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20,568 articles from Sci-Tech Today

Island Evacuations Start as Earl Nears East Coast

Powerful Hurricane Earl wheeled toward the East Coast, driving the first tourists Wednesday from North Carolina vacation islands and threatening damaging winds and waves up the Atlantic seaboard over Labor Day weekend. Visitors were taking ferries off Ocracoke Island and told to leave neighboring Cape Hatteras in North Carolina's Outer Banks, and federal authorities have warned people all along...

Jordan Unearths 3,000-Year-Old Iron Age Temple

Archaeologists in Jordan have unearthed a 3,000-year-old Iron Age temple with a trove of figurines of ancient deities and circular clay vessels used for religious rituals, officials said Wednesday. The head of the Jordanian Antiquities Department, Ziad al-Saad, said the sanctuary dates to the eighth century B.C. and was discovered at Khirbat 'Ataroz near the town of Mabada, some 20 miles (32...

Study: Preventive Surgery Can Save Lives

Surgery to remove healthy ovaries gives a triple benefit to high-risk women: It lowers their threat of breast and ovarian cancer, and boosts their chances of living longer, new research suggests. The study is the largest to date to find advantages for preventive surgery for women who carry BRCA gene mutations. Women with the faulty genes have a dramatically higher cancer risk than other women...

NASA Tests New Rocket Motor Despite Uncertainty

NASA and aerospace company ATK Aerospace Systems successfully completed the second test of a next-generation solid rocket motor Tuesday, but the rocket it was designed to send into space faces an uncertain future. The rocket motor sent a plume of fire into the Utah desert in the two-minute test of the largest and most powerful solid rocket motor designed for flight. The rocket motor is a...

Largest Neutrino Observatory IceCube Readied

After two decades of planning and construction, the world's largest neutrino observatory, beneath arctic ice, will open in December, scientists say. Dubbed IceCube, it holds 5,160 optical sensors in a cube whose sides measure more than 1,000 yards, making it an order of magnitude larger than other neutrino detectors, an American Institute of Physics release said Tuesday. The Superkamiokande...

HP, Hynix Aim To Replace Flash Memory with ReRAM

As the 3PAR bidding war rages on, Hewlett-Packard is taking a deep breath and turning its attention to Hynix Semiconductor -- at least for a moment. On Wednesday, HP announced a joint development agreement with the memory supplier for a new circuit element. Called memristor, the new circuit element will be integrated into a future generation of memory products -- but there is plenty of work to...

Amazon Eyes Move Into Subscription TV and Movies

Amazon.com is readying a digital subscription service that would let consumers watch television shows and movies online, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Apple is alsolaunching a TV-show rental service, setting the stage for a showdown between the two consumer electronics giants. According to the Journal, Amazon has been in talks with several major media companies, including...

New Sony E-Readers Have Touchscreens, Higher Prices

Facing competition from Amazon.com, Apple and Barnes & Noble, Sony on Wednesday released updated models of its of e-readers. But Sony is taking a different approach from its rivals with touchscreen technology on all three of its e-readers, wireless connectivity on only the higher-end model, and prices higher than market leader Amazon for two of the readers. The new models are the five-inch...

Know Your PC's Power-Saving Options

Computers need power -- and plenty of it. But if you're like many, you have reasons to be concerned about how much power your computer actually uses. You might want to lower your electricity bill or simply reduce the impact that your computing has on the environment. Or, if you frequently find yourself on the road, you no doubt want to reduce the amount of power that your notebook uses so that you...

MetroPCS and Leap Take Prepaid Calling Upmarket

MetroPCS Communications and Leap Wireless International, two of the top sellers of pay-as-you-go wireless calling plans for low-income consumers, are targeting more-affluent users to spur growth. Leap announced a deal this month to use the network of bigger rival Sprint Nextel. The company is trying to get greater shelf space at big box retailers, including Best Buy. MetroPCS is upgrading its...

Smartphone Apps Keep Transit Riders on Time

Allen Stern says he had a 40-minute wait between buses when he lived in Manhattan. Using a free mobile app that became available about a year ago, he could tap into the Metropolitan Transit Authority with his cellphone and find out exactly how far away the next bus was from his stop. "If you could stay in your house another 10 minutes because you know the bus isn't here yet, and don't have to...

Google Readies Pay-Per-View Movies on YouTube

Google is planning to launch a pay-per-view movie section on its popular video site YouTube, according to a report Monday in the Financial Times. The web giant has reportedly been holding talks with the major Hollywood studios in order to snag films for its new service which would compete with existing sites like Netflix, iTunes and Hulu, as well as the rapidly dwindling neighborhood video...

The Electricity Grid Wants Heat Relief, Too

The ongoing summer heat wave, record demand for electricity, and public appeals for energy conservation to avoid widespread blackouts highlight both our dependence on electricity in our day-to-day lives and reliance on an aging electrical infrastructure and regulatory framework for investment in that infrastructure. Global energy demand continues to rise, stressing the power grid and...


