devoid of chop. WIRED The first netbook to feature the new Atom N280 chip. MMC and SD media reader slots. Attractive, pearly finish. Decent 1.3-megapixel webcam. TIRED At 3.1 pounds, it's one of the heaviest puppies in the netbook litter. Lame keyboard. $400 as tested, asus.com Read our full Asus Eee PC 1000HE review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The R50 is remarkably easy to set up and use. As you program each component into the remote using the setup wizard, you test a few controls to make sure it has the right code. The remote instantly recognized all our components, and it took us about 10 minutes to get the AV rig up and running. As part of the setup, you name each component, which then appears as an icon on the screen: in my case, a Sony HDTV, Yamaha amp/receiver, Squeezebox, Oppo DVD player and Soundmatters speaker. WIRED Cool, reddish backlight perfect for nighttime navigation. No computer or web connection needed for operation. No charging cradle required. TIRED No user manual means gizmo novices might get lost in setup. $150 price point isn't super pricey, but then it's not the cheapest universal remote out there. $150, universalremote.com Read our full Universal Remote Digital R50 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Like other watches in the 25-year-old G-Shock line, the MTG-1500 is forged with Mr. T levels of toughness: It can easily survive being banged clumsily against tabletops or whacked against a surfboard in a wipeout. And it's water-resistant to 200 meters. But unlike most other G-Shock watches, which are primarily plastic, the MTG-1500's body and band are stainless steel, with a few tasteful black plastic accents. We half expected to find the MTG-1500 lacking in minor features. Surprisingly, it didn't. It's got a stopwatch mode, dual time-zone support, five different alarms and a countdown timer. Free abundant sunlight or bright artificial light recharges the battery as you wear the watch. Once fully charged, the battery should be able to power the watch for 6 months without additional light. WIRED Handsome, two-toned steel-and-black styling doesn't blare "nerd," "Swatch-wearing poser" or "too lazy to take off my gym watch." Self-syncs with superaccurate official time stations. Gives you an excuse to say "solar" and "atomic" in the same sentence. TIRED Digital display too small and can be obscured by watch hands. LED provides uneven illumination in the dark. $500 can buy a timepiece that's much fancier, albeit not atomic. $500, casio.com Read our full Casio G-Shock MTG-1500 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The skinny on this countertop unit is pretty straightforward: It's the touch-based kitchen computer that won't put you out of house and home. Don't go rushing out to cash in that 401(k), though ? despite a recession-friendly price, the Eee Top still feels a little light in the loafers. The glossy white, semi-opaque keyboard and mouse look stylish out of the box, but after extended handling their light, plastic-y build became annoying. The slim chassis sat solid on our countertop, while the bright, 15.6-inch screen and the integrated speaker bar make up the majority of the Top's sleek profile. Rounding out the device are six USB ports, memory card reader, 1.3-MP web cam and integrated Wi-Fi. We were pretty bummed at the lack of an optical drive, though. WIRED An all-in-one for the Top Ramen set. Quick, responsive touch interface. Compact design has integrated storage for both keyboard and stylus. Integrated 802.11n and gigabit ethernet ensure throughput thrashings. One-touch shutoff button for hiding porn er, convenience. Runs whisper-quiet. TIRED Underpowered for heavy web video. A wired keyboard and mouse ? on an all-in-one?!? Heats up after extended poke/prod sessions. Anemic 160-GB hard drive. Even a cheapy, noisy optical drive would've been nice. No battery means no mobile computing. $600 (as tested), asus.com Read our full Asus ET1602 Eee Top review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : This camera is about the size and shape of a pack of chewing gum, and weighs just 0.68 ounces. It records videos at 352 x 288 pixels, encoding them in the 3-GP format used by many cellphones (the videos can be played on your computer using most media-player software, including QuickTime and RealPlayer). But the MovieStick is oozing with design flaws. The pinhole-sized lens is located on the long side of the device, rather than the short end, limiting your ability to go truly undercover. Add to that a confusing series of lights that supposedly indicate when the cam is charging, turned on or recording, and you end up with more than one inadvertent video of the floor. WIRED The smallest video camera we've seen yet. Simple to set up and use. Makes you look like a double agent. TIRED Location of camera lens makes it hard to go covert. No internal storage or memory card included. Recorded video is shakier and blurrier than outtakes from The Blair Witch Project. $120, swannsecurity.com Read our full Swann Micro-VideoCam Recorder review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Kodak?s Theatre HD's raison d'être is straightforward: to shuttle the contents of your PC directly to your television using ethernet or Wi-Fi. Pictures, videos, podcasts, music or any other digital content that may be living on your hard drive (as long as it's not squelched by some DRM straightjacket) can be whisked away by this tiny little box to your television with little to no fuss. What really sets the Theatre HD Player apart from the rest of the field is how immaculately it performs its tasks. Once you've downloaded Kodak's EasyShare display software, everything is pretty much taken care of. Have a hard drive filled with extra content? No problem. Simply hook it up to one of the player's USB ports and you're ready to go. WIRED Intuitive UI coupled with a handy RF remote makes setup and playback of multimedia a Zen-like experience. Wealth of connectivity options: component, HDMI, optical or RCA audio, dual USB ports. Transforms crappy YouTube video into semi-watchable content. TIRED Requires Kodak EasyShare software to get the streaming party started. No Mac compatibility (for now). Pricey, especially for a device without a hard drive. Needs more internet content. $300, Kodak Read our full Kodak Theatre HD Player review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.: Skidding in at 53 pounds (on the lighter side for this category), Ohm's mountain bike-inspired geometry and its nine-level power-assist and regeneration system make it a smart, nimble and efficient two-wheeler. On pavement and trail the BionX power plant, mounted on the rear hub, employs a unique sensor technology that is constantly adjusting the level of assistance it gives you based on the terrain. Encountering some mushy road? More power is delivered to the gears. Gliding down paved asphalt? The juice is dialed back. And if your thighs are flushed with lactic acid on a sheer hill, a flick of the trusty thumb throttle cracks the whip and the motor totally takes over, no pedaling required. But for all this innovation and comfort, you will, however, have to part with a spouse-enraging $3,450. Is it worth it? Well, it is a ton of fun. WIRED Excellent Shimano parts mix with disc brakes and RockShox suspension fork. Lockable battery compartment hides space for mobile phone, wallet, media player and your other little stuff. Regeneration mode gives extra on-bike battery life. Comfortable suspension seat post. Four- to six-hour charge time. TIRED Throttle position needs to be improved for optimal bike handling. Price steeper than any hill the bike can handle. $3450, Ohm Cycles Read our full Ohm Cycles XS700 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : For about $300 more than the average netbook, the UC7807u offers a scintillating array of grownup specs. Intel 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU? Check. 