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Weird Tech: Swarming ants destroy Houston’s electronics

Julia Sagar — 1210951165

Houston residents: lock up your electrical equipment. That’s the advice inhabitants in Houston, Texas would be wise to heed, following an invasion of millions of ferocious, swarming ants. Inexplicably attracted to electrical apparatus, the “crazy raspberry ants” (named in part due to their unregimented marching habits) have so far destroyed computers, ruined pumps at sewage plants and caused fire alarms to malfunction.

There’s no stopping ‘em

Believed to have accidentally arrived in a cargo shipment, the ants appear to be resistant to over-the-counter ant killers. Those that do die are piled up and used as a bridge for the rest to cross pesticide-covered areas.

The ants have reportedly been spotted at NASA's Johnson Space Center, although have yet to cause any major problems there yet.

Bush emails to enter public domain

In other news this week, George W. Bush has admitted that he is looking forward to being allowed to send emails again, in a confession that’s likely to strike fear through the White House administration.

The celebrated president of the United States was sensibly banned from doing so during his term in office, with officials citing security concerns. The Oval office reportedly does not even have a computer in it. But with his presidency drawing to a close, Bush told Yahoo News on Tuesday that he is eagerly anticipating “firing off e-mails at all times of the day to stay in touch with my pals” again.

We’re looking forward to it too. Stay tuned for a “steady stream of ‘You know you're a redneck when’ forwards, links to GodTube videos, and the like,” as predicted by Valleywag.

Cheating wife for sale

When a 44-year-old MOT inspector from Bucks suspected his wife of having an affair, he did what any devastated husband would do. He put her for sale on eBay. Bids for the “cheating, lying, adulterous slag of a wife” reached £500,000 before the ad was pulled by the man, who admits it was not the right thing to do, Newslite reported this week.

Demolition derby

And here’s one for you country folk. Every year the small town of Lind, Washington opens its rodeo weekend with a demolition derby: a bizarre kind of extreme dodgems; a dance to the death – except with combine harvesters.

Traditionally starting with a ‘beauty parade’, the event soon accelerates into a spectacular display of absurdist theatre starring engines, destruction and fire. This year’s date falls in June – so if you’re in the area, book your seat now.

And finally…

Google Earth isn’t (ahem!) horsing around when it comes to privacy issues. Updated Street View images for Manhattan were made live this week, with a major change seeing the faces of people caught in scenes being blurred out – including, in one frame, that of a horse. If the man pictured next to the horse is reading this: don’t be offended, Google probably just forgot to blur out your face, nothing personal…

(NB Perhaps someone should tell the girl flashing the Google van in Illinois that face-blurring is so far only happening in Manhattan.)

The GigaPan produces ultra hi-res imagery

Marc Chacksfield — 1210950780

It sounds too good to be true but a new device has been created that allows photographers to take images of up to 1,000 megapixels, creating the ultimate in clear, precise and interactive photography.

The idea behind it actually quite simple. Using your normal run-of-the-mill digicam, you connect it up to a robot mounted on to a tripod which takes hundreds of zoomed-in photos, all at a slightly different angle. These images are then stitched together using a software program.

Zoom with a view

Once stitched together the photograph can be explored much like a 3D environment, where the user can zoom in and out and pick out precise details.

The Timesonline was given a demonstration of the device and its findings can be found here. Nevertheless, it all sounds very impressive.

At the moment, the camera device is still in trials, but when it is released, it will likely cost “several hundred dollars”. Find out more here.

Could the next iPhone be free?

Gareth Beavis — 1210948260

The new 3G iPhone could be available for nothing in the UK through O2, as the operator plans to offer heavy subsidies in a bid to win more customers.

The company saw sales of the iPhone climb significantly when it knocked £100 off the price of the 8GB model earlier this year, and looks set to repeat the trick if / when the new iPhone is released.

Both sides of the pond

O2’s iPhone US counterpart AT&T is also rumoured to be considering a similar scheme in a bid to boost subscriber numbers.

Apparently, despite decent sales after the release, some customers baulked at the lack of subsidy being offered, so AT&T looks set to change its policy.

