TIMES OF TECHNOLOGY

Google's Blogger and Web Search features will be offered on Sony Ericsson mobile phones, according to a Tuesday announcement from the firms.

The pre-loaded blog feature enables callers to upload photos by selecting the blog feature instead of e-mail or picture messaging. Callers are automatically linked to Google's Blogger application.

The Sony Ericsson K610, announced recently, will offer the features as will two new digital camera phones that were also announced today, the K800 and the K790. In addition, Sony Ericsson noted that Google henceforth will be the standard search engine for its mobile handsets.

"We are seeing exponential growth in blogging and consumers are turning more and more often to the Internet as a means of sharing information or images in personal blogs," said Jan Wareby of Sony Ericsson in a statement.

"By working with Google, we're able to offer a quick and easy way for people to blog as they discover how convenient it is as a way to share words and pictures." Wareby is corporate executive vice president, head of sales and marketing at Sony Ericsson.

Google icons have been integrated into the phones' user interfaces. Users do not have to access a PC to customize blog addresses in the application.

In a design born from its aviation roots, Saab this week introduced a concept car that has a cockpit, runs on 100 percent ethanol and holds 400 horsepower under the hood.

Unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show Monday, the Aero X uses a cockpit canopy instead of doors or windshield pillars.

“The 400-hp, twin-turbo, BioPower V6 engine is fueled entirely by ethanol,” Saab said in a statement touting the environmental benefits of reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that many scientists tie to global warming.

Google Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, is testing a tool that lets people create Web pages and maintain them at a Google site, matching a service already offered by Yahoo! Inc.

Users can create pages directly from their Internet browsers without having to download new software. Pages can include images, various styles and sizes of text and links to other pages, Google said yesterday on its Web site.

Google Page Creator is one example of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's efforts to attract and keep more users. Google already lets people publish Web logs, or personal online journals, through its Blogger site. Yahoo!, the most visited Internet site, also offers Web-site creation and blogging through its GeoCities and Yahoo! 360 services.

Shares of Google rose $12.58 yesterday, or 3.4 percent, closing at $378.07 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have fallen 8.9 percent this year.

Google said it will offer 100 megabytes of storage for Web pages, enough space for as many as 50 photos taken with today's digital cameras. The pages will be accessible to Google's search engine within a few hours of being posted, Google said.

Intellifit helps you quickly find clothes that fit while it also helps clothing brands and manufacturers create clothes that fit more people. Finding what fits saves time and money for you, your favorite stores, and your favorite online clothing source -- because you know the fit is right before you even take the time to try on the clothes. HERE'S HOW:

You walk into a see-through Intellifit booth that's 8' high and 7' wide. In 10 seconds, Intellifit uses a totally safe radio wave to collect numerous, accurate measurements of your body - while you remain fully clothed. Next, you receive a confidential computer printout listing those brands and sizes that fit you best. LIFE AS WE KNOW IT JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT EASIER.

Once you've used Intellifit, you can quickly find what fits in the mall, the department store, and online. You will soon be able to go to intellifit.com and search by category (jeans, swimsuits, dresses, suits, sportswear, dress shirts, lingerie, etc.) to find the brands and sizes that fit you best.

In addition, Intellifit compiles the anonymous, aggregated data about all the bodies measured to help clothing manufacturers and retailers improve their fit and their operations so that they can create and stock clothes to fit real people.

In short, Intellifit provides a win/win for everyone who wears, buys, makes, or sells clothes -- and that would seem to include just about everyone. Intellifit is currently building a network of mall, airport, and department store Intellifit kiosks. National and private label clothing brands sponsor these installations to increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Retailers are installing Intellifit Systems independently or in conjunction with shopping malls. Check out "Intellifit Locator" frequently to see when Intellifit is coming to your area. Let Intellifit help you find what fits...