250-GB hard drive? Yep. 3 GB of memory, a glossy 13.3-inch display, a slot-loading optical drive and ports galore (three USB and an HDMI)? You betcha! Best of all, with its fetching brushed aluminum chassis, no one will mistake this for a budget notebook. Unfortunately, the UC7807u also has all the telltale signs of some obvious corner cutting. Forget about gaming. Due to Intel's torpid integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics card, even moderately intensive titles won't run properly. But our main beef with the UC7807u is the feeble 6-cell battery which clocked in at a disappointing 3 hours, 25 minutes — a full hour shorter than most other notebooks in this category. WIRED Recession-worthy price. Built like a tank. Slick, touch-sensitive volume and multimedia controls. TIRED Tips the scales for a notebook in this category. Battery drains faster than an ATM at a strip club. Epic fail on the tiny circular touchpad. It's cramped and serves no discernable purpose. Onboard speakers spit out tinny, distorted sound. HDMI, but no Blu-ray? $800 as tested, Gateway Read our full Gateway UC7807u review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : It's no wonder this watch ran away with my heart; for the competitive runner or multisport athlete seeking a personal best in 2009, the Polar RS800CX is the required training device. Because of incredibly robust desktop software, tracking of obscure performance metrics, and a wide variety of add-on sensors, the RS800CX can help you measure, analyze and improve nearly every aspect of your training program. WIRED Offers better heart-rate monitoring than your average hospital. Incredibly customizable from in-watch display, to software interface, to training programs. GPS and barometric altimeter combined with location tracking mean you'll never wonder where you wandered. Extensible pods make watch more sport-versatile than Lance Armstrong. TIRED Even beer goggles won't pretty up this ugly watch face. May need to hire a coach anyway — just to teach you how to use the PC-only desktop software. $500, Polar Read our full Polar RS800CX MULTI review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The pocket rocket we've been packing in our pants recently (full name: Optoma DLP EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector) is one of the first mini projectors to hit the market. It's also one of the best, even though a number of flaws spill from the tiny device. Styled like a '40s-era Zippo, the piano-black portable feels more natural in the hand than a lot of cellphones. But it's not size that matters to us, it's the video components! The projector is comprised of a combo-rig LED lamp and a DLP chip (courtesy of Texas Instruments) that sets the resolution at 480 x 320 pixels with a range output of 9 lumens. Yes, we know this is low compared to full-bodied projectors like Benq's gargantuan MP512 ST 2500-lumen projector but for something this small, it's remarkable. WIRED Perfect projector for parties. Rectangular lens creates wide image that keeps the image from stretching. Fine picture quality, 8-96 inches. Startup time > 4 seconds. Dead-sexy hardware. TIRED Lithium-ion batteries die after 2 hours' use; how are we supposed to watch our Battlestar marathon? Battery recharge time 4 frakkin' hours. Suck-tastic speaker. Unless you have a video-out adapter, you can't project Office docs from your PC. Projector gets hot enough to fry bacon after running 30 minutes. $400, Optoma Read our full Optoma EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Are you the schlemiel who's always dropping his cellphone or camera at parties? Or maybe you're the schlemazel who always gets the drink spilled on him? Either way, if you're looking for a camera to fit a clumsy or accident-prone lifestyle, the shockproof, waterproof, and cold-resistant Stylus 1050 SW can take the beating from fumbles, faceplants or full-speed crashes, and still keep clicking. About the size and shape as a pack of smokes, the 1050 is equipped with an accelerometer letting you tinker with settings by tapping on the top and the sides. This lets you do useful stuff like turn the flash on and off with a gloved mitt or preview pictures with one hand while you fend off a tiger shark with the other. WIRED Shockproof to 5 feet and waterproof 10 means you can bang it on the edge of the pool as you fall in with no harm done. Tap feature lets you change settings without futzing with buttons, and the camera can handle alpine frigidity with aplomb. Comes with a microSD adapter for greater media versatility. TIRED Lens cover slides more easily than Ricky Henderson. The battery is easily inserted backwards, making you think it's dead or the camera is malfunctioning. Weak zoom and poor macro ability; this camera could use a bifocal upgrade. $300, Olympus Read our full Olympus Stylus 1050 SW review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Touted as the thinnest and lightest BlackBerry yet, the Curve 8900 has some much-needed upgrades over its predecessor, but also some disappointments. Wi-Fi is hot and easy to set up, the camera got a bump to 3.2 megapixels, the 16 GB MicroSD storage can hold up to 20 hours of video, and the high-res screen is fantastic in any light. On the other hand, callers were hard to hear, documents were difficult to create, and RIM's revamped proprietary browser is good for surfing the Internet but isn't as smart about automatically resizing webpages as the browsers on competing smartphones. WIRED Slick, sexy design mashes the best of the Bold and Curve 8830. Brilliant, high-resolution screen is one of the best we've seen on a RIM device. Full HTML-rendering on websites. 3.2-megapixel camera is even better when paired with video-recording capabilities; 3.5mm headphone jack means no clumsy adapters. Near 5-hour battery life is most impressive. TIRED 3G is MIA. Despite the powerful 512-Mhz processor, the software still lags. New website and software don't perform as well as they should. Phone quality was mixed and loud speakers fail to compensate for somewhat distorted music playback. $200 with a two year contract, RIM Read our full RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : This handset (which arrives in some of the most gorgeous packaging I've ever seen a consumer electronic encased in) is almost laughably banal in its actual construction. A silver slider with wide-spaced keys, it posses a passing resemblance to the Nokia 5200, albeit with a larger (2.2-inch) screen. But, once you switch it on and start using it, things begin to get interesting. The operating system orbits around Facebook synchronization. Basically you take the phone online, pair it with your Facebook account, and all of your various Facebook applications become active on the mobile. Your Facebook address book syncs up with the phone's address book. Events from your Facebook calendar become part of the phone's calendar. Take a picture with the 3.2-megapixel camera, and you can automatically upload those shots to a Facebook album. WIRED Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile