Stories by Nick Barber

World Tech Update

Coming up on World Tech Update this week, Microsoft demos Windows Phone Mango, Steve Ballmer accidentally announces Windows 8, and explosion at a Foxconn manufacturing plants kills three and injures more than a dozen others, North Korea starts making PCs, Sharp shows off Super Hi Vision televisions and a flexible OLED, and Angry Birds robots attract a crowd in China.

Robots modeled after the characters in the popular mobile game Angry Birds were controlled over Wi-Fi at the Beijing International High Tech Expo this week.

The creative lighting, strange sounds and odd look of the project attracted large crowds at the Computer Human Interaction conference. Called the Humanaquarium, the large plexiglass box housed two musicians whose performance could be controlled by audience interaction.

On World Tech Update this week Microsoft announces that it will buy Skype for $8.5 billion, Google announces that the first Chromebooks will go on sale June 15 and we’re at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Vancouver where we’ll show you the latest in cutting edge research and development from all over the world.

A prototype touchscreen on show at the Computer Human Interaction (CHI) conference in Vancouver can change from slippery to sticky depending on what's happening on the screen.

Using infrared sensors like the ones on television remote controls, Texas A&amp;M University students presented an inexpensive multitouch system at the <a href="http://www.chi2011.org/">Computer Human Interaction (CHI)</a> conference in Vancouver.

Researchers from <a href="http://www.queensu.ca/">Queens University</a> presented a flexible, e-ink display at the <a href="http://www.chi2011.org/">Computer Human Interaction conference</a> that they believe could one day replace smartphones. Called the Paper Phone, the device isn't much thicker than a few sheets of paper and uses the same type of display found on the Amazon Kindle and other popular e-readers.

On World Tech Update this week Osama bin Laden's death breaks a Twitter record, Sony execs apologize for the Playstation Network outage, Intel intros a new transistor and the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone shows up in Europe.

On World Tech Update this week Sony announces plans to enter the tablet market, the Playstation Network shuts down and personal information of users is compromised, Android and iOS devices are tracking you even if you don't want them to, we hear the latest on earthquake cleanup efforts in Japan and Google Video decides to stay.

Coming up on World Tech Update Amazon offers free storage in the cloud, Google chooses Kansas City for gigabit Ethernet, electronics manufacturing in Japan slows following disaster, Nintendo's 3DS goes on sale and LAX steps up its baggage screening capabilities.

On World Tech Update this week phones and tablets debut at the CTIA mobile show in Orlando, we take a tour of a Japanese nuclear power plant, Apple sues Amazon.com and the Fisker Karma goes on sale.

An unlikely pair of robots and opera singers teamed up for the U.S. debut of "Death and the Powers: The Robots' Opera" in Boston Friday night.

On World Tech Update this week Japan is ravaged by natural disasters, Microsoft launches Internet Explorer 9, iPhone users miss daylight savings time, HP's new CEO steps out of Mark Hurd's shadow and a robot opera takes to the stage.

The Contour GPS hands free camcorder crams a 1080p sensor, Bluetooth and GPS radios, removable storage and a rechargeable battery into a small, lightweight package. Designed for outdoorsy types and extreme sports enthusiasts, the video quality is good for a camera this size and while the audio capture is good when stationary, there's a lot of wind noise when moving.