Communications Technology

The next evolution in portable music - storing your songs on the internet and streaming them on a smartphone - has taken a leap forward after Amazon became the first big company to offer the service.

Amazon customers can upload five gigabytes of their own music for free on the retail giant’s website. They can listen to that music anywhere in the world as long as they have an Android smartphone - iPhones are not compatible - that can tap wireless broadband.

Any PC or Mac connected to landline broadband will also play the service, known as Cloud Player.

”Our customers have told us they don’t want to download music to their work computers or phones because they find it hard to move music around to different devices,” said Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice-president of music. ”Now, whether at work, home or on the go, customers can buy music from Amazon MP3, store it on the cloud, and play it anywhere.”

The ”cloud” is jargon for websites such as Facebook, Gmail, SkyDrive, Dropbox, Posterous, Flickr - and now Amazon - where users can upload and store personal documents, photos, and sound and video files.

The five gigabytes on Cloud Player is equal to 9.5 hours of CD-quality music or 100 hours of MP3-quality music. US customers can have four times that amount of storage if they buy an album on Amazon MP3, but Amazon would not say if this offer will spread to markets such as Australia.

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A group of Brisbane researchers are leading a new space race, as they help develop a special beer for intergalactic travellers.

Researchers at Queensland University of Technology’s microgravity “drop tower” are testing the first Australian space beer, which will cater to the soon-to-launch space tourism industry.

QUT’s research facility director, Ted Steinberg, said the microgravity tower simulated the low-gravity level present in space, allowing the companies behind the beer to determine how it would be affected by space travel.

“The tower is about 30 metres high and it gives us about two seconds of zero gravity,” Professor Steinberg said.

“Essentially they’re looking at the correct carbonation level so it can be consumed in zero gravity. They’re really trying to perfect the carbonation level and behaviour.

“If it was too carbonated it would not sit well, if it was not carbonated enough you wouldn’t get the flavour.”

Professor Steinberg said researchers achieved two seconds of zero gravity by loading the beer into a 400 kilogram metal capsule and pulling it to the top of the microgravity tower, before letting it freefall.

Professor Steinberg said the project was one of many projects underway at the research centre, with the microgravity tower contributing to the invention of new materials produced without the effects of gravity.

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Sydney schools insist they would never ask photographers to airbrush shots of students, in the wake of an outcry over a Melbourne teenager’s “bouffant” look in a digitally altered picture.

Students from Our Lady of Sion College in Box Hill discovered their school photos had been retouched to change hair styles and cover up earrings.

National School Photography, who took the photos, said the school’s daily co-ordinator, Julie Johannes, sent them an email asking for the changes to be made after the school received proofs.

The school principal, Karen Jebb, said the photography company advised that the changes wouldn’t be noticeable and the school did not double check the photos before they were handed to students.

Many Sydney schools said they would never consider asking for school photos to be digitally altered.

SCEGGS Darlinghurst head of school Jenny Allum said there would never be the need.

“SCEGGS girls always wear their uniforms so neatly that we’ve never had any cause to consider that matter,”.

Sydney Girls High School principal Andrea Connell agreed.

“No. I’ve never heard of anything so silly.”

Karen Gair, Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College’s director of development and community relations, said the school had never thought of asking for changes.

“I can safely say that’s never happened, never even been considered.”

Ms Gair said the girls themselves make sure they look good for school photos, while teachers are on hand to see that students are neat and tidy.

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