Engineering & Technical Headline News Archive - April 2006 4-30-2006 Tiny Discrete Schottky and ESD Diodes Unveiled Rhode Island Embarks on Statewide Wireless Software May Help RF ICs Keep Pace with Moore's Law Robot Shatters Mechanical Speed-Walking Record American Express: Beware Phony Log-In Screen Microsoft Shares Tumble After Earnings Miss Expectations Q1 Chip Inventory Surge No Cause for Alarm General Dynamics to Offer Capabilities Integration Services to USAF Simulation and Analysis Double-Duty Phones Return of the Web Mob - Cybercrime Have Constants of Nature Changed Since Dawn Universe? 4-28-2006 California Agency OKs Broadband-over-Power-Lines (BPL) Test Yet Another Cellphone Health Issue Report Electronics Industry Winners & Losers Internet2 Fiber-Optic Line Sets Bandwidth Record FTTH (Fibre-to-the-Premises ) Boom Ahead? Nearly 150 Million Adult Americans Use Internet British Engineers Show Off Two-Seat, 100-MPG Commuter Car LED Proto Achieves 15% of Power of Standard 65 W Incandescent Lamp NASA Says Comet Fragments Won't Hit Earth Software Allows Neighbors to Improve Internet Access at No Extra Cost 4-27-2006 Cell Phones Becoming New Prison "Cash" Experts to Examine Roles for Nanotechnology in National Security Purdue Engineers Pursue Cool Idea for Chips EE Times Updates List of Emerging Startups Internet2 Fiber-Optic Line Sets Bandwidth Record Mini Satellites Rocketing to Space Station Soaring Copper Price Weighs Heavily on Andrew Internet Use at All-Time High European Scientists Claim to Have Developed NanoSwitch 4-26-2006 FCC Tightens Wireless Auction Discount Rules RFMD Delivers Record Revenue and Exceeds Earnings Guidance China, Expecting "BlackBerry," Already Has "Redberry" Phone Employees Killed in Iraq U.S. Investments in Israel Growing Scientists Devise Means to Test for Phony Technical Papers Chinese VC Activity Grows, Good Deals Remain Rare Microsoft to Harass Users of Pirated Software New Math: Two Plus Two Equals Three World's Digital Divide is Narrowing Girls Have Big Advantage Over Boys on Timed Tests 4-25-2006 Developing Smart, Flexible Radios Consumer Confidence Highest in 4 Years Infrared Light Detector Built with Nanotubes Electronically Programmable Walls and Ceilings British Government Unveils 007-Inspired Spy Center Delft Mathematician Enhances Protectiveness of Military Uniform Microsoft Attacked Over China Piracy Rates Internet TV Coming of Age 4-24-2006 Northrop Grumman to Help DARPA Develop Flexible Scanned Array Radar Second-Hand Phones for Iraq Enzyme-Powered Fuel Cell Developed Azimuth Systems Announces Industry's First Commercial Wi-Fi Mesh Testing Solution Judge: Web-Surfing Worker Can't Be Fired Curious Geeks Jam Into 'Dorkbot' Meetings Worldwide Cellphones Cited in Car Accident Survey Tongue Being Tested as Tech-Brain Interface Bill Gates Gets Rock Star Welcome in Vietnam Scientist Shuts out Baseball Myths Low Cost Internet Access at Sea Simple Alternative for Harvesting Daylight and Saving Energy Deflecting Asteroids Difficult But Possible 4-22-2006 DoD Unifying RF Efforts ARRL Documents Flaws in Manassas BPL Interference Report IEEE-USA H-1B Position Garners National Media Coverage Expense Holds Back Electronics Recycling Computer Technician Charged With Hacking into USC iSuppli Lists China's Top Fabless IC Rankings Nokia Fight Looms for Qualcomm Vision Goes Wireless 4-21-2006 Mobile Handsets Generated $117 Billion in Revenue in 2005 New Chip Delivers Better Performance, Longer Battery Life for Cell Phones, WiFi, Wireless Global Mobile Phone Shipments Will Reach 1 Billion Units in 2006 802.11n Draft Technologies Out of the Gate Microsoft's Legal Fight in Europe Seen as Vista Threat Consumer Electronics Growth Slowing DARPA Funds Next-Generation Power Lasers LG Laptop Stays Cool with Carbon Nanotubes Company Offers Web-Based Escape From Bad Date Google Rings Up Strong Gains Museum Opens Exhibit on Robert Goddard, Father of Rocketry 4-20-2006 New Technology May Force TV Ad Viewing 'Very Rich' List Grows at Fastest Pace in a Decade (why can't I be one of them?!?!) Report: