Web snippets

Web Snippets 13th March 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-03-05T08:26:15.49

Hackers had control of Nasa computers
Hackers gained "full functional control" of key Nasa computers in 2011, the agency's inspector general has told US lawmakers. Paul K Martin said hackers took over Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) computers and "compromised the accounts of the most privileged JPL users". He said the attack, involving Chinese IP addresses, was under investigation. He said that the attackers had "full system access" and would have been able to "modify, copy, or delete sensitive files" or "upload hacking tools to steal user credentials and compromise other Nasa systems". http://news.bbc.co.uk

Google not responsible for 'internet graffiti' rules judge
Google is a "purely passive wall" with no responsibility for internet "graffiti" no matter how offensive or libelous, a High Court judge has stated. In a ruling which gives Google widespread immunity from English defamation laws, Mr Justice Eady upheld pleas that it is merely a "platform provider" and "should not be regarded as a publisher, or even as one who authorised publication". http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Demand for Raspberry Pi drags down websites
Raspbery Pi – the nuts-and-bolts computer aimed at inspiring young programmers – has finally gone on sale, but the demand has overwhelmed websites selling the devices. Generating the sort of buzz normally reserved for another manufacturer named after a fruit, Raspberry Pi announced that the credit card-sized computer (cost £22) was available for pre-order, but the demand saw websites overwhelmed as early models sold out and websites selling it crashed. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 24th April 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-04-16T10:16:52.413

Sony sheds 10,000 staff in major reorganisation
Electronics firm Sony is to shed 10,000 jobs as part of a major reorganisation, chief executive Kazuo Hirai has said. The cuts, which represent 6% of the global workforce, will be made over the next 12 months. The reduction includes staff working in businesses that are being sold, such as its chemicals division. Sony has been struggling to compete in the television business with South Korea's Samsung and LG, while Apple has challenged it in audio gear and phones. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Apple Flashback virus outbreak tackled
The number of Mac computers infected with Flashback, one of the most virulent computer viruses ever to attack OS X, has fallen dramatically in the last week, new research revealed as Apple released a software update to clear up infections. The virus is designed to steal victims’ usernames and passwords for services such as online banking. It exploits vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment, an almost-ubiquitous piece of software that works within web browsers to deliver the interactive elements of websites. www.telegraph.co.uk

Two teenagers arrested after hackers attacked British anti-terror hotline
Two boys aged 16 and 17 have been arrested as part of an investigation into recordings made of conversations on Scotland Yard’s anti-terror hotline, which were posted on the internet. The teenagers were being held in the West Midlands by officers from the Police Central e-Crime Unit on suspicion of offences under the Malicious Communications Act and the Computer Misuse Act. An organisation called Team Poison claimed to have carried out the cyber-attack in response to the alleged detention of innocent people on terrorism charges and the recent ruling to deport a number of terror suspects to the United States.www.independent.ie

Web Snippets 18th October 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-10-10T11:28:07.613

YouTube to offer film rentals in the UK
Video site YouTube has started a movie rental service in the UK. Blockbusters such as The Dark Knight and classics including The Birds can be watched via the site. In total, about 1,000 movies have been made available. New releases will cost £3.49 to rent and library titles £2.49. Users have 30 days to begin watching a film, and 48 hours to finish it once they start. The UK is the third territory to get the movie rental service after the US and Canada.
http://news.bbc.co.uk

Samsung delays smartphone in tribute to Jobs
Samsung has delayed the launch of a new Android smartphone while the technology world continues to pay tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died last week. The delay comes as an intensifying legal battle between Apple and Samsung reaches a crucial point this week, when the two technology giants will meet to contend patent disputes in courtrooms in the US, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea and Japan.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Britain's first 4G trial begins
Britain’s first field trial of next generation mobile broadband is underway in Cornwall, using technology capable of offering internet access on the move many times faster than existing networks. The new network is based on the LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard, also known as 4G. Triallists have been given special equipment to allow them to use the network as their main home broadband, as well as on the move. In laboratory tests, the technology is capable of delivering internet access at up to 150Mbps downstream, but in reality it is expected to offer around 10Mbps initially. That still represents a significant improvement on 3G, which according to Ofcom offers an average of only 1.5Mbps.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Snippets 19th October

