Week of Sun, 2007-12-30 00:00 to Sat, 2008-01-05 23:59

Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, the annoucement was made by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008.

Recently published research by Venture Development Corporation (VDC) concludes that over 4 billion embedded systems/devices were shipped worldwide in 2006. According to VDC’s 2007 Embedded Systems Market Statistics report, significant growth in the number of embedded shipments is expected to continue over the coming years.

Furthermore, VDC estimates that embedded systems using no formal operating system (with no software on the device that is considered to be an operating system by the project team) or in-house developed operating systems as their primary operating system represented the majority of total embedded system shipments in 2006. Through 2009, VDC expects the number of embedded devices shipping with a commercial and/or open source operating system to grow at a faster rate than shipments of devices with an in-house/proprietary operating system or with no formal operating system.

As structures made of metal get smaller — as their dimensions approach the micrometer scale (millionths of a meter) or less — they get stronger. Scientists discovered this phenomenon 50 years ago while measuring the strength of tin "whiskers" a few micrometers in diameter and a few millimeters in length. Many theories have been proposed to explain why smaller is stronger, but only recently has it become possible to see and record what's actually happening in tiny structures under stress.

Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNST) has acquired Affinity Labs Inc., a development stage company that operates a portfolio of professional and vocational communities for people entering, advancing and networking in certain dedicated occupations. Affinity's network of vertical community sites will provide Monster's overall user and job seeker base relevant content and community features while enabling the Company to increase its online advertising services to a larger, targeted customer base.

Digital TV transmission techniques that deliver most benefit in the worst reception environments have been developed by a consortium of European researchers. The technologies promise to reduce the network infrastructure needed for mobile TV, while minimising the power demands and complexity of mobile TV receivers of the future.

In a typical broadcast transmission, radio signals bounce off objects in the environment, reaching the receiver over multiple paths. Distortion from ‘multi-path’ signals can produce fading, resulting in temporary failure of reception. Most of us have experienced this, moving a mobile phone around a room to get the strongest signal.

Volkswagen's intelligent DSG automatic gearbox is now not only available with six, but also with seven gears. The first 7-speed DSG is now available for the Golf and Golf Plus with the 1.4 TSI and 1.9 TDI engines. This represents a milestone in the gearbox strategy of the Volkswagen Group.

The new 7-speed automatic gearbox is based on two premieres: Firstly, it is the first DSG for front-traverse installation. Secondly, it is the first with clutches that are not immersed in oil, but which run "dry". This allows the latest Volkswagen DSG to achieve an even greater level of efficiency. The maximum torque that can be transmitted is up to 250 newton-meters.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) estimates that the energy efficiency portions of the energy bill that passed the Senate are more than triple the savings from legislation passed by Congress in 2005, and more than seven times the savings from legislation passed in 1992. These provisions will save U.S. consumers and businesses more than $400 billion dollars between now and 2030, accounting for both energy cost savings and the moderately higher cost of energy-efficient products. These provisions will reduce U.S. energy use in 2030 by 7% and U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2030 by 9%, relative to the 2007 Department of Energy forecast. Two provisions were dropped from the bill yesterday—an energy efficiency and renewable energy portfolio standard, and extensions of energy efficiency and renewable energy tax incentives. If these provisions had not been dropped, 2030 energy savings would have been about 11% greater.

A federal court has ordered the Navy to take additional mitigating measures when training with mid-frequency active sonar off the California coast.

Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California issued a preliminary injunction Jan. 3 that creates a 12 nautical mile coastal exclusion zone off the California coastline and requires sonar to be shut down anytime marine mammals are within 2,200 yards.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in cooperation with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), has established a new accreditation program for laboratories that test personal body armor. The deadline for inclusion in the first group of candidates for accreditation is Dec. 15, 2007.

Personal body armor can mean the difference between life and death for law enforcement officers who routinely put themselves at risk to protect the public. The NIJ reports that more than 3,000 officers’ lives have been saved by personal body armor since standards were first introduced for ballistic resistance in 1972. It is imperative that the body armor that law enforcement agencies use meet meaningful minimum performance requirements, and demonstrating that requires thorough testing at reliable testing facilities.

At the International CES, Ford will announce it is moving in-car connectivity further forward with the launch of a next-generation navigation system, available for the first time ever with SIRIUS Travel Link.

With Travel Link, drivers and passengers will have access to up-to-the-minute information and entertainment content through the vehicle’s navigation system. This includes: current gas prices from an estimated 120,000 filling stations; local, real-time traffic information for 78 markets; coast-to-coast weather conditions with five-day forecasts; sports scores, and movie listings.

Ford Motor Company will unveil the next generation of in-car communications at the International CES.