Mobile Phones Becoming 'Wallets' Internet Access From Cell Phones, PDAs Surging HP Recalls 15,700 Notebook Computer Batteries Samsung Announces 2GB Cell Phone Memory Card Stocks Soar on Strong Earnings Engineers Creating Small Wireless Device To Improve Cancer Treatment Robot Hall of Fame Adds 5 Inductees Chinese Software Piracy Rampant Despite Government Promises China's Growing Market Beckons Tech Firms Incentia Leads in Nanometer Design Timing Analysis Technology 4-19-2006 Cellphone Forensics at Crime Scenes? "Paint-On" Laser Seeks to Free Chip Bottlenecks Motorola Narrows Gap with Rival Nokia Stackpole Introduces Resistors Arrays to 0.1% Tolerance China Stamping out Rampant Software Piracy Mobile Phones to Rival the PC as Dominant Internet Platform Raw Code Generated at Record Speed Bytes by the Quintillion for Today and Tomorrow Injuries from Lawn Mowing Increase Nationwide Thomson Readies U.S. Digital TV Broadcast Solutions 4-18-2006 Patents That Kill Background Noise on Phone Calls Academics to Advise Wafer-Scale Antenna Company Pentagon Studying Effect of Internet on Military TurboTax Web Site Goes Dark on Tax-Deadline Day Scientists Tout CMOS Technology for Making Optical Devices Chinese President to Visit Bill Gates' Home Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Track Pollutants Chinese Battery Maker Disputes U.S. Safety Claims Graphene Provides Foundation for New Electronics Donate Your Unused Computing Power to Aid Medical Research 4-16-2006 Sand Storm, Pollution Envelop Beijing U.S. Military Buys Back Stolen Flash Drives in Afghan Shops Gold Storms to New 25-yr High, Silver Surges Motorola Eyes Siemens' Telecoms Unit Body Movement Generates Electricity in Miniature Device Graphite May Be Basis of New Electronics China Students Use Internet to Prep for Study Abroad Austrian Highways to Get Wireless Internet 4-15-2006 Field Engineers Proliferate Is the Internet out of Room? World's First RFID-Enabled Arcade Games Plastic Electronics Group Reforms, Prints Memory Videogame Sector Not Playing Games NASA Says Details on DART Mission Failure "Classified" Three European Consultations on License Exempt Radio Where Can You Find the Best Music on Campus? 4-14-2006 RFID Supplier Plans $120 Million IPO Semiconductor Industry had Record Revenue in 2005 Robots to Perform Military Action Manassas BPL System Still Interfering Despite Claims to the Contrary Regulators Worry About Nano Safety High Efficiency Flat Light Source Invented Israeli Security Companies Attracting VC Investment Nanogenerators Convert Motion Into Power Russia, Ukraine, Launch US Communications Satellite Even Terrorists Worry About Internet Security 4-13-2006 Iceland Tops the World in Broadband Use Sprint Unveils Mobile Child Locator Service End Times Near for Many Non-RoHS-Compliant Parts Off the Grid or On, Solar and Wind Power Free Wireless Spawns More Laptop Thefts in San Francisco Andrew Acquires U.K.'s Precision Antennas Ltd. Best Buy's 'Geek Squad' Accused of Pirating Software Town Named Nokia Abandons Landlines Rice Scientists Attach Motor to Single-Molecule Car Boeing Demonstrates Apache Controlling a UAV Weapon Payload DARPA Linked to Rocket Prizes 4-12-2006 SDR Forum Announces Smart Radio Challenge Firm Ups Solar Cell Forecast for 2006, 2007 Hubble Telescope Uncovers True Size of Xena aka "10th Planet" Panasonic Triples Engineers at Singapore Center Motorola to Explain Exploding Batteries NASA Considers Allowing Space Golf Consumers Still Not Enthused About Multimedia Handsets Cybercrime More Widespread, Skillful, Dangerous Than Ever Google Defends Cooperation with China 4-11-2006 Fire at Indian Electronics Show - Over 50 Feared Dead U.K. to Receive Free Broadband Access Paper Battery Firm Links Up with U.S. Printer Hybrid Autos: Are They Really Greener? Most North Americans Are "Podcastingly" Challenged JPL Scientists Process First Color Mars Photo Semiconductors Fashioned into Flexible Membranes European Space Probe Goes Into Orbit Around Venus Hidden Structure Revealed in Characteristics of Transistor Laser 4-10-2006 