Turn off the technology to get enough sleep

Dependence on televisions, cell-phones and laptops may be costing Americans in lack of sleep.

The national penchant for watching television every evening before going to sleep, playing video games late into the night or checking emails and text messages before turning off the lights could be interfering with the nation's sleep habits.

"Unfortunately, cell phones and computers, which make our lives more productive and enjoyable, may be abused to the point that they contribute to getting less sleep at night leaving millions of Americans functioning poorly the next day," said Russell Rosenberg, the vice chairman of the Washington DC-based National Sleep Foundation (NSF).

Nearly 95 percent of people questioned in an NSF study said they used some type of electronics in the hour before going to bed, and about two-thirds admitted they do not get enough sleep during the week.

Charles Czeisler, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said exposure to artificial light before going to bed can increase alertness and suppress the release of melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone.

"Technology has invaded the bedroom," Czeisler explained in an interview. "Invasion of such alerting technologies into the bedroom may contribute to the high proportion of respondents who reported they routinely get less sleep than they need."

Baby boomers, or people aged 46-64 years old, were the biggest offenders of watching television every night before going to sleep, while more than a third of 13-18 year-olds and 28 percent of young adults 19-29 year olds played video games before bedtime.

Sixty one percent also said they used their computer or laptop at least a few nights each week.
And a propensity to stay in touch means that even people who have managed to fall asleep, are being woken up by cell-phones, texts and emails during the night.

"One in 10 kids report they are being awoken by texts after they have gone to bed. People don't turn off their Blackberries," said Czeisler, adding that much of this is happening at the expense of sleep.

Generation Z'ers, 13-18 year olds, were the most sleep-deprived group, with 22 percent describing themselves as "sleepy," compared to only nine percent of baby boomers.

Sleep experts recommend that teenagers get 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep a night but adolescents in the study were only averaging 7 hours and 26 minutes on weeknights.

"I am the most concerned about how little sleep 13-18 years are getting," said Czeisler. "Kids today are getting an hour and a half to two hours less sleep per night than they did a century ago. That means that they are losing about 50 hours of sleep per month," said Czeisler.

Americans' lack of sleep is negatively impacting their work, mood, family, driving habits, sex lives and health, according to the NSF.

All age groups are coping by consuming caffeinated drinks - about three 12-ounce (354 ml) beverages per person - per day, and taking naps, sometimes more than one during the day.

"Parents should get these technologies out of the bedrooms of kids if they want them to do well," said Czeisler.

Cyber attack on French finance ministry

The French finance ministry has come under sustained cyber attack since December from Internet hackers targetting the treasury and G20 documents, said Paris-Match magazine.

"Between December and this weekend, the ministry of finance and the economy was the victim of an unprecedented cyber attack," the publication reported.

The management of the French Treasury department was the prime target of the attacks.
The origin of the attacks had not yet been established.

"We noted that a certain amount of information was redirected to Chinese sites. But that does not say very much," a senior official told Paris-Match.

Patrick Pailloux, directeur general of the French National Agency for Information Technology Security, told the magazine the hackers were after "documents related to the French presidency of the G20 and to international economic affairs."

"The actors were determined professionals and organised. It is the first attack of this size and scale against the French state," he added.

More than 150 ministry computers had been hacked and numerous documents pirated. Individuals were not targetted in the attack.

Bercy has filed an official complaint with the French courts and the French secret service has taken up the case.

20 Android apps for Motorola Xoom

Tapping into Android apps on the Motorola Xoom tablet literally introduces a new dimension to Google’s mobile operating experience.

While the distinction between apps on tablets and smartphones on Android devices is less pronounced than what exists between the iPad and iPhone as well as the iPod touch, there are a handful of great Android apps for the Motorola Xoom that one should consider downloading right out of the box. Here are some of them to consider…

Great games on the Xoom..
Shortly before the Xoom’s February 24 release date, Zynga’s immensely popular game Words With Friends debuted on Android’s devices. The Scrabble-like game, which is free, is much better suited to the tablet form factor than on any smartphone. Battle other wordsmiths in the living room or match your skills against a random stranger in another part of the globe.

