NTT DoCoMo expands its instant translation trials to 10 languages and 10,000 users

NTT DoCoMo's high-speed over-the-phone translation service has hit its second wider trial, aiming to test its skills with 10 languages and 10,000 subscribers -- up from 1,000 during its initial tests in 2011. DoCoMo has thrown in a few more details on how its real-time translator works. The feature is split into three steps: first, the carrier's servers recognize what you're saying, parses it into another language through its own cloud services and then converts the final translation into an audio message. The service currently functions with any Android device running version 2.2 or higher and a separate app will handle the interpretation for French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai. The Japanese carrier aims to launch a commercial version by March 2013 -- just in time for that vacation to see those falling cherry blossoms.

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Usher Keeps It Smooth On 'Saturday Night Live'

Plus Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake and others make special cameos in the show's 100th Digital Short segment.
By James Dinh

<P>Exactly one month before his new album, <a href="/news/articles/1682140/usher-looking-for-myself.jhtml"><i>Looking 4 Myself</a>,</i> hits shelves, the wheels of <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/usher/artist.jhtml">Usher</a>'s promotional wagon gained momentum when the entertainer provided America with a set of contrasting performances and chuckles during this weekend's "Saturday Night Live" episode, which was hosted by "SNL" alum Will Ferrell.</P><P>Rocking simple black jeans, a jacket and tee, and a faux hawk, Ursh looked vibrant and energetic as he performed his brand-new single "Scream." Unlike previous expertly choreographed numbers for his dance tunes, the sunglass-donning singer showed off minimal, but nonetheless slick, moves, while his band and two backup singers filled his Studio 8 back stage.</P><P><object width="460" height="260"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/U94NsydHnYe4qA61SBc-bw/424/3531/i1411"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/U94NsydHnYe4qA61SBc-bw/424/3531/i1411" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="460" height="260" allowFullScreen="true"></embed></object></P><P>"We at it again, 'SNL,' and this time we going to make you scream," he told the crowd at the start of the energetic cut.</P><P>His second performance was for the Diplo-produced cut "Climax," during which the singer showed off his sensual and smooth side. Clearing the area of his accompanying singers, Usher made his smooth falsetto the forefront of the number. It was a simple, authentic rendition of the hit song that was essential proof of his multi-faceted vocal talents.</P><P>In addition to his set of performances, the ATL singer appeared alongside Ferrell in the "2012 Funkytown Debate" skit, in which he played a character named Galactic Fantastic. Dressed in some sparkling duds and an oversized afro, the R&B entertainer played a wacky sidekick who brought in his singing voice to support Farrell's side of the grooving song debate.</P><P>Usher got even more airtime when he was joined by Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Michael Bolton, Will Ferrell and Natalie Portman, who all made cameos in the episode's special 100th Digital Short. Paying tribute to some of the most popular Shorts like "Di-- in a Box" and "Shy Ronnie," Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and the Biebs most fittingly put on a big-time celebration with accompanying jingle. It was an all-star affair and brought back some major giggles &#8212; especially when JT and Portman reprised their original Short roles.</P><P>To add to the night's surprises, Liam Neeson popped up during a "Weekend Update" segment for the Nicolas Cage parody "Get in the Cage." Neeson's upcoming summer flick "Battleship" was the main topic of conversation, with Samberg, as Cage, asking his usual "How am <i>I</i> not in that movie?!" Samberg went on to babble jealous nonsense about Neeson's other flicks in his spot-on Cage impersonation.</P><P>Like <a href="/news/articles/1684560/rihanna-saturday-night-live-performance.jhtml">last week's musical guest Rihanna</a>, Mr. Raymond's gig on the late-night sketch show marks his third appearance. And it's one of the many stops that the singer will make to promote his upcoming project. He's set to kick off the "Today" show's summer concert series on Friday, perform at the <a href="/news/articles/1684239/usher-kelly-clarkson-billboard-music-awards.jhtml">Billboard Music Awards</a> on May 20 and head overseas for Capital FM's Summertime Ball 2012 in London in early June.</P><P>Mick Jagger will perform double duty as host and musical guest on next week's "Saturday Night Live" season finale.</P><P><i>What did you think of Usher's "SNL" performances? Sound off below.</i></P><P><center><a href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1617615"><img src="http://www.mtv.com/news/photos/s/spotted/banner/spotted.jpg"></a></center></p>

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Verbatim Store 'n' Go Pro USB Flash Drive (64GB)

The more data you store, the more important it becomes that you have a way to keep private data private, even if your USB drive is borrowed, stolen, or lost. The Verbatim Store 'n' Go Pro USB Flash Drive (64GB) ($117 street) fits the bill exactly, providing 64GB of storage with password protection and 256-bit AES hardware data encryption. When smaller drives like the Editors' Choice Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ (8GB, $14 street, 4 stars) are simply too small to cut it, the Store 'n' Go Pro is the easy choice for sizable, secure storage.