Wireless Markets Will Drive GaAs Device Growth Viruses Help in the Development of Tiny Batteries Malaysian Man Gets $218 Trillion Phone Bill Subscriber Growth Breaks Record - Again Internet Advertising Effects On Business Budgets Transceiver Promises to Improve Reception for CDMA2000 Europe Dominates Analog ASSP Market Europeans Rush to Register .eu Domain Names Marine Corps Awards Contract for 60,000 Infantry Handheld Radios NASA Prepares for Sea Change in Manned Space Program Satellite Navigation Finds Its Way to Phones Device Only Atoms Across May Allow Infinitesimal but Powerful Computers 4-9-2006 WiFi: The Great Disrupter National Instruments Joins ZigBee Alliance Four Factors Critical to Near Field Communications Markets in 2006 Motorola May Outperform Market by 20% Google Wins Bid to Offer Wi-Fi in San Francisco Handsets Strong, Wireless Equipment On-Track 4-7-2006 Freescale, Motorola pull out of UWB Forum FDA to Probe Cell Phone-Cancer Link CellAntenna Files RF Jamming Action Against FCC Consultant Reaps $1.4M from Patent Auction Payday Billboard to Start Ranking 'Master' Cell-Phone Ringtones Battery Manufacturing Goes Genetic Chinese Telco Wants to Block VoIP Calls Collaboration Improves Solar Storm Forecasting Airline Passengers Face Lie Detectors at Moscow Airport Chaos=Order: Physicists Make Baffling Discovery 4-6-2006 Monkeys Steal Cellphones at Zoo Washington DC is the "Best City for Teleworking" Wi-Fi Alliance, CTIA Team to Certify Wi-Fi Handsets More Pressure for License Exempt Use of Empty TV Channels Japanese Companies Checking Employee PC Use 1000s of Lawsuits Brought Against Illegal File-Sharers in Europe 'Hands Free' Isn't Mind Free: Performing Even Easy Tasks Impairs Driving Student Rocket Test Successful 4-5-2006 Most Companies Fear Cell-Phone Security Breach Electronic Eyeglasses Can Instantly Change Lens Prescriptions Merrimac Granted Chinese Patent for Microtechnology Lockheed Martin to Operate and Maintain Massive DOD Communications System Hidden Cost of Illegal Immigration Samsung to Offer Slimmest Cell Phone EE Times Fetes Innovators RFMD's New Wireless Connectivity Platform Eases Integration of Wireless Technologies in Mobile Phones Qualcomm Korea Under Investigation World's first Dedicated Optical SETI Telescope Search for ET Intelligence to Begin U.K. Partnership Plans to Offer Small Low-Cost Satellites to U.S. Agencies 4-4-2006 High-Speed Net Service in U.S. up by 1/3 Poll: Young People Love Their Cell Phones China Surpasses U.S. in Internet Use Dual-Path Control Device Enables 3-Chip Radar Front-End EE Times Set to Launch European Edition RFMD to Showcase Industry-Leading Wireless Solutions at CTIA Wireless 2006 Google and Baidu Dominate Chinese Market Anadigics Claims RFIC Design Gains After Patent Awards New Orleans Fights to Keep City Wi-Fi Network Running Fast Have Everything? How about a Gold-Plated Phone? Device Only Atoms Across May Allow Infinitesimal But Powerful Computers 4-3-2006 Poll: Cellphones Irritating, Invaluable Nortel and Qualcomm Achieve Industry's Fastest HSDPA Data Call Mobile Digital TV Service Kicks off in Japan Standards for Sale at IEEE? Tech Companies' Ties to China Worry Government South Korea Will Begin Mass Producing Networked Robots by 2007 U.K. Super Computer Gets Government Boost Ball Aerospace Wins Space Test Satellite Contract Google Trying to Patent Advertising "Based on Wireless Access Points Sandia-Designed Supercomputer Ranked World's Most Efficient in 2 of 6 Categories Soyuz Docks With Space Station in Perfect Maneuver 4-1-2006 It’s Daylight Science Time Again - 2:00 am Sunday Long-Term Mobile Phone Use Raises Brain Tumor Risk Bullying Via Internet, Text Messages on the Rise 'Kosher’ Cellphone Rings up Growth Plans for Massive Blast in Nevada Draw Fire Researchers Develop New Method for Synthesis of Nanomaterials How Scientists Used Last Week's Total Eclipse ARRL Sponsoring Five Free Education and Technology Teachers Institutes in 2006 Reports Vary About Possible Mobile Phone, Cancer Link Europe's Satellite Industry Braced for Major Shake-Up