Flights to offer Internet

Starting next week and over the next few months, several US airlines will test Internet service on their planes, says New York Times.

On Tuesday, JetBlue Airways will begin offering a free e-mail and instant messaging service on one of its planes. American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines plan to offer broader Web access in coming months, probably at a cost of around $10 a flight.

"I think 2008 is the year when we will finally start to see in-flight Internet access become available," said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research. "But I suspect the roll-out domestically will take place in a very measured way."

IBM has unveiled a technical advancement related to the use of light to carry large amounts of data quickly among cores within a microprocessor. This takes the company closer to developing a chip that may one day run notebooks with the horsepower of today`s supercomputers, says Information Week.

The breakthrough revolves around a device used to transform electrical impulses into beams of light.

Dubbed a modulator, the device is similar to what is used today in optical networks built by telecommunications companies. IBM scientists say they have found a way to shrink the modulator to a size where it can fit within a multi-core CPU.

Bill Gates was surprised to hear Microsoft`s secrecy over the next version of its browser has alienated Web developers, a Web standards advocate and blogger said today, reports Computerworld.

Relations between developers and designers, and the team working on the upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, have become increasingly rocky, but developers` simmering discontent has recently boiled over.

In comments attached to posts on the Microsoft blog dedicated to the browser, developers have chastised Microsoft for not following through on browser upgrade promises, for not supporting crucial Web standards, and most of all, for not keeping them in the loop.

Google has many products available for desktop and mobile users, but until Wednesday there wasn`t a specific area for Mac users to find products made just for them, says PC World.

Google rectified that by introducing the Google Mac Developer Playground. The playground is a place where Mac users can look for new open source projects and demos.

The Mac playground opened with six projects online - Stats, GData, MacFUSE, iPhone Disk, Cover Story and Quartz Composer Patches.