Thursday Morning Tech News

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Desktop machines will enter a mode Microsoft is calling "hybrid sleep." In this case, Vista will save the system state and other information to disk, just in case power is lost, but will then enter a sleep mode from which the computer can quickly be roused. People will likely still be able to go to the start menu if they want to shut down the computer. But being able to send it into a particular kind of sleep at the push of a button will be a boon, said Greg Graceffo, a product manager in Microsoft's Windows client unit.

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UWB lets users handle larger data transfers at 110 megabytes per second between devices less than 32 feet apart from each other or 480Mbps speeds at about 10 feet. The technology could be a boon to adding more streaming media to consumer electronics devices and peripherals.

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Orbital vehicle SpaceShipThree (SS3) will be developed by space tourism company Virgin Galactic and Mojave-based SpaceShipTwo (SS2)-developer Scaled Composites, if the planned SS2 suborbitalservice is successful, says Virgin Galactic president Will White­horn

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That timing coincides with NASA's plan to retire its space shuttle fleet in 2010. "The fact that the shuttle is retiring means there needs to be a human crew transportation system in place," Thirkettle told New Scientist. NASA is developing a shuttle replacement called the Crew Exploration Vehicle, which it hopes to launch by 2014, but has said it does not want international governmental cooperation on the project. That has "shoved" Europe into searching for an alternative spacecraft to ensure "we'd always have access to space", says Thirkettle.