The Best Reason Yet to Support Stem Cell Research by Hans Phingers

ARTIST’S COMMENTS: Can any of us honestly say we haven’t dreamed of having tiny hands on the ends of our fingers and thumbs? Well, evolution may have fallen asleep at the wheel, but stem cell research could very well make finger-hands a possibility! Or at least that’s what my total lack of familiarity with virtually all scientific disciplines has led me to believe. But never mind that - let’s, for now, just think about the incredible advantage finger-hands would give us. Now, my numbers may be a bit off here, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that with finger-hands we would all be able to type somewhere in the neighbourhood of 12,000 words per minute, and although almost no one would be able to afford manicures anymore, sign language would be the high speed communication tool of the future, we could all give massages to beat the band, and everyone in the world would be a piano player extraordinaire! Also, even a small group of people would be able to create tremendous levels of applause, thereby bringing huge amounts of joy to street performers everywhere. So, in conclusion, stem cell research will almost certainly lead us to a utopian civilization made possible by the incredible versatility of finger-hands.

IBM develops an optical lithography technique capable of producing structures less than 32 nm in size which its says gives the industry seven years of breathing space.

Scientists at IBM say they have fabricated distinct and uniformly spaced ridges only 29.9 nm wide using 193-nm lithography. This beats the 32 nm mark that industry had held as the limit for optical lithography. The result potentially postpones the semiconductor industry's conversion to alternatives such as extreme ultraviolet lithography.

"Our goal is to push optical lithography as far as we can so the industry does not have to move to any expensive alternatives until absolutely necessary," said Robert Allen, manager of lithography materials at IBM's Almaden Research Center. "This result is the strongest evidence to date that the industry may have at least seven years of breathing room before any radical changes in chip-making techniques would be needed."

The pattern of well-defined and equally spaced 29.9-nanometer lines and spaces was created on a lithography test apparatus designed and built at IBM Almaden, using new materials developed by its collaborator, JSR Micro of Sunnyvale, California. The first technical details will be presented at this week's microlithography conference being held in San Jose, California, US.

The wavelength used for lithography has steadily come down to 193 nm, which is the current basis for chip manufacturing. Until now, it was not known if the industry could continue to adapt optical immersion techniques, which involves adding a liquid between the lens and the water, to fabricate smaller feature sizes.

"We believe that high-index liquid imaging will enable the extension of today's optical lithography through the 45- and 32-nanometer nodes," said Mark Slezak, technical manager of JSR Micro. "Our industry faces tough questions about which lithography technology will allow us to be successful below 32 nanometers. This result gives us another data point favouring the continuation of optical immersion lithography."

To fabricate the pattern, IBM developed an interference immersion lithography set-up which it calls NEMO. IBM's NEMO tool uses two intersecting laser beams to create interference patterns with spacings closer than can be produced with current chip-making apparatus.

As a result, NEMO is ideal for researching, testing and optimizing various high-index fluids and photoresists being considered for use in future 193 nm systems. Now that IBM's result shows a path for extending optical lithography, high-index lens materials must be developed to enable its commercial viability.

Resolution in immersion lithography is limited by the lowest refractive index of the final lens, fluid and photoresist materials. Light passing through a higher-index material has a shorter wavelength and can thus be focused more tightly.

In IBM's NEMO experiments, the lens and fluid had indices of refraction of around 1.6, and the photoresist's index of refraction was 1.7. Research is now ongoing to develop lens, fluid and photoresist materials with indices of refraction of 1.9, which would enable even smaller features to be written.

Microsoft is serious about safe browsing and network security with the upcoming Microsoft Windows Vista

Microsoft Corporation is giving businesses a preview of network security and a safer web browser of version Windows Vista.

Microsoft has invested heavily in adding network security features that will make it easier and less expensive for companies to keep their computer networks secure and working smoothly, said Brad Goldberg, general manager for Windows product management.

During a Windows Vista conference call, Goldberg said the new operating system would allow people to log onto their office's system remotely without needing to connect through a virtual private network, or VPN, which some users feel is lacking network security.

Goldberg said the test is being made available to about 500,000 select customers, and the company plans to release the preview to a broader consumer test audience in its next fiscal quarter, which begins in April.

The US market may have to wait until next year for Sony's next-generation video game console PlayStation 3, according to a statement today.

