Jeremy A. Kaplan.

Rebirth of the Laptop PC

2012-01-12T16:19:00.001-05:00

Laptop manufacturers whose underperforming products have been washed out of the market by a flood of tablets in recent years are finally fighting back.

Forget those crummy netbooks. Think of the new batch of systems as what laptops should have been from the very start: Functional. Powerful. Insanely great. And affordable.

It’s called the ultrabook. It’s the personal computer, and if you thought the PC was dead, you’d better think again.

“There hasn’t yet been a really stunning PC,” says Vizio CTO Matt McRae, whose company wants to change all of that. Vizio dropped a bombshell on Monday at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, announcing plans to jump into a market that other companies have been eager to get out of.

Read more in my full report at FoxNews.com.

2012: The Year Steve Jobs Returned to CES

2012-01-10T16:23:00.001-05:00

Apple has shunned the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) for years, first in favor of the Mac-only MacWorld Expo event, then for Apple-only product unveilings that were spearheaded by Steve Jobs himself.

But Jobs’ revolutionary company, his sleek sense of design, his friendly and “insanely great” products are more visible than ever this year at CES, the world’s largest consumer technology event. Despite Jobs’ death in October, it seems as if this is the year the beloved technology guru finally made it back to the show.

"Even without an actual booth or direct on-floor display, it will be all but impossible to escape the shadow of Steve Jobs,” Scott Steinberg, head of business consulting firm TechSavvy, told FoxNews.com.

“[Apple’s] presence will inevitably be felt -- arguably more so than ever.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/10/2012-year-steve-jobs-returned-to-ces/

Complete James Bond Kit Coming to Blu-Ray

2012-01-10T16:21:00.002-05:00

Bond. James Bond. 22 James Bonds, that is.

The complete James Bond is coming to Blu-ray-- all the gear, girls and crazy action from all 22 movies -- Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn announced Tuesday at the world’s biggest consumer electronics event in Las Vegas.

The disk set is available for pre-order today, although pricing and the actual ship date of the kit have yet to be announced. Why Blu-ray?

“Details matter,” Dunn said, “from sound quality to scenery.” The new high-definition film format showcases all the nuance that goes into the films, and to take a closer look at those nuances. And Panasonic presented a panel of three directors responsible for eight James Bond films -- not to mention two of those Bond girls themselves.

Read more in the complete story, posted on FoxNews.com.

At Last, You Can Throw Your Smartphone in the Toilet

2012-01-09T16:29:00.003-05:00

Despite all the smarts built into them, smartphones have one fatal flaw: They can’t get wet. Yet.

Three start-ups aim to correct that this year, offering special, micro-thin coatings made of nanomaterials that can seamlessly and invisibly encase your next iPhone or Android phone and keep it safe from the rain -- or even a plunge in the potty.

HzO, P2i, and Liquipel are putting their technology on display this week at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where the world’s gadget makers unveil the latest and greatest goodies that will fill your pockets in the upcoming year. And that’s in the rain or out, explains Paul Clayson, president and CEO of nanotech firm HzO.

“We can’t see why every cellphone on the planet shouldn’t be using our technology,” Clayson told FoxNews.com.

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

Company X Will Change Your Life

2012-01-09T16:27:00.003-05:00

In the future, magazines will look entirely different every time you pick them up.

In the future, your computer will be a giant glass table, guitars will never slip out of tune, and all those social networks will finally be relatively easy to use.

In the future, your electronic gadgets will be entirely waterproof.

Twenty startup technology companies formally unveiled their ideas at the third annual Startup Debut Sunday night at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas – each aiming if not to change the world, at least to reshape it a little bit.

Read more in the full story at FoxNews.com.

Japan Reportedly Building Vigilante Virus Assassin Squad

2012-01-03T16:32:00.003-05:00

Japan reportedly has paid Fujitsu $2.3 million to build a self-replicating assassin squad -- a computer virus it can set loose in the network to track down and eliminate other viruses.

Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the Defense Ministry’s Technical Research and Development Institute began developing the anti-viral virus in 2008. The government agency in charge of weapons development paid the heavy industries firm $2.3 million (178.5 million Yen) to create a virus that can analyze cyberattacks and even identify their source.

It sounds like an answer to Stuxnet or Duqu -- cyberweapons so potent that one security official called them “the hydrogen bomb of cyberwarfare.” And the cyberwar is clearly heating up, said Dave Aitel, president and CEO of security firm Immunity Inc.

“Stuxnet was just the beginning,” Aitel told FoxNews.com. “Self-replicating code is an important part of any national arsenal … the Japanese are just getting started.”

Read more in my complete story at FoxNews.com.

Solar Blast Expected to Hit Earth

2011-12-29T13:59:00.006-05:00

Particles ejected by recent solar storms are due to slam into Earth over the next few days, possibly causing super-charged northern lights displays and temporary radio blackouts in some areas, experts say.

On Monday (Dec. 26), the sun unleashed a massive eruption of solar plasma known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME's fast-moving charged particles should squarely strike Earth's magnetic field at about 3:20 p.m. EST Wednesday, give or take seven hours, according to the website Spaceweather.com. And the particles from a second CME could deliver a glancing blow to our planet a few hours earlier, the site reported.

Apple's Siri Still Hates the British. And Southerners

2011-12-20T13:48:00.002-05:00

Siri makes the new Apple iPhone 4S incredibly easy to use … as long as you're not from England. Or Scotland. Or Tennessee. Or Mexico.

When the new smartphone launched in October, numerous reports indicated that Siri, its built-in voice-recognition app -- one of the biggest reasons for buying the newest Apple gadget -- struggled with accents and regional dialects. And despite two months of additional development and updates, Apple has yet to resolve the iPhone's issues with accented Americans, users told FoxNews.com.

"It just didn't understand," Joanna Randell, a content manager for a branding firm and a native of Nottingham, England, told FoxNews.com.

Read my full story at FoxNews.com.

Apple's Siri Still Hates Southerners

2011-12-20T12:52:00.007-05:00

For Hurricane Forecasters, the Outlook Is Stormy

2011-12-14T13:42:00.000-05:00

Here's a forecast you might not expect.

Two Colorado State University climatologists, who have independently been tracking and predicting the severity of hurricanes for nearly 30 years, are abandoning their long-range forecasting efforts.

Simply put, the advance predictions just weren't accurate.

"We have suspended issuing quantitative forecasts at this extended-range lead time, since they have not proved skillful over the last 20 years," Philip J. Klotzbach and William M. Gray wrote in their annual December report intended to predict the severity of the upcoming year's Atlantic hurricane season.

Read more in the full story at FoxNews.com.

Major Milestone in Quest for Life in the Universe

2011-12-05T14:12:00.000-05:00

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new exoplanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5).

The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation. These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700.

The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like our own — one which could conceivably harbor life, scientists said.

Listomania! 6 Questions for the Woman Behind 2,663 Random Facts

2011-12-04T13:33:00.000-05:00

8 dastardly Ponzi schemes. 23 famous conspiracy theories. 12 animal interlopers. 9 things we've lost in space.
"Listomania! A World of Fascinating Facts in Graphic Detail," breaks down the everyday world into fascinating minutiae: great (and not so great) entertainment, questionable actions and ideas, weird items and more. The book holds 2,663 facts sorted into 10 categories that amaze and inform.

We've created our own list: 6 questions about the process, inspiration, research, blood, sweat and tears ("6 things that created Listomania"?) and posted them to Mariah Bear, the book's editor and chief Listomaniac.

Read more in my full story at FoxNews.com.

Facebook Prepping for Massive Hiring Spree

2011-12-03T13:36:00.002-05:00

Facebook plans to nearly double in size in the next year.

The social network announced plans on Friday to dramatically expand its operations, adding a wealth of new engineers to enhance features and write fresh code for the website that links more than 800 million users worldwide.

"We'll be adding thousands of employees in the next year," Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg announced from the company's New York City offices on Friday. Facebook currently has about 3,000 employees in California, Sandberg said, but just 100 in its Big Apple facility -- mainly marketing staff.

The company plans to expand that Madison Avenue office by opening its first East Coast engineering office.

And Facebook's recruitment drive is already in full swing, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Read the whole story at FoxNews.com.

Fighting Crime With Digital DNA

2011-11-18T18:07:00.000-05:00

DNA evidence is widely accepted in courtrooms. And now, so is our "Digital DNA" -- those trace zeroes and ones we leave behind on computer systems, in our smartphones, beneath the hoods of our cars and more.

"Digital evidence is the new DNA," Ira Victor, a forensic analyst with Data Clone Labs and a member of The High Tech Crime Investigator's Association (HTCIA), told FoxNews.com.

Last week the Supreme Court took a first stab at addressing how such evidence can be used, hearing arguments from the Justice Department defending the use of GPS devices planted on suspects' vehicles. But that's just one aspect of a growing body of data: From digital photographs to cellphones to emails and Word documents, we all create a trail that law enforcement agencies are increasingly using to put crooks at the scene of their crime.

Read more in my full story on FoxNews.com.

Black Future for Blackberry? A Tech History Lesson for RIM

2011-11-12T19:13:00.000-05:00

Here today, dot-gone tomorrow?

Once high-flying RIM, the maker of the very popular Blackberry line of smartphones, is today fighting for its very survival, battling to keep its core business in the face of a string of service outages and far-cooler technology from its competitors.

The company's problems seem to be growing: A Bloomberg report last week highlighted the company's struggling stock price, calling RIM "a wounded puppy." This week, Google announced it would end support for its Gmail app on Blackberry handhelds.

In the light of these market challenges, we look at six other one-time tech juggernauts that went from heavyweight to scrap heap. Is there a lesson to be learned in history?

Read more in my full post at FoxNews.com.

Aircraft Carrier-Sized Asteroid Zips Past Earth

2011-11-08T21:57:00.001-05:00

Talk about a close shave!