If you are more of a fan of action games, than dual-stick shooter Gun Bros is a great free title to download to the Xoom. Games optimized for the Xoom like Gun Bros should inspire independent developers to invest more time and resources in the Android space.

While Angry Birds is addictive on any device, Android users will love tapping into this transformative game in tablet form on the Xoom.

Customizing your Xoom with these apps..
There is a reason why Beautiful Widgets, which lets users customize clock, weather date and other functions on their device, is one of the best paid Android apps of all time. Make the Xoom your own with this $2.99 application.

Androidify is a playful app officially developed by Google that lets users dress up the little green character and then share variations with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. With the Xoom, the little guy can get an extra large wardrobe.

Apps to entertain on the big screen..
Before watching a flick or television show on your Xoom or a bigger screen, check out trailers, showtimes and TV listings with the iconic IMDb Movies and TV Android app.

Conan O’Brien may have been relegated to basic cable after being dismissed from The Tonight Show, but his humor translates well in interactive and mobile media environments. The free Team Coco Android app offers clips, outtakes, and behind-the-scenes footage of Conan’s steadily popular TBS show.

For the kiddies, Dr. Seuss titles on tablets beautifully reproduce his classic books and offer interactive features and compelling narration. The Lorax - Dr Seuss, at $2.99, may forever change storytime in your house.

Informative apps that offer the bigger picture..
A great showcase for Honeycomb, the CNN App for Android includes live video, breaking news and the user-generated iReport feature.

The free Pulse News Reader should satisfy even the most voracious news junkie. Consuming this app on the Xoom is a qualitatively different experience than tapping into it on a smartphone. While smartphones are ideal for news on-the-go, reading articles on the tablet version of Pulse News Reader may finally motivate you to suspend subscriptions to all print publications.

Multi-tasking in the kitchen becomes a whole lot easier and enjoyable with the $4.99 Mario Batali Cooks Android app on the Xoom.

The free Medscape app powered by healthcare professionals and might be the most favored Xoom app for hypochondriacs.

Xoom apps that rock..
The Xoom offers best-in-class audio fidelity for tablets and is a great home for your musical library. As far as applications are concerned, the free Soundcloud app is worth taking up to 11, while Chord! (Guitar Chord Finder) may have you permanently retire from air guitar and try on the real thing.

The app for Android app discovery..
With more than 200,000 Android apps available, it’s hard to sort through which titles are best for you. The newly updated Appolicious AndroidApps.com app, which runs beautifully on the Xoom, makes finding apps easy and enjoyable. You can find out which apps your Facebook friends own, discover hot new apps that hit the market, and read reviews, compilations and industry news and analysis from our staff of professional writers. Sure, we’re biased, but the free Appolicious Android app is also favored by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

Also worth downloading to your Xoom are..
Google Earth: There is a reason Motorola executives were showing off this app when the Xoom was announced at CES earlier this year. You’ll know why once you download it.

Twitter: The official Twitter app for Android outperforms all independent clients on the Xoom so far.

ESPN iScore Baseball: Who needs a printed program at the ballgame anymore after downloading this $9.99 app from ESPN?

TurboTax SnapTax: While it’s nice to know that taxes can be done on a smartphone, it’s not exactly the most convenient tool to get your accounting in order by, or before, April 15. Doing taxes on the Xoom, while not fun, is a lot easier with this free application.

Easy Steps To Secure Your Smartphone Against Data Theft

One and every conscious net user knows the basics of Internet security and keeping your personal data private while browsing the Web: Use a firewall, don’t open attachments you aren't expecting, and never follow links from strangers. But what about your smartphone? The ease with which security researcher Georgia Weidman was able to infect Android phones with her custom botnet during the 2011 ShmooCon security conference suggests that anyone concerned about the privacy of the personal data stored on their smartphone should think twice before downloading dubious or otherwise untrustworthy apps.

