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Sri Lanka Cricket has slashed its budget for Australia's tour in August and September this year, sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has said. The cash cuts, he said, will not affect the quality of security provided for the teams, despite the board being instructed to trim the security bill from 50 million rupees ($ 445,000) to nine million rupees ($ 81,000). "We are taking austerity measures because we can't even recover the monies we are spending," Aluthgamage told  AFP . "There is no war now [Sri Lanka's conflict with the LTTE ended in May 2009], and I think there are enough officers in the military and police that could assure us very good security, at a fraction of the [originally projected] cost." Overall, the SLC had budgeted 300 million rupees ($ 2.67 million) for the tour that comprises three Tests, five ODIs and two Twenty20s. The projected income, however, was a "dismal" 150 million rupees. The board will now look to keep expen

The fast bowler Brett Geeves, who played three matches for Australia during 2008 and 2009, has retired from first-class cricket due to an ongoing back injury. Geeves, 29, has not given up on being part of the new Big Bash League, but he said his body was no longer up to the rigours of the longer formats. The back problem has signalled a disappointing end for Geeves, who made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in Darwin in 2008 and played another one-day international and a Twenty20 on the tour of South Africa the following year. He has not played first-class cricket since January 2010, and his sole appearance for Tasmania last summer was in a Ryobi Cup game in October. "My back's about as stable as the Egyptian government at the moment, it's time for me to part ways with cricket," Geeves told ABC Radio on Monday. "After 17 months of rehab, I'm spent. Time to move forward." Geeves will end his career with 140 wickets at 33.10 in 41 first-class appearances,

A stunning 44-ball century from Kevin O'Brien helped Gloucestershire post the highest total in domestic T20 cricket and move off the foot of the Friends Life South Group after overcoming fellow-strugglers Middlesex by 105 runs at Uxbridge. The Gladiators racked up 254 for three against a toothless Panthers attack - beating the 250 for three recorded by Somerset, against Gloucestershire, at Taunton in 2006. They were also only four runs away from equalling the world record set by Sri Lanka against Kenya in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 . Irish World Cup star O'Brien crashed 119 off 52 balls and Hamish Marshall hit 102 in 54 deliveries as the Gladiators became the first side to boast two centurions in the same T20 innings. O'Brien, whose previous best in domestic Twenty20 cricket was 39 not out, revived memories of his thrilling 113 against England in this year's World Cup as the 27-year-old Irishman made the most of being dropped on 14 and 33 to bring up his fifty from 23

A disciplined bowling performance enabled Durham Dynamos to claim their second Friends Life t20 victory in the space of three days and move a giant step closer to a quarter-final place. Despite appearing all but beaten at the halfway stage of their opponents' innings, Durham rallied impressively to claim a three-run victory over Leicestershire Foxes. Needing to hit a boundary off the final ball of the game, Leicestershire's Claude Henderson could only roll the ball back to bowler Mitch Claydon, who had earlier claimed two wickets in his first over. Leicestershire, who finished on 184 for 7, looked like securing their second victory in as many days when former Durham University student Will Jefferson hammered 63 runs from 30 balls. However, after Jefferson was trapped leg before to Dale Benkenstein's first delivery of the afternoon with the score on 113 for three, the visitors quickly lost their momentum. Liam Plunkett removed both Jacques Du Toit and Abdul Razzaq in the ve

Having a hand that doesn’t do what you want it to do or does things on its own is horror flick fare. Two prime examples of this in cinema would be Evil Dead and The Hand. If those flicks give you the creeps, you might want to look away now. Researchers at Tokyo University worked with Sony to create a new and weird contraption that allows them to hack your body and take control of your hand. I could see this tech leading to some impressively control prosthetics with a few tweaks too. The tech is dubbed the PossessedHand and uses a series of wires and electrodes to shoot electrical pulsed into the muscles of the forearm causing the hand to move depending on the sequence of shocks delivered. The contraption can be taught to send certain signals to the muscles to replicate the movement of a normal wrist and fingers. The team says that it could be used for things like musical instrument training. The wearer of the tech says that it feels like a gentle hand massage rather than other tech tha

