Danny Puff

LAS VEGAS (AP) Some of the weirdest gadgets at the International CES show are designed to solve problems you never knew you had. Are you eating too fast? A digital fork will let you know. Is your toddler having trouble sitting still on the potty? Let the iPotty come to the rescue. Are you bored driving to work in a four-wheeled vehicle? Climb inside a 1,600-pound mechanical spider for your morning commute.

Of course, not all of the prototypes introduced at the annual gadget show will succeed in the marketplace. But the innovators who shop their wares here are fearless when it comes to pitching new gizmos, be they flashy, catchy or just plain odd.

A search for this year's strangest (and perhaps least useful) electronic devices yielded an extra-loud pair of headphones from a metal band, an eye-sensing TV that didn't work as intended and more. Take a look:

MOTORHEADPHONES

Bass-heavy headphones that borrow the names of hip-hop luminaries like Dr. Dre have become extremely popular. Rock fans have been left out of the party until now. British metal band Motorhead, famous for playing gut-punchingly loud, is endorsing a line of headphones that "go to eleven" and are hitting U.S. stores now.

Says lead singer and bassist Lemmy Kilmister, explaining his creative input: "I just said make them louder than everybody else's. So that's the only criteria, and that it should reflect every part of the sound, not just the bass."

The Motorheadphone line consists of three over-the-ear headphones and six in-ear models. The initiative came from a Swedish music-industry veteran, and distribution and marketing is handled by a Swedish company, Krusell International AB.

WHO IT'S FOR: People who don't care about their hearing or of the sanity of person sitting next to them on the subway. According to Kilmister, the headphones are ideal for Motorhead fans. "Their hearing is already damaged, they better buy these."

PRICE: Prices range from $50 to $130.

EYE-SENSING TV

A prototype of an eye-sensing TV from Haier didn't quite meet viewers eye-to-eye. An on-screen cursor is supposed to appear where the viewer looks to help, say, select a show to watch. Blinking while controlling the cursor is supposed to result in a click. In our brief time with the TV, we observed may quirks and comic difficulties.

For one, the company's demonstrator Hongzhao Guo said the system doesn't work that well when viewers wear eyeglasses. (That kind of defeats the purpose of TV, no?) But it turns out, one bespectacled reporter was able to make it work. But the cursor appeared a couple inches below where the viewer was looking. This resulted in Guo snapping his fingers to attract the reporter's eye to certain spots. The reporter dutifully looked, but the cursor was always a bit low. Looking down to see the cursor only resulted in it moving further down the TV screen.

WHO IT'S FOR: People too lazy to move their arms.

"It's easy to do," Guo said, taking the reporter's place at the demonstration. He later said the device needs to be recalibrated for each person. It worked fine for him, but the TV is definitely not ready for prime-time.

PARROT FLOWER POWER

A company named after a bird wants to make life easier for your plants. A plant sensor called Flower Power from Paris-based Parrot is designed to update your mobile device with a wealth of information about the health of your plant and the environment it lives in. Just stick the y-shaped sensor in your plant's soil, download the accompanying app and hopefully watch your plant thrive.

"It basically is a Bluetooth smart low-energy sensor. It senses light, sunlight, temperature, moisture and soil as well as fertilizer in the soil. You can use it either indoors or outdoors," said Peter George, vice president of sales and marketing for the Americas at Parrot. The device will be available sometime this year, the company said.

WHOT IT'S FOR: 'Brown-thumbed' folk and plants with a will to live.

PRICE: Unknown.

HAPIFORK

If you don't watch what you put in your mouth, this fork will or at least try to. Called HAPIfork, it's a fork with a fat handle containing electronics and a battery. A motion sensor knows when you are lifting the fork to your mouth. If you're eating too fast, the fork will vibrate as a warning. The company behind it, HapiLabs, believes that using the fork 60 to 75 times during meals that last 20 to 30 minutes is ideal.

But the fork won't know how healthy or how big each bite you take will be, so shoveling a plate of arugula will likely be judged as less healthy than slowly putting away a pile of bacon. No word on spoons, yet, or chopsticks.

WHO IT'S FOR? People who eat too fast. Those who want company for their "smart" refrigerator and other kitchen gadgets.

PRICE: HapiLabs is launching a fundraising campaign for the fork in March on the group-fundraising site Kickstarter.com. Participants need to pay $99 to get a fork, which is expected to ship around April or May.

