Birds of America In Grave Danger

Boston (dbTechno) - Many factors such as changes in climate, loss of habitat, and other things are causing the US bird species to greatly decline as many are now in grave danger.

The new 2007 Watch List for US Birds was released and shows that many species of birds are in danger of extinction.

There are 178 species of birds now on the list. This is an 11% jump from five years ago which is very considerable indeed. There were 12 new species added to the US watch list which is compiled every five years by the National Audobon Society in New York, as well as the American Bird Conservancy in Washington. Among the new additions are the masked booby, wandering tattler, and Mexican chickadee.

Director of conservation programs for the American Bird Conservancy, David Pashley, stated that “The watch list sounds a real warning.”

The good news here is that there are 27 species which are coming off of the list this year due to increases in population and habitat protection programs in place.

Gregory Butcher of the National Audobon Society stated “Certainlys ome bird species are doing better, and their absence from this list reflects that.”

Still though with new species being added it may be time to take a closer look at our feathered friends and watch over them a bit more.

Konami: MGS4 for PS3 Must Sell 1M On Launch Day

Washington (dbTechno) - It is no secret at this point that Metal Gear Solid 4 is going to probably be the last amazing third-party exclusive this generation of consoles as many other games are now going multi-platform. The game is exclusive to the Sony PlayStation 3 console, and Konami has stated that they need to sell one million copies on launch day to consider it a success at all.

Konami stated that they need to reach as wide of an audience as possible in order for them to turn any kind of decent profit on the game, which has cost millions to develop.

Assistant Producer Ryan Payton of Konami stated that Metal Gear Solid 4 needs to launch big for the PS3 when it drops in Q2 2008. He stated that the game needs to sell 1 million copies on the first day to be a success at all due to the amazingly high production costs of the title.

The big problem is that the installed user base of the PS3 is not yet that high.

Payton squashed MGS4 on Xbox 360 rumors though stating that “We’re telling our fans that if you want to play Metal Gear Solid 4, you have to buy a PS3. The PlayStation brand has always been good to us, and we’re pretty bullish on the PS3.”

The hope is that the game can perform well enough at retail that it makes sense financially to continue such third-party exclusive products for high-budget games on next-gen consoles like the Sony PS3.

Verizon Chooses LTE for 4G Network

Boston (dbTechno) - Verizon Wireless, the second largest US mobile phone carrier have announced that they have chosen the Long Term Evolution or LTE standard for their fourth-generation or 4G network.

This was a huge blow to Qualcomm and Intel as they were both trying to get the support of Verizon for the 4G network standard technology.

Verizon stated that trials for LTE will kick off in 2008. Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens, and Alcatel-Lucent are all going to be giving equipment to test out the service.

This latest decision by Verizon follows the statement from the largest carrier in the US, AT&T, whom stated that they also expect to use LTE.

Verizon stated “The selection of LTE provides Verizon and Vodafone with a unique opportunity to adopt a common access platform with true global scale and compatability with existing technologies of both companies.”

This move is huge for Verizon Wireless and their vision to allow for new devices, applications, wireless internet connectivity, and more.

Apple Readies 3G iPhone For Next Year

Seattle (dbTechno) - Apple has announced that they are going to release a 3G iPhone next year which will allow the phone to run faster than its current AT&T EDGE network it runs on.

The Apple iPhone in its current state was released as an exclusive phone to the AT&T network, running on the slower EDGE network which the company uses. Things are changing though as Apple is going to release a new 3G iPhone which will mean it is running on the fastest possible broadband network.

There was no price or release date announced as of yet though. AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson stated that “You’ll have it next year.” He also stated that Apple CEO Steve Jobs “will dictate what the price of the phone is.”

He took a shot at the cell phone industry stating “How this industry has gone about the handset business is so poorly done. The iPhone is the first shot across the bow. Here is this device that has such usability and functionality built into it, you can make a little money selling the handset and you can share the revenue stream with the handset maker.”

No other information was released in regards to the 3G iPhone. He did state though that “Our customers don’t say they want a network. They say they want the phone and that capability. The company that wins over time will have the best quality and the best coverage.”

New Zealand Teen Arrested For Global Cyber Crimes

Boston (dbTechno) - Police in New Zealand have arrested an 18-year-old who they belive was the leader of a global cyber crime network, responsible for over one million hacking jobs.

According to reports, the cyber crime network has infiltrated over one million computers and managed to take millions of dollars from various bank accounts.

The cyber-name of the hacker is Akill. His real name was not released due to legal reasons. The belief is that he is the leader behind the cyber crime network. Police are calling the network an international spybot ring.