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-10-11T16:23:36.85

Man jailed over computer password refusal
A teenager has been jailed for 16 weeks after he refused to give police the password to his computer. Oliver Drage, 19, of Liverpool, was arrested in May 2009 by police tackling child sexual exploitation. Police seized his computer but could not access material on it as it had a 50-character encryption password. He was formally asked to disclose his password but failed to do so, which is an offence under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, police said. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Internet Explorer dips below 50 per cent
Microsoft's share of the browser market has dipped below 50 per cent for the first time, according to the latest figures from StatCounter. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer now has a 49.87 per cent share of the global browser market, the first time it has fallen below 50 per cent. Although Microsoft’s browser remains the dominant browsing platform, rivals such as Google and Mozilla are snapping at it heels. According to the latest figures from StatCounter, Mozilla’s Firefox web browser enjoys a 31.5 per cent market share, while Google’s Chrome browser accounts for 11.54 per cent of the market.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Laptops can "toast" skin, say researchers
Laptops can toast the skin, leading to a condition similar to that once found in glass-blowers and bakers. While warm thighs will come as no surprise to anyone who's ever balanced a laptop on their legs to get some work done, Swiss researchers say longer term exposure to such heat can lead to "toasted skin syndrome." Such a condition is normally harmless, leading to skin discoloration that normally fades over time but in rare cases was permanent. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 20th December 2011

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-12-12T11:37:37.15

50 things killed by technology
A detailed study, carried out among 3,000 adults, examining the impact technology has had on our lives over the last 30 years highlights how calling the cinema, recording ‘stuff’ using VHS, dialling directory enquiries, and using public telephones are all being ‘killed off’ by technology. The list details 50 previously common habits that are now in becoming extinct. www.telegraph.co.uk

Motorola wins Apple wireless patent fight in Germany
A German court has ruled in Motorola Mobility's favour in a patents dispute with Apple. The Android smartphone maker had complained that Apple failed to license one of its wireless intellectual properties it uses in its iPhones and 3G iPads. Motorola said the ruling validated its "efforts to enforce its patents against Apple's infringement". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Cyber attacks could wreck world oil supply
Hackers are conducting industrial espionage and threatening potential global havoc through oil supply disruption. Computers control nearly all the world's energy production and distribution in systems that are increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks that could put cutting-edge fuel production technology in rival company hands. Shell's Luehmann said "Everyone can hack today,". "The number of potential hackers is not a few very skilled people - it's everyone." www.reuters.com

Snippets 26th July 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-07-18T09:12:12.147

Spelling mistakes 'cost millions' in lost online sales
An online entrepreneur says that poor spelling is costing the UK millions of pounds in lost revenue for internet businesses. Charles Duncombe says an analysis of website figures shows a single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half. Mr Duncombe says when recruiting staff he has been "shocked at the poor quality of written English". Sales figures suggest misspellings put off consumers who could have concerns about a website's credibility, he says. http://news.bbc.co.uk

US loses 24,000 military files to foreign hackers
A foreign intelligence service stole 24,000 files from a US defense contractor earlier this year, a top defense official said. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn revealed the theft as he unveiled a new Pentagon cybersecurity strategy that designates cyberspace as an "operational domain" like sea, air and land where US forces will practice, train and prepare to defend against attacks. Lynn said the theft occurred in March and was believed to have been carried out by a foreign intelligence service and targeted files at a defense contractor developing weapons systems and defense equipment. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Search engines 'rewire our memory'
A study from Columbia University suggests that the ability to find almost any information via a few keystrokes on Google could make us less likely to remember things. Researchers believe that we tend to forget information if we are confident that we can find it again. If we think that something will not be easy to find again then we make more effort to remember it. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 6th March 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-02-27T08:47:36.58

Blackberry releases late Playbook OS upgrade
After delays of almost a year, an upgraded operating system for the Blackberry Playbook tablet has been released. Playbook 2.0, a free upgrade, adds a built-in email function to the device which was first launched in April 2011. Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM) had promised the upgrade within 60 days of the device's release Last month the company's co-chief executives stepped down amid faltering sales figures. This upgrade for the Playbook - RIM's first foray into the tablet market - also sees built-in calendar and contacts functions added, as well as tighter integration with social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Samsung Galaxy Beam projector phone launches
The new Samsung Galaxy Beam phone includes a projector that can show films and pictures at up to 50”. The Beam is the first mainstream phone to directly incorporate projector technology, which has become increasingly common on top-of-the range compact digital cameras cameras. Photos and videos can be viewed on any flat service, and Samsung claims the 15-lumens projector is even useful outdoors. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

