Ten things you should know about the Ice Cream Sandwich OS

Ice Cream Sandwich is the fourth incarnation of Google’s Android operating system (OS) for smartphones and tablets – the successor to previous versions Gingerbread and Honeycomb (a tablet-only version)This increasingly nippy time of year seems an odd choice to be discussing ice cream sandwiches – unless said confection is the latest in a tasty-sounding software series from Google. Ice Cream Sandwich is the fourth incarnation of Google’s Android...

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Atom-smasher shut down for two months

The world's largest atom-smasher has been shut down for two months following a helium leak, just 10 days after it was switched on amid great fanfare to probe the secrets of the universe.“There has been an incident in a test. One section of the machine will have to be repaired,” James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), said Monday.CERN said in a statement that a fault occurred Friday afternoon, resulting...

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NASA spots Earth’s twin (or closest match yet) outside solar system

Bill Borucki, Kepler principal Investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center, speaks during a news conference about the newly discovered planet Kepler-22b on Monday in in Moffett Field, Calif.A newly discovered planet is eerily similar to Earth and is sitting outside our solar system in what seems to be the ideal place for life, expect for one hitch. It’s a bit too big. The planet is smack in the middle of what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone,...

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Yahoo to weigh deals for Asian assets

The "Yahoo" sign, which overlooks the I-80 freeway from 6th St. is dismantled,2011 in downtown San Francisco.Yahoo Inc.is discussing a plan to slash its stakes in China’s Alibaba Group and a Japanese affiliate in a complex deal worth roughly $17-billion (U.S.), sources familiar with the matter said. The deal – the latest proposals put forth in recent months to resuscitate the once high-flying Internet company – is expected to be considered by Yahoo’s...

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China passes U.S. as top patent filer in 2011

Published applications from China’s patent office have risen by an average of 16.7 per cent annually from 171,000 in 2006 to nearly 314,000 in 2010, data from Thomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index showed. Workers are seen inside a Foxconn factory in the township of Longhua in the southern Guangdong province in this May 26, 2010 file photo.China became the world’s top patent filer in 2011, surpassing the United States and Japan as it steps...

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Twitter unwraps advertiser-friendly redesign

A new Twitter experience is rolling out over several weeks; access it now by getting the iPhone or Android apps released today. Feedback on the changes? Share your thoughts with @feedback using the hashtag #newlook. If you need help, pose any questions to @support.Twitter revamped its website on Thursday in an effort to make the microblogging service easier to use and to help companies better showcase their brands. The new version of Twitter, which...

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Smartphones dialling up new business for stores

The meteoric rise of smartphones and tablets is revolutionizing the way people shop, but it’s also breathing new life into an unlikely place: the traditional bricks-and-mortar store. For years, a growing number of shoppers have opted to do their buying on the Web rather than in the mall. But now, the digital and the physical retail worlds are intersecting as new devices – and the software available for them – are helping shoppers do everything from...

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Chinese microbloggers mock latest round of state controls

China further tightened rules on microblogs on Thursday, requiring new authors on seven websites in southern Guangdong province to register their real names, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, in a move users decried as ineffective. Microblogs such as Sina’s Weibo allow users to issue messages of a maximum of 140 Chinese characters that can course through tens of millions users everyday, defying censors with posts on sensitive topics such as...

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BlackBerrys to clock off alongside VW workers

The working day is over and the Christmas holiday has officially begun, but the blinking red light or vibration of a BlackBerry is still maddeningly hard to ignore. Angered by the blurring of the dividing line between the workplace and home, Volkswagen’s powerful works council has struck an agreement with management that employees who use a BlackBerry and whose pay is governed by a collective wage tariff agreement will be subject to new e-mail restrictions.So...

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RIM says BBM Music now available

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion says its music-sharing application for its popular messaging service is available for downloading in Canada, and in the U.S. and Australia within a day. BBM Music allows BlackBerry users to select 50 songs from a catalogue of millions of tracks for their personal playlists. BBM users can share those songs from that list with friends who use the instant messaging service, meaning the size of the music library...

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China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou 8 blasts off

China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou 8 blasted off Tuesday morning, in the latest step in what will be a decade-long effort by the country to place a manned permanent space station in orbit. The spacecraft took off from a base in the far western city of Jiuquan, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Minutes later, Xinhua cited Chang Wanquan, who leads China's space program, as announcing the launch a success. China launched its own space station...

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Print decline outpaces online gains for Yellow Media

Advertising in the Yellow Pages and Canpages print directories is drying up at a faster rate, but Yellow Media Inc. (YLO-T0.42-0.01-3.41%) chief executive officer Marc Tellier says it’s only temporary. “We’re pretty much near or at the peak of the print erosion,” Mr. Tellier told analysts on a conference call Thursday to discuss the company’s third-quarter results....

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Google changes search algorithm, trying to make results more timely

Google is changing the way it looks at the Internet, as the company tries to keep its search engine relevant at a time when Web users want up-to-the-second search results. The world’s most popular search engine announced on Thursday it will alter some of the algorithms it uses to determine what search results it shows to its users. In a move that affects roughly 35 per cent of all Google searches, the company will now put more emphasis on the most...

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After 520 days in isolation, space researchers emerge from Mars 'mission'

Pale but smiling, an international crew of researchers on Friday walked out of a set of windowless modules after a gruelling 520-day simulation of a flight to Mars. The all-male crew of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese slowly emerged from the western Moscow facility, which simulated the confinement, stress and fatigue of interplanetary travel — minus the weightlessness. Dressed in blue track suits emblazoned with...

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NASA finds 90 per cent of potential Earth-killer asteroids

If you’re worried about a killer asteroid wiping out Earth, NASA has some good news. The U.S. space agency said Thursday it has identified more than 90 per cent of giant, potentially Earth-threatening asteroids, including ones as big as the one thought to have killed the dinosaurs eons ago. “We know now where most of them are and where most of them are going. That really has reduced our risk” of an impact, said Amy Mainzer of the NASA Jet Propulsion...

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Astronomer captures image of planet being born

Astronomers have captured the first direct image of a planet being born. Adam Kraus, of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, said the planet is being formed out of dust and gas circling a 2-million-year-old star about 450 light years from Earth. The planet itself, based on scientific models of how planets form, is estimated to have started taking shape about 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. Called LkCa 15 b, it's the youngest planet...

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Microsoft to launch Mango smartphones with Nokia, Samsung

The smartphone sector is currently dominated by Apple and Android phones, which together make up about half of the market, with Microsoft seen as slow to react to the rapidly rising popularity of mobile devices.But some analysts say Microsoft still has time to catch up, especially given uncertainties among handset makers after Google’s planned purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. sparked worries that Google may one day produce its own handsets.“We’ve...

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Five Galaxy features you won’t find on the iPhone

The Apple iPhone 4S shattered records with 4 million sales in its first weekend, but the popular smartphone may have a little more competition from another new release, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.The phone, which Samsung and Google unveiled Wednesday at an event in Hong Kong, will be the first device to run the latest version of Google’s Android operating system (known as “Ice Cream Sandwich”) and boasts several promising hardware features, including...

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