The company will announce what comes next for SYNC –developed in partnership with Microsoft – as well as introduce International CES attendees to Ford’s new SIRIUS Travel Link™ navigation system.

SYNC is one of the rising stars in the auto industry today and is on track to reach 1 million sales in early 2009. SYNC connects people and their favorite portable devices while in the vehicle, including media players and Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones.

Opera 9.5 SDK for Devices has been released by Opera Software. The release will include a new beta visual effects layer and an improved evaluation kit that allow device manufacturers to quickly experience the potential of a product aimed to deliver the latest end-user experiences for Internet browsing, Web applications and Web-based user interfaces.

A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed today in Detroit charging 11 persons, including Alan M. Ralsky, his son-in-law Scott K. Bradley, and Judy M. Devenow, of Michigan, and eight others, including a dual national of Canada and Hong Kong and individuals from Russia, California, and Arizona, in a wide-ranging international fraud scheme involving the illegal use of bulk commercial e-mailing, or "spamming."

The Identity Theft Resource Center has received a grant from the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). The $500,000 grant will cover a two-year period. The grant is part of $1.7 million given to four non-profit programs in the United States that provide direct assistance to victims of identity theft and financial fraud. This award comes as a direct result of the President’s Task Force on Identity Theft, established in May of 2006. More than 40 organizations competed for this grant.

The Airborne Laser (ABL) program’s final 2007 Knowledge Point has been completed. Completion of this Knowledge Point culminates a year of progress for the ABL program, and marks the end of a complex and diverse set of hardware refurbishment and planning in preparation for installation of ABL’s megawatt-class High Energy Laser on board the prototype aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base.

The final event for 2007 occurred when:

A new strategic plan for the work of the National Nanotechnology Initiative has just been released by the interagency Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (NSET) Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Technology with support from the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO). The 2007 NNI Strategic Plan describes the vision, goals, and priorities of the NNI to ensure that the United States derives growing economic benefits and improved quality of life for its citizens and remains a global leader in nanotechnology R&D in the years to come.

BAE Systems has agreed to acquire the UK Government and Commercial software business of Petards Ltd.

The deal delivers ownership of Petards Universal Video Management System (UVMS), Advantage.net and Cobyt, software products into the ownership of BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies (Insyte). The deal also includes the capability for systems delivery and support currently provided by security software specialists at Petards Sunbury site.

The Senate passed an energy bill that "will advance geothermal research and development for decades to come," according to the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA).

The bill includes the "Advanced Geothermal Energy Research and Development Act of 2007." These provisions are based upon compromise language between House and Senate bills that sought to revitalize geothermal research in light of recent reports by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that show geothermal energy can be a major energy source in the future with continued federal support for market and technology

Ford Motor Company is researching two advanced next-generation safety belt technologies that could help further reduce injury risk in vehicle crashes.

One of Ford’s possible next-generation safety belts incorporates a four-point “belt and suspenders” design in lieu of the familiar three-point safety belt, while a second possible future safety belt incorporates an air bag directly into the belt itself. A number of technical challenges still need to be overcome before such restraint systems could ever be used, but these technologies might one day further enhance safety belt effectiveness.

GM will mark its 100th anniversary by launching a global dialogue through an initiative called GMnext.com. To initiate dialogue, GMnext will spotlight GM's introduction of next-generation vehicles and technologies, including new applications of the E-Flex drive system and continued work on GM's line of Plug-In and Two-Mode hybrids.

The Neo FreeRunner, from OpenMoko, is based on the same free and open source principles(FOSS) as the Neo 1973, will be previewed at the press-only Lunch @ Piero's technology showcase event during CES 2008.

The "FreeRunner" features hardware improvements such as 2D/3D graphics and a faster 500MHz processor that boosts performance to enable video and audio processing, as well as a new generation of mobile applications emerging from the open source community. Designed for worldwide use, FreeRunner will come in two versions: a 850MHz tri-band and a 900Mhz tri-band. Neo FreeRunner will also integrate WiFi (802.11 b/g) for online access anywhere, and will include motion sensors that will cue functions based on detected user activity.

The longest-running search for radio signals from alien civilizations is getting a burst of new data from an upgraded Arecibo telescope, which means the SETI@home project needs more desktop computers to help crunch the data.

Since SETI@home launched eight years ago, the project based at the University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory has signed up more than 5 million interested volunteers and boasts the largest community of dedicated users of any Internet computing project: 170,000 devotees on 320,000 computers.

By using the only wind tunnel capable of running quietly at "hypersonic" speeds, Purdue University engineers have conducted experiments to yield critical data for designing an advanced aircraft called the X-51A, powered by engines called scramjets.

The X-51A test vehicle is expected to evolve into missiles capable of flying at Mach 6 - or six times the speed of sound - enabling them to hit mobile "time-critical" targets.

