electronics

New e-skin is sensitive to touch and self-healing

The human skin, with all its frailties, turns out to be difficult to recreate, let alone improve on. The main challenge: It manages to be both self-healing and sensitive to the touch, enabling it to send vital information to the brain about temperature and pressure.

But chemists and engineers at Stanford say they are one step closer to developing an electronic skin that has both these properties, and they report this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology that it could help lead to smarter prosthetics and more resilient, self-repairing electronics.

Their central task was to find a self-healing material (a … Read more

Navy SEALs leak classified info to EA for combat game -- report

A handful of U.S. Navy SEALS have been reprimanded for leaking military secrets to video-game maker Electronic Arts while working as paid consultants on the game Medal of Honor: Warfighters, according to a report.

Seven of the SEALs have been disciplined, including one who was involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and four others are being investigated, according to CBS News.

Medal of Honor: Warfighters is a military combat shooting game that prides itself on being as realistic as possible. Players are involved in real-world scenarios, such as battles in Afghanistan and attacks on Somali pirates. … Read more

Judge prods FBI over future Internet surveillance plans

A federal judge has rejected the FBI's attempts to withhold information about its efforts to require Internet companies to build in backdoors for government surveillance.

CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg ruled on Tuesday that the government did not adequately respond to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Seeborg, in San Francisco, ordered (PDF) a "further review of the materials previously withheld" in the lawsuit, which seeks details about what the FBI has dubbed "Going Dark" -- the bureau's ongoing effort to force companies including … Read more

Apple not expecting a very merry holiday

Apple isn't expecting a very happy holiday season, financially anyway.

The company today issued its forecast for its fiscal first quarter ending in December, calling for per-share earnings of $11.75 and revenue of $52 billion.

That's short of Wall Street's average forecast of $15.43 a share in earnings and $55.02 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters. Apple is known to be overly conservative with its own estimates, and Wall Street investors often pump up their own projections a little higher.

Still, the expectations call for growth in the quarter and underscore Apple's … Read more

Best Buy shares fall on earnings warning, management shake-up

Shares of Best Buy declined in after-hours trading after the electronics retailer announced a management shake-up and issued a warning about its upcoming third-quarter results.

Best Buy announced today that two executives, including its U.S. president, would be leaving the company as part of a restructuring effort. U.S. business President Mike Vitelli will retire at the end of the current fiscal year in February 2013, while Tim Sheehan, executive vice president of U.S. operations, will leave the company at the end of the month.

Best Buy also warned that its net income for the third quarter will … Read more

LG Electronics reports Q3 profit on handset earnings

LG Electronics said today it swung a third-quarter profit based largely on the success of its once-ailing handset division.

South Korean electronics maker posted a net profit of 157.1 billion won ($138.5 million) for the three months ended September 30, a dramatic recovery from the loss of 413.9 billion won ($366 million) it recorded in the year-ago period. However, third-quarter revenue fell 4 percent to 12.38 trillion won ($10.93 billion) due to a decline in demand for feature phones.

LG's mobile division recorded a third-quarter profit of 22 billion won ($19.4 million), compared … Read more

Holiday season may be merry for electronics bargain hunters

It may be a very merry holiday season for consumers seeking big bargains on electronics.

IHS iSuppli, a market research firm, says consumer-electronics companies will likely make "extremely steep" price cuts to attract buyers during the key holiday selling season.

That means the consumer-electronics industry is going to post only "scant" 1.3 percent revenue growth this year, according to IHS, but consumers may be getting some pretty great deals.

Buyers have largely been cautious with spending because of worries about the weak global economy, but companies are hoping attractive prices will help boost demand.

Here'… Read more

EA's headache: Free games for all, thanks to Reddit

Vouchers, coupons, and discounts are often a good tool to entice new customers or promote a product. However, if discount codes are not secured properly, forums and social networking can become a real headache for the company involved.

That is exactly what happened to Electronic Arts over the weekend.

A single post on a gaming forum that included a discount code for $20 worth of software from EA's online store sparked a downloading spree, much to the delight of Reddit users after the code made its way to the popular link aggregation site. Not only could the code be … Read more

How EA keeps its Simpson game alive and kicking

Electronic Arts' latest tool to keep The Simpsons: Tapped Out iOS game from becoming a zombie app: actual zombies.

In anticipation of The Simpsons' annual Treehouse of Horror episode, EA updated its Farmville-like game to include Halloween-themed landscapes such as a cemetery, complete with zombies and zombie pets that can infect the characters in your game. The addition adds a new wrinkle to the game, and breathes new life in for players who were done buying buildings and likely on the verge of burning out.

With the upgrade, EA made good on its promise to continue supporting The Simpsons: Tapped … Read more