picture. Extremely cheap for an unlocked device. TIRED Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype. $112 (estimated), Three Read our full INQ1 Facebook Phone review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : HP has been tinkering with touch tech for a couple of years. But they have yet to nail the bull's eye with a machine that mixes mature hardware with a haptic interface that feels like more than just a half-assed effort. So, we were cautiously optimistic with the TouchSmart tx2z. The good news? As HP's first multitouch convertible tablet, it's got a lot of potential. Converting from notebook to tablet proved painless, thanks to a solid hinge and the included pen. After swinging the 1280 x 800 screen around (and folding it back), we found two goodies. First, using the pen automatically disables the touchscreen (to prevent palm-related havoc), and second, HP included an active digitizer for handwritten input. This made reckless activities like e-mailing while strolling around the block surprisingly easy. Even jotting down quick notes using a finger (instead of the pen) gave us minimal hassle. WIRED Fully baked as both a touch and tablet device. Travels well with its compact and stylish chassis. Includes quick keys for rotating screen orientation. Mini media remote and pen conveniently hide away in chassis. Altec Lansing speakers strike decent balance between volume and clarity. Extra goodies aplenty: biometric security, webcam, dual headphone jacks, 802.11n compatibility and 5-in-1 card reader. TIRED Bloated OS hinders performance of otherwise decent specs. Occasionally laggy switches between notebook and tablet mode. No multitouch love for the trackpad. Terrible viewing angles and weak visibility in direct sunlight. Fan sounds like a leaf-blower at a My Bloody Valentine show. $1550 (as tested), HP Read our full HP TouchSmart tx2z review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Nero's LiquidTV TiVo PC looks like a TiVo and acts like a TiVo, but, brother, it ain't no TiVo. Actually, the package makes your PC act like a TiVo by adding a USB TV tuner and the same TiVo software that drives the set-tops. You also get a for-reals TiVo remote and an IR receiver so you can command content from the couch. Ironically, that's where you're gonna get pissed. The remote can't launch the software, so you'll have to physically walk over and mouse it open. The remote can be programmed to turn your TV on and off, but it can't put your PC in standby mode or wake it up again. If you do that manually, the IR receiver fails to wake up with the rest of the system. WIRED Includes a one-year TiVo subscription, and after that it's a cheaper-than-set-top $99 per year. The software can auto-convert recordings to iPod or Sony PSP format. Integrates with any TiVo boxes you already have. Extra storage is just an external hard drive away. TIRED The remote lacks necessary PC controls. Not measurably better than Windows Media Center — which, incidentally, is free. The tuner supports ClearQAM, but the software doesn't, so forget digital channels unless you hook up the antenna. $125, Tivo Read our full Nero LiquidTV TiVo PC review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.
April 7, 1933: Gimme a Tall, Cold One
1933: Although it will be another eight months before Prohibition is officially repealed, this is a red-letter day for beer drinkers. Suds containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol by weight are legally obtainable again, without having to get the glad eye from some guy behind a peep hole and telling him, "Louie sent me." President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signature repealed the Volstead Act, legalizing 3.2 percent beer. It also paved the way for the December ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment and deep-sixed Prohibition altogether. The Volstead Act, which is how the National Prohibition Act was widely known, was pushed hard by religious and temperance groups and passed Congress in 1919 over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson. The prohibition movement had been active in the United States for 80 years before its adherents finally succeeded in ramming through an outright national ban on alcohol. The original movement lost some steam during the Civil War (soldiers drink; deal with it) but was revived with a vengeance by the Prohibition Party and Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Conservative Protestant groups formed the backbone of the prohibition movement, although dissenters popped up within that branch of Christianity. Scandinavian Lutherans, for example, favored proscribing alcohol, while their German brethren opposed any ban. The Baptists? They loved the idea, Northern and Southern alike. In any case, Prohibition was another instance of a motivated minority forcing its self-righteous views on the amorphous mass that is the unthinking, perhaps nonthinking, American public. Passage of a prohibition act, however, did nothing to slake the drinking man's thirst for alcohol. So the practical effect of Prohibition was to serve as a boon to organized crime during the Roaring '20s, with bootlegging and illegal speakeasies flourishing all over the country. Al Capone began his criminal career as a bootlegger, before diversifying his portfolio. Bootleggers smuggled legit booze, but could also get pretty creative in concocting home-brewed liquor. The quality of this stuff, known generically as bathtub gin (gin being the most popular distilled beverage of the day), varied widely. The worst of it could be lethal. With the stock market crash in 1929 and the coming of the Great Depression, opposition to Prohibition intensified. Plenty of people needed a drink now. The so-called Noble Experiment had run its course, and FDR was more than happy to heap dirt into its grave. Except for the bluenoses and the crooks, Prohibition's repeal was greeted enthusiastically by most Americans. Source: Various
1933: Although it will be another eight months before Prohibition is officially repealed, this is a red-letter day for beer drinkers. Suds containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol by weight are legally obtainable again, without having to get the glad eye from some guy behind a peep hole and telling him, "Louie sent me." President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signature repealed the Volstead Act, legalizing 3.2 percent beer. It also paved the way for the December ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment and deep-sixed Prohibition altogether. The Volstead Act, which is how the National Prohibition Act was widely known, was pushed hard by religious and temperance groups and passed Congress in 1919 over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson. The prohibition movement had been active in the United States for 80 years before its adherents finally succeeded in ramming through an outright national ban on alcohol. The original movement lost some steam during the Civil War (soldiers drink; deal with it) but was revived with a vengeance by the Prohibition Party and Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Conservative Protestant groups formed the backbone of the prohibition movement, although dissenters popped up within that branch of Christianity. Scandinavian Lutherans, for example, favored proscribing alcohol, while their German brethren opposed any ban. The Baptists? They loved the idea, Northern and Southern