Make your own Ionic cooler

While it’s was a relatively quick build, the time from the photo shoot to publish has been an extremely long and rocky road. Regardless in the end we have produced the first ionic cooling system for your high end gaming system. This system produces absolutely no noise and in fact has no moving parts at all. While this is a proof of concept it proves that you can get the CFM you need to cool a system efficiently with no moving parts and no increase in power consumption.







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Apple moves into fresh pastures with launch of film downloads

COMPUTER giant Apple last night moved to strengthen its grip on the digital media market with the launch of a new film download service - plus a device which will make it compatible with TV sets.

The gadget - dubbed the iTV - will wirelessly transmit iTunes' music, film, TV and video content from users' computers to their flat-screen televisions.

Giving a preview of the box before its 2007 launch, the Apple chief executive, Steve Jobs, said it would bring Apple into the living room.

It will be preceded by the technology giant's film download service, which will launch in the United States with 75 titles, and an international launch expected next year.

However, the iTunes Music Store will have minimal Hollywood support, carrying only movies from Walt Disney , where Mr Jobs is a board member.

By contrast, rival Amazon's movie service launched last week with distribution deals with seven studios - but not Disney.

At the Apple launch, Mr Jobs said 75 films, from Cinderella to Pirates of the Caribbean were now available for purchase on iTunes from Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone and Miramax.

Films take about 30 minutes each to download using a high-speed internet connection. Each download will cost between £5 and £8 in the US market, and the iTV device will be priced at about £160.

"In less than one year we've grown from offering just five TV shows to offering more than 220, and we hope to do the same with movies," Mr Jobs said. "iTunes is selling more than 1 million videos a week, and we hope to match that with movies in less than a year."

Industry experts said the iTV was an attempt to solve the entertainment industry's current dilemma: how to bridge the gap between the living room television and the computer.

Mr Jobs also announced a new, thinner iPod nano, with a 24-hour battery life and new games. It will be available early next year in the US.

While Apple paraded its products at a launch in San Francisco, however, the company faced a fresh challenge to its domination of the market for downloaded music as US rival eMusic announced the launch of an online music service across Europe with songs from 17p.

Apple's iTunes service accounts for around 80 per cent of the UK market for legally downloaded music. iPod sales continue to be strong but with the growth rate slowing.

In the US, Apple has already expanded iTunes by making 2,500 music videos, a range of television shows and some short films available for paid-for download. To cater for this new market, Apple sells a version of its iPod with a 2.5in colour screen which can store 150 hours of video.

Christopher Phin, features editor of MacUser UK magazine, said: "The first hurdle was jumped successfully with the iTunes music store and the obvious next thing to do was movies."

While Apple has enjoyed incredible commercial success through global sales of 58 million iPods over the past five years, its iTunes service faces fresh competition. Amazon last week unveiled a service called Unbox, which allows customers in the US to buy movies and TV shows for download from 30 studios and companies. And Microsoft plans to launch its "Zune" portable media player before year-end.

Yesterday, New-York based online company eMusic launched a service in 25 European countries which will allow users to buy tracks for as little as 17p each for a monthly subscription fee of £8.99 to £14.99.

TiVo releases high-end DVR

TiVo launched on Tuesday a digital video recorder capable of displaying high-resolution TV signals. The new machine comes as the recording technology company seeks new subscribers among buyers of premium home-theater systems. TiVo, whose service remains popular despite tough competition from far larger cable and satellite providers, said its Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder will be available on the company's Web site this week and in some electronics stores later this month.(To read CNET Reviews' impressions of the Series3, click here.) At about $800, the DVR is expensive for a cable set-top box, a device that many consumers receive for a negligible monthly fee from their TV provider.

TiVo marketing executive Jim Denney said the DVR, which boasts high-end features such as THX performance, which ensures quality and resolution, will eventually be able to download programs, perhaps like how songs are sold on Apple Computer's iTunes. Denney said the DVR also meets the needs of buyers eyeing high-definition flat-screen TVs and add-on audio systems. "We think that there is a category of customers that have been waiting for it, and want it," he said. "We know that $800 is not an insignificant amount of money. But we put a lot in it. We think that it targets a specific audience.

" The set-top box, made by a contract manufacturer for TiVo and originally unveiled in January, will have two tuners, so that cable TV subscribers can record two different shows in high-definition at once, while watching a third prerecorded show. People can save up to 32 hours of HD programming, or up to 300 hours of standard definition.

Subscribers will continue to pay around $13 a month, although a variety of pricing packages are available, the company said. The company has about 4.4 million subscribers, but only 1.5 million who do not subscribe to the DirecTV's satellite service run by News Corp.