IPOTTY

Toilet training a toddler is no picnic, but iPotty from CTA Digital seeks to make it a little easier by letting parents attach an iPad to it. This way, junior can gape and paw at the iPad while taking care of business in the old-fashioned part of the plastic potty. IPotty will go on sale in March, first on Amazon.com.

There are potty training apps out there that'll reward toddlers for accomplishing the deed. The company is also examining whether the potty's attachment can be adapted for other types of tablets, beyond the iPad.

"It's novel to a lot of people but we've gotten great feedback from parents who think it'd be great for training," said CTA product specialist Camilo Gallardo.

WHO IT'S FOR: Parents at their wit's end.

PRICE: $39.99

MONDO SPIDER, TITANBOA

A pair of giant hydraulic and lithium polymer battery controlled beasts from Canadian art organization eatART caught some eyes at the show. A rideable 8-legged creature, Mondo Spider weighs 1,600 pounds and can crawl forward at about 5 miles per hour on battery power for roughly an hour. The 1,200-pound Titanoboa slithers along the ground at an as yet unmeasured speed.

Computer maker Lenovo sponsored the group to show off the inventions at CES.

Hugh Patterson, an engineer who volunteers his time to making the gizmos, said they were made in part to learn more about energy use. One lesson from the snake is that "side winding," in which the snake corkscrews its way along the ground, is one of the most efficient ways of moving along soft ground, like sand.

Titanoboa was made to match the size of a 50-foot long reptile whose fossilized remains were dated 50 million years ago, when the world was 5 to 6 degrees warmer. The creature was built "to provoke discussion about climate change," Patterson said.

The original version of Mondo Spider, meanwhile, first appeared at the Burning Man arts gathering in Nevada in 2006.

WHO IT'S FOR: Your inner child, Burning Man participants, people with extra-large living rooms.

PRICE: The spider's parts cost $26,000. The Titanoboa costs $70,000. Engineers provided their time for free and both took "thousands of hours" to build, Patterson said.

___

Ortutay contributed from New York. AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson and Luke Sheridan from AP Television contributed to this story from Las Vegas.

Read More

SEATTLE (AP) A company that teamed up with Starbucks Corp. to bid for the Tully's Coffee chain filed an objection Wednesday challenging the winning offer made by "Grey's Anatomy" star Patrick Dempsey.

AgriNurture Inc. said it's still willing to proceed with its combined bid with Starbucks of about $10.6 million. The bid from Dempsey's company, Global Baristas LLC, was for $9.2 million.

The proposed sale goes before a bankruptcy judge in Seattle on Friday.

Starbucks has said it wants to convert some of Tully's cafes to its own brand. AgriNurture, based in the Philippines, would run the rest under the Tully's name.

Cliff Burrows, who heads Starbucks' Americas business, said he's confident the company put forth the best bid with its companion bidder to give shareholders the most value.

Dempsey said he's confident the court will decide that Global Baristas submitted "the highest and best bid."

AgriNurture, which also does business in the U.S. as Earthright Holdings Inc., already operates Tully's franchises in Asia.

Another bidder has also filed an objection to the sale, saying the rules changed in the middle of the auction.

Read More

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A python hunting competition starting on Saturday is drawing hundreds of amateurs armed with clubs, machetes and guns to the Florida Everglades, where captured Burmese pythons have exceeded the length of minivans and weighed as much as grown men.

Python Challenge 2013, a month-long event sponsored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is open to hunters and non-hunters alike.

But the idea of luring weapon-wielding amateurs into the harsh environment of the Everglades has raised some alarms.

"I just thought it was as exciting as could be. It's a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity," said contestant Ron Polster, a retired salesman from Ohio whose closest encounter with the swamp has been from the highway heading south for the winter.

Participants pay a $25 entry fee and take an online training course, which consists mostly of looking at photographs of both the targeted pythons and protected native snakes to learn the difference.

The state wildlife agency is offering prizes of $1,500 for the most pythons captured and $1,000 for the longest python.

A Burmese python found in Florida last year set records as the largest ever captured in the state at 17-feet, 7-inches (5.4 meters). The snake weighed nearly 165 pounds (75 kg).

FWC spokeswoman Carli Segelson said the number of registered contestants reached about 500 this week and was growing, with people coming from 32 states.

The stated goal of the competition is to raise awareness of the threat Burmese pythons pose to the Everglades ecosystem. The snakes are native to Southeast Asia and have no known predators in Florida.