Google has its fingers into some many different projects that it can be very hard to keep track of them all. One of the oddest projects that Google has been into is the design and operation of cars that can drive themselves. Interestingly Google chose to use Prius and Audi TT’s as their driverless fleet and not the obviously well qualified black 80′s Trans Am. We have seen these driverless cars in action before, and to be honest they are a bit disconcerting to see in action. You are placing a lot in the hands of software and hardware when you resign yourself sitting in the passenger seat as the cars navigate without your input. As strange as it is to ride in a car with no driver, the tech is really cool and makes a lot of sense in many ways. The roads probably would be safer with idiot drivers taken out of the equation and a group of interlinked cars handling all the driving. Google has apparently been working with legislators in Nevada to get a bill passed that would allow its automat

We spent a lot of time playing games during the summers when I was a kid because its 173-degrees in Texas for nearly four months out of the year. We would occasionally venture out into the woods to tear stuff up and run amuck though. The best thing ever was happening on those sticks that survey crews hammer into the ground. We had no idea what they were at the time, but finding one was like finding Excalibur. The ribbons tied to them even made a great handle wrap. The downside is the survey crews didn’t appreciate it at all. We would use plain old sticks in a pinch, but no matter what we used someone would inevitably end up with bloody knuckles after getting whacked in the hand with another stick sword. A very cool concept over on Naama Agassi’s page is called simply the Branch Holder. It looks like it’s made from one of those things you use to get a grip on a jar with a tight lid only it’s patterned and has two holes in it. The idea is that you can pass your stick through it and you g

A lot of the talk we have had about Asus lately has been about the tablets that the company is offering that are among the more interesting Android offerings out there. The Eee Pad Transformer is a good example of one of the most talked about Asus products recently. Asus isn’t leaving the netbook market behind and back at Computex 2011 Asus was showing off a couple new netbooks including the X101H and the X101. Both of the new netbooks run the same Intel Atom N435 processor. The difference comes in the operating system that the machines use. The X101 will run the MeeGo OS while the X101H will run Windows 7. Unless the MeeGo netbook is much cheaper I don’t see it doing that well honestly. Both netbooks pack in a 10-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600. They also both have SSDs for storage and a 6-cell battery powers both machines. The X101 netbook will reportedly land in July starting at $199. The X101H will also land in July and will sell for somewhere in the $310 to $350 range.

The hacker group known as LulzSec set out on what they call a 50-day cruise. It was more like a 50-day hack fest where the group accessed all sorts of data and took sites offline. The data that the hackers accessed was released to the public for the most part. After the 50 days of hacking the group is now calling it quits. That is probably a good thing, I suspect with all the hacking going on and with some of the sites attacked being US government sites there will be some government-sponsored investigations going on. As LulzSec heads out the door they saw fit to toss some internal AT&T documents out into the public eye. The documents supposedly outline AT&Ts plans for LTE rollout and plans for the iPhone 5 and iPad 3. Naturally all of this data is suspect since it came from a nefarious group of hackers. The leaked data includes a PowerPoint presentation that outlines the launch of the iPad 3 in the fall or next March. The March date makes a lot more sense to me. The launch date

I have been a gamer since the days of the Atari console and over the years the thing that has been a fact of the gaming world is that each successive generation of consoles tends to get more expensive. The gamer might complain about cost but if the console has some compelling features and good games many people will buy the console even if it’s expensive. Generally we see the major console developers simply choose the hardware and then price their machines accordingly. Techon has had an interview with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida about the coming Sony portable console dubbed NGP. In the interview Yoshida confirmed that Sony worked backwards from what most of us would expect on the development of a console rather than just making the NGP awesome with some of the coolest hardware around and then coming to a price people would spend, the price came first. Sony settled on a price of about $310 USD as the first step and then went and chose hardware

