The Bush Administration has announced that starting in October 2006 all U.S. passports will be implanted with computer chips. These chips will allow government officials to know when you have arrived at a port of entry. Though the State Department claims that the chips “will not permit ‘tracking’ of individuals,” privacy advocates are still concerned citing identity theft as another problem.

News.com has an article about a recent study which claims that $217 million is wasted each year in the United Kingdom alone due to computers that are left on when unused. The article also highlights the ongoing confusion concerning when to turn off or on a computer. Advocates exist on both sides. Here’s what to know:

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Intel has a new technology called "Robson," which it showed off in Taipei on Monday. The idea is for add-in flash memory cards to hold the information necessary to start up a computer. Current computers have to wait for hard drives, which use a motor to be powered. With this new technology, not only will your computer turn on much more quickly but your laptop may also have increased battery life (flash memory uses way less battery power than hard drives). For more information, check out this article.

The Wall Street Journal Reports that Microsoft has released a free update for Windows XP Media Center that allows computers with this operating system to link with the upcoming Xbox 360. This will make it so that users can stream digitial music, photos, and high-definition video from their PCs to a television via this connection.

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According to Engadget, the European Commission has just announced plans for a unified music license to be used across all member countries. The hope is to boost demand for online music sales by simplifying the process. Germany is the EU’s biggest music-downloading country and according to some research, 89 percent of downloaders don’t pay for their music or videos. We shall see if this new license fixes that…

The new video iPod is here and will ship as early as next week. It includes a 2.5-inch wide color screen, which is larger than the screens of previous iPods, though the unit itself is 30 percent thinner. The iPod can hold up to 150 hours of video or 15,000 songs. The 30 gigabyte model will cost $299 with a 60 gigabyte model costing $399.

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News.com released two articles within a few hours of each other that focus on the lack of American data privacy standards and the rising threat of spyware. The first article discusses how American companies exchange subscriber and customer lists with next to no public complaint while the second article discusses how data may be leaking from computers via more sophisticated methods.

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A group called the Enhanced Wireless Consortium has recently proposed new wireless technology capable of transmission rates up to 600Mbps. This is over 10 times the speed of current wireless technology (54Mbps) and would make wireless connectivity a more feasible option for advanced multimedia (such as streaming video, high definition TV, etc.). Here is a list of the 27 companies involved, some of which have threatened to develop the technology even if a universal standard can not be met:

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple may be releasing a video iPod, a spin-off of the very popular digital music player. The screen will be larger than the traditional iPod screen and will be able to play high-quality color video. Apple’s music downloading service iTunes is expected to sell music videos for $1.99 each.

America Online, the owner of the Netscape browser, has announced a deal with Hewlett-Packard according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Starting early next year, all new HP and Compaq brand PCs will come preinstalled with Netscape.

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