Second Google phone from T-Mobile

Competition in the smartphone market is heating up this summer as one new hot smartphone after another hits the street. The latest is T-Mobile's next Google Android device, called the myTouch.

Second Google phone, dubbed MyTouch, is thinner than the first Android phone by T-Mobile.

T-Mobile announced the new smartphone Monday. It is the second smartphone the carrier has introduced that uses Google's open-source mobile operating system, Android.

T-Mobile introduced the world's first Google Android phone, called the G1, last fall. And so far the company claims it has sold over 1 million devices.

The myTouch is manufactured by HTC and is essentially the same hardware design as the Google Ion, which is also known as the HTC Magic. The device was introduced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and is now being sold by Vodafone in various markets around the world.

The Google Ion/HTC Magic has been described as thinner than the G1 and slightly smaller than Apple's iPhone. But it features a large 3.2-inch touch screen with a resolution of 320 x480 pixels and no physical keyboard.

The phone offers network support for 3G and Wi-Fi.

The myTouch comes with 512 Megabytes of internal memory and supports microSD for external storage. The device will ship with a 4GB microSD card, but customers can add more storage if they'd like.

Even though T-Mobile's first Android phone hasn't even been out a year, T-Mobile is calling the myTouch its premier Android smartphone, said Andrew Sherrard, vice president at T-Mobile.

The carrier will announce a few more Android devices later this year, but it will be focusing much of its marketing efforts promoting the myTouch. And while Sherrard said the G1 isn't going away anytime soon, he believes the myTouch will have an even better chance to pick up new customers who are looking for an easy to use smartphone.

T-Mobile plans to sell the myTouch for $199 with a two-year service contract, and it will be available to current T-Mobile customers starting July 8. Non-T-Mobile customers will be able to get the new phone in early August.

The myTouch is entering the market just as every major smartphone maker is also introducing its latest and greatest device. Three other smartphones makers have already started selling phones this summer.

Palm's much anticipated Pre was introduced on Sprint Nextel's network two weeks ago. Nokia followed with its U.S. debut of the N97, touch-screen smartphone. And Apple started selling its faster and memory-enhanced iPhone 3G S on Friday.

Like the Palm Pre and Apple iPhone 3G S, the myTouch will be sold exclusively through a single wireless operator in the U.S. And as a result the $199 price tag is subsidized and requires consumers sign a two-year service contract with the carriers. By contrast, Nokia's N97 is not subsidized and is sold at full retail price without a service contract.

So how does T-Mobile expect the myTouch to stand out among all these other cool new phones? The key, Sherrard said, is personalization. While the basic hardware design of the myTouch is the same as the HTC Magic, T-Mobile has made enhancements to the device both in terms of hardware and software.

"No two myTouch devices will be alike," Sherrard said. "They will be as unique as the users that own them."

From a software perspective, consumers will have the opportunity to completely customize their myTouch device with various Android applications. In retail stores, T-Mobile sales representatives will help customers set up their own personalized device before they leave the store.

One example of an application that will make the phone more unique to a particular individual is called Sherpa, created by Geodelic. This application is a location-based service that uses GPS to help users find restaurants, movie theaters, and other businesses or points of interest that are nearby.

What differentiates this service from other location based services is that Sherpa learns where users have been and what they have searched for in the past, and the application is able to make recommendations. It might show some local businesses that it thinks a user might be interested in, such as the nearest dry cleaner.

Or the application might highlight special events going on in that area. It also will tell users how far they are from whichever location they are trying to find.

The application, which is one of 5,000 applications available on the Android Marketplace, will be exclusive to T-Mobile, Sherrard said. The myTouch will also have special Google features baked in, such as easy picture uploading to Picasa and easy video loading to YouTube, both Web properties owned by Google.

Some other ways users will be able to customize their phones includes the ability to add widgets, music, a personal calendar, photos, and Web link shortcuts that can all be accessed with a single click.