On the computer platform there are a bunch of games that use the free to play scheme and are supported by other means. These free to play games allow the user to buy things in the game to make their gaming more fun. The perfect example of the free to play game that also makes a lot of money in add ons is Farmville. There are hoards of people that buy points to add items on the game. Sources claim that to support this style of game Microsoft is preparing a microtransaction system. The sources also claim that Microsoft is working behind the scenes with game developers to try to get them to build games that are supported by smaller in game transactions. The games could also make money by selling premium upgrades as well. So far Microsoft has offered no official statement on the plans for free to play gaming and the micro transaction service. The success of social games and their developers at using free to play gaming with small micro payments to support upgrades and other items should ap

HTC has officially launched the HTC EVO 3D in Europe, with the 3D Android smartphone – which we reviewed in US form earlier this month – set to go on sale with HSPA+ GSM connectivity from July. The EVO 3D has a 4.3-inch glasses-free 3D display running at the same qHD 960 x 540 resolution as the HTC Sensation , along with a dual 5-megapixel camera array that can shoot stills and both 2D and 3D video at up to 720p HD resolution. There’s also the same 1.2GHz Qualcomm dual-core processor as in the Sensation, paired with 1GB of ROM and 1GB of RAM. Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and dual-band HSPA/WCDMA, capable of up to 14.4Mbps downloads and up to 5.7Mbps uploads, network depending. The microUSB port supports MHL HDMI – and will pump out both 2D and 3D footage to your TV, if it’s compatible – and there’s a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera rather than the Sensation’s VGA resolution camera. In comparison to the Sensation, it’s a bigger, chunkier device. The HTC EVO 3D mea

If you are a Nokia smartphone fan the new Nokia N5 coming down the pipe has been leaked with some blurry and over-exposed photos for you to check out. The phone reminds me of most of the other smartphones from Nokia. It has a touchscreen and we don’t know much in the way of specs other than what can be gleaned from the photos. One pic shows the interface looking a lot like what is on the N9. The OS is Symbian Anna and the device in the photo carries the disclaimer on one of the boot screens that say “Prototype Property of Nokia, Not for Sale.” The smartphone will come in black or white colors with the metallic looking green back on the white version. The smartphone has a 5MP camera on the back and the left side of the handset has a button to activate the camera. The screen size is unknowing though GSM Arena estimates it as about 3.2-inches. The phone looks to be an entry-level smartphone. The source that leaked these photos also claims that after the N5 debuts will come the N6 and N7 t

I know nothing of bras really other than the one handed pop-twist-fling move that I learned in my college days in a martial arts class called Bra-Maga. What I do know is that if any of you ladies out there want to get some lingerie that will really grab the attention of the geek in your life, skip Victoria’s Secret and head over to Etsy. The only bra that will take your geeks mind off getting you out of it are these three bras from the ScreenShoes shop on Etsy. The bras are custom painted with any of several designs on them. If you are into Pokemon the Pokebra is the ticket. Each of the cups looks like a Pokeball. I’m actually surprised there is no jock strap for guys to get for their geeky ladies, that one seems obvious to me. The Pokebra is cool, but the old school gamer might like the other styles better. I think my favorite is the hand-painted Mario mushroom and goomba bra , I shall call it Braio. You can also get a bra with half of an old school Nintendo controller on each cup.

Images of the fast-incoming Olympus EP-3 interchangeable lens camera have leaked, ahead of what’s expected to be a June 30 launch of the new model. PhotoRumors snagged the shots and some apparent specifications, with the EP-3 supposedly having a new 12-megapixel sensor which Olympus has developed in-house, and which supports up to ISO 12800. There’s also support for 1080i 60fps video recording, and a new autofocus system that’s faster than what we’ve seen on previous PEN range cameras. A pop-up flash is visible in the top section, while on the back is a touchscreen LCD display which apparently packs over 600k dots. Olympus has reworked its interface, with a rethink on buttons and menus, and there’s an additional pre-set filter too. We can spy a useful little thumb-scroll wheel on the rear of the EP-3 in the upper right, as well as what looks to be a scroll ring further down for navigating through menus. Talk of the new Olympus camera has been rumbling for the past few months, with the