alike. In any case, Prohibition was another instance of a motivated minority forcing its self-righteous views on the amorphous mass that is the unthinking, perhaps nonthinking, American public. Passage of a prohibition act, however, did nothing to slake the drinking man's thirst for alcohol. So the practical effect of Prohibition was to serve as a boon to organized crime during the Roaring '20s, with bootlegging and illegal speakeasies flourishing all over the country. Al Capone began his criminal career as a bootlegger, before diversifying his portfolio. Bootleggers smuggled legit booze, but could also get pretty creative in concocting home-brewed liquor. The quality of this stuff, known generically as bathtub gin (gin being the most popular distilled beverage of the day), varied widely. The worst of it could be lethal. With the stock market crash in 1929 and the coming of the Great Depression, opposition to Prohibition intensified. Plenty of people needed a drink now. The so-called Noble Experiment had run its course, and FDR was more than happy to heap dirt into its grave. Except for the bluenoses and the crooks, Prohibition's repeal was greeted enthusiastically by most Americans. Source: Various
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Cisco promises world changer with CRS-3
David Neal, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:55:00 New Carrier Routing System to power the next-generation internet, says Chambers Cisco has launched its Carrier Routing System 3 (CRS-3), which it claims is a "very important" addition to internet technology and will provide a significant boost to the delivery of video. CRS-3 is designed to serve as the foundation of the next-generation internet, the firm said, and will "set the pace for the astonishing growth of video transmission, mobile devices and new online services through this decade and beyond". "Video lets us participate in a very collaborative way. It brings the services within the cloud to life all the way from the datacentre to the home," said Cisco chairman and chief executive John Chambers. The company claimed that CRS-3 has almost 12 times the capacity of competing products, and can handle up to 322Tbit/s. Cisco explained that this transmission speed could let every person in China make a video call simultaneously, for example, or download every film ever made in just four minutes. "The next-generation internet is upon us, and we are confident that CRS-3 will play a crucial role as service providers like AT&T deliver an exciting new array of video, mobile, datacentre and cloud services," said Pankaj Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's service provider business. "CRS-3 is well positioned to carry on the tradition of CRS-1, and will become the flagship router of the future and serve as the foundation for the world's most intelligent and advanced broadband networks." CRS-3 is powered by Cisco's new QuantumFlow Array Processor, which "unifies the combined power of six chips to work as one", according to the firm.
David Neal, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:55:00 New Carrier Routing System to power the next-generation internet, says Chambers Cisco has launched its Carrier Routing System 3 (CRS-3), which it claims is a "very important" addition to internet technology and will provide a significant boost to the delivery of video. CRS-3 is designed to serve as the foundation of the next-generation internet, the firm said, and will "set the pace for the astonishing growth of video transmission, mobile devices and new online services through this decade and beyond". "Video lets us participate in a very collaborative way. It brings the services within the cloud to life all the way from the datacentre to the home," said Cisco chairman and chief executive John Chambers. The company claimed that CRS-3 has almost 12 times the capacity of competing products, and can handle up to 322Tbit/s. Cisco explained that this transmission speed could let every person in China make a video call simultaneously, for example, or download every film ever made in just four minutes. "The next-generation internet is upon us, and we are confident that CRS-3 will play a crucial role as service providers like AT&T deliver an exciting new array of video, mobile, datacentre and cloud services," said Pankaj Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's service provider business. "CRS-3 is well positioned to carry on the tradition of CRS-1, and will become the flagship router of the future and serve as the foundation for the world's most intelligent and advanced broadband networks." CRS-3 is powered by Cisco's new QuantumFlow Array Processor, which "unifies the combined power of six chips to work as one", according to the firm.
Nominet consults on short .uk domain names
Dan Worth, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:42:00 Registry gears up for one-letter, two-letter and single-number domains Nominet has announced a three-month consultation to decide how it should release one-letter, two-letter and single-number domains for registration. The organisation, which owns the national registry for all .uk domain names ending .co.uk, .org.uk and .me.uk, is currently unable to offer the short domains owing to the rules set up at the organisation's founding in 1996. Nominet is now proposing to lift these restrictions as the technical and policy reasons for withholding these domains have ceased to be relevant. Nick Wenban-Smith, senior legal counsel at Nominet, said that the consultation period will give companies and stakeholders a chance to offer their opinions on Nominet's planned approach. "After much discussion the policy committee of Nominet decided that a 'sunrise' approach, like that used for the rollout of the .eu and .asia domains, is the best way to offer the new domains to ensure that key combinations are fairly assigned," he said. The 'sunrise' approach uses a three-stage system. The first stage sees domains offered to companies with the exact combination of letters registered as a trademark. If two firms with the same trademark apply, an auction is held and the proceeds given to charity. The second stage allows companies without the exact combination of letters registered as a trademark to apply for domains if they have a strong, justifiable reason to own the domain. Wenban-Smith said that Nominet usually gives priority to not-for-profit organisations or charities in these instances. The third stage is a 'land rush' in which any remaining domains are assigned on a first-come first-served basis. Wenban-Smith said that the 'land rush' system will probably be used for the new domains made available on the .me.uk suffix, as these can be registered only by individuals. "Very few individuals have their own name trademarked, so after the consultation period we may well come to the conclusion that it would be more straightforward to go straight to a land rush approach for these domains," he said. The small number of possible one-letter, two-letter and single-number combinations means that there will only be around 2,300 new domains on offer. Additionally, some short domains are already in existence on .co.uk as they were formed before Nominet was created. These include .bt, .vw and .it. The consultation closes on 8 June when Nominet will publish a summary of all responses before developing recommendations for the final release of the new domains. Feedback can be submitted via an online survey or by emailing shortdomains@nominet.org.uk.
