Rome-based Alenia Aeronautica is aiming "to fly its new Sky-X unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) technology demonstrator by the end of May," according to C4ISR Journal. "The 7-meter-long demonstrator - which has a wingspan of 6 meters, takeoff weight of 1,100 kilograms and maximum speed of 800 kilometers per hour - will undergo flight trials at Sweden's Vidsel military test range."

The $43 million + drone is a technology demonstrator, mostly -- a test-bed to see how many decisions the plane can make on its own in midair. Defense Tech

Live Digitally sent a member of their web team to the San Francisco Apple store to cover the Tiger launch.

"The San Francisco Apple retail store closed its doors promptly at 5pm allowing employees one hour to prepare the venue for a 6:00pm arrival of Tiger. I showed my face in downtown San Francisco at 5:00pm to find a line of approximately 100 Mac fans patiently awaiting their entrance go-ahead.

The first person in line had smiles all the way, with "only one more short hour to go" written on his face. After a small chat with him I found out that he only used Macintosh computers (G4 at home and G5 for work), and arrived at 4:00pm to get his hands on the black box where X marked the spot."

You can read more of his experience and see exclusive pictures here .

TiVoing your life - Live Digitally
Getting Sirius About The Sportster - Live Digitally

Boynq Designer-Style USB Gadgets - Everything USB

HP has unveiled a line of 10 newly branded HP Pavilion TVs, including four HD microdisplay rear-projection televisions, three HD plasmas and three HD LCDs. - Designtechnica

AeroCool AeroBase UFO Flashing Gaming Pad

Apple sued over "Tiger," requested injunction could prevent launch - Apple Insider

Apple's new operating system Mac OS X. Tiger, touted my some folks as the world's most advanced operating system is available for purchase.

Here are a few of the new features that will change how you use your computer.

Matsushita Electric Industries Corporation, Japan will release two portable DVD players with 9" widescreen TFT LCDs. Both are Open Price. The estimated retail price and release date of the "DVD-LX95" is 80,000 yen on June 15th, and the "DVD-LS90" for 60,000 yen on July 1st. Both models include remote controls.

BrightonNet Corporation, Japan, will release two bags on May 9th for the iPod with internal speakers. They are the shoulder-bag style "iPod shoulder Bag (BI-BGP1A)" and handbag style "iPod Bag (BI-BGP2N)." Each cost 12,800 yen.

The bags feature integrated 2ch speakers and amplifier. In the middle is a special pocket, where the iPod is placed for playback. More

Thursday, the world's largest software maker , Microsoft Corp. reported a third-quarter profit that nearly doubled from a year ago, despite sales that fell short of Wall Street forecasts due to leaner licensing business and a sharp drop in the dollar's value reports the WP.

Wednesday, Internet media giant Yahoo Inc injected their News site with a stylish new look and features to help users go deeper into subjects and to personalize headlines. The most visited online news site in the United States is aiming for a "cleaner" and more organized delivery of headlines and news content, Yahoo said.

Nokia yesterday introduced the Nokia N70 multimedia, a beautifully designed, compact and easy-to-use 3G smartphone with versatile mobile photography, personal productivity and entertainment features. Incorporating a complete smartphone feature set, as well as a 2 megapixel camera, flash and front camera for video calling, the Nokia N70 comes fully equipped with stereo FM radio, a digital music player and new 3D games.

Nokia, yesterday announced the Nokia N90 multimedia, an advanced multimedia device. Starring Carl Zeiss optics and a full set of advanced digital camera features, the Nokia N90 is targeted at high-technology enthusiasts who value the ultimate in connected mobile photography. The Nokia N90 boasts a 2 Megapixel camera with autofocus and 20x digital zoom, integrated flash, macro mode for sharp close-ups, and high quality video capture with on-phone editing capabilities.