"What we have found is that once consumers know how to customize a device and they add everything they want on it, they respond very well to having a phone that is specially designed for them," Sherrard said.

Still, the battle for the smartphone customer could get bloody. Even though Apple's iPhone 3G S offered only a modest hardware upgrade, it still flew off the shelves the first weekend it was on the market.

Analysts said earlier they had expected Apple to sell 500,000 iPhone 3G S devices during the weekend, and it's likely that the company easily exceeded these expectations.

The Palm Pre also got off to a good start with devices selling out the first weekend it was on sale. And Research In Motion, one of the biggest smartphone makers on the market, expects to introduce the BlackBerry Tour and the next generation of its touch-screen BlackBerry phone, the Storm, later this year.

In the end, Sherrard believes consumers will seethe myTouch as more than just a phone.

"This is more than a product launch for us," Sherrard said. "We want consumers to view this as an experience that we are creating for them."

How to change windows boot screen

In this tutorial, I’ll teach you how to change windows boot screen.

First, inorder to change the bootscreen you should have installed TuneUp utilities. You can download it from here

After you’ve installed tuneup utilities open tuneup styler which you can open through start/allprograms/tuneuputilities/utilities/tuneup styler or you can even open through tuneup utilities customize windows button and then click tuneup styler.

Then Tuneup styler will appear like this

In that click “Bootscreen” under the interface bar. then a window will appear like this

Now click make new screen , a window will appear like this. In that you could show your creative styles by adding any wallpaper or photos etc.

How to change the icons of individual drive

In this post let me show you how to change the icons of individual drives.

First you have to download a software called icon packager. you can download it from here.

Then you have to open that. It will look like this

Then click on “Icons and cursors”. A window will appear like this.

In that, click drives.

In that click the button “Individual drive mode”. This will show you the individual drive icons.

Finally select the dirve icon which you want to change and clickthe change button.

On clicking a browser will appear. In that you have to browse and select the icon which you want to put it as your drive icon.

REMEMBER: You can put only .ico files as your icons. But, you can convert .png files into .ico files using this software. Click here to download it

Sony Ericsson C905

The Sony Ericsson C905 has an stunning design specification which makes it a high end mobile camera phone. The C905 slider phone is the successor to the popular 5-megapixel K800i but takes photo imagery to a different level.

It has a TFT display of 256k colours and is 240 x 320 pixels. Internal memory is clocked at 160MB with an additional M2 memory stick supporting up to 8GB. Battery life allows for stand-by up to 380h without re-charging and talk-time up to 9h. The phone is available in night black, copper gold, ice silver and tender rose colours.

The following are the key technical features of the C905:

* 8.1 MP autofocus camera with Xenon flash and active lens cover. Xenon flash – uses white LED for snapping high quality night time photos. Shoot well lit photos indoors or in dark environments.

* BestPic – press camera key fully down for 7 shots at once that range from before to after the key was pressed. Useful for shooting moving objects and helps make you look skilful with a lens.

* Dedicated camera mode switch, two camera/gaming keys over the display
* Face and Smile detection, smart contrast, image stabilizer, red-eye reduction
* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and HSDPA (3.6 Mb) / tri-band HSDPA for US version
* Auto focus – provides sharper pictures by homing in on the subject. The phone features 16x digital zoom.
* Face detection – makes facial features the focus of your shot and includes red-eye reduction.
* Image stabiliser – reduces the chance of blurred images caused by hand movements during picture taking.
* Geo-tagging – applies a label to show where you took your photos.
* HSDPA – delivers broadband like speed of 3.5G for super fast downloads and streaming.
* Wi-Fi enabled – support for fast wireless Internet connectivity in hotspots. Wi-Fi b/g with DLNA and SIP VoIP support, Bluetooth (with A2DP), USB v2.0
* GPS with A-GPS function– built in satellite navigation with trial version of Wayfinder Navigator pre-installed.
* Scratch resistant mineral glass 2.4″ TFT 256K-color display
* Enhanced user interface with basic multi-tasking
* Media Center, Smart search, Manage Messages, extended TrackID
* FM radio with RDS and TrackID
* 160 MB built-in memory, M2 card support, 2GB included