The contest also serves as a pilot program to determine whether regular hunting competitions can cull the growing population of the invasive species, said Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife expert from the University of Florida who helped create the competition.

Python Challenge rules require contestants to kill specimens on the spot in a humane fashion, recommending shooting the snakes precisely through the brain.

"I was hoping there would be a lot of machetes and not a lot of guns," said Polster, the retired salesman. He said he worries "these idiots will be firing all over the place."

Shawn Heflick, star of the National Geographic "Wild" television show "Python Hunters," told Reuters that despite the formidable size of the snakes, he expects the swamp itself, with its alligators, crocodiles and venomous snakes, to pose a greater threat to the contestants.

"You get these people going down there, they'll get lost, they'll get dehydrated, they'll get sucked dry by mosquitoes," Heflick said.

Segelson said the wildlife agency will provide training on the use of GPS devices and on identifying venomous snakes at the kick-off event. In the meantime, she said, contestants should be familiarizing themselves with the Everglades environment, just as they should before entering any other strange territory.

Heflick said most of the contestants likely were drawn to the Python Challenge by the romantic mystique of bagging a giant predator. He expects few will last long in the hunt.

"The vast majority of them will never see a python. The vast majority of them will probably curtail their hunting very quickly when they figure out there's a lot of mosquitoes, it's hot, it's rather boring sometimes - most of the time really, and I think a lot of them will go home," Heflick said.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Dan Grebler)

Read More

LOS ANGELES (AP) Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are ready to crack each other up at the Golden Globe Awards.

The two multi-hyphenate talents offered a taste of their quick-witted banter on a conference call with reporters Wednesday, during which Fey promised, "We're going to sing the whole show."

"The whole show is going to be sung front to back and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine have written it," Fey deadpanned.

"We just called up Sondy," Poehler said. "He just said, 'Jackpot.'"

Fey, 42, and Poehler, 41, take over for three-time Globes host Ricky Gervais, who sometimes created a prickly atmosphere with his pointed barbs at individual stars and films.

"It was originally going to be the car from 'Transformers,'" Fey cracked about the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's first choice for a show host this year.

The Emmy winner said she doesn't expect to "change the face of comedy" at the show.

"Because it's such a fun, kind of sloppy night, it's not really about the host giving any big comedy performance," Fey said. "We feel like our job is to keep things moving and also to try to help get the movie stars more liquored up so, hopefully, someone's boob will fall out of a dress. That's our main role."

Alcohol really does play a role in the show, with drinks at every table, Poehler said. "So it doesn't take much, you know?"

"And Somehow, no matter what time you get there, you always just missed the food," Fey said. "So you get there and there's just booze on the table and a box of candy and that's it. And the women haven't eaten for days, so they have a half a glass of wine and they're gone."

The two hosts are also competing against each other as nominees for actress in a TV comedy for starring in the shows they write and produce. Fey is up for "30 Rock," while Poehler got the nod for "Parks and Recreation."

Poehler said they have been too busy to consider acceptance speeches.

"I know that I don't need one," Fey said.

"If either one of us does win, we'll already have been talking at that point for a while anyways so people will be sick of our faces, so I'm sure we'll keep it short and sweet," Poehler said. "Or screw it. Since we're hosting, we could just go as long as we wanted and cut into other people's time."

Considering their dresses for the black-tie affair, Fey said she planned to pay sartorial tribute to the night's honorees.

"I'm going to wear one costume from each of the nominated films," she said, "beginning with 'Django' and ending with a different character from 'Django.'"

Given the Globes' boozy atmosphere, will the hostesses imbibe?

"I'm going to pub-crawl it all the way to the venue," Poehler said. "Then I'm going to try and take like a two-hour blackout nap before we start, and as soon as the show's over, I'm going to go on a 10-day juice cleanse."

Added Fey: "I'm going to start a really aggressive awards-season workout routine in the middle of the show."

The 70th annual Golden Globe Awards will be presented Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and broadcast live on NBC.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .

___

Online:

www.goldenglobes.org

Read More

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The body of a Chicago man who died of cyanide poisoning less than two months after winning $1 million in the Illinois Lottery will be exhumed for further examination in two to four weeks, according to the Cook County medical examiner.

An affidavit to exhume the body of Urooj Khan, 46, will be filed Friday with the Cook County Circuit Court, Mary Paleologos, a spokeswoman for the county, said on Wednesday. Once a judge approves the request, which should take one to two weeks, it will probably take another one to two weeks to arrange the exhumation with the cemetery, Paleologos said.