The Marvell® TopDog® 11n-450 is an 802.11n 3x3 WLAN solution with three spatial streams, the industry’s first 802.11n chip operating at 450 Megabits-per-second (Mbps.) With maximum bandwidth more than eight times faster than 802.11g 54 Mbps versions and 1.5 times faster than current 802.11n 300 Mbps offerings, the new product will enable significant performance enhancements for notebooks and desktop PCs, printers, routers, set top boxes, digital TVs, gaming devices and DVD players and recorders. The TopDog 11n-450 provides 500 percent increased range over 802.11g, as well as 160 percent increased range compared to competing 802.11n solutions.

NASA has awarded a contract to Zero Gravity Corporation of Las Vegas to manage and operate an aircraft to perform reduced gravity parabolic flights while carrying NASA-operated experiments and personnel.

The parabolic flights will provide the means to replicate the reduced gravity environment of space for various areas of research needed to further NASA's understanding of space travel. These include aeronautical research, fluid physics, combustion, material sciences and life sciences.

Nokia Siemens Networks intends to acquire Apertio Ltd.,the leading provider of open real-time subscriber data platforms and applications built specifically for mobile, fixed, and converged telecommunications operators. NokiaSiemens Networks will pay around €140 million for the acquisition, which is expectedto close in the first quarter of 2008.

Apertio will provide the new generation architecture and open real-time subscriber dataplatform for Nokia Siemens Networks’ portfolio.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) has acquired XIV, a privately held storage technology company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. XIV, its technologies and employees, will become part of the IBM System Storage business unit of the IBM Systems and Technology Group. Financial terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed.

To address the new requirements associated with next generation digital content, IBM chose XIV and its NEXTRA™ architecture for its ability to scale dynamically, heal itself in the event of failure, and self-tune for optimum performance, all while eliminating the significant management burden typically associated with rapid growth environments. The architecture also is designed to automatically optimize resource utilization of all the components within the system, which can allow for easier management and configuration and improved performance and data availability.

When people think of aircraft in Iraq, many imagine fighter jets and helicopters, but many don't know about a smaller and equally important aircraft in use today.

Shadow 200 RQ-7B unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs are flown over the skies of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division area of operations to provide safety for Soldiers on the ground.

Motorists who talk on cell phones drive slower on the freeway, pass sluggish vehicles less often and take longer to complete their trips, according to a University of Utah study that suggests drivers on cell phones congest traffic.

"At the end of the day, the average person's commute is longer because of that person who is on the cell phone right in front of them," says University of Utah psychology Professor Dave Strayer, leader of the research team. "That SOB on the cell phone is slowing you down and making you late."

The SPICE project’s mission was to provide the invisible threads to join together the different mobile infrastructures. It sought to create prototype systems that would bind together the dizzying array of platforms which currently exist in such a way as to provide users with a homogenous and seamless experience in post-3G era of mobile technology.

The project brings together leading European telecom operators and key IT suppliers with the ultimate aim of transforming “today’s confusing heterogeneity into an easily manageable and rich service environment by exploiting the diversity of device capabilities and fostering service adoption”. In the future, such sophisticated architecture would effectively hide from the user the complexity of services and applications crossing over different access domains.

Micron Technology, Inc., has started production sampling of its new 1Gb DDR2 device fabricated on 68-nanometer (nm) DRAM process technology. The new process, coupled with Micron’s 6F² technology, has enabled the world’s smallest production 1Gb DDR2 memory with a die size of just 56mm². Mass production of its new 68nm 1 Gb DDR2 products is expected to begin early next year, with DDR3 and other low-power DRAM products expected to follow in the second half of the year.

NASA scientists and astronomers will take to the skies in the afternoon of Jan. 3 to observe nature's New Year's celebration: the Quadrantid meteor shower.

Scientists believe this could be the most brilliant meteor shower in 2008 with over 100 visible meteors per hour at its peak. Best viewing times with the highest meteor rates are expected to be in either the late evening of Jan. 3 over Europe and western Asia or the early morning of Jan. 4 over the eastern United States.

interTouch Pte. Ltd. (interTouch), a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT DoCoMo, Inc., has agreed with the primary shareholder of MagiNet Pte. Ltd. (MagiNet) to fully acquire MagiNet for approximately US$150 million. Both companies are Singapore-based providers of high-speed wired/wireless broadband connectivity services and applications primarily to hotels, management companies and travelers worldwide. DoCoMo will provide additional funding of up to US$191 million to interTouch, which includes funds to be allocated to service debt and to facilitate its integration with MagiNet.