TUESDAY 31. AUGUST 2010


webOS 2.0 Will Switch Between Apps Using Cards

Details about Palm webOS 2.0 are beginning to emerge. On Tuesday, a software development kit and application programming interfaces were released to developers with some of the new features. The final 2.0 is expected to be released later in 2010. In one new feature, a multitasking card metaphor will become what Palm is calling "the next generation of multitasking." Fanned-out cards represent...

Google Buys SocialDeck as Gaming Spree Continues

Before the rumors even had a chance to die down in the wake of Google's last acquisition, the search giant snapped up yet another company in the social-gaming space. The acquisition of SocialDeck marks Google's fifth buy in August. "We're super excited to announce that someone found our social games as much fun as you have -- in this case, that 'someone' is Google," SocialDeck wrote on its web...

Droid X Users Cautioned About Unofficial Android Update

Motorola cautioned Droid X users Monday to refrain from downloading an unofficial Android 2.2 upgrade circulating around the Internet. Installing the leaked upgrade will prevent Droid X smartphone owners from receiving the final version of the mobile OS slated for release in early September, Motorola warned in a support blog. Motorola's release of Android 2.2 -- also known as Froyo -- will...

Hurricane Earl Pounds Turks and Caicos; U.S. Braces

Federal officials urged U.S. residents to prepare for possible evacuations and islanders in the Turks and Caicos hunkered down in their homes Tuesday as powerful Hurricane Earl howled over open seas toward the East Coast of the U.S. The Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 135 mph (215 kilometers), was expected to remain over the open ocean before turning north and running parallel to the U.S....

Remains of Deadly European Dinosaur Discovered

Around 70 million years ago a stocky dragon stalked what is now Romania. A new type of dinosaur similar to the frightening Velociraptor -- but with two sharp claws on each foot instead of just one -- has been discovered by Romanian and American researchers. "Balaur bondoc," which means "stocky dragon," was discovered in Romania by geologist Matyas Vremir of the Transylvanian Museum Society....

Report: Climate Science Panel Needs Change at top

Scientists reviewing the acclaimed but beleaguered international climate change panel called Monday for a major overhaul in the way it's run, but stopped short of calling for the ouster of the current leader. The independent review of the U.N. climate panel puts new pressure on chairman Rajendra Pachauri, who has been criticized for possible conflicts of interest, but shows no sign of stepping...

NASA Funds Rocket Flights by U.S. Firms

Experimental unmanned rockets being developed by California and Texas firms will make test flights to the edge of space this fall and winter under a NASA funding plan announced Monday. Masten Space Systems of Mojave, California, and Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas, were awarded a total of $475,000 by NASA's Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program, the space agency said. The...

Time To Get Your Flu Shot, But Just One This Year

It's flu-shot season already, and for the first time health authorities are urging nearly everyone to get vaccinated. There is even a new high-dose version for people 65 or older. What a difference a year makes: Crowds lined up for hours for scarce shots during last fall's swine flu pandemic, when infections peaked well before enough vaccine could be produced. This year, a record vaccine supply...

AutoCAD Returns To Mac, with iPhone and iPad Apps

After a lapse of 18 years, Autodesk is releasing a new AutoCAD for Mac. The application, widely used by engineers, architects and other professionals, has been developed as a native Mac OS X program. Simultaneously, the San Rafael, Calif.-based company has announced a free AutoCAD WS mobile app for the iPhone, iPad and the iPod touch. This release, said Autodesk Senior Vice President Amar...

E-Mail Overload? Gmail's Priority Inbox Will Try To Help

Google has moved on from bringing the Gmail world free Voice over Internet Protocol calling to tackling another challenge: E-mail overload. Google is moving to de-clutter the Gmail inbox with a new system that prioritizes e-mail. Google empathizes with people who are overwhelmed by jammed inboxes. Google software engineer Doug Aberdeen said his inbox is slammed with messages from colleagues,...

Verizon Expected To Offer Samsung's Galaxy Tablet

Jumping into the exploding tablet market with both feet, Verizon Wireless is believed to be on the verge of offering Samsung's Tab, essentially a blown-up version of its successful Galaxy smartphones. The Galaxy Tab runs Google's Android 2.2 (Froyo) and sports a seven-inch screen, a one-gigahertz ARM Cortex A8 processor, front- and back-facing cameras, and enhanced Swype input for text. It will...

PC Industry's Woes Could Translate Into Fall Bargains

If you're looking for bargains on personal computers, bad news from the industry could be good for your pocketbook. Computer makers are scrambling for ways to goose faltering consumer demand after a weak start to the back-to-school shopping season. That could mean deeper price cuts and other promotions beyond the incentives that the industry dangled in front of shoppers to lure them into stores...