Dan Worth, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:42:00 Registry gears up for one-letter, two-letter and single-number domains Nominet has announced a three-month consultation to decide how it should release one-letter, two-letter and single-number domains for registration. The organisation, which owns the national registry for all .uk domain names ending .co.uk, .org.uk and .me.uk, is currently unable to offer the short domains owing to the rules set up at the organisation's founding in 1996. Nominet is now proposing to lift these restrictions as the technical and policy reasons for withholding these domains have ceased to be relevant. Nick Wenban-Smith, senior legal counsel at Nominet, said that the consultation period will give companies and stakeholders a chance to offer their opinions on Nominet's planned approach. "After much discussion the policy committee of Nominet decided that a 'sunrise' approach, like that used for the rollout of the .eu and .asia domains, is the best way to offer the new domains to ensure that key combinations are fairly assigned," he said. The 'sunrise' approach uses a three-stage system. The first stage sees domains offered to companies with the exact combination of letters registered as a trademark. If two firms with the same trademark apply, an auction is held and the proceeds given to charity. The second stage allows companies without the exact combination of letters registered as a trademark to apply for domains if they have a strong, justifiable reason to own the domain. Wenban-Smith said that Nominet usually gives priority to not-for-profit organisations or charities in these instances. The third stage is a 'land rush' in which any remaining domains are assigned on a first-come first-served basis. Wenban-Smith said that the 'land rush' system will probably be used for the new domains made available on the .me.uk suffix, as these can be registered only by individuals. "Very few individuals have their own name trademarked, so after the consultation period we may well come to the conclusion that it would be more straightforward to go straight to a land rush approach for these domains," he said. The small number of possible one-letter, two-letter and single-number combinations means that there will only be around 2,300 new domains on offer. Additionally, some short domains are already in existence on .co.uk as they were formed before Nominet was created. These include .bt, .vw and .it. The consultation closes on 8 June when Nominet will publish a summary of all responses before developing recommendations for the final release of the new domains. Feedback can be submitted via an online survey or by emailing shortdomains@nominet.org.uk.
ISPs escape further Digital Economy Bill burdens
Rosalie Marshall, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:30:00 Amendment concerning web filtering to protect children dropped for the time being Internet service providers (ISPs) escaped being saddled with further regulation yesterday when the Digital Economy Bill completed its report stage in the House of Lords. The Lords debated issues such as whether ISPs should be made more responsible for the safety of children on the internet. Baroness Howe of Idlicote said that ISPs should be obliged to provide customers with details of how they can filter internet content, and that the self-regulation approach advanced by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (CCIS) is not enough. The CCIS promotes the British Standards Institute filtering kitemark so that people considering filtering options can identify reliable technology. However, the amendment was dropped for the time being because it would mean increased burdens on ISPs and substantial government expense to ensure compliance. The Digital Economy Bill has already proposed two new regulations for ISPs aimed at reducing illegal downloading. The so-called 'three strikes' legislation would see culprits kicked off the internet after multiple attempts to download copyrighted material. The House of Lords then proposed amendment 120A last week, which would give copyright holders the power to pressure ISPs into restricting certain web sites seen to be promoting illegal file sharing. If the ISP fails to cut off the internet access, the copyright holder can apply to the courts to force the ISP to comply and the ISP would then be liable for legal costs. ISPs have protested against both forms of regulation, mainly because of the costs involved. Amendment 120A stirred many protests last week, and there had been some anticipation that the Lords would debate the issue of web site restriction again yesterday, but there was no mention of the amendment in the discussions. The Bill will enter its third reading in the House of Lords on Monday for a final discussion before it goes to the House of Commons.
Rosalie Marshall, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:30:00 Amendment concerning web filtering to protect children dropped for the time being Internet service providers (ISPs) escaped being saddled with further regulation yesterday when the Digital Economy Bill completed its report stage in the House of Lords. The Lords debated issues such as whether ISPs should be made more responsible for the safety of children on the internet. Baroness Howe of Idlicote said that ISPs should be obliged to provide customers with details of how they can filter internet content, and that the self-regulation approach advanced by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (CCIS) is not enough. The CCIS promotes the British Standards Institute filtering kitemark so that people considering filtering options can identify reliable technology. However, the amendment was dropped for the time being because it would mean increased burdens on ISPs and substantial government expense to ensure compliance. The Digital Economy Bill has already proposed two new regulations for ISPs aimed at reducing illegal downloading. The so-called 'three strikes' legislation would see culprits kicked off the internet after multiple attempts to download copyrighted material. The House of Lords then proposed amendment 120A last week, which would give copyright holders the power to pressure ISPs into restricting certain web sites seen to be promoting illegal file sharing. If the ISP fails to cut off the internet access, the copyright holder can apply to the courts to force the ISP to comply and the ISP would then be liable for legal costs. ISPs have protested against both forms of regulation, mainly because of the costs involved. Amendment 120A stirred many protests last week, and there had been some anticipation that the Lords would debate the issue of web site restriction again yesterday, but there was no mention of the amendment in the discussions. The Bill will enter its third reading in the House of Lords on Monday for a final discussion before it goes to the House of Commons.
Telephony sales continue to slump
Doug Woodburn, CRN, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:23:00 Global shipments down 10 per cent in Q4 Despite the recent rebound in PC sales, figures from MZA reveal the embattled telephony market continued to shrink in the final quarter of 2009. The market watcher says more than 13 million corded PBX extensions were shipped globally in the three months to 31 December, 10 per cent down on 2008. With year-on-year drops of more than 20 per cent registered in each of the three previous quarters ? including a 30 per cent plunge in Q1 ? MZA stressed that Q4 was an improvement on the rest of the year. Total 2009 shipments fell 22 per cent. Globally, networking daddy Cisco held onto the gold-medal position with a 12 per cent share, followed by Panasonic and NEC on 11 per cent. Alcatel-Lucent ruled the roost in EMEA. IP desktop deployments continued to gain momentum accounting for 30 per cent of total extensions in Q4 and 29 per cent for the whole year. Regionally, western Europe was roughly on a par with the global figure as full-year shipments in the region fell 18 per cent. Eastern Europe declined by more than 50 per cent.