Main disadvantages:

* Display is relatively small for a high-end device
* Video recording limited to QVGA resolution at 30fps
* No front facing video call camera
* No office document viewer
* Sliding lens cover of questionable durability
* Exposed connectivity port
* Fiddly battery cover

Full Specification

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 2100
		HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - C905a
	Announced	2008, June
	Status	Available. Released 2008, October

Size	Dimensions	104 x 49 x 18-19.5 mm
	Weight	136 g

Display	Type	TFT, 256K colors
	Size	240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches
		- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones
	Speakerphone	Yes

Memory	Phonebook	1000 x 20 fields, Photo call
	Call records	30 received, dialed and missed calls
	Internal	160 MB
	Card slot	Memory Stick Micro (M2), up to 8GB, 2GB card included

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	HSCSD	No
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	3G	HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, v2.0

Camera	Primary	8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, xenon flash
	Features	Geo-tagging, face detection, smart contrast, image stabilization, smile detection (with update)
	Video	Yes, QVGA@30fps
	Secondary	Yes

Features	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
	Browser	WAP 2.0/HTML (NetFront), RSS reader
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	Games	Yes + downloadable
	Colors	Night Black, Ice Silver, Copper Gold, Tender Rose
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support; Wayfinder Navigator 7
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.0
		- MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player - TrackID music recognition - Picture editor/blogging - TV-out - Organizer - Voice memo/dial - T9

Battery					Standard battery, Li-Po 930 mAh (BST-38)
	Stand-by				Up to 380 h (2G) / Up to 360 h (3G)
	Talk time				Up to 9 h (2G) / Up to 4 h (3G)

Sims 3 - At a glance

Catch a gradual snap of what's fresh in this extremely awaited game, and look at a glance at the Modern life-goals system also.
The Sims 3 is at last coming this year, and with it, the renewed trusts and dreams of everybody who's ever so desired to build little computer mass have little computer on night-stands, or make them expire awfully in kitchen fires. The 3rd episode of this will bring with it new features and improvements to the older stuff--such as better graphics, with increased lighting and shading, and dozens of expressive newfangled animations.

Let's begin with the game's customization and editing tools, which are being added to greatly for The Sims 3.In The Sims 3, facial features will pretty much all have diverse sliders that will volunteer much more deep tweaking choices.
The Sims 3 will also have sliders that will allow you pick out custom-made gradients for complexion (to best represent diverse ethnicities, too as blue-skinned aliens, green-skinned witches, or what have you); gradients for primary and secondary hair color ; a slider for body character that will permit you decide how slim, strong, or obese your characters are; and the new "create a style" swatch tool, which will let you edit and save assorted color patterns, and then use them to anything in the world that has a pattern.




You'll find new-and-improved customization and building options in The Sims 3. Plus, you can be a gold miner.
The greater part of the tale of the Buy and Build modes will be the use of create-a-style to paint all of your piece of furniture, besides your house, with whichever patterns you want as freeform wallpaper and carpeting--such as with, let's say for the sake of example, leopard print. Switching in custom-made items created by the fanatically patriotic Sims community will also be made easier in The Sims 3 with an inbuilt application that runs out of the game's launcher . Besides uploading and downloading furniture, customized sims characters, and housing to and from the community site, The Sims 3 will feature an in-game movie-making tool that will allow you upload and download videos to and from the Exchange.

