OnLive games service 'will work'

The founder of online streaming games firm OnLive has defended the technology underpinning the service after accusations it was unworkable.

Steve Perlman said critics had not even used the system.

OnLive turns games into video data sent across the net to a hardware add-on, or software plug-in, which decompresses the data back into video.

The firm says a revolutionary video compression algorithm and custom silicon makes it possible.

OnLive has been in development for the last seven years and has signed up content partners, including EA, Ubisoft, Take2, Eidos, Atari, Codemasters, Epic and THQ

The subscription service will feature games such as Burnout, Fear 2, Tomb Raider: Underworld and Crysis: Warhead.

We are not doing video encoding in the conventional sense Steve Perlman, OnLive

Mr Perlman, who led the early developments into video streaming service QuickTime while at Apple, told BBC News: "We have nine of the largest game publishers in world signed up.

"They have spent several years in some cases actually going and reviewing our technology before allowing us to associate with their company names and allowing us to have access to their first-tier franchises."

The service has raised eyebrows in some quarters given the difficulties of encoding High Definition video in near real time at servers in data centres, and streaming it over the open internet to a user.

Delivering real-time streaming game play is seen by some as an insurmountable problem, even before factoring in the necessity of sending back telemetry from a game controller across the net to the data centre.

"We are not doing video encoding in the conventional sense," explained Mr Perlman, dismissing an article in gaming website Eurogamer that said the service was unworkable.

"It's a very ignorant article," said Mr Perlman, who said Eurogamer had conflated issues of frame rate and latency.

"They are independent factors," he said.

OnLive has said it has created a video compression algorithm designed specifically for video games that can encode and compress video into data in about one millisecond.

A custom-built silicon chip designed by OnLive does the actual encoding calculations at the server end, as well as the decompression at the gamer end, inside a cheap hardware add-on.

Mr Perlman said it had taken "tens of thousand" of man hours to develop the algorithm.

He said: "First of all it was a postage stamp size screen with no latency over the internet. It looked like the silliest kind of game because the screen size was smaller than a cell phone but nonetheless there was no lag.

"We were running Quake actually - or micro quake as we called it. It was very unimpressive to anyone apart from an engineer."

The algorithm is not perfect. You will sometimes see little artefacts on the screen Steve Perlman, OnLive

After years spent refining the technology OnLive has said it was able to make the video window bigger and bigger until achieving a resolution of 1280 by 720 at 60 frames per second.

Technologists contacted by BBC News said that that level and speed of video encoding would not be "beyond the bounds of credibility" but would require custom hardware.

The algorithm was developed on dual quad core Xeon processors, which cost thousands of pounds, but OnLive have said they have distilled it down so it can run on a custom chip which costs "under 20 bucks to make".

Mr Perlman said the chip was "high performance for video compression", running at less than 100Mhz clock speed and drawing about two watts of power.

"We can make millions of these things. Because of the economy there is plenty of excess capacity in fabrication plants."

Mr Perlman said OnLive had already ordered a "very large batch".

He said the OnLive experience was almost as good as sitting in front of a console and playing a game.

"The algorithm is not perfect. You will sometimes see little artefacts on the screen. Video compression is part science and part art.

Net imperfections

"Every time you present new material to it, you will see something it does not compress so well. We note those and correct the algorithm."

Mr Perlman said the algorithm had been designed with the imperfections of the internet in mind.

"Rather than fighting against the internet... and dropped, delayed or out of order packets we designed an algorithm that deals with these characteristics.

"Every compression algorithm leaves something out. It's about figuring out what kind of stuff you drop out."

OnLive said a broadband connection of 5Mbps will be fast enough for high definition gaming, while 1.5Mbps will be sufficient for standard definition.

At those speeds and with a data centre no further than 1,000 miles away for any gamer in the US the inevitable latency of the net as data has to physically travel across the network is within tolerable limits, said Mr Perlman.

The MicroConsole connects the TV to the internet

OnLive currently has two data centres in the US running a beta version of the service. In order to minimise lag across when the commercial service goes live at the end of 2009 the company has said it will need five data centres around the country.

"The round trip latency from pushing a button on a controller and it going up to the server and back down, and you seeing something change on screen should be less than 80 milliseconds.

