
You can find so many types of lights on the market, and there are all different types of lights you can wear when you’re out walking or biking in the dark to make it easier for drivers to see you. If you’re one that takes a stroll with your dog at night, then you might as well put lights on the dog. After all, it will keep your dog protected and you ensure that you’re not going to ruin someone’s evening either. Since obviously, if someone ends up hitting your dog, it’s not going to make their day any better. These lights from Luna Light Technology would make it possible to see your dog from a decent amount of distance away.
Read the rest of this entry »

The car will come in two versions: one for the Auto X Prize that will have a gasoline engine and battery and another all-electric version.
The gas-battery hybrid will get the equivalent of 220 miles per gallon while the all-electric will get 150 mpg to 180 mpg. A drivable prototype is set to hit the streets in September.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yahoo is entering a critical week as it prepares to report quarterly results on Tuesday and faces a Microsoft-imposed deadline to accept the nearly $43 billion offer. The software maker has cast doubt on whether Yahoo is even worth that much with a weakening U.S. economy and general slowness in the ad industry. Google’s strong showing could help its rival Yahoo stand firm on a higher takeover price on hopes Web marketing is more durable in a downturn. Industry analysts say Yahoo’s first-quarter results are going to be a major swing factor in its talks with Microsoft.
“The one thing that can really change Microsoft’s thought process on valuation is if they can come in with good results,” said Ross Sandler, analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “We think there is a decent likelihood of upside from Yahoo this quarter.”

Microsoft has given Yahoo three weeks to accept its US$31 a share cash-and-stock offer or it may lower the bid and take its offer to Yahoo investors directly. In a letter addressed to Yahoo’s board of directors on Saturday, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said that “now is the time” to negotiate the final terms of the deal, which, valued at more than US$40 billion, would mark the biggest-ever takeover in the high-tech industry.
“If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors,” Mr Ballmer wrote.
The letter marks the tightening of the noose in a classic Wall Street bear-hug merger strategy, wherein Microsoft aims to convice Yahoo directors to negotiate a friendly deal or face a battle for their jobs at Yahoo’s next annual meeting. Yahoo’s board is reviewing the letter, said a person close to the company. Its directors have rebuffed Microsoft’s original offer, saying the bid undervalues Yahoo and that it is seeking alternatives.
Read the rest of this entry »

The demand of high speed data transmission over internet is getting higher, with more and more video-on-demand service. Oki has announced the world’s first to achieve all optically regenerated transmission, which enables unlimited transmission of 160Gbps optical signals with single wavelength. OKI used an optical test-bed provided by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)’s Japan Gigabit Network II (JGN II)(*1), the result proves the archivement of transmitting data at 160Gbps data, a speed equivalent to transmitting four movies, approximately 8 hours of data, in a single second. This amount of data at this speed can be sent over distances greater than the length of Japan, which is about 3,000km, and in fact to the other side of the planet, which is about 20,000km. OKI developed an all-optical 3R Regenerator, which uses a specialized optical-repeater technology with functions for re-amplification, re-shaping to remove optical signal wave distortion, and re-timing to avoid timing jitter accumulation. With these advances, in theory, it is possible to achieve signal processing speeds of over 200Gbps.
Read the rest of this entry »


The war of High Definition format between Blu-ray and HD DVD has come to the end. Toshiba just announced that they will no longer develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders, handing a victory to rival Blu-ray disc technology in the format battle for next-generation video. “We concluded that a swift decision would be best,” Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters at his company’s Tokyo offices. The move would make Blu-ray ? backed by Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, and five major Hollywood movie studios ? the winner in the battle over high-definition DVD formatting that began several years ago. Nishida said last month’s decision by Warner Bros. Entertainment to release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format made the move inevitable. Warner joined Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox in that move.
“That had tremendous impact,” he said. “If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win.”
Both HD DVD and Blu-ray deliver crisp, clear high-definition pictures and sound, which are more detailed and vivid than existing video technology. They are incompatible with each other, and neither plays on older DVD players. But both formats play on high-definition TVs. HD DVD was touted as being cheaper because it was more similar to previous video technology, while Blu-ray boasted bigger recording capacity. Nishida said his company had confidence in HD DVD as a technology and tried to assure the estimated 1 million people, including some 600,000 people in North America, who already bought HD DVD machines by promising that Toshiba will continue to provide product support for the technology.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yahoo Inc’s board has rejected Microsoft Corp.’s $44.6 billion takeover bid after concluding the unsolicited offer undervalues the slumping Internet pioneer, a person familiar with the situation said Saturday. The Wall Street Journal had quoted an unnamed source as saying Microsoft’s offer of $31 per share was an attempt to “steal” the company and that Yahoo was unlikely to consider anything under $40 per share — double its price in January. At $40 per share, the value of the cash and stock deal would be worth $51.1 billion.
Alternatively, Microsoft could sweeten its bid. Many analysts believe Microsoft is prepared to offer as much as $35 per share for Yahoo, which still boasts one of the Internet’s largest audiences and most powerful advertising vehicles despite a prolonged slump that has hammered its stock.
Read the rest of this entry »

In the high-stakes battles for the big bucks of the US online advertising market, Microsoft made an eye-popping hostile attempt to take over giant search engine Yahoo. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer announced an unsolicited take-over bid for Yahoo at US$44.6 billion, saying he is prepared to pay US$31 per share in cash or stock, or a 62-percent premium above the company’s closing stock price on Nasdaq on Tuesday (29 Jan 2008). News of the proposed deal sent Yahoo stocks soaring pre-market, ahead of trading.
Among the numbers at stake is a US$40 billion a year online advertising market, of which Yahoo currently commands just 9 percent, compared to rival Google’s mammoth 75 percent. In Europe and UK, Google almost monopolizes the market with an 80 percent share, with Yahoo having to share the rest with smaller operators.
Read the rest of this entry »