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Eurocopter has created a new helicopter blade, dubbed Blue Edge, that significantly reduces noise from the rotor blades. Testing on an EC155 helicopter has seen noise reduced by 4 decibels.

Says Wired: "The technologies are able to reduce noise by minimizing the blade-vortex interaction of the main rotor on a helicopter. Blade-vortex interaction is the source of the pulsating sound most of us are familiar with when helicopters fly overhead. The noise is created when a rotor blade hits the wake vortex left behind from the blade in front of it."

Current Hulu investor Providence Equity Partners has invested $50 million into the new Qiyi online video service started by search giant Baidu.

The service, as promised, should be a Hulu-esque ad-supported streaming service for China, including censorship.

Providence is the biggest investor by far, with Reuters reporting that the service has $60 million in backing, with the other $10 million coming from Baidu itself.

According to TC, China has over 500 million Internet users, but the online video market only brings in about $25 million in revenue per quarter. Analysts expect that number to at least triple by 2012.

The business rating and review site Yelp has been sued this week by two law firms, which are alleging unfair business practices and extortion.

The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of a veterinary hospital in California which asked Yelp to remove a negative review, but was then denied. Afterward, sales representatives from Yelp called the hospital at least once a week demanding a check for $300 to make bad reviews go away.

This is the second time Yelp has been accused of extorting from small businesses, with East Bay Express accusing them last year in a broad report.

Yelp responded to the new case, via TechCrunch: "Yelp provides a valuable service to millions of consumers and businesses based on our trusted content. The allegations are demonstrably false, since many businesses that advertise on Yelp have both negative and positive reviews. These businesses realize that both kinds of feedback provide authenticity and value. Running a good business is hard; filing a lawsuit is easy. While we haven’t seen the suit in question, we will dispute it aggressively."

The new PopCap release Plants vs Zombies has become the fastest and highest grossing iPhone game launch in history, with over 300,000 apps sold in the first 9 days, for a gross over $1 million.

"Plants vs Zombies is our latest major franchise to make the jump to iPhone, and from the early customer and critical feedback it appears to be a great adaptation of the game," added Andrew Stein, director of mobile business development at PopCap, via GI.biz. "There's always a concern when bringing a computer game to a mobile, pocket-sized device that something will get lost in the process, but in this case the overwhelming consensus is that Plants vs Zombies is even more fun on the smaller touch screen."

Additionally, PopCap's Bejeweled 2 became the first paid app to reach 3 million sales.

According to UnwiredView, the CDMA version of the Google Nexus One has been approved by the FCC, meaning the smartphone should be headed to Verizon in the near future.

The approved phone has model name PB99300, whereas the GSM version currently available is PB99100.

Neither Google or Verizon would give a specific date, or a price, but expect the phone sometime in March, with a similar price to that of its GSM counterpart on T-Mobile, at $180 with contract.


Pic via Unwired:

A student at Pentucket Regional High School in Massachusetts saw their iPod Touch spontaneously explode while it was sitting on her desk during class this week, and fire officials were forced to come and clear out the room.

West Newbury fire Chief Scott Berkenbush says: "Some chemicals had come out, so we checked and made sure it was OK and cleared the scene. No one was transported. The teenager was checked out by (American Medical Response technicians) and not transported."

This is at least the third documented case for iPods simply exploding, but so far Apple has not claimed any liability. Furthermore, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has implied that lithium batteries may be more to blame than the Apple hardware.

Adding as a joke, Berkenbush said: "iPod is the new Toyota. I think the problem is with the battery itself. If any moisture gets on it or it falls in a puddle, it can spark."

As we reported earlier this week, Apple announced that the iTunes download store has reached a new milestone of 10 billion music downloads.

The winner, was a 71-year old man named Louie Sulcer, who won after downloading the 1958 hit "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash. He won a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

The first look at the upcoming Symbian^4 mobile operating system from Nokia, an effort to try to steal back market share from iPhone and Android.

Sony Corp. has announced a new line-up of flat-panel televisions that feature hardware for tuning into Freeview HD content. The consumer electronics giant confirmed that the 19-strong TV line-up will go on sale beginning this weekend. Seven types of BRAVIAs branded TV will be available in different sizes.

The HX703 is available in 40-inch and 46-inch varieties, sport 200Hz frame interpolation and are 3D-capable. The 40-inch model is priced at £1200 while the 46-inch model will set you back £1500.

The NX803 is available 40-inch and 52-inch varieties (£1600 and £2300 respectively), the NX703 is available as 40-inch or 46-inch (£1300 and £1700 respectively) and the NX503 comes in 32-inch and 40-inch varieties (£700 and £950 respectively). All three types sport 200Hz frame interpolation, edge LED backlighting, DLNA and WiFi for accessing content from the Internet.

