The team from the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore originally created the credit card-size power pack as a disposable source for medical test kits. In the future, they claim, it could be used by any mobile phone user who is caught short with a flat battery.

Whizz-kid scientists are busting to find more environmentally-friendly, lower-cost power sources but are finding themselves up against a wall when it comes to cost and eco-acceptability.

"In order to address this problem, we have designed a disposable battery on a chip, which is activated by biofluids, such as urine," team leader Ki Bang Lee wrote in an e-mail to National Geographic News.

Pissing on your chips may be one thing but the question is one of how much power can be generated. At the moment, the cells produce a trickle of 1.5 volts for 90 minutes. For medical test systems this is enough but it is a piddling amount when it comes to larger devices.

The researchers are aware of this but said that in a couple of shakes the power and lifetime could be improved by adjusting the geometry and materials used. Urine contains many ions to drive the chemical reaction but other bodily fluids, such as tears and blood would also work. Even semen comes to mind which means those denizens of smartphone porn sites could keep their Androids busy for hours.

Flushed with success, the team is now looking ahead. They aim to have their power cells applied to laptop computers, mp3 players, televisions, or even cars. It depends on how they scale up and whether prices could be slashed to make them viable.

One solution would be to connect cells together, as in the current batteries powering laptops. Unlike the environmentally hazardous lithium sells, there would also be fewer problems in complying with the WEEE directive for electronic equipment disposal.

Bodily-fluid exchangers look like a going proposition. Micturition could result in new revenue streams and a golden shower of riches for any commercial company that points its developers in this direction.

The two companies plan to install Yahoo's Connected TV service on both Vestel's self-branded and OEM branded tellies and roll it all out over 40 countries in Europe early next year.

Yahoo Connected allows consumers to access eBay, see movie streams on video site Coolroom, access internet content and shop on eBay, bugger about on Twitter and Facebook and get the latest non-news from Sky and Bild.

Bild is Germany’s leading tabloid newspaper, so punters better be prepared for boobies and sex crime voyeurism. On top of it all, one can fondle one’s widgets while watching TV. Developers can create nice new widgets, or apps, as Apple and Google call them, using Yahoo’s TV WDK (Widget Development Kit).

Vestel Group claims to have a share of 16 percent of the European LCD TV and a 25 percent share of the digital set-top box market. In Germany, it sells ovens, tellies and so on to retailers under the Techwood brand. The group is composed of 25 subsidiaries and had a turnover of €3.7 billion last year.

Yahoo so far cooperates with Sony, Samsung, LG TV, Vizio and so forth. Sony, however, will also be unleashing a high-definition Bravia LCD TV featuring Google’s offering, unsurprisingly called Google TV. The telly is expected to go on sale in the near future, alongside Blu-Ray players.

Google TV aggregates TV content from various channels, similar to Google News, allowing viewers to search for and watch shows. Searching for "Dr House" will link to sites and services as diverse as Netflix and Youtube. Yahoo TV, by comparison, makes heavy use of widgets, which can be likened to the good old teletext of yesteryear.

In Japan the size cutoff point is 42 inches, but statements from Panasonic Europe suggest it might be 50 inches here, which could just alienate some potential buyers, since many opt for a 42 inch model.

By making all models of a certain size and larger 3D-capable Panasonic will make the technology much more widespread, even for those who do not use it, just as HD-ready TVs did that for the high definition market. If Panasonic can push other manufacturers into releasing most, if not all, of their TVs as 3D-capable then the technology may catch on a lot better than expected.

In fact, Abadie revealed that Panasonic has been caught by surprise by the high demand. “We had a quite aggressive target, but demand was three to four times higher,” he said. In some cases Panasonic has not been able to keep up with the demand, which Abadie said was down to delivery problems, but he believes those issues should now be addressed. 

He also said that Panasonic is planning a number of new 3D products over the next year, which will help to keep demand high and push Panasonic towards its goal of ruling the European market.

Subscribers to its Entertain TV IPTV service will be able to rent 3D movies from the Videoload store and watch one game of Bundesliga footie in 3D on Sundays, provided they have a Telekom VDSL line and a 3D telly on top of it all. Movie studios Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures have already placed their bets on Telekom's new offerings.

So far, Entertain TV offers 130 channels of pleasure and occasional depravity to its subscribers.

On top of it all, Liga Total! can be subscribed to as a separate PPV channel, giving users full coverage of Germany's footie leagues and the possibility to add games to create a personal conference.

Liga Total costs an extra €14.95 a month, on top of its Entertain rates ranging from €27.95 (TV and phone line) to €44.95 (phone and VDSL/ ADSL flat rate). Consumers will be asking themselves why on earth they should bother subscribing to Sky's PPV offering if they can get it all from one place for €60 a month.