Doug Woodburn, CRN, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:23:00 Global shipments down 10 per cent in Q4 Despite the recent rebound in PC sales, figures from MZA reveal the embattled telephony market continued to shrink in the final quarter of 2009. The market watcher says more than 13 million corded PBX extensions were shipped globally in the three months to 31 December, 10 per cent down on 2008. With year-on-year drops of more than 20 per cent registered in each of the three previous quarters ? including a 30 per cent plunge in Q1 ? MZA stressed that Q4 was an improvement on the rest of the year. Total 2009 shipments fell 22 per cent. Globally, networking daddy Cisco held onto the gold-medal position with a 12 per cent share, followed by Panasonic and NEC on 11 per cent. Alcatel-Lucent ruled the roost in EMEA. IP desktop deployments continued to gain momentum accounting for 30 per cent of total extensions in Q4 and 29 per cent for the whole year. Regionally, western Europe was roughly on a par with the global figure as full-year shipments in the region fell 18 per cent. Eastern Europe declined by more than 50 per cent.
Probrand claims NHS spending win
Caroline Donnelly, CRN, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:03:00 VAR attributes NHS savings to e-procurement strategy VAR Probrand claims to have helped the NHS save £2m on the cost of USB devices. The Birmingham-based VAR is the only reseller contracted to supply the NHS with Safestick USB devices. The firm attributed the money its partnership has saved the NHS to its public sector-specific online shop, which it claims provides users with ?cashable savings?. Richard Hunter-Rice, sales manager at Probrand, said: ?With the streamlined e-procurement approach we offer coupled with a department equipped to provide impartial guidance, the NHS is able to access the best priced products ahead of the spending review.?
Caroline Donnelly, CRN, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 17:03:00 VAR attributes NHS savings to e-procurement strategy VAR Probrand claims to have helped the NHS save £2m on the cost of USB devices. The Birmingham-based VAR is the only reseller contracted to supply the NHS with Safestick USB devices. The firm attributed the money its partnership has saved the NHS to its public sector-specific online shop, which it claims provides users with ?cashable savings?. Richard Hunter-Rice, sales manager at Probrand, said: ?With the streamlined e-procurement approach we offer coupled with a department equipped to provide impartial guidance, the NHS is able to access the best priced products ahead of the spending review.?
China joins India with formal backing for Copenhagen Accord
BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:54:00 All major greenhouse gas emitters bar Russia have now formally endorsed Copenhagen deal China has today joined with India in formally signing up to the Copenhagen Accord, making it the last major emerging economy to endorse the controversial agreement. In a letter to the UN climate change secretariat, Chinese climate negotiator Su Wei said the UN could "proceed to include China in the list" of countries that formally support the agreement and have made voluntary pledges to tackle domestic carbon emissions. The news comes just hours after Indian environment secretary Jairam Ramesh told the country's parliament that India had similarly agreed to be formally listed in the Copenhagen Accord. More than 100 countries have now said they wish to be formally "associated" with the Accord, which pledges to limit temperature rises to two degrees and includes commitments to increase climate funding for developing countries. It also requires industrialised countries to table emission reduction targets for 2020 and developing countries to provide detailed climate change action plans. Attention will now turn to Russia, which is the last remaining major greenhouse gas emitter not to formally endorse the agreement. China and India had been central to the tense negotiations with the US, Brazil and South Africa that delivered the Accord. However, while both countries provided details of their commitments to reduce the carbon intensity of their economies, they failed to initially formalise their support for the agreement. The delay was widely thought to be prompted by fears among some developing countries that the Accord would be used to sideline the negotiating framework set out in the existing Kyoto Treaty. The move should provide a shot in the arm for faltering international climate change negotiations and means all the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, including the US, the EU, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and Mexico have now formally endorsed the agreement.
BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:54:00 All major greenhouse gas emitters bar Russia have now formally endorsed Copenhagen deal China has today joined with India in formally signing up to the Copenhagen Accord, making it the last major emerging economy to endorse the controversial agreement. In a letter to the UN climate change secretariat, Chinese climate negotiator Su Wei said the UN could "proceed to include China in the list" of countries that formally support the agreement and have made voluntary pledges to tackle domestic carbon emissions. The news comes just hours after Indian environment secretary Jairam Ramesh told the country's parliament that India had similarly agreed to be formally listed in the Copenhagen Accord. More than 100 countries have now said they wish to be formally "associated" with the Accord, which pledges to limit temperature rises to two degrees and includes commitments to increase climate funding for developing countries. It also requires industrialised countries to table emission reduction targets for 2020 and developing countries to provide detailed climate change action plans. Attention will now turn to Russia, which is the last remaining major greenhouse gas emitter not to formally endorse the agreement. China and India had been central to the tense negotiations with the US, Brazil and South Africa that delivered the Accord. However, while both countries provided details of their commitments to reduce the carbon intensity of their economies, they failed to initially formalise their support for the agreement. The delay was widely thought to be prompted by fears among some developing countries that the Accord would be used to sideline the negotiating framework set out in the existing Kyoto Treaty. The move should provide a shot in the arm for faltering international climate change negotiations and means all the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, including the US, the EU, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and Mexico have now formally endorsed the agreement.
Vodafone ships handset riddled with malware
Dan Worth, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:34:00 Spanish customer buys HTC Magic preloaded with Mariposa botnet client Vodafone has shipped a handset in Spain that contained data-stealing malware, according to new revelations from Panda Research. The security firm said that it found an HTC Magic device running Google's Android platform, and containing a Mariposa botnet client, among other malware. Pedro Bustamante, senior research advisor at Panda, explained in a blog post how the virus works. "Once infected you can see the malware 'phoning home' to receive further instructions, probably to steal all of the user's credentials and send them to the malware writer," he said. A Vodafone spokesman said that the company is investigating the incident, which it believes is limited to a single handset. He also speculated on how the malware may have found its way onto the device. "The most likely cause of this infection is that someone will have sent the device back to Vodafone in a box that looked sealed, when in fact it had been tampered with," he said. The spokesman added that Vodafone takes complaints of this nature very seriously, and that all quality assurance, security and privacy processes are updated to meet any new threats. Bustamante said that Panda Research is purchasing more handsets to study the extent of the problem, and that the device also carried Conficker and Lineage password-stealing malware.
