It’s no wonder we need to upgrade our computers on a regular basis. Not only are chip companies regularly releasing ever-faster microprocessors, but new research has revealed that modern CPUs actually lose megahertz over time.

This startling conclusion follows a five-year research programme carried out by the Illyria University’s Information Technology department.

“Five years ago, we activated a dozen new, freshly-purchased systems,” said Computer Science Professor Asteio Artikolos. “Since then we have measured, on average, a 10-15 per cent reduction in the machines’ clock speeds over that time. It’s as if each machine’s stock of megahertz were somehow leaking away.

“Each year, we have added new, faster machines. Not only have these seen a similar reduction over time in the number of processing cycles available each second, but the rate of decrease is greater than older, slower microprocessors.”

Intel was unavailable for comment. AMD, however, claimed to be well aware of the problem and to be already designing processors capable of working beyond the limits of Einsteinian mathematics - with a negative temporal displacement facility built in.

How much money could you make from a technology that replaces electrical wires? A startup called Powercast, along with the more than 100 companies that have inked agreements with it, is about to start finding out. Powercast and its first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.

It may sound futuristic, but Powercast’s platform uses nothing more complex than a radio–and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device’s battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

Picture your cell phone charging up the second you sit down at your desk, and you start to get a sense of the opportunity. How big can it get? “The sky’s the limit,” says John Shearer, Powercast’s founder and CEO. He estimates shipping “many millions of units” by the end of 2008.

Technology giant, IBM, is soon to launch a multimedia browser to make audio and video content accessible to people with vision impairments.

Codenamed the Accessibility Browser - or A-Browser - the software was created by a blind employee in Japan.

The A-Browser will give blind and partially-sighted people the same control over multimedia content that sighted people have using a mouse.

IBM says it will be available later this year and hopes it will be free.

Its time to start mixing things up and experimenting in YouTube land. Google has officially opened the TestTube where engineers and developers can test recipes and concoctions for new YouTube initiatives.

The TestTube incubator welcomes all user feedback on new services that get cooked up in the lab, with the first two being AudioSwap and Streams.