MacBook Touch Concept

A transparent, multitouch display that acts as a control surface on both sides, the MacBook Touch concept is based on one of Apple’s latest patents: using a transparent multitouch display that can work as a control surface whether it’s open or closed. The moment the computer is opened, the surface will display a keyboard or any other kind of user interface.

Toshiba’s Media Server

Merging telephone and TV with wireless HD technology, the Toshiba media server allows you to automatically download media files from your cell phone, using near field communication technology, which can then be displayed from the media server to a wireless HD 1080p TV. The idea is that you can transfer media files in a snap with this easy-to-use octagonal device.
HP LiM (Less is More) Concept

Featuring a 19-inch OLED transparent touchscreen that slides down for better handling, this slick-looking device has a wireless keyboard, virtual trackpad, and uses Bamboo fabric across the aluminum frame.
B-membrane

Eliminating the need for a bulky monitor, the B-membrane, designed by Won-Seok Lee has a built-in projector that can be beamed onto any surface. The membrane keyboard only appears when needed and when not being used as a computer, the projector can be used to produce ambient lighting effects.
Shark Mouse

Designed as an eco-friendly alternative to the regular computer mouse, this shark-like concept is made from recyclable thermoplastic, has removed any extra mouse-parts such as the rest for your palm and has minimum surface contact in order to reduce friction. As sleek as the design is, I’m not sure how comfortable it looks if you’re using it for a longer period of time.
P-ISM Pen-style Personal Computer

The P-ISM is described as a “pen-computer package” includes five functions: a pen-style cellular phone with a handwriting data input, virtual keyboard, a very small projector, camera scanner, and personal ID key with cashless pass function. P-ISMs are connected with one another through short-range wireless technology. The whole set is also connected to the Internet through the cellular phone function. This personal gadget in a minimalist pen style enables the ultimate ubiquitous computing.
Rolltop Computer

The Rolltop is a concept by Orkin Design, which can be rolled up and transported just like a yoga mat. The laptop has a flexible OLED display with multitouch capabilities. With the weight of a mini-notebook, it easily transforms into a graphics tablet, with a 17-inch flat screen that can be used as a primary monitor. It can also be folded into a 13-inch tablet.

Bookshelf

In a future where less is more, the Bookshelf concept seems to have an awful lot of parts to it, but just wait to hear how it works. Resembling and functioning just like a bookshelf, instead of placing books and magazines on this shelf you are placing hardware. The foundation of the computer is its central processing unit, which is a 7-inch cube. The Bookshelf operates with add-on hard drive attachments that are supplied by digital service providers. According to one of it’s designers, Sungho Son, “Digital contents are downloaded through subscriptions, then arranged in each hardware attachment, which are provided by the subscription’s service. The physical configuration of the unit permits users to visually navigate the categories of content as they do with books on a bookshelf.”

The hardware attachments – containing multiple movies, games, or magazines – will vary in width, but its other dimensions will be the same as the Bookshelf cube. As the hardware attachments are added, the Bookshelf becomes its own multimedia library custom-built by its owner.
Yuno PC

Probably the only computer that you can pour a whole cup of coffee into, the Yuno PC incorporates all your important morning alerts from the weather, traffic reports, stocks and more, on its touchscreen display.
Eye-Controlled Computer

A gadget designed to help make a computer controllable for a person with a disability, the camera is locked close to the user’s eye and is programmed to detect the eye’s behaviour, also capable of perceiving head movements. Data from the detector is sent to a control unit and generated into orders the computer will understand. The cursor on the monitor receives all the commands and follows the eyeball. A quick close of the eye is interpreted as a click, whereas a prolonged eye closing means double click.

http://blog.sherweb.com/10-computer-and-tech-concepts-we-hope-come-true/

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2728/4256048607_449fb332b8_o.jpg

With 35.5 percent votes, Wi-Fi has beaten Sky+, Sat Navs, iPods and Blackberries to win the poll conducted by a leading gadget magazine.

In the survey by ‘Stuff’ magazine, the readers were asked to choose the greatest technological innovation of the past ten years.

More than a third voted for Wireless Internet.

SKY+, the personal video recorders (PVR) by Sky, at the second place, has emerged as the best known and best loved PVR.

“It really has given power to the consumer to allow them to watch what they want when they want,” the Telegraph quoted Fevzi Turkalp, who runs the Gadget Detective website, as saying.

Sat Nav, provided in almost every car now, stood at the third place, while energy-efficient Hybrid Cars have marked fourth place in the list.

Apple’s iPod has taken the fifth place in the list.

Simon Osborne-Walker, the publisher of Stuff magazine, said that he was confident readers had managed to sum up the best of the last decade.

“It’s been an amazing ten years for technology. Gadgets have gone from being big black boxes under the television to lightweight, portable devices,” he said.