So how does a smartphone botnet spread? First, the victim needs to download a file that contains a bot builder program--a secret snippet of malicious code that will install a bot into the basic operating system of a phone. The infected file could be an app, a piece of music or even an email attachment. “It could be camouflaged in anything at all;” claims Weidman. “Someone might put out a great, functional app that users want. Worse, the app would work as advertised so they wouldn’t suspect it; meanwhile the botnet could be active for years.”

Once your phone is infected, a slave bot program will be installed in the base operating system, beneath the application layer that most users are familiar with. From there these bots can monitor and modify all data sent to and from the phone before you do, allowing the botmaster to command and control your phone without your knowledge. “Since the bot sees everything before the user does, it’s possible to catch private data and forward it elsewhere on the internet,” says Weidman. “What you’ve been doing, who you’re speaking to and where you’ve been.”

Once a botmaster is in control of your phone, the first priority is to spread the infection to as many other users as possible. In the past, mobile botnets have taken advantage of smartphone Internet access to spread malicious code via e-mail; Weidman's Android botnet is dangerous because it communicates and spreads via SMS text messaging instead. Weidman claims hijacking the SMS text messaging service is more battery-efficient and far more subtle than accessing the Internet via a phone’s modem. In addition, it opens up a new attack vector whereby unsuspecting users may receive text messages from an infected friend that contain links to malicious code.

“If I get a text message from a friend with a link that says “hey check this out,” why wouldn’t I trust it?” says Weidman. “If one of my contacts is infected they could be infecting me without knowing it.” Of course, smartphone malware is nothing new; security companies like Symantec and Lookout offer iOS and Android apps that provide malware detection and remote security features like locking or wiping a phone via SMS, but the balkanization of the wireless market among so many different devices and carriers means that it’s often difficult for security companies to keep their apps updated with the latest malware profiles.

Worse, most detection apps only scan other applications for malicious code; that approach will catch an infected app, but it won’t do much good if the bot builder program has already overwritten part of the phone’s operating system. It doesn’t matter which operating system either; while Weidman developed her prototype botnet on the Android OS, she claims the bots could work on any smartphone and is currently seeking iOS and Windows Phone 7 devices for testing purposes.

But while Weidman’s security research may seem scary, for the moment it’s just that: research. “If this type of attack becomes prevalent in the future, we will update our software to detect it,” says Kevin Mahaffey, CTO of Lookout Security. “Unless we see malware like this in the wild, we will continue to focus our efforts on existing threats.”

Plus, it’s actually pretty simple to secure your smartphone and keep your data private from a botnet: just remember to take security on your iPhone or Android device as seriously as you do on your laptop. Don’t download apps or files from people you don’t trust, and be wary of any links or files embedded in text messages. Be aware that any file you download to your phone has the potential to be infected.

China to launch 4G mobile network

China may soon launch a domestically developed "fourth generation" mobile phone system in its commercial market.

The homegrown candidate for the 4G standard, known as TD-LTE, is being tested in seven cities and will go into commercial use "when the technology is mature", said China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone operator with 589.3 million subscribers, has developed a Chinese 3G standard called TD-SCDMA. It has been working on a variation it hopes will become a 4G standard, which provides faster broadband wireless services.

The UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) accepted TD-LTE in October as a candidate to be designated 4G and is watching the tests by China Mobile and its partners to see if it meets 4G transmission standards.

China Mobile said late last year that a number of Chinese and foreign telecom equipment makers would participate in the tests of its 4G candidate, including China's ZTE Corp, Huawei Technologies, Finnish-German Nokia Siemens and Swedish group Ericsson.

Wang also said that Japanese tech conglomerate Softbank is planning to deploy the first commercial TD-LTE network in Japan by the end of the year.

7 Billion People: Who Own the Computers and Cell Phones?

A staggering seven billion people now inhabit our planet. It's a number so large that it's difficult to conceptualize. But National Geographic is helping, with a new special online series of infographics, videos and photos, called Seven Billion, that examines a plethora of information about how we live, and how we live differently from one another based on income, location, and other factors.

