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YouTube Enlists Big-Name Help to Redefine Channels

YouTube is enlisting Hollywood's help to reach a generation of viewers more familiar with smartphones than TV remotes.

The online video giant is aiming to create 25 hours of programming per day with the help of some of the top names in traditional TV. The Google-owned site is spreading its wealth among producers, directors, and other filmmakers, using a $100 million pot of seed money it committed last fall. The fund represents YouTube's largest spending on original content so far.

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Youth Shaping Future of Online TV, Movies, Music

Young people want their music, TV and movies now — even if it means they get these things illegally.

A recent Columbia University survey found, in fact, that 70 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said they had bought, copied or downloaded unauthorized music, TV shows or movies, compared with 46 percent of all adults who'd done the same.

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Single-Atom Transistor Busts The Records

Researchers in Australia said on Sunday they had made with pinpoint accuracy a working transistor consisting of a single atom, marking a major stride towards next-generation computing.

The device comprises a single phosphorus atom, etched into a silicon bed, with "gates" to control electrical flow and metallic contacts that are also on the atomic scale.

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British Firm Develops 'Cheapest Wireless Tablet'

A British technology company claims to have developed the world's least expensive computer tablet for wireless Internet access.

At a cost of as little as $35 (£22) apiece, Datawind Ltd hopes to supply a market of billions of customers, many in underdeveloped countries.

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Experts Say Internet Boosted The Inevitable in Egypt

Egypt's "Facebook Revolution" that toppled Hosni Mubarak last February may have been boosted by Internet social networking, but his downfall was inevitable anyway, a communications expert said on Sunday.

"It was a people's revolution, accelerated, facilitated by the Internet," said Rasha Abdulla, associate professor of journalism and mass communication at the American University in Cairo(AUC).

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Video Streaming Site Bambuser Says Blocked in Syria

Swedish mobile live video streaming site Bambuser said Friday its services had been blocked in Syria shortly after a user had broadcast a bombing in Homs thought to have been carried out by President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"Around noon yesterday (Thursday), we got information from our contacts in Syria that access to bambuser.com on the Syrian Internet and to the Bambuser mobile app for live streaming over Syrian 3G had been blocked," company chairman Hans Eriksson told Agence France Presse.

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Digital Technologies Reversing Extinction of Languages

Digital technologies are the new life-savers for languages on the verge of extinction, linguists said Friday as they announced eight new dictionaries at a major science conference in Vancouver.

"We're turning the digital divide into a digital opportunity," said David Harrison, a National Geographic Fellow at Swarthmore College near Philadelphia.

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Countries Agree on New Mobile Spectrum at Radio Conference

The International Telecommunication Union said Friday its World Radio communications Conference (WRC-12) has agreed a treaty aimed at revising the radio frequency spectrum to speed up mobile services.

The increased spectrum will allow easier and cheaper global broadband expansion and will replace the current third generation or 3G technology for more than one billion mobile telephone users, said the ITU.

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Libya Marks Revolution Day as Leader Issues Warning

Libyans celebrated on Friday the first anniversary of the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi with fireworks and slogans, even as their new leader vowed to prevent further instability.

Thousands gathered in Tahrir (Liberation) Square in Benghazi, the city which first rose against Gadhafi and his 42-year regime, after traditional Muslim prayers, waving Libya's new flag and proclaiming the revolution's "birthday."

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Robot Seals Heal Hearts of Japan Tsunami Survivors

High-tech fluffy seals that respond to human touch are the latest weapon in the battle against depression for survivors of Japan's tsunami disaster.

"Paro" is being offered to people made homeless by the disaster and is offering a much-needed bit of affection with his burbling noises and the appreciative flapping of fins when he comes into contact with people.

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