SLC flash supply decreasing sharply

Memory module makers are seeing a sharp decrease of 50% in supply of single-level-cell (SLC) NAND flash chips from Samsung Electronics in September compared to August, as the Korean supplier is giving supply priority to new products from major vendors, such as Apple Computer, according to industry sources.

While the drop in SLC flash chip supply has resulted in a shortage of 8Gb NAND flash, the sources pointed out that supply of multi-layer-cell (MLC) flash chips from Samsung is increasing.

The shortage in the SLC segment and the increased supply in the MLC segment has widened the price gap between the two segments, which previously had seen their gap narrowing because of sharp drops in SLC flash chip prices, the sources indicated. NAND flash prices have dropped 60% in 2006, mostly as a result of price drops in the SLC segment, the sources added.

The sources pointed out that the changes in NAND flash supply will help improve the memory module makers' profits, as the cheaper MLC segment is expected to become the mainstream, boosting demand in the end-product markets.

NAND flash demand is warming up because of tight supply, low inventory at clients and launches of high density products, the sources remarked.

The new BMW Hydrogen BOMBS

The German luxury auto maker announced Sept. 12 it will launch limited production next year of 7 Series luxury sedans with an engine that can run on both gasoline and hydrogen. When the engine burns hydrogen, the only emission is water vapor.

BMW will build only a few hundred hydrogen-gasoline 7 Series, which will be leased to opinion leaders such as politicians to prove hydrogen technology to power cars is feasible. The lease rates will be comparable to those for a high-end BMW 760 LI. For now, hydrogen cars aren't commercially viable because there are no economies of scale and no filling stations in most countries for customers to tank up with hydrogen.

GAS OPTION. "The technology is still in its early stages. But there will be a revolution when it finally arrives," says Raymond Freymann, head of BMW Group Research & Technology, the auto maker's Munich-based skunkworks.

Germany has only a handful of hydrogen fuel stations, including one in Munich and one in Berlin, built in part to serve BMW's R&D

project with hydrogen cars. If the cars aren't near hydrogen filling stations, they simply run on gasoline. That's why the next vital step is convincing political leaders to support the creation of an alternative infrastructure of hydrogen filling stations.

"We want to show the world that the concept is convincing. The key to opening up a possible market is a product," says Daniel Kammerer, head of BMW's CleanEnergy Communications division.

BMW's announcement comes after several years of performance and durability tests on an in-house fleet of prototype hydrogen 7 Series, which already have clocked more than 200,000 kilometers.

30 YEARS OF RESEARCH. BMW is one of a handful of auto makers—including General Motors (GM), Honda (HMC), Peugeot, and Mazda—which are placing big bets on hydrogen as a future alternative fuel. BMW is particularly interested in seeing hydrogen technology succeed, since it believes only hydrogen engines—not electric hybrids or fuel cells—can power the kind of high-performance cars that are the essence of BMW's sporty brand image.

BMW's engineers, who started working on a hydrogen car in 1976, have already built five generations of hydrogen engines and a 285-horsepower hydrogen race car called the H2R that has racked up nine speed and acceleration records at a French racetrack, reaching speeds of 185 mph. The H2R's record-breaking performance "marks the start of the hydrogen age," says BMW development chief Burkhard Goeschel. BMW's new hydrogen 7 Series will have a 260-horsepower bi-fuel engine with a top speed limited to 143 mph, and will accelerate from 0 to 62 in 9.5 seconds.

Another constraint until hydrogen fuel is plentiful: The bi-fuel 12-cylinder 7 Series will need two separate fuel tanks. That technical challenge limits the logic of putting the technology in other models for now. The German auto maker is also working on fuel-cell technology, like most rivals, but it remains convinced that hydrogen is the best alternative technology for the future. BMW sees hybrid technology as an intermediary technology on the way to hydrogen cars and aims to offer hydrogen versions of all its cars in the long term.

OTHER OFFERINGS. BMW estimates that the era of hydrogen-fueled cars is more than 10 years off—and that by 2025 only 2% of new cars sold in Germany will be hydrogen cars. That translates into some 140,000 vehicles. "This is the opening of a market," says Kammerer. But global demand may be prompted by experiments in foreign markets too. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is backing the construction of a "hydrogen highway" in California, a corridor which will be dotted with hydrogen filling stations.

Honda has shown its FCX hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell concept car, which is three to four years from production. Honda is also working on a "Home Energy Station" to get around the limitations on refueling, which can also meet residential energy needs, supplying electricity and heat by generating hydrogen from natural gas. Honda says the system can lower a home's total energy consumption by 50% and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40%.