Real Networks introduced a version of its Rhapsody music service that allows nonsubscribers to listen to 25 songs free each month. The company will offer the 25 free songs every month to anyone who downloads its latest Rhapsody software, users are welcome to listen to one song 25 times or any 25 songs from its million-song library once, or any combination, must be connected to the Internet while listening.

Nokia has introduced the Nokia N91 multimedia, the company's latest device optimized for the booming mobile music market. With room for up to 3000 songs on the integrated 4-gigabyte hard disk, the Nokia N91 aims to lower Apple's iPod mini market share. The N91 features the industry standard 3.5mm stereo headset jack and easy transfer of music files from your PC help make the Nokia N91 a connected mobile jukebox. Encased in stainless steel, the Nokia N91 has dedicated music keys on its face, which slide down to reveal the phone keypad. The Nokia N91 is a part of the new Nokia Nseries range, bringing you the latest multimedia technologies and smartphone functionalities.

I personally would not but caught on a skateboard, in my book it is up there with skydiving, OK that is a little extreme. I think skaters are hot though, and now that dbsumo has reintroduced the SunRiser Skateboard Headlights originally developed in 2001, life for skateboarders should be a little easier. The super bright LED lamps get installed between your board and trucks, offers about 50 feet worth of light .

UberGizmo When I first heard about this gadget, I was excited by the idea of having a device that would record TV shows directly in MPEG-4 format, rather than in MPEG-2. I imagined it to be a Personal Video Recorder (PVR), like a mini-TiVo. It's only when I received the unit that I realized that The Neuros MPEG-4 recorder is not a PVR like TiVo, but a simple digital video recorder that records at a resolution of 352x240 at 25 frames per second, without a TV guide, or programming capability. More

In addition to showing off a range on Longhorn goodies at WinHEC in Seattle, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates showed off a tiny tablet computer, with a 6-inch screen, camera, great battery life, and a sticker price of US$500-800. The Tablet PC would also feature Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. More at Cnet

Apple Computer Inc. announced upgrades to its line of Power Mac workstations Wednesday. The dual-processor Power Mac line increases processor speed and the base amount of memory that the systems ship with, as well as larger hard drives and faster optical storage.
The Power Mac G5 offers 2.0GHz, 2.3GHz and 2.7GHz dual-processor models with a speed boost at the top of the line. The dual 2.7GHz model features a Apple designed liquid cooling system to counter the speed, resulting in a cool tower that runs Photoshop nearly two times faster than a Pentium 4-based system. Apple has also doubled the size of the standard hard drives that ship with dual-processor Power Macs. The new 2.7GHz and 2.3GHz systems both come configured with 250GB serial ATA hard drives as standard; the 2GHz system comes with a 160GB hard drive.

Even though Microsoft's next Windows operating system, Code-named Longhorn is 20 months away, Microsoft is enjoying a media frenzy over the system just a few days before Apple's latest OS update is available to the general public.

Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates demonstrated Longhorn's new graphics and other features, which include better ways to visualize data, such as seeing through windows stacked atop one another, more natural file organization and faster searching. The way people can switch from window to window and the way files are presented on a PC with Longhorn is reminiscent of Apple's operating system, according to analysts.

In celebration of The Hubble space telescope turning 15 (years), NASA has released two new pictures: one of a new area of the Eagle Nebula, a star forming region where hot dense gas is being shaped by ultraviolet light from a group of massive hot stars; the other of the Whirlpool Galaxy, with a smaller, companion galaxy on one of its arms. Fifteen years ago Monday, at 12:38 p.m. Pacific Time, astronaut Steven Hawley directed the space shuttle's robotic arm to release the Hubble Space Telescope 381 miles above the Earth, launching an era of unprecedented scientific discoveries. The Hubble space telescope has taken over 750,000 images of the universe.

COWON, Korea will release the "iAUDIO X5" 20GB HDD based audio player in Japan, May 1st via Vertex . Expected price approximately 39,800 Yen, with "X5L" battery adoption approximately 44,800 Yen. Features include 1.8" color TFT liquid crystal display -- resolution 160x128 dot, MPEG-4 animated picture, JPEG and text support.