Stuff’s list of the best technological innovation of last decade:

1. Wireless Internet – 35.5 percent

2. Sky+ – 16.9 percent

3. Sat Nav – 16.6 percent

4. Hybrid Cars – 8.9 percent

5. iPod – 5.6 percent

6. Chip and Pin – 5.6 percent

7. Nintendo Wii – 3.9 percent

8. Skype – 1.7 percent

9. Oyster Card – 1.5 percent

10. Blackberry – 1.1 percent

Other – 2.6 percent

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081223/393/ttc-wifi-tops-best-technological-innovat.html

The penalties will also be applicable to those who offer software or tools for hacking to any intruder.

The existing law offers punishment only for intruding into networks of governments, national defence or leading science sectors; or altering the functions of personal computer systems.

However, the amended law will be the first legal tool to curb increasing data theft from civil-use computers in China.

According to Zhou Guangquan, a member of the NPC’s law committee and a professor in criminal law at Tsinghua University, the proposed penalties also apply to Chinese hackers, who steal information from foreign computers.

The proposed draft states that either the crime or its consequence occurs in China, it shall be subject to Chinese law, reports the China Daily.

“Even if the crime has nothing to do with China, but the criminal is a Chinese citizen, it also falls under the law’s jurisdiction,” Zhou said.

Li Shishi, deputy director of the NPC law committee, said that the latest changes were made at the request of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

“The ministry said many unscrupulous people have been found hacking computers to steal account numbers and passwords, or to remotely control them,” he said.

“These actions are a big threat to online security, and we consider it necessary to define them as crimes,” he added.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081223/854/ttc-chinese-hackers-may-be-jailed-for-7y.html

‘New 2G spectrum will be allocated as and when it is available. Currently 2G is saturated and we hardly have any spectrum available, so successful 3G bidders will have to wait in queue to avail of 2G spectrum,’ said R. Ashok, member, finance, Telecom Commission, on the eve of bidding for 3G spectrum.

The member’s statement helped dispel rumours that 3G operators would only be allowed to function in the 3G domain.

According to Department of Telcom (DoT) officials who requested anonymity, Chennai and Tamil Nadu that were earlier two separate circles, will now be considered as one circle and licence-holders for each will now be able to bid for the new combined circle.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20081223/870/ttc-telecom-services-3g-players-will-be.html

The Swedish manufacturer will unveil Volvo S60 with automatic brakes at the next month’s Detroit motor show. It will go on the market in 2010.

“This technology helps us take an important step towards our long-term vision of designing cars that should not crash,” the Telegraph quoted Thomas Broberg, the company’s safety specialist as saying.

“Our aim for 2020 is that no one should be killed or injured in a Volvo car,” he added.

The car can stop itself upon sensing that a collision is about to happen either a car or a pedestrian, even when travelling at low speeds.

It will feature a sophisticated cruise control system designed to automatically maintain a safe distance from the car in front.

It works with the help of a radar unit fitted in the car’s grille, which not only detects what is in front of the vehicle, but how fast it is moving.

When the car believes that there is an imminent threat of a collision, a light flashes on a windscreen display in front of the driver at the same time along with an audible warning, the brakes are applied automatically.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081223/393/ttc-volvo-to-unveil-world-s-first-accide.html

The research determined that Earth’s magnetic field, which shields our planet from particles streaming outward from the Sun, often develops two holes that allow the largest leaks.

According to Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California, Los Angeles, Principal Investigator for NASA’s THEMIS mission (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms), “The discovery overturns a long-standing belief about how and when most of the solar particles penetrate Earth’s magnetic field, and could be used to predict when solar storms will be severe.”

“Based on these results, we expect more severe storms during the upcoming solar cycle,” he added.

THEMIS was used to discover the size of the leak.

Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield against the bombardment of particles continuously streaming from the sun. Because the solar particles (ions and electrons) are electrically charged, they feel magnetic forces and most are deflected by our planet’s magnetic field.

However, our magnetic field is a leaky shield and the number of particles breaching this shield depends on the orientation of the sun’s magnetic field.

It had been thought that when the sun’s magnetic field is aligned with that of the Earth, the door is shut and that few if any solar particles enter Earth’s magnetic shield.

The door was thought to open up when the solar magnetic field direction points opposite to Earth’s field, leading to more solar particles inside the shield.

Surprisingly, recent observations by the THEMIS spacecraft fleet demonstrate that the opposite is true.

“Twenty times more solar particles cross the Earth’s leaky magnetic shield when the sun’s magnetic field is aligned with that of the Earth compared to when the two magnetic fields are oppositely directed,” said Marit Oieroset of the University of California, Berkeley, lead author of one of two papers on this research.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081217/981/tsc-scientists-discover-biggest-breach-o.html

The study, conducted by researchers at Queen’s University and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in Canada, reports that striking changes are now occurring in many temperate lakes similar to those previously observed in the rapidly warming Arctic, although typically many decades later.

