Japan’s F-Bomb Anti-Virus Virus

The next generation battlefield is quickly evolving, cyber warfare is that new battleground and Japan is building its defenses. Hacking of government servers is no longer the domain of the lone wolf hacker, instead these are the acts of the governments of the world. The cyber arms race is well underway and those who are unprepared will be left in the dark.

The Japanese government is well aware of this new battle field, and is making preparations. Fujitsu has been put to work developing the cyber defense weapon on behalf of the Japanese Defense Ministry. The development of the Fujitsu virus – F-Virus -began in 2008 with the aim of being able to halt and trace any malicious software that may be attacking Japanese government servers. The F-Virus has so far been tested in a limited offline network, there are legal challenges to overcome before it can be let loose on the world. With an estimated cost of $2.3 million the F-Virus is possibly cheapest weapons development program in history. Read the full article »»»»

Gorilla Glass 2: Welcome To The Jungle

Gorilla Glass, protecting our favourite gadgets this Superman tough glass is the unsung hero of the gadget world and is about to receive an upgrade. Producing by Corning the new generation of Gorilla Glass will be demonstrated at the upcoming CES show in Las Vegas next week. With hammers at the ready Corning will be demonstrating the almost indestructible nature of the Gorilla. Corning takes great pride in destroying its Gorilla Glass and posting the videos, not an easy task if the demonstrations is anything to go by. The testing that Corning puts Gorilla Glass through confirms the glass is tough, flexible and scratch resistant, with some saying it’s as tough as steel while still being crystal clear.

“Corning Gorilla Glass has been a tremendous success for Corning, enjoying excellent market acceptance across mobile device industries. Handset and tablet device manufacturers are clearly driving toward higher functionality from thinner designs. Corning’s latest innovation in Gorilla Glass technology is very well positioned to meet these challenges and enable broader touch technology penetration,” said James R. Steiner, senior vice president and general manager, Corning Specialty Materials. Product details will be included in an announcement planned for Monday, January 9, 2012. Read the full article »»»»

Mogees, Making The World Our Musical Instrument

Musical expression is one of humanities greatest talents, so deeply engrained in who we are that it evolves with us. As soon as new technologies are created we fold it into the ways we express ourselves. The Mogees research project is one such technology, exploring gestural interfaces for musical expressions. Mogees uses a simple contact microphone that feeds audio data in real time to some very complex software to convert any surface into a musical instrument. From a panel of glass to a tree if you can tap it Mogees can convert it into a musical instrument.

The Mogees project has been developed by Bruno Zamborlin, a Ph.D. Student at Goldsmiths Digital Studio – University of London – , in collaboration with Frederic Bevilacqua, Norbert Schnell and the real-time music interaction team at IRCAM – Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique.

The first demonstration of the technology took place with the live performance at the Beam festival, Brunel University in London June 2011. Since then the technology has continued to evolve.  It is currently used in the Airplay project by the IRCAM composer Lorenzo Pagliei. Read the full article »»»»

A Fist Full of Silicon, Intel’s OEM Engineers To Sample Prison Life

Engineering Samples, these unreleased CPU’s are intended to allow Intel’s partners to perfect the next generation gadgets, they are a rare and treasured beast that are never intended for public sale. Like a classic Clint Eastwood western the double cross is not something that Intel takes lightly, being caught selling Intel’s next generation technology to it’s competitors for Intel is the ultimate betrayal. So as you can imagine when Intel discovered that it had been double crossed by employees of one of it’s OEM business partners in Taiwan it’s wraith was fast and fierce. Working with Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau – CIB – the four suspects were quickly tracked down and taken into custody in the city of Taoyuan.

The four suspects by all accounts were seemingly intelligent engineers working for one of Intel’s major OEM – Original Equipment Manufactures who turn Intel’s chips into the gadgets we all love – Criminal masterminds they were not though. Selling the chips on EBay in full public view doesn’t display the normal criminal flare required for such an operation. Especially when you consider they sold the chips for an average of $400 each, when AMD would have written a blank cheque to get their hands on the samples which included  Intel’s latest 22nm chips which are due for public release later this year. Read the full article »»»»

LG’s Übertelevision! The Road To CES

LG, manufacturer of gadgets that we can all afford have embarked on a media campaign with a bang. The build up to CES has that effect on large corporations. With many drool worthy gadgets being prepared for demonstration at the show, anticipation is building. Like a slow running game of Wheel of Fortune LG has been slowly revealing the latest TV technology. IPS monitors were demonstrated in early December, now LG has turned its attention to every one’s favorite window on the world, the TV.

Two new Über TV’s have had the preview treatment along with updates to LG’s Smart technology used in the Cinema TV’s and Smart Remote controls. LG may have caught the rest of the TV market napping at the wheel with their 55 inch OLED TV, a spectacular technology tour de force that will be the first large screen OLED to market.

With amazing color, extreme refresh rates and the looks to match OLED is the next generation TV. LG has yet to announce the official list price but with much simpler manufacturing process – when compared to other OLED technology – this is the OLED that will battle the top end LCD TV’s. Top end LCD TV technology isn’t standing still though, nor is it waiting for OLED’s to dominate. LG has been pushing LCD technology to it’s limits in the process producing the 84 inch Ultra Hi-Definition 3D LCD TV, a television that dwarfs all but the tallest man. With twice the resolution and four times as many pixels this is the leading edge of big screen LCD’s. Read the full article »»»»