Khan's death on July 20 was at first determined to be caused by heart disease. No autopsy was performed, since there was no trauma present and the death appeared natural. Toxicology results indicated no drugs or carbon monoxide present.

But several days after the body was released for burial, an unidentified family member contacted the doctor in the case and asked that the medical examiner revisit it.

The medical examiner's office ordered comprehensive toxicological testing. On November 23, final test results confirmed a lethal level of cyanide in the blood, according to the medical examiner, and the death was ruled a homicide.

The medical examiner's office said exhumation of the body "is necessary to complete an investigation" into Khan's death.

Chicago Police would say only that they are investigating the case as a murder and are working closely with the medical examiner's office.

Khan had presented the ticket claiming his winnings to Illinois Lottery offices on May 31, according to Lottery spokesman Mike Lang. Khan had decided to take the lump-sum payment, which amounted to about $424,500 after taxes. A check was sent from Springfield, Illinois to Khan July 19 or July 20 -- so it is unlikely Khan ever saw it, Lang said.

The check was paid August 15, Lang said. He said it is common that when winners die before receiving their winnings, the money is paid to the estate.

Khan's estate is in Cook County probate court. The next status date in the case is January 24.

Steven Kozicki, an attorney for Khan's wife Shabana Ansari, was not immediately available for comment Wednesday. Kozicki told the Chicago Tribune that Ansari had been interviewed by Chicago police detectives and had nothing to hide.

(Reporting By Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Greg McCune and Nick Zieminski)

Read More

NEW YORK (AP) The gig is almost up for one of the eight Monopoly tokens. But which will it be? Iron? Thimble? Top Hat?

Or another of their board game buddies?

Hasbro is holding a Facebook contest to eliminate one of the eight tokens that identify the players and introduce a new one. Possible new tokens include a cat, diamond ring, guitar, toy robot and helicopter

It's the latest effort by the toymaker to jazz up the game which debuted almost eight decades ago.

In recent years Hasbro introduced a version that replaces paper money with an electronic bank and another that incorporates an iPad. There is an app-only version of the game for smartphones and tablets.

Monopoly's tokens have actually changed quite a lot over the years. The original version also included a lantern, purse, cannon and a rocking horse. A horse and rider token was used in the 1950s. During World War II, metal tokens were replaced by wooden ones.

But this time, users have a say.

So if you are tired of the iron token and would rather be represented by a robot, here's your chance to make those wishes known. Beginning Tuesday, Facebook fans of monopoly can vote on which piece to eliminate and which one to add. The voting ends Feb. 5.

Up for elimination: all eight current tokens including a battleship, iron, racecar, Scottie dog, shoe, thimble, top hat and wheelbarrow. Most tokens were introduced with the first Parker Brothers iteration of the game in 1935, and the Scottie dog and wheelbarrow were added in the early 1950s.

Eric Nyman, global brand leader for Hasbro gaming, said the impetus for the contest came from chatter on Facebook, where Monopoly has over 10 million fans.

"We're constantly interacting with those fans and we're always getting suggestions from fans about what tokens they would love to see," Nyman said. They took five of the top suggestions from Facebook for the contest.

A special $17.99 limited edition of the game called Golden Ticket will be available in Target stores beginning Feb. 15 with golden versions of both the old and new tokens. It will be the last time all of the classic tokens will be available with the game.

Versions of Monopoly with the new token will come out later this year.

Monopoly's iconic tokens originated when game creator Charles Darrow's niece suggested using charms from a charm bracelet for tokens.

On the Web: Facebook.com/monopoly

Read More

LAS VEGAS (AP) LG unveiled a 55-inch TV that sports "ultrahigh-definition" resolution with four times the sharpness of regular HD television sets, kicking off what is likely to be a mini-obsession with the latest super-clear format at the annual International CES gadget show.

The model announced Monday is the smallest in a 2013 lineup that includes 65-inch and 84-inch versions. But the smaller size and smaller price tag begins the parade of TV makers that are seeking to bring ultrahigh definition to the masses.

Also known as "4K," ultrahigh-definition screens are 3,840 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels tall, or more than 8 million in all. The higher resolution will let TV screens get larger without degrading picture quality, though initially the price tag will limit those sets to technology's early adopters.

LG said the 55-inch and 65-inch versions will be available later this year in the U.S. No price was announced, but it will be less than $10,000. The 84-inch version that went on sale late last year cost $20,000.