The stats include technology, that indispensible 21st century necessity. In analyzing the world's population by income level, the magazine reports that the world's 1 billion poorest own 22 mobile phones per 100 people, but only have 1.2 computers per 100 people. Those billion make $995 or less a year and reside primarily in Africa. Lower-middle income populations, which account for 4 billion people (earning $995 to $3,945 per year) mostly in India, China, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa, own 47 mobile phones per 100 people and have 4.3 personal computers per 100 people.

The one billion upper middle income people, residing mostly in South America, Russia, and Eastern Europe, own 92 mobile phones and have nearly 12 computers per 100 people. The highest earners making more than $12,195 per year - and there's about a billion of them, mostly in North America and Western and Northern Europe - have on average more than one mobile phone per person (106 per 100 people) and have 60.4 personal computers per 100 people.

Additionally, National Geographic teamed up with digital artist Joe Lertola of Bryan Christie Design and researchers at Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing to create a digital portrait of what should be the "average person," based on data about who makes up the seven billion people.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, which helped generate the image, used photos that it had collected over 10 years from several national technology research programs, according to National Geographic.

The publication then had digital artist Joe Lertola of Bryan Christie Design turn out a poster based on the original image, but using 7,000 smaller images of people cobbled together. These smaller figures represent 1 million people each, thereby visualizing the 7 billion people now on Earth.

Moving the world off Internet Explorer 6

Microsoft is ready to move beyond Internet Explorer 6. The software giant has launched a new website, The Internet Explorer 6 Countdown, that bears the slogan: "Moving the world off Internet Explorer 6."

With the exception of specialized corporate/government environments and intranets, the arguments for continued usage of IE 6 are all but over.

On its new website, IE6Countdown.com, Microsoft is making its most concentrated effort yet to get users to move away from the decade-old browser. As the site says in its preamble, "10 years ago a browser was born. It's time to say goodbye." The goal of the website is to get Internet Explorer 6 usage to drop to less than 1% worldwide.

Current IE 6 usage on a global level is 12% - though in many parts of the world, that figure is less than 5%. In the U.S., Net Application's most recent numbers indicate that 2.9% of web users are still using IE 6.
The website has links to reasons why users should upgrade, documentation for corporate networks that need to migrate to a new browser and banners that webmasters can embed in their sites, alerting users that they should upgrade.

This is all well and good, but we sure hope that there is a multi-lingual version of this campaign. We say that because the bulk of iE 6 usage comes from China, where 34.5% of users are still on IE 6. South Korea, India, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam also still report more than 10% IE 6 usage.

It's a long time coming and the faster we can move on to more modern browsers, the better the web ecosystem as a whole will be.

Samsung working to improve Galaxy Tab

Apple CEO Steve Jobs called out Samsung and its Galaxy Tab during his keynote address, citing sales figures that put the Galaxy Tab at about 2 million shipped units and using a quote from Samsung VP Lee Young-hee that seemed to concede that few Galaxies actually made it into customers’ hands.

That quote from Young-hee has been widely determined to be wrong. He actually said “smooth” but reporters heard it as “small,” and since then the quote has been corrected. Jobs engaged in some revisionist history during the iPad 2 keynote in other areas, too - he noted that the iPad 2 would be the first tablet with a dual-core processor to ship “in volume,” while the Dell Streak and the Motorola Xoom, both have dual-core processors and both have been shipping pretty high numbers. And that “greater than 90 percent market share” bullet point would be wrong, as well.

As for comparison of price points between the iPad 2 and other tablets on the market, Apple’s not being exactly forthright, either. Taking a look at hardware, though, the Xoom packs better components: a stronger processor, better cameras, 4G support and probably more RAM. Comparatively, that extra power puts the Xoom on good terms with the iPad 2 as far as price point - it’s the other peripheral areas, like app support, where Apple has the edge.

