FT Chronicle

Skype has made an update to its Mac application to 2.8 that adds a number of new features which have recently been added to the Windows editions.

The update brings Skype Access functionality, allowing you to connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots on a pay-as-you-go system. It has Screen Sharing capabilities, letting you show the person you’re calling exactly what’s going on on your monitor in those “it’s gone funny” situations. Lastly, there’s the usual round of call quality upgrades and bug fixes.

China has said Google’s move to stop censoring search results is “totally wrong” and accused it of breaking a promise made when it launched in China.

The US giant is redirecting users in mainland China to its unrestricted Hong Kong site, although Chinese firewalls mean results still come back censored.

Beijing said the decision should not affect ties with Washington.

Google threatened to leave the Chinese market completely this year after cyber attacks were traced back to China.

The White House said it was “disappointed” that Google and China had not been able to resolve their differences.

Recent research came up with a new blood biomarker that has a high accuracy of predicting the spread of prostate cancer to other parts of the body through the lymph nodes. Such spreading of cancer cells are usually not detected by conventional imaging methods like CT scans. This new blood test measures the level of endoglin, a plasma biomarker which was also studied to predict the spread of colon and breast cancer.

When cancer spreads beyond a solid tumor, it often does so at a microscopic level that typically cannot be identified by conventional imaging methods such as CT scans. The new blood test measures levels of endoglin, a plasma biomarker that has been previously shown to predict the spread of colon and breast cancer. In this study, researchers concluded for the first time that endoglin could help predict whether a patient’s prostate cancer would spread beyond the solid tumor site into their lymph nodes.

Each 1ng/mL increase of plasma endoglin increases the risk of cancer spread by 17 percent.

A giant asteroid smashing into Earth is the only possible explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs-a global scientific team said on Thursday, hoping to settle a row that has divided experts for decades.

A panel of 41 scientists from across the world reviewed 20 years’ worth of research to try to confirm the cause of the so-called Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction, which created a “hellish environment” around 65 million years ago and wiped out more than half of all species on the planet.

Scientific opinion was split over whether the extinction was caused by an asteroid or by volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps in what is now India, where there were a series of super volcanic eruptions that lasted around 1.5 million years.

The new study, conducted by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science, found that a 15-kilometre (9 miles) wide asteroid slamming into Earth at Chicxulub in what is now Mexico was the culprit.

“We now have great confidence that an asteroid was the cause of the KT extinction. This triggered large-scale fires, earthquakes measuring more than 10 on the Richter scale, and continental landslides, which created tsunamis,” said Joanna Morgan of Imperial College London, a co-author of the review.

The asteroid is thought to have hit Earth with a force a billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.

Newly introduced, and at the exact same price as Olympus’  E-600 Four Thirds digital SLR with 14-42mm kit lens, is the manufacturer’s latest Micro Four Thirds system hybrid in the E-PL1 Digital Pen.

Like that DSLR “proper” it also comes in kit form with a zoom of the exact same focal range, equivalent to 28-84mm in 35mm film terms. The E-PL1 is however the baby of its particular family that includes its predecessors in the E-P1 and E-P2, the former reportedly due to be phased out by the middle of this year. The close price match with the E-600 is of interest as what you’re getting in the E-PL1 is, as with its forebears, basically a foreshortened E-series DSLR with the mirror mechanism removed to bring lens and sensor closer together.

Opera has announced the full release of version 10.50 of its desktop browser for Windows – a rather speedy transition from the beta, which was only released a few weeks back. It’s a rather substantial upgrade from Opera 10.1, featuring a dramatic UI refresh and an overhaul of Opera’s Presto rendering engine.

The UI now shares a lot of similarities with Chrome. Tabs are in the title bar, there’s smaller buttons, a condensed address and status bar, and an “Opera Menu” which does the same things that the old menu bar used to. It also now has private browsing functionality, which has been dubbed “porn mode” in other browsers.

This wild new motorcycle, invented by 19-year-old Ben J. Poss Gulak, is among the latest inventions to capture attention.

Debuting at the National Motorcycle Show in Toronto, the “Uno” uses gyro technology for balance and acceleration.

It is a battery charged machine that accelerates by leaning forward and slowing down by leaning backwards. It weighs approximately 129 pounds (58 kg.) and has a top speed of 25 mph (40 klms).

One of the most exciting products from CES 2010 last month was Notion Ink’s Adam tablet, the Android-based slate using the latest-gen NVIDIA Tegra chipset and Pixel Qi’s innovative low-power display.

The company had brought along a prototype they could exclusively show, and now they’ve sent over renders of what’s likely to be the final Adam design complete with some mockups of a SlashGear digital magazine.

The Notion Ink Tablet will feature the Pixel Qi transflective display, and it will have a 10.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600, and it measures 6.3 inches by 9.8 inches by 0.6 inches thick and weighs in at 1.7lbs.

It has HDMI-out and 3 USB ports, and can output video at 1080p resolution. There’s a 3-megapixel autofocusing camera and Notion Ink reckons it’ll squeeze 16 hours of juice out of its battery. In direct sunlight, with the backlight off, it should shoot up to 160 hours. There’s Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, a pile of sensors and accelerometers, GPS and an SD Card slot.

UK company Pendle Products has introduced a new Laptop Stand, said to be the first of many product releases. This stand lets users raise their laptop up whilst using a full size external mouse and keyboard and is said to be ideal for use alongside an external monitor, thereby increasing your workspace when you are at your desk.

With what’s said to be a unique laser cut design, the stand boasts super thin legs meaning that you can free up the space underneath for accessories such as external hard drives while slim rubber feet protect your desk surface. Plastic stops hold the laptop in place and the stand has holes cut into the sides for cables.

The Pendle range of laptop stands come in a choice of sizes, regular and large, and colours, black or white and can be used with or without an external monitor.

The Pendle regular laptop stand is suitable for 13-inch and 15-inch MacBooks, while the large is best suited for the 17-inch MacBook Pro.

According to the makers, the stands have been designed to be as solid and stable as possible. Wide legs promises great strength and stiffness and create a space for storing accessories such as external drives and mice. Large holes cut into the sides enable you to pass cables through to help keep your desk tidy.

Rubber feet prevent scratching of your desk, while plastic spheres prevent slippage when your MacBook is in use.

Manufactured in the UK from quality materials using precise laser cutting processes, the regular Pendle stand costs £42, the large is £48.

Australian engineers from Invetech, a company with headquarters in Melbourne, and Organovo, a firm based in San Diego, California, developed a 3D bio-printer that can prove to be very useful in creating organs for those who need them.

At this time, one of their most useful inventions can grow blood vessels. It is expected that in 5 years the arteries printed by the device could be used by surgeons when they perform open heart surgeries. The companies believe that more sophisticated organs could be developed by 2020.

To be able to print organs researchers need to place specific cells into a preferred 3D shape. There are two print heads in the bio-printer. One pin heads is where human cells are placed, while the other is used for placing a hydrogel, scaffold or support matrix.

from infoniac.com