The FBI stated that 1.3 million computers were infiltrated and over $25 million was basically stolen. They would hack into computers around the world with malicious software and then collect bank account and credit card information.

The young hacker who  is cooperating with police, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Obesity Rates Across The Country Level Off

Boston (dbtechno) - Obesity rates across the U.S. have leveled off, according to a new government report. Read more

Rock Band Records Huge Sales on PS3, Xbox 360

Boston (dbTechno) - According to MTV, Rock Band has been selling extremely well at retail as retailers have been selling out of the music game from developer Harmonix, creator of Guitar Hero.

Mika Salmi, head of digital entertainment at MTV stated that the game has been “flying off the shelves.” He stated that “It’s fantastic. Downloads are going great, rockband.com is going great with people logging on and downloading stuff from there. It’s got a lot of legs, we’re in it for the long term.”

Rock Band launched last week to huge fanfare as the package retails for $170 and comes with a drum kit, microphone, guitar, as well as the game.

The music genre of gaming has blown up in a big way as Activision has been enjoying the success of Guitar Hero 3 since it launched on most of the major consoles on October. Guitar Hero 3 took in $115 million in sales in week one.

Rock Band is more expensive than Guitar Hero 3 at $170 versus the $100 price tag for Guitar Hero 3. Considering the fact that you get a microphone and drum kit though has consumers going crazy to live out their dream as a rock star.

Judy McGrath, chief executive of MTV Networks stated “We have a lot of plans for the way it’s going to keep rolling.”

Rock Band was developed by Harmonix, whom MTV bought back in September 2006. Harmonix is already hard at work on their next music-based game, while Rock Band gets new content on a daily basis.

Apple iPhone On Sale In France

Paris (dbTechno) - Wednesday was a big day for Apple fans over in France as the iPhone launched at 12 retail locations in the country on Wednesday, including the mobile carrier Orange’s retail spots.

The parent company of Orange, France Telecom, is heading up sales of the iPhone in France, and they expect to sell through 100,000 units before the new year which gives them about five weeks or so to make it happen.

The Apple iPhone has been a huge success in North America an abroad as more than 1.4 million units have been sold already. In 2008 Apple is expected to sell another 10 million iPhones.

The launch of the device in Europe is expected to be huge for Apple as it has already launched in Germany and a few other locations. It is also getting set to launch in Asia next year.

French consumers will have the opportunity to purchase an unlocked iPhone at the price point of $965.32. Orange is going to be selling locked iPhones with two-year contracts for $593.

AMD Falls Farther Back From Intel In Rankings

Seattle (dbTechno) - ISuppli has released their preliminary worldwide semiconductors rankings on Wednesday, and it was not good news for AMD as they have fallen out of the top 10 on the list, while Intel continues to grow.

Intel has been dominating the chip-maker market and according to reports AMD is not going to be in the top 10 list at all.

The semiconductor market share for Intel is expected to rise 12.5% in 2007. AMD is expected to drop by an alarming 23%. It will also see revenue declines from $7.5 billion down to $5.8 billion which is a huge drop for a one-year period. AMD broke into the top 10 in 2006 as it took the eight-spot for the first time ever. It is now expected to have dropped to number 11.

Samsung is going to remain the world’s second-largest chipmaker with 7.4% of the market. Toshiba is in third place, while Texas Instruments stands at number four. Sony is going to take the former position of AMD with a 57% increase due to the PS3 cell chip sales.

iSuppli’s Dale Ford stated that “Intel successfully defended much of the market share that it won from AMD in the first quarter in the PC microprocessor segment due to the success of its line of dual and quad-core chips.”

Ford stated that AMD did have the advantage with its dual-core microprocessors, but it allowed Intel to gain again.

Google Maps Mobile Tracks Your Location

Boston (dbTechno) - Google Maps Mobile version 2.0 has been released and has a brand new location-tracking feature which has many consumers very excited. The new feature is called My Location and works without GPS. It figures out your position using cell towers.

Google stated that this actually works faster than GPS in that it uses the cell towers to triangulate exactly where you are. The other great thing about using cell towers is that it also works indoors. Current GPS systems which use a satellite cannot work indoors.

Google stated that they “use various algorithms to approximate your location relative to the cells nearest you. The accuracy of this information depends on how big an individual cell is. Thus, areas with a denser concentration of mobile towers allow for a more accurate My Location reading. Additionally, as our database of cell locations continues to improve, so too does the accuracy and coverage of the My Location feature.”

The service is in beta right now and not available on all models of cell phones out there. Users of the Treo 750 and 500v can try it out by heading to www.google.com/gmm.

It is expected that this will have a huge impact on how Google Maps is perceived as its popularity is going to skyrocket with this new GPS feature.

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