For a few years, though, there won't likely be a mainstream standard for getting native ultra-HD movies and TV shows to the screen either by disc or broadcast.

LG Electronics Inc. said these new TVs will have upscaling technology that takes images of lesser quality and renders them in high detail. The Korean electronics maker also said it has formed an ultra-HD content agreement with Korea's top broadcaster, KBS, and is seeking out deals with other global content providers. The company offered no specifics.

LG said that with an ultra-HD TV, it will be possible to play phone games with very sharp resolution and in 3-D. The company said it has been possible to hook up smartphones to the TV to play games with current sets, but the resolution isn't good.

Along with the lineup of higher-resolution TVs, LG unveiled a new Magic Remote, which acts like a wand that is sensitive to motion and is used to navigate on-screen menus. LG said the new model responds better to natural speech and can be controlled with a single finger rather than "very tiring arm gestures." It also lets you change the channels by writing numbers in the air.

The company also touted the ability to tap different devices so they can share data. With that capability, you'd be able to see what's inside your refrigerator while shopping, and you'd be able to monitor how clean your house is getting with cameras on a robotic vacuum. Washing machines will also have such capabilities.

Also at the gadget show, rival Sharp Corp. introduced two super-clear TVs and one ultra-HD computer monitor. The 32-inch monitor uses Sharp's IGZO technology, based on a semiconductor material called indium gallium zinc oxide. The monitor, planned for launch in February, responds to 10 points of contact at once one for each finger.

Read More

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics, the global leader in consumer smartphones, is planning two major thrusts in 2013: bulking up mobile content and moving faster into the corporate market dominated by Research in Motion.

The South Korean electronics company is investing in devices that enterprise users like corporations will endorse, with a higher level of security and reliability than general users need. In doing so, Samsung is capitalizing on doubts about the longevity of the BlackBerry as its Canadian maker struggles to revive growth.

Samsung's corporate market ambitions have advanced as the Galaxy SIII, its popular flagship smartphone, won the requisite security certifications from companies, said Kevin Packingham, chief product officer for Samsung Mobile USA.

As RIM prepares to launch its next-generation BlackBerry 10 this quarter, the company's future remains shaky. Corporate technology officers have begun to explore other smartphones, such as those by Apple Inc or Samsung.

"The enterprise space has suddenly become wide open. The RIM problems certainly fueled a lot of what the CIOs are going through, which is they want to get away from a lot of the proprietary solutions," Packingham said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "They want something that integrates what they are doing with their IT systems. Samsung is investing in that area."

"It's been a focus for a long time but the products have evolved now that we can really take advantage of that," he added. "We knew we had to build more tech devices to successfully enter the enterprise market. What really turned that needle was that we had the power of the GS3."

Samsung in 2012 overtook Apple as the world's largest maker of smartphones, with a vastly larger selection of cellphones that attacked different price points and proved popular in emerging markets.

German business software maker SAP provides employees with Samsung's Galaxy S III, the larger Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Tab, SAP Chief Information Officer Oliver Bussmann said in an interview.

"The one clear trend in enterprise is the shift away from one device to multiple devices," said Bussman, who makes 10 devices available to SAP employees for official use. The list includes Apple's iPhone and iPad, Nokia Lumia and RIM's Blackberry.

"Because of the fragmentation of the Android software, we decided to go with just one Android company and we went with Samsung," he added.

Now, the Korean hardware specialist is beefing up its software - an area in which it has lagged arch-enemy Apple, which revolutionized the mobile phone from 2007 with its content-rich, developer-led iPhone ecosystem.

Packingham sees an area ripe for innovation - combining the mobile phone with Samsung's strength, the TV, which has barely evolved in the past decade.

Still, the U.S.-based executive remained cagey about Samsung's plans for content and enterprise.

"You are going to see from content services, we'll start to integrate what's happening on the big screen, what's happening on the tablet," he said.

"We know now that people like to explore content that they are watching on TV while they have a tablet in their lap, and that's going to be a big theme for this year."

(Editing by Richard Chang)

Read More

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Apple Inc's Chief Executive Tim Cook is meeting with partners and government officials in China on his second visit to the firm's second-largest market in less than a year.

China is Apple's fastest-growing market, with the maker of the popular iPhone and iPad opening a raft of retail stores last year. Last month, Apple sold more than 2 million iPhone 5s in the country in just three days, the company's best ever smartphone launch in the country.

Despite the roaring success of iPhone sales in China, analysts say the company's longer-term outlook in the market may hinge on expanding its partners to include China Mobile Ltd, the country's top telecoms carrier.

