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Bookstore owner Barnes & Noble Inc (BKS.N) on Thursday said it is considering splitting off its Nook electronic reader business, which has been the main growth engine for the company.

Electronics retailer Best Buy is headed for the exits. I can’t say when exactly, but my guess is that it’s only a matter of time, maybe a few more years. Consider a few key metrics. Despite the disappearance of competitors including Circuit City, the company is losing market share. Its last earnings announcement disappointed investors. In 2011, the company’s stock has lost 40% of its value. It’s forward P/E is a mere 6.23 (industry average is 10.20). Its market cap down to less than $9 billion. Its average analyst rating, according to The Street.com, is a B-. Those are just...

LAST year, Christmas was the biggest single day for e-book sales by HarperCollins. And indications are that this year’s Christmas Day total will be even higher, given the extremely strong sales of e-readers like the Kindle and the Nook. Amazon announced on Dec. 15 that it had sold one million of its Kindles in each of the three previous weeks. But we can also guess that the number of visitors to the e-book sections of public libraries’ Web sites is about to set a record, too. And that is a source of great worry for publishers. In their eyes, borrowing...

Boeing military products may contain counterfeit Chinese parts Allegations of counterfeit Chinese parts being used in U.S. military aircraft are surprising to Frank Houston, senior vice president at Esterline Technologies Corp. in Bellevue, a key supplier of The Boeing Co.’s electronics systems. Some of these parts allegedly were installed on Boeing (NYSE: BA) aircraft. The accusations of counterfeit Chinese parts being used in U.S. defense equipment were raised during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee Nov. 8, and were widely distributed in the press. According to a story about the hearing in Bloomberg, non-approved Chinese parts have been...

Years ago, I remember hearing that there was a minute quantity of gold in certain television tuners or channel selectors ...

Taking another step towards creating devices that could be meshed with brain function to help those with brain damage, or perhaps one day, to improve on abilities, researchers at Tel Aviv University, led by Professor of Psychobiology Matti Mintz, have developed an adjunct to a part of a rat brain. The team, who will be presenting their results this month at a biotechnology meeting in the UK, has created a computer chip that is able to emulate one of the functions of the rat cerebellum. The cerebellum is the small odd looking part of the brain that looks like a...

Legacy Electronics, a high-tech contract manufacturer, has opened its new 40,000-square-foot headquarters in Canton, S.D., closing its San Clemente facility. Engle earlier explained the move: “California, unfortunately has become … a more difficult place to do business, a more costly place to do business, especially for manufacturers.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and one of the largest manufacturers of computer memory, Samsung, have created a new kind of flash memory that uses graphene—atom-thick sheets of pure carbon—along with silicon to store information. Incorporating graphene could help extend the viability of flash memory technology for years to come, and allow future portable electronics to store far more data. Chipmakers pack increasing amounts of data in the same physical area by miniaturizing the memory cells used to store individual bits. Inside today's flash drives, these cells are nanoscale "floating gate" transistors. Recent years have seen the...

A hair-thin electronic patch that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo could transform medical sensing, computer gaming and even spy operations, according to a US study published Thursday.

Police cars have been set on fire during a demonstration outside a police station in north London, according to witnesses. Tottenham resident, Maria Robinson, says the disturbance is linked to the fatal shooting of a man during a Scotland Yard operation on Thursday. Dozens of protesters have been gathering on the High Road in Tottenham.

A violation of one of the oldest empirical laws of physics has been observed by scientists at the University of Bristol. Their experiments on purple bronze, a metal with unique one-dimensional electronic properties, indicate that it breaks the Wiedemann-Franz Law. This historic discovery is described in a paper published today in Nature Communications. In 1853, two German physicists, Gustav Wiedemann and Rudolf Franz, studied the thermal conductivity (a measure of a system’s ability to transfer heat) of a number of elemental metals and found that the ratio of the thermal to electrical conductivities was approximately the same for different metals...

Korean researchers working out of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology report in a paper published in Nature Materials, that they've been able to create a non-volatile Resistance RAM (ReRam) chip capable of withstanding a trillion read/write cycles, all with a switching time of just 10ns (about a million times faster than current flash chips), paving the way for a possible upgrade to flash memory cards. ReRam chips are non-volatile, meaning they can retain stored information in the absence of power and are currently made using a Ta2O5 (tantalum) film, the new chips developed by the Samsung team uses Ta2O5-x/TaO2-x...