Despite playing a little fast and loose with exactly what “facts” about the tablet market Jobs was sharing at the iPad 2 announcement, other tablet manufacturers are still sitting up and taking notice. According to Ars Technica, Samsung is looking at the improvements the iPad 2 is bringing to the market, and working to adjust things about the Galaxy Tab it feels are “inadequate.”
Samsung’s mobile division executive vice president, Lee Don-joo, mentioned this week that Samsung might be considering a new price point for the incoming 10-inch Galaxy Tab, which was set to be higher than the original Galaxy Tab.

“The 10-inch (tablet) was to be priced higher than the seven-inch but we will have to think that over,” Don-joo said. Pocket Gamer reports the 10-inch tablet was aiming at a price point of just under $900 - way higher than even the most expensive iPad model.

Don-joo also commented about the size of the iPad 2. “They made it very thin,” he said, which suggests that thickness is a concern for Samsung as well as for Apple. The iPad 2, at 8.8 millimeters, slips under the Galaxy Tab 10.1’s 10.9mm. The 10.9mm measure was thinner than the original iPad, but still leaves Samsung outpaced by Apple.

Whether these changes to the iPad 2 will really affect the next iteration of the Galaxy Tab isn’t clear and Samsung hasn’t said what, if anything, it might do. A change to pricing seems like a smart decision, but as for attempting to redesign the tab ahead of launch, even subtly, it’s probably not something potential buyers should expect to see.

Samsung and other Android tab makers would probably have better success pointing to the real benefits of their products over the iPad 2 - specifically, the kinds of specs that can outpace the dominant device, like processing power and 4G LTE support. Apple isn’t the only company that can make claims about others’ products, and in a lot of cases, the truth is on Jobs’ competitors’ side.

RIM to find new marketing chief

The head of marketing for Research In Motion will leave the company in six months, raising questions about BlackBerry branding as the smartphone maker gets set to launch its long-awaited PlayBook tablet.

Keith Pardy, who joined the Canadian technology company in December 2009, decided to leave for personal reasons. He will stay with the company for the next six months to help with transition.

His surprise resignation comes weeks before the expected launch of RIM's PlayBook - almost a year after the introduction of Apple's iPad tablet. The RIM offering will also have to compete against devices powered by Google's Android platform.

The appeal of the BlackBerry brand - once equal with Apple's - has withered under Pardy's stewardship, according to a January ranking from Brand Keys consultancy.

"The brand's been losing resonance over the past few years. It does not have the brand cachet to engage consumers the way an iPhone does," Brand Keys president Robert Passikoff said.

RIM has sought to keep PlayBook in the minds of consumers and business customers with a drip feed of announcements and trade show appearances since first lifting the covers on the tablet in September. The company has yet to announce when it will ship or give details of its pricing.

In contrast, Apple founder Steve Jobs received a standing ovation when he announced the iPad 2. The product will ship later this month, possibly ahead of the PlayBook.

But Pardy's imminent departure may not have much impact on the immediate success of the PlayBook when it finally launches, said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at market research firm IHS iSuppli.

"Hopefully, when you're weeks away from product release, you've laid most of the groundwork for the marketing efforts," she said. "Others can execute the groundwork that's been laid out."

Keith Pardy has long experience in consumer marketing. Prior to joining RIM, he worked for 17 years in marketing at Coca-Cola before joining Nokia in 2004.

Japan develops human touch mobile phone

Japanese researchers said they have developed a human-shaped mobile phone with a skin-like outer layer that enables users to feel closer to those on the other end.

"The mobile phone may feel like the person you are talking to," the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) said in a press release, describing the gadget as a "revolutionary telecom medium".

The project is a collaboration between Osaka University, the mobile telephone operator NTT DoCoMo and other institutes.

They hope to put it into commercial production within five years by adding image and voice recognition functions.

The prototype, slightly bigger than the size of a palm, features an outer coating that feels like human skin, ATR officials said.