A craggy, 1,300-foot wide bit of space rock missed Earth tonight in the closest encounter by such a massive space rock in more than three decades.Countless asteroids, gravity wells and other celestial bodies had shaped its course that could have turned this near miss into a disaster, said Ron Dantowitz, director of the Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Mass.

"Everything shapes its course," Datowitz told FoxNews.com, even the Earth and moon that asteroid 2005 YU55 breezed past at 6:28 p.m. EST Tuesday, Nov. 8. At that point, the space rock was traveling at about 29,000 mph ... a whopping 8 miles per second.

The asteroid has traveled light years to reach us, on a trajectory affected by planets, asteroids, space dust and more. Tonight it was a mere 201,700 miles from Earth -- closer than the moon at one point.What if the tug of gravity from a planet in a galaxy far, far away had been slightly stronger? What if the course of asteroid 2005 YU55 had been altered by a tiny amount, a few micrometers -- micrometers that added up over the course of millions of light years?

Read more about the near miss asteroid in my full story on FoxNews.com.

Meet the Man Who Wants to Mine the Moon

2011-10-19T11:17:00.000-04:00

The moon is made of far more valuable stuff than green cheese. And one man wants to capitalize on that fact.

NASA, which ended America's space shuttle program in June, says it wants to privatize spaceflight. Naveen Jain, co-founder and chairman of Moon Express, Inc., wants to go a step further: He wants to privatize the moon itself. Jain's company plans to piggyback on private shuttle flights, using them to carry his lunar landers and mining platforms to the moon.

"People ask, why do we want to go back to the moon? Isn't it just barren soil?" Jain told FoxNews.com. "But the moon has never been explored from an entrepreneurial perspective."

Green cheese indeed -- there's cash in them lunar hills!

Read more in my full interview with Naveen Jain at FoxNews.com.

Russian 'Stealth Destroyer' Just a Sales Gimmick?

2011-10-16T09:19:00.003-04:00

Russia plans to begin constructing a new generation of "stealth" destroyers in 2012 that will form the backbone of the combat power of Russia's surface fleet, Russian newspaper Pravda reported.

But since much of Russia's income comes from arms sales and exports, that new stealth technology might be simply hype designed to sell boats, Thomas Fedyszyn, director of the Europe-Russia Studies Group at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I. said.

"They're trying to sell this to India, Vietnam, Indonesia … as marketers, they would per force be required to make statements like this," he told FoxNews.com.

Read more in my full report at FoxNews.com.

Fly Eyes to Stunning Snowflakes: the 2011 Nikon Small World Photo Contest

2011-10-05T09:23:00.000-04:00

Insects as big as monsters. Fly eyes magnified into screen doors. Grains of salt transformed into colorful boulders from a rainbow-hued volcano.

The winners have just been announced in the 2011 Nikon Small World photomicrography contest, highlighting photographs of ordinary bits of nature captured through a microscope that elevate science into art.

"It's a way to take the work [scientists are] doing -- answering questions in cancer or curing Alzheimer's -- and to show other people the beauty they see," Dr. Simon C. Watkins, founder and director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Biological Imaging and a judge in this year's contest, told FoxNews.com.

"It's a link between science and art," he said.

Read more in my full story at FoxNews.com.

Cold-War Missile Launches Cutting-Edge Military Satellite

2011-09-27T21:25:00.000-04:00

Bombs, away!

A 30-year-old intercontinental missile designed to hurl nuclear bombs at Russia was used instead Tuesday morning to blast military communications into the future.

At 11:49 a.m. EDT, a joint military team used a Minotaur IV+ rocket -- essentially a decommissioned Peacekeeper missile built decades ago during the Cold War -- to launch the TacSat-4 satellite into orbit. The microsatellite will enable "on the move" communication, relaying calls and data directly to the handheld radios currently in use by nearly every branch of the military.

"It's an ICBM that we no longer need -- a way to get some use out of one of those old MX missiles. But rather than a warhead, it's got a satellite in the tip," Dr. Larry Schuette, director of innovation for the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR), told FoxNews.com.

The tiny satellite -- it weighs 990 pounds versus the industry average of about 4,300 -- blasted off from the Alaska Aerospace Corp.'s Kodiak Launch Complex, under the guidance of the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center. And it took military communication far forward.

Read the full report at FoxNews.com.

LightSquared Promises Tech Fix to 'Save' GPS

2011-09-20T09:28:00.000-04:00

Has GPS been saved?

The billionaire backer of a controversial new wireless technology said a fix is in the works for the signal overlap issue that may effectively render GPS useless -- a possibility that the Air Force, police and others have called a dangerous threat to our nation's security.

LightSquared backer Philip Falcone told FoxNews.com that issue lies in the GPS satellites themselves, which were designed to use a specific wedge of bandwidth but sloppily spill out and "listen in" on nearby signals. That wasn't an issue 20 years ago; today it limits LightSquared's ability to create a new high-speed wireless data network.

But a 10-cent filter can fix the 40,000 military devices at risk, Falcone said -- something that should be done whether or not LightSquared is the problem.

"Quite frankly, if we interfere with public security, we should be fixed. And quite frankly, we don't," Falcone told Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.

Read more in the full report at FoxNews.com.

Facebook Page Calls for Action Against Israeli Embassy in Amman

2011-09-13T09:31:00.000-04:00

A Facebook page created over the weekend calls for a march Thursday targeting Israel's embassy in Amman, Jordan, just days after a similar protest in Cairo, Egypt, resulted in a 13-hour rampage that trashed the Israeli diplomatic compound there.

"Our motto: No Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory," the Facebook page reads. Nearly 2,500 people have pledged to attend the protest in Jordan, with Israeli news reports suggesting protestors could break into the embassy and take down the Israeli flag.

Jordanian officials are said to be preparing for the worst. But Facebook, which has a clear policy against hate speech and violence, said the protest page conforms with the social network's terms of service, according to company spokesman Andrew Noyes.

"The page doesn’t violate our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which governs our relationship with users and others who interact with Facebook," he told FoxNews.com.

Read more in the full story at FoxNews.com.

Could DigiNotar Hack Lead to a Cyberattack on You?

2011-09-06T19:51:00.000-04:00

Hackers colluding with the Iranian government to spy on democratic activists may have made it easier for cybercrooks to spy on you, a security expert told FoxNews.com.

The Dutch government over the weekend seized control of DigiNotar -- which sells "SSL" security certificates that act as a handshake guaranteeing online transactions -- saying certificates it had issued were forged and could no longer be relied on. The hack targeted Iranian activists, but you might be a victim too, warned Ira Victor, director of the digital forensics practice with Data Clone Labs and a member of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA).

To learn how, read my full article at FoxNews.com.

In New TV Drama, Dinosaurs Are the Actors

2011-09-04T19:53:00.000-04:00

We're ready for your close-up, Mr. Rex.

The Jurassic is merely the stage in a new TV series from the Discovery Channel. In "Dinosaur Revolution," which premiers Sunday night at 9 p.m. EST, dinosaurs are characters with personalities that "act out" brief or even hour-long vignettes -- and it's all based on science, a consulting anthropologist told FoxNews.com.

"Some of the stories are honest-to-goodness comedies. Some are dramas. But they're all told by the actions of dinosaurs and fossil mammals and marine reptiles," said Thomas Holtz, a paleontologist with the University of Maryland's Department of Geology.

Some of the story lines were even inspired by old Warner Bros. cartoons, he said.

To learn more about the Dinosaur Revolution, read my full article at FoxNews.com.

Has Apple Lost Another Unreleased iPhone Prototype?

2011-09-03T15:47:00.002-04:00

A haunting scenario has come back to take another bite out of Apple, as another highly-prized iPhone prototype reportedly disappeared at an upscale San Francisco bar.

A source told CNET that the iPhone was lost at Cava 22, a self-described tequila lounge, in late July. If the story sounds familiar, it's because it is: The exact same sequence of events transpired almost exactly a year ago.

Scientists Plan to Deflect Earth-Bound Asteroids

2011-08-17T15:49:00.001-04:00

It’s not "Armageddon," but it’s close.

The European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, the Secure World Foundation and others have been intently studying the skies lately -- worrying about how to deflect a potential planet-shattering asteroid.

No such space rock has been detected yet, despite Internet chatter about the 1,600-foot-wide asteroid Apophis that space experts predict will skirt Earth by a few hundred thousand miles in 2036. But as in the movie "Armageddon," it's always an option -- one scientists are watching and worrying about.

"It has happened in the past. And it will happen again," Dr Gerhard Drolshagen from the European Space Agency's Space Situational Awareness program office told FoxNews.com.

For the full story, see my entire article at FoxNews.com.

Facebook Posting Confidential Phone Numbers, Users Worry

2011-08-10T19:57:00.000-04:00

All the phone numbers in your phone are now on Facebook, warns an alarmed statement making the rounds on the social network, and the numbers are there whether you've allowed the site access to them or not.

That's not exactly true, Facebook argues, noting that the feature has existed for over a year. But users, just now realizing the sensitive information they're sharing, are buzzing up a storm. And for some people, it's one sting too many from a company they're growing reluctant to trust with their data.

"That might be the last straw," wrote one worried Facebook user.

"All my friend's personal phone numbers are on there! Not happy," another complained.

Read more in my full story on FoxNews.com.

U.S. Cybercops Caught Flat-Footed by Massive Global Cyberattack

2011-08-04T19:57:00.000-04:00

Top U.S. cybercops were surprised by revelations of an unprecedented case of cyber-espionage -- a five-year-long hacking scheme from a single "state actor" that targeted U.S. government and U.N. computers as well as defense firms and private industries.

The spying was dubbed "Operation Shady RAT" by security firm McAfee, which uncovered the hacking -- and it led to a massive loss of information that poses a huge economic threat, security experts say.

"Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators," wrote McAfee's vice president of threat research, Dmitri Alperovitch.

Read more in the full report at FoxNews.com.

Russia Plans to Sink the International Space Station in 2020

2011-07-27T19:49:00.000-04:00

Russia's space agency announced Wednesday that the International Space Station -- a space base the world's scientists and billions of U.S. tax dollars helped build and maintain some 200 miles above the surface of the Earth -- will be de-orbited and allowed to sink into the Pacific Ocean in 2020, just like its Russian predecessor, Mir.

"We will be forced to sink the ISS. We cannot leave it in orbit as it is a very complicated and a heavy object," Roscosmos' deputy head Vitaly Davydov said in an interview posted on the agency's website.

"We have agreed with our partners that the ISS would function roughly until 2020," he noted.

After sinking hundreds of millions into construction of the space station -- billions if you include the cost of the space shuttle flights that carried the ISS modules into orbit -- knowledgeable government sources and NASA spokesmen were aghast at Davydov's plans to sink the station in the ocean

Read more in my full story at FoxNews.com.

Is Facebook the New MySpace?

2011-07-26T20:04:00.000-04:00

What ever happened to loyalty?

A shiny new social-networking site comes along and before you know it, we're all flirting with the frisky startup, leaving our dates back at the table to pay the check. At least, that's how it seems with Google+, the latest competition for our Facebook affections.

In just a few weeks, Google+ has enticed roughly 20 million people to join, according to Comscore. And that's before it's even officially debuted; you still have to be invited to go to this dance. Furthermore, while the service is still in pre-release mode, many of us using it have found it to already be simpler, slicker, and generally better at the social-networking waltz than Facebook (and it always lets you lead).

Notorious LulzSec Hacker 'Tflow' Released on Bail

2011-07-22T20:00:00.000-04:00

A 16-year-old British hacker fingered by law enforcement sources as a "significant figure in the investigation" of the notorious hacker group LulzSec and its parent group Anonymous was released on bail on Wednesday, FoxNews.com has learned.

A U.S. law enforcement official told FoxNews.com that the teenage suspected hacker, known online as Tflow, was “a significant player” in the international hacking network alleged to have carried out coordinated attacks on websites belonging to the CIA, Visa, Mastercard, Sony, Fox.com and others.

“In respect to his capability and alleged membership in this group that can cripple online entities, and the alleged act he accused of committing -- carrying out coordinated DDoS attacks -- yes, he’s a significant subject of the investigation,” the official said.

“He was significant enough to be arrested in an international, coordinated, law-enforcement takedown.”

Read more in my full story on FoxNews.com.

Leading Member of LulzSec Hacker Squad Arrested in London

2011-07-19T19:20:00.000-04:00

Officers from the Metropolitan Police's E-Crime Unit in London arrested a 16-year-old boy in South London Tuesday afternoon, the latest arrest in an international sting operation targeting the notorious hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police told FoxNews.com that one of the hackers remains in custody in a Central London police station on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act -- and that the teen was believed to be linked to the LulzSec hacker group and the larger group of "hacktivists" that go by the collective handle "Anonymous."

U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed to FoxNews.com that the arrest of the juvenile hacker, who goes by the online user name Tflow, was the latest in a sweeping sting of arrests Tuesday, in which 16 suspected hackers were arrested in states across the country, as FoxNews.com first reported.

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

Is Daredevil Plunge From Edge of Space Back On?

2011-07-02T19:41:00.000-04:00

The race from space may just take place!

Daredevil adventurer Felix Baumgartner's plans to plunge 23 miles from the edge of space back to Earth -- a Red Bull-sponsored stunt that would be the world's highest freefall -- may soon take place, thanks to the resolution of a long-standing lawsuit that shattered Baumgartner's 2010 plans.

According to Red Bull spokeswoman Maddy Zeringue, the adventurer finally settled his case Friday in a Los Angeles superior court with Daniel Hogan, who had sued the company claiming the entire concept was his idea.

To learn more about Felix's crazy plans, read my full story at FoxNews.com.

Rival Hacker Group Racing Police to Expose LulzSec

2011-06-23T19:45:00.000-04:00

From hacker -- to hackee?

The anonymous LulzSec group has made waves hacking everyone from media companies to the government. But a second hacker squad plans to take its followers out, one by one -- and give LulzSec a taste of its own medicine.

"We're here to show the world that they're nothing but a bunch of script kiddies," Hex0010, a 23-year-old member of TeaMp0isoN, said in an exclusive FoxNews.com interview.

TeaMp0isoN -- read, Team Poison -- is a group of professional hackers, publicly connected to the Palestinian-friendly "Mujahideen Hacking Unit" that defaced Facebook in December, and they're racing international police to pull back the sheets and expose LulzSec's identities.
Read my full interview with Team Poison at FoxNews.com.

Science Heartbreaker: Major Setback in Quest for 'God Particle'

2011-06-10T12:42:00.001-04:00

The quest for the elusive Higgs boson seemed over in April, when an unexpected result from an atom smasher seemed to herald the discovery of the famous particle -- the last unproven piece of the physics puzzle and one of the great mysteries scientists face today.

Researchers were cautious, however, warning that it would take months to verify the finding. Their caution was wise.

Scientists with the Tevatron particle accelerator at Chicago's Fermilab facility just released the results of a months-long effort by the lab's brightest minds to confirm the finding. What did they find? Nothing.

"We do not see the signal," Dmitri Denisov, staff scientist at Fermilab, told FoxNews.com. "If it existed, we would see it. But when we look at our data, we basically see nothing."

Read my full story at FoxNews.com.

Massive Solar Blast Rocks Sun's Surface

2011-06-08T19:36:00.000-04:00

Great balls of fire!

A solar blast that NASA classified as an M-2 explosion has erupted from the sun in an impressive display captured by the space agency's cameras. In the amazing blast, a large cloud of charged magnetic particles mushroomed up out of the sun and fell back down, appearing to cover almost half of the solar surface.

Scientists said that the event won't have a significant impact on Earth, although it will deliver a "glancing blow" to the planet's magnetic field late June 8 or June 9, NASA said.

What Hidden Secrets Could Weiner's Hard Drive Hold?

2011-06-08T19:30:00.001-04:00

Diamonds are forever -- and so it seems is computer data.

Tweets, digital images, chat messages and more that New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner's sent to college cuties and porn stars alike may prove to be his downfall. Computer forensic experts told FoxNews.com that an exhaustive hunt through his or any hard drive turns up tons of information -- even files a user has deleted or erased.

For these geeks, the ones and zeroes in a computer are like the clues at a crime scene. And there are a lot of ones and zeroes.

"It's like a murderer tracking blood around the room -- they're trying to cover things up but instead creating even more footprints," Douglas Brush, chief forensic examiner with the Digital Forensic Group, told FoxNews.com.

Read more in the full story on FoxNews.com.

Cloudy Days for Apple's iTunes

2011-06-07T07:46:00.000-04:00

Apple may have joined the cloud generation, but has it missed the boat -- or rather the car -- when it comes to music?

Among all the new software announced by Apple yesterday, music took a back seat. While syncing songs across devices via online iCloud servers is convenient, many hoped the company would offer something more, namely a subscription music service.

Meanwhile, other companies this week are offering exactly that, and moving well beyond the old iTunes model by not only delivering subscription music services but also making them available in the place we listen to music the most: the car.

Apple's Jobs Takes Stage to Unveil iCloud Music Service

2011-06-06T17:49:00.000-04:00

Steve Jobs feels good.

Apple chief Steve Jobs took the stage in California Monday to the sound of James Brown's iconic hit "I Got You (I Feel Good)," a rare appearance for the cancer survivor where he unveiled the company's latest software innovations.

"If the hardware is the brain and the sinew of our products, the software is their soul. Today we're going to talk about software," Jobs told the crowd at the company's 2011 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), debuting new versions of the Mac operating system (OS), the software that powers iPhones and iPods, and an online-only music and more locker called iCloud.

Read the full story on FoxNews.com.

Group Claims It Was Paid to Hack PBS

2011-06-02T19:38:00.000-04:00

A hacker group has claimed responsibility for defacing the PBS.org website, the Fox.com site, and the Sony network, posting images of defaced websites and stolen databases and emails to its website. And the group has an even more eye-opening claim: It was hired to hack PBS.org.

"This is the guy that paid us to hack pbs.org," the Lulz Security group wrote on its Twitter feed, pointing to the account of another person who goes by the name Shadow DXS.

Branndon Pike, the Daytona Beach 21-year-old who calls himself Shadow DXS, was quick to deny any such pay-off: He's broke. "My fiancee is paying all my bills right now," he told FoxNews.com. "If I had a dollar it wouldn't be going to these clowns."

Read more in the full story on FoxNews.com.

Apple to Announce New Software?

2011-06-01T19:51:00.003-04:00

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is set to launch the iCloud Monday, the company's new music product that allows people to listen to song collections without having to transfer individual tracks manually to a music player.

With the size of music players and music storage devices decreasing over the decades, the iCloud might eliminate the need to own a physical copy of a song or an album altogether.

Was Northrop Grumman Hit by a Cyberattack?

2011-06-01T19:42:00.000-04:00

Top military contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. may have been hit by a cyber assault, the latest in a string of alarming attacks against military suppliers, a source within the company told FoxNews.com.

Lockheed Martin said its network had been compromised last week, and defense contractor L-3 Communications was targeted recently, as well. Both intrusions involved the use of remote-access security tokens, experts say.

On May 26, Northrop Grumman shut down remote access to its network without warning -- catching even senior managers by surprise and leading to speculation that a similar breach had occurred.

"We went through a domain name and password reset across the entire organization," the source told FoxNews.com. "This caught even my executive management off guard and caused chaos."
Read more in the full story on FoxNews.com.