A few years ago, Russ Apfel was looking for something to do. The semiconductor industry veteran had sold his chip design startup to Silicon Laboratories Inc. in 2005, then he worked for the company before retiring in 2008. Eventually, he started looking at the hearing aid industry. It made sense, because the devices' digital signal processor chips are firmly in Apfel's area of expertise. Apfel was surprised to learn that hearing aids can cost several thousand dollars. "I was appalled," Apfel said. "I couldn't believe how expensive they were." Part of the reason, he said, is that audiologist visits and...

A University of Pittsburgh-led team has created a single-electron transistor that provides a building block for new, more powerful computer memories, advanced electronic materials, and the basic components of quantum computers. The researchers report in Nature Nanotechnology that the transistor's central component -- an island only 1.5 nanometers in diameter -- operates with the addition of only one or two electrons. That capability would make the transistor important to a range of computational applications, from ultradense memories to quantum processors, powerful devices that promise to solve problems so complex that all of the world's computers working together for billions of...

Well, it's not enough that I have to put up with ongoing computer problems, now my radio is messed up. Several years ago I purchased a Sangean portable battery-operated radio from The Short Wave Store. It's one of those radios where the batteries are the primary power source (the AC adapter had to be purchased separately and is very large, heavy, and unwieldy). Unfortunately, for whatever reason, batteries no longer work in it. Now let's be absolutely clear about this: it's not the batteries themselves. Not only are they only three months old (and they're Energizer lithiums at that), but...

An anonymous email making the cyberspace rounds is so upsetting that its author was correct to hide his name. The “Changes Are Coming” email details the demise of our post office, our newspapers, check writing systems, books and music as we know them along with the end of Cable TV and network systems as now constituted. But the harshest caveat bearing down on America is our demise due to deindustrialization. The email reports that “Tens of thousands of factories have left the U.S. in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost. . .the U.S....

BEIJING (AP) -- China said it is reducing the amount of rare earths it will export for the first half of the year by more than 10 percent -- likely to be an unpopular move worldwide since the minerals are vital to the manufacture of high-tech products.

The lightning rod for rapid fielding of directed energy (DE) weapons and advanced sensors will be the military’s next-generation jammer programs that exploit technologies like active electronically scanned arrays (AESAs) antennas and high-power microwave (HPM) capabilities, say senior U.S. government and industry officials at the 13th Directed Energy Conference. Radars on the Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-35, and Boeing F/A-18F and EA-18G, already have the potential to fire focused beams of energy as soon as funding is available to develop the necessary advanced algorithms. The U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Jammer program is expected to move AESA from radar applications to...

Iran has been able to smuggle advanced technological equipment to its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz via a complex smuggling route based in Dubai, the Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday. According to the report, an Iranian company has purchased control systems from one of Germany's leading electronic manufacturers. The deal was negotiated with a Dubai trading company, which in turn sold Iran a range of electronic equipment for use at its enrichment facility, the British website reported. The report comes amid growing concerns that though Iran claims its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, Tehran is in fact working toward...

SAN FRANCISCO — When one of the most important e-mail messages of his life landed in his in-box a few years ago, Kord Campbell overlooked it. Not just for a day or two, but 12 days. He finally saw it while sifting through old messages: a big company wanted to buy his Internet start-up. “I stood up from my desk and said, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,’ � Mr. Campbell said. “It’s kind of hard to miss an e-mail like that, but I did.� The message had slipped by him amid an electronic flood: two computer screens...

Iran is finishing up eight days of naval exercises. This is actually a publicity event, largely for domestic and foreign media. Among the highlights were a domestically made torpedo (which no one was allowed a close look at, to insure that it was new, and not an older American or Chinese model with a new paint job) and ten new helicopter gunships for the navy. These were actually U.S. made AH-1s, which Iran had bought in the 1970s. Photographers were allowed a close look, and the only thing new about these helicopters was the paint and Chinese electronics installed in...