"We usually see something between 35 and 40 milliseconds."

The games themselves will be running on "off the shelf motherboards" at the data centres.

The company has calculated that each server will be dealing with about 10 different gamers, because of the varying demands games have on hardware.

"Most games run fine on dual core processors. What you really want is a high performance graphics processor unit," said Mr Perlman.

He said that while work continued on refining the algorithm the bulk of the technical work had been completed.

A wider beta test begins this summer and feedback from the testing will be used to refine the service.

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EA 'dumps DRM' for next Sims game

Electronic Arts have confirmed that the next version of The Sims will be free of Digital Rights Management (DRM).

The firm came in for considerable criticism last year, when the copy protection limited users to three installations of the game Spore.

The Sims division head, Rod Humble, said the game would use traditional serial code copy protection as "this is a good, time-proven solution".

DRM was introduced to combat game piracy but proved unpopular with users.

"The game will have disc-based copy protection - there is a serial code, just like The Sims 2," said Mr Humble in a blog posting.

"To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed."

"We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution, that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future," he added.

Fighting pirates

The issue of software piracy is one that has dogged the games industry since its inception.

One of the earliest attempts - and still the most popular with users - is a serial code check. Users have to enter a code, made up of numbers and letters, printed on the back of the game manual before installation of the game can complete.

Other copy protection methods include CD check, dongles and DRM.

The problem for software developers is that hackers usually crack the copy protection system within a few days of release.

The issue came to a head in 2008 when EA release Will Wright's Spore. The SecuROM DRM restricted users to a maximum of three installs and required online verification before the game could be played.

But despite the DRM, Spore was cracked within 24 hours of release and consumers felt they were being penalised for buying a legitimate copy of the game, rather than downloading a hacked version.

"It's such a shame that the distributor of the game treats its own customers as criminals and attempts to do their best to prevent you from actually playing the game," one user wrote on Amazon.com.

Speaking to the BBC, Tiffany Steckler, a spokesperson for EA, said a final decision on the future of DRM for the company has yet to be made.

"There is always going to be a level of protection for games and this solution [DRM free] is right for The Sims 3.

"How these things roll out in the future will be down to the developers and we will make announcements in due course."

Fighting back

But developers may be making progress on solutions that obviate the need for DRM.

At this years Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Valve - the developers behind the Half Life series - unveiled a new set of features for its Steamworks platform - saying its distribution system had "made DRM obsolete".

Steam's new "custom executable generation" technology makes copies of the games for each user, meaning players can access their games on multiple machines without install limits.

The only restriction is that users need to log onto their account to actually play.

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Google sees voice search as core

Google has said it sees voice search as a major opportunity for the company in building a presence on the mobile web.

The company's vice president of engineering made the comments during a wide-ranging discussion at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

"We believe voice search is a new form of search and that it is core to our business," said Vic Gundotra.

SearchEngineLand editor Greg Sterling agreed: "If done right, it could be a valuable strategic feature for Google."

Mr Gundotra acknowledged to the audience that "voice recognition in the early days was a nice trick but not very usable".

There were early complaints that Google's offering could not understand accents other than American and that results were often garbled.

"Look how far we have come. I get the advantage of looking at daily voice queries coming in and it's amazing. It's working. It's reached a tipping point. It's growing and growing very, very fast and we are thrilled about it," said Mr Gundotra.

He declined to share figures about just how many queries the company deals with via voice search.

However, Mr Gundotra did say: "It's one of those technologies we think gets better with usage.

"We launched it on the iPhone and have seen a 15% jump in accuracy because, as more people use it, we collect more data and our accuracy gets better."

'Queen's English'

In 2002, Google Labs introduced a service that allowed users to search with a simple phone call. The company admitted it "wasn't very useful because the results were displayed on your computer and Google discontinued it".

Six years later, the search giant introduced an improved feature under the Google Mobile App for the iPhone.

It is also available on the Android based T-Mobile G1 and last month was introduced on the BlackBerry as a free download. The New York Times's Gadgetwise blog rated the BlackBerry version the "App of the Week" earlier this week.

Early iterations that worked best with North American accents had problems understanding other accents, including British. BBC technology cCorrespondent Rory Cellan-Jones reported in November last year that his attempts to use it were "pure gibberish".