Researcher Finds Dangerous Security Holes in U.S. Power Plant & Factory Software

2011-05-24T19:44:00.000-04:00

Glaring holes in industrial software could allow hackers to gain partial control or even cause physical destruction at power plants, refineries and more -- further exposing the recently discovered weak underbelly of the nation’s infrastructure, a security analyst said.

Dillon Beresford, a researcher who works for NSS Labs in Texas, identified the latest holes last Wednesday in the specialized Siemens software -- called "supervisory control and data acquisition" systems, or SCADA -- that runs industrial power plants, factories and other infrastructure.

Siemens announced plans to patch the holes last Thursday. Not good enough, Beresford said Monday.

Read the full story on FoxNews.com.

Inside the Tornado Early-Warning System

2011-04-28T13:05:00.000-04:00

With nearly 250 people confirmed dead in one of the worst natural disasters since Hurricane Katrina, why didn’t the nation's early-warning system provide an early warning?

It did.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association gave half an hour warning that super tornadoes were coming, and meteorologists at the National Weather Service saw severe weather coming as much as six days in advance, said Greg Carbin, lead meteorologist with NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.

"These violent events are relatively well predictable in this era," Carbin told FoxNews.com. It wasn't always so. Tornado warnings used to come out as much as 15 minutes after they formed, relying primarily on eyes on the ground to confirm their existence.
Read my full article at FoxNews.com.

New Video Game Consoles

2011-04-26T13:10:00.000-04:00

Back in 1972, Atari's Pong was a rec-room phenom -- and the first computer in most homes.

Since then, video game consoles have continued to push the technology envelope far ahead of personal computers, now responding to a wave of your hand, for example, or the sound of your voice.

But consoles like Nintendo's Wii have lost some of their luster of late and are under attack from all sides.

Watch the video at FoxNews.com.

Apple, Google, and Location: Is It All About Advertising?

2011-04-22T13:07:00.000-04:00

Politicians and privacy experts demanded answers of Google and Apple Friday following the discovery that smartphone software from the tech giants regularly transmits information about a user's whereabouts back to the companies.

Both Google and Apple remained mum about why the data is sent. But Apple may already have tipped its hand in explaining one reason the iPhone phones home: advertising.

The company's iAd network, launched last July, quite regularly receives location data from its gadgets, stores it in massive databases -- and uses the information to send just the right ad to your cellphone.

"Information is transmitted securely to the Apple iAd server via a cellular network connection or Wi-Fi Internet connection," explained a letter Apple sent to U.S. Rep Edward Markey, D-Mass., on July 12 in response to his request for information. "The latitude/longitude coordinates are converted immediately by the server to a five-digit ZIP code."

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

Microsoft Office 365: Another Ray of Light From the Cloud

2011-04-18T18:53:00.002-04:00

If business in the cloud is the ultimate goal, Microsoft Office 365 is a new rung in the ladder that gets you there.

Or better yet, a far taller ladder.

The power of the Microsoft Office suite has expanded greatly over the past few iterations, moving beyond mere calendars, emails and contacts into instant messaging, video chats, shared workspaces, collaborative computing, site hosting tools and more. To harness all that power, however, requires additional servers -- and pricey IT skills that can daunt a struggling small business.

To make all that power easy to use and available to anyone, the Windows giant on Monday rolled out a public beta of the new online tools that can power its Office applications suite: hosted, Internet services that take all the complexity out of running Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint servers -- and giving small businesses access to tools that would otherwise require teams of IT professionals and thousands of dollars.

Read more in my full Microsoft Office 365 review at FoxBusiness.com.

Are Eye-Popping Emails in Facebook Ownership Lawsuit Legit?

2011-04-14T14:55:00.000-04:00

What sort of smell does $78 billion give off?

Paul Ceglia claims a string of emails prove he loaned $1,000 to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg -- and therefore should by rights own half of the world's biggest social network, recently valued in the neighborhood of $78 billion.

Ceglia's case may hang on proving the validity of the 7-year-old emails between himself and the genius founder of Facebook, and experts told FoxNews.com that doing so technologically presents a near impossible challenge. Instead, it all may come down to how legit they appear.

"Ultimately, it all boils down to passing the sniff test," said Jason Glassberg, co-founder of security analysis firm Casaba.

"Like handwriting, there are many attributes that can suggest, if not prove, that someone authored something. Specific references to events only that person would know and unusual turns of a phrase or use of language are examined," Glassberg said.

Read more about Ceglia Vs. Facebook at FoxNews.com.

More Stunning Emails to Come in Facebook Ownership Lawsuit

2011-04-14T14:53:00.000-04:00

Eye-opening emails released in a lawsuit Tuesday could change the very ownership of Facebook -- and more emails have yet to be released, FoxNews.com has learned.

Paul Ceglia, an upstate New York businessman, claims that in 2003 he made a $1,000 investment in Facebook, which entitles him to 50 percent of what is today the 500 million-user force powering social networking. Facebook calls the emails -- as well as Ceglia himself, and the entire case -- an utter fraud.

But they haven't seen the whole story yet.

Robert Brownlie, a partner with giant law firm DLA Piper and Ceglia's chief legal adviser, said there's more evidence still unseen. "There are more emails," Brownlie told FoxNews.com.

Read more about Paul Ceglia's lawsuit at FoxNews.com.

Neer: The First Location-Aware App for Grown-Ups

2011-04-12T15:00:00.000-04:00

The biggest tech boogieman today has to be location-based services, a.k.a. please-rob-me apps. But are they all really as creepy as they seem?

Location-based services were supposed to tailor online information to your specific needs, with obvious benefits. It's a good thing that Google Maps knows where you are when you open the navigation software on your smartphone -- especially if you're lost. So is getting a local forecast when you search for "weather." It might be a good thing if your phone could alert you to a sale at a retailer as you walked past -- though most of us would opt out of such a convenience.

The real creep factor came through social networking, however. Instead of just letting advertisers, marketers and search software know where you are, location-aware apps endeavored to alert all of your friends to your exact location.

Foursquare, which started in 2009, is the primary proponent of such software, letting you earn badges whenever you check in at a particular location. Check in often enough and you could get a discount on your latte -- or win the game: "JQ is now the mayor of Tim Horton's doughnuts on Lexington Avenue." It sounds like fun, but it can also bring stalking to a whole new level.

Navy Shows Off Powerful New Laser Weapon

2011-04-08T14:58:00.000-04:00

One if by land … lasers if by sea.

A futuristic laser mounted on a speeding cruiser successfully blasted a bobbing, weaving boat from the waters of the Pacific Ocean -- the first test at sea of such a gun and a fresh milestone in the Navy's quest to reoutfit the fleet with a host of laser weapons, the Navy announced Friday.

"We were able to have a destructive effect on a high-speed cruising target," chief of Naval research Rear Adm. Nevin Carr told FoxNews.com.

The test occurred Wednesday near San Nicholas Island, off the coast of Central California in the Pacific Ocean test range, from a laser gun mounted onto the deck of the Navy’s self-defense test ship, former USS Paul Foster.

In a video of the event, the small boat can be seen catching fire and ultimately bursting into flames, a conflagration caused by the navy's distant gun. Some details of the event were classified, including the exact range of the shot, but Carr could provide some information: "We're talking miles, not yards," Carr said.

Read more about the Navy's latest laser at FoxNews.com.

Duke Nukem's "Capture the Babe" Mode Has Players Slapping Women

2011-03-27T19:07:00.000-04:00

A new videogame that requires you to abduct women and give them a "reassuring slap" if they freak out has gamers and women's rights-groups crying foul.
Brace yourself for the awfully sexist world of Duke Nukem Forever.

The game's 1996 precursor Duke Nukem 3D -- which sold 3.5 million copies, made millions for its developers and transformed the entire world of video games -- depicted women as strippers and prostitutes. The new iteration of the game, set for release this spring, takes sexism to a new level -- starting with Duke receiving implied oral sex from twins in school uniforms.

"It was offensive then and it's even more offensive now," Jamia Wilson, vice president of the Women's Media Center, told FoxNews.com. "These depictions of women are extremely harmful, especially to young women," she added.

Duke Ferris, editor-in-chief at gamehelper.com, said sexism is an intentional part of Duke Nukem Forever. “The game is meant to objectify women -- that's the point,” he said.

Read my full story at FoxNews.com.

Apple Pulls 'Gay-Cure' App Following Controversy

2011-03-23T19:11:00.003-04:00

Apple has removed a controversial iPhone app from its App Store by a religious group determined to "cure" homosexuality -- after 146,000 outraged people signed a petition decrying it.

The offending app by religious group Exodus International -- which aims to "help" gay individuals through the Bible's teachings -- directly contradicts Apple's guidelines, and constitutes inappropriate hate speech, argued activists from gay-rights group Truth Wins Out.

"These closet cases put people in therapy and try to make them straight," Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, told FoxNews.com Monday. "This is a group with no accountability whatsoever," he said, "and the fact that they're focusing on youth is what disturbs us."

Read more about the 'gay cure' app at FoxNews.com.

Apple Under Fire for 'Gay-Cure' Application

2011-03-22T19:13:00.002-04:00

An iPhone app by a religious group that disagrees with homosexuality has gay-rights groups seeing red -- and Apple in the hotseat.

The technology giant is well known for policing the applications available to users of its gadgets, weeding out sexually explicit content, offensive speech, hateful images and more. Yet Apple hasn't weighed in on Exodus International and its app, which advocates "helping" gay individuals via the Bible's teachings.

"As long as Apple does pick and choose, we think this is one that shouldn't make it in," Wayne Besen, the outspoken head of Truth Wins Out, told FoxNews.com. He argues that the mission of the group and its application contradicts Apple's guidelines -- and constitutes hate speech.