Wayne Shu was indicted by a federal grand jury for selling counterfeit copies of software made by Redmond-based software giant Microsoft Corp. The 44-year old Battle Ground, Washington man has been selling the illicit goods over the Internet for no less than 10 years.

He now stands charged with six counts of conducting mail fraud, trafficking in counterfeit goods and also in illicit labels. According to the prosecution, Microsoft had sent Wayne Shu multiple cease and desist letters over his activity but that the illegal trading just continued regardless.

The indictment seeks the forfeiture of Shu's home and "luxury car", as well as $1.7 million. A mail fraud conviction can land a criminal up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Shu allegedly operated companies under the name Micro Sharp, Micro Sharp Technology, Microsharp.com and Meet Your Price.

On Thursday, AMD revealed the new ATI Radeon HD 5830 graphics card, promising to supply gamers with cutting-edge features and performance from its "award winning" Radeon HD 5800 series. The company was quick to mention that the 5830 debuts with a price tag of less than $250 in its press release.

The ATI Radeon HD 5830 graphics card comes with full support for Microsoft DirectX 11, and also features support for ATI's Eyefinity technology if that's your thing, and ATI Stream capabilities.

"The ATI Radeon HD 5830 graphics card makes enthusiast-level performance even more accessible to gamers, adding another compelling choice to the award-winning ATI Radeon HD 5800 series," said Matt Skynner, vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics Division.

"Cutting-edge features such as full DirectX 11 support, ATI Eyefinity multi-display capabilities and ATI Stream technology position the ATI Radeon HD 5830 graphics card to become a favorite with the gaming community."

A Taiwanese company that provides displays and electronics components for Nokia, Apple and others has confirmed that more employees than previously thought were poisoned by a chemical used in the manufacturing processes at the plant. Last summer, it emerged that between 47 and 49 employees were sickened by exposure to n-hexane, and now a Wintek spokesman admitted the figure is actually 62.

The toxic chemical can cause muscular degeneration and problems with vision. It affects workers that are exposed to it in high concentration, although symptoms can arise long after the actual exposure. N-hexane is used to be clean new displays. Wintek has confirmed that it no longer uses the toxic chemical following the poisoning of its employees.

Of the 62 employees made ill by n-hexane, a Wintek spokesman said 41 remain hospitalized. A recent report of a death linked to the exposure was denied by the company, which said the person it referred to had died from a heart attack. Since Nokia is a recipient of products from the company, it issued a statement on the issue.

Square Enix is bringing back the beginning of an incredible story of success in the games industry on the iPhone and iPod Touch platform. The original Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II are now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Later versions of the game are particularly popular but the franchise has been a huge success since it launched on Nintendo hardware in the late 1980s.

The new versions of the game feature revitalized sounds, graphics and icons when compared to the original 1987/1988 Nintendo releases of the titles. The games feature control systems optimized for the iPhone/iPod Touch touch-screen hardware, according to the Square Enix press release.

The games are currently available from the App Store for $9 a piece, not a bad price since both titles will offer hours of gameplay.

Google Inc. has once again run into some trouble in Europe, this time over privacy concerns related to Google's Street View service. Launched in the United States in 2007, Google Street View now adds photos of real-life scenes from cities around the world to Google's maps. To protect privacy, Google utilizes software to blur out faces and license plates.

Now, Google's decision to keep all "unblurred" photographs in storage for a year has been questioned in Europe. The company has also been given suggestions that it should give more advanced warning that one of its Street View vans was going to be in an area.

In a statement, Google said that its year-long retention of original photographs was "legitimate and justified", and said that its website already posts notifications of where Street View cameras will be in operation.

Google's data privacy chief Peter Fleischer was given the suggestions by the head of the EU data protection agencies, Alex Turk, in a letter. EU Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, also commented that Europe has "high standards for data protection" and that she expected that "all companies play according to the rules of the game."

Being interviewed at the Nintendo Media Summit yesterday, Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime has warned would-be buyers to expect hardware shortages of the Wii at least until the end of March.

Fils-Aime attributes the shortages to the unexpected record sales in December, where the company sold 3.8 million units.

"On the Wii hardware side, we are back to a situation where demand is exceeding supply and we’re going to be in that situation through the end of March," says Fils-Aime. "You can't sell 3.8m units in one month without that suction of demand pulling product through the distribution channel."

The president continued: "It obviously caught us a little bit off-guard and we're rapidly trying to rectify the situation."

After selling the record amount of Wiis in December, sales fell off 31 percent in January, leading many analysts to ask Nintendo whether there was supply issues.