Sun have been commissioned to fit the internet into a box: a shipping-container sized box, to be exact, packed full with 60 of the company’s Sun Fire X4500 Open Storage Systems. It’s all for The Internet Archive, who wanted a secure way to keep their three petabytes of backup data safe. The container-sized backup system is monitored for power, heating and cooling, fire, smoke, and water detection, together with physical access points, and Sun can dispatch technicians or security as the need arises. Of course, what this now means is that someone will probably steal the internet. One day we’ll turn on our computers and there’ll be no internet to play with, as some light-fingered fellow will have made off with Sun’s box. Enjoy it while it’s still here, people.
Source: SlashGear
Video: HERE
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The multi-touch controls familiar to Apple iPhone users will be built-in to Microsoft’s Windows 7. Windows Touch will be a “first class way to interact with your PC alongside mouse and keyboard,” said the firm. Microsoft believes multi-touch PCs will become popular in retail, public spaces, on laptops and “kitchen PCs”. Some Windows machines already feature rudimentary touch input and Apple is also reportedly adding touch for displays in its Snow Leopard OS update. A small number of multi-touch PCs are already on the market, including the HP TouchSmart and the Dell Latitude XT, and Microsoft hopes Windows 7 will create a new ecosystem of devices that take advantage of touch. Video after jump.
Source: BBC
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Nio is a Bluetooth enabled, motion sensing alarm tag. The device attaches to your belongings, and when combined with the included software, can trigger an alarm if it moves outside a predetermined radius (up to 20 meters). The Nio tag has an internal rechargeable battery capable of powering the device for several weeks. To use the tag, you simply install the Nio software on your mobile device, versions are available for most Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices as well as most phones that can run Java applications. Video after jump.
Source: Gadling
Web link: Nio
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The city of Hakodate, Japan has been producing official tourism videos unlike any you’ve ever seen before — action-packed affairs starring famous landmarks as giant robots that battle a runaway mechanical squid hijacked by vengeful aliens. The first video begins with an interesting factoid: According to a survey of 100 aliens, Hakodate is the number one city they would most like to invade.
The invaders here are alien cephalopods from the planet Ikaaru, who seek revenge on the people of Hakodate for eating too much squid. The aliens hijack an enlarged version of Hakodate’s tourism mascot — a mechanical squid named “Ikabo,” which was built by Future University-Hakodate (FUN) in 2007 — and send it on a rampage through the city. Videos and pictures after the jump.
Source: Pink Tentacle
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After reporting financial performance that could legitimately be called disastrous, Archos have announced their plans to turn around business in 2009 and beyond. Key among those plans is the release of the company’s Android-based multimedia internet tablet, first tipped back in February, together with a new range of MP3 products and pushing out its Archos Internet Media Club film download service.
Source: SlashGear
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Unless BusinessWeek is trying to get a head start on April Fool’s Day festivities, it looks as if BlackBerry App World, RIM’s answer to the iTunes App Store, is set to launch on April 1st. This of course it the very same day that CTIA Wireless officially kicks off. While we have openly criticized the pricing structure of App World, we are rather excited to see it launch — it’ll be a good test of RIM’s true potential in both its relationship with third-party developers and its overall reception with consumers who are so desperate for BlackBerry applications akin to those that are very popular on other major platforms. If App World proves to be a success, than kudos to RIM for managing to pull off a very impressive feat. What do you guys think — excited for some on-device app love or is RIM wasting its time in your eyes?
Source: Boygeniusreport

Almost 40 percent of the American adult population has embraced mobile technologies into their lives to keep up on social networking, sharing photos, and working while on-the-go. But not everyone in this group thinks being so connected is a good thing, and it’s not the most likely of demographics, either.
Source: Ars Technica
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Thanks to all who participated in our Street Fighter IV competition. Winner of the Collectors edition after the jump.
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A car was left teetering on a cliff edge after the driver followed sat nav directions down a Pennine footpath. Robert Jones continued to follow the instructions when they told him the narrow, steep path he was driving on in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, was a road. Mr Jones, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, only stopped when his BMW hit a fence above Gauxholme railway bridge on Sunday morning. Video after jump.
Source: BBC
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Web-based music application MixTape.me lets you create, listen to, learn about, and share playlists quickly and easily. It’s awesome. Full Disclosure: I’m completely biased, of course. MixTape.me has been a pet project of mine over the past year or so—but something that’s been brewing for the past several years.
