News
IBM buying cloud computing company SoftLayer
June 4, 2013 10:34 am | by The Associated Press | CommentsIBM is buying cloud computing company SoftLayer Technologies Inc. to expand its online software business. Financial terms were not disclosed Tuesday. SoftLayer is a privately held company based in Dallas with 13 data centers in the U.S., Asia and Europe. Software stored and accessed on the...
A path to compact, robust sources for ultrashort laser pulses
June 4, 2013 10:27 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsLaser researchers in Munich are challenging a basic assumption of engineering: "You can't have it all." They have shown that for certain kinds of laser applications in biomedical imaging, material processing, and communications, a new approach could deliver the desired capabilities with no problematic tradeoffs...
Salesforce.com buying ExactTarget for $2.34B
June 4, 2013 10:18 am | by The Associated Press | CommentsSalesforce.com will spend more than $2.3 billion to buy marketing software company ExactTarget. More than 6,000 companies use ExactTarget, which like Salesforce.com uses cloud technology, allowing companies to manage their digital marketing online. ExactTarget's clients include Coca-Cola Co.,...
Silicon Valley at front line of global cyber war
June 4, 2013 10:15 am | by MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer | CommentsChinese President Xi Jinping and American counterpart Barack Obama will talk cyber-security this week in California, but experts say the state's Silicon Valley and its signature high-tech firms should provide the front lines in the increasingly aggressive fight against overseas hackers.
White House tries to encourage high tech patents
June 4, 2013 10:14 am | by The Associated Press | CommentsThe White House is taking steps to encourage innovation in high tech patents that it calls "a key driver of economic growth." The White House on Tuesday announced five executive actions and seven recommendations for Congress to protect innovators from lawsuits.
Rare stellar alignment offers opportunity to hunt for planets
June 4, 2013 9:11 am | by Eurekalert! | CommentsNASA's Hubble Space Telescope will have two opportunities in the next few years to hunt for Earth-sized planets around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri. The opportunities will occur in October 2014 and February 2016 when Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to our sun, passes in front of two other stars. Astronomers plotted Proxima Centauri's precise path in the heavens and predicted the two close encounters using data from Hubble.
Stanford scientists create novel silicon electrodes that improve lithium-ion batteries
June 4, 2013 9:08 am | CommentsStanford University scientists have dramatically improved the performance of lithium-ion batteries by creating novel electrodes made of silicon and conducting polymer hydrogel, a spongy material similar to that used in contact lenses and other household products.
Storied nuke plant becomes environmental wasteland
June 4, 2013 9:06 am | by SHANNON DININNY Associated Press | CommentsA stainless steel tank the size of a basketball court lies buried in the sandy soil of southeastern Washington state, an aging remnant of U.S. efforts to win World War II. The tank holds enough radioactive waste to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. And it is leaking.
3-D printing goes from sci-fi fantasy to reality
June 4, 2013 9:04 am | by MARTHA MENDOZA AP National Writer | CommentsInvisalign, a San Jose company, uses 3-D printing to make each mouthful of customized, transparent braces. Mackenzies Chocolates, a confectioner in Santa Cruz, uses a 3-D printer to pump out chocolate molds. And earlier this year, Cornell University researchers used a 3-D printer, along with injections of a special collagen gel, to create a human-shaped ear.
US blames Apple for 2010 e-book price hike
June 4, 2013 2:36 am | by LARRY NEUMEISTER - Associated Press - Associated Press | CommentsA U.S. government lawyer opened a civil trial by portraying Apple Inc. as a corporate bully that swaggered into the market for electronic books in 2010, forcing an end to price competition and costing consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. The Justice Department attorney, Lawrence Buterman,...
Dell trimmed CEO's pay by 14 percent amid PC slump
June 3, 2013 7:35 pm | by The Associated Press | CommentsDell Inc. trimmed CEO Michael Dell's pay by 14 percent to $13.9 million last year amid a slump that culminated in a proposed $24.4 billion deal that could end the personal computer maker's 25-year history as a publicly traded company. Most of Michael Dell's compensation last year consisted of...
Galaxy in its death throes may hold clues to birth of dwarf systems
June 3, 2013 3:17 pm | by Yale UniversityYale University | CommentsA bright dwarf galaxy relatively close to Earth’s Milky Way and trailing fireballs is the first clear example of a galaxy in the act of dying, scientists argue in new research. The work gives a known galaxy new status and offers the potential for better understanding of the mysterious origin of dwarf elliptical galaxies, a subspecies of the universe’s most common type of galaxy....
US blames Apple for 2010 run-up in e-book prices
June 3, 2013 1:37 pm | by LARRY NEUMEISTER - Associated Press - Associated Press | CommentsA U.S. government lawyer opened a civil trial Monday by portraying Apple Inc. as a corporate bully that swaggered into the market for electronic books in 2010, forcing an end to price competition and costing consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. The Justice Department attorney, Lawrence...
'After Earth' joins exclusive ultra-HD movie club
June 3, 2013 11:17 am | by RYAN NAKASHIMA, Associated Press | CommentsSony Corp. is taking a deeper dive into ultrahigh-definition video as it comes out Friday with "After Earth," the first of Sony's three movies this year both shot and presented in the emerging 4K digital format. At a screening for journalists, I got a close-up look at even the pores on Will Smith's face....
Judge: Google must give user info to FBI
June 3, 2013 10:51 am | by PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press | CommentsGoogle must comply with the FBI's demand for data on certain customers as part of a national security investigation, according to a ruling by a federal judge who earlier this year determined such government requests are unconstitutional.
