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Ready to pony up $200,000 for a ride into space? Virgin Galactic unveiled its final design for SpaceShipTwo, a suborbital spacecraft for private citizens, at an event Wednesday at New York's American Museum of Natural History.

CNET News.com's Caroline McCarthy was on hand to witness Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson and Scaled Composites CEO Burt Rutan show off images and mockups of the spacecraft.

The passenger vehicle will be mounted to WhiteKnightTwo, its "mother ship," which will fly the craft to the upper atmosphere. SpaceShipTwo has a 42-foot wingspan and wide windows so … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission will begin the second phase of lab testing of prototype devices that use the "white space" between TV channels to transmit wireless communication signals.

Phase II of the testing, which is being conducted by the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, begins on January 24.

The testing is part of a proceeding that will determine if the "white space" or unused spectrum between broadcast TV channels can be used for wireless service without interfering with TV broadcasts.

Technology companies say that using the spectrum between the TV channels could unleash a … Read more

Asus is one company that's never satisfied with what it's wearing. One day it's bamboo, the next Lamborghini yellow, and sometimes, just for fun, Prada pink. But for the holidays, it will dress its latest special-edition laptop in classic white.

Yet never one to do things simply, the computer maker has fitted it with a leather shell and silver trimming, according to PClaunches, while also accompanying it with a matching white leather handbag. The specs, as if anyone cared, include a 14.1-inch display, an Intel Core 2 Duo chip and a 250GB hard drive.

Before you … Read more

The Fashionista blog noticed this new camera for White Stripes or vintage camera fanatics.

Meg and Jack White of the White Stripes have partnered with the Lomography Society, an international experimental-photography organization, on two reproduction cameras.

The purpose of the limited-edition cameras is to take "an analog look at life in the Digital Age," according to a statement on the White Stripes Web site.

I suppose this is a follow-up to their Digital Age release of the Icky Thump album on USB flash drives.

The "Meg" for $180 is a semireplica of the Diana camera from the 1960s. … Read more

A 40GB PlayStation 3 is coming to Asia on November 11, following a similar move on the European market last week. Retailing at around $380, the Blu-ray-loving game console is the first to be equipped with a 40GB hard drive and will be available in white, as well as black. However, there's an important catch: You might still want to stick your guns with the earlier 60GB version of the PS3 because latest model is not compatible with PS2 games.

Microsoft and Philips Electronics are pushing the Federal Communications Commission to retest devices that detect broadcast TV signals.

On Friday, the companies filed results of their most recent test results that showed their devices effectively detected broadcast signals. In an ex parte document filed with the FCC, the companies said they had conducted over 1,000 measurements in New York and California and they determined that the prototype devices were able to detect over-the-air TV signals at very low power levels with 100 percent accuracy.

"What the results of these tests mean is that with we can determine with … Read more

Sometimes, you can just be too direct.

VentureWire announced today that a company called Get Satisfaction Unlimited, which provides a forum for consumers to discuss customer service issues, has secured $1.3 million in funding from First Round Capital, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and a group of individual investors.

It's a great idea. But there are probably a lot of names that wouldn't make a 13-year old laugh. Kvetch.com, Alwaysright.com, Whining Old Ladies. If I were a naming consultant, popping off those three would probably net me $50,000. Not bad for 45 seconds of labor. … Read more

The Bush administration says that blocking search engines from indexing key Iraq-related documents on its White House Web site was a simple mistake.

Until Thursday, the White House was using a robots.txt file that instructed search engines not to visit publicly accessible Iraq files on Whitehouse.gov, including a January strategy report (PDF) and a July benchmark report (PDF).

In response to phone conversations I had with them pointing out the problem, they've since revised their robots.txt file--meaning the progress report on Iraq due next week should be visible through Google, MSN and so on.

"It … Read more

Remember the mystery surrounding the potentially millions of "missing" e-mails exchanged by top White House aides like Karl Rove?

Apparently the White House would prefer that it remain that way--or at least that's the inference one might draw from a letter sent on Thursday to Fred Fielding (PDF), the president's chief lawyer, by Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform.

As reported last week by the Associated Press, the Bush administration has taken what Waxman deemed the "unusual position" of declaring the White House Office of Administration immune … Read more