For example, his query about the next train, West Ealing to Paddington "delivered some useful information about 'neck strain' - but no train times".

Those problems have since been largely ironed out and Google said it was continuing to work on improving the accuracy of the service. This, Mr Sterling said, is crucial if the company wants it to give them the edge in the marketplace.

"My view is voice search could be a strategic differentiator if it works well. It depends on how much better Google's system is compared to, say, Yahoo's or Microsoft's.

"If they come up with a really great version that is really accurate, it could retain users and likely increase search usage for Google," said Mr Sterling.

"Stay tuned"

At Web 2.0, Mr Gundotra also talked about a web-based version of Google's e-mail service, Gmail.

He demonstrated a "technical prototype" on the iPhone and the G1 and said "Stay tuned" for a release date.

Mr Gundotra said the prototype used HTML 5, an as-yet incomplete version of mark up language of the world wide web.

He revealed that Google would create a whole suite of offline apps using HTML 5 and that "we are going to be leaders in taking advantage of HTML 5".

Mr Gundotra also said that engineers were working hard to bring the Chrome browser to the Mac and that while there was no date for delivery, "we are making progress to get it out as fast as we can".

Twitter purchase

During a question and answer session, Mr Gundotra was quizzed on rumours circulating in the blogosphere that Google is looking to buy the micro-blogging service Twitter.

"I'm a big fan of Twitter but we don't as a policy comment on rumour or speculation," he said.

Meanwhile, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has said that he has been "flooded with requests for a response to the latest internet speculation about where Twitter is headed".

In a blog entitled Sometimes We Talk, Mr Stone wrote: "It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects.

"Our goal is to build a profitable, independent company and we're just getting started."

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Online games market still growing

Demand for subscription massive multiplayer online games (MMOG) will top $2bn (£1.3bn) by 2013, according to a new report.

The study, by analysts Screen Digest, said the market had been driven by attempts to emulate World of Warcraft.

The findings suggest that the MMOG's market in Europe and North America grew by 22% and was worth $1.4bn (£0.9bn).

There are at least 220 active MMOGs, although many of these are exclusive to South East Asia.

Speaking to the BBC, Piers Harding-Rolls - senior analyst with Screen Digest - said that despite the recession, subscription MMOG's were still showing significant growth.

"Some games are eroding World of Warcraft's (WoW) position - Warhammer Online and Age of Conan being the two most significant - but that's more down to their growth rather than any decline on WoW's part.

"WoW's market share was 60% in 2007 and 58% in 2008, but in terms of revenue, it went up year-on-year and is still going big guns.

Mr Harding-Rolls said that a combination of new title releases, different payment systems, and games that target specific demographics had helped the rise in popularity of MMOGs.

"If you look at the example of RuneScape, this is a game pitched at a teenage audience. You can play it for free or you can pay a premium and get a better service without advertising.

"It's an effective way to build a subscription base, rather than the traditional routes that involve PR, hype and having a service that has to be almost perfect from day one," he said.

The report examines revenue made from subscription based services, rather than total player numbers, in Europe and North America.

Size matters

Some games - such as the German title Panfu and Tribal Wars - are in the 10 most popular games when it comes to player numbers, but not in terms of spending.

In addition, some games - such as Warhammer Online - were released late in 2008 and so didn't make the list. However, Mr Harding-Rolls thought that Warhammer would be one of the top three when next years list comes out.

There has been much speculation on how the video games industry would fare during the recession, with many experts - such as the British veteran game designer, Peter Molyneux - expecting a lot of price pressure on games.

Mr Harding-Rolls said that, for now, it was a case of wait and see when it came to MMOGs.

"Under the current conditions, it will probably be harder for publishers to pick up new customers and gamers who have multiple accounts on different games may well scale back which game they play.

"That said, playing a video game - especially a MMOG - is a low value proposition to a user and once you're a subscriber you're likely to stay a subscriber for at least a few months."

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Virgin eyes 150Mb broadband speed

By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website

Fibre optic networks are offering faster broadband speeds

Virgin Media will offer 100 to 150Mbps broadband speeds up to two years before BT completes its rival fibre network.