PC slump kills HP and Dell's bottom lines
Hewlett-Packard said that its profit fell by a dramatic 44% while sales sank 7% in its fiscal first quarter, ended Jan. 31. Rival Dell suffered a similar fate over the past three months, posting earnings and an outlook on Tuesday that disappointed Wall Street investors. HP said PC sales fell 15%, dragged down by slumping consumer as tablets and smartphones continued to capture more interest (and shopping dollars). Consumer PC sales fell by a stunning 25% in the quarter. It was a miserable holiday season for basically every personal computer maker not named Apple. http://www.cnn.com

Snippets 6th April

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:35:27.057

Times and Sunday Times websites to charge.

The Times and Sunday Times newspapers will start charging to access their websites in June, owner News International (NI) has announced. Users will pay £1 for a day's access and £2 for a week's subscription. The move opens a new front in the battle for readership and will be watched closely by the industry. Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp owns NI, has led a fierce campaign against internet sites which distribute free news content from his companies. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Gmail gets location-based security warning system

Google's webmail will now warn users when it looks like an account is accessed from a strange place. The new security feature will display a message warning at the bottom of the page if the account has been accessed from somewhere else, helping users see if someone has broken into their email. To determine when to display this message, an automated system matches the relevant IP address, logged per the Gmail privacy policy, to a broad geographical location. http://www.itpro.co.uk

Dell and Go Daddy threaten to follow Google out of China

Two major US technology companies, Dell and Go Daddy, have threatened to pull out of China in the wake of Google's departure from the country. Go Daddy Group, which sells internet domain names, said it would stop offering new ".cn" domain registrations in China, following the introduction of new regulations. Meanwhile, Dell, the world's third-largest PC company by sales, hinted that it may be considering switching its operations from China to India. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 24th January

Charlesdouthwaite — 2012-01-16T08:35:55.193

Piracy student loses extradition case
Richard O'Dwyer, a 23-year-old Sheffield Hallam University student faces up to 10 years in a US federal prison for operating the TVShack web site which US authorities say hosts links to pirated and copyrighted video content. The website did not itself host unlawful downloads, but acted as a directory of links to others that did. American authorities allege that Mr O’Dwyer made more than $230,000 by selling advertising on TVShack in three years. District Judge Quentin Purdy rejected all three of the defence’s arguments against extradition, including claims Mr O’Dwyer would not get a fair trial in the United States http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Apple’s Beijing Store Pelted With Eggs
Apple Inc. , whose skill at hyping new products helped make it the world’s most valuable technology company, became a victim of its own success after a botched introduction of its iPhone 4S in China led it to suspend sales. Would-be customers who had endured a wait overnight as temperatures dropped below minus 9 degrees Celsius reacted with fury after the company’s main store in Beijing failed to open. Police temporarily cordoned off the shop after it was pelted with eggs by the crowd. http://www.bloomberg.com

Obsessive smart phone users hear 'phantom vibrations'
Blackberries and iPhones are meant to help workers manage their workload by giving them access to messages and alerts while away from the office. But a new study has found that people become so obsessive about checking their email accounts and social networking sites that they actually become more stressed as a result, researchers said. Some are so hooked to their devices that they even begin to experience "phantom" vibrations where they mistakenly believe their phone is buzzing in their pocket. http://www.independent.ie

Snippets 10th August

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:10:44.987

Gulf States to ban Blackberry functions
Two Gulf states have announced bans on some functions of the Blackberry mobile phone, claiming security concerns. The United Arab Emirates is to block sending emails, accessing the internet, and delivering instant messages to other Blackberry handsets. Saudi Arabia is to prevent the use of the Blackberry to Blackberry instant messaging service. Both nations are unhappy that they are unable to monitor such communications via the handsets. This is because the Blackberry handsets automatically send the encrypted data to computer servers outside of the two countries. http://news.bbc.co.uk

iPad users are ‘selfish elite', claims survey
A survey has revealed the typical person who has bought Apple’s latest gadget is unkind and has little empathy for others. They have been branded the ‘selfish elite’ by a poll of 20,000 consumers carried out by an American research company. The £429 device has become the most desired gadget in Britain since its launch in May and 600,000 are expected to be sold before the end of the year. http://www.dailymail.co.uk

