Happy Birthday, YouTube! Our Favorite Videos from the Past Five Years

Nintendo, American Heart Association Promote 'Active Play'

Nintendo is teaming up with the American Heart Association to promote its Wii consoles as a means to stay active.Under the deal, Wii boxes will soon include the AHA brand, Nintendo and AHA will jointly host a health summit, and Nintendo consoles will be on display at future AHA health walks. They have also launched a Web site at activeplaynow.com."The two organizations come from different worlds but share the common goal of helping consumers discover how active-play video games contribute to healthy living," according to the site.The partnership focuses on the Wii Fit Plus, Wii Sports Resort, and the original Wii console. Boxes for these products will soon include an AHA stamp of approval, and an encouragement to purchase active-play games.

Revolutionary Solar Charger Doesn't Rely on the Sun

You've probably seen another solar-powered charger that looks a lot like the Kiwi U-Powered, but this one has a difference: Besides charging from solar panels, it also charges from any USB source, such as a car charger or wall charger. That makes it a little less green, but a lot more useful. If you've ever tried to use a solar-powered charger, you've probably discovered that they require a lot of strong sunlight for a full charge. The U-Powered works with the sun when you have it, but can also charge from a USB connection to save time.

This is the first in a line of four environmentally-friendly products coming from Kiwi Choice this summer and fall. Once you've powered up your U-Powered, use it to charge your iPhone, BlackBerry, digital camera, or other portable device. The charger comes with 11 connectors for a range of devices, as well as a USB and wall charger. Get it for $49.99 from KiwiChoice.com.

OmniVision Delivers Smallest 1080p HD Sensor

You'd better comb that hair, because you could soon be videochatting with a much sharper picture. OmniVision Technologies of Santa Clara, California, has introduced the OV2720, a 1/6-inch native 1080p high-definition CMOS image sensor, the first of its kind to provide 1080p HD. The sensor could soon find its way into notebooks, netbooks, webcams, and video conferencing applications. The OV2720 uses a proprietary sensor technology to improve image quality.

This sensor offers 1080p video in a size small enough to meet the module and height requirements of today's thin notebook designs. OmniVision is currently testing the sensor with its tier-one customers. It should go into mass production in June.

CERN Kicks LHC Network Into High Gear

Scientists at CERN have powered up the Large Hadron Collider's high-speed network and downstream data storage, in an effort to begin recording and analyzing streams of data from experiments averaging over a gigabyte per second, according to the UK's Inquirer.

The LHC Computing Grid, a high-speed network of computer clusters at scientific institutions around the globe, consists of 100,000 processors across 130 organizations in 34 countries. The grid is organized into four tiers, and distributes data over private fiber-optic cable as well as portions of the Internet to researchers, the article said.

A separate BBC News article is reporting that the LHC could begin probing unexplored domains in particle physics by the end of the summer. The machine has already seen half a billion particle collisions since it first crossed the beams in November 2009, Egon. (Image credit: CERN/LHC Atlas)

Seagate Confirms 3TB Drive, Possible 32-Bit OS Issue

Not that it should come as a huge surprise that a major hard disk manufacturer is working on ever-larger storage capacities, but a Seagate senior product manager has confirmed to Thinq that the company is planning to unveil a 3TB hard disk later this year.

Barbara Craig, the product manager, said that the move to 3TB involves a heck of a lot more work than upping the areal density this time around. "The root of the problem is the original LBA (logical block addressing) standard, which can't assign addresses to capacities in excess of 2.1TB," the report said--a problem that's been lying in wait since Microsoft and IBM developed the original DOS standard in 1980.

The potential ramifications of this so far appear to be what OSes will be compatible with 3TB drives.

Craig said that Seagate plans to extend the standard to Long LBA addressing, which would work in 64-bit Windows 7 and Vista as well as Linux, but wouldn't work in 32-bit Vista or any version of Windows XP, the report said. In fact, it's possible that XP may not even see the first 2.1TB portion of a larger drive, either. This brings back memories, doesn't it?

Roku to Stream Ultimate Fighting Championship Content

Roku is teaming up with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to offer all major UFC events on its streaming set-top Roku box. The first event will be UFC 114: Rampage vs. Evans, live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 29.

"We are always looking at the latest technology and the newest ways to bring the UFC experience to our fans," Dana White, UFC president, said in a statement.

"The Roku player is capable of delivering amazing live events, in HD, on the TV. We are excited to be UFC's lead partner in bringing the total UFC experience - from live events and classic fights to insider previews, countdowns, and training coverage - to fans everywhere, whenever they want it," said Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku.

Roku will also provide users with access to the UFC Vault, a collection of archived fights, as well as access to UFC pre-fight events like weigh-ins and press conferences.