Moreover, exterior lots have been altered so that there will now be only one and only vast, uninterrupted locality , within which time is perpetually escaping. Likewise, your neighbors' lives are constantly varying at the same time. The neighborhood view in The Sims 3 has been changed to be a real real-time 3D space that indicates context-sensitive icons that assure you precisely where you need to go if you plan to go out to a gymnasium, restaurant, shop, recreational area, or where else. The difference is that in The Sims 3, the neighborhood view is real 3-D space and so you will be able to seamlessly move from your house to a lot, or from one lot to another, without having to hit a loading screen. As a matter of fact, if your have a bicycle or automobile, your sims can directly hop on and take a ride; if not, sims will be fitted with a cellphone that they can use to automatically call a taxi to whisk them away to where they're going in real time.

And here's a entire list of the game's 32 lifetime wishes: professional writer, world-renowned surgeon, become a superstar athlete, CEO of a megacorporation, hit film composer, heartbreaker, rock star, the tinkerer, become a master thief, forensic specialist: dynamic DNA profiler, become an spaceman, master of the fine art, perfect mind/perfect body, gold miner, star news anchor, living in the lap of luxury, jack of all trades, surrounded by family, renaissance sim, chess legend, the culinary librarian, golden tongue/golden fingers, international super spy, super popular, presenting the perfect private aquarium, celebrated five-star chef, illustrious author, swimming in cash, the perfect garden, leader of the free world, the emperor, and become a creature-robot cross-breeder.

Japan warns of iPod nano fire risk

Japan on Tuesday warned users of Apple iPod nanos of a potential fire risk, after two new instances in which the popular portable music players overheated.

The economy, trade and industry ministry has received two new reports of minor fires in August in Tokyo caused by overheating iPod nanos, said ministry official Hiroyuki Yoshitsune. There were no injuries and the cause is still unclear, he said.

Japan had already launched an investigation in March after another Apple iPod nano sent out sparks. According to the ministry, Apple Computer has been notified of a total of 14 similar cases in Japan. Out of those, two users suffered minor burning.

The ministry said the incidents were caused by four models - MA004J/A, MA005J/A, MA099J/A and MA107J/A - of which 1.81 million units were sold between September 2005 and September 2006 in Japan.

"Users need to be careful about overheating of the machines," the ministry said in a statement, warning that particular care is needed when recharging the iPods.

"Our ministry told Apple to improve its technological development and probe the cause of the incidents so that similar incidents do not happen again," the official said.

There was no immediate comment from Apple. Public broadcaster NHK said the company has no plan to recall any iPods but is ready to exchange defective parts.

The US computer giant has already warned that iPod, iPod nano or iPod shuffle may generate excess heat while being charged in certain carry cases.

Lithium ion batteries, which Apple uses for iPods, are common in consumer electronics, such as mobile telephones and personal computers.

However, major battery makers, including electronics giant Sony Corp., have occasionally been forced to recall their lithium ion battery packs after reports of overheating and fire.

Lost world 'found' in Antarctica

Scientists have discovered a lost world in Antarctica, which they claim is preserved exactly the same way when it was frozen some 14 million years ago.

An international team has found fossils of plants and animals in the mountains on the interior of Antarctica, which it believes became extinct due to an abrupt climate cooling of 8 degree Celsius in 200,000 years.

In their study, the scientists have combined evidence from glaciers from the preserved ecology, volcanic ashes and modeling to reveal the full extent of the big freeze in part of the southernmost continent called the Dry Valleys.

According to them, the lost world is an extremely rare find in the continent, one that also provides an insight into what could be there in a century or two as the planet warms, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Lead researcher Professor Adam Lewis of North Dakota State University said, "The discovery of lake deposits with perfectly preserved fossils of mosses, diatoms and minute crustacea called ostracods is particularly exciting. They are the first to be found even though scientific expeditions have been visiting the Dry Valleys since they were discovered during the first Scott expedition in 1902-1903."

"The fossil finds allow us to examine Antarctica as it existed just prior to climate cooling at 13.9 million years ago. It is a unique window into the past. To study deposits is akin to strolling across the Dry Valleys 14.1 million years ago," said co-researcher David Marchant of Boston University.

However, what caused the big freeze is yet unknown though theories abound and include phenomena as different as the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and tectonic shifts that affected ocean circulation.