Read more about the 'gay cure' app at FoxNews.com.

The Return of Ma Bell?

2011-03-22T12:05:00.000-04:00

Choice is a good thing, which is one of many reasons AT&T's plan to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion is such a bad idea.

The announcement comes as cell phone industry folks are buzzing around Orlando at the annual CTIA Wireless trade show. Most people at the show want to see the latest innovations in what has become a fertile area of technological development in terms of computer chips, software, and the country's wireless infrastructure.

But if AT&T does swallow up T-Mobile, creating the largest carrier in the U.S. and reducing the total number of sizable firms to three, it could cost consumers dearly -- and end up putting the brakes on innovation, taking us one step closer to the good-ol', bad-ol' days of Ma Bell.

Personal Tech: The Dilemma of Crowdsourcing

2011-03-08T19:01:00.001-05:00

"Crowdsourcing" powers sites like The Huffington Post and Wikipedia. But not for much longer.

Readers are becoming skeptical, web searches are starting to block them, and now the mob of unpaid folks responsible for much of the work is turning on the hand that fails to feed it, demanding -- shock, horror! -- to be paid. Imagine that.

Are Arkansas Quakes Manmade? Business Halts as Scientists Decide

2011-03-04T18:53:00.000-05:00

With evidence mounting that a swarm of earthquakes shaking Arkansas are manmade, two natural gas companies have agreed to temporarily suspend activities while scientists sort it all out.

That may take some time.

Scientists have for years been hesitant to state definitively that earthquakes can be caused by injection wells, which are used to shoot large volumes of wastewater from oil drilling operations back into the earth. But while causality remains unclear, the correlation between the two was enough to drive Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy and Clarita Operating of Little Rock to halt operation of two wells, following an emergency meeting of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission on Friday.

"Based on that evidence, as well as other expert testimony, they've interpreted that evidence and determined there is a correlation between these two wells and seismic activity," Shane Khoury, deputy director and general counsel for the commission, told FoxNews.com.

For more information, read my full story on FoxNews.com.

Apple's Steve Jobs Unveils the iPad 2

2011-03-02T20:37:00.002-05:00

More than a year after igniting the tablet computing craze, Apple's Steve Jobs surprised the world by taking to the stage to unveil the second version of its blockbuster iPad on Wednesday.

Jobs traditionally hosts such events, but due to health concerns, he was widely anticipated to skip the event. Sorry, Charlie. Nothing doing: As he's done a hundred times before, Jobs took to the stage, wearing his signature black turtleneck and jeans of course, to unveil the next generation of his company's groundbreaking tablet.

To a standing ovation, Jobs -- smiling and energetic though looking frail -- strode onstage, saying simply "I didn't want to miss this."

Watch the video on MyFoxBoston.com.

Apple iPad 2 Launch

2011-03-02T19:55:00.002-05:00

FOXNews.com Kaplan Talks iPad 2: MyFoxHOUSTON.com

Apple CEO Steve Jobs Breaks From Medical Leave To Unveil iPad 2

2011-03-02T18:09:00.002-05:00

Apple is back with a refined second-generation tablet computer that squeezes more power into a thinner shell while keeping prices in check. It's a three-pronged push that should handily hold off competitors for another year.

Underscoring the tablet's importance to Apple, CEO Steve Jobs briefly emerged from a medical leave Wednesday and made a surprising appearance to unveil the iPad 2 himself.

With the original iPad, Apple proved there is great demand for a tablet that's less than a laptop and more than a smart phone, yet performs many of the same tasks. Dozens of copycat touch-screen devices are in the works, but so far none has broken into the mainstream consciousness the way the iPad has.

Watch the video at MyFoxDC.com

House Will Pursue Efforts to Eliminate US Funding for UN Climate Group

2011-03-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

If House Republicans have their way, the U.S. may sever its fiscal support for the United Nations' climate group, reflecting the last lingering effects of the Climate-gate scandal that shook climate science and wobbled the world's confidence in the theory that man's actions are causing the planet to rapidly warm.

Wrapped into the many amendments recently passed by the House of Representatives -- a total of $60 billion in spending cuts that the president called a "nonstarter" -- was one by Republican Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer that would prohibit $13 million in taxpayer dollars from going to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the group whose occasional missteps have been the source of countless confrontations among climate scientists over the past year.

And sources tell FoxNews.com he plans to push that issue -- a movement labeled "defund the IPCC" by climate-change skeptics -- regardless of what happens to the larger package of amendments.

For more information, see my full story on FoxNews.com.

Groupon for Ganja: Website Offers Daily Coupons for Marijuana

2011-02-25T18:50:00.000-05:00

Today's stoner has to watch every dime -- and every dime bag. That's where WeedMaps steps in.

The website gained widespread recognition (some would say notoriety) for helping pair needy tokers with marijuana dispensaries in states like California that allow medicinal use of THC, the drug in the doobie.

Before Weedmaps, customers were forced to rely on word of mouth and rumor to find the best deals on drugs, like teenagers stumbling blindly around a hazy, smoke-filled room. WeedMaps turned on the light, showing where to find what -- a real challenge when California alone boasts over 1,200 dispensaries.

So WeedMaps has borrowed an idea from Groupon, the popular coupon-swapping website, with a new site that provides daily coupons and discounts on herbal deals.

For medical purposes only, of course.

Read my full story at FoxNews.com.

Your Web Browsing Is Being Tracked -- Is Government Regulation the Answer?

2011-02-22T18:52:00.002-05:00

You might think your online activity is private. Think again.

Every click you make on the Internet is being tracked, not just by your Web browser but by hundreds of small companies that tie the click of your mouse to your IP address -- and then to your name. And that data is sold to the highest bidder.

The problem is serious, and growing -- and it's reached Washington's ears. Recently, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., introduced a proposal in the House for new "Do Not Track" legislation, with guidelines for how the Federal Trade Commission might regulate Web tracking and fine those who don't comply.

“Many consumers don't even know they're being tracked, let alone where to adjust their privacy settings,” Tim Schlittner, a spokesman for Speier, told FoxNews.com. “Companies have clearly not done enough.”

Experts hope the legislation will end the patch-and-exploit battle between Web browsers and those who snoop.

For more information, watch my video clip at FoxNews.com.

Hand-Held Epidemic Coming? Experts Fear Rise in Smartphone Viruses

2011-02-15T19:03:00.001-05:00

Did you contract a virus yesterday? No, not that kind of virus.

Most people are aware that computer viruses are legion. They know enough to avoid opening e-mail messages about wealthy Nigerians handing out free money or lost lottery winnings (just give them your bank account number and password!).

But the computer in your hand -- that iPhone, Blackberry, or Android phone -- is just as at risk, and offers a growing array of opportunities for hackers and criminals to take advantage of you.

For the first time ever, more smartphones than computers were shipped during the last quarter of 2010, according to International Data Corp. That means more than 100 million smartphones were moved during that time period (proving my earlier point that the PC is dead). Numbers like that make the devices attractive targets for hackers.

Last week computer security firm McAfee reported that malicious software or malware aimed at mobile phones increased by 46 percent from 2009 to 2010. The company said 55,000 new malware threats are emerging every day.

For more information, see my video on FoxNews.com.

Anonymous Hackers Release Stuxnet Worm Online

2011-02-15T18:50:00.000-05:00

The group of anonymous "hacktivists" that made headlines for online cyberattacks in December just released a bombshell online: a decrypted version of the same cyberworm that crippled Iran's nuclear power program.

The ones and zeroes that make up the code called the Stuxnet worm -- described as the most sophisticated cyberweapon ever created -- were reportedly found when the faceless group hacked into the computers of HBGary, a U.S. security company that the anonymous collective viewed as an enemy. And the security experts FoxNews.com spoke with said the leaked code was serious cause for concern.

"There is the real potential that others will build on what is being released," Michael Gregg, chief operating officer of cybersecurity firm Superior Solutions, told FoxNews.com. Gregg was quick to clarify that the group hasn't released the Stuxnet worm itself, but rather a decrypted version of it HBGary had been studying -- which could act almost like a building block for cybercrooks.

"As an attacker you need to understand how something works. The better you understand how it works the easier it is to build something similar that servers the same purpose," Gregg explained. The "decompiled" code the group made available is in that sense akin to a recipe book for disaster, he said.

For more, see my full story at FoxNews.com.

Will the Earth's Wandering Magnetic Poles Cause Deadly Superstorms?

2011-02-12T18:30:00.001-05:00

Will the wandering magnetic North Pole create crazy superstorms?

The eye-popping connection between the planet's weather and its magnetic field has caught hold among scaremongers recently, ever since scientists described the potential of devastating "superstorms" -- storms caused, scientists say, by flowing gushers of water in the sky known as atmospheric rivers. Some worriers say that these tubocharged tsunamis will soon be widespread, thanks to the increased movement of the Earth's magnetic field.

And that when the field shifts, the story goes, anything can happen. All hell will break loose, they say, arguing that the shift has a greater effect on the world's weather than even the carbon-based influences scientists have been carefully monitoring.

Poppycock, say the best scientific minds in the Northern Hemisphere.

"Trying to link all of these things together is kind of preposterous," said Dr. Carol Raymond, principal scientist and a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, which operates a fleet of satellites that closely monitor the planet and leads the charge in Earth Science research.

Read my full article at FoxNews.com.

Hacker Code Lingers on Home Depot Website

2011-01-12T18:57:00.000-05:00

The website for do-it-yourself giant Home Depot has been … well, screwed.

An IT analyst has uncovered the lingering remnants of a 2009 breach of security on the website of the major retailer: secret code hidden on the website that redirected the user's browser to a site that served up malware.

"Somebody managed to deface the site and inject that code, so that anyone visiting the site would have loaded the malicious code from this other site," explained Mike Menefee, founder of security website Infosec Island, which discovered the hack.

