An algorithm delivers 90 percent of e-mails in real time even though a device is only on half the time.According to Sachin Agrawal, a researcher at Deutsche Telekom, the Internet isn't ready for all of us to start toting mobile phones that receive e-mail in real time. Such devices require so-called "push message delivery," for which existing Internet protocols simply weren't designed.In other words, the Internet was designed for periodic access -- a browser loads a website after opening a connection to a server, and after some period of inactivity, the (TCP) connection between the two is closed and recycled by a server, which can only have 65,536 connections (ports) open at any one time -- a limit imposed by the TCP protocol itself.A second problem with push messaging is that it requires a phone to maintain a continuous connection to the Internet. That's a recipe for rapidly draining a phone's battery. [Read the full article]

Quantum pixels: A new type of display uses quantum dots for its pixels (shown here). The technology could be easier to manufacture than organic light-emitting diodes.Credit: QD VisionUnlike OLEDs, they may soon be practical for larger displays, such as computer screens and televisions.Few display technologies rival the visual brilliance and energy-saving potential of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Yet OLED displays are mostly found in smaller applications like mobile phones. The manufacturing technology for OLEDs has struggled to scale up for mass producing computer monitors or televisions.Now QD Vision, an MIT spinoff, has announced a display technology based on quantum dots that could not only be easier to manufacture than OLEDs, but also be even brighter and more energy-efficient. [Read the full article]

Coaster to coaster: Jack Weedon demonstrates his communicative beer coasters with Sara Smith, another student from Newcastle University(TM)s Culture Lab.Credit: Newcastle UniversityOnce the hallmark of lonely barflies, playing with your beer coaster could actually help you socialize, thanks to a smart bar surface that brings ordinary coasters to life.The coasters communicate by sending messages across the surface. The messages are meant to act as icebreakers between bar patrons, says Tom Bartindale, who invented the coasters with fellow postgraduate student Jack Weeden at Newcastle University's Culture Lab. "It's a starting point for an actual conversation," Bartindale says.An infrared light source and a camera beneath the partially transparent surface recognize ordinary circular coasters because their white underside causes more light to be reflected (a technique called diffused illumination). [Read the full article]

Brain imaging studies performed while people gamble and play other kinds of games have helped scientists identify the regions involved in these tasks. They include parts of the prefrontal cortex, an area involved in planning complex cognitive behaviors, and the striatum, an area deep in the brain that receives information from many other regions. "The question is, how do you go from [knowing which brain areas to look at] to predicting behavior?" says Kenway Louie, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University.Louie and others in Paul Glimcher's lab at New York University are tackling that question. In one experiment soon to be published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers showed volunteers sitting in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner a selection of books, DVDs, and posters and asked them to rate how much the items would be worth to them. The scientists recorded the subjects' brain activity as they thought about these values. [Read the full article]