Info Around You

British interactive gaming company NetPlay TV Plc posted a wider pretax loss for the full year 2009, mainly hurt by one-off costs and higher operating expenses, but said it expected to benefit from Google TV.

The company said it expected Google TV - a service that will bring the web to television screens by the autumn of 2010 - to open up online gambling to millions of more players.

NetPlay, which undertook a transformation from a mobile content business to an interactive TV gaming business in 2007, said it made an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 0.2 million pounds ($293,800) in the first quarter of 2010.



For the year ended Dec. 31, 2009, the company said its pretax loss widened to 11.1 million pounds from 1.0 million pounds in 2008.

Revenue grew 9 percent to 21.6 million pounds, while cost of sales rose 32 percent to 17.0 million pounds.

The company invested heavily in technology and partnered with media channels like Virgin Media Television, Channel Five and ITV1 following Ofcom's ruling in June last year allowing terrestrial broadcasters to air transactional gaming shows.

"We are confident that initiatives such as Google TV, will have a significant, positive impact on our growth potential," non-executive chairman Clive Jones said in a statement.

Cancer could claim 13.3 million lives a year by 2030, the World Health Organisation's cancer research agency said on Tuesday, almost double the 7.6 million deaths from the illness in 2008.

A new calculation tool by the International Agency for Research on Cancer forecast that in 2030, new cases of cancer would soar to 21.3 million, and that 13.3 million people would die from the disease.

Freddie Bray, a scientist in charge of the study on 27 types of cancer, said that in 2008, 56 percent of the 12.7 million new cancer cases and 63 percent of 7.6 million cancer deaths occurred in developing countries.

The latest data indicated that lung cancer was the most common type of cancer, while breast and colorectal cancer were the next most common forms of the illness in 2008.

The highest numbers of fatal cases were posted by countries with the largest populations, such as China, India and the United States.

In terms of proportion, North America, western Europe and Australia had the highest mortality rates.

Bray said that this stemmed from consumption patterns of rich nations after the second World War, such as tobacco usage.

However, with tobacco consumption now growing in developing countries, mortality rates for lung cancer were also expected to grow in the 21st century, the experts said.

Camping is always fun. A chance to get away from the world, and live in a world of isolation without any form of electrical aids or entertainment. Well, up until now that is. Orange have just revealed their new solar powered tent which is labelled as a 'tent of the future'. The tent will ensure that all your gadgets and electronics will function during your camping visit, though some may feel this defeats the purpose of camping.

Orange teamed up with American product design consultants, Kaleidoscope, to create this modern day tent which harnesses solar energy in order to power your gadgets and equipment via a wireless charging pouch. The tent uses a photovoltaic fabric to receive the maximum amount of energy directly from the sun throughout the day. There is also an integrated "glo-cation" technology instilled which assists campers in finding their way back to their tent. You can use your mobile phone to send a text message to your tent, which will then cause the camp to glow and become easily identifiable.

The solar powered tent has a wireless control hub which illustrates the total amount of energy generated and also the amount of that energy consumed. There is also a wireless internet signal on a touch screen display, and even a heating system, which kicks into action as soon as the temperature within the tent drops below a certain level.

This definitely is the future of camping..

Nanotechnology looks set yield some seemingly magical functionality in the near future, and a recent concept product from Nokia puts most of the technologies that will be viable for handhelds within the next decade into one fascinating instrument. The Morph does just that, being flexible so that it can change shape from candy bar phone to bracelet. It’s also transparent, has self-cleaning surfaces, can sense and observe and even harvest energy from the local environment.

The Morph went on display this week alongside the remarkable "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition, on view from February 24 to May 12, 2008, at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Morph features in both the exhibition catalog and on MoMA's official website. Be sure to check out the online exhibition here – Gizmag’s readers will love the hours of brain stretching concepts to explore – heartily recommended.

Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimate functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces. Dr. Bob Iannucci, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia, commented: "Nokia Research Center is looking at ways to reinvent the form and function of mobile devices; the Morph concept shows what might be possible".

The Morph is a joint nanotechnology concept, developed by Nokia Research Center (NRC) and the University of Cambridge (UK) and Dr. Tapani Ryhanen, Head of the NRC Cambridge UK laboratory, Nokia, commented, "We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience. The research we are carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to develop and use new materials." Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering's Nanoscience Group at the University of Cambridge and University Director of Nokia-Cambridge collaboration added: "Developing the Morph concept with Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience research that will stimulate our future work together." The partnership between Nokia and the University of Cambridge was announced in March, 2007 - an agreement to work together on an extensive and long term programme of joint research projects. NRC has established a research facility at the University's West Cambridge site and collaborates with several departments - initially the Nanoscience Center and Electrical Division of the Engineering Department - on projects that, to begin with, are centered on nanotechnology.

Elements of Morph might be available to integrate into handheld devices within 7 years, though initially only at the high-end. However, nanotechnology may one day lead to low cost manufacturing solutions, and offers the possibility of integrating complex functionality at a low price.

If you’re fascinated with this technology, the Guardian has a nice piece with a bit more info.

Stray hairs can get quite irritating especially when you’ve got a date coming up or a social event where plenty of the rich and famous will be in attendance. Well, we suppose if you were actually invited to such an event you would definitely be able to afford the best forms of beauty care, but for folks who are part of the rags-to-riches story and prefer to take on a more DIY approach might prefer to remove these stray hairs themselves without the pruning and preening of some prima donna beautician who costs hundreds of dollars per session. The Easy Trim from Andis Company is a spanking new battery powered personal trimmer which aims to eradicate any stray hair spotted. Measuring a mere 4.5″ long, the Easy Trim is highly portable and slips into a travel bag or purse, ready to trim hair from ears, nose, eyebrows, beards - virtually any spot that requires a quick trim before an encounter where errant hairs might cause embarrassment.

Accordin to Fred Koeller, Vice President of Marketing at Andis, “Easy Trim is about the size of a lipstick. It has a protective cap that covers the blades and is a lot safer than carrying a pair scissors, even small ones, especially when traveling.” Easy Trim will feature surgical stainless steel blades that are recessed, rust proof and a snap to rinse clean after each use. Each purchase will be accompanied by a couple of interchangeable heads, where one will be used for hard to reach areas like ears and noses, while the other for detail trimming on areas like beards and mustaches. This translates to the magic ability to shape eyebrows within seconds.

Powered by a solitary AA battery, the Easy Trim will come with a sleek stand and a five year warranty. Looks like this would make a great gift for dad if he tends to be an hirsute person.