"If we can understand how we got into this relatively cold climate phase, then that can help predict how global warming might push us back out of this phase.

"For the vast majority of Earth history there was no permanent ice like is common today at poles and even the tropics at high elevation," Prof Lewis was quoted by the British newspaper as saying.

The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

India developing $100 laptop

Students across the country will be able to buy specially designed laptops at affordable prices with the Government planning to provide them the gadget at around Rs 4,000.

Research in this direction is being already carried out at the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore and IIT-Madras to develop a special laptop at a cost of $100 for students to help them excel in studies.

"The government aims to provide 100-dollar laptops to students and research in this direction is on," said D Purandeshwari, Minister of State for Human Resources Development.

The initiative has been taken by government to enable students to make the most out of Information Technology, which is emerging as a catalyst for the country's socio-economic development, she said.

Her announcement came at the inaugural session of 'e-India 2008,' an international conference of IT solution providers and government agencies to facilitate practices of e-governance and digital learning in the country.

Holding that the Information and Communication Technology will play a key role in the country's education system, the minister said: "in the coming years, thrust will be on using ICT to strengthen various mode of learning both in school and at higher education levels.

"To deliver the benefits of ICT in the learning process, a new scheme namely 'National Mission in Education through ICT' will be launched, with the objective of providing connectivity to the learners to the 'Knowledge World' in cyberspace," she said.

The Chinese will be hard to beat

Worthy successors to legends ready to provide the thrills

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China owns seven of the last eight men’s World team titles

In the women’s section, the U.S. looks set to emerge team champion

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Always one of the most popular disciplines in the Olympic roster, gymnastics, which has seen some colourful personalities, has provided memorable moments ever since the sport was included into the Games at St. Louis in 1904.

Even as one looks forward to the August 9-19 competitions at the Beijing National indoor stadium, it is hard to resist the temptation to look backwards because the inspiring images of the likes of Larisa Latynina, Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, Viktor Chukarin, Boris Shaklin, Sawao Kato, Nikolai Andrianov and Vitaly Scherbo simply fail to fade away.

All legendary figures provided gymnastics and the Olympic Games with glitz and glamour during their time; creating new benchmarks with difficult and gutsy routines in this sport of tumbles, vaults and falls.

Worthy successors

Fortunately enough, we do have worthy successors to these ever-green superstars, even as the fall in the standards of such powerhouses like Russia and Romania is quite hard to digest. In Beijing, it would be the Chinese, particularly their men gymnasts, who would be hard to beat, given the vast advantage they hold while competing at their own backyard.

Led by the three-time World all-around champion, Yang Wei, the Chinese are the firm favourites for the team gold, having shown their capability at last year’s World championships in Stuttgart winning the title by an astonishing five points.

A huge margin by any account considering the fact that the total team score was made up of only 18 routines.

The fact that China now owns seven of the last eight men’s World team titles indicates the depth of the Chinese squad, which besides Wei comprises Xiao Qin, Zou Kai, Huang Xi, Liang Fuliang and Chen Yibing.

True, the Chinese have a tendency to falter under Olympic pressure, but it is hard to visualise such a surprise in Beijing as they battle it out with Japan, Germany, the United States and South Korea for the top honours.

In the all-around competition, though the defending champion, Paul Hamm (United States) is back after an injury, it could be Wei all the way should he repeat the same form that he displayed in Germany last year.

The Chinese are also likely to pick a lot of medals in the finals of the various apparatuses, though they could face stiff challenge from the likes of Brazil’s Diego Hypolito (floor), Hungary’s Krisztian (pommel horse), Holland’s Yuri van Gelder (rings), Poland’s Leszek Blanik (vault), Slovakia’s Mitja Petkovsek (parallel bars) and Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen (horizontal bars) besides their arch rivals from Japan and the United States and veterans like Jordan Jovtchev.