WikiLeaks: suspected army source sent back to US
A US army private under investigation for allegedly leaking classified material to the WikiLeaks website has been transferred from Kuwait to the US amid growing White House and Pentagon anger over revelations about the war in Afghanistan. Bradley Manning, who has already been charged with leaking a video and other material relating to the Iraq war, is now said to be a suspected source for tens of thousands of documents which made their way via WikiLeaks to the Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel in Germany. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Snippets 15th June

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:25:05.977

Google sued over 'unsafe' map directions
A pedestrian is suing Google for supplying unsafe directions in its Maps tool after she was hit by a car. Lauren Rosenberg is seeking $100,000 in damages after the accident in January when she tried to cross a busy state highway with no pavements at night and was hit by a car. A lawsuit filed in a Utah District Court last week accused Google of being "careless, reckless, and negligent" in supplying unsafe walking directions. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Google ditches Windows after security scare
Google is refusing to let new employees use Windows PCs over fears about its security. New recruits are given the choice of running Mac OS X or Linux PCs, while many existing staff are migrating from Windows, according to a report in the Financial Times. The move follows the high profile attacks on Google at the end of last year, in which a hole in Internet Explorer was exploited by Chinese hackers. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Mobile phone for elderly is as loud as road drill
A mobile phone with a ringtone that hits 100 decibels has become a hit with the elderly and hard of hearing. The Clearsound CL8200 is believed to be the loudest phone on the market with a ring sound as loud as a road drill. British company Geemarc, has manufactured the gadget with older people in mind. It claims the £89.99 handset is one of the easiest mobiles to use because of its simple design. http://www.express.co.uk

Web Snippets 8th March 2010

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-02-28T13:11:24.21

Microsoft says phone update failed 1 in 10 users
Microsoft has revealed that 1 in 10 users who tried to install a software update on their Windows 7 mobile experienced problems. Owners have reported a range of issues following the download, from phones crashing, to becoming completely unusable. The problem appears to have affected only Samsung handsets, in particular the Omnia 7 model. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Apple iPad 2 "delayed until June"
The launch of Apple's iPad 2 tablet is reportedly being delayed by two months because of manufacturing problems. The device's launch date has been shifted from April to June, according to Taiwanese brokerage Yuanta Securitie, because Apple's contracted manufacturer, Hon Hai, faces production bottlenecks due to the device's new design. Component makers had to change their production processes after Apple made design changes to the iPad 2 at the beginning of February. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

iPhone 'becoming less popular
Rival's to Apple's successful iPhone are gaining ground as consumers are increasingly turning to cheaper options. Research from the uSwitch.com mobile tracker found that HTC handsets, which are made in Taiwan, were doing particularly well. The firm compiled a ranking of the most prized smartphones, based on web searches and sales, and HTC were in each of the top three places with its Desire, Desire HD and Wildfire models. Samsung and BlackBerry also beat the iPhone with their smartphones. Part of the reason for the non-Apple smartphones gaining ground is that the Android open software which they use has been intensively developed for "apps" which allow specific, often quirky, functions. http://www.independent.ie
Charles Douthwaite is Managing Director of Island Web Works, a Douglas based e-business solutions specialist. www.island-webworks.net

Snippets 4th May

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:32:28.967

Google under fire for Wi-Fi hotspot snooping.
As well as taking photographs for Google Map, the Street View car is also apparently scanning wi-fi networks and collecting users’ unique MAC (Media Access Control) addresses. Wi-Fi location data is used as one of the ways in which location can be determined and used to deliver location-relevant services. The practice was discovered in Germany by the country’s Federal Data Protection Commissioner Peter Schaar, who said he was “horrified” Google was doing this without the knowledge of third parties. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Seoul orders curfew on web games
South Korea has ordered the operators of the three most popular South Korean online games to block overnight access by users under the age of 18. The curfew is a response to the case last month of a young couple who allowed their baby to starve to death while they raised a virtual child in an online game. http://www.cnn.com

Apple confirm lost iPhone 4G prototype is authentic‎
A secret prototype of the next-generation iPhone was found on a bar stool in Redwood City, California. The finder spotted a number of differences and under the casing discovered a new-look version with a front camera for video chatting, a rear camera with a larger lens and - for the first time - a flash. It was then bought by online gadget guide Gizmodo.com, which used information in the iPhone to name the man who lost it as Gray Powell, an Apple engineer. http://www.mirror.co.uk

