Music marches to a digital beat

There was a time when any discussion about music
on the net would have been all about file-sharing,
piracy and the decline of CD sales.
But in a sign of how things have changed,
the talk now is of what kind of legal download services
will resonate with music fans.
And the people involved in these new offerings are looking forward
to a time when digital music services
will be available at any time, on any device.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4604846.stm

Gates promises Windows everywhere

Microsoft boss Bill Gates has made
an ambitious pitch to put Windows software
at the heart of everything people do.
Speaking as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas opens,
Mr Gates talked about Microsoft's plan to remake itself to match digital lifestyles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4583342.stm

Google mulls online book future

Google has suggested it may consider setting up an online book store.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters
at the Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas that this would depend on permission from copyright holders.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4598478.stm

Intel eyes entertainment market

The chip giant Intel has made its pitch to be
at the heart of digital entertainment with its Viiv technology.
Viiv is Intel's bid to convert PCs into home entertainment hubs
and make it easier to play video, music and other content on a variety of gadgets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4586468.stm

Yahoo reaches out beyond browser

Web giant Yahoo has taken the first steps
towards moving beyond the browser.
It has announced plans to allow people to use Yahoo e-mail,
messaging and other services on mobile phones and via the TV.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4587000.stm

Google opens online video store

Google is to start selling video online,
offering a way for people to search for and
buy TV shows and more through its site.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4589884.stm

Sony Reader targets book lovers

Sony is trying to do for e-books
what Apple has done for downloadable digital music
It has launched a handheld device designed
for electronic books- dubbed the Sony Reader
- at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
It has a screen made from electronic paper
that makes text look almost as sharp as it is on a printed page.
Sony hopes that it will tempt a lot of people to download
and read books in digital, rather than paper, format.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4586800.stm

Web giants show the way in Vegas

Among the huge flat panel TVs, tiny MP3 players a
nd stylish handsets on show at last week's Consumer Electronics Show,
two newcomers were the focus of attention.
For the first time, web giants Google and Yahoo
took their place alongside the big names in consumer electronics,
such as Sony, Samsung and Toshiba

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4594290.stm

Music players lead digital surge

More and more people are buying
into the idea of carrying their music,
and now video, with them.
According to figures released by the organisers of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES),
sales of MP3 players soared by 200% in 2005 to $3bn (£1.73bn).
The trend will continue in 2006, as more video-playing gadgets appear, with sales expected to hit $4.5bn.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4580244.stm

Xbox 360 scoops best gadget prize

Microsoft's Xbox 360 has been voted
the best games console by technology fans.
It fought off competition from Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP)
and Nintendo's DS Lite to scoop the prize.
Other winners included the iPod 30GB for best MP3 player
and the Sony Ericsson W810i for the most sought-after mobile phone.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5214200.stm

Geekspeak still baffles web users

Britons are increasingly tech-savvy
but are still bamboozled by tech jargon.
According to research from Nielsen/NetRatings,
people are buying cutting-edge technology
but often don't understand the terms
that describe what their device actually does

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5406498.stm?ls

All women gamers, please stand up

The debate about how to get women more involved
in gaming is a perennial one and one on which there is pretty wide
agreement that not enough is being done.

Women now account for around a third of UK gamers,
so it is time to stop talking about women in gaming
as if they lived in a separate universe?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5407490.stm?ls

Mars orbiter looks down on rover

Nasa's new orbiter at Mars has taken a spectacular picture
of the Opportunity rover sitting on a crater's rim.
The crater has high walls with layers of exposed rock
that should reveal significant new information about the planet's geological past.
Its view of Victoria Crater will help US space agency researchers
decide where to send Opportunity to make ground observations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5413754.stm

Future of the hard drive 'secure

With all the developments in memory technology
you could be forgiven for thinking that the lowly hard drive is dead.
But although the hard drive is 50 this year, we have seen yet more growth
in the technologies around it. The one terabyte drive is more or less here,
we have perpendicular recording and they are getting smaller all the time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/5413198.stm

PlayStation embraces online world

Sony's PlayStation is to challenge Microsoft's Xbox
in its one undisputed area of dominance - the online world.
The PlayStation 3 will be "network ready"
out of the box when it launches in November
and will offer a range of services similar to Xbox Live.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5402966.stm?ls

Microsoft engaging with hackers

In a few weeks time Microsoft is expected to launch Vista,
its new operating system, and in January we will all get to play
with the finished version. But how safe will this brave new world be?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/5413792.stm

Snake-arm robots slither forward

Engineers examining the Ringhals 1 nuclear power plant
in the summer of 2003 discovered a leak in a critical
pipe deep beneath the reactor core.
Snake-arm robots, as they are known, are lightweight,
flexible manipulator arms. They look like a spinal column,
made of lots of individual vertebrae, and can contort to any desired shape.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5324708.stm

Cricket machine masters bowling

A machine that can replicate the spin and
"swing of bowlers has been developed at a UK university.
The machine can also produce swing and reverse swing,
mimicking fast bowlers like Glenn McGrath.
The spin and swing is put on the ball by a combination of two spinning wheels
and a barrel which uses rifling theory to add side-spin.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5412632.stm

YouTube hits 100m videos per day


Internet video site YouTube has said its users are
now watching more than 100 million videos per day.
Last month 2.5 billion videos were watched on YouTube, the company said.
Videos are watched free on the site and the company
is still working on developing advertising and
other means of generating revenue to support the business.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5186618.stm

Google 'in talks to buy YouTube'

Google is reported to be in talks to buy popular
video-sharing website YouTube for $1.6bn (£856m).
The discussions between the two sides were at a sensitive stage
and the talks could break up. In February 2005,
YouTube has grown quickly into one of the most popular websites on the internet,
with 100 million videos viewed every day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5414432.stm

Hi!! My name is Ning. I'm Thai and I'm in 9th grade at ISE.