Dan Worth, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:34:00 Spanish customer buys HTC Magic preloaded with Mariposa botnet client Vodafone has shipped a handset in Spain that contained data-stealing malware, according to new revelations from Panda Research. The security firm said that it found an HTC Magic device running Google's Android platform, and containing a Mariposa botnet client, among other malware. Pedro Bustamante, senior research advisor at Panda, explained in a blog post how the virus works. "Once infected you can see the malware 'phoning home' to receive further instructions, probably to steal all of the user's credentials and send them to the malware writer," he said. A Vodafone spokesman said that the company is investigating the incident, which it believes is limited to a single handset. He also speculated on how the malware may have found its way onto the device. "The most likely cause of this infection is that someone will have sent the device back to Vodafone in a box that looked sealed, when in fact it had been tampered with," he said. The spokesman added that Vodafone takes complaints of this nature very seriously, and that all quality assurance, security and privacy processes are updated to meet any new threats. Bustamante said that Panda Research is purchasing more handsets to study the extent of the problem, and that the device also carried Conficker and Lineage password-stealing malware.
HP workers picket for a second day
Nicola Brittain, Computing, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:34:00 But the company and union will have further talks at the end of the week Some 200 HP employees and members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union have gone on strike for a second day today. The strikers, who are based in the north and work for the Department of Work and Pensions, picketed their working colleagues throughout the day, according to national officer at the PCS, Jim Hanson. ?We were worried that some members would think that the two day strike was too long and that there would be a lower turnout, but we have been pleasantly surprised at the support,? said Hanson. The union will decide on their next move following talks with the company due to take place at the end of the week. HP issued the following statement: ?We are disappointed to confirm that a number of employees have voted in favour of local industrial action on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th March. An agreement was reached with the PCS?s negotiating team, brokered through ACAS on 22nd February, but this was subsequently rejected by the union?s membership.? ?In co-operation with our client(s) we have put together a plan to mitigate the impact of the two day action. We will continue to maintain a dialogue with the union in an attempt to avoid any further form of action.?
Nicola Brittain, Computing, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:34:00 But the company and union will have further talks at the end of the week Some 200 HP employees and members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union have gone on strike for a second day today. The strikers, who are based in the north and work for the Department of Work and Pensions, picketed their working colleagues throughout the day, according to national officer at the PCS, Jim Hanson. ?We were worried that some members would think that the two day strike was too long and that there would be a lower turnout, but we have been pleasantly surprised at the support,? said Hanson. The union will decide on their next move following talks with the company due to take place at the end of the week. HP issued the following statement: ?We are disappointed to confirm that a number of employees have voted in favour of local industrial action on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th March. An agreement was reached with the PCS?s negotiating team, brokered through ACAS on 22nd February, but this was subsequently rejected by the union?s membership.? ?In co-operation with our client(s) we have put together a plan to mitigate the impact of the two day action. We will continue to maintain a dialogue with the union in an attempt to avoid any further form of action.?
Opera users baffled by vulnerability warnings
David Neal, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:32:00 Security vendors sending out misleading information, claims Secunia Confusion about the severity of a newly reported Opera flaw could be harming efforts to mitigate the threat, according to experts. Secunia claimed in a blog post that security companies are sending out mixed messages about the vulnerability, including inaccurate information on its effects and causes. The security firm said that it had spent time properly analysing the flaw's impact, and had concluded that it is far less severe than users may have been led to believe. "Before issuing a Secunia advisory, a security specialist was tasked with thoroughly analysing the vulnerability report, the cause of the crash and its potential impact," wrote Carsten Eiram, chief security specialist at Secunia. Eiram explained that the vulnerability is not caused by an integer overflow error, as other security companies have reported. "Instead, in certain cases when a 64-bit 'Content-Length' value is interpreted as negative, the higher 32-bit value is ignored and the lower 32-bit value is used to copy data," he said. "It is therefore possible to manipulate the size value in a manner to successfully corrupt memory and occasionally cause conditions where it is possible to gain control of the execution flow." Eiram went on to assert that at least one of Secunia's competitors misled users. "At least one other site did, as usual, abuse the opportunity to hype the vulnerability and refer to it as a zero-day, which is misleading as no working exploit has been published nor is the vulnerability being actively exploited," he wrote. "Instead, it was an uncoordinated, commonly termed 'irresponsible', disclosure as the vulnerability report was published without the reporter first informing the vendor." Secunia has worked with Opera in analysing the issue, and the browser maker has promised to issue a security advisory and a fix as soon as possible.
David Neal, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:32:00 Security vendors sending out misleading information, claims Secunia Confusion about the severity of a newly reported Opera flaw could be harming efforts to mitigate the threat, according to experts. Secunia claimed in a blog post that security companies are sending out mixed messages about the vulnerability, including inaccurate information on its effects and causes. The security firm said that it had spent time properly analysing the flaw's impact, and had concluded that it is far less severe than users may have been led to believe. "Before issuing a Secunia advisory, a security specialist was tasked with thoroughly analysing the vulnerability report, the cause of the crash and its potential impact," wrote Carsten Eiram, chief security specialist at Secunia. Eiram explained that the vulnerability is not caused by an integer overflow error, as other security companies have reported. "Instead, in certain cases when a 64-bit 'Content-Length' value is interpreted as negative, the higher 32-bit value is ignored and the lower 32-bit value is used to copy data," he said. "It is therefore possible to manipulate the size value in a manner to successfully corrupt memory and occasionally cause conditions where it is possible to gain control of the execution flow." Eiram went on to assert that at least one of Secunia's competitors misled users. "At least one other site did, as usual, abuse the opportunity to hype the vulnerability and refer to it as a zero-day, which is misleading as no working exploit has been published nor is the vulnerability being actively exploited," he wrote. "Instead, it was an uncoordinated, commonly termed 'irresponsible', disclosure as the vulnerability report was published without the reporter first informing the vendor." Secunia has worked with Opera in analysing the issue, and the browser maker has promised to issue a security advisory and a fix as soon as possible.
