Space shuttle Discovery transported to launch pad for Easter Monday flight to space station Space shuttle Discovery is at its launch pad for an Easter Monday flight to the International Space Station. NASA moved the shuttle out of its giant hangar around midnight Tuesday. The three-and-a-half-mile trip took much of Wednesday morning. Discovery is set to blast off April 5 … Original post

STAR CITY, Russia (Reuters) – Russia announced a halt to space tourism on Wednesday, saying it would struggle to ferry professional crews to the International Space Station after the U.S. mothballs its shuttle fleet this year. NASA plans four more shuttle flights to the $100-billion, 16-nation space outpost before retiring its three shuttles by the end of the year. Russia … Original post

The Washington Post launched a paid news application for Apple’s iPhone and the iPod Touch on Wednesday. The program, available through Apple’s App Store, costs 1.99 dollars to download and offers breaking news, reporting, analysis, features, blogs and other coverage from the newspaper. “We are thrilled to offer on-the-go readers a rich, streamlined Washington Post news app … Original post

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Lenovo, the world’s No.4 personal computer maker, said it will develop more products this year for the mobile Internet, attempting to gain ground after a late start into the hot smartphone market. Lenovo entered the mobile phone sector last year when it repurchased a mobile unit it sold less than two years earlier. It … Original post

LONDON (Reuters) – Microsoft is still seeing a lot of interest in its Windows 7 computer software launched last year and a new budget cycle will help a gradual recovery in business spending, its chief operating officer said. “We have a lot of interest in the Windows 7 refresh,” Kevin Turner told an audience at the London School of Economics on … Original post

Montana, N. Dakota push for US ‘onramp’ to oil pipeline between Alberta and Gulf Coast The governors of North Dakota and Montana are enlisting domestic oil producers Wednesday to pressure a Canadian energy company to allow domestic crude onto a pipeline planned from Alberta to the Gulf Coast. TransCanada Corp. hopes to start construction this year on the 1,980-mile … Original post

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said on Wednesday he was against genetically-modified foods but said they were an unavoidable part of the future. Asked by students in Sofia whether he was against GM foods, after the EU approved their cultivation, he said: “I am, generally speaking, against because we don’t know what will be the long-term effect of it … Original post

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Opera Software said on Wednesday it had seen a surge in downloads of its browser after Microsoft started to give Europeans the option of choosing smaller rivals’ browsers. “Since the browser choice screen rollout, Opera downloads have more than tripled in major European countries, such as Belgium, France, Spain, Poland and the UK,” said Rolf Assev, Opera’s … Original post

China to launch ‘Heavenly Palace’ next year, 1st module in its planned permanent space station China’s space program will launch an unmanned experimental module next year, the first component of its permanent space station, state media reported Wednesday. Before the completion of the station, the 8.5 ton module, named Tiangong 1, or “Heavenly Palace,” will be used for … Original post

China has postponed the next step in its ambitious space station programme until 2011 for technical reasons, state media said Wednesday. China had originally planned to place the Tiangong-1 space module in orbit late this year and undertake experimental docking manoeuvres in subsequent missions, Xinhua news agency cited rocket designer Qi Faren as saying. But the initial launch has now … Original post

Perhaps the most exciting development in technology we will see in the next decade is cloud computing. We are in the midst of the information economy. No matter what business you’re in, chances are you are already competing in a market where success depends on how well you create, manage and share information – whether it is intellectual property, content … Original post

The Obama administration on Tuesday declassified a summary of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a highly secretive program that began in 2008 under the Bush administration to help secure the United States in cyberspace. In an effort to increase government transparency, the Obama administration has declassified U.S. cybersecurity policy details, Howard Schmidt, the newly appointed White House cybersecurity coordinator … Original post

Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors and France’s Peugeot Citroen Wednesday scrapped an ambitious capital tie-up that would have created the world’s sixth-largest auto alliance, after reports of financial discord. The companies in December confirmed they had discussed strengthening ties and a possible financial alliance after media in Japan reported Peugeot was planning to buy a 30 to 50 percent … Original post

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Internet telephony firm Skype took a second major leap into the wireless market in just a few weeks, unveiling software from top phone maker Nokia Oyj which could run on more than 200 million smartphones around the world. The new Skype for Symbian software is available for free download from Nokia’s Ovi Store to consumers globally. Skype … Original post

Democratic senators seek to block stimulus money from being spent on foreign jobs A group of Democratic senators is urging the Obama administration to suspend an economic stimulus program aimed at financing renewable energy, complaining that money is going to projects that are creating jobs in foreign countries. The four senators, led by Chuck Schumer of New York, wrote to … Original post

Taiwan’s leading smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) on Wednesday denied infringing iPhone patents held by Apple after the US technology giant filed a lawsuit in the United States. “HTC is not only an innovator in mobile technology but also an owner of many patents. We take American and international patent rights protection seriously,” it said in a … Original post

Cisco has unveiled a way for businesses to feel comfortable about letting workers use whatever smartphones tickle their fancies. While hip new mobile devices such as Apple iPhones or Google’s Nexus One smartphones have proven popular with the public at large, businesses have been averse to such devices out of concerns for network security and compatibility. US technology titan … Original post

Comedy Central pulling `Daily Show,’ ‘Colbert Report’ from Hulu over revenue issue The popular video Web site Hulu is losing two of its most popular offerings: “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” Hulu announced Tuesday that Comedy Central was pulling its shows from the site beginning March 10. Both “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report consistently rank among … Original post

Hulu to lose Daily Show, Colbert Report after failing to secure further rights from Viacom Video streaming site Hulu is saying goodbye to The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, two popular shows from Comedy Central that will no longer be streamed on the site after next week. Hulu says it was unable to secure the rights to extend the … Original post