TechTalk

Radio has its eye on podcasters

Podcasters have already inspired conventional radio stations to evolve.

But their podcasts will increasingly be on the radar of traditional radio broadcasters as fertile grounds to feed the desire for new talent, and ideas.

Both the BBC and Virgin will watch what podcasters do, learning from them, just as podcasters learned from radio.

"It won't be too long before this [podcasting] becomes the normal route to discover new talent," says Chris Kimber, head of BBC Radio Interactive.

He was just one of more than 100 podcasters at Europe's inaugural podcasting conference, in London - PodcastConUK.

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Author's Guild sues Google over copyright

NEW YORK - An organization of more than 8,000 authors accused Google Inc. Tuesday of "massive copyright infringement," saying the powerful Internet search engine cannot put its books in the public domain for commercial use without permission.

"The authors' works are contained in certain public and university libraries and have not been licensed for commercial use," The Author's Guild Inc. said in the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

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Hackers target net call systems

Malicious hackers are turning their attention to the technology behind net phone calls, says a report.

The biannual Symantec Threat Report identified Voice over IP (Voip) systems as a technology starting to interest hi-tech criminals.

The report predicted that within 18 months, Voip will start to be used as a "significant" attack vector.

As well as prompting new attacks, Voip could also resurrect some old hacking techniques, warned the report.

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CIA war game simulates major Internet attack

The CIA is conducting a cyber-war game this week geared to simulate a major Internet attack by enemy computer hackers, an intelligence official said Thursday.

Dubbed "Silent Horizon," the three-day unclassified exercise is based on a scenario set five years in the future and involves participants from government and the private sector.

"These are people who could likely be affected or enlisted in a real situation," the intelligence official said.

"Its goal is to help the United States recognize indicators of a large-scale cyber attack."

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Intel expects to intro WiMax this week

They haven’t said when or where, but from the sounds of the wheels grinding in the Intel camp, we can apparently expect a formal introduction to WiMax this week—our very favorite not-yet-complete wireless standard in the making, which promises WiFi-like connectivity over very long distances. Of course, the point is less to roll out deployment of the technology (it isn’t complete, as Intel hopes you won’t recall) as it is to kickstart the huge marketing effort we’re about to see Intel break out on this.

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LifeSize - High-def video conferencing over a 1Mbps connection

LifeSize, a new company which has created a line of video conferencing gear that combines some special software they’ve written with off-the-shelf components to deliver high-definition video conferencing over a 1Mbps connection. Apparently there will be some excellent non-porn uses for their high-def video conferencing system, and LifeSize are going after corporate customers looking for an alternative to Polycom.

Get more info.

Slooh brings star hunting to your basement

New York-based Slooh (who’s site seems totally hosed right now) has two Internet-connected telescopes on Mount Teide in the Canary Islands that they hope you’ll pay $50 a year to play around with. For that price you’ll be able to watch the telescopes when they’re pointed at pre-selected sites, or for the more adventerous, you can book one of the telescopes for five minutes at a time and point it anywhere you like. To help things along, the company will even give extra time to select amateur astronomers who say they’re using service to search for supernovae, asteroids and comets.

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Toshiba LH100 LCD TVs With Integrated DVR

“A little time face” is the name of Toshiba’s new line of LCD TVs with integrated 160GB hard drive for recording purposes. Available up to 37 inches wide, the panels all feature a resolution of 1366 x 768 and brightness of 500cd/m² (we don’t really know how bright that is, either). The “little time” feature provides for TiVo-like recording functionality, where you can pause/resume live TV with a single button push. As a side note, these units also feature an Ethernet jack and have full browser/e-mail functionality. There’s even a USB port for your digital camera.

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Bodybugg calorie management system

Ever wondered exactly how many calories you burn while sitting perfectly still but having a massive panic attack? You can't find out those kinds of things in fitness magazines. Bodybugg, an armband calorie monitor can tell you exactly (well with 92% accuracy) how many calories you expend not only while exercising but while doing everyday activities like typing and um, vigorous typing while playing games. The bodybugg measures your resting and active metabolic rates by using several sensors: body temperature (core temperature), heat flux (how much heat your body puts out), sweat rate, forward motion, and up and down activity.

Bodybugg works with a web-based food journal which will calculate how many calories you've consumed vs. how many burned and will recommend foods and exercises which will accelerate weight loss. The bodybugg syncs to your PC via USB.

Bodybugg isn't available in stores yet, so contact Apex Fitness for ordering information.

Cowon's personal media player

Here at TD we like to feel we have a special relationship with Korean manufacturer Cowon as we were first to spot its fantastic super slim iAudio M3 hard disk audio player at CES way back in 2004. So we are very excited by the news that the company is now sizing up the personal media player market too with the impending launch of the A2.

From the look of the player and its line up of features it sounds as if the company has once again got it spot on. The A2 will play just about everything; including MP3, WMA, Ogg and WAV audio, DivX and WMV
video and JPEG, GIF and BMP image files. It has striking looking white and grey casing, boasts a four inch widescreen (16:9) monitor, is available with a 20, 40 or 60 Gigabyte hard disk and sports an input that enable it to record directly from a TV. The company's traditional UK distributors reckon it will land here in the summer. Can’t wait.

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