As of April 2, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) had identified 998,422 current and former members whose personal information was included in the theft of 57 hard drives in October 2009 at the payor’s Eastgate location. As of the last update in January, BCBST estimated 500,000 patients' data had been breached. According to an update from BCBST, 550,873 notifications have been sent to members indicating that their personal information was included on the stolen hard drives. The total number of members includes an additional 447,549 current and former members recently identified in the Tier 1 category, meaning members’ names, addresses,...

When it comes to computer technology, thin is always in. It’s indisputable that the thinner, lighter, clearer, the better when dealing with the latest computer gadget. This keyboard is the epitome of the high standards expected of the technological version of the fashion industry. It’s based on image as well, that is, image recognition technology.

Sears says it will begin selling Samsung 3-D HDTVs next month, which will make it one of the first retailers to sell the new 3-D sets. Sears says two Samsung sets will begin shipping next month: a 46-inch, 3-D LED HDTV priced at $2,599 and a 55-inch LED HDTV priced at $3,299. They will be available at Sears stores in March. "The anticipation for the 3-D experience at home has been mounting, and we're giving our shoppers a competitive edge by being one of the first retailers to offer these products," stated Karen Austin, president, Home Electronics, Sears Holdings. Sears...

Note: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: SEVEN CHARGED FOR ILLEGAL EXPORT OF ELECTRONICS TO U.S. DESIGNATED TERRORIST ENTITY IN PARAGUAY February 19, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jeffrey H. Sloman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Investigations, John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, Harold Woodward, Director of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Michael Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, Department of Commerce (DOC), Adam J. Szubin, Director, Department of the...

Air Force Research Laboratory-funded researchers at the University of Michigan invented a new type of magnetron that may be used in defeating enemy electronics. A vital component of military radar systems since World War II, a magnetron is a kind of vacuum tube that serves as the frequency source in microwave ovens, radar systems, and other high-power microwave circuits. The newly devised technology--which is more compact, exhibits faster start-up, and demonstrates higher peak and average power than current devices--should enable higher-power, higher-frequency operation and, thus, improved potential for jamming and defeat of adversarial systems. While basic magnetron design has changed...

THE CASE FOR SPACE-BASED DEFENSE The growing interest in nuclear technology by countries such as Iran presages the possibility that one or more nations may attempt to harness such a capability in the form of an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) attack against the United States, a prominent political scientist has warned. Such a scenario, writes Brian Kennedy of the Claremont Institute in the November 24th edition of the Wall Street Journal, is not far-fetched. "It would require the Iranians to be able to produce a warhead as sophisticated as we expect the Russians or the Chinese to possess. But that is...

Sir Ambrose Fleming: Father of Modern Electronics --snip-- Sir John Ambrose Fleming was a leader in the electronics revolution that changed the world. As a professor at a major university, he carefully researched the evidence for Darwinism, concluding that the theory is not supported by science. He also influenced hundreds of students to evaluate the evidence in science for Darwinism. An outstanding scientist and creationist, he played a significant role in the development and maturation of the early creation movement. As Travers and Muhr wrote, he "had an unusually long and active life," and his life changed the world as...

Big screen plasma televisions are to be banned in California because they use too much energy. In a world first, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has given his backing to the crackdown on sets more than 40 inches wide. These liquid crystal display and plasma high definition sets can use as much as three times the power of smaller cathode ray models. Experts say the ban will reduce the state's rocketing electricity bill by £5billion over the next decade. This is the equivalent of about £20 a set per year. Environmentalists have applauded the move by the California Energy Commission, but manufacturers...

Reporting from Sacramento - The influential lobby group Consumer Electronics Assn. is fighting what appears to be a losing battle to dissuade California regulators from passing the nation's first ban on energy-hungry big-screen televisions.

California considering banning giant TVs Electricity-guzzling giant-screen televisions are on the verge of being banned in California in an attempt to cut the state's soaring energy bill. By Tom Leonard in New York Published: 8:38PM BST 16 Oct 2009 Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's governor, has supported controversial proposals by the California's energy commission to impose strict energy consumption limits on TVs with screens that are more than 40 inches wide. The commission claims that California's estimated 35 million televisions and related gadgets account for about 10 per cent of household energy consumption in the state. Experts say that the large...