Cut science funds and damage economic prospects warn influential science pros
IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:06:00 If the UK does not invest heavily in science and research, it will face decades of slow economic decline, warn experts including former ministers, researchers, and business info pros A report published by Royal Society, the national academy of science of the UK and the Commonwealth, cautioned that Britain?s current advantage is in danger of being wiped out by the US, China, India, France and Germany who have ramped up spending in science to boost their economies. The Scientific Century: securing our future prosperity report highlighted the successful but fragile nature of the UK's innovation economy after industry experts assessed the role of science in strategy for economic growth. Sir Martin Taylor, chair of the report's advisory group said: "As France announces a new ?35bn investment in the knowledge economy, the UK cuts university budgets by £600m, with the threat of more to come. ?The UK has been in the top two of the scientific premier league for the last 350 years. It would seem obvious that politicians would recognise the need to invest in this competitive advantage rather than cutting funds." The report also highlighted US? announcement of a $21bn boost for science and recent claims from American scientists that they will steal UK?s finest minds if investment here slips. In addition to the US and France commitment to science, the German government has said it will increase federal budget for education and research by ?12bn by 2013 and China increases its science spending by 20% every year since a decade now. Lord Waldegrave, provost of Eton College and former science minister said: " Times are tough but this is exactly when you need to invest in the future and focus spending where you already have an advantage. ?Investment in science cannot be turned on and off on a political whim - we must have a long-term investment. If we cut science now, just as the benefits of nearly twenty years of consistent policy are really beginning to bear fruit, we will seriously damage our economic prospects." The report busted the myth that the UK is good at science but bad at exploiting its results and highlighted the emergence of an innovation economy in the UK with universities becoming fledgling economic powerhouses. The report noted that patents granted to UK universities have increased by 136% between 2000 and 2008 and university spin outs employed 14,000 people in 2007/08 and had a turnover of £1.1bn. But it found that business R&D as a weakness for the UK. In 2007 British companies spent 1.14% of GDP on R&D while in the US spent 1.9% and Germany 1.8%. Experts' recommendations include ? creating a 15 year framework for science and innovation, with increased spending; prioritising investment in scientific skills and infrastructure, such as laboratories and equipment; better aligning science and innovation with global challenges; revitalising science and mathematics education; and expanding the R&D tax credit. Lord Sainsbury, the former science minister and member of the advisory group said: "We cannot compete with countries such as China and India on the basis of low wages, and science and innovation must, therefore, be the basis of the strategy for growth which we need to have as we go into a tough period of fiscal consolidation." Dr David Roblin, senior vice-president global R&D at Pfizer said: "We bring together chemists, biologists, mathematicians, computer scientists and clinicians ? the UK has world leaders in all of these fields. "The new medicines produced by our European R&D headquarters illustrate what can be achieved if industrial and academic research can come together in a centre of biomedical scientific excellence, as has developed here in the UK."
IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:06:00 If the UK does not invest heavily in science and research, it will face decades of slow economic decline, warn experts including former ministers, researchers, and business info pros A report published by Royal Society, the national academy of science of the UK and the Commonwealth, cautioned that Britain?s current advantage is in danger of being wiped out by the US, China, India, France and Germany who have ramped up spending in science to boost their economies. The Scientific Century: securing our future prosperity report highlighted the successful but fragile nature of the UK's innovation economy after industry experts assessed the role of science in strategy for economic growth. Sir Martin Taylor, chair of the report's advisory group said: "As France announces a new ?35bn investment in the knowledge economy, the UK cuts university budgets by £600m, with the threat of more to come. ?The UK has been in the top two of the scientific premier league for the last 350 years. It would seem obvious that politicians would recognise the need to invest in this competitive advantage rather than cutting funds." The report also highlighted US? announcement of a $21bn boost for science and recent claims from American scientists that they will steal UK?s finest minds if investment here slips. In addition to the US and France commitment to science, the German government has said it will increase federal budget for education and research by ?12bn by 2013 and China increases its science spending by 20% every year since a decade now. Lord Waldegrave, provost of Eton College and former science minister said: " Times are tough but this is exactly when you need to invest in the future and focus spending where you already have an advantage. ?Investment in science cannot be turned on and off on a political whim - we must have a long-term investment. If we cut science now, just as the benefits of nearly twenty years of consistent policy are really beginning to bear fruit, we will seriously damage our economic prospects." The report busted the myth that the UK is good at science but bad at exploiting its results and highlighted the emergence of an innovation economy in the UK with universities becoming fledgling economic powerhouses. The report noted that patents granted to UK universities have increased by 136% between 2000 and 2008 and university spin outs employed 14,000 people in 2007/08 and had a turnover of £1.1bn. But it found that business R&D as a weakness for the UK. In 2007 British companies spent 1.14% of GDP on R&D while in the US spent 1.9% and Germany 1.8%. Experts' recommendations include ? creating a 15 year framework for science and innovation, with increased spending; prioritising investment in scientific skills and infrastructure, such as laboratories and equipment; better aligning science and innovation with global challenges; revitalising science and mathematics education; and expanding the R&D tax credit. Lord Sainsbury, the former science minister and member of the advisory group said: "We cannot compete with countries such as China and India on the basis of low wages, and science and innovation must, therefore, be the basis of the strategy for growth which we need to have as we go into a tough period of fiscal consolidation." Dr David Roblin, senior vice-president global R&D at Pfizer said: "We bring together chemists, biologists, mathematicians, computer scientists and clinicians ? the UK has world leaders in all of these fields. "The new medicines produced by our European R&D headquarters illustrate what can be achieved if industrial and academic research can come together in a centre of biomedical scientific excellence, as has developed here in the UK."