U.S. women formidable

In the women’s section, it is the United States which looks set to emerge as the team champion though the Chinese have in them the capability to turn things around.

The Americans, having won the title in Stuttgart, would be looking forward to their first Olympic triumph on foreign soil in Beijing. In Shawn Johnson, the U.S., has a popular all-around World champion.

The 16-year-old, having added quite a few nuances to her regular routine, could be a runaway winner of her section against her own teammate Anastasia Liukin, Romania’s Stevlana Nistor, Brazil’s Jade Barbosa and the Chinese duo of Yang Yilin and Xiao Sha.

Though the Americans are capable of winning a medal in each of the apparatuses finals it could well be a touch-and-go affair considering the fact that the Chinese represented by Cheng Fi, He Ning, Jiang Yuyan and Li Shanshan can prove to be quite a handful before an adoring home audience.

With the scoring system having been changed in 2005, Beijing is also set to see the new accumulative points scoring system, which lays emphasis on content and execution rather than daring, in operation.

In essence, you could hardly witness the perfect 10.00 being awarded in Beijing, but the third Olympics in Asia could still have its thrills and frills if the gymnasts get going.

Digital camera resolution reaches a new high

The Swedish company Hasselblad's announcement of the launch of Hasselblad H3DII-50, featuring a new Kodak 50-megapixel sensor, has pushed the available resolution in digital cameras to a new high.

Such high resolution goes beyond the needs of most consumers but professional photographers would appreciate the unprecedented level of detail provided by it.

"The H3DII-50 has been designed to meet the challenging demands of high-end photographers who require the best in image quality, performance and creative freedom," said Hasselblad CEO Christian Poulsen in a press release.

The camera, which would be available from October 2008, would also prove useful for applications such as aerial photography as the availability of higher resolution allows the plane to fly higher and the number of pictures necessary for covering a given area is also reduced.

The new Kodak image sensor, which produces an array of 8,176-by-6,132 pixels, would be implemented in the same size housing as Hasselblad's existing 39-megapixel H3DII-39 camera.

Kodak has also added a set of new features on the sensor, such as new dyes, that would result in richer colours. It also includes quick flush technology that enables faster image capture and lower power consumption, resulting in longer battery life.

Watch out for brightest Jupiter on July 9

Keep your telescopes handy for a wonderful celestial activity - Jupiter will shine at its brightest when it aligns directly with the Sun and Earth on Wednesday.

“It is an interesting phenomenon as Jupiter and Earth would be in a straight line. Both the planets come closest at this time of the year and Jupiter, in turn, shines at its brightest,” said Nehru Planetarium director N. Ratnashree.

Ratnashree said if we could see Earth from Jupiter then it would be passing in front of the Sun.

The planetarium will put out a telescope for people interested in watching the planets from the Nehru Memorial.

“We want people to come and watch the event. If the weather is clear, we could have the clearest view of Jupiter and its moons from Earth,” Rathnashree said.

This celestial event will be followed by a solar eclipse on Aug 1.

“The solar eclipse will be seen partially in India, but there is likely to be considerable excitement arising from the fact that a large fraction of the eclipse would be seen from the northern parts of the country,” Ratnashree said.

New navigation system to help motorists avoid jams

A new car navigation system is being developed to help motorists negotiate rush hour jams by advising them about the best possible routes.

The 'Congestion Avoidance Dynamic Routing Engine' (CADRE) uses “artificial intelligence”, or AI, to interpret live traffic information shared among vehicles fitted with a special GPS, or Global Positioning System.

CADRE can sense traffic slowing down and building up into jams and works by “monitoring” other vehicles, informing motorists eight to 16 kilometres ahead of a situation as it is happening and recommends steps to avoid it while they can.

The software is built around “fuzzy logic” that mimics human reasoning.

The capability comes from the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Industrial Research (IIR) that specialises in using AI techniques for industrial applications.

David Brown, who heads IIR, said: “The system interprets live data from current traffic conditions so the motorist receives up-to-the-minute advice and can make an informed choice.”