Reporting from Sacramento - The influential lobby group Consumer Electronics Assn. is fighting what appears to be a losing battle to dissuade California regulators from passing the nation's first ban on energy-hungry big-screen televisions. On Tuesday, executives and consultants for the Arlington, Va., trade group asked members of the California Energy Commission to instead let consumers use their wallets to decide whether they want to buy the most energy-saving new models of liquid-crystal display and plasma high-definition TVs.

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Investigators in Germany have arrested a 24-year-old man on terror-related charges. Authorities arrested the man "on suspicion of spreading al Qaeda propaganda online and for procuring materials which could be used to make a bomb," prosecutors said Friday in a written statement. Searches of a flat in Offenbach, Germany, and a business in Frankfurt, Germany, turned up a small amount of an "explosive substance" and a home-made electronic device. An initial assessment suggests that the items "could be used to ignite explosives," prosecutors said. The man holds dual German-Turkish citizenship, they said. The statement from prosecutors...

With two laptop-loving children and a Jack Russell terrier hemmed in by an electric fence, Peter Troast figured his household used a lot of power. Just how much did not really hit him until the night the family turned off the overhead lights at their home in Maine and began hunting gadgets that glowed in the dark. “It was amazing to see all these lights blinking,” Mr. Troast said. As goes the Troast household, so goes the planet. Electricity use from power-hungry gadgets is rising fast all over the world. The fancy new flat-panel televisions everyone has been buying in...

Reporting from Sacramento - Concerned that the growing popularity of big-screen televisions could make it harder for California to keep pace with electricity demand, state energy regulators are poised to crack down on energy-guzzling sets despite opposition from a powerful electronics trade group. The first-in-the-nation TV efficiency standards would require electronics retailers to sell only energy-sipping models starting in 2011. Even tougher efficiency criteria would follow in 2013. The California Energy Commission is slated to unveil the new standards today, followed by a 45-day public comment period. The commission is expected to approve the measure in early November. The rules,...

BERLIN--We're here at IFA at the Sony press conference, where Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer reckons the "3D train is on the track--and we're the ones to drive it home." 3D is Sony's big push, but we're more interested in the announcement of a movie-download service for PS3 and PSP, via the PlayStation Network. Sony has announced its first 3D-compatible Bravia LCD TV, to arrive in 2010. It promises a high frame rate and 1,920x1,080 pixels per eye to give what Sony describes as "high-definition, high-quality 3D images." 3D-enabled Blu-ray players are set to follow and even the PS3 will...

An $11,000, high-definition audio/video teleconferencing system. A $4,300, 58-inch plasma screen TV for "talking head viewing." A $3,400 interactive tablet. The high-tech amenities of a multinational corporation? No. It's the warden's conference room at Minnesota's juvenile prison in Red Wing. Work was recently completed on a remodeling of the conference room that included $60,000 in new electronics, funded by what the Department of Corrections said was "end of year savings due to responsible management of the budget." Coming at a time of major state budget cuts and layoffs in other state departments, the Red Wing project has drawn criticism from...

We're kicking off our series exploring memorable gadgets from memorable people with one of the most influential tech giants: Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. – JCOK...meaningful...here goes...For that definition, it was probably an electronics learning kit I got for Christmas at about age 8 or 9. As I recall, it didn't teach electronics formulas or resistor codes, but was full of projects to hook up input devices like switches and output devices like buzzers and lights. It was like learning how to connect all the devices to your hi-fi, or connecting all your peripherals to a computer. It also...

American chemists have developed an 'electronic glue' to link nanocrystals together - allowing groups of the crystals to be highly conductive. Since nanocrystals have unique optical and electrical properties, this research could provide some exciting new materials for use in light-emitting devices or solar cells.Nanocrystals are crystalline nanoparticles of metals ranging from cadmium to silicon, and can be grown with precisely controlled size and shape. But despite their exciting range of optical properties, they have found few applications so far. 'The problem is getting the crystals to 'talk' to one another,' says Maksym Kovalenko, lead author on the project at the...

SECAUCUS, NJ -- 05/07/09 -- Panasonic, a leader in High Definition technology, announced today that the critically-acclaimed, 103-inch Plasma Full High Definition 1080p Display -- the world's largest Plasma commercially available -- will now be priced at $50,000. When it debuted in December 2006, the made-to-order HD Display was priced at $69,999.95. With widespread acclaim for its size and picture quality, Panasonic's 103-inch Plasma has become the industry's leading high-impact, large-format display for a wide range of commercial and home theater applications -- from digital signage and entertainment, to high-end home theater, command and control and higher education. Since its...

