A massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 has hit central Chile, killing at least 78 people, ministers say.

The quake struck at 0634 GMT about 115km (70 miles) north-east of the city of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital, Santiago.

President Michelle Bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe" in affected areas and appealed for calm.

People are moving to higher ground on Easter Island amid fears of a tsunami. Alerts are in place across the Pacific.

Tsunami warnings have been issued for Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Central America and Pacific island nations.

Santiago airport has been closed and all flights cancelled until further notice, airline officials say. Flights are being diverted to Mendoza in Argentina.

Aftershocks

The earthquake is the biggest to hit Chile in 50 years.

Giving details of the latest casualties, President Bachelet said 34 of the deaths were in Maule, 13 in the Santiago municipality, 12 in the O'Higgins region, 10 in Bio Bio, five in Araucania and four in Valparaiso.



She said these were preliminary figures and could rise.

President Bachelet said: "People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information [we have] we will share immediately."

She said a "wave of large proportion" had affected the Juan Fernandez island group, reaching halfway into one inhabited area. Two aid ships are reported to be on their way.

Residents of Easter Island are being moved to higher ground with fears a tsunami may strike soon.

Ms Bachelet said if there were more aftershocks, people in coastal areas should go to higher ground.

She warned people not to travel on roads in affected areas as a number of bridges were down.

Chilean officials said the worst affected town appeared to be Parral, close to the epicentre.
Chilean television said there had been a fire involving chemicals in the town of Colina, 20km north of Santiago, but that it was now under control.

Several hospitals have had to be evacuated in a number of areas, including Santiago, because of structural damage.

One resident of Chillan, 100km from the epicentre, told Chilean television the shaking there lasted about two minutes.

Other residents of Chillan and Curico said communications were down but running water was still available.

Many of Chile's news websites and radio stations are still not accessible.

Buildings in Santiago were reported to have shaken for between 10 and 30 seconds, with the loss of electricity and communications.

Officials said damage to Santiago international airport's terminal would keep it closed for at least 24 hours.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake struck at a depth of about 35km.

It also recorded eight aftershocks, the largest of 6.9 magnitude at 0801 GMT.

The USGS said tsunami effects had been observed at Valparaiso, west of Santiago, with a wave height of 1.69m above normal sea level.

One journalist speaking to Chilean national television from the city of Temuco, 600km south of Santiago, said many people there had left their homes, determined to spend the rest of the night outside. Some people on the streets were in tears.

A university professor in Santiago, Cristian Bonacic, said that this was a massive quake but that the cities seemed to have resisted well. Internet communications were working but not mobile phones.

Chile is highly vulnerable to earthquakes as it is situated on the Pacific "Rim of Fire", on the edge of the Pacific and South American plates.

Chile suffered the biggest earthquake of the 20th century when a 9.5 magnitude quake struck the city of Valdivia in 1960, killing 1,655 people.

What Makes a Smartphone Smart?

What makes your smartphone smart? One key ingredient is the application processor that enables the devices to run the applications that are often so impressive.
The makers of these processors—and indeed, the companies that make the designs that go into these processors—keep adding new features. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) show, many were showing off their products and talking about where mobile processors would be going in the future.
Sometimes the applications processors get what you might call brand names: Qualcomm's Snapdragon, Texas Instruments' OMAP, and Nvidia's Tegra come to mind. But often they are fairly anonymous components, identified only by part number or speed, if that. Still, their increasing power is necessary for the advanced applications we now want to run on our mobile devices.
Keep in mind that a typical smartphone contains a number of hardware components, and there are many different ways of packaging them. In addition to an applications processor, a smartphone would also need a baseband chip (to connect with the 3G network), probably other communications chips (for Bluetooth, GPS functions, and Wi-Fi, for example), and possibly a separate graphics processor, along with memory for the base operating system, applications, and user data. Many of the component makers combine some of these functions, so the companies that make hardware mix and match to get the right combination for the phone they are making and the software they want it to run.
Nearly every smartphone on the market contains an application processor based on processor cores from ARM. (ARM says 2.5 billion chips with ARM cores shipped last year, and the typical phone has at least two.) ARM doesn't make chips itself; instead, it creates intellectual property in the form of designed-for-processor cores, graphics, and memory connections.
ARM's processor designs include the somewhat older ARM9 and ARM11 designs, and the more recent Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9, which we are beginning to see in very fast chips, and even in chips with multiple cores. The company is pushing the Cortex-A9 for high-end smartphones, and Cortex-A5 for sub-$100 smartphones.
In the graphics arena, ARM offers a design known as Mali. At the show, ARM announced a deal with Global Foundries under which the new foundry has access to ARM's designs, which it will offer to its customers in making custom chips.
ARM has a strong roadmap for increasing the performance of processors based on its technology in the next few years.
ARM is far from the only company that offers this kind of intellectual property. Another well-known one is Imagination Technologies, probably best known for its visual IP, notably the PowerVR series for graphics, video, and display. Graphics based on PowerVR are found in Intel's chipsets for the Atom and other processors with integrated graphics, as well as in a lot of smartphones including the Apple iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre. Imagination also offers communications IP and processor IP, often used for embedded Linux or digital signal processors (DSPs).
ARM and other companies license these designs to processor makers, who then adapt and combine them, often with their own IP; and in most cases, then send them to a semiconductor foundry form manufacturing.