The system takes into account of how traffic speeds vary by day of the week and time of day and even on individual roads.

It means that journey times are predicted more accurately and better routes are calculated that take into account typical traffic conditions for the time of travel.

“At present, routing can be carried out for minimum time or distance, but this can easily be extended to other criteria such as minimum cost or minimum carbon dioxide emissions,” said Brown.

Future plans for the system would extend it to ferries, trains and even planes allowing travellers to examine different departure times to estimate the best time and route to travel. CADRE could be in the shops in as little as 18 months.

Greater emission cuts needed to prevent irreversible damage

Much greater cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases are required to prevent the global average surface temperature from increasing by more than two to three degrees above pre-industrial levels, a scientist has warned.

Failure to incorporate this information into policy processes now could close off options to avoid dangerous climate change in the future.

Policy makers have been urged to incorporate critical climate-carbon cycle feedback information into the decision making process to prevent irreversible climate changes.

Climate-carbon cycle feedback reflect the interaction between temperature change, atmospheric carbon dioxide and the carbon cycle - the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged between land, ocean and atmosphere.

Global warming could significantly reduce the uptake and storage of carbon by land and ocean sinks.

This risk has profound implications for climate policy. If the uptake and storage of carbon by natural sinks declines, a greater proportion of carbon emissions will remain in the atmosphere.

As a result, meeting climate targets based on atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide will be more difficult, requiring a greater reduction in emissions than would otherwise be necessary.

ONGC discovers new oil field in Iran

DUBAI: India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has discovered a new oil field in Iran, the website of Iran State television said.

“India’s ONGC has discovered a new oil field in the Farsi oil block of the Persian Gulf,” Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh, the managing director of Iran’s State offshore oil company was quoted as saying.

“The Indian company will undertake the development of the newly discovered field upon determining that its development is economically feasible,” he observed. Based on the ONGC’s technical studies, the capacity of the new oil field would also be announced, the official said.

Mr. Zirakchianzadeh pointed out that the new field could be developed concurrently with the Farzad B gas field, which is also located in the Farsi block. This gas field has estimated reserves of 12 trillion cubic feet.

The ONGC and the Indian Oil Corporation each have a 40 per cent participating interest in the Farsi block, while the Oil India Ltd. has a 20 per cent stake. The ONGC’s overseas arm, the ONGC-Videsh Ltd. (OVL) is involved in executing projects abroad. The ONGC had earlier announced plans to invest $3 billion with its partners to develop gas fields in the Farsi block. The consortium has reportedly already invested $ 90 million in the block.

Midas touch: Scientists discover gold nanoparticles

Scientists have for the first time discovered gold nanoparticles, setting to rest speculation about whether they existed at all.

Scientists of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said that they discovered these particles in western Australia.

“In the southern areas of the state, groundwater is very salty and acidic. This water dissolves primary gold and re-deposits it as pure gold crystals on fracture surfaces and in open pore spaces,” said Rob Hough, who led the search for the nanoparticles.

“On investigation of these crystals, there appeared to be a dark band across them. However, high magnification imaging showed the band was in fact, a mass of gold nanoparticles and nanoplates," he added.

These gold nanoparticles are in fact identical to those being manufactured in laboratories around the world for their unique properties.

The research team concluded that gold nanoparticles imaged represented the 'invisible' gold in the clay, and that this nanosized gold was common in similar environments.

“The gold nanoparticles have not been identified earlier because they are transparent to electron beams and effectively invisible,” Hough said.

“However, they are probably a common form of gold in this type of natural environment worldwide, where saline water interacts with gold deposits. They also provide the first direct observation of the nanoscale mobility of gold during weathering," said the researcher.

With gold fetching around Australian $950 an ounce and expected to rise, this study is good news for Australia's gold explorers.

The findings of the study have been presented in a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Geology.