"We have an opportunity with our network to provide significantly higher speeds," Virgin Media's chief executive Neil Berkett told BBC News.

BT has said its fibre network will hit the first crop of UK cities by early 2010 and will be complete by 2012.

Virgin currently offers a top speed of 50Mbps while BT is pledging 40 to 60Mb.

Mr Berkett said its fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) network was capable of supporting up to 200Mbps but roll out of higher speeds was a "function of timing".

He said: "When we look at the market I don't see us getting the returns right now for 100 or 150Mbps.

See what applications work at different speeds

"As we work with application providers, and content providers... there will be a natural point where we upgrade from 10, 20 and 50Mbps to something more.

"If BT were to meet the time frame they have suggested - of finishing by 2012 - I would see us as having much, much faster upstream speed, running at a minimum of 100Mbps downstream and possibly more. You can see a real opportunity there."

Faster speeds

Mr Berkett said he would be surprised if Virgin Media did not start the roll out of faster speeds next year.

BT has said it will deploy FTTC technology at 29 exchanges across the UK in the coming 9 to 12 months.

The network will offer speeds of up to 40Mbps - and potentially 60Mbps - to 500,000 homes and businesses.

Areas of Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Greater Manchester will be able to access the fibre network, which will be opened up on a wholesale basis to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who can then offer various broadband packages to customers.

Virgin Media says its network reaches half of all homes in the UK. The technology has a theoretical limit of 200Mbps downsteam speeds.

Mr Berkett said the firm had not ruled out the possibility of opening its own network to other ISPs.

He said: "We had this conversation with a bunch of investors recently. Our position is 'Let's prove the market'.

"Wholesaling is not off our agenda but right now it is not a priority for us."

He added: "Who knows, by the time BT have rolled out their next generation network we may be in position to explore wholesale."

Back to top

Graphic showing speeds for applications

news from bbc.co.uk

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Battery that 'charges in seconds'

A new manufacturing method for lithium-ion batteries could lead to smaller, lighter batteries that can be charged in just seconds.

Batteries that discharge just as quickly would be useful for electric and hybrid cars, where a quick jolt of charge is needed for acceleration.

The approach only requires simple changes to the production process of a well-known material.

The new research is reported in the scientific journal Nature.

Because of the electronic punch that they pack, gram for gram, lithium-ion batteries are the most common rechargeable batteries found in consumer electronics, such as laptops.

However, they take a long time to charge; researchers have assumed until now that there was a speed limit on the lithium ions and electrons that pass through the batteries to form an electrochemical circuit.


Tiny holes

Gerbrand Ceder, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, and his colleagues used a computer simulation to model the movements of ions and electrons in a variant of the standard lithium material known as lithium iron phosphate.

The simulation indicated that ions were moving at great speed.

FROM THE BBC WORLD SERVICE

More from BBC World Service

"If transport of the lithium ions was so fast, something else had to be the problem," Professor Ceder said.

That problem turned out to be the way ions passed through the material.

They pass through minuscule tunnels, whose entrances are present at the surface of the material.

However, the team discovered that to get into these channels, the ions had to be positioned directly in front of the tunnel entrances - if they were not, they could not get through.

The solution, Ceder discovered, was to engineer the material such that it has a so-called "beltway" that guides the ions towards the tunnel entrances.

Traffic management

A prototype battery made using the new technique could be charged in less than 20 seconds - in comparison to six minutes with an untreated sample of the material.

Most commercial batteries use a material made up of lithium and cobalt, but lithium iron phosphate does not suffer from overheating - something that has affected laptop and mp3 player batteries in a number of incidents.
Toyota hybrid charging (Getty)


Hybrid cars could benefit from a quick discharge as much as a quick charge

Even though it is cheap, lithium iron phosphate has until now received little attention because lithium cobalt batteries can store slightly more charge for a given weight.

However, the researchers found that their new material does not lose its capacity to charge over time in the way that standard lithium ion batteries do.

That means that the excess material put into standard batteries to compensate for this loss over time is not necessary, leading to smaller, lighter batteries with phenomenal charging rates.

What is more, because there are relatively few changes to the standard manufacturing process, Professor Ceder believes the new battery material could make it to market within two to three years.

