If you're in the study of voice-activated features or curious why people generally find women voices more pleasing than men's then I suggest you read this article at cnn.com. Research on computerized voices suggests that female preference starts as early as the womb and the practice goes back to World War II, when women voices were employed in airplane cockpits. On the other hand, exceptions do exist! BMW was forced to recall a female-voiced navigation system on its 5 Series cars in the late 1990s after being flooded with calls from German men saying they refused to take directions from a woman. For instance Apple's Siri, the iPhone 4S's voice, grew from a five-year research project that was funded by military agency DARPA and led by SRI International, a Bay Area research institute. Read the full news item here: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-computer-voices/
October 20, 2011 OCZ Technology Group Inc., a leader in design, manufacturing, and distribution of high performance Solid-State Drives (SSDs) launched a pair of new SSDs achieving the world's highest capacity SSD you can get in a 2.5-inch form factor. The new drives are part of the Octane family and include the Octane 6Gbps and the Octane-S2 using a 3Gbps interface. According to OCZ the Octane SSD series combines high-speed data transfer rates with record-breaking access times and consider this achievement as an important milestone in the development of its own controller technology. Read more here: http://www.ocztechnology.com/aboutocz/press/2011/458
A wearable system called OmniTouch turns an ordinary surface like a table or the wall in front of you into an interactive multi-touch input device. Researchers Hrvoje Benko and Andrew Wilson from Microsoft, and Chris Harrison from Carnegie Mellon University came up with the prototype that combines a projector which projects the touchscreen onto a close by surface or body part, and a camera which tracks finger movements. The shoulder-worn system may be an alternate approach to mobile interaction leveraging everyday surfaces with no calibration required. Read more about OmniTouch here: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=155040
TapSense is a project that enhances touchscreen technology by allowing surfaces to identify the type of object being used for input. Researchers Chris Harrison, Julia Schwarz and Scott E. Hudson, at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute and Heinz College Center for the Future of Work, Carnegie Mellon University have found a means that can identify different parts of the anatomy of a human finger including the tip, pad, nail and knuckle. It utilizes sounds resulting from a finger's impact. That's not all; the same prototype can also sense different tools including foam, multiple pens types, and brushes. The system could sense who was using which pen, allowing for collaborative drawing. Read more about TapSense here: http://chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/TapSense.
With ARM announcing its 64-bit ARM architecture for servers and HP launching its 32-bit ARM-based server range, the feat towards a greener IT will take a big leap. The HP Redstone Server Development Platform is the first in a line of HP server development platforms that feature extreme low-energy server processors. Initially incorporating Calxeda EnergyCore ARM Cortex™ processors, but future Redstone versions will include Intel Atom-based processors as well as others. HP Redstone is designed for testing and proof of concept. HP is working with Linux vendors to provide the necessary software support for its server range. For more information go here: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2011/MoonshotInfrastructure/index.html