Science / Technology News

Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned to Earth with a smooth touchdown Friday to end an "amazing" flight that resupplied the International Space Station.

Manufacturers of standalone GPS products will have to move quickly and smartly to transform their dumb map readers into intelligent devices that can provide a host of services such as traffic avoidance.

But there's another piece of debris in the space station's neighborhood. Mission Control decided late Friday that the outpost would not need to dodge a 10-year-old rocket chunk.

As in years past, this was a traditionally slow IT news week, especially in the U.S., where Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday was a primary focus, followed by the annual retail extravaganza known as Black Friday .

Share + Nov 27, 2009 6:06 pm US/Eastern HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press Writer Someone hacked into Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta's city e-mail account and used it to send about 650,000 messages, the mayor said Friday.

One New Jersey lawmaker wants to add a new attraction to amusement parks along the Jersey shore: windmills.

You probably have done this yourself: used your vacuum cleaner and gotten something wrapped around a rotating brush, perhaps a string. In this case a Roomba, that autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner, did the same, but with a venomous viper in Israel.

You'll recall that Microsoft had first decided to sponsor a "Family Guy" episode earlier in the year, but then decided to pull its sponsorship. The reason for backing out of the deal was that Microsoft finally realized just how un-poltically correct "Family Guy" is.

It's the day after Thanksgiving and that means Black Friday sales in the US. A We're already hearing that parking spaces outside US malls are full up - and it's only just gone 4am on the east coast - so if it's cut-price Apple tech you're after then why not do your shopping online? A As is somewhat traditional by now, Apple have discounts across ...

SEATTLE a ' Food banks across the country are undergoing a high-tech revolution, adopting sophisticated databases, bar coding, GPS tracking, automated warehouses and other technologies used in the food industry that increasingly supplies their goods.

China is set to launch its second lunar probe next October in preparation for an unmanned moon landing by the end of 2012, space program officials said Friday.

All it takes is a little loss in the legal arena, and boom! Mininova, the world's largest BitTorrent site, has removed all torrents except those that were uploaded through its Content Distribution service. That service allows producers and artists to easily publish and distribute their content through Mininova for free. Basically, this decision means everything not legal and legitimate is now gone from the site.

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon could be sent to the US within weeks after the Home Secretary refused to block his extradition.

The App Store approval, or sometimes, rejection process has been a contentious subject of late. Sometimes Apple rejects an application for what seems to be draconian, or even nonsensical reasons. Sometimes they approve an app, also nonsensically. Well, if your app falls into the former, rejected category, there's a site for that.

Amazon.com workers handle shipping for online orders. Online retailers hope the convenience of the Web, plus discounts and deals, spur still-nervous shoppers to spend more online this holiday season - even as traditional retailers brace for mediocre sales.

Sergei Krikalyov said that since the space stations crew has doubled to six people, there is no room for tourists in the Russian spacecraft that link the station with Earth.

In Germany, McDonald's is set to go all green as it swaps its trademark red backdrop for its famous Golden Arches to green.

Some of the world's largest companies reside in the German state of Bavaria, well known for its economic strength and industrial history.

IDG News Service - China's biggest online auction and retail Web site plans to stamp its brand on a new mobile phone, the first time it's name will be put on a device, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.