Technology in your hands.

Yves Rossy, the self-styled “Fusionman”, leapt into the skies 2500 metres above the small town of Bex in western Switzerland clad in his new carbon wing.

He performed various manoeuvres for five minutes before landing with the aid of a parachute.

His “wing” is 2.5 metres in diameter and comes with four tiny jets, which are lit inside the plane just before he jumps.

Once in full flight, Rossy can reach speeds of up to 300kmh, but he can only stay in the air for a maximum of ten minutes due to the small fuel capacity of his jets…

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Now these may look like normal AA batteries, but the magic is revealed when you pop the top open to reveal a USB plug. Instead of needing a bulky recharger you plug them into any powered USB port and they’re fully recharged in only 5 hours. Just think, you have so many potential chargers in your home. From PCs and laptops to keyboards, hubs, games consuls, even some monitors.

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New security changes to auction website eBay Australia will affect the way buyers purchase goods, and funnel more funds into its coffers.

Under the changes, direct deposits, money orders and personal cheques will no longer be listed as a payment option after June 17.

As a result, buyers will have only two options with which to pay: either cash-on-delivery, or via the online commerce website PayPal, which is owned by eBay.

PayPal accepts direct deposit or credit card payment on behalf of eBay sellers at a fee of between 1.1 and 2.4 per cent.

EBay defended the change, saying buyers were more likely to have problems with ‘offline’ payment options such as direct deposit…

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The latest firmware for Sony’s Playstation 3 has added powerful audio features. In addition to an updated interface, the firmware 2.30 adds DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio features for Blu-ray movies.

“We are extremely pleased that Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) is adding the full spectrum premium DTS-HD Master Audio codec into the PS3 so that more than 10 million owners of one of the best selling computer entertainment systems can have the best sounding, most efficient and flexible audio technology available system as well. DTS-HD Master Audio is fast becoming the must-have feature for high definition entertainment enthusiasts,” said Brian Towne, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Division at DTS.

In late February, Sony announced two new BD-Live (Profile v2.0) ready Blu-ray players, priced at $400 and $500. The BDP-S350, which will ship sometime in the summer for $400, will feature 1080p24/60 output via HDMI, one Ethernet port and decoding of 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD…

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Social network Facebook will roll out more extensive privacy controls Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, as well as an instant-messaging service soon after, representatives from the company announced during a press briefing at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

Most notable about the new privacy controls is the fact that Facebook members will now be able to choose how much of their profiles are visible to those on their friends list.

Naomi Gleit, Facebook’s product manager for privacy and internationalization, previewed the updated options, which include a new “Friend of Friends” option based on social proximity–not unlike LinkedIn profiles, in which profile information is visible to second- and third-degree contacts rather than the site’s members as a whole. Facebook members will also be able to include or exclude certain friends from having access to information…

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While YouTube is best known for its work in promoting social video, the company is looking to live video as its next format. In an interview with NewTeeVee, YouTube founder Steve Chen said that the company plans to introduce a new live feature sometime this year. He said that the company had always wanted to do it, but didn’t have the resources. Now that YouTube is owned by Google, Chen said the resources are now at their disposal.

Analysts say that YouTube is likely to quickly build momentum in the marketplace, which is primarily due to its already strong presence in social video. “Like video, content creators want to be on the service that gives them the most exposure, no matter how good the alternatives are,” Duncan Riley wrote for TechCrunch. “YouTube already has the user base; live video streamers will flock to YouTube like a moth to a flame.”

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Apple wants the iPhone to become a business email gadget - and a portable video game machine that might also help users manage their health records.

To help fuel that transformation, the company is teaming with a prominent venture capital firm to offer $US100 million to lure developers to the iPhone to create the next generation of applications.

Cupertino-based Apple unveiled new software on Thursday that reflects its intensifying effort to court business customers and placate third-party developers who want to build iPhone applications but have been locked out. A beta version of the free software update went out Thursday; the full version will be available in June.

With the announcements, Apple is foraying beyond the consumer mobile phone market while simultaneously supporting innovations for the phone that could spur sales. But not all developers will be happy with Apple’s approach, since the company will retain tight control over what programs go on the iPhone…

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The power of human touch will soon be used to transmit data.

Telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) is planning a commercial launch of a system to enter rooms that frees users from the trouble of rummaging in their pockets or handbags for ID cards or keys.

It uses technology to turn the surface of the human body itself into a means of data transmission.

As data travels through the user’s clothing, handbag or shoes, anyone carrying a special card can unlock the door simply by touching the knob or standing on a particular spot without taking the card out…

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On Thursday, Microsoft removed the beta tag from the Windows Live SkyDrive service. More importantly, it upped the amount of free online storage to 5GB, giving users roughly the same amount of storage that comes on a new Eee PC. That’s up from a recent cap of 1GB.

The service allows for personal folders as well as ones that are shared with a select group of friends, or the public at large. Microsoft is also expanding the service to 38 countries or regions including large swaths of Europe, Central and South America, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Taiwan.

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In a move that could shake up control of the $1.4 billion online advertising sector, Google’s acquisition target, DoubleClick, confirmed yesterday that it planned to launch an eBay-style auction system in Australia to sell online adverting space.

The commercial networks have periodically toyed with the idea of setting up their own auction platforms in the $3.7 billion TV sector but have considered the structural change too dramatic for the industry.

While some critics fear the rapid emergence of automated trading exchanges for online advertising will hand too much control globally to the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!, all three companies are pressing ahead with plans to establish auction systems in key adverting markets around the world. The exchanges work by publishers listing their advertising space for buyers to bid on in real time.

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