Technology

Would you pay $400 for a handful of microchips and, armed with only a circuit diagram, build your own cellphone? With elegant, powerful phones already on sale for a fraction of the price it's not something that will appeal to many. Yet despite the cost and inconvenience, a growing group of techies are attempting to build the first practical home-made cellphones. They hope to spark greater innovation in cellphone design and, more crucially, in the software that makes the phones work.

Tiny chips touted as a wonder technology that could transform shopping and manufacturing are slowly making headway, but the cost of producing them is preventing mass usage.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) was invented more than 50 years ago but has so far failed to live up to its promise to connect everyday things through a wireless network and make it possible, in theory, to track every item ever produced.

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. on Wednesday announced the global launch of its PalmSecure biometric authentication system. The contactless system identifies users by examining the layout of the veins in the palms of their hands.

OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) is a technique for increasing the amount of information that can be carried over a wireless network.

As the launch dates for higher-quality DVDs near, the underdog HD-DVD format for these new discs scored another win Wednesday when consumer electronics maker LG said it will support it along with the Blu-ray format, which appears to be the frontrunner.

Until the announcement, LG, a large supplier of optical DVD drives, had been a firm backer of the Blu-ray camp along with other large players such as Sony, Hitachi, Dell, and Apple. LG’s European president James Kim announced the move at the CeBIT consumer electronics trade fair in Hanover, Germany, according to Reuters.

Sun Microsystems in May will offer a Java-based development kit for sensors that is intended to help researchers invent new uses for the devices.

The development kit for Project Sun Small Programmable Object Technology (Sun SPOT) could help pave the way for small sensors to be used in robotics, medical sensing, agriculture or package-delivery monitoring and other areas, senior director at Sun Labs, Roger Meike, said.

The company demonstrated Sun SPOT last year but wants to spread the technology to researchers now so they can exploit the potential of sensors.

Margaret Atwood has had enough of long journeys, late nights and writer's cramp.

Tired of grueling book tours, the Booker Prize-winning Canadian author on Sunday unveiled her new invention: a remote-controlled pen that allows writers to sign books for fans from thousands of miles away.

Some fear Atwood's LongPen could end the personal contact between writers and readers. Atwood says it will enhance the relationship.

WHEN Tesco announced that it was launching its own voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service, which allows people to make cheap telephone calls with each other over a broadband internet connection, it raised a few eyebrows.

The decision by the UK’s biggest retailer to take on BT and the internet big guns such as Google and Microsoft will inevitably result in an increase in the number of people using VoIP. Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, estimates that there are already 500,000 active VoIP users in the UK and recently launched a consultation into the growth of the market.

Last fall, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy's office started getting phone calls from constituents who complained about receiving recorded phone messages that bad-mouthed Murphy.

The constituents were especially upset that the messages appeared to come from the congressman's own office. At least, that's what Caller ID said.

"People thought we were making the calls," Murphy said.

Fiber-optic communication is coming closer to becoming the next boom in worldwide communication, as researchers are using quantum physics to make it both secure and fast.

This means good news for consumers and businesses that are using the Internet for transmitting sensitive data such as banking records, personal information and even military communications.

Thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics, quantum cryptography sends information using laser light particles (photons)with encryption keys through fiber optics in order to secure communication.