Perhaps it is just a coincidence that we’re starting to hear a lot more about electric cars these days now that gas prices have hit record highs. Coincidence or not, automobiles that offer alternatives to traditional fossil-fuel-based, internal combustion engines are gearing up to hit the streets. The latest entrant to this quickly growing field is U.K.-based, Lightning Car Company, which debuted its Electric Lightning GT today at the British Motor Show in London. Similar to the all-electric, high-performance

AT&T’s Navigator GPS service has been available for some time, but the company is now taking the service global with, you guessed it, AT&T Navigator Global.  Well, it’s not exactly global just yet, but the service is available in over 20 countries for turn-by-turn directions in voice or text, multi-language output, a business finder database and more.  Oh, and if you’re planning on attending the 2008 Olympics in China, coverage for six Chinese cities is also included.

At present, the $20 per month AT&T Navigator Global service is powered by TeleNav and is compatible with the Motorola Q 9h, AT&T Tilt and BlackJack II Windows Mobile handsets – there’s also support for AT&T’s BlackBerry devices. 

Read the full AT&T press release…

Nintendo is facing a ban on U.S. sales of some controllers for its Wii and GameCube systems after it lost a bid to overturn a $21 million patent-infringement verdict.

U.S. District Judge Ron Clark in Lufkin, Texas, rejected Nintendo's request for a new trial in the case won by closely held Anascape of Tyler, Texas. He said he would stop sales of the Wii Classic Controller, WaveBird controller and Nintendo GameCube controller. The judges's ban is on hold while Nintendo appeals the verdict to the U.S. Court of Appeals, according to Anascape lawyer Doug Cawley.

Video games sold in New York state must clearly label ratings for violent content under a law signed on Tuesday, which rights groups criticized as likely unconstitutional. The New York Civil Liberties Union said that it planned to mount a legal challenge against the law, signed on Tuesday by New York Gov. David Paterson, as it raised free speech concerns.

The new law says that is it compulsory for games that are already rated to be labeled and also requires that new video game consoles are installed with parent-controlled lockout features by 2010. “This legislation will provide information and educate consumers to help them make better choices for their children,” said state Sen. Andrew Lanza, a bill sponsor.

One day after a security company accidentally posted details of a serious flaw in the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS), hackers are saying that software that exploits this flaw is sure to pop up soon. The author of one widely used hacking tool said he expected to have an exploit by the end of the day Tuesday. Be sure to patch up your systems right now as things might get bumpy.

Several hackers are almost certainly already developing attack code for the bug, and it will most likely crop up within the next few days, said Dave Aitel, chief technology officer at security vendor Immunity. His company will eventually develop sample code for its Canvas security testing software too, a task he expects to take about a day, given the simplicity of the attack. “It's not that hard,” he said. “You're not looking at a DNA-cracking effort.”

Korea-based LG Electronics is planning to launch its Atom-based netbook in October this year and since most of the company's notebooks were manufactured by Micro-Star International (MSI), the netbook is also expected to be manufactured by the Taiwan maker, according to sources.

LG's first netbook (X110) will feature an 8.9-inch panel, 2GB memory and 120GB hard drive. The netbook will adopt Windows XP, while the company has not yet decided whether to adopt Linux operating system. The price of the netbook will be set around NT$19,000-24,000 (US$625.5-790.11). The sources expect LG's netbook will also focus on its industry design and material quality instead of price, like the company's notebook product line, while the netbook will be targeted to markets including Europe and North America.

Western Digital announced today the WD VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM enterprise SATA hard drives in an enterprise-class 2.5-inch form factor for blade servers and 1U and 2U rack servers. The newest WD VelociRaptor hard drive is built for business-critical applications with enterprise-class mechanics and packs up to 300 GB of capacity into the enterprise small form factor bays, while consuming 35 percent less power than the previous-generation WD Raptor drive. Pictured below is the 2.5″ drive inside the 3.5″ adapter/heatsink.

WD is bringing to enterprise customers what PC enthusiasts already appreciate about the WD VelociRaptor: a combination of high performance and high capacity for hard drive storage, said John Rydning, IDC's research director for hard disk drives. WD's new WD VelociRaptor, designed specifically for the enterprise in an energy efficient 2.5-inch form factor, gives system OEMs and end users a new storage option to consider to meet growing storage requirements.

While cyber attacks on large business often make the headlines of tech publications, security company, McAfee wanted to know if smaller businesses were any less susceptible to cyber security breaches as a result of their smaller size. So McAfee surveyed 500 companies in the U.S. and Canada that have between 2 and 1,000 employees, and McAfee just released the results in its study titles “Does Size Mater? The Security challenge of the SMB.”As to just how important reliance on the Internet is to SMBs (small and

Microsoft has disclosed some details regarding the next iteration of its gaming and graphics API, DirectX 11. Shacknews has the full scoop on what Microsoft has disclosed up to this point, which isn’t much, but there is still plenty to ponder. For example, the initial DirectX features and specifications disclosed at this point include… Full support (including all DX11 hardware features) on Windows Vista as well as future versions of Windows Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support

WD ANNOUNCES 2.5-INCH, 10,000 RPM ENTERPRISE SATA HARD DRIVES The World’s Fastest Enterprise SATA Hard Drive, WD VelociRaptor, Now Available for Low-power, High-performance Blade Server Applications LAKE FOREST, CALIF. – July 23, 2008 – WD (NYSE: WDC) announced today the WD VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM enterprise SATA hard drives in an enterprise-class 2.5-inch form factor for blade servers and 1U and 2U rack servers. The newest WD VelociRaptor hard drive is built for business-critical applications with enterprise-class