However, it will only be offered through AT&T outlets, so some incentive might need to be offered for those choosing to buy through the Apple store.

Encouraging new iPhone customers could be difficult should a new model be released only a year after the first iteration, with many still locked into 18- or 24-month contracts.

The companies mentioned could choose to offer a subsidised upgrade in order to appease the hordes of iPhone-lovers who will feel cheated after supporting the device from the outset.

Interview: no decent new FPS games says Fatal1ty

Patrick Goss — 1210948140

Pro gamer Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel has confessed that the main reason he has stepped away from competition is that there just isn’t a game that appeals to him at the moment.

Wendel – perhaps the best known gamer and a 12 times world champion – told TechRadar that, although he is playing games for fun at the moment, he doesn’t feel that any of the current crop of titles allows him to showcase his range of skills

“Right now I’m waiting for the right tournament and the right game to come back and play," Fatal1ty told TechRadar at the launch of Creative's Xfi Titanium Fatal1ty range.

“I don’t think there are any games that are right for me, right now. To want to jump back in competitively I need the right game and I don’t think that game is there.

Quality

“I’m not just going to play a game for the sake of playing it competitively – it has to have the right qualities.”

“I think there’s a lot more than twitchy [reaction and aim] skills – they are important – but there is things like gameplans and strategy as well.

“If you are a pro you put in the amount of time to build that skillset, whereas now you can pretty much pick up the controller and drop right into the latest games and be as good as the guy next to you pretty quickly.

“It’s great that it makes it more accessible but when it gets to professional gaming you have to have that quality that means that the best players are better than those below.

Quake

“You take something like Quake III or Painkiller and the difference between the top three of four and the rest in the top eight is obvious – and that is rewarding.

Wendel insists that his reticence to compete is nothing to do with a perceived decline in PC gaming, and he believes that the platform will bounce back even stronger in the coming months.

“The PC is very strong and it will continue to grow and get even better,” he insists.

“There are a couple of inventions that are going to change PC gaming coming up and I think it is going to be blowing people’s minds and make people want to play.

Plays for fun

“I play a lot for fun from complex PC games to the Wii but the thing is I need a game that presses all my buttons – movement and aim and reaction and strategy.”

Wendel believes that people will begin to clamour for a game that rewards practice rather than simply makes it easy to become competitive.

“I think that people who play the games are going to get tired of everyone being at the same level after a while and they will want a game that stretches them…where they can continue to progress.”

Facebook will not support Google Friend Connnect

Marc Chacksfield — 1210947060

In quite a stinging – albeit back-handed – indictment of Google’s Friend Connect project, Facebook developer Charlie Cheever has posted an announcement on the Facebook Developers’ noticeboard that the social-networking website will not be joining up to Friend Connect just yet.

Not respecting privacy

In his statement, Cheever says: “Now that Google has launched Friend Connect, we’ve had a chance to evaluate the technology.

“We’ve found that it redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge, which doesn’t respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service.”

He continues to say: “We think MySpace’s Data Availability, Google Friend Connect, and Facebook Connect can be part of a great movement in the industry to give users a better and safer experience online, while respecting user privacy.

“We look forward to working with our developer community and everyone else in the industry to help all of our users take their information, and their privacy, with them wherever they go.”

Friends not-united

Considering the point of the Friend Connect, Data Availability, and Facebook Connect projects is about making the internet a more transparently social place – where you can share and share alike all your online information – it does seem that this bickering between three heavyweights of the web world is bringing about anti-social measures.

Instead of a unified social-network, the whole thing is becoming worryingly divided.

The CSI stick: phones to grass you up

Gareth Beavis — 1210946820

A thumb-sized drive to gather data from mobile phones has been unveiled by Paraben Corporation in the US, the Cell Seizure Investigator Stick (CSI Stick).

It allows street patrol level officers to capture data from mobile phones, presumably used in crimes or present at the scene, using a one button procedure.

Apparently police officers will be able “to view media quickly and at the same time the stick maintains a forensic image for full exam by forensic lab personnel,” according to Jay Poupard of the Michigan State Police.

