TechTalk: Exploring the Latest Technology News, Updates, Reviews, and Gossip

Number of Internet users in China hits 210 million: govt BEIJING (AFP) - China had 210 million Internet users by the end of 2007 and will soon have more web surfers than any other country on the planet, an official report said Thursday. China's online population was only five million less than the US, the government-linked China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said in a report. "The CNNIC predicts that at the beginning of 2008, China will become the country with the largest online population in the world," the CNNIC said in its report. China already has the globe's biggest mobile phone user population, numbering 539.4 million at the end of November, according to government figures. China added 73 million new online users last year, as the Internet seemed to be catching on in the countryside, where development has so far been held back by low incomes and weak infrastructure. The number of rural Internet users reached 52.6 million by the end of 2007, up a...

Google philanthropy targets global warming, poverty, and disease SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google's philanthropic arm on Thursday said it is taking aim at global warming, poverty, and pandemics with millions in cash and the Internet giant's global resources. Google.org executive director Larry Brilliant said the group had a "brutal" job selecting priorities from the world's ills and crafting five core initiatives it feels best match Google's strengths. "It means we left some heart-breaking problems off the table," Brilliant said in a conference call with news reporters. "How do you not take on female genital mutilation? How do you not take on the need for clean water? These problems we are not addressing are not less important ... we are trying to do the things that fit who we are." Google.org announced more than 25 million dollars in grant money being invested in groups combating environmental, energy...

Pocket-sized gadgets get picture projection power LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) - Mobile phones that project video and GPS devices that display maps on anything from table tops to walls are some of the products showcasing hot new projection technologies at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Exhibitors at the world's largest consumer electronics trade show are showing off matchbox-sized gizmos that can turn mobile telephones, MP3 players, and handheld GPS navigation devices into picture and video projectors. "It can be used when you want to share images or video with more than one person who wants to see it," Greg Roberts of 3M corporation said. "It's cool. Young people will love it." With the small gadgets, which attach to handheld devices, one can project digital television shows or videos from the Internet onto walls to share with friends, or do the same with advertising, multi-media work presentations or sales pitches. The technology is expec...

Sony to axe original PlayStation 3 models in Japan TOKYO (AFP) - Sony Corp. said Thursday that it will stop selling the two original PlayStation 3 models in Japan and focus on the new slimmed down version amid fierce competition from rival Nintendo Co. Sony's game unit said it would end shipments of PlayStation 3s with 20- and 60-gigabyte hard disk drives this month in its domestic market. Sony is pinning its hopes on the cheaper PS3 with a 40-GB hard disk drive that was introduced in Japan in November last year in an attempt to better compete with Nintendo's more affordable Wii video game console. Unlike the two original versions, which were launched in November 2006, the newest PS3 model does not play games designed for the PlayStation 2, has two high-speed USB ports instead of four and has no super audio CD system. It was introduced with a price tag of 39,980 yen (364 dolla...

Slimmed down high definition TVs unveiled LAS VEGAS (AFP ) - High definition televisions are slimming down while their pictures and capabilities are beefing up. Innovations at the world's largest consumer electronics show in Las Vegas underscore the trend, with Sony wowing visitors with a 3-mm (.12-inch) thick Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) television. While liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions use backlights, OLED's picture-creating pixels come from screens that can be made paper thin and bendable while using less power. Sony of America chief executive Howard Stringer proclaimed OLED a new industry standard, saying "even the name sounds like a Viking warlord." "This is the future of television," Jose Albanez of Sony said Wednesday while guarding a roped-off OLED display on the exhibit floor of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). OLED televisions hit store shelves in Japan in December and were launched in the US market this week at a price of 2,50...

Internet changing consumer electronics world: Intel chief LAS VEGAS (AFP) - The Internet is a magnificent "disruptive force" changing the world's gadgets along with lifestyles, computer giant Intel's top executive said Monday at the top consumer electronics show. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) abounds with televisions and other devices that link directly to the Internet, bypassing computers, making gadgets smarter and increasingly interconnected, said Intel chief executive Paul Otellini. "The Internet is a disruptive force that is changing the consumer electronics industry," Otellini said, in a speech wrapping up the first day of the CES event in Las Vegas that ends Thursday. "I submit we are just getting started," the head of the world's largest computer chip maker said. "The next generation is the Internet coming to us instead of us going to the Internet." Otellini demonstrated a prototype handheld device...

Date of Birth 20 June 1967, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA Birth Name Nicole Mary Kidman Nickname Nic Height 5' 10½" (1.79 m) Mini Biography Elegant redhead Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Anthony (a biochemist and clinical psychologist) and Janelle (a nursing instructor) Kidman. The family moved almost immediately to Washington, DC, where Nicole's father pursued his research on breast cancer, and then, three years later, made the pilgrimage to her parents' native Sydney. Young Nicole's first love was ballet, but she eventually took up mime and drama as well (her first stage role was a bleating sheep in an elementary school Christmas pageant). In her adolescent years, acting edged out the other arts and became a kind of refuge -- as her classmates sought out fun in the sun, the fair-skinned Kidman retreated to dark rehearsal halls to practice her craft...