Apple is reportedly preparing to ramp up the preventative measures it uses to prevent iOS device owners from restoring older firmware versions, a system often used as part of jailbreak and/or unlocking hacks. As of iOS 5 , the iPhone Dev Team reports, Apple will be stepping up the authentication process on the “APTicket” which deems whether a particular firmware version can be installed on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch or not. Even those owners who have “saved their blobs” – aka keeping a record of SHSH details for each firmware version – so that they can backtrack to earlier, more hack-friendly iterations of iOS will be affected. The new system Apple is looking to implement is already used in other areas of iOS, namely the BBTickets. Basically, the APTicket will now be uniquely generated each time the user restores, relying not just on the ECID and firmware version of the device, but a random number as well. Each boot will see the device authenticate the APTicket, and as only Apple w

Best Buy online now lists Apple’s MacBook Air as “not available for shipping,” lending weight to expectations that the ultraportable will be imminently refreshed. All four of the current Core 2 Duo MacBook Air models are listed as unavailable for online purchase and delivery, at both Best Buy’s US store and the retailer’s UK network . The move usually signifies that the retailer is reserving its remaining stock for in-store sales. Apple, meanwhile, still lists availability within 24 hours of all four versions of the Air. Nonetheless, Best Buy’s move does certainly imply that an updated ultraportable is fast incoming. That update, previously leaks have indicated, will include a Thunderbolt port – as we saw used with LaCie’s dual-SSD Little Big Disk external storage last week – and Intel’s 2011 Sandy Bridge Core processors. Physical design is unlikely to change significantly; when the MacBook Pro had a similar upgrade earlier this year, the only outward tweak was replacing the Mini

I would wager most readers are familiar with the Vizio brand. The company has a great line of HDTVs that are the best selling in the US market thanks to the performance and the price of the sets. The company will also soon get into the Android tablet market with a new offering that sounds very nice for the price. Vizio is also now looking to get into a new market to make use of its LED prowess and I hope that it can bring the same low price and quality to this new market. Vizio has announced that it is stepping in the LED lighting industry. Vizio already makes use of LEDs in the backlighting for its popular HDTVs so it has some experience and access to LED tech. The entry into the LED market by Vizio will come in late Q4 2011. At this point there is no indication of how expensive the bulbs will be. Vizio claims the lights will last 25 times longer than traditional light bulbs and they use much less power. The Vizio LRB60A19 will replace a 60W incandescent bulb and consumes only 12.5 w

A student named Markus Kayser created an awesome project for a MA Design Products project. I hope he graduates with honors simply for the coolness of this project. Kayser created a device that can take advantage of the two unlimited resources out in the desert – sun and sand. The project is dubbed Solar Sinter and is a 3D printer powered by the sun and it uses the sand as the medium to create the objects it prints. The Solar Sinter was completed in the middle of May and then Kayser and his creation headed out into the Sahara desert in the area of Siwa, Egypt to put his creation to the test for two weeks. The concept worked and creates a cool process that can be harnessed for the design and creation of 3D items that people need. The device uses solar energy to turn the sand into a form of glass. The Solar Sinter uses open source ReplicatorG software, which is a 3D printing program. The finished project is on display at the Royal College of Art graduate exhibit right now. Check out the v

You might recall back on June 16 we said that the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 tablet had been confirmed for a July launch. Lenovo has now confirmed via an update to its affiliate network in the US that the K1 could be coming a bit earlier than we though. Lenovo lists the official launch for the K1 as late June or early July. That would put the launch of the Android tablet any day now since this is the last week of June. The affiliate network tip also shows that a new ThinkPad tablet will launch on June 28. ThinkPad is the business-focused line so this is likely to be the Windows 7 tablet we have heard about in the past. The K1 Android tablet will use a 10.1-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800. The processor under the hood will be a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra II dual core. The exact version of Android is unknown. We know it will be Honeycomb, but we aren’t sure if we will see 3.0 or the newer 3.1 update. The tablet is thought to sell for around $500. That price will put the tablet out of contenti

