Young children could be watched over by remote control teddy bears with swivelling heads that track every move, thanks to a research project from Microsoft.

‘Teddy’ is a prototype bear of the future being developed in Microsoft’s US laboratories. It has stereovision eyes, built-in Wi-Fi and a microphone.

Motion tracking and facial recognition technologies allows the bear to identify specific children and keep them under surveillance as they move around a room.

“In the future, computers won’t just live in your home office or on your desk at work,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

“They will take on many different forms: the wall of your living room, your refrigerator door, or even your child’s stuffed animal. You won’t have to click a mouse or type on a keyboard to interact with your new computer; just touching, talking and moving will do the trick.”

The idea is that parents at work could keep a watch over their children remotely and warn them if they are in danger. Microsoft hopes that, as software gets more advanced, the bear could play games with the child as well.

Source: vnunet

America Online Inc. on Sunday moved to quell public criticism of the terms of service for its AIM service, insisting the controversial privacy clause does not pertain to user-to-user instant messaging communication. A section of the controversial clause, which was first flagged by Weblogs and discussion forums, reads: “Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content.

Source: eweek

Microsoft Corp. is to give the U.S. government priority in fixing security holes in Windows and other software, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Under a plan to take effect later this year, Microsoft will give the U.S. Air Force versions of software “patches” to fix serious security vulnerabilities up to a month before they are available to others, the paper said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will give advance notice of problems to other government agencies and distribute patches to them, the Journal said, citing officials at Microsoft and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.

Source: Reuters

CPU – Xenon’s CPU has three 3.0 GHz PowerPC cores. Each core is capable of two instructions per cycle and has an L1 cache with 32 KB for data and 32 KB for instructions. The three cores share 1 MB of L2 cache. Alpha 2 developer kits currently have two cores instead of three.

GPU – Xenon’s GPU is a generation beyond the ATI X800. Its clock speed is 500 MHz and it supports Shader 3.0. Developers are currently working with an alpha 2 GPU. Beta GPU units are expected by May and the final GPU is slated for a summer release. The final GPU will be more powerful than anything on the market today; in game terms, it would handle a game like Half-Life 2 with ease.

System Memory – Xenon will have 256 MB of system RAM. Keep in mind that this number should not be equated to typical PC RAM. The Xbox has 64 MB of system RAM and is a very capable machine.

Optical Drive – As many have speculated, Xenon will not use Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Games will come on dual-layer DVD-9 discs. While the media is the same as that of the current Xbox, the usable space on each disc is up to 7 GB. The drive is slated to run at 12X.

Memory Units – Xenon will use 64 MB to 1,024 MB memory cards. 8 MB is reserved for system use, leaving a 56 MB to 1,016 MB for user data.

Hard Drive – As many have speculated, Xenon’s hard drive is optional. 2 GB of the drive will be used as game cache. The final drive size is still being determined.

Camera – Xenon will have a USB 2.0 camera. It’s capable of 1.2 megapixel still shots and VGA video. Photos can be used in-game and for gamer profiles. The camera can also be used for video chat. It’s unknown if the Xenon camera will allow for EyeToy-like gameplay. Developers are currently using a simulated camera driver.

Sound Chip – Xenon does not have an audio chip in the traditional sense. Decompression is handled by hardware, while the rest of the chores are handled by software. DirectSound3D has been dropped in favor of X3DAudio. The former was deemed too inflexible.

source: gamespy

Consumer electronics giant Sony has unveiled a range of MP3 players which use flash memory to store songs. The devices are pitched into a competitive market recently swelled by the addition of Apple’s iPod shuffle.

Unlike hard disk-based players, flash devices hold fewer songs, using solid state memory rather than a disk.

The Sony line-up includes MP3 players which hold a similar number of songs to the iPod shuffle – about 250 – but the players have much longer battery life.

The new players have up to one gigabyte of storage and depending on which version, cost between $150 and $180.

Sony said the new devices would have 50 hours of battery life – compared to the Shuffle’s 12 – and they also come with a small display screen.

read more for the rest of the story… or go to the source.

source: BBC News

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In an effort to boost sales of Windows, Microsoft has its sights set on its nearest competitor.

But it’s not Linux. And sorry, Apple Computer fans, it’s not the Mac.

The biggest rival to Windows sales is Windows itself–or rather pirated copies of the OS. And Microsoft is starting to put its foot down.

In its most serious bid yet to reap revenue from those who’ve been getting Windows without payment to Microsoft, the company plans to require computer owners to verify that their copy of Windows is properly licensed before allowing them to download software from Microsoft’s site. By mid-year, the once voluntary Windows Genuine Advantage program will become mandatory.

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The whole Windows Genuine Advantage program is really nothing great, heard it does not even work that well. Go figure. oh well though.

source: CNET

A Russian website offering MP3 tracks for sale has been cleared of breaching copyright laws, say reports.

Last month the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI) urged Russian authorities to take action against AllofMP3.com.

source: BBC News

Firefox 1.0.1 was released, head over here to get it: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox

read more to see an unofficial change log… includes a security fix, should be noted others and myself have experienced no problems with installation or any problems with extentions/etc.

I put up a basic antispyware guide, click “Guides” at the top for more information. I started to do an antivirus protection guide, I will finish soon. I also worked on the forums abit more, finally changed the top image with my own, bah, then to work on the colors more too, which I did some slight changes to the old colors already, need to find some other ones to use that would match.

So how’s everyone’s new year been? Mines been good so far. Shortly I should be back on track and putting up reviews, guides and some better news.

Maxthon has a new version for the new year as well that was put out days ago, http://www.maxthon.com so if you are still using IE or have not updated Maxton, do so now.