Samsung has announced the "YP-C1" series flash memory audio player of series set for release in Japan on April 27th. The YP-C1 is available in a 1GB model ("YP-C1 Z") priced at 12,800 Yen, and a 512MB model ("YP-C1 X") priced at 8,900 Yen. Features include 128x64 dot, 4 line liquid crystal display, White LED back light, 10 national languages supported (French, Italian, Chinese and Korean ), supports MP3/WMA/WAV/ASF/OGG audio formats , MP3 encoding function and USB 2.0, supporting storage class.

Continual playback time approximately 42 hours. Measures 71x26x26mm and weighs approximately 34g. More

Philip's iPronto TSi6400 is an advanced control panel providing a single, easy-to-manage platform for controlling the technology in your home. The iPronto TSi6400, features a color VGA resolution touchscreen, 400MHz Xscale CPU, 64MB flash memory and 64MB RAM, mic, headphone jack, stereo speakers, PC-card slot, 802.11b adapter, 8 nav buttons, 5 programmable buttons, rechargeable li-ion battery and IR-learning capabilities, to provide you with a versatile solution to control home theatre and home automation products. $1,700,

Seen at Engadget

Microsoft has announced the general availability of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. The new Windows editions provide a single platform that can run new 64-bit applications and existing 32-bit applications. Microsoft says that early adopters of Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions have seen stronger, faster results for database and data-intensive server applications. The x64 version of Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services, for example, can accommodate up to 170 percent more users per server than its 32-bit predecessor.

Bose, Japan has announced the "PD-150" portable PA system and, the "175AP" speaker system for business. The PD-150, priced at 136,500 Yen is available now, the "175AP" will be available late May, price 18,900 Yen. Fender co-developed the "PD-150" proprietary speaker component and enclosure designs with Bose

Miyavix, Japan, has announced a new PSP Cradle set for release in May. Price 3,780 Yen. The PSP cradle can charge your PSP and also features connector to hook it up to some speakers. Measures 650x90x52mm. More

Macpower & Tytech Technology Co., Ltd. today announced the M9, a new external disk drive enclosure which also has a built in port replicator.

Technical Specifications:

3 USB 2.0 High Speed Ports (Hub)
3 Firewire Ports
Interactive Cooling System (Heat Sink & Auto Sensing Smart Fan)
Supports any 3.5" Hard Drive (ATA 6 Compatible)
External Power Adapter

More

Pioneer Corporation, Japan has announced the "DVD-RT7H," a new VHS hybrid recorder "set for release in June. Expected price 85,000 Yen.

The 3in1 recorder features a 200GB HDD, DVD-R/RW and a VHS video deck. Other features include ability to dub from VHS to DVD with the push of one button, video recording modes XP/SP/LP/EP/SLP/SEP and XP+ with approximately 15Mbps ( for HDD only), Measures 430x362x91mm and weighs 6.0kg. More

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. ( Panasonic) has announced the "NV-VP33" DVD/VCR player set for release in Japan on June 1st. Expected price 25,000 Yen. Allowing simultaneous record and playback facility, this player also allows multi format playback and 12 hours recording and playback.

The NV-VP33 has Nicam stereo to produce a great sound, and Crystal view control to help provide a clear picture. More

Hitachi, Ltd., Pioneer Corporation, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., and Sharp Corporation have developed SAFIA content protection technologies for use with digital recording media utilized by a wide range of devices, from consumer electronics to personal computers. These four companies also form the group to develop, promote and license SAFIA. SAFIA was originally developed to target the iVDR removable HDD (Hard Disk Drive) Standard, and is expected to widely contribute to developing removable HDD appliances to dramatically enhance the digital entertainment experience.

