Frankenfish takes to the water

The New Scientist magazine reports of fishy experiments in the laboratories of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Researchers at MIT have constructed a robotic fish consisting of a microprocessor that sends signals to live muscle taken from a frog in order to make it wiggle and swim through a solution of glucose. The robot fish swam around for a few minutes and then stopped to regain energy from the sugary waters. ...more

Apple releases 802.11n wireless enabler

Apple has released its 802.11n wireless enabler with the expected, albeit small, price tag. The software enables the latent support for the next-generation wireless networking standard in Intel Core 2 Duo Macs (excepting the 17in, 1. ...more

Music giants bear down on lyric search apps

Several developers of Mac software that search the Web for song lyrics have been issued with cease and desist orders by one of the big four record companies. Walter Ritter, author of the pearLyrics application and widget that automatically searches the Web for song lyrics and adds them to the lyrics field in iTunes, said that he had been contacted by Warner/Chappell Music and asked to remove the software or face legal action. 'As a freeware developer I can not afford to risk a law suit against such a big company, although personally I don't see where pearLyrics should infringe any copyrights handled by them,' he writes in a statement on his website. ...more

PachyDRM puts open source move on DRM

DRM is going open source, at least according to Melodeo, the company behind PachyDRM. The company yesterday announced its PachyDRM system would be available on an open source basis under a range of licences. Rather than release a code base in the hope that the open-source community will develop it into commercially viable products, PachyDRM is already being licensed by content and network companies. ...more

Printer for your pocket - or Palm

The great thing about PDAs is that you have computer power on the move, but they are a bit limited if you want to make a copy of that Web page you've been browsing or that letter to the bank manager you've just finished. But don't fear, as there is a tiny printer that might be of use. The Pocket Printer A6 from SiPix is a lightweight portable printer that features an infra-red port, which is ideal for mobile computers with infrared ports and a serial port for those without. ...more