The Roku player debuted in 2008, originally billed as Netflix player. Pricing starts at $79.99 for the standard model and goes up to $99.99 for the HD version.

Should Consumer Protection Laws Exempt Car Dealers?

If you were to pick a handful of businesses the average consumer would describe as capable of sticking it to buyers, the top of the list would have auto dealers along with, say, mattress stores, payday loan firms, and bankruptcy-assistance firms. Car dealers are running a full-court lobbying press for exemption from pending consumer protection legislation. Proponents of better protection laws include some groups you'd never imagine, such as the military, which says the hassles of dealing with car dealers and car-loan provisions hurt our military preparedness. Much of the consumer protection laws affecting dealers is at the state level. Dealers say that's enough.

10 Years of Unscrambled GPS: The Best Is Yet to Come

In the 10 years since President Clinton ordered the military to unscramble the GPS signal, the big benefit has been to increase accuracy from about 100 yards to just a few feet. It makes navigation devices more accurate. Before, when civilians got what was called selective availability, GPS knew more or less if you were on the highway; now it knows if you're centered in your lane. It's still not good enough for autonomous driving. But there are other benefits we'll see before we see self-driving cars:

Plasma Rocket Could Get Asteroid Mission

VASIMR, the plasma rocket capable of reducing travel time to Mars by over 80 percent, may soon get its own dedicated mission to visit an asteroid, according to Discovery News.

Originally, VASIMR (the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) was being built as a spare for another heading to the International Space station. But by heading for an asteroid, it could serve as a powerful demonstration of VASIMR's plasma-based technology, the report said.

"The engine is actually firing right now," VASIMR inventor and physicist Franklin Chang-Diaz told Discovery News. "We have lots of hurdles and challenges; we have lots of work to do. But if you look at what has happened in the last five years since we left NASA, it's been amazing."

VASIMR is on target for a 2014 launch to the space station; Chang-Diaz is building two engine spares, one of which could set sail for a completely different mission that NASA doesn't invest in. Check out the full report for details.

Grace Brings the Internet to your Stereo

We're seeing a lot of Internet radios lately, such as the Logitech Squeezebox line, but they all have one thing in common: They're all tabletop radios with built-in speakers. What if you already have a great stereo and you'd like to add Internet radio stations to it? Rather than pay for a tabletop unit you don't need, consider the Grace Solo.

The Solo doesn't include speakers, so it's perfect for people with stereos or powered speakers they'd prefer to use. It includes 802.11g Wi-Fi and a remote, and can connect with over 18,000 radio stations. It also works with Sirius Premium Internet radio, Live365, NPR, iheart, and NOAA weather radio. Pick it up for $124.99. It's available online now, and will be in Sears and Best Buy stores in July.

Upcoming NASA Telescope Passes Critical Milestone

NASA scientists announced that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an infrared telescope that can look further back in the universe's history than ever before, has officially met all science and engineering requirements ahead of its upcoming mission, Space.com reports.

The $5 billion JWST is a sort-of-successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, but its focus on the infrared spectrum means we'll likely see less of the gorgeous astrophotography we've become used to from Hubble, at least from this spacecraft.

That said, the JWST can observe older light, see deeper into the universe, and provide important clues about the Big Bang and the evolution of our own solar system, the report said--not to mention the formation of star systems capable of supporting extraterrestrial life.

The JWST is scheduled to enter hardware production in 2012 ahead of its planned launch in 2014.

Columbia Sportwear Omni-Heat Boots Heat Your Feet

Who knew that Columbia Sportwear would be the one to make your Bennie and the Jets dreams come true? Soon you can have electric boots, just like Bennie herself, thanks to the company's recently-announced line of Omni-Heat clothing. While the entire line looks warm and toasty, two of the men's boots and two of the women's boots will include a compact battery capable of heating your feet for hours. Tired of frostbitten toes? Then you'll love them.

The included battery will charge in four hours via an included USB cable, and you'll control the heating with a simple light-up button on the side of each boot. Press the button and the soles will begin to warm up. It may not sound that attractive in May, but you'll think differently by the time they're launched on September 1.

Now all you need is a mohair suit.

Space Shuttle Launch (and Tweetup) Set for May 14

After passing the rigorous Flight Readiness Review (FRR) that precedes every launch, the Space Shuttle Atlantis was cleared today for a scheduled liftoff at May 14 at 2:20 p.m. ET. To coincide with the launch, NASA has organized a tweetup similar to the highly successful event held last November for Atlantis's most recent launch. This time, 150 lucky participants--including PCMag.com Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff as well as myself--will travel to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for the two-day event, meet with shuttle technicians, managers, engineers, and astronauts, and view the Shuttle launch from NASA's press site.

Today, mission managers unanimously voted to maintain the May 14 launch date, which had been tentatively set months ago. The clearance was announced moments ago at a NASA press conference.