He stressed that HomeDepot.com isn't presently a threat, nor has it been for quite a while. Experts told FoxNews.com that the hack was discovered by someone and disabled -- and that's the mysterious part of the whole thing. Who leaves malicious code lying in wait -- dormant, disabled and inactive on their site?

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

The PC Is Dead, Long Live the iPhone

2011-01-11T19:03:00.004-05:00

It was fun while it lasted, but as of 2011 the era of the desktop computer is officially over.

At least that's the overriding message of last week's gadget and gear extravaganza in Las Vegas known as the Consumer Electronics Show: The PC is dead.

In this iPhone-crazed, connected-TV obsessed, high-speed Internet world, the desktop computer is no longer relevant. All those reams of desk-bound e-mail have given way to terse texts from Blackberries.

Those zippy, graphics-intensive games are now the domain of consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Even balancing a checkbook has left the PC and gone to the mobile handset. Indeed, just about every type of digital chore and entertainment has moved on from the desktop.

But it shouldn't be a surprise that the desktop's days are over. Most people really never needed a desktop computer.

Want to know why? Watch my hit on FoxNews.com.

Age of Aquarius Actually Age of Capricorn, Thanks to Rotation of the Earth

2011-01-11T18:58:00.001-05:00

Brace for the worst: You may be a Virgo, scientists say.

There are many newspapers and websites that promise to tell your fortune, detailing where the planets were when you were born and what their future movements suggest about your future. It's called astrology, and whether or not you believe in it, you won't believe this: It's all wrong.

Astronomers with the Minnesota Planetarium Society have dropped a bomb on the zodiac, noting that thanks to the millennia-long effect of the moon's gravitational pull on the Earth, there's about a one-month bump in the alignment of the stars. The result?

"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces," Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, told the Star Tribune.

And if the sun isn't in Pisces, YOU'RE not in Pisces. Surprise! You're an Aquarius!

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

Magnetic North Pole Shifts, Forces Runway Closures at Florida Airport

2011-01-06T19:00:00.000-05:00

The planet's northern magnetic pole is drifting slowly but steadily towards Russia -- and it's throwing off planes in Florida.

Tampa International Airport was forced to readjust its runways Thursday to account for the movement of the Earth's magnetic fields, information that pilots rely upon to navigate planes. Thanks to the fluctuations in the force, the airport has closed its primary runway until Jan. 13 to change taxiway signs to account for the shift, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The poles are generated by movements within the Earth's inner and outer cores, though the exact process isn't exactly understood. They're also constantly in flux, moving a few degrees every year, but the changes are almost never of such a magnitude that runways require adjusting, said Paul Takemoto, a spokesman for the FAA.

The magnetic fields vary from place to place. Adjustments are needed now at airports in Tampa, but they aren't immediately required at all airports across the country.

So just how often is something like this necessary? "It happens so infrequently that they wouldn't venture a guess," Takemoto told FoxNews.com. "In fact, you're the first journalist to ever ask me about it."

Read more at FoxNews.com.

45 Years Later, Does Moore's Law Still Hold True?

2011-01-04T18:19:00.000-05:00

Intel has packed just shy of a billion transistors into the 216 square millimeters of silicon that compose its latest chip, each one far, far thinner than a sliver of human hair.

But this mind-blowing feat of engineering doesn't really surprise us, right? After all, that's just Moore's Law in action … isn't it?

In 1965, an article in "Electronics" magazine by Gordon Moore, the future founder of chip juggernaut Intel, predicted that computer processing power would double roughly every 18 months. Or maybe he said 12 months. Or was it 24 months? Actually, nowhere in the article did Moore actually spell out that famous declaration, nor does the word "law" even appear in the article at all.

Yet the idea has proved remarkably resilient over time, entering the public zeitgeist and lodging hold like a tick on dog -- or maybe a stubborn computer virus you just can't eradicate. But does it hold true? Strangely, that seems to depend more than anything on who you ask.

Read my full story at FoxNews.com.

They've Made It Rain in the Deserts -- or Have They?

2011-01-04T17:21:00.000-05:00

Parting the seas may still require a miracle, but harvesting water from the desert skies? Don't cross that one off your list of marvels just yet either.

A Swiss company has announced the successful testing of a new weather control technology, which it claims has created as many as fifty rainstorms in the barren, arid deserts of Abu Dhabi. The company, Zug, Switzerland-based Meteo Systems, has invented a system that uses giant ionizers -- essentially fabric-free umbrellas on long steel poles. These generate fields of negatively charged particles that rise with dust from the desert and promote cloud formation, the company says, and therefore rain.

But all that's formed are clouds of doubt among the scientists FoxNews.com spoke with.

Dr. Joseph Golden, formerly senior meteorologist at the Forecast Systems Lab of the National Weather Service and an expert in weather modification, read headlines describing the system, which supposedly created clouds from clear skies -- and said fat chance.

"That's garbage, that's absolute garbage. I don't believe that for a nanosecond. You aren't going to get anything out of clear skies," he told FoxNews.com. "I don't want to sound like Tom Cruise here, but show me the data."

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

Tech Trends to Watch at CES 2011

2011-01-04T15:23:00.002-05:00

In Las Vegas this week, it's gadgets, gizmos and goodies -- oh my!

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins this Thursday in Las Vegas, has a checkered 40-plus-year history when it comes to introducing new products to the public. And this week, when more than 130,000 attendees descend on the show, will be no exception.

CES has witnessed the debut of the VCR (1970) and the CD (1981) as well as the DVD (1996) and HDTV (1998). On the other hand, it also touted the birth of the Laserdisc (1974) and the Mini Disc (1993) -- remember those? One should take the launch of every revolutionary, lifestyle-changing product with a grain of salt.

Will the FCC Win in the Net Neutrality Battle?

2011-01-03T20:23:00.002-05:00

Lawmakers argue that the FCC has no power to pass so-called network neutrality regulations. But it may be in a consumer's best interests.

NASA Scientist Publishes 'Colonizing the Red Planet,' a How-To Guide

2010-12-30T20:19:00.002-05:00

A manned mission to Mars would be the greatest adventure in the history of the human race. And one man knows how to make it a reality. In fact, he just wrote the book on it -- literally.

Joel Levine, senior research scientist with NASA's Langley Research Center and co-chair of NASA's Human Exploration of Mars Science Analysis Group, just published "The Human Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet." The book reads like a who's who of Mars mission science, featuring senators, astronauts, astrophysicists, geologists and more on getting to Mars, studying its atmosphere and climate, the psychological and medical effects on the crew and other details.

There's even a section detailing the science of sex on Mars, should NASA attempt to create a permanent colony there.

"For the last three years, I've been co-chairing a panel of about 30 U.S. and Canadian scientists, coming up with a blueprint, purely from a scientific perspective, of humanity's role on Mars," Levine told FoxNews.com. He was asked to put together a special edition of the Journal of Cosmology exploring the topic, which was just published as the new book.

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

'Iceberg Cowboy' Finds Archway in Middle of Ocean

2010-12-23T20:15:00.000-05:00

Forget moving mountains. Marine biologist Andrew Perry moves icebergs. And his latest adventure led to the discovery of an icy archway, right in the middle of the ocean.

Perry was out trawling for icebergs with Oceans Limited, a Canadian company that identifies which of the tremendous floaters are drifting towards stationary deep-water oil rigs, when he found the arch -- think Stargate meets portal to Narnia.

"It was a beautiful day, hardly a wave on the water. And then there it was -- a big beautiful arch," Perry told FoxNews.com. "No one had seen anything like this. We thought it was amazing."

Icebergs routinely break off Greenland and float down the Labrador coast, Perry explained, a corridor he called "iceberg alley." Along the way, they post a direct threat to deep-water oil installations. Though they don't move particularly quickly -- typically one to four knots -- they've got enough bulk to do major damage if they hit anything, he explained.

For the full story, see FoxNews.com.

Why You NEED to Care About Net Neutrality

2010-12-21T20:11:00.000-05:00

Thanks for watching that YouTube video! That will be 50 cents, please.

Sound unrealistic? It's actually fairly likely, thanks to a ruling handed down Tuesday by the FCC that will allow Internet service providers to charge customers based on the amount of bandwidth they use. And some argue that it's the greatest threat to freedom we face today.

Welcome to the complex world of net neutrality.

The basic problem is simple: As online video has grown in popularity, thanks to sites like YouTube and Hulu.com, Internet service providers (ISPs) complain that each consumer is more of a burden to service -- that's you, me and your next-door neighbor, Phil.

Today, Comcast, Time Warner, or whomever you pay monthly, charges you and Phil more or less the same amount. But Phil watches four hours of basketball online every night. Should he pay more for that? There's the neutrality part, the argument that you should pay one fee for access to the entire Internet, regardless of what type of content you watch or which sites you visit.

For the full story, see my entire story on FoxNews.com.

iPad, Blackberry ... or Other?

2010-12-14T20:02:00.001-05:00

Think of it as this season's digital Goldilocks question: Which size touch screen is just right for you?

Behind every screen there's a computer connected to the Web, ranging from smart phones to e-readers to out-sized portable tablets like the Apple iPad. But you can do largely the same things with each of these different-sized devices: surf the Web, play music, read books, control your TV, take pictures and make video calls.

So the question isn't which device do you want. It's which size is the right size? It's not only a problem for shoppers, but a conundrum for the electronics and computer industry, as well.

We Want YOU, Say Hacktivists … but Is It Legal?

2010-12-09T19:59:00.000-05:00

Cyberactivism -- call it "hactivism" -- is sweeping the web. But legal experts put a starker label on it: criminal.

To show support for WikiLeaks and its controversial head Julian Assange, an anonymous group calling itself Operation: Payback has disabled numerous websites and targeted others over the past few days. The group offers free software to let anyone help takedown websites they believe are the "enemies" of WikiLeaks, targeting MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Amazon and others.