Web Snippets 2nd November

CharlesDouthwaite — 2010-10-28T16:40:41.807

WikiLeaks funding blocked
The controversial whistleblowing group WikiLeaks claims that it has had its funding blocked and that it is the victim of financial warfare by the US government. Moneybookers, a British-registered internet payment company that collects WikiLeaks donations, emailed the organisation to say it had closed down its account because it had been put on an official US watchlist and on an Australian government blacklist. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Half of wi-fi networks can be hacked in seconds
Nearly half of home wi-fi networks can be hacked in less than five seconds, according to a study carried out across UK cities. Almost a quarter of the private networks had no password, despite 82% of Britons believing their network is secure. Of the 40,000 networks identified in the six cities, just under 20,000 had no password or the most basic form of security encryption, the research for card protection and insurance company CPP found. In the ''ethical hacking'' experiment, researchers spent half an hour in each city using freely available software to use as many unsecured wireless connections as possible. But the study found even password-protected networks were not secure, with hackers able to breach a typical password in seconds. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Police hail tweet beat success
Manchester Police chiefs have hailed their 24-hour Twitterthon as a success after posting details of 3,205 incidents on the microblogging site. Calls ranged from someone reporting a rat in the house, to serious offences including injuries to a child. Officers arrested 341 people during the experiment and 126 of those remain in custody. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 1st December 2009

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:54:43.82

T-Mobile admits staff sold customers' mobile records
UK mobile phone network T-Mobile has admitted that its staff sold thousands of customers' personal details to a third party. Staff at the company allegedly sold the records for what the Information Commissioner describes as a "substantial sum of money". The data was passed to rival networks and used to cold-call customers whose contracts were due to expire soon. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

YouTube launches UK TV section
YouTube has launched a new shows section for UK users as it taps into rising online demand for full-length television programmes. The new section provides the first shows from a landmark deal with Channel 4 announced last month and will include full-length episodes of Peep Show, Hollyoaks and Gordon Ramsay's F Word. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Belle De Jour Blogger unmasked
For several years, Belle de Jour has been among the most high-profile bloggers in the UK. The 34 year old upscale escort hiding behind her blogging pseudonym wrote candid posts about developments in Britain’s sex trade and managed to turn her blog into a TV series starring Billie Piper. But what Belle’s readers never knew was that this edgy blogger was actually Dr Brooke Magnanti, a cancer researcher and developmental neuro-toxicology specialist working for a hospital in Bristol. Dr Magnanti decided to reveal her true identity, for fear that her ex-boyfriend would pre-empt her and expose her as the popular blogger. http://www.examiner.com

Snippets 17th August

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:10:09.98

'iPod oblivion' threatening drivers and motorists
Motorists and pedestrians risk causing accidents because they lapse into ''iPod oblivion'' while listening to music, according to the AA. It reported incidents of drivers breaking down on the hard shoulder of motorways and then dangerously pacing up and down while using a mobile phone. In addition, AA patrol staff have noticed a marked increase in pedestrians seemingly oblivious to the traffic as they cross busy roads. These ''podestrians'' can sometimes be spotted checking their emails as they contend with passing cars. http://www.telegraph.co..uk

Jail For Laptop Hacker Exposed By Sky News
A laptop engineer who was caught by Sky News trying to hack into a bank account has been sentenced to nine months in prison. Grzegorz Zachodni was caught in an undercover sting as part of an exclusive investigation into the service offered by computer repair shops. The 30-year-old worked at Laptop Revival in Hammersmith in March 2009 when a reporter dropped in a laptop with a seemingly simple fault. Spy software revealed that Zachodni tried to access the reporter’s bank account online on six occasions. http://news.sky.com

Glitches blight one in three air bookings
Almost one-in-three people who book flights online have suffered a technical problem or made a mistake when booking and 14% have paid more for a flight as a result. One-in-40 had ended up buying a new ticket at full cost as a consequence. This astonishing error rate and its cost to consumers was revealed by an Ipsos MORI survey of more than 2,000 consumers carried out on behalf of the Air Transport Users Council (AUC). The survey found 17% of respondents had made a mistake by entering the wrong information when booking a ticket online, of whom 58% - or 10% of the total - were out of pocket and 9% (1.5% of the total) had paid for a new ticket. www.travolution.co.uk