Unprotected texts

It seems a little intrusive to be able to capture all the data off the phone, or even things like SMS messages, phonebooks and call logs, or multimedia messages. Admittedly it can be crucial as evidence, but strict guidelines will have to be put in place to ensure privacy is protected.

The CSI Stick supports 330 models of Motorola and Samsung phones, with adaptors for other manufacturers released later in 2008.

Interview: Fatal1ty on games hardware

Patrick Goss — 1210946580

Johnathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel has explained to TechRadar why he believes that having the right hardware is vital to being a successful gamer, as he launched the latest Creative sound card that bears his brand.

The Creative X-fi Titanium Fatal1ty series has been released, and Wendel, perhaps the most famous gamer in the western world, insists having the latest tech – be it soundcard or a gaming mouse can make a huge amount of difference.

Down to me

“Hardware is incredibly important to being a top gamer,” said Wendel – a 12 times world champion, “which is why, for me, it’s very important that I have the best equipment.

“That’s one of the reasons I teamed up with Creative. When I go into a tournament I need to know that if anything is going to go wrong it’s down to me and not down to my equipment.

Frag 'n' Chips

“Having a processor chip on board the soundcard was so important to me because soundcards took up so much of the computer’s processor.

“You’re not talking about one or two frames, you are talking a huge difference and it’s vital that I see every frame I possibly can because it’s all about my reaction to what I see.

“Titanium range has the Dolby Digital encoding which means that you have an optical output, and it is a native PCI Express card, which means it runs seamlessly on [Windows] Vista.”

Google's Android: embraced by designers?

Gareth Beavis — 1210945440

You’ve got to love a bit of conceptuality in mobile telephony, even if it does shun some of the principles of physics(-ish).

The Mimique concept phone, by RKS design in the US, is described as “playful and engaging”. Of more interest is the notion it will use the new open source mobile phone software, believed to be Google’s Android.

The phone itself looks like a fusion of both the iPhone and the antenna-sporting phones of five years ago (was it really that recent?), so clearly has ‘I am a phone, look at me’ concept leanings.

Have it your own way

RKS intends to make the devise as customisable as possible for the user, with downloadable ‘skins’ and features.

The company also says users won’t need to buy a new phone to get new features, as these can be downloaded. Does this mean The Mimique already comes packed with every kind of hardware known to man? Otherwise it might struggle to be properly future-proof.

It seems bizarre to develop a concept phone, with no set date for release or price, but still to include the OS it may use.

It is likely the ideology of open source programming on the mobile platform is inspiring more than mobile phone developers; artists and designers are seeing it as a form of expression too.

Though it seems unlikely a screen could be made that wide with conventional LCD technology without a frame. OLED anyone?

Fair And Square campaign: Apple responds

Marc Chacksfield — 1210945320

Following on from our Fair And Square interview and article yesterday, Apple has responded to the findings that the company's online UK store was contravening the ‘Distance Selling Regulations’.

Dropping the charges

Apple had previously been charging consumers with a fee for the ‘collecting and processing’ of goods. The money that had to be paid out was dependent on how expensive the bought item was. This fee has now been completely dropped.

The terms and conditions published on the Apple website will be changed within 10 days, and any purchases returned before then will not be subject to the fee.

Flash Player 10 hits public beta

Patrick Goss — 1210940520

Adobe has released the public beta of Flash Player 10 and the version formerly known as ‘Astro’ brings the “native ability to model two-dimensional objects in 3D space while maintaining their interactivity.”

Flash 10 also brings variable bitrate streaming – allowing for detection of bandwidth availability and adjusts video playback accordingly with the goal of zero buffer.

Which all means that flash should run more smoothly over patchy or overstrained connections.

Flash Player 10 is compatible with all Windows from 2000 forwards, Mac OSX and Linux.

If you are a Flash developer, you can download the Pixel Bender toolkit free, and run it in conjunction with Flash Player 10 to create animated effects.

Flash Player 10 is compatible with Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Mac OS X and Linux.