The state energy commission denies it wants to ban any kind of television sets. They claim that they just want to limit the market only to those models that provide better energy efficiency in order to save costs and cut down on emissions. The Orange County Register notes that the annual savings in energy costs between comparable plasma and LCD models amounts to a grand total of $30 per year.

US Marine arrested at Logan April 19, 2009 05:42 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – + John C. Drake, Globe Staff A US Marine was arrested today at Logan International Airport after federal airport screeners discovered a gun, bomb-making materials, and ammunition in his checked baggage, State Police and Transportation Security Administration officials said. .

FORT WORTH, TX-Q-Edge has selected Hillwood's Alliance Global Logistics Hub as the site for its newest strategic assembly and distribution center. The company will lease 365,440 square feet in the 423,992-square-foot Alliance Gateway 2 building. Fort Worth City Council is meeting this morning to hear details about a proposed incentive package connected with Q-Edge's expansion in the building at 5650 Alliance Gateway Freeway. An update will follow, but according to a press release from the Forth Worth Chamber of Commerce and Hillwood, Q-Edge's assembly and distribution center will create 500 jobs for the region, while providing a $700 million economic...

Flexible display screens and cheap solar cells can become a reality through research and development in organic electronics. Physicists at Umeå University in northern Sweden have developed a simple method for producing cheap electronic components, writes Cellular-News.

Hoping to scoop up some last-minute deals from the soon-to-be-defunct retailer? Better hurry up, because Circuit City's final weekend is nigh. Just remember: buyer beware. The liquidators behind the massive Circuit City fire sale have announced that the remaining 567 stores will close for good on Sunday, March 8, at the end of the business day. So far, liquidators have sold off more than $1 billion in Circuit City's remaining inventory, according to CrunchGear, with "deeper discounts" expected through the final days. Those who've gone to take a long, last look at the remaining, tattered Circuit City stores have reported...

In a move many would call in-saane, a Brooklyn businessman is reviving one of the most scandalous names in retail history - Crazy Eddie. Jack Gemal has purchased the trademark of the 1970s and '80s electronics chain and plans to open 50 stores in the tristate area in the next two years. As well as their rock-bottom prices, the original Crazy Eddie stores were known for their wacky radio and TV commercials featuring a frenzied, bug-eyed Jerry Carroll - driving New Yorkers nuts until the firm went bankrupt in 1989. "Any New Yorker over 35 knows the line, 'Crazy Eddie...

Multimedia   Zhong Lin Wang describes his work to power the nanoworld. Nanoscale sensors are exquisitely sensitive, very frugal with power, and, of course, tiny. They could be useful in detecting molecular signs of disease in the blood, minute amounts of poisonous gases in the air, and trace contaminants in food. But the batteries and integrated circuits necessary to drive these devices make them difficult to fully miniaturize. The goal of Zhong Lin Wang, a materials scientist at Georgia Tech, is to bring power to the nano world with minuscule generators that take advantage of piezoelectricity. If he succeeds,...

Japan's exports plunged 45.7% in January compared with a year ago to hit the lowest figure in 10 years, official figures have shown. Imports exceeded exports by 952.6bn yen ($9.9bn; £6.8bn). It is the largest gap since records began in 1980. Demand for Japanese cars in particular dropped by 69%. Trade in electronics and other goods has also slumped as global economies and consumer spending contract, pushing Japan deeper into recession. "Japan is particularly vulnerable to this downturn because trade is so central to the economy," World Trade Organization head Pascal Lamy told reporters on a visit to Tokyo. Serious...

Washington, D.C. (February 8, 2009) -- Pioneer, the maker of high-end Plasma High-Definition TVs, told Reuters last week that it's considering leaving the TV business entirely. The company is projecting a loss of $848 million for the year ending March 31, which would be its fifth consecutive annual loss "There is a whole spectrum of possibilities with withdrawal on one end, in-house development and production on the other and sales of procured TVs somewhere in the middle," a Pioneer spokesman told the news service. Several other news reports, however, say Pioneer has decided to exit the TV business and bundle...