NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 13 August
13-08-2007
by Deirdre McArdle
Google sells extra online storage | Space hotel to open in 2012
Workers in Britain are apparently suffering from e-mail stress, with 33 percent of respondents to a survey conducted by Glasgow and Paisley universities saying they felt stressed by the volume of e-mail they receive and the need to reply quickly. A further 28 percent said they felt "driven" when they checked messages because of the pressure to respond, while only 38 percent of workers said they were relaxed enough to wait a day or longer before replying. Over a third of respondents said they thought they checked their inbox every quarter of an hour and 64 percent said they looked more than once an hour. However, when researchers fitted monitors to respondents' computers, workers were found to be checking their inboxes up to 40 times an hour.
Internet giant Google has begun selling extra storage space for its Gmail and Picasa services. The annual prices for the extra storage, which would kick in when existing storage runs out, is USD20 for 6GB of online storage, USD75 for 25GB, USD250 for 100GB and USD500 for 250GB. Currently Gmail users get around 3GB free storage, while Picasa users receive 1GB.
LG, in association with AT&T, has launched a new music phone in the US. The phone, called Trax, is 3G-enabled and features AT&T Mobile Music, which means users get access to subscription music services such as Napster and eMusic. The handset is also MobiTV and XM Radio Mobile-capable. The LG Trax will be available in a number of AT&T retail stores and online from 14 August at an initial price of USD129.99 after a mail-in rebate. Like Apple's iPhone, LG's Trax is also subject to a two-year service agreement.
For anyone with a spare EUR3 million knocking around, how about a nice refreshing break in space? Galactic Suite Project, a Barcelona-based space tourism company, has announced details of its Galactic Suite space hotel, which will be open for business by 2012. For a cool EUR3 million, guests will get 18 weeks' preparation and training on a Caribbean island, the journey into space and three nights' accommodation in pods in the orbital hotel. Oh, and the best bit: guests will also participate in a series of "international space experiments".
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 