Crowd-sourcing for a design is nothing new. It’s done for all sorts of things. Typically those things have nothing to do with the military though. It often takes years and years simply to get a design approved by the military and then takes more years to get a functional prototype and it can take a decade or more before a fully functional prototype is in the field and production version rolls off the line. DARPA wanted to find a new military ground vehicle and decided to test a new method to get it. DARPA crowed-sourced the design of the XC2V military vehicle as a way to study the viability of designing military vehicles in this method and to see how much faster it would be than traditional design methods. This vehicle is a multipurpose ground transport that can take soldiers into and out of combat and can be converted to use as a medical transport too. The final design looks really cool and reminds me more than a little of an open desert trophy truck. The coolest part is that the crow

Lay down your Dyson, unplug your Hoover and send Henry to the knackers’ yard. Fresh from showing how much it sucks in the US, Neato ‘s XV-15 robotic vacuum cleaner is on its way to Europe to assassinate dust bunnies there, too. Meaner looking than a Roomba, according to Neato the XV-15 is cleverer than its rivals too, fighting dirt not only with suction but with lasers. Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut. Hardware Most domestic robot vacuums – such as from iRobot, Samsung and LG – have opted for a discrete, almost delicate design; something that won’t upset the children when it trundles into their rooms and nudges through their toys. Neato, though, have gone an entirely different direction. The XV-15 (like its XV-11 US cousin) is battleship grey and resolutely masculine, while its squared-off front bumper is broad and blunt-nosed. What makes the XV-15 special, Neato claims, is its intelligent room mapping. Whereas the Roomba basically operates on a bump-and-rotate system

Want a whole new group of annoying Italian-Americans to love/hate?  Well, MTV's going to give it to you. The current cast of  Jersey Shore  is filming its fourth season in Italy, and then they'll be returning to the U.S. to film the fifth season this summer.  After that, they'll be leaving the MTV show and the cable channel will be recasting the entire series, according to  US Magazine . The current stars of  Jersey Shore  make around $100,000 per episode, and several of them, including Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Jenni "J-Woww" Farley and Paul "DJ Pauly D" DelVecchio, have already signed up for their own spin-offs (with Snooki and J-Woww starring together).  So MTV has decided that bringing in a newer - and, more importantly, cheaper - cast is the way to go. The question, of course, is whether the fans will respond well to a whole new cast (especially if they don't really keep any of the original stars).  Or perhaps the better question is wh

This article contains mild spoilers for season two of  Game of Thrones . It's really nothing that won't be in casting news later on, but be warned. There's no denying it; at least for the first season of the HBO series, Ned Stark (Sean Bean) was the star of  Game of Thrones. The show's promotional campaign featured the maybe-iconic image of Ned sitting on the iron throne, his eyes downcast and his face in shadow. He was the only character to really relate to the series for unfamiliar viewers. But now his face (and head) have been detached from the rest of his body, thanks to the new King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson)'s capricious verdict. He died in the final moments of Sunday's episode "Baelor," and the series will certainly never be the same (check back tomorrow for why I think Ned's death is good for the storyline). Perhaps what will change the most is the promotional campaign for the second season (based on Martin's second novel in the saga,  A C

One thing that is often commented on with regards to  Mad Men , is the sixties fashion which has influenced catwalks and the pages of top fashion magazines such as  Vogue ,  Elle  and Marie Claire . There has been a  Brooks Brothers   Mad Men edition suit and now  Mad Men's  award winning costume designer Janie Bryant is bringing a range to the more affordable Banana Republic. The limited edition collection will be in stores from August 11 and will be available for order the day before for Banana Republic's  Facebook  fans. There are items for both men and women, with prices starting at $39.50 for a silk scarf going to $450 for a men's suit and comprises of 65 pieces. The range includes both evening and day wear such as; trench coats, high wasted skirts, floral dresses, bags, shoes, ties and hats (for a full look at the collection head  here ). Of course they are all inspired by the 1960s and wouldn't look out of place in the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, bu

