Technology

No sooner has the battle for the next-generation high definition DVD format ended, with Blu-ray triumphing over HD DVD, than a new contender has emerged.

The Boston Retinal Implant Project recently developed a bionic eye implant that will restore vision to those affected by degenerative blindness. The device works by being implanted into the back of the eyeball and working as a light transmitter to the brain, where the two are connected by a nerve/wire thinner than a human hair.

In the long list of odious chores, defragmenting your hard drive is right up there with flossing your teeth and washing your dog--or flossing your dog's teeth, for that matter.

There is little agreement on how much--or even whether--defragmenting improves your PC's performance, but having files closer together on the disk reduces the amount of movement required by the drive's mechanical parts. This should make it last longer, though such factors as operating environment and the quality of its components probably have a greater impact on its life span.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but Australian utilities' recent abandonment of broadband over powerline (BPL) technology has all but sealed the fate of a technology that was once hoped to bring high-speed data to every corner of Australia.

Some 26 million TV sets need to be converted or replaced before 2012.

A study by the National Audit Office into the digital switchover reveals the size of the problem – but also found 85 per cent of households had switched from analogue.

However, 31 per cent of people do not understand they will need equipment to keep watching TV, with those in ethnic minorities and non-English speaking groups especially unaware.

Furthermore, in the first seven months of 2007, 45 per cent of all TVs sold were still analogue.

Fuel cell maker Angstrom Power and cell phone maker Motorola have teamed up to create a prototype mobile phone that runs on a hydrogen fuel cell, media reported Monday.

Hydrogen is produced -- by cracking water molecules -- with a desktop fueling station and then inserted into a metal hydride storage container on the phone, said Aron Levitz, manager of business development for Angstrom. When the hydrogen molecules pass through a membrane in the fuel cell, electrons are stripped away and get diverted to run the phone.

Toshiba Corp is planning to stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video, allowing the competing Blu-Ray camp a free run, public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday.

Toshiba is expected to suffer losses amounting to tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders and other steps to exit the business, Japan's NHK said on its website.

No one at Toshiba could be reached for comment.

Several BitTorrent developers have joined forces to propose a new protocol extension with the ability to bypass the BitTorrent interfering techniques used by Comcast and other ISPs. This new form of encryption will be implemented in BitTorrent clients including uTorrent, so Comcast subscribers are free to share again.

The latest and greatest business technology movement is almost always portrayed as inexorable and inevitable, whether it's on-demand computing or information life-cycle management or social networking. So it is with the very latest über-concept, "cloud computing," which holds that applications, storage, and other IT resources will shift from user desktops and company data centers to massive, often scattered server farms operated by third-party providers, accessible by users over the Internet.

Valentine's day? Oh please. Not only is this hallmark holiday designed to guilt geeks into parting ways with beaucoup dollars, it also separates us from the things we really love — our gadgets. Screw that. Here are 10 items we’d really love to spend quality time with on the 14th day of February.