But is it legal? Experts told FoxNews.com that several international laws ban just this sort of activity.

In the U.K., Laws combating what is called "distributed denial of service," or DDoS, "have been in place since 2006 and could result in you being sent to jail for up to ten years. Similar laws have also been present in Sweden since 2007," wrote Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security firm Sophos, in a blog post on his site.

"It's the same story in the USA, where they take a tough line on those who engage in denial-of-service attacks against websites. For instance, last year saw the jailing of a man who launched a DDoS attack against the Scientology website," he added.

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

The Death of the Hard Drive

2010-12-09T19:43:00.000-05:00

Stop worrying about when the hard drive in your computer will die. Google wants to kill it permanently anyway.

The new Google Chrome operating system, which was unveiled Tuesday, as well as hints and suggestions from Apple and Microsoft, offers us a preview of the PC of the future. And it will come without that familiar whirring disk that has been the data heart of the PC for the past 25 years.

The Chrome OS will at first be available on all-black laptops from Samsung and Acer. And because the new platform stores everything -- files, applications, data bits and bytes, literally everything -- on online servers rather than on your home or office PC, those new PCs running it won't require gobs of storage. In fact, they won't require any storage at all.

The new Google laptops come without hard drives, in other words.

Other hardware manufacturers have seen the trend, too: The ebook readers from Amazon and Barnes & Noble don't have hard drives. (And digital books you buy from Google's brand new eBooks store are stored online as well.) The Apple iPad has no drive, and the newest MacBook Air laptop skips a hard drive entirely as well; they all rely on flash memory chips for storage.

Read my full story at FoxNews.com.

Is THIS Your Next Wallet?

2010-11-30T19:15:00.000-05:00

Are you ready to give up cash, and maybe even give up your credit cards? I'm not, but there are plenty of companies -- from Google to AT&T -- that think we will.

The idea has been around for more than 20 years but has never come to fruition, because the basic technological tools weren't readily available. Now they are. They're called smartphones.

Earlier this month, Google waved around a prototype Android phone with a special chip that lets customers pay simply by waving the phone near a cash register. Known as near-field communication (NFC), the trick is to use short-range radio signals to send your credit card or bank account information directly to a register so that you don't have to swipe or sign for things. Or get your hands dirty with all that filthy lucre.

In one sense, such technology is overkill. Many of us can already wave a credit card at the gas pump or Quickie Mart and have a sale immediately rung up on the register. Credit card companies call it contactless payment. But contactless payments use a one-way system where your credit card info is simply passed from the card to the scanner. You don't receive, say, any information about what you purchased or about what your current balance is on the card itself.

Smartphones could give shoppers that important information -- plus a digital receipt.

Bargain Shopping? Visit Uncle Sam's Really Odd Online Warehouse

2010-11-30T09:02:00.000-05:00

If you missed out on Cyber Monday, there's still lots of time to get a great discount at Crazy Uncle Sam's Online Retail Outlet, where the discounts are as big as the tax code is complicated.

Thanks to several websites sponsored or sanctioned directly by the U.S. government, consumers can help drive down the debt by taking advantage of great prices on government surplus -- including everything from old NASA tape recorders to an aircraft service truck to a 4,000-square-foot office complex in Burma.

That's right, it's a fire sale -- and everything in the U.S. government's warehouses must go, go, go!

Read more at FoxNews.com.

Facebook Plans to Trademark the Word 'Face'

2010-11-24T11:04:00.000-05:00

Hoping to finally launch thefaceslap.com? Sorry, Charlie, you're too late: Facebook may have just won the rights to the word "face."

The social-networking giant was just given a green light in its efforts to trademark the word "face." The company's efforts have moved Facebook's pursuit of face past the opposition period, according to the U.S Patent and Trademark Office, and a "Notice of Allowance" has been issued. And it looks like the application will be approved, Neil Friedman, a partner at law firm Baker and Rannels who regularly practices trademark law, told FoxNews.com.

"At the end of the day, will they have protection in this space? Yes," Friedman said.

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

Bill Could Give Homeland Security Power Over Tech Giants

2010-11-23T19:02:00.000-05:00

Some members of Congress, concerned about shoddy cybersecurity at government and critical technology websites, are proposing that the Department of Homeland Security should have the power to force private networks to secure themselves more effectively.

But several cybersecurity experts say a broadly worded bill that has been referred to the House Committee on Homeland Security could impact many ordinary tech firms that merely play a role in infrastructure. If the bill becomes law, even firms like Apple, Microsoft and Google could come under DHS's thumb, says Michael Gregg, chief operating officer of the cybersecurity firm Superior Solutions.

"They are stepping forward to regulate a potentially huge amount of the Internet," Gregg told FoxNews.com. "It's up to DHS to decide who they want to fall under this umbrella. I have little doubt that large tech companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Cisco could all find themselves being heavily regulated."

Representatives from those firms declined to comment on the pending regulations. But given DHS' record on security, Gregg said they should have reservations about granting the agency such sweeping oversight.

"Just consider the recent DHS / TSA body-scanner fiasco," he said. "The thought of DHS in charge of cybersecurity will strike fear in most U.S. tech companies."

Read more at FoxNews.com.

Global Warming Debate Ignites LSU Classroom

2010-11-18T19:04:00.000-05:00

Was a college professor "provoking discussion" -- or criticizing students who don't endorse global warming?

CampusReform.org, a student group launched by the conservative Leadership Institute in Arlington, Va., has circulated a video online of a professor telling students who don't believe in taking steps to end global warming that "blood will be on your hands."

But the video shows fewer than two minutes of excerpts from the lecture at Louisiana State University. And astronomy professor Bradley Schaefer says he is being wrongly targeted by the conservative activists who released the excerpts of his 40-minute lecture on climate change.

"What I was doing was very intentional. I was posing all sides of how to handle global warming, and I was challenging all sides of it, too," Schaefer told The Associated Press. He argued the clips misrepresent his point, which was to provoke discussion about climate change policy. Schaefer said that he gave equal criticism to students with other points of view.

Read more at FoxNews.com.

Is E-Mail Dead?

2010-11-16T19:18:00.001-05:00

They said it wouldn't last -- e-mail, that is.

Crippled by a ceaseless deluge of spam and infected with computer viruses and malware, e-mail became the symbol of all that was wrong with technology. Then came texting and smartphones and teens with lightning-fast thumbs . . . and the attention spans of gnats. Analysts said that e-mail was dead. And the young generation agrees.

"It's too formal," declared Facebook-founder Mark Zuckerberg, announcing his company's new messaging service yesterday in San Francisco. E-mail "adds a lot friction and cognitive load" to communications, he thinks, which is why Facebook's new "Gmail killer" may help wean folks off e-mail, he argued. Methinks he doth protest too much.

In spite of the obits, e-mail is here to stay, and the major announcements this week from AOL and Facebook prove it. Indeed, e-mail may be making a comeback, even as leaders of the Facebook generation denounce it as old-fashioned.

E-MAIL WAR: Facebook Launches 'Gmail Killer' -- AOL Jumps In, Too

2010-11-15T19:06:00.000-05:00

Facebook has launched a full-frontal assault on the popular Gmail service. And Google better beware -- the e-mail wars are here.

At a Monday event at company headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., social-networking giant Facebook unveiled a messaging service to compete directly against Google's Gmail product -- a service allegedly referred to inside Facebook as a "Gmail killer."

But it's not what you might think, said company chief Mark Zuckerberg.

"We don't think a modern messaging service is going to be e-mail," Zuckerberg said, explaining that his company's new service is modeled more after chat than after a straight e-mail client. One of the e-mail's key flaws, after all, is that it's not real time. And messaging needs to be immediate, he said.

"I'm not saying you need to send an e-mail and it shows up at the speed of light," Zuckerberg clarified, but the speed of instant messaging or text messages on cell phones is dramatically different from e-mails

"We can do better," Zuckerberg said.

Read more at FoxNews.com.

Blogger Believes Webcam Image Solves 'Missile' Mystery

2010-11-10T19:09:00.000-05:00

A blogger reckons he may have solved the mystery over the vapor trail spotted off the southern coast of California on Monday.

On his blog "Time to Think," Liem Bahneman on Wednesday pinpointed America West Flight 808 as the likely cause -- backing up an explanation offered by a senior military official to Fox News Channel that the contrail caught on video by a news helicopter “was more likely caused by an airplane than anything else."

Bahneman wonders if he is the first to call it: "I did a lot of extrapolation of what flights could be at the right position (off the coast) at the right altitude (for contrail formation) and came down to two possibilities: UPS Flight 902 (UPS902) or America West Flight 808 (AWE808)."

He concluded: "As I was researching tonight (24 hours later), I realized that today's (Tuesday's) AWE808 current position (at around 4:50 p.m.) was almost the same as it was the day of the incident. I quickly pulled up a Newport Beach webcam and found that (apparently) AWE808 was making an identical contrail, 24 hours later!"

Read more at FoxNews.com.

TV Is About to Get Confusing

2010-11-09T19:21:00.000-05:00

Nearly everyone thinks a revolution is coming to home televisions. The problem is, no one seems to agree what that revolution will look like.

This week another new device, the $200 Boxee Box by D-Link, throws its technology into the ring, which is pretty darn crowded already. There's Logitech's Google TV Revue box, Apple TV, Roku, Netgear, Monsoon Multimedia's Vulkano, and TiVo -- not to mention a slew of new TVs and Blu-ray players offering many of the same services.

They're all trying to tap into the ever-expanding array of entertainment on the Web. From Facebook and Twitter to Netflix, YouTube and Pandora, these companies want to bring it all to the living room screen. Throw in video calling as well. Why not?

