Geekly Update March 16

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Johns Hopkins physicist William Edelstein told the American Physical Society conference in Washington, D.C. that traveling at warp speed would actually kill you. He said that as faster speeds were reached, the radiation would increase to the point of destruction of both the ship's instrumentation and its passengers. In related news, Bill Gates released a statement that "640K ought to be enough for anybody."

Researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have come up with a cell phone that can read lips. This device is able to convert silent mouth movements into speech by using electromyography.

Microsoft has re-released the MS10-015 patch, after user reports that it was causing restarts and the Blue Screen of Death. It turns out that the MS patch was not at fault. Only systems that had the Alureon rootkit (rogue software) experienced the problem. The updated patch will scan for this and other anomalies, and take alternative action if found.

Designer Vivienne Tam and HP have collaborated to create the Mini 210 "digital clutch" that managed to make it to the catwalk during NY's Fashion Week. The 1/2-inch thick limited edition netbook is priced at $599.00 with a "Butterfly Lovers" theme. A matching wireless mouse is also available for $39.99.

Intel's new Classmate PC, part of their Learning Series, is designed to be tough, energy efficient and simple to use with touchscreen. The clamshell PC has an Intel Atom processor, 10.1" screen WiFi and an eReader. No price has been released.

Barnes & Noble has a free eReader app for the iPad. Due out around the same time as the Apple device, it will have access to over a million books, magazines and newspapers, including those that were already downloaded to their Nook.

OnLive will be launching its "cloud-based" gaming service this June. The on-demand service, that costs $14.95 monthly, works with any PC, Mac or TV with a broadband connection. If you are one of the first 25,000 to pre-register, you get 3 months free.

ASiQ Limited has developed the first Bluetooth access point for commercial airlines. The SafeCell costs about $10,000 per aircraft which airlines will certainly recoup when charging passengers for SMS, MMS, voice messaging and email services.

PQ Labs debuted its multi-touch iTable at last week's CeBIT in Germany. The computer/furniture has a 42" HD LED display, a 1.5" tabletop thickness and can recognize up to 32 fingers (or objects) at the same time. Imagine what might happen if the cat jumped on this thing...

At this week's Game Developers Conference, Sony announced that the Move, when paired with their Eye, should give the Wii some competition. The motion controller, at a price of about $100.00, can be used as a golf club, pointer or sword.