“Our findings suggest that ecologically important changes are already under way in temperate lakes,” said Queen’s Biology research scientist, Dr. Kathleen Ruhland, from the university’s Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL) and lead author of the study.

The scientists studied changes over the last few decades in the species composition of small, microscopic algae preserved in sediments from more than 200 lake systems in the northern hemisphere.

These algae dominate the plankton that float at or near the surface of lakes, and serve as food for other larger organisms.

Striking ecosystem changes were recorded from a large suite of lakes from Arctic, alpine and temperate ecozones in North America and western Europe.

Aquatic ecosystem changes across the circumpolar Arctic were found to occur in the late-19th and early 20th centuries.

These were similar to shifts in algal communities, indicating decreased ice cover and related changes, over the last few decades in the temperate lakes.

“As expected, these changes occurred earlier – by about 100 years – in highly sensitive Arctic lakes, compared with temperate regions,” said Dr. Smol, recipient of the 2004 Herzberg Gold Medal as Canada’s top scientist.

In a detailed study from Whitefish Bay, Lake of the Woods, located in northwestern Ontario, strong relationships were found between changes in the lake algae and long-term changes in air temperature and ice-out records.

The authors believe that, although the study was focused on algae preserved in lake sediments, changes to other parts of the aquatic ecosystem are also likely.

“The widespread occurrence of these trends is particularly troubling as they suggest that climatically-induced ecological thresholds have already been crossed, even with temperature increases that are below projected future warming scenarios for these regions,” said Dr. Paterson.

The authors warn that if the rate and magnitude of temperature increases continue, it is likely that new ecological thresholds will be surpassed, many of which may be unexpected.

“We are entering unchartered territory, the effects of which can cascade throughout the entire ecosystem,” concluded Dr. Smol.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081217/981/tsc-climate-warming-causing-ecosystem-ch.html

According to a report in The Times, the ancient remains discovered in Morocco, belong to a giant flying pterosaur and plant-eating sauropod.

Initial examinations suggest that both specimens are unknown to science.

They were unearthed during a month-long quest during which the research team braved floods and storms to reach the dig site and then preserve the fossils.

The scientists even feared that they would never get the bones out of the desert because they were so heavy that their Land Rover became stuck in sand.

“There was a point when we wondered if we would make it out of the desert with the (sauropod) bone, but we had worked so hard to find it there was no way I was leaving it behind. It took us five days to get the bone out of the ground and down the mountain,” said Nizar Ibrahim, of University College Dublin, a leader of the project.

The first fossil is the beak of a pterosaur, a giant flying reptile that lived about 100 million years ago.

Such discoveries are unusual because pterosaur bones were light and fragile, to be adapted to flight, and few fossilised well.

“Most pterosaur discoveries are just fragments of teeth and bone so it was thrilling to find a large part of a beak and this was enough to tell us we probably have a new species,” said Ibrahim, a doctoral student.

The second significant discovery was a leg bone more than a meter long that belonged to an unknown species of sauropod – the group of long-necked plant-eaters that includes the diplodocus.

The animal would have been almost 20m (65ft) long.

“Plant eaters are uncommon in this deposit, extremely rare in this region and to find one this large is very exciting. It’s a major discovery,” Dr Martill said.

“Finding two specimens in one expedition is remarkable, especially as both might well represent completely new species,” Ibrahim said.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081217/981/tsc-fossil-hunters-discover-two-new-dino.html

According to a report in The Times, the study, commissioned by the US Climate Change Science Program, said that the rises will substantially exceed forecasts that do not take into account the latest data and observations.

The adjusted outlook suggests that recent predictions of a rise of between 7 inches and 2 feet over the next century are conservative.

The study predicts that sea level rises will be far higher than the levels that were set out last year by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change.

The research looked at prehistoric periods when the climate changed dramatically over the course of decades, and evaluated the mechanisms behind such rapid transformation.

Rising sea levels were one of the major elements involved in past episodes, along with faster glacial melting, droughts and changes to the Atlantic Ocean’s heat-driven circulation.

According to the study’s authors, they are “among the greatest natural hazards facing the United States and the globe today” and call for “committed and sustained” monitoring of the forces that could trigger abrupt climate change.

“If we don’t monitor the vital signs of the patient, then we’ll never be in a position to advise on the best course of action to take to ward off or prepare for the potentially devastating consequences,” said Peter Clark, a professor of geosciences at Oregon State University and a lead author on the report.

But, the report concludes that some changes will not be as bad as first thought.

For example, rapid releases of methane stored in permafrost and on the seabed may be less likely than feared.

Other forecasts include a severe and permanent drought in the American West.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081217/981/tsc-sea-levels-will-rise-much-faster-tha.html