A speaker is installed in the head of the doll-like gadget and a light emitting diode in its chest turns blue when the phone is in use and red when it is in standby mode.

The body resembles a human being but its design is so blurred that it could be taken as either male or female and young or old, the press release said.

Apple unveils iPad 2, slimmer version of iPad

Apple has finally unveiled a slimmer, trimmer version of the wildly popular version of iPad, complete with a front facing camera for vedio chat and a souped-up processor.

The new iPad 2 took the spotlight during a press event at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, with none other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs - who is still on medical leave, taking the stage to unveil the much-anticipated follow-up to the best-selling original.

The "dramatically faster" iPad 2 boasts a dual-core A5 "system on a chip" processor under the hood, said Jobs, good for twice the CPU power and nine times the graphics performance of the original while maintaining the same 10-hour battery life.

Also new are, dual cameras, including a front-facing camera for VGA-quality video chat, while the rear camera will be good for 720p video capture.

As predicted, the 9.7-inch display on the iPad 2 has the same resolution as that on the original: 1,024 by 768, disappointing news for anyone hoping that the new iPad would boast an improved "retina"-style display.

Measuring 9.5 by 7.3 by 0.34 inches, the iPad 2 is slightly shorter and narrower than the original, with the listed weight of 1.33 pounds (or 1.35 for the 3G-enabled iPad 2) a bit lighter than the iPad 1.

As with the first iPad, the iPad 2 comes with Apple's proprietary 30-pin dock connector for syncing and charging, along with a 3.5mm headset jack. Missing in action, is a slot for SD (or microSD) memory cards.

A white version of the iPad will be available on "Day One," promised Jobs, with Apple probably hoping to avoid last year's debacle of the white iPhone that never quite arrived.

The iPad 2 retains the same price points as the original: $499 for the 16GB version, $599 for the 32GB model, and $699 for the 64GB model. The 3G-enabled versions will also come with the same $130 premium over the Wi-Fi-only models ($629 for the 3G-ready 16GB iPad 2, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for the 64GB version), and they'll be available for both AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

The shipping date is expected to be March 11 in the U.S., and March 25 in 26 additional countries.

Jobs also announced a new "Smart Cover" to go along with the iPad 2 - one with magnetic clasps that either wakes up the iPad or puts it to sleep depending on whether it's being attached or removed. The polyurethane version of the case will sell for $39, while a pricier leather one goes for $69.

Another new accessory is a $39 HDMI video-out cable that's capable of 1080p video mirroring. The cable works with all iPad apps, Jobs said, and it'll charge your iPad when plugged into a power source.

March 11 will also see the release of iOS version 4.3, with new features such as personal hotspot support for the iPhone 4, a speedier version of Safari, improvements to AirPlay media streaming, and FaceTime video chat, but the iOS 4.3 release on the 11th will only be for iPads, third- and fourth-generation iPod Touches, and the GSM version of the iPhone - meaning that owners of the iPhone for Verizon, which runs a CDMA network, will have to wait.

There will also be a new iPad version of Apple's iMovie video-editing app, which is slated to arrive March 11 for $4.99.

Before unveiling the new iPad, Jobs confirmed recent rumors that book publisher Random House, the last of the major iBooks holdouts, would be offering more than 17,000 volumes through Apple's e-book store.

Jobs also took a shot at Honeycomb, Google's new Android-based tablet OS, by bragging that only 100 Honeycomb-ready apps are currently available for download, versus about 65,000 apps for the iPad - perhaps not the fairest comparison, since the first Honeycomb-enabled tablet only landed in stores about a week ago.

The first iPad, originally unveiled last January before landing in stores the following April, was initially greeted with skepticism.

Unsurprisingly, the massive success of the iPad has drawn a slew of competitors, with sleek new tablets from the likes of Dell, HP, LG, Motorola, and Samsung either on sale now or waiting in the wings.

Most of the hottest new tablets, such as the Motorola Xoom and the upcoming LG G-Slate, are based on Google's tablet-oriented Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" OS, although we'll also see some non-Android tablets as HP's WebOS-based TouchPad and the BlackBerry PlayBook from RIM.