The 37th Saturn Awards were held on Thursday night and several of TV's most popular science fiction, fantasy, and horror shows picked up hardware.  Fringe  was the big winner with 3 awards, one for Best Network Series, a repeat win for Anna Torv in Best Actress in Television, and one for John Noble in Best Supporting Actor in Television. Noble recently picked up the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor. Fringe  wasn't the only show to take home honors at the Saturn Awards, though. Stephen Moyer from  True Blood  received his first Saturn Award for his role as Bill Compton, while his co-star Joe Manganiello won Best Guest Starring Role on Television for portraying protective werewolf Alcide on the hugely successful HBO drama. Ahead of its July 17th season 4 premiere,  Breaking Bad walked off with the award for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series, its second win in a row in this category. Other TV winners included Lucy Lawless ( Spartacus: Blood and

I have to admit, my  Supernatural  preference has always leaned towards Dean Winchester/Jensen Ackles.  But it's like Jared Padalecki is unconsciously campaigning for my love by posting adorable photos to his new Twitter account ( @jarpad ) and just being awesome (plus, I kind of feel sorry for him since something obviously happened to his iPad and I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on anyone). So clearly the only real solution is for Jensen to bite the bullet and join Twitter too so that the both of them can battle for my affection.  But until that happens, let's celebrate the fact that Jared recently won  Next Movie's poll  of TV stars who should become movie stars.  He beat out  Vampire Diaries'  Nina Dobrev and  Chuck's  Yvonne Strahovski, among others.  Of course, this is not shocking.  After spending enough time in this fandom, I would actually dare the internet to put on a poll that  Supernatural  fans didn't end up winning (seriously, internet, I DAR

A few weeks after it was reported that actress Lisa Edelstein would not be returning to  House  for its eighth and allegedly final season,  TVLine  is reporting  that Edelstein is now part of the CBS drama  The Good Wife.  The critically acclaimed legal drama nabbed Edelstein after the actress left House  with "disappointment" after failing to reach the terms of a new contract. Edelstein, whose character Lisa Cuddy was involved with the season seven cliffhanger of House , will reportedly be playing "a lawyer and born poker player whose sexiness is enhanced by her obvious intelligence" on the Julianna Margulies-starring series. There's no word yet on how the producers of  House  plan to write Edelstein out, but the writers of The Good Wife  are having no problem writing her in -- she'll be popping up early on in  The Good Wife 's third season, which premieres this fall. Television fans had previously been hoping that Edelstein might nab a role on ABC'

The sixth season finale of  Weeds  could have functioned as a tense, darkly funny, surprisingly emotional series finale that encapsulated just how awful and how fantastic Nancy Botwin can be. Thankfully, the show was brought back for a 7th season, but if you think we'll get to see Nancy on trial/in prison for turning herself in for the murder of Pilar, you're mistaken. The 7th season of Weeds  is eschewing the legal mumbo jumbo and conjugal visits in favor of following the Botwin clan (and Doug) as they head to New York. Yes, last season was basically "The Botwins Do America" (and they did it well, as season 6 was a tremendous creative coup for the show), so this season, we'll get to see a bit more stability. Nancy will be getting released from prison after serving three years with a beautiful, almost equally as manipulative Russian woman  with whom she had an affair . (Of course she did.)  TVLine reports  that Nancy's time in the halfway house won't be a

This is the best casting news I've heard all week.  If you watched Showtime's  The Tudors , you might recongize Natalie Dormer, who played Anne Boleyn in seasons 1 and 2 before she, unfortunately, lost her head.  Dormer was one of my favorite actresses in  The Tudors . Well, she's heading to HBO and has been cast as a regular in season 2 of  Game of Thrones ,  EW reports . Game of Thrones  ended its first season this past Sunday, but news about its second season is already trickling in, because shooting will resume on July 25. Dormer will be playing Margaery Tyrell.  As it turns out, there are many people out there who aren't happy about Joffrey ascending the Iron Throne.  King Robert's brother, Renly Baratheon, wants to make a bid for the throne.  Margaery's family - the influential House Tyrell - promises her hand in marriage to Renly to help support his cause to become king. We're sure to hear more casting news coming in throughout the rest of June and t