Ars Technica Feed
Researchers get plastic to act totally metal
Plastics became ubiquitous during the 20th century. They were hot topics of industrial and academic research, and saw innumerable consumer applications. While plastics can have a wide variety of mechanical properties, they are almost universally good insulators, both of heat and electricity. But a paper out of the Pappalardo Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratories reports on a novel processing technique that aligns the polymer chains of polyethylene, which results in a material that has both ...
Pushing the speed limits of quantum memory
It feels like quantum computers have barely been invented, and scientists are already testing how extensible the current technology is. A paper published in Nature Photonics this week describes how researchers are beginning to push the bandwidth limits of quantum memory. Using photon pulses and cesium vapor has provided bandwidths on par with broadband connections, rates 100 times those of other quantum memory systems currently being tested. However, the system's efficiency ...Donkey-politician vid keeps two Azerbaijani bloggers in jail
Two Azerbaijani bloggers will remain in jail after using a donkey to represent their government in a satirical YouTube video. Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli lost an appeal Wednesday asking for them to be released from their respective 2 and and 2.5 year sentences. Their lawyer vowed to continue appealing all the way up to the Azerbaijan's Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights if necessary. Hajizade and Milli had posted the video on YouTube in 2009, which made fun of Azerbaijan'...
LifeLock fined $12 million over lack of life-locking ability
Identity theft prevention service LifeLock is not as pristine as its reputation claims after all. The company agreed to pay out $12 million to settle charges with the Federal Trade Commission and 35 states, which had said that LifeLock's identity-theft-prevention claims were false and that the company actually made its own customer data available and unsecured from theft. As it turns out, there is no way to fully guarantee that identity theft won't happen, no matter what so...Cellcos hoping to cash in on iPad with 3G/4G mobile hotspots
Though the 3G-equipped version of the iPad will only be able to get data services from AT&T, Verizon apparently sees the introduction of Apple's tablet device as "an opportunity" for the company to sell data services. A supposed internal sales memo published by Engadget reveals Verizon's plan to push its MiFi mobile hotspot for the WiFi-only version of the iPad, which will be available April 3. The memo points out that the WiFi + 3G iPad won't go on sale for at least a few weeks after the Wi...
Free wireless broadband plan is déjà vu all over again
As part of the grand hoopla-fest building up to the release of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan this month, the agency hosted a Digital Inclusion Summit at Washington, DC's Newseum on Tuesday. Co-sponsored with the Knight Foundation, during the course of the event the FCC disclosed more components of The Plan. These include recommending the creation of a Digital Literacy Corps "to conduct skills training and outreach in communities with low rate...Street Fighter IV: as good as you can expect on the iPhone
Street Fighter IV is now available on Apple's App Store; you can pick it up right now for $10 if you'd like to see what Capcom can do with Apple's hardware. Capcom also threw quite the party at GDC, allowing the press and community some hands-on time with the game. After playing for about 15 minutes, the verdict is in: this is about as good as you can expect from a fighting game on the iPhone.
It looks great, but you'll still be fighting the controls
As a tec...Nanotubes help create thermopower waves
A paper published in Nature Materials this week details a new method for using nanotubes to generate significant amounts of power, at least for their size. When multi-walled carbon nanotubes are covered with a material that produces an exothermic reaction, the nanotubes help conduct the heat in one focused direction. To the apparent surprise of the researchers, this created an electrical pulse, a quick surge of power, that could be put to a number of uses.
When you couple...Getting chopped: why True Crime loves bladed weapons
Jeff O'Connell is the lead producer of the new True Crime game, and he's showing off the game's hand-to-hand fighting. The part of the game we saw was low on gunplay, but it looked great, with some cinematic-looking moves and kills. The game takes place in Hong Kong, and we're told the art team took 27,000 reference photos of the city. They wanted a bright, saturated look that showed the difference between night and day; a stark contrast in the city. There were very few guns, and a good amou...
Google Apps becomes a platform, gets its own app store
At the Campfire One event last night, Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace and demonstrated how external Web applications from other vendors can be integrated into Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and other services that are part of the search giant's Web-based productivity suite.
In the quest for data liberation, Google's hosted Web services have long offered a wide range of APIs for third-party developers. With the launch of the new marketplace, however, Google ...