Design
The Store 'n' Go Pro is a smaller USB drive, just made for keeping in your pocket. It's not as chunky as the Corsair Flash Voyager GT (32GB, $64.99 direct, 4 stars) or the Kingston DataTravler R500 (128GB, $200 street, 3.5 stars), measuring only 0.3 by 2.5 by 0.8 inches (HWD) and weighing a scant 0.32 ounce. Unlike these drives, which combine high-capacity storage with rugged construction to physically protect your storage, this is a much slimmer drive.

The drive is made of plastic and metal, but it's not the heavy plastic seen on the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Generation 2 (32GB, $80 street, 4 stars). The plastic shell mostly hides the metal inside, which can be seen along the sides of the drive and the lanyard loop at the back end of the drive. The USB plug retracts, requiring no cap, and a blue LED blinks and glows to tell you that the drive is on and connected.

Features and Performance
While the Store 'n' Go Pro may not offer a lot in the way of physical protection, it protects your data in a different way, with 256-bit AES hardware data encryption. Using the included V-Safe Security software, you can easily set up a password locked privacy zone, allowing you to keep most of your files accessible, while putting a lock on anything sensitive. And with Fat32 formatting, both the Store 'n' Go Pro and the V-Safe Security will work on a variety of systems: Windows (Windows 7, Vista, and XP), Mac (OS 9.0 and up), and Linux (Kernal Version 2.6.x and up).

Available at retail for $117, the 64GB Store 'n' Go Pro offers storage at $1.83 per gigabyte. By comparison, the rubber-armored 32GB Corsair Flash Voyager GT sells for $2.03 per GB, while the chunky Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Generation 2 (32GB) sells for $2.35/GB. For similar security?at a much smaller capacity?the 8GB Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ sells for $14, or roughly $1.75 per GB. Unlike these other drives, which each come with a 5-year warranty, Verbatim covers the Store 'n' Go Pro with a lifetime warranty.

While Verbatim claims read speeds of up to 30 MBps and write speeds of up to 12 MBps, it didn't quite hit those speeds during testing. In our timed file transfer test, the Store 'n' Go Pro managed to match the claimed write speed (12 MBps) but didn't deliver on read speed, clocking at 22 MBps. By comparison, the Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ (8GB) was a tad slower, with data transfer rates of 24 MBps (read) and 10 MBps (write), while the high capacity Kingston DataTraveler R500 produced faster speeds of 30 MBps (read) and 21 MBps (write). For faster performance, try a drive with USB 3.0, like the Corsair Flash Voyager GT, which delivered write speeds of 36.7 MBps and read speeds of 95.6 MBps.

While other drives may offer more rugged construction or a cheaper price point, the 64GB Verbatim Store 'n' Go Pro offers a compelling blend of storage capacity with easy to use security, letting you lock only what's private behind encryption and a password, leaving the rest freely accessible. If the 8GB offered by the Editors' Choice Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ isn't enough, you can be confident grabbing the Verbatim Store 'n' Go Pro.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Verbatim Store 'n' Go Pro USB Flash Drive (64GB) with several other flash drives side by side.

More flash drive reviews:
??? Verbatim Store 'n' Go Pro USB Flash Drive (64GB)
??? Kingston DataTraveler R400 (4GB)
??? Verbatim Store 'n' Go Car Audio USB Drive
??? Verbatim Store N' Go Clip-it USB Drive
??? Corsair Flash Voyager GT (32GB)
?? more

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How a solar flare could send us back to the Stone Age

A powerful enough solar flare could knock out our power grids, disrupt our GPS satellites, and bring the global economy to a halt, warns a British scientists.

A stream of highly charged particles from the sun is headed straight toward Earth, threatening to plunge cities around the world into darkness and bring the global economy screeching to a halt.

Skip to next paragraph

This isn't the premise of the latest doomsday thriller. Massive solar storms have happened before ? and another one is likely to occur soon, according to Mike Hapgood, a space weather scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England.

Much of the planet's electronic equipment, as well as orbiting satellites, have been built to withstand these periodic geomagnetic storms. But the world is still not prepared for a truly damaging solar storm, Hapgood argues in a recent commentary published in the journal Nature.

Hapgood talked with the Los Angeles Times about the potential effects of such a storm and how the world should prepare for it.