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Google introduces phone services

Google has strengthened its mobile services with the debut of a service called Voice that could be a challenge to Skype and other phone firms.

It lets customers make cheap international calls and gives them a speech-to-text feature for voicemail.

The services are available thanks to Google's acquisition of phone firm GrandCentral which gives users a lifelong universal phone number.

"This could be big. Google is seen as disruptive," said analyst Jon Arnold.

"They are a wild card in telecoms and wireless but this is Google and they are very smart at what they do.

"The core of Google's business is search and for a long time the industry was concerned about the GrandCentral acquisition. What was the fit? What was the motivation? It will be interesting to see where they ultimately go with this," said Mr Arnold, principal of analyst firm J Arnold & Associates.


Table stakes

Google Voice is the first major update to GrandCentral, which Google bought for an undisclosed sum, thought to be $50m (£36m) in 2007.

The service gives subscribers one number that lets them route all their phones through - home, office and mobile.

Users also get a single voicemail account regardless of which phone messages are left on.
Screen grab of Skype website


Google Voice is the latest attempt by the company to reach out beyond online search and advertising.

Domestic calls will be free but international calls will require users to set up a Google Checkout account. Calls to landlines in the UK will cost 2 cents per minute.

EBay's Skype offers free domestic and international calls made over the internet from one computer to another, but there is a charge to landlines and mobile phones.

Skype president Josh Silverman told analysts and investors that "chat and voice will become table stakes". He also revealed that the company is adding 350,000 new users a day and is on track to do more than 100 billion calling minutes in 2009 alone.

Google does not view the service as a threat to Skype or other telecom companies any more than its Google Talk offering, which lets users chat over the internet for free.

"This is about allowing your existing phone to work better," said Craig Walker, now group product manager for real time communications at Google and co-founder of GrandCentral.

"It's not that we are replacing your phone, we are giving [it] the ability to work better," he said.

He declined to say how many users had signed up. Google Voice is currently only available to former GrandCentral users.

"Chore"

Google Voice also allows all voice messages to be turned into text which will then be sent either through an e-mail or an sms.

"Voicemail can be a pretty negative experience for a lot of people," said Mr Walker.

"Now it's about putting the user in control. We will transcribe voicemails and convert it into text and put it in your inbox so that it's searchable and you will always have a record of that voicemail.

"Voicemail need no longer be the chore it has been in the past," he declared.

Mr Walker demonstrated its search capabilities by displaying the 1,000 or so voicemails he had accumulated while testing the system over the past few months.

By typing "pool man" in a search box, he located an old voicemail from December 2008. Returned results were in both text and audio form.

"I would never have been able to find that number. The phone company deletes everything for you after a couple of weeks and the scrap of paper I wrote the number on is long gone. This feature makes your voicemail a pretty powerful tool," said Mr Walker.

Opportunity

Google boss Eric Schmidt said he viewed mobile as the next big opportunity.

At the recent Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco, Mr Schmidt said he believed mobile search revenues would over take those on a PC within a few years

"The fact of the matter is that mobile devices are going to be the majority of the way that people get information," he said.

A report in February by the Kelsey Group suggested that "about 20% of U.S. cell phone subscribers are on the mobile web right now and only about 5.2 million are doing searches".

Mr Arnold said that if Google perfected its speech-to-text feature to other languages, all bets were off.

"This could be very powerful given the globalisation of markets. Language is another barrier and when you break that down, the world of communications opens up and globally this has exciting opportunities," he said.

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Microsoft's new system easier for browser switch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is developing a feature in its new operating system that allows users to turn off Internet Explorer and other key Microsoft programs.

The new feature is a major step for the world's largest software company, which has been accused by competitors and regulators of forcing consumers to run its own software, squeezing rivals' offerings out of the marketplace.

"In addition to the features that were already available to turn on or off in Windows Vista, we've added the following features to the list in Windows 7," said a Microsoft blog published on Friday, listing Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Player and a host of other Microsoft programs.

"In addition to the features that were already available to turn on or off in Windows Vista, we've added the following features to the list in Windows 7," said a Microsoft blog published on Friday, listing Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Player and a host of other Microsoft programs.