HP Releases Trim 7

HP introduced a records management solution to reduce the business risk associated with regulatory compliance and legal discovery demands. HP TRIM 7 is designed to let organizations to manage all of their Microsoft SharePoint Server records in a single environment. This includes documents as well as information found in SharePoint Server blogs, wikis, discussions, forms, calendars and workflows. TRIM 7 enables the capture, search and management of various types of physical and electronic business information, including Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the upcoming SharePoint Server 2010. The Records Management module helps business records management by providing access to all the SharePoint Server content held in HP TRIM right from the SharePoint Server workspace. TRIM also has U.S. Department of Defense 5015.2 v3 certification. The Archiving module helps reduce the risk of data loss when reclaiming storage and system resources from SharePoint Server. The module archives specific list objects in SharePoint Server, or entire SharePoint Server sites, to HP TRIM. This happens behind the scenes, which could allow users to take entire SharePoint Server sites offline while ensuring continued access to information. The improved indexing and search capability could decrease the time spent searching for critical information as well as reduce response time for legal discovery, compliance requests and audits.

Best bits

Lia Timson rounds up the coolest gadgets at the latest technology trade show.

Tech heads and early adopters must have had a field day at CeBIT, Australia's largest technology trade show. It wrapped up this week, clearing the way for the latest hardware and software to be embraced by consumers and businesses. Some of the gear is already available, other devices will arrive later this year. Much of it capitalises on the trend toward mobile work.
Among the stars of the show was the ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC) - between a tablet PC and a personal digital assistant (PDA) - with full PC capabilities at half of the price of a tablet. The new $1650 EO from TabletKiosk is 50 per cent bigger than the average PDA, runs Windows XP and ditches Pocket PC applications in favour of full Windows software versions.
It's handier and lighter than a tablet or laptop and more useful than a PDA, primarily because of its 17cm touch screen. The UMPC will come with hard drives from 30GB to 160GB, and with memory up to 1GB. It is Wi-Fi and internet enabled, but does not have a mobile phone, although we are told one can be connected via Bluetooth.
Hugo Ortega, the principal of Tegatech Australia (http://www.tegatech.com.au/), distributors of the EO, says demand has already outstripped initial estimates, with 250 units sold in the first two hours of orders opening. It arrives in June.
"From what we've seen, there is demand for digital ink to take notes on the screen and have it transcribed to Word or other [program]," Ortega says. He says it will finally do away with paper notebooks carried around by students and note-taking professionals.
Samsung and Asus also have ultra-mobile PCs on the way soon.
Still on the portable stakes, a new credit card-size USB flash drive has arrived.
The compact Wallet Flash (http://www.walletex.com/) has a double-sided USB port that sticks out and is small enough to fit snugly with other cards in your wallet.
Gilad Grinbaum, the director of G-Innovations (http://www.ginnovations.com.au/), distributors of the Israeli-developed device, says it is waterproof, and starts from $30 for 128MB of storage.
If you're a mobile worker in tough and secret conditions, Panasonic's Toughbook CF-51 arrives in September (http://www.panasonic.com.au/). It is water and shock resistant and comes in a magnesium-alloy case. The 80GB hard drive is removable for security, and fingerprint and smart-card readers are optional. The series was designed to meet US military durability requirements.

Those working from home but wanting to bill calls to the office will like the Panasonic internet-protocol (IP) Softphone for PCs and laptops. It works over the net to bring the office telephone system to you.
Both are available only to businesses, but GoTalk's new VoIP USB memory stick is available through retailers for $49. It allows travellers to make cheap internet calls anywhere a laptop or PC is accessible.
For those who use a headset for calls at work, Polaris Communications (http://www.polaris.com.au/) launched the Soundshield, a USB device that plugs into existing landline headsets to eliminate those frightful high-pitched sounds. It is billed as an "acoustic safety device" because it prevents acoustic shock syndrome suffered by headset users, which could lead to tinnitus and permanent hearing loss.
Polaris business development manager Anita Bowtell says shrieks are caused by fax machines and other interferences, and penetrate the operators' ears, damaging hearing. The company developed the software after inheriting it from Telstra a few years ago.
Finally, a gadget to protect your valuables or car. The TrimTrac 1.5 GPS locator tracks the position of your asset, limits its geographical movements and even locks the car's doors and disables its engine remotely. Expect to pay $500 for the privilege.
CeBIT was held at Darling Harbour from May 9 to 11, catering to 700 exhibitors and 30,000 visitors.

Microsoft Builds Retail Store

Think of this store as a "Circuit City plus a few Surface displays, Microsoft Tags and magical screen-equipped shopping carts." Unfortunately, it's not open to the public. Oh, and before you gather up your Zune pals for a road trip: the Experience Center is real, but the customers are fake.

The Swiss army knife with Bluetooth, USB drive, and only unlocks by fingerprint

The iconic Swiss army knife has had a technological makeover from its creator, Victorinox.
The Presentation Pro, which is designed to help survive the urban jungle rather a literal one, features a removable USB flashdrive with 32GB memory, a laser pointer, and most remarkably, fingerprint recognition.In the tradition of the famous penknife, the Presentation Pro also features a standard blade, some scissors and a file. Victorinox has also created an airport security-friendly version of the Presentation Pro, without a knife, aimed at business travellers.

Logitechs MX Air ~~~~

New Logitech MX Air from Amazon.com "tracks motion even after you lift it off the surface, making it great for home theater PC users and presentations." The Gyration mouse is also significantly heavier which is subjective by taste. At $149 the MX Air is expensive so this really is a case of form over function. After a week using the MX Air, I�m pretty happy.