Q: What exactly is a solar storm?

A: I find that's hard to answer. The term "solar storm" has crept into our usage, but nobody has defined what it means. Whether a "solar storm" is happening on the sun or is referring to the effect on the Earth depends on who's talking.

I prefer "space weather," because it focuses our attention on the phenomena in space that travel from the sun to the Earth.

Q: People often talk about solar flares and solar storms in the same breath. What's the difference?

A: Solar flares mainly emit X-rays ? we also get radio waves from these things, and white light in the brightest of flares. They all travel at the same speed as light, so it takes eight minutes to arrive. There are some effects from flares, such as radio interference from the radio bursts.

But that's a pretty small-beer thing. The big thing is the geomagnetic storms (on Earth) that affect the power grid, and that's caused by the coronal mass ejections (from the sun).

Coronal mass ejections are caused when the magnetic field in the sun's atmosphere gets disrupted and then the plasma, the sun's hot ionized gas, erupts and send charged particles into space. Think of it like a hurricane ? is it headed toward us or not headed toward us? If we're lucky, it misses us.

Q: How are solar flares and coronal mass ejections related?

A: There's an association between flares and coronal mass ejections, but it's a relationship we don't quite understand scientifically. Sometimes the CME launches before the flare occurs, and vice versa.

Q: What happens when those particles reach Earth?

A: There can be a whole range of effects. The classic one everyone quotes is the effect on the power grid. A big geomagnetic storm can essentially put extra electric currents into the grid. If it gets bad enough, you can have a complete failure of the power grid ? it happened in Quebec back in 1989. If you've got that, then you've just got to get it back on again. But you could also damage the transformers, which would make it much harder to get the electric power back.

Q: How else could people be affected?

A: You get big disturbances in the Earth's upper atmosphere ? what we call the ionosphere ? and that could be very disruptive to things like GPS (the network of global positioning system satellites). Given the extent we use GPS in everyday life (including for cellphone networks, shipping safety and financial transaction records), that's a big issue.

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Dutch Officials Do Battle With Pirate Hordes

Today in international tech news: The Netherlands takes its blockade of The Pirate Bay a step further, ordering links and access tips be removed from the Net. Elsewhere, streaming service Ustream is attacked in an apparent attempt to cripple feeds coming out of Russia, data roaming charges in the EU get set to plunge, and China's Internet censors try to mute 70 million people.

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BetterCloud Nabs $2.2M From Angels To Bring Better Management & Security To Google Apps

About six years ago, Google launched Apps for Your Domain, which, for the first time, wrapped its suite of emerging cloud products under one umbrella -- as a service for businesses and the enterprise. Today, the service is better known as Google Apps and is, according to Google, being used by at least 4 million organizations, with some 40 million-plus end users. Yet, as the Google Apps ecosystem has expanded, and its tools have become integral to the day-to-day operations of millions of businesses, many are looking for better ways to monitor, control and secure end-user access to apps like Google Docs, Sites, and Calendars. That's why BetterCloud launched earlier this year -- to provide a suite of complementary products that provide Google Apps with enhanced management and security tools for both IT admins and end users. To help it get off the ground, the New York City-based startup is today announcing that it has raised $2.2 million in seed funding from undisclosed angel investors.

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Confused 'Total Blackout' players taste a toilet seat

Syfy

What could it be? On "Total Blackout," contestants sometimes have to rely on their taste buds to tell them.

By Ree Hines

On the Syfy network's new lights-out reality competition, "Total Blackout," host Jaleel White takes delight in putting players through outrageous and often humiliating challenges. After all, in the dark, they have no idea what they're facing.

That's why some contestants reacted with yelps when they recently reached into a tank to feel around for a bra -- which could have just as easily been a spider. And it's why others trembled as they inhaled cautiously to identity what turned out to be someone's rear end -- which could have been ? well, that's about as bad as it gets. So far.

On the next episode, the gag-inducing gags just keep coming as players line up to identify one familiar item using only their mouths.

"Is it a boomerang?" one contestant asked after running his tongue along a toilet seat. "Feels like a boomerang."

Soon enough his old fraternity days came rushing back and he yelled out the correct answer with a smile.

But another challenger didn't find the humor in it.

After mouthing her way around the seat and biting the lid, she seemed stumped.

"Does it feel like anything you've had in your mouth before?" the ever-helpful host asked.

"Pthlpth! A toilet seat!" was all she had to say.

"Total Blackout" airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on SyFy.

Will you tune in to see what else the contestants have to do in the dark on the next "Total Blackout"? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

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