India’s leading car maker Maruti Suzuki said that it will launch the much-awaited mid-sized sedan, Swift ‘DZire‘ by the end of this month. The car is based on the highly successfull platform of the Swift and will eventually take the place of the phased out Esteem. Price of the car was not divulged by the company however industry sources say that it should be priced in the Rs 5-6... 

Microsoft has released the long-awaited first Windows Vista Service Pack, a wrap-up of incremental updates that apparently cripples certain vendors’ software. SP1 tackles reliability and performance, adds support for new hardware and wraps in earlier updates for compatibility with third party software. Microsoft claims more than 2,000 applications are now “certified for” or “work... 

Intel released a few incremental details about its future graphics chip on Monday, but left a lot of unanswered questions about the company’s push into uncharted waters. Larrabee, a “many-core” graphics processor scheduled for 2009 or 2010, will come with a brand-new set of vector-processing instructions as part of its design, said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and co-general... 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronauts got power flowing to the international space station’s new robot Friday night, overcoming a problem that had threatened to disrupt shuttle Endeavour’s construction mission. Working from inside, the astronauts used the space station’s mechanical arm to grab onto the robot named Dextre and energize the sleeping giant, which had been lying dormant... 

Diesel fumes are known to be toxic and a risk factor for respiratory cardiovascular disease among other things. A new Dutch study released on Tuesday now suggests that inhaling diesel exhaust stresses the brain and may damage its function. Paul Borm, lead researcher of the study, at Zuyd University and colleagues placed 10 volunteers in a room filled with exhaust from a diesel engine for one hour... 

Microsoft continues to step up its virtualization push, with the acquisition of desktop virtualization management software developer Kidaro. Without disclosing a purchase price or when the deal is expected to close, Microsoft said it plans to acquire Kidaro and integrate its technology into the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. Kidaro offers management technology aimed at... 

NEW DELHI: On World Kidney Day on Thursday, nephrologists want to raise awareness about Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), incidents of which are increasing at an alarming rate. If you have diabetes or high blood pressure, then you are at a risk of developing CKD. Unfortunately, by the time a person is diagnosed with CKD, nearly 50% of his kidneys are damaged. This happens because the blood creatinine... 

No sooner has the battle for the next-generation high definition DVD format ended, with Blu-ray triumphing over HD DVD, than a new contender has emerged. A new system that is incompatible with Blu-ray, called HD VMD, for versatile multilayer disc, is trying to find a niche. New Medium Enterprises, the London company behind HD VMD, says its system’s quality is equal to Blu-ray’s but it costs less.... 

WASHINGTON  - It may be possible to make a safe vaccine against the type of bacteria best known for causing “strep throat” and rheumatic fever, U.S.-based researchers reported on Thursday. The little piece of the bacteria that causes serious disease can be altered slightly into a form that may work as a vaccine, the team at the University of California, San Diego, reported. Group A streptococcal... 

NEW DELHI, March 5: India successfully tested a naval version of the Brahmos cruise missile at the Andamans coast this morning, the defence ministry announced. The naval version of the Brahmos cruise missile was launched from the decks of INS Rajput at 10.30 a.m. and hit a land target in one of the islands of Andaman and Nicobar, said a defence ministry official. Defence Research Development Organisation...