New internet domain names in 2009: ICANN

Internet users should soon be able to use new domain names such as .love, .paris or .bank if one of the world wide web's biggest shakeups is approved this week as expected by the web regulator ICANN.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which opened its annual general meeting Monday in Paris, was due to vote on the new names this week.
"Apart from the .com, .net or .org, the 1.3 billion web users will be able from early 2009 to acquire generic addresses by lodging common words such as .love, .hate or .city or proper names," ICANN president Paul Twomey told French newspaper Les Echos.
The meeting has gathered more than 1,300 delegates from 130 countries.
ICANN, a non-profit organization based in southern California, oversees the assignment of domain names and internet protocol addresses that help computers communicate.

The Brightest X-Ray source

The x-ray has just got 100 million times brighter, thanks to next-generation light sources like free electron laser oscillator - or the X-FELO.

X-FELO will open up breakthrough scientific opportunities in various research fields. Its characteristics are ideally suited for bulk-sensitive, hard x-ray photo-emission spectroscopy.

Existing technology uses undulators to create bright x-ray beams of spontaneous emission at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne.

Much of the research for x-ray free electron lasers has been concentrated on self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE), which would amplify them by a factor of a million or more in a single pass.

A user of SASE will see x-ray brightness that is about 10,000 times brighter than what the APS is delivering, Argonne's Kwang-Je Kim said.

X-FELO, devised by US Department of Energy scientists, the electron pulse enters an undulator and generates an x-ray that is reflected back into the undulator entrance by crystals and connects with the next electron bunch and again travels back along the undulator. This pattern is repeated indefinitely with the x-ray intensity growing each time until equilibrium is reached.

An X-FELO will enhance the flux by six to eight orders of magnitude, shortening the data collection times by the same factor.

The intensity of individual x-ray pulse from an X-FELO is lower by about three orders of magnitude. However the X-FELO pulse has extremely narrow bandwidth, three to four orders of magnitude narrower than the SASE.

Accordingly an X-FELO user will see a brightness which is about six to eight orders of magnitude brighter than any previously created and three to four orders of magnitude brighter than proposed SASE technology.

The Double heads

A telescope that spans over four continents

Astronomers have set up a radio telescope which spans over four continents, a feat they claim is the first in the world.

Scientists have long combined observations from individual telescopes through interferometry, a process that produces the same resolution as a single dish as wide as the distance between the antennas.

Now, an international team, led by Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, has developed the integrated telescope.

Its size gives it ten times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope, allowing the array to image objects, like the bright 'afterglow' formed when a high-speed jet of matter from a gamma-ray burst slams into its surroundings, that just look like points to individual radio telescopes

In an observational run, it was found that antennas in North America, South America, Europe and Africa all pointed in the same direction. Signals were fed by fibre optics in a bid to create real-time images at a hub in the Netherlands.

Previously, data from each telescope was recorded on discs and mailed to a central location. Now, data is sent via fibre optic cables to produce real-time images of celestial objects

For the astronomers, the telescope will allow them to plan follow-up observations for rapidly changing phenomena, such as supernovae.

Such observing plans, which can change quickly depending on what the target does, were hard to justify when the data was still in the mail. These are very expensive telescopes. They don't just give away time on the off-chance that something will happen

Inflammation of arteries causes blindness, says study

Inflammation of arteries in the brain is likely to cause blindness, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Geisinger Health System came to this conclusion after examining a disorder known as temporal arthritis -- a condition where arteries swell and restrict blood flow to the brain.

Temporal arthritis can cause headaches, jaw soreness and flu-like symptoms. Untreated, the disease can lead to blindness or stroke. The average age for disease onset is 70.

A giant version of white blood cells that destroy bacteria are often found in patients with the disease, and these make them far more vulnerable to blindness, as compared to healthy patients.

Besides, patients with these giant cells are three times more likely to experience Polymyalgia rheumatica, an inflammatory disorder that causes muscle aches and stiffness primarily in the arms, thighs and neck.