Microsoft's next generation Xbox (Xbox 360, Xbox next, Xbox 2) console is reported to have up to 20 titles available at launch, with another 20 following later in the month. Names making the rounds include Burnout 4, Project Gotham Racing 2, as well as Need For Speed Underground 3 reports Inquirer.

Ricoh, Japan today announced the Caplio GX8 - the highest resolution compact camera on the market. The 8.2 Megapixel camera, offers a 28mm wide-angle 3x zoom lens, 1.8-inch LCD, 1cm macro mode and a fast start-up time of 1.3 seconds. The GX8 also features a live histogram and auto bracketing. More

Mindball is an experience product, a game where two players control a ball with their brain waves. The player being most relaxed wins the game. The brain waves are detected by sensors attached to the headbands. The sensors (electrodes) are connected to a biosensor system. The biosensor system, registers the electrical activity in the brain – so called EEG. The brain waves increasing the chance to win Mindball are called Alpha- and Theta waves. They occur when we are calm and relaxed.

Bose, UK, has released the Bose WAVE music system, which functions as a combined CD player and radio. The system uses two 2.5 inch speakers, and a "unique dual tapered wave guide structure that features two 26-inch wave guides with a common output." The device also supports MP3 CDs. RRP of 449 Euro. More

The Darth Vader Voice Changer features the realistic helmet, mask and chest plate that made the very image of Darth Vader an icon. Just put on the gear, and the change will be complete when you hear your own voice converted to sound like that of the evil Lord Vader! Two additional modes are included: the first plays the ominous breathing sound, and the final mode plays five of his most popular phrases from the Star Wars movies, including "The Force is with you," "You don't know the power of the dark side," "Don't make me destroy you," "Your powers are weak," and "There is no escape."

NEC Electronics, Japan, today announced that Microsoft Corporation will
incorporate embedded DRAM (eDRAM) technology from NEC Electronics
in the next-generation Xbox(Xbox 360, Xbox next, Xbox 2) platform.

The embedded DRAM is expected to be used to enable the use of anti-aliasing and high definition graphics with almost no cost to system performance.

Sony's PlayStation Portable handheld, won't hit store shelves in Europe until September 1. Sony confirmed a European delay in March, but the PSP was still expected to launch in Europe this summer. Sony pushed back the release of the PSP in Europe to ensure that there would be enough consoles for the US launch

Software Giant, Microsoft on Monday released versions of its Windows operating system running 64-bit microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices and Intel.

The new products, Windows XP Professional x64 and Windows Server 2003 x64 cost the same as their 32-bit counterparts, and are designed to run software written for computers with such processors as well as programs written for older chips reports AP.

Russian Salizhan Sharipov and American Leroy Chiao, who manned the international space station since last October, returned with Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori in a Russian Soyuz capsule.

The Russian Soyuz capsule carrying the three men from the international space station touched down on the Kazakh steppe early on Monday.

Web search giant Google Inc. said on Monday advertisers could now choose the Web sites that carry their ads and it was introducing animated graphical advertisements.

"It's about time," Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li said of Google's new site-targeting tool. She added that the new animated ads would enable Google to better participate in the multibillion-dollar display-advertising market.

The VRX-02 from rockridge sound is a new Media recorder that records videos straight to the Sony PSP MPEG-4 (MP4) format right to Memory Stick PRO Duo cards. There are two encoding levels: 320x240 and 210x145, both at 15fps(frames per second). More

Hong Kong Broadband Network has launched a new broadband service offering up to 1Gbps speeds. The symmetric 1Gbps service costs approximately $215 month. Other plans include 100MBps for $34 and 10MBps for $16.

Large publishers could offer direct download services for their games, online gaming could be revolutionized and TV channels could be streamed at MPEG-2 DVD quality reports Pro-G

Hong Kong Broadband Network is also deploying new hardware that will enable the convergence of voice, data and TV services; it will be able to deliver up to 200 pay-TV channels at MPEG-2 DVD quality.

