Samsung demos 4G

Samsung Electronics claims to be the first to demonstrate 4G mobile technology that enables data transmission at speeds up to 50 times faster than current mobile WiMax technology, reports Forbes.com.

According to Samsung, data transfer speeds up to 100Mbps were achieved in the demonstration carried out on a bus travelling at up to 60km an hour.

Samsung says it plans to drive development and standardisation of 4G mobile technology to hasten the start of the 4G era.

The Ryanair low-cost airline has announced plans to allow passengers mobile access to voice and text communications on all of its flights from mid-2007.

News.com says passengers will be charged to make and receive voice calls and SMS messages via satellite broadband links, and will be charged to use push e-mail services such as those that work with BlackBerry handhelds.

Ryanair says the cost of the service will "mirror" international roaming charges, even on national flights, but roaming rates will vary between operators and countries. Ryanair will also charge operators a commission on call revenues.

The FBI has demonstrated a database to store more than 659 million terror-related records drawn from more than 50 of official sources, which it claims is one of the most efficient information analysis systems at the hands of US law enforcement officials.

CIO.com says the public demonstration of the database was aimed at quelling criticism of the FBI for its lack of technology to detect signs of an impending terror attack in New York before 11 September 2001.

The Investigative Data Warehouse created in 2004 can be used to send agents notifications whenever relevant information is added. Various forms of records, including Social Security numbers and driver`s licence information, can be cross-referenced across the database`s millions of entries.

A new feature of Google`s online book program makes out-of-copyright works available for downloading and printing, reports BusinessWeek.

According to the report, users of the service can now download and print the complete text of out-of-copyright books for free.

Since December 2004, Google has been scanning thousands of books, including volumes submitted by publishers and others drawn from the library stacks.