The problem is that unlike DVRs and cable TV, the benefits and advantages of these devices are anything but clear -- and each box has different features and capabilities. Some will let you record shows like a DVR (TiVo), others won't (Google and Apple). Some search the Internet for videos and shows (Google), others don't (TiVo). Some offer plenty of free entertainment (Boxee), others are basically a storefront that makes you pay for nearly every moment of video (Apple TV).

For shoppers and TV viewers, the whole business is about as clear as Nutella. Which of these boxes is going to deliver what you want? Initially, the answer is, none of the above

Windows Phone 7 Hits Store Shelves

2010-11-08T19:11:00.000-05:00

Looking for a new smartphone? Your choice just got a substantially more complicated.

Monday, the first phones powered by the new Windows Phone 7 operating system hit store shelves. The new OS, the latest version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile software is effectively a fresh slate for the company -- a completely new operating system for smartphones.

Experts were cautious about how quickly consumers will adopt the new platform, but in general agreed that Windows Phone is an elegant offering.

"Windows Phone 7 is targeted as a consumer rather than a business OS," explained Sascha Segan, lead analyst of the smartphone team for PCMag.com. "It has great entertainment and gaming experiences, and it's highly controlled and curated."

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for market-research firm NPD Data, was more reserved, but believes that the new operating system is a big leap over old versions of Microsoft's mobile platform.
"Microsoft has addressed nearly all the ills of the old Windows Mobile," Rubin told FoxNews.com.

Read more at FoxNews.com.

Facebook Unveils Mobile Platform -- But No Facebook Phone

2010-11-03T12:44:00.001-04:00

Facebook has a problem: How to get its 500 million users moving?

The popular social network has about a half billion users, yet Facebook doesn't have a single, unified version of its mobile site -- yet. That all changed Wednesday at a special event at Facebook headquarters, where company head Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new mobile platform.

But no Facebook phone.

"There's been a rumor floating around that Facebook was going to build a phone," Zuckerberg joked. "No," he said simply. But the company did need a way to simplify development for the 200 million people who use its social network on various mobile devices.

"The only platform bigger than this is the mobile web itself," Zuckerberg told attendees at the event. So he unveiled a new mobile platform including a unified, single sign-on feature, and new tools that the company claims will encourage developers to build better apps.

But sadly, no Facebook phone.

Read the full story at FoxNews.com

Got Voter Fraud? Yeah, There's an App For That

2010-11-02T12:39:00.000-04:00

Worried that you've been a victim of voter fraud? Sadly, there's an app for that.

Concerned by growing reports of voter fraud before the elections, Austin James decided to do something. James, the director of new media for American Majority Action, released Voter Fraud for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android platforms about a week ago. Since then, more than 8,000 people have downloaded the app -- and he's received 50 reports of election impropriety.

"We kind of did this on the fly, but it was an idea born of necessity," James told FoxNews.com.

The app, billed as the nation's first mobile application to help identify, report and track suspected incidents of voter fraud and intimidation, is a free tool that lets users report incidents they feel to be inappropriate -- campaigning, misinformation and more.

James said Voter Fraud doesn't automatically forward those reports to the appropriate elected official, though that would be ideal. Due to the time constraints, they couldn’t implement every feature he wanted to see. But staff at American Majority Action will forward them, he noted, regardless of where on the political spectrum the reports lean.

Read the full story at FoxNews.com.

Researchers Find the 'Liberal Gene'

2010-10-28T18:23:00.000-04:00

Don't hold liberals responsible for their opinions -- they can't help themselves.

A new study has concluded that ideology is not just a social thing; it's built into the DNA, borne along by a gene called DRD4. Tagged "the liberal gene," DRD4 is the first specific bit of human DNA that predisposes people to certain political views, the study's authors claim.

And the key to it all: Liberals are more open, said lead researcher James H. Fowler, a professor of both medical genetics and political science at the University of California, San Diego.

"The way openness is measured, it's really about receptivity to different lifestyles, for example, or different norms or customs," he told FoxNews.com. "We hypothesize that individuals with a genetic predisposition toward seeking out new experiences [a measure of openness] will tend to be more liberal" -- but only if they had a number of friends when growing up, Fowler cautioned.

This isn't a typical gene association study," he said. "There's a combination of genes and environment that matter."

Read the whole story at FoxNews.com.

The Race to the Red Planet

2010-10-27T18:32:00.001-04:00

A 50-million-mile target has been set, a straight spaceshot with a clear (though distant) goal. But who will make the first footprint on Mars?

Though both Russia and China have put men in space and say they hope someday to set foot on the moon, the United States remains the only country to do so. Yet Russia and China and some other countries have also publicly articulated a vision for manned space exploration that includes a more distant target: Mars.

Now reports of a new deep-space satellite suggest that China intends to launch toward Mars -- and as soon as 2013. It's too early to call it a race, says Henry Hertzfeld, research professor of space policy and international affairs in the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. But China's Martian orbiter may indicate a second destination for the country's space program.

"It's natural that if they are serious about space exploration (which, it is clear, they are), Mars is a challenge beyond the Moon. Just as it is for us," Hertzfeld told FoxNews.com in an e-mail.

For more, read the full story on FoxNews.com.

Free E-Books With a Catch -- Advertisements

2010-10-26T18:46:00.001-04:00

Barnes & Noble may be unveiling a new Nook e-book reader, but the real revolution is in the books themselves: Brace yourself, the ads are coming.

Apple Unleashes a Lion -- and the Heir to the Air

2010-10-20T18:34:00.000-04:00

With a new version of the Macintosh operating system called Lion, a superslim new MacBook Air, and updates to the iLife application suite, Apple CEO Steve Jobs hit the stage with a characteristic flourish at an October 20 event.

At a crowded event featuring appearances by executives Tim Cook (who claimed that momentum on the Mac "has never been greater") and Phil Schiller, Apple unveiled several new products for the holiday season -- including a preview of the next version of the Mac operating system, called Lion.

"What's the philosophy behind Mac OS X Lion? Well that's where the 'Back to the Mac' thing comes from," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. With it, the company plans to bring many of the features developed for the iPhone and iPad to the Macintosh operating system, features such as multitouch, an app store, and full screen function.

With one-click downloads, auto-updates and free as as paid apps, the Mac app store will be a key part of the new operating system. And a "launch pad" feature will make it easy to organize and launch apps in the new version of the operating system.

Multi-touch functionality is built into many new features -- notably Mission Control, a new view of the Mac desktop -- though support for the touch interface is limited to users with touch-sensitive trackpads or mice. Look for Lion in the summer of 2011, Jobs said.

Read all the details at FoxNews.com.

Buzz Aldrin Dreams of Mars

2010-10-19T18:37:00.000-04:00

Picture a sign post next to a remote building: Last gas for the next 50 million miles. A second sign sits beneath it, clarifying the location: Next stop, Mars.

Last week, President Obama signed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which charts the space agency's trajectory and will shape the nation’s science, aerospace and information technology development for decades to come. And the moon is not a key factor in the plan.

"I just have to say pretty bluntly -- we've been there before," Obama told reporters in April when critics first argued that the moon should not be sidelined. "There's a lot more space to explore and a lot more to learn when we do," he said.

You'll hear nothing but agreement from Buzz Aldrin -- the second man to step on the moon (but the first to leave, he jokes). Aldrin argues that while putting Americans back on the moon is misguided, our lunar sibling is still important for the next big project NASA will tackle: Mars.

"A unified space exploration policy is what is needed for the U.S.," Aldrin told FoxNews.com.

Read the full interview at FoxNews.com.

The Future Today: Robot Jetpacks in the Works

2010-10-17T10:22:00.002-04:00

Jetpacks are so last year. The real vehicles of the future are robotic jetpacks. And the future has arrived.

The Martin Aircraft Company, makers of the world's only commercial jetpack, has built an unmanned version of the device that can be launched from the back of a pickup truck, ferry supplies to troops, monitor a battlefield, and even scan a war zone for improvised explosive devices.

It sounds and looks like a far-future idea ripped from a 1950s comic book -- but it's very much a reality, company CEO Richard Lauder told FoxNews.com.

"With the potential to reach heights of up to 10,000 feet or more, and lift loads of up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) -- while taking off and landing vertically -- the potential applications for the unmanned version are large and varied," Lauder said in an interview with FoxNews.com.

Read all about it at FoxNews.com.

Top 10 Ways Parents Can Protect Kids From Cyberbullying

2010-10-10T10:22:00.001-04:00

Concerns about cyberbullying have moved back to the front burner amid the agony over a Rutgers University student's suicide after two fellow students were accused of secretly streaming video of him in a sexual encounter with a man over the Internet.

Cyberbullying is particularly scary for parents; it goes beyond simply keeping your kids off certain websites, and it requires a deeper understanding of what's appropriate -- and what to do when the line has been crossed.

Experts say there are some guidelines parents can follow to protect their children -- at least until they're old enough to make decisions for themselves. Here are the top 10 tips from cybersafety experts about how parents can help their kids avoid online bullies.

Learn how to keep your kids safe at FoxNews.com.

The 5 Meanest Sites on the Web for Kids

2010-10-09T10:25:00.000-04:00

There are places your kids shouldn't be hanging out in. Dark alleys. Street corners. Websites.

Teeming with viruses, Trojan horses and cyberworms, the Internet can be a dangerous place -- and that's just for adults. It's ever so much worse for kids, who -- thanks to their promiscuous sharing of information and a recklessness engendered by a false sense of anonymity -- don't take necessary precautions to keep cyberbullies at bay.

Experts say it's up to parents to protect their kids, starting by keeping them away from websites that abound with the worst of the Web: rampant insults, slurs, demeaning topics and ultimately cyberbullying.

FoxNews.com has a list of the bottom five sites experts say are the "dark alleys" of the Internet.