UberGizmo - Samsung shows its new digital camera in Beijin, China. The Samsung Digimax Pro is a hybrid SLR that has a high-powered optical zoom (28-420mm or 15X). The other particularity of the camera is the 3.5" LCD screen on the back (yikes! it's like having a full PDA screen on a digital camera).

It is called "hybrid SLR" because the lens is not interchangeable (unlike a real SLR), although it is possible to mount optical converters to boost the zoom further. (Without image stabilization (IS) I don't think that it's a good idea).

Although the specs are not out yet, the name (815) suggests an 8 Megapixel resolution. The rumored release date is July or August 2005

Formoza, a Russian PC maker will say good-bye to Intel's Pentium 4 processors in favor of 64-bit chips from rival AMD. Formoza said 80 percent of its PCs will now feature AMD's Athlon 64 chips, Inquirer reports. Computers with the hyper speed AMD processor will start working "properly" only by fall, when the new version of Microsoft Windows XP 64 Edition, which supports the new technology, is released.

Branding Intel's chips, "ancient" the company said it will now only supply them to corporate customers who insist on having them.

Intel's Russian office declined to comment on Formoza's decision.

Elecom, Japan has announced two new cheap head phone models set for release middle of May. "EHP-500" neckband model and, 2 models of "EHP-702" inner ear model. The EHP-702 is available in white (WH), black (BK), blue (BUD) and orange (DR). More

The Canon PowerShot S2 IS is the successor to the Powershot S1 IS which was released last year. The S2 features a 12x Optical Zoom lens (with image stabilizer), 5.0 megapixel image sensor and 30 frames per second video shooting (for up to 60 minutes and stereo sound). It shoots still images at up to 2.4 images per second at shutter speeds of up to 1/3,200 of a second. More

Olympus, Japan, has announced the Olympus CAMEDIA X-600 digital camera. Features include a 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom while measuring only 18.3mm thick. The LCD Screen measures 2.0 inch. 14MB built-in memory is available. The New Olympus supports XD-picture cards up to 1GB. More at Camborg

Canon Inc. and Toshiba Corp., unveiled a SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display) panel with the contrast ratio boosted to approximately 100,000:1 at the Display 2005 event held in Tokyo on April 20, 2005. The company's first SED panel revealed at CEATEC JAPAN 2004 only achieved a contrast ratio of 8,600:1. We have achieved the sharp cut in black luminance by improving the electron-emitting source property," said a Toshiba spokesperson. More

Toshiba, Japan has revealed that its Cell microprocessor jointly developed with the Sony Group and IBM Corp. of the US can simultaneously decode 48 SDTV format MPEG-2 streams. At the COOL Chips VIII event held in Yokohama from April 20 to 22, 2005, the company showed a film that had recorded the decoding process. Read More

"We're not doing anything that tries to hide the risks," said N. Wayne Hale, Jr., deputy manager of the space shuttle program.

Judging the risks of space flight is "a messy business," he said. "There has been a lot of debate. We are listening to dissenting opinions

The New York Times reports that internal documents by engineers and managers for NASA show at least three changes in the statistical methods used in assessing the risks of debris such as ice and insulating foam striking a shuttle during launching. Based on the reports it looks as if , the agency is playing down the dangers posed by shuttle debris so it can continue to send astronauts into space. NASA denied Friday that safety standards are being loosened.

I can't confirm that this really is the next generation Microsoft Xbox, called Xbox 360, Engagdet believes it is and some other photos , photos lend credence to that claim. This is definitely a step up from the previous system, the design to me looks like it needs more work, but hey I am into square. I will need to see it in person.

Shares of Google Inc. danced with new highs on Friday after the Web search giant's quarterly results showed more of the dramatic advertising growth.

Google's shares reached $223.97, up $19.75 from Thursday's close. That is more than twice the $85-a-share valuation for Google's initial public offering only last August. By the close of trade, however, shares had retreated to $215.81, up $11.59 or almost 6 percent.