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

In Japan, robot babysitter always ready to play FUKUOKA, Japan (AFP) - Japanese parents who can't find a good babysitter now have an alternative that never gets tired -- a friendly robot at the local department store. Major Japanese retailer Aeon Co. said Tuesday it has introduced a 1.4-metre (four-foot-seven) yellow-and-white robot at a store in the southern city of Fukuoka in charge of entertaining the children. If parents want to leave their children with the kid-sized machine, they arrange for the youngsters to wear special badges that bear codes which the robot can read. The robot can then identify the children by their names and ages and chat with them, even though its vocabulary remains limited. The robot, developed with leading robot-maker Tmusk, can also use a projector in one of its eyes to beam advertising messages -- or to show pictures that it has captured with a camera installed in the other eye. Tmsuk and Aeon plan to further ...

Bhoothnath Movie Preview BOOTHNATH is a story of a deceased grandfather with his grandson. It stars Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Rajpal Yadav, Satish Shah, Aman Siddiqui and Tejas are two main kids. King Khan will be seen playing a cameo (a special appearance) in BHOOTHNATH along with Big B thus putting an end to the much hyped cold war between him and Big B. For the first time BR Chopra banner have hired Vivek Sharma to direct BHOOTHNATH. After hits like Dard-e- Disco and many others the Vishal Shekar duo will be giving the music for BHOOTHNATH. The movie will be released on 9th May 2008. Movie Preview: U Me Aur Hum "Oh, how we danced on the night we were wed, We vowed our true love though a word wasn't said The world was in bloom, there were stars in the skies, Except for the few that were there in your eyes. The night seemed to fade into blossoming dawn, The sun shone anew but the dance lingered on. Could we but relive that sweet moment sublime, We'd f...

Facebook enhances privacy controls SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook said Tuesday it is giving users more control over who gets to see personal information posted in profiles at the hot social-networking website. Privacy updates to be available by Wednesday include letting Facebook users categorize friends into lists, with access to profile information determined by which list someone is on. Prior to the change, any friend granted access to a Facebook profile could see anything posted there. People were left to choose between denying certain friends access to their profiles and censoring website postings. Facebook's more than 68 million active users will also be able to give "friends of friends" automatic access to their profile pages. The privacy enhancements come as Facebook rolls out French, German and Spanish language versions to win more users outside US borders and works to regain the trust of members ...

Pro-Tibet groups bombarded with abusive calls, viruses BEIJING - Pro-Tibet activists said Wednesday they have been bombarded with abusive phone calls and virus emails as they try to contact witnesses in Tibet and nearby amid a clampdown following anti-Chinese riots. Matt Whitticase, from the Free Tibet Campaign, said he had received calls every two minutes from 4:00 am to 7:00 am Tuesday in London to his mobile number and also at his work number. "Of course I have no way of saying who the calls were from, but a variety of callers (from British mobile numbers) had Chinese accents, " he said in an email. "The content was crude, abusive and highly anti-Tibetan in nature. The calls also contained the sort of patriotic Chinese music you used to hear on Chinese trains and in public places. "It seemed that the intention was to stop me from working and from making calls." Lhadon Tethong, director of Students fo...

Japanese cellphones to turn into 'robot' buddies TOKYO (AFP) - For those who feel a bit lonely just talking on the phone, a Japanese company is offering a cellphone that turns into a robot buddy ready to chat. Softbank Mobile Corp.'s new mobile line looks like a small humanoid with attachable arms and legs, with the screen showing various faces. The PhoneBraver will be released in April after a character in an upcoming television drama series entitled " Cellphone Investigator 7." The telephone comes with enough artificial intelligence to learn the user's habits. If the user calls a particular person many times, a text phrase such as "You're calling her often these days, aren't you?" might appear coming out of the face's mouth, according to Softbank Mobile spokesman Katsuhide Furuya. The user could carry on conversations with the phone by responding "yes" or "no" or with other ...

Microsoft optimistic on Yahoo merger: senior executive TOKYO (AFP) - A senior Microsoft Corp. executive expressed optimism Thursday about the software giant's takeover bid for Internet firm Yahoo, saying the two companies' top managers were in close discussions. " We continue to have a very close dialogue with Yahoo's shareholders (and) Yahoo's management," Microsoft senior vice president Jean-Philippe Courtois said. "We simply hope for what we think is a very nice merger in terms of economies of scale, research and development, innovation, data centers...(and) to play a major role in the world," he told AFP after a press conference here. Yahoo spurned Microsoft's 44.6-billion-dollar bid for the veteran Internet firm on February 11. Courtois declined to comment on prospects of a hostile offer. Microsoft is currently offering a combination cash and stock deal initially valued at 31 dollars per share but whi...

Telecoms firms treated better in Belarus than Brussels: mobile operator LONDON (AFP) - Mobile phone companies are treated better in Belarus than in the European Union, the head of Telekom Austria said in an interview published Friday. Speaking to the Financial Times, Boris Nemsic criticised EU plans to implement regulation if mobile phone companies do not cut their roaming charges for text messages and Internet use by July. " We have been much better treated in Belarus than in Brussels ," he told the business daily, after his company bought a 70 percent stake in a Belarus mobile phone operator. " That's not a political statement. That's a business statement . " EU communications commissioner Viviane Reding told mobile phone company chiefs at the industry's annual trade show in Barcelona earlier this month that they would not be allowed to "rip off" EU citizens who travel in the 27-member bloc. The EU has...