Satellite Radio Stations Merge

Sirius and XM Satellite Radio stations, the only two of their kind, announced today that they will combine forces in a $13-billion dollar deal by the end of this year. The amalgamated station will be run by current chief executive of Sirius, Mel Karmazin.

So much for friendly competition, huh?

According to the L.A. Times, both radio stations have a combined listenership of 14 million. Each station currently offers over 100 channels of music, news, and info programs.

I wonder if controversial Sirius talk show host, Howard Stern, will invite reclusive XM host Bob Dylan to join his program? On second thought, some things just can't be mixed.

IQONS - The 'Fashion' Myspace

Under the control of Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano, the new social networking site, IQONS (www.iqons.com) is directed towards those of the fashion industry. From fashionistas seeking to discover the newest 'it bag' to emerging fashion designers all around the globe, IQONS is becoming an extremely popular site.

Finally, the fashion industry fully realizes the power and potential of the internet. Hurry now, and reserve the Portrait Name (username) you'd like for the network if you like fashion, before it's taken!

Source: [Link]

Technology Meets High Fashion

Most tech savvy women are equally fashion savvy so LG's new Prada phone seems like the perfect new product.
Complete with a touch-screen driven interface, South Korea's LG is looking to bask a bit in the anticipatory halo surrounding Apple's forthcoming IPhone.

According to digitaltrends.com, The LG Prada phone is unlikely to ever see U.S. markets—it's a tri-band GSM unit with EDGE data service—although it should hit retailers in the U.K., France, Germany, and Italy in February, and reach Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore by March, with a Korean release following in the second quarter of 2007.

The phone sports a 2 megapixel camera (with a Schneider-Kreuznach lens), a built-in media player capable of handling music (MP3, AAC, AC+, WMA, and RealAudio) and video (MPEG4, H.263, H.264), along with a document viewing which can display PowerPoint, Word, Excel, PDF, and text documents.

The fashion-phone sports a 400 by 240 LCD touch screen, and the phone is operated on-screen via a touch screen interface built using Macromedia Flash. The phone also offers Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, microSD storage, and Internet connectivity via mobile data services, rather than Wi-Fi.

And keeping in mind that all good things come in small packages, the whole unit measures just 98.8mm by 54mm by 12mm (3.9 by 2.1 by .47 inches).

The drawbacks: although many are comparing the device to the forthcoming Apple iPhone—and noting that it's a bit smaller—consider that the Prada phone offers a skimpy 8 MB storage (opting instead for microSD cards), doesn't support Wi-Fi connectivity—and the iPhone's will pack a larger display (480 by 320 pixels).

But with a name like Prada, the €600 price tag (about USD $770) seems like a well-justified splurge.

Bodies On Display

It might not be the best idea for a dinner date (as I found out a few days ago in NYC) but if you've got a bit of scientific intrigue, this is a must see.

BODIES … The Exhibition boasts (honestly) to be "a phenomenal look at the phenomena we call the human body. With educational relevance for all ages, this exhibition of real human specimens immerses visitors in the complexities of the human body, telling us the amazing story of ourselves with reverence and understanding."

I learned more than I had imagined... take your friends who smoke and show them what a smoker's lungs look like...that should do the trick.

Source: www.bodiestheexhibition.com

Need a change of scenery?

Check out these stunning and absolutely free Windows Vista desktop wallpapers. Use one as your new desktop image or download them all into one folder and make a custom slideshow screensaver with them. I have to say, it feels pretty good to get something for nothing, so have a look.

Still our favorite desktop of all time: DESKTOP EARTH!

Keeping your password safe on shared computers

Private university Carnegie Mellon has written up an interesting method for keeping your passwords safe from keyloggers at public computers.
The trick:
Between successive keys of the password we will enter random keys. In the spirit of chaffing and winnowing, the string that the keylogger receives will contain the password, but embedded in so much random junk that discovering it is infeasible.

Between successive keys of the password we will enter random keys. In the spirit of chaffing and winnowing, the string that the keylogger receives will contain the password, but embedded in so much random junk that discovering it is infeasible.

The idea is, for each character of your password you type, you also type several random characters in another field in your browser. Using this method, the authors demonstrate how a password like snoopy2 becomes spqmlainsdgsosdgfsodgfdpuouuyhdg2 in the eyes of a keylogger. Of the five keylogging programs tested, none of them captured the correct passwords when this method was employed.

Source: LifeHacker