NVIDIA demos Tegra 3 at Computex 2011

The first thing the name NVIDIA suggests to computer enthusiasts is graphic cards. Now, at Computex 2011, NVIDIA is showing off the successor to its successful mobile Tegra processor, the Tegra 3 (codenamed Kal-El). The processor is a 1.5GHz Quad core processor and boasts of better graphical capabilities.

NVIDIA's senior vice president, Dan Vivoli demoed the next gen mobile hardware but failed to mention a launch period where we can see the first Tegra 3 device hit store shelves. So far we have only heard rumours that Asus and Amazon will launch tablets powered by the Tegra 3 processor.

NVIDIA's graphic cards and physics gaming engines have always had a strong reputation among gamers - a reputation that was further strengthened with the launch of the Tegra 2 processor which powers virtually every Honeycomb tablet available in the market today.

Also new from the NVIDIA stable is the GeForce GTX 560M. This graphics card is targeted at gamer laptops and netbooks and aims to hit the sweet spot between battery life and performance of portable gaming notebooks.

Until we get some concrete information about the launch of Kal-El, here a quick demo of what the hardware can accomplish.

PM's son named 'New Zealand's top planker'

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key's son was named the country's "top planker" Tuesday after a photo appeared online apparently showing him performing the Internet craze as his father looked on.

The New Zealand Herald said the grainy picture of Max Key planking on the back of a couch in the prime ministerial residence appeared on the "Planking New Zealand" Facebook page this week, causing a stir among Internet users.

Intel announces Ultrabook laptops

At Computex 2011, Intel has announced a new roadmap for its Atom processor family enabling thinner notebooks. Intel defines this new category of mainstream thin and light mobile computers as Ultrabooks. Intel aims to shift 40 per cent of consumer laptops to the Ultrabook by the end of 2012.

Asus announces the Padfone

Asus finally announced their much talked about Padfone at Computex 2011 in Taipei.

According to Asus the Padfone explores the possible convergence between a mobile phone and a tablet. The device is divided into two halves- a phone and a tablet, with the phone cradling inside the tablet when in tablet mode.

Samsung to stick with Google for its tablets

Samsung Electronics will depend on Google's Android mobile-device software to run future versions of its tablet computers, a senior Samsung official said in an interview published Tuesday.

"We'll continue to work with Android on future tablets," J.K. Shin, head of the South Korean giant's mobile division, told The Wall Street Journal.

Samsung Electronics is the world's second-largest cellphone maker after Finland's Nokia but trails Apple's iPhone and iPad in smartphones and tablets.

Sony to restore most PlayStation services this week

Sony said Tuesday it plans to restore by this weekend PlayStation Network services worldwide except in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, after being targeted in a massive online attack in April.

The electronics and entertainment giant said users in the Americas and Europe and much of Asia will again be able to buy and download games online, and will also receive "welcome back" packs of services and content.

The company said that since being hacked in April, it had "implemented considerable security enhancements to the network infrastructure, as well as conducted testing of the payment process and commerce functions".

Hackers post phony Tupac story on PBS website

PBS officials say hackers have cracked the network's website, posting a phony story claiming dead rapper Tupac Shakur was alive in New Zealand, and a group that claimed responsibility for the hacking complained about a recent "Frontline" investigative news program on WikiLeaks.

PBS confirmed Monday that the website had been hacked. The phony story had been taken down as of Monday morning. It had been posted on the site of the "PBS NewsHour" program, which is produced by WETA-TV in Arlington, Va.

How much longer can photographic film hold on?

At Image City Photography Gallery, Gary Thompson delights in pointing out qualities of light, contrast and clarity in one of his best-selling prints -- a winter-sunset view of Yosemite National Park's El Capitan peak shot with a hefty Pentax film camera he bought in 1999 for $1,700.

His wife, Phyllis, a latecomer to fine-art photography after they retired from teaching in the 1990s, favors a Hasselblad X-Pan for panoramic landscapes, such as a time-lapse shot of a harbor in Nova Scotia.

Of 11 partners and resident artists at the private gallery in Rochester -- the western New York city where George Eastman transformed photography from an arcane hobby into a mass commodity with his $1 Brownie in 1900 -- the Thompsons are the only ones left who haven't switched to filmless digital cameras.

Writer urges Internet junkies to 'switch off' and think

Like tens of millions of others, US technology writer Nicholas Carr found the lure of the worldwide web hard to resist -- until he noticed it was getting harder and harder to concentrate.

He set out his concerns in a celebrated essay headlined "Is Google making us stupid?"

And his latest book "The Shallows" explores in depth what he fears the Internet is doing to our brains.

"The seductions of technology are hard to resist," Carr acknowledges in that book, which has sold an estimated 50,000 hardback copies in the United States alone. But he thinks it's time to start trying.

Council 'gets Twitter data' after court battle

An English local authority said it had forced Twitter to hand over users' details after it took the US microblogging site to court in California, in what is believed the first case of its kind in Britain.

South Tyneside Council, in northeast England, took the legal action in a bid to discover the identity of a blogger, known as "My Monkey", behind allegedly libellous statements against councillors.

"Twitter have released information to our lawyers and this is currently being analysed by technical experts," council spokesman Paul Robinson told AFP.

Two new tablets unveiled ahead of top Asia IT fair

Two electronic firms unveiled new tablet computers in Taipei Monday, on the eve of Asia's biggest IT trade fair, as they try to get a slice of a lucrative market dominated by Apple's iPad.

As thousands of industry delegates prepared for the Computex Taipei fair US firm ViewSonic and Taiwan's Shuttle Inc showed off their latest innovations.