Carmakers focusing on green power as fuel

When carmakers thought it safe to roll out new models in the wake of the economic crisis - 170 premiers are advertised for the Geneva Auto Show which opens this week – a spike in fuel price has cast a new shadow over the industry and redoubled attention on green technologies.

Ford Motor Co. said it is boosting its offering of low-emission technologies and will have five alternative powertrains to market in Europe by 2013.

Stephen Odell, the chief of Ford Europe, said that the new powertrains will include hybrid, pure electric and plug-in hybrid technologies.

Fuel prices, driven sharply higher in the past month by tensions in the Middle East, have raised worries that consumers may shy away again from buying a new vehicle.

"With our capabilities in regular combustion engines and with five electric vehicles in production we are well placed," Odell said.

Although most carmakers are showing upbeat signs of recovery, the key theme at the auto show, as during the financial crisis years, will once again be fuel efficiency.

Rolls Royce's one-off electric-powered Phantom luxury sedan could give electric the kind of upscale appeal it so far lacks. Though at the moment there are no plans to put the car into full production, the carmaker said.

BMW, which owns Rolls Royce, also is launching its latest ActiveE electric concept car in Geneva. "We'll see a lot of alternative powertrains, which will get a lot of attention given the current oil prices. No one knows where that is going to go, especially given what is going on in the Middle East," said Ian Fletcher, analyst at IHS automotive.

As for hybrids, BMW and PSA Peugeot announced on the eve of the auto show that they would invest euro100 million ($138 million) in a joint venture to build hybrid components from 2014. Their goal is to create an open European platform for hybrid technologies, which PSA Peugeot Citroen CEO Philippe Varin said the joint venture also would enable development of electric powertrains.

Volkswagen presented a luxury hybrid for its Porsche brand, the Panamera S. The car boasts carbon emissions of 159 grams per kilogram and consumption of 6.8 liters per 100 kilometers.

There will be a particular focus on engine downsizing, an industry term for squeezing more power out of small engines. Nissan will be showcasing a 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine in the Nissan Micar DIG-S that is touted as having the same power as a 1.5 liter four-cylinder model. Fiat has done similar work with the Twin Air engine in the Fiat 500.

"It's tweaking current technology to meet new levels of expectations. The internal combustion engine is still a relatively cheap way of producing power on a light vehicle," Fletcher said.

Overall, automakers are showing optimism coming into Geneva, evident in the rollouts planned. After seeing participants scale back in recent years, organizers said they had requests for more show space than they could provide, and that 70 brands will be represented from 31 countries.

Geneva's motor show, which focuses primarily on European companies, is considered one of the more prestigious auto events of the year. And because it is based in industry-neutral Switzerland, which does not produce cars on any industrial scale, it creates an even playing field for German, French and Italian companies alike, not to mention a rare venue for Asian automakers like Tata to show cars outside of their markets.

Automakers that held back launch during the economic crisis - not wanting to squander the considerable investment - will be out in force.

Fiat, which owns Chrysler, is launching the Fiat Freemont, based on the Dodge Journey and the first Fiat vehicle to be born of the alliance with Chrysler. It goes on sale in the second half of the year.

And Lancia, another Fiat brand that will be the European face of Chrysler, will unveil a series of rebadged cars to pave Chrysler's European renaissance under Fiat's management: an updated three-door Ypsilon minicar, a new Lancia Thema sedan in the C-segment combining American size with Italian style, Flavia concept, a D-segment sedan car, and Grand Voyager minivan.

A certain sign that carmakers are feeling cheery is that many high-end automakers have new products to show.

"You only have to look at the launches taking place. Look at the top end, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Rolls Royce. They are all either unveiling concept cars or new roll ours. If the top end of the market is doing well, it's a good sign for the overall economy and growth in developing markets," Fletcher said.

The 81st edition of the Geneva Auto Show opens to the public from March 3-13.