And Mazda has unveiled a hydrogen Mazda 5 hybrid-electric concept car using a rotary dual-fuel engine.

Sony PSP Package Deal Sweet Like Honey

Looking to continue the brisk sales of its portable gaming unit, Sony said Tuesday that it would offer a new bundled package which would include a 1GB memory stick, the game "ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails," and UMD movie "Lords Of Dogtown." Previously, the company had only offered the PSP Core system, which included the AC adapter. The entire package would retail for $249.99 USD.

Up until March, Sony had offered the PSP Value Pack, which bundles the console, 32MB Memory stick Duo, AC adaptor with battery pack, and soft case with cleaning cloth for $249.99. "While the PSP system has out-sold all other next-generation gaming handhelds in the period since its launch, we expect this new offering to drive additional consumer interest and sales, particularly as the holiday shopping season approaches," SCE America marketing senior vice president Peter Dille said.

Security breach at fantasy site Second Life

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world for entrepreneurs, is asking its 660,000 members to change passwords after a security breach may have exposed users' confidential data, including credit card numbers and passwords.

Executives at the privately held company said Monday they contacted the FBI and are trying to determine whether the hacker was already a member of the popular multiplayer game.

The company has determined that a hacker -- not a robot or automated software program -- accessed at least one Web server for up to several hours. It's unclear whether the attacker stole data, sold data or engaged in identity theft or other fraud, said Philip Rosedale, CEO and founder of San Francisco-based Linden Lab, which operates Second Life.

No users have reported fraudulent charges or other problems since the incident, which appears to have begun late Wednesday.

``We erred on the side of being extremely supportive and careful,'' said Rosedale, former chief technology officer of RealNetworks Inc. ``It will be a few bad press days, but it's better to disclose that there might have been a compromise.''

Second Life is a fantasy game devoted to capitalism -- a 21st century version of Monopoly that generates real money for successful players.

The game centers on cartoon characters called avatars that users design to interact with fellow gamers. The avatars buy and sell all types of property, goods and services with ``Linden dollars.''

Second Lifers pay as much as $9.95 per month for a premium subscription to conduct business in the virtual world. They purchase Linden dollars with U.S. currency or trade it on the LindeX Currency Exchange.

A September 2006 Popular Science article estimated that Second Life has a gross domestic product of $64 million. The game's most successful entrepreneurs may earn hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars online.

Engineers discovered the hack Thursday and, after investigating computer logs, decided Friday to alert members. The hacker gained access through a flaw in software known as TikiWiki, an open source program engineers use on the game's ``support'' site, which explains rules and answers users' questions.

The company set up a toll free hot line to help users change passwords, staffed by about 30 employees -- including the chief executive.

``The attacker wasn't getting into our software through our code -- it was someone getting in and having time on a Web server,'' Rosedale said.

Reliance: the most wast telecom company

In a major expansion of telecom infrastructure capacity internationally, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Anil Ambani group's Reliance Communications, Flag Telecom, is going to commence Falcon under-sea cable system on Tuesday onwards.

Built at the cost of around $400 million, Falcon would connect India with countries in the Middle East/Africa — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, UAE, Yemen — and also Sri Lanka and Maldives.

According to officials, the idea behind connecting Middle East was to tap into the rapid growth of trade, tourism and communications (especially broadband) in the region. Besides, several nations in the area are expected to de-monopolise telecom sector and Reliance could cash in on it's early presence there.

More importantly, it will give more choice to Indian IT and ITeS companies that are looking towards Europe and other parts of the world for business. India's international bandwidth capacity is largely dominated by Tata-owned VSNL and Bharti Airtel.

Interestingly, most of India's international capacity is skewed towards the Eastern side — Singapore and from there on to the US west coast.

As India's IT sector looks more towards Europe and other parts of the world, bandwidth capacities being added by cable systems like Falcon would come in handy and spur lowering of costs.

Falcon cable will cover nearly 12,000 km route and have a capacity of 2.56 terabit (TB) that would carry ever increasing traffic within Middle East, connecting it to Europe and eventually to the US.

According to sources, 50% of the lit capacity of 90 GB has been already pre-sold to telecom operators in the Middle East, where Falcon cable makes a loop having several landing stations.

In India, the cable connects in Mumbai and soon it would include Thiruvananthapuram, which will connect with Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Reliance had bought Flag Tele for over $210 million a couple of years ago. Flag has various cable systems connecting Atlantic, Europe and Africa, North America and now Falcon for Middle East.

Globally, it competes with SEA-ME-WE (South East Asia, Middle East and Western Europe), i2i (JV of Bharti & Singapore Tele) and Tatas.