ViewSonic, a visual technology firm based in California, introduced what it said is the world's first tablet that is equipped with both Windows 7 and Google's Android platforms.

Google dengue trends available for India

Google has announced the availability of Google dengue trends for India. These trends are also available for Brazil,Indonesia and Singapore. These trends can be accessed at http://www.google.org/denguetrends.

The Internet has become the first source of information for health related searches. Google uses this search activity to estimate, in almost real-time, the extent of dengue outbreak in a particular geography. It then correlates this data with historic baseline dengue activity in the area to report the activity level as Minimal, Low, Moderate, High, or Intense. These are then plotted as color codes geographically on a map.

According to Google, there is a close relationship between the searches on dengue related symptoms and the number of people who actually have dengue. Depending on the frequency of such search queries, Google estimates the extent of the outbreak of this disease. Google has tested a similar model for estimating the outbreak of flu in the UnitedStates.

Taiwan show to feature Apple tablet challengers

Computer manufacturers of all sizes and descriptions have been pushing to get a piece of the ever-expanding tablet market created by the launch of Apple's iPad in April 2010.

The obsession with tablet computing will be on full display tomorrow as Computex, the world's second-largest computer show, begins its annual five-day run in Taipei.

The prominence of tablets underscores a dramatic shift under way in the personal computer industry and keenly felt in Taiwan, which is home to some of the world's biggest PC manufacturers as many consumers opt to buy a tablet rather than a new PC.

DU launches Facebook page for students

With its helplines and open-days flooded with pre-admission queries, Delhi University today launched its Facebook page for students, giving them another avenue to sort out their questions, raise grievances and offer suggestions.

At the first Open Day at the South campus, officials of the University were bombarded by a series of questions by curious students and concerned parents as they sought to clear their doubts about the new admission norms and other details and nuances of several courses.

Asus Padfone leaked before launch

Asus's Padfone is the first casualty of leaks that have started ahead of the big Computex 2011 event on May 31.

PocketNow.com has shown leaked images of the rumoured Asus Padfone. We cannot confirm the legitimacy of the images but it seems like the Padfone consists of two units - one is a phone and the other a tablet.

According to the images shown by PocketNow.com, the phone comfortably cradles inside the tablet leaving only a circular opening for the phone's camera. The rear end of the speaker also suggests that it may well have dual speakers.

Previously Asus launched the Eee Pad transformer, which was an Android Honeycomb tablet that included a dock to transform it into an Android netbook. Similarly Motorola launched the Atrix 4G, which also had a keyboard dock, once the phone was docked it became a netbook or a PC, depending on the kind of dock used.

It still remains to be seen how the Asus Padfone will operate, as its specifications will be unveiled on Tuesday at Computex.

China 'setting up military cyber-warfare team'

China's military has set up an elite Internet security task force tasked with fending off cyberattacks, state media reported on Friday, denying that the initiative is intended to create a "hacker army".

The People's Liberation Army has reportedly invested tens of millions of yuan (millions of dollars) in the project -- which is sure to ring alarm bells around the world among governments and businesses wary of Beijing's intentions.

"Cyber attacks have become an international problem affecting both civilian and military areas," the Global Times quoted China's defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng as telling a rare briefing this week.

Napa Valley blends wine and Internet for charity

Internet technology will blend with coveted vintages next week to open a premier Napa Valley wine country charity auction to the world.

Oenophiles from anywhere on the globe will be able to bid in real-time against rivals at the Auction Napa Valley site for lots featured online at napavintners.com/anv.

"We like to say you can have a virtual Napa Valley experience from wherever you are in the world -- you could bid in your pajamas if you want to," said Andy Schweiger of Schweiger Vineyards, who heads the auction's online component.

British local authority takes Twitter to court in US

An English local authority said on Sunday it had taken US micro-blogging site Twitter to court in California and forced it to release the details of a British user.

South Tyneside Council, in northeast England, took the legal action in a bid to discover the identity of a blogger behind allegedly libelous statements.

The blogger, known as "Mr Monkey", has levelled a stream of criticism and allegations against councillors and council officers.

A council spokesman confirmed Twitter had released information after they took the case to the Superior Court of California.

Auction house: Camera fetches record euro1.3 million

An Austrian auction house says an 88-year-old Leica camera has sold for a record euro1.3 million ($1.9 million).

WestLicht says the rare camera is part of a small series dating back to 1923 and was valued at up to euro450,000 ($643,640).

It says the camera, which had a starting price of euro200,000 ($286,000), went to a private Asian collector after a nail biting, 20-minute bidding process.

WestLicht claims Saturday's auction makes the Leica the most expensive camera ever sold.

Tablets, 3D in focus at future-shaping Taiwan IT show

The question of how to get 3D technology into every living room and a tablet computer into every hand is set to dominate Asia's largest IT fair which opens in Taiwan next week.

Around 1,800 exhibitors from across the world will descend on Taipei for the Computex fair, which runs from Tuesday to Sunday, hoping to generate an estimated $23 billion of sales from 36,000 buyers, organisers say.

Under the slogan "Shaping the future!" the fair will showcase a cascade of new products designed to stir the interest of tech-savvy consumers.

600-meter high water tornadoes, caught on camera

Sydney:  Dramatic footage was captured on Monday of a series of powerful waterspouts near the coastal suburb of Terrigal, on Australia's New South Wales coast.

Video, filmed from a helicopter by Australian broadcaster Channel Seven, showed several powerful columns of swirling air blasting along the water's surface near the coastline.

Channel Seven claimed the spouts reached heights of up to 600 meters (nearly two thousand feet), but dissipated as they neared land.