Deutsche Telekom is also showcasing LTE mobile phone services at its IFA booth, using kit supplied by Chinese network equipment maker Huawei and Samsung. By the end of next year, the telco will cover approximately 1.500 gaps in regions sans broadband landlines with its 4G broadband mobile phone services, bringing the joys of bandwidth-heavy sites to the remotest redneck hillbilly dwelling, even if no one asked them to.

LTE, or "long-term evolution", will allow mobile operators to roll out services which will be as fast as and able to compete with DSL. LTE will also spell "D E A T H" for Wimax. Deutsche Telekom's first service "Call & Surf Comfort via radio" has been announced, interested punters can register on website www.telekom.de/4g to receive more info.

Instead of paying its staff more and investing in management that puts a stop to depressing Despatches documentaries, it has rolled out something it is touting as the world's first intelligent stamp. The idea is that you flash your smartphone's camera over the stamp and it'll automatically guide you toward online content specific to that stamp. It's interactive technology but not as we know it, Jim - you're basically pointing your phone at something hosted online.

The Royal Mail has said that it's the first time any national postal service has been using this kind of tech on their stamps, probably for good reason. "Royal Mail's special stamps mark key events and anniversaries in the UK's heritage through a programme which aims to be both educational and informative," but only if you've got a smartphone. Like the majority of stamp collectors do.

Er....

So the next time you get a final warning from the debt collectors, try pointing a camera at the envelope. It may or may not display interactive technology of the meatheads with the baseball bats on the way over to your flat to gut it of your prized possessions.

"Our stamps will open up a whole new world of information, interest and fun to collectors and the millions of people who will receive them on letters in the coming months alike." 

We know the internet's very popular these days but we've never lusted after an online-capable stamp. 

The latest version of the game, which is set in the Afghanistan war allows people to play allied forces or Taliban. It has created a storm in a teacup as politicians do not believe that it is fair that you can play who they consider bad guys.

Of course it is fine to play a game where you are a Nazi, Stalin, Genghis Khan or Craig David, but as long as you play a Muslim who believes in returning to the middle ages and wants to stone people for cutting their hair, that is apparently evil.

The game has not even come out yet, but it has not stopped the UK Government Minister of Defence Liam Fox declaring it as "unBritish".  

In the UK there is a tradition of demonising the people you are fighting until the war is over and then you end up giving them their country back and owing them large sums of money. About the only time you ever mention you have been at war is when you get to re-fight the entire experience in the World Cup when the loser of the war will always win.

Now the the world's biggest games retailer GameStop has decided it won't sell the title at its stores located on U.S. Military bases and they will not be advertised at stores either.

GameStop said that they came to this decision "out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform."

We wonder if that means that they will be pulling all the Vietnam games which have been making a virtual killing. Not to mention the first Medal of Honour which was set in WW2. Don't we respect them any more?

Military people who show up at store and want to order a copy will have to go to a GameStop location off base.

"GameStop fully supports AAFES in this endeavor and is sensitive to the fact that in multiplayer mode one side will assume the role of Taliban fighter."

We would have thought playing the role of a Taliban fighter would feel natural to US soldiers as they usually only get to shoot at the British and other people on their own side. 

We imagine there's an easier, but more painful way to check if your computer is melting.

Anyone who verifies that their laptop has a problem are being advised to switch it off and unplug it at the mains before contacting the Toshiba call centre to set up a warranty repair. It's the standard turn it off and on again but without the second bit.

The GT 445M, GT 435M, GT 425M, GT 420M and GT 415M will make normal users happy, whereas "performance users", as Nvidia calls people who salivate over being able to run upcoming game sequels at a high setting, will be happy to lay their hands on a notebook equipped with a GT 460M or GT 470M.

GPUs GT 415M through to GT 435M will come packed with 1GB of memory and will be clocked from 500 to 650Mhz. Being the low-end, entry-level model, the GT 415M will only have 48 shader cores, whereas the GT 420M, GT 425M and GT 435M will have 96.

The GT 445M is set to have either 1 to 1,5GB memory and runs at 590MHz and has 144 shader cores. In contrast, the three top-enders GT 460M, 470M and 480M will have 192, 288 and 352 shader cores.

All GPUs naturally offer Nvidia's power-saving Optimus tech, which switches the GPU on only when needed. 3D is no problem as long as the happy consumer has a notebook with a 3D display and a pair of Nvidia's 3D glasses. Acer will soon be shipping the Aspire 5745DG notebook with the GT 425M and a 3D screen, whereas Asus is going to send forth its new 3D notebook Asus G53Jw packing a GTX 460M.

Punters will be also able to hook up their notebooks to a 3D telly using Nvidia's 3DTV Play ploy.

Apart from Acer and Asus, makers such as Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba will soon be rolling out notebooks featuring 400 series GPUs. More are set to follow.