The publicly available blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/03/06/beta-to-rc-changes-

turning-windows-features-on-or-off.aspx) was written by Jack May o, a manager in the team developing Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system, which will replace the unpopular Vista early next year.

The new design will make it easier for users to remove any traces of Internet Explorer from their desktop, although the software will remain installed on the computer, and allow them to run other browsers more smoothly.

Last month Google Inc, which recently launched its own Chrome browser, joined the Mozilla foundation, producer of the Firefox Web browser, and Norway's Opera, in protesting Microsoft's dominance in the browser market.

In January, European regulators brought formal charges against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, which is used in 95 percent of the world's personal computers.

In the past decade, Microsoft has fallen afoul of both U.S. and European antitrust regulators for bundling key programs with its operating system.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Clarence Fernandez.)



© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

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Apakah Ini Satu-satunya Lumba-lumba Pink di Dunia?

Jarang sekali terlihat seekor lumba-lumba hidung botol berwarna merah muda beredar di sebuah danau Louisiana. Mamalia ini diambil gambarnya oleh kapten kapal charter setempat Erik Rue yang sedang mempelajari lumba-lumba sejak hewan itu pertama kali muncul Danau Calcasieu, kawasan air payau yang terletak di utara Teluk Meksiko, barat daya AS.

Sejak diketahui berbaur dengan lumba-lumba berwarna normal tahun lalu, lumba-lumba berwarna pink ini telah mengundang animo kedatangan sejumlah pengunjung ke Danau Calcasieu. Kapten Rue (42) pertama kali melihat lumba-lumba pink itu berada bersama kawanan 4 lumba-lumba lain. Salah satu lumba-lumba diketahui sebagai induk yang selalu mendampingi anaknya yang berwarna merah muda itu.




"Seperti dicat, tubuh lumba-lumba itu sepenuhnya berwarna merah muda. Aku tak pernah melihat yang seperti ini sebelumnya," kata Kapten Rue.

"Mamalia itu berwarna pink mulai dari ujung moncong hingga ekornya dan matanya yang kemerah-merahan menunjukkan hewan ini albino. Kulitnya mulus berwarna merah muda tanpa ada bercak apapun. Aku telah memerhatikannya sekitar 40 hingga 50 kali sejak hewan itu pertama kali muncul dalam kelompok keluarganya di Jalur Kapal Calcasieu."

Regina Asmutis-Silvia, ahli biologi senior Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, menyebut lumba-lumba ini 'benar-benar menawan'. "Aku tak pernah melihat seekor lumba-lumba berwarna seperti ini sepanjang karirku," kata Regina Asmutis-Silvia.

"Manusia harus menghormati keberadaan hewan ini. Caranya adalah menyaksikan dari kejauhan, membatasi diri dalam mengamati hewan ini serta jangan memburu atau membuatnya terganggu," tambahnya.

JIM
Sumber : daily mail,kompas

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Anti-surveillance filmmaker plans eye-socket camera

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Canadian filmmaker plans to have a mini camera installed in his prosthetic eye to make documentaries and raise awareness about surveillance in society.

Rob Spence, 36, who lost an eye in an accident as a teen-ager, said his so-called Project Eyeborg is to have the camera, a battery and a wireless transmitter mounted on a tiny circuit board. www.eyeborgblog.com/

"Originally the whole idea was to do a documentary about surveillance. I thought I would become a sort of super hero ... fighting for justice against surveillance," Spence said.

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Britney Spears puts on "Circus" for comeback tour

By Kathy Finn

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Britney Spears kicked off her first tour in five years on Tuesday, promoting her latest hit album "Circus" before an adoring hometown audience with jugglers, acrobats, rings of flame and lip syncing.

"Britney's my girl. I knew she'd be great," said Chris Peterson, 28, who drove to New Orleans from Pensacola, Florida, for the concert. "I've been a fan since I was 14."

The pop star, attempting a comeback after a high-profile meltdown, pulled out all the stops before a sell-out crowd of 16,400 to launch her much-anticipated world tour.

Spears, 27, became a worldwide phenomenon when she burst onto the music scene 10 years ago after breaking into show business on the "Mickey Mouse Club" television show.

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Heartbreaker : a bad marriage raises cardiac risk

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Women in strained marriages are more likely than other wives to have high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

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