"Tim is in Beijing meeting with government officials and partners. China is an important market for us and we look forward to continued customer excitement and growth here," Apple's spokeswoman in China Carolyn Wu said on Wednesday.

She declined to say whether or not Cook would be meeting with China Mobile executives.

In China, the iPhone is currently sold through Apple's seven stores, resellers and through China Unicom and China Telecom - which together have fewer than half the mobile subscribers of bigger rival China Mobile.

A deal with China's biggest carrier is seen as crucial to improving Apple's distribution in a market of 290 million users. Apple has been in talks on a tie-up with China Mobile for four years.

China Mobile and Apple initially said they were separated only by a technical issue - as the Chinese carrier runs a different 3G network from most of the world - but that has evolved into a broader and more complex issue of revenue-sharing.

On Tuesday, Cook met with the Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Miao Wei, where they discussed the development of the smartphone industry and innovation trends, according to a statement posted on the ministry's website.

China, Apple's biggest market after the United States, currently accounts for about 15 percent of its annual revenue.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Ryan Woo)

Read More

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that his delegation is pressing North Korea to put a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests and to allow more cell phones and an open Internet for its citizens.

Richardson told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang that the group is also asking for fair and humane treatment for an American citizen detained in North Korea. Also on the trip is Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

"The citizens of the DPRK (North Korea) will be better off with more cell phones and an active Internet. Those are the ... messages we've given to a variety of foreign policy officials, scientists" and government officials, Richardson said.

Most North Koreans have never logged onto the Internet, and the country's authoritarian government strictly limits access to the World Wide Web.

Richardson has said the delegation is on a private, humanitarian trip. Schmidt, who is the highest-profile U.S. business executive to visit North Korea since leader Kim Jong Un took power a year ago, has not spoken publicly about the reasons behind the journey to North Korea.

The visit comes just weeks after North Korea launched a long-range rocket to send a satellite into space. Washington has condemned the launch as a banned test of missile technology. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday "the trip is ill-advised," and another State spokesman reacted to Richardson's latest remarks by referring to Nuland's statement again.

Spokesman Peter Velasco also said from Washington that he also did not believe Richardson's delegation had been in contact with U.S. officials since they arrived in Pyongyang.

Schmidt, who oversaw Google's expansion into a global Internet giant, speaks frequently about the importance of providing people around the world with Internet access and technology. Google now has offices in more than 40 countries, including all three of North Korea's neighbors: Russia, South Korea and China, another country criticized for systematic Internet censorship.

He and Google Ideas think tank director Jared Cohen, who is also on the trip, have collaborated on a book about the Internet's role in shaping society.

Using science and technology to build North Korea's beleaguered economy was the highlight of a New Year's Day speech by leader Kim Jong Un. Still, the reality is that experts see North Korea as one of the least connected countries in the world.

On Tuesday, students at North Korea's elite Kim Il Sung University showed Schmidt how they use Google to look for information online. Surfing the Internet that way is the privilege of only a very few in North Korea.

Officials say students at the university have had Internet access since April 2010.

While university students at Kim Chaek University of Science and Technology and the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology also have carefully monitored Internet access and are under strict instructions to access only educational materials most North Koreans have never surfed the Web.

Computers at Pyongyang's main library at the Grand People's Study house are linked to a domestic Intranet service that allows people to read state-run media online and access a trove of reading materials culled by North Korean officials. North Koreans with computers at home can also sign up for the Intranet service. But access to the World Wide Web is extremely rare and often is limited to those with clearance to get on the Internet.

The U.S. delegation's visit takes place as the U.S. pushes to punish North Korea for launching a long-range rocket in December.

Pyongyang celebrates the launch as a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space. The U.S. and other critics, however, condemn it as a covert test of long-range missile technology, and are urging the U.N. Security Council to take action against North Korea.

Some conservatives in the United States have had harsh criticism of the Schmidt-Richardson trip.

Schmidt and Richardson "have joined the long list of Americans and others used by the Kim family dictatorship for political advantage," John Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration, wrote in the New York Daily News.

"North Korea has repeatedly welcomed prominent Americans to help elevate its stature. It is seeking direct negotiations with Washington, for in the distorted vision of the nation's leadership, this might lead to full diplomatic recognition and 'equal' status in the world community."

___

Follow AP's bureau chief for Pyongyang and Seoul at www.twitter.com/newsjean.

Read More