Torch Tech

Comcast Corp has been ordered to change how it manages its broadband network after U.S. communications regulators concluded some of its tactics unreasonably restrict Internet users who share movies and other material. Read the rest of this entry »

A federal judge has put the brakes on a lawsuit filed over sex scenes buried in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

In a decision on Wednesday (full text), United States District Judge Shirley Wohl Kram wrote that purchasers of the game could not be lumped together in a class action. The claims of members of the proposed class would be affected by the law in each purchaser’s home state, Judge Kram wrote, and therefore could not be resolved in a single proceeding in federal court in New York. Read the rest of this entry »

Toyota Motor on Friday showed off a new stand-up scooter that could one day be seen zipping alongside the Segway on the personal-transporter superhighway.

The “Winglet” has a body the size of an A3 sheet of paper that houses an electric motor, two wheels, and internal sensors that constantly monitor the rider’s position and make adjustments in power to ensure stability. Read the rest of this entry »

While the iPhone 3G definitely feels warmer than the original, it shouldn’t get hot enough to cook human flesh. Or melt. But a MacRumors forum member says he fell asleep with his iPhone 3G in his pocket and woke up when he felt a burning sensation in his pants (not the good kind either). Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like Dell is going to make another run at the music player business. All I can say is “here we go again.” Perhaps you’ll remember its ill-fated attempt to compete with Apple’s iPod. It lasted all of three years.What’s different this time around? Well last year Dell acquired a little music software outfit called Zing which in 2006 was demonstrating a concept design that essentially put Wi-Fi streaming inside a portable player, thus giving it the ability to, among other things, play Sirius streams. Read the rest of this entry »

Researchers announced Wednesday that a geared device dating to the second century BC was used to calculate the dates for the first Olympic games.

It has long been known that the Antikythera Mechanism — recovered in 1900 or 1901 from a shipwreck off the Greek coast — was able to calculate and display celestial information, including cycles and phases of the moon and sun. Read the rest of this entry »

People all around the Earth witnessed a spectacular solar eclipse on Friday. Its range began in Canada, and then continued northeast across Greenland and the Arctic, then southeast through central Russia, Mongolia, and China.

People from northeastern North America and the ones from most of Europe and Asia saw a partial solar eclipse that was said to be quite spectacular as well. Read the rest of this entry »