Details of Hitachi Maxell’s technology that promises to deliver terabyte storage from super-thin DVDs have been published in patent documents filed in Japan. The patents were filed in 2004/2005 under the title “Recording and reproducing apparatus of thin optical disc”. An English language version is currently available in the US Patent Office website. Hitachi Maxell [...]

OpenOffice.org has relreased a new version of its popular software package. OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 includes performance improvements, further improvements to file format compatibility with Microsoft Office files, new email integration features for users wanting to send emails in Microsoft file formats, more control over how exported PDF documents will display when opened in a PDF reader, [...]

A US technology association has labeled a new French law requiring “interoperability” of devices like Apple’s iPod music player as “attack on intellectual property rights” of all companies. Americans for Technology Leadership, a group that includes major US firms like Microsoft, said the new law approved by France’s Parliament remains troublesome despite the last-minute modifications. [...]

The H-racer is a futuristic toy car, but using the technology that could power a full-size car in the future. It operates on 100% clean fuel produced by a miniature solar-powered hydrogen refuelling station – which converts water to hydrogen using energy captured from the sun.No combustion occurs inside the hydrogen fuel cell. The only [...]

British company Voller has launched a hydrogen-based battery charger that can power up your gadgets without harmful by-products. The Automatic Battery Charger (ABC) uses bottled hydrogen and has 240v AC, 12v DC and USB power outputs to charge just about anything you like, with the only waste product being water. It can run a laptop [...]

Apple is in talks with the major Hollywood studios on licensing films for an Internet movie download store to complement its iTunes Music Store, Daily Variety reported, citing “numerous sources” at the studios. The studios reportedly rejected Apple’s proposal to sell films for $9.99 each, and “insiders” told Variety Apple may eventually compromise, allowing pricing [...]

JVC announced two new high definition flat panel LCD televisions with technology that promises crisp fast action images, typically a weakness in LCD performance. The two new sets employ JVC’s new Clear Motion Drive, which produces images at 120 frames per second (120Hz), double the typical rate, and inserts an interpolated image. The result is [...]

China has launched a campaign to enforce curfews at Internet cafes before schools let students out on summer vacation, a news report said Monday. The focus of the weeklong crackdown “is to prevent the entry of kids under the age of 18,” said a Culture Ministry official quoted by the China Daily newspaper. It said [...]

Mobile music services that let subscribers download songs directly to their cell phones could surpass online digital music retailers like iTunes by 2010, according to a report from market research firm IDC. The firm predicts that wireless music services will count half the number of customers using online digital music services by the end of [...]

The Pirate Bay, a Sweden-based site that provides links to free movie and music files on the BitTorrent file-sharing network, has returned its servers to its home country following a police crackdown that temporarily forced relocation to the Netherlands, TheRegister reported. Working with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Swedish authorities in May conducted [...]

Big companies have for years installed industrial-strength content management systems in the hope of sparking collaboration among workers. There was just one problem: People didn’t use them. Now, tools that people are familiar with on the consumer Web, such as blogs and wikis, are staking out ground inside businesses, often led by the end-users themselves. [...]

Greenpeace is developing an online collaboration platform to mobilise climate change, based entirely on open-source technologies. The international, not-for-profit campaign group has published a beta version of the platform, codenamed “Project Melt”, to encourage IT developers to create innovative tools to help campaigners fight climate change. The platform was developed using Django — a framework [...]

Nielsen Media Research, a provider of audience ratings, on Thursday announced plans to implement an all-electronic ratings system for TV that tracks viewing on traditional sets as well as on the Internet and via cell phones, iPods and other mobile devices. The company will begin testing its Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) service this summer, [...]

Microsoft said on Thursday that co-founder Bill Gates will transition out of his day-to-day role with the company over the next two years. Gates, 50, who started Microsoft in 1975 with childhood friend Paul Allen, plans to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an [...]