The Kingston® Media Reader, from Kingston Technology Company, Inc., is an external, hi-speed reader designed to support 19 popular types of Flash memory cards, is now shipping. The reader is a solution for moving data between Flash cards and a computer or other device with a USB port as it requires no adapters or power cable.

The Wireless World Initiative (WWI) has developed prototype user-centred systems that will potentially enable millions of people to make the most of third-generation (3G) and beyond mobile technology to work, relax and play any time, anywhere. ICT Results reports back from WWI’s crowning event.

It is Monday morning in the not-too-distant future and two neighbours, Bob the builder and Bob the businessman, are getting ready for work. The builder has to drive to a job in a nearby town and the businessman needs to take the train to the office. They switch on their televisions and request information on road and rail conditions.

A subsidiary of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), MI, Inc. has extended the tender offer period in connection with its offer to acquire a controlling interest in Vertex Standard Co., Ltd. (JASDAQ: 6821) (“Vertex Standard”), a global provider of 2-way radio communication solutions

The tender offer period has been extended from December 26, 2007 to January 15, 2008. The extension was required because an amendment to the tender offer disclosure document has been filed announcing that all regulatory approvals required for the completion of the transaction have been granted. The tender offer must remain open at least 10 business days following such an amendment.

The Trident II (D5) is a three-stage, solid-propellant, inertially guided FBM with a range of more than 4,000 nautical miles (4,600 statute miles). Trident II is more sophisticated than Trident I (C4) with a significantly greater payload capability. All three stages of the Trident II are made of lighter, stronger, stiffer graphite epoxy, whose integrated structure means considerable weight saving. The missile’s range is increased by the aerospike, a telescoping outward extension that reduces frontal drag by about 50 percent. Trident II is launched by the pressure of expanding gas within the launch tube. When the missile attains sufficient distance from the submarine, the first stage motor ignites, the aerospike extends and the boost stage begins. Within about two minutes, after the third stage motor kicks in, the missile is traveling in excess of 20,000 feet (6,096 meters) per second.

The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) a contract valued at $849 million for fiscal year 2008 production and deployed system support for the Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) program.

Work under the contract includes D5 production support, including reentry system hardware, and operations and maintenance to support the readiness and reliability of missile systems deployed aboard FBM submarines and at on-shore facilities.

People who have faced one of several common government-related problems in the past two years are more likely to consult the internet than other sources, including experts and family members.

In a national phone survey, respondents were asked whether they had encountered 10 possible problems in the previous two years, all of which had a potential connection to the government or government-provided information. Those who had dealt with the problems were asked where they went for help and the internet topped the list:

U.S. military forces in Europe now have a better way to defend against cyber attacks aimed at destroying networks and infiltrating sensitive data.

According to Robert Hembrook, deputy chief of intelligence for the 5th Signal Command, cyber defense was already underway at the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, but a cyber-threat intelligence cell was created here specifically to detect, monitor and combat malicious digital infiltrations on the military's computer networks.

The Minuteman is a strategic weapon system using a ballistic missile of intercontinental range. Missiles are dispersed in hardened silos to protect against attack and connected to an underground launch control center through a system of hardened cables. Launch crews, consisting of two officers, perform around-the-clock alert in the launch control center.

The LGM-30G Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is an element of the nation's strategic deterrent forces. The "L" in LGM ;is the Department of Defense designation for silo-launched; "G" means surface attack; and "M" stands for guided missile.

The weapon system was conceived in the late 1950s and Minuteman I was deployed in the early 1960s. Minuteman was a revolutionary concept and an extraordinary technical achievement. Both the missile and basing components incorporated significant advances beyond the relatively slow-reacting, liquid-fueled, remotely-controlled intercontinental ballistic missiles of the previous generation. From the beginning, Minuteman missiles have provided a quick-reacting, inertially guided, highly survivable component to America's nuclear Triad. Minuteman's maintenance concept capitalizes on high reliability and a "remove and replace" approach to achieve a near 100 percent alert rate.

Missile maintenance Airmen installed the final replacement to the missile guidance system at each missile launch facility of the base's Minuteman III fleet Dec. 4 at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

The NS-20 system has been replaced with the NS-50 system through the Guidance Replacement Program.

The GRP is managed by the 526th Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles Systems Wing at Hill AFB, Utah, and is contracted through the ICBM Prime Integrating Contract.

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership’s (GNEP) first Steering Group meeting last week concluded with measurable progress. Representatives from the GNEP nineteen countries developed and adopted an Action Plan detailing the groundwork for future Partnership cooperation and Members of the Steering Group elected the United States to serve as the chair of the group and China, France, and Japan to serve as vice-chairs. This three day meeting was held at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Headquarters in Vienna, Austria, with all of GNEP’s nineteen members, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, France, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine and three international organizations as observers in attendance.