The company today repeated that it planned for a spring launch in Japan and yearend launch for North American markets. But analysts believe the launch may be delayed as technology specifications are still undecided. The reason for the delay is believed to be some debate over the Blu-Ray DVD drive which is being billed as the next standard and will feature in the PS3.

Delay in finalizing the technology specifications may in turn, slow down the game developing process and consequently the launch. Currently game developers are working on guesses about what technology might be used in the final version of the PS3.

Besides the Blu-Ray, the device will have its core the much anticipated Cell chip that is built to deliver high quality graphics - “hyper-realism” and ultra-high speed responses in real time.

This chip jointly developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, could notch up the cost of the device, an important factor for the launch, analysts say. The Cell chip alone involves a manufacturing cost of $230 per unit, it is estimated. To this would be added another $350 for the Blu-Ray DVD drive and at least another $300 more for other components like memory, graphics, etc. The initial bill of materials would total to $900 per unit which, of course, would reduce to less than half over the next 3-4 years. At the current cost, the retail price may not seem attractive to gaming enthusiasts and consequently the product may see a lukewarm response as did Microsoft's Xbox 360 at its launch.

In order to minimize initial loss of revenue, the company could limit shipment at launch to between 2 million and 3 million.

Meanwhile, a statement last week by Tetsuhiko Yasuda the company's senior VP and MD for Asia region has foxed all market pundits. He said Sony might work with Microsoft to develop games that can be played on either consoles. The rival product Xbox has failed to move off the shelves as fast as was envisaged by the software giant's marketing team. Most people find it hard to believe that Sony could decide to work with a rival like Microsoft.

Analysts now predict that the PS3 would arrive not before autumn in Japan and possibly some time after December 2006 in the US. The delay could give Microsoft the much needed advantage to push its Xbox-360.

Sony's other rival Nintendo will bring its Revolution game console to the market in the coming months.

The Nintendo DS handheld video-game machine will work as a portable TV with a card equipped with a tuner and antenna that allows people to watch digital broadcast, the company president said recently.

An Internet browser feature is also in the works for the machine, which has two screens, including one touch panel. The machine already comes with a Wi-Fi wireless connection.

Nintendo said it has no overseas plans for the digital broadcast card but is considering offering the browser feature abroad.

Sales of Nintendo DS in Japan have grown to 6 million since it was introduced here in December 2004. That's faster growth than Nintendo's Game Boy Advance or Japanese rival Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2, which took about 20 months to sell that many, said President Satoru Iwata.

The new features will help boost sales of the machine, and Nintendo is targeting sales of 10 million in Japan sometime this year, he said.

Worldwide, Nintendo Co. has sold 13 million of the machines since they first went on sale in November 2004 in the United States.

The Kyoto-based company, famous worldwide as the maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games, said the browser function will be available in June in Japan but did not give details of the dates or pricing for the digital broadcast.

Digital television broadcast is set to start in Japan in April. Mobile phones that display digital broadcast are already going on sale because digital broadcast delivers better quality streaming video.

The Internet browser will come from Opera Software of Norway, according to Nintendo. Users will be able to write words for searches on the touch panel, or use both screens to view Web pages.

Iwata also announced that a slimmed down Nintendo DS Lite will go on sale in Japan in March for 16,800 yen (USD 143; euro120), and will come in white, pale blue and navy colours.

Several games for Nintendo DS have sold a million units, including "Nintendogs," in which puppies jump around in the screen and can be petted with a plastic pen. The software has been a hit not only in Japan but also in the United States and Europe.

The new kinds of games, including a brainteaser catering to the Japanese market that tests intelligence levels, are attracting older people and women, Iwata said. Traditional games that focus on sports, shootings and fist fights tended to draw young males.

New software being developed for Nintendo DS will turn the device into mobile dictionaries with translations in English or Chinese popping up on the screen.

Another kind of software works as a dictionary for Japanese characters. Even natives have a hard time keeping the thousands of complex characters straight. All you have to do is write the character on the touch panel.