Source: Life Hacker
Web site: Mixtape.me
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Robots designed to provide day-care and nursing services will be put into practical use at Japanese households in as soon as five years, a government panel said Wednesday. Based on the projection, the government and the private sector will accelerate their efforts to formulate common safety standards for nurse robots in the years ahead, industry ministry officials said.
Source: Japan Today
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At the Game Developers Conference, this week, Microsoft is unveiling new blue- tinted Xbox 360 development kits that will be available to game creators in the summer. More important than the new color is that it doubles the memory of the standard Xbox 360 to 1GB, making life easier for developers trying to tweak their software. See more shots of the system below. Unfortunately, none show that the green ring of light is blue on this dev kit. More pictures after the jump.
Source: MTV
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Towards the end of our day at Samsung’s European Forum in Vienna, we were ushered into a small room to interview Samsung’s Head of Worldwide Sales and Marketing (Computing Division), Kyu Uhm. As well as talking about the state of the netbook market, Uhm hinted at some interesting developments with Windows 7, not least that the company may consider shipping better versions – rather than Windows 7 Starter Edition – depending on the royalties Samsung would have to pay Microsoft. When asked whether Samsung was actively developing Windows 7 netbooks, Uhm was certain. “Of course, of course.” And what of better versions of Windows?
Source: Techradar
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Hyundai has just released info on its plug-in hybrid concept for the upcoming Seoul Motor Show. Called the BLUE-WILL, the concept features a direct-inject 1.6-liter gas engine mated to a CVT transmission and 100kw electric motor. The car features a state of the art lithium ion polymer batter pack that’s packaged with the fuel tank below the rear seats, as well as a trick panoramic roof that integrates solar cells while still being able to see through. More pictures and information after the jump.
Source: Autoblog
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Performance Designed Products (PDP) has come to GDC prepared to showcase the latest model of it’s new creation, the GameTrak Freedom — a motion controller for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Planned to be released on Microsoft’s console this fall, and the PS3 (potentially) next year, the Freedom acts like current motion controllers on the market but adds a special feature. Through the use of accelerometers, the Freedom establishes the pitch, roll, and yaw of the controller but, unlike other motion devices, it can calculate the precise distance, orientation, and speed of the controller with the use of two side-mounted sensor bars.
Source: Joystiq
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How does the human brain run itself without any software? Find that out, say European researchers, and a whole new field of neural computing will open up. A prototype ‘brain on a chip’ is already working. “We know that the brain has amazing computational capabilities,” remarks Karlheinz Meier, a physicist at Heidelberg University. “Clearly there is something to learn from biology. I believe that the systems we are going to develop could form part of a new revolution in information technology.”
Source: Science Daily
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If you’re in serious need of some extra hubs, this is packed full of them. It also has a couple of extra features, such as a thermometer. I’m not really sure why you’d need a thermometer to tell you the temperature of the room you’re already in, but it has one. It tells both Celsius and Fahrenheit one on each of the dials on the front of the hub. It’d be nice if they added a clock, or pretty much anything besides a thermometer.
Source: Coolest-Gadgets
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Zeebo CEO John Rizzo and Qualcomm games and services senior director Mike Yuen today announced the launch of the Zeebo console, intended for emerging markets worldwide, specifically BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India, and China, which represents 800 million people. “In 2000 Bill Gates introduced the original Microsoft Xbox at GDC,” said Mike Yuen. “We’re honored here to release what we believe will be the fourth big console.”
Source: Gamasutra
Web site: Zeebo
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A company based in the Netherlands called e-Traction has developed a new kind of hybrid bus that uses in-wheel electric motors to improve efficiency and a GPS system to reduce pollution in congested areas of a city. The bus is a series hybrid: a diesel generator charges a battery, which in turn supplies electricity for two motors, one in each rear wheel. Thanks largely to its in-wheel motors, the bus can travel twice as far as a conventional bus on a liter of diesel, says Arend Heinen, who is both an engineer and spokesperson for the company.
Source: Technology Review
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NEC Electronics Corp developed a system LSI that it claims will bring a high picture quality comparable with that of digital still cameras to camera-equipped mobile phones. The company will start shipping samples under the product name of “CE143″ in March 2009. The CE143 has basic image processing functions and, with a combination of a CMOS image sensor, can add camera functionality to a mobile phone. In addition, it integrates an image stabilizer, shading correction and other functions, according to NEC Electronics. The LSI can realize mobile phones that can take photos at a resolution of up to 12 Mpixels and output full-HD video.
Source: TechOn
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