Google To Finance $100 Million For YouTube

Google plans to create 20 special channels on its YouTube site, and will spend $100 million to create original programming to populate them, according to sources who talked with the Wall Street Journal.

Like Netflix announced last month, Google wants to create its own streaming video programs, however, according to the WSJ sources, the company will create low-cost programming designed specifically for the web and YouTube, and support the shows with advertising. The sources said this will be a "major overhaul" to YouTube, which already has a lucrative advertising system in place.

US Operators Prepare to Launch Isis Digital Wallet Pilot

Isis will pilot its mobile commerce program based on Near-Field Communications technology in Salt Lake City in early- to mid-2012, the joint venture said on Monday.

Isis was formed in November last year and is a joint-venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, with the goal of using NFC technology to turn mobile phones into digital wallets.

The First Plastic Processor

Silicon may underpin the computers that surround us, but the rigid inflexibility of the semiconductor means it cannot reach everywhere. The first computer processor and memory chips made out of plastic semiconductors suggest that, someday, nowhere will be out of bounds for computer power.

Chrysler Experiments with Hydraulic Hybrid Minivans

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Chrysler Group have partnered to test a hydraulic hybrid system for minivans that could be cheaper than conventional hybrid systems and could save more gasoline. EPA and Chrysler are each spending $2 million (for a total of $4 million) on the project, and they expect to begin road testing next year.