Snippets 13th April

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:34:22.707

Apple's iPad on sale for first time.
The first iPads, Apple's touch-screen tablet style computer, went on sale to US customers on Saturday 3rd April. It is the first time consumers have been able to get their hands on the much-hyped computer and test out its capabilities. The device is expected to revolutionise the way people browse the internet, read books and newspapers., Sales are expected to exceed three million by the end of the year. http://www.telegrapgh.co.uk

Firefox claims 30 per cent market share
Mozilla has claimed that the Firefox Browser's market share is somewhere near 30 per cent, in the first of a new series of reports. The new State of the Internet Report gathered up stats from several analytics firms, showing Firefox had the best market share in Europe, with 39.2 per cent, with North America rounding out the bottom at just over a quarter (26 per cent). http://www.itpro.co.uk

Ordnance Survey launches free downloadable maps
It is the biggest shakeup in the Ordnance Survey's 260-year history: from tomorrow you can download maps as detailed as 1:10,000 scale, or collect a list of locations appearing on maps at the 1:50,000 scale, or a conversion system for postcodes to grid references – free for personal or commercial use. The move marks a radical departure from the OS's previous financial model, under which every piece of map data had to be paid for, except for very low-volume experimental applications. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Web snippets 2nd August 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-07-24T20:38:40.97

Hospital visitors told to consider speaking to relatives via Skype
The families of patients at an NHS trust have been urged to consider speaking to them via Skype rather than making bedside visits. The scheme, being proposed by Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, is intended to save money among relatives who receive travel expenses. Mental health patients across Berkshire are due to be relocated to Reading. Under the plans some relatives would qualify for travel expenses when they visit their relatives at the new unit. But NHS bosses, who are trying to save £4 million a year, believe offering families alternative methods of communication, could help. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Sun website hacked by LulzSec
News International websites for the Times and the Sun were taken down after hackers targeted the Sun's web pages and redirected traffic to another page falsely reporting that Rupert Murdoch had been found dead. The breach was apparently the first hack of a major UK newspaper's website. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Apple overtakes Nokia for smartphone sales
Apple has surged past Nokia in global smartphone sales as the ailing handset maker reported a steep net loss for the second quarter. Nokia said it sold 16.7 million smartphones in the second quarter of the year, falling well short of Apple's 20.3m iPhones. A Reuters calculation showed that Nokia's overall market share fell to 23.7% from 29.1% in the previous quarter – a far cry from the near 40% share Nokia previously enjoyed. Nokia is now pinning its turnaround hopes on a new suite of devices using Microsoft's Windows Phone software, but these will not come to market until later this year, or early in 2012. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 24th August

AndreasH — 2010-09-13T11:12:25.317

Home computers discover rare star
By putting their home computers to work when they would otherwise be idle, three "citizen scientists" have discovered a rare astronomical object. The unusual find is called a "disrupted binary pulsar"; these pulsars can be created when a massive star collapses. The discoverers, from the US and Germany found the object with the help of the Einstein@Home project. It asks users to donate time on their computers, allowing them to be used for searching through scientific data. This type of project is known as "distributed computing". http://news.bbc.co.uk

Google could use spy drones for UK mapping
Google could be allowed to use unmanned spy drones in the UK to gather information for its Google Maps and Street View services. The news follows reports that the web giant had ordered at least one drone from German company Microdrones, which has supplied unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to UK police and special forces.http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Android Outsells Apple's IPhone
Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, has introduced new voice-activated services to drive more users to phones that run on its Android operating system as it challenges Apple Inc.’s iPhone. The new voice services are available on the latest Android models, Google said. The company is updating Android as it expands in mobile communications. Worldwide, Android became the third-best-selling operating system in the second quarter, with 17.2 percent of sales compared with 1.8 percent a year earlier, acording to Gartner Reasearch. Apple’s iPhone dropped to fourth place. http://www.bloomberg.com

Snippets 7th December

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-11-29T08:21:39.833

German vandals target Street View opt-out homes
German home-owners who have chosen to opt out of Google's Street View service appear to have become the unsuspecting victims of anti-privacy vandals. Local media report that homes in Essen, West Germany have been pelted with eggs and had 'Google's cool' notices pinned to their doors. The properties involved have all chosen to be blurred on Google's Street View service. The search giant distanced itself from the vandalism. "We respect people's right to remove their house from Street View and by no means consider this to be acceptable behaviour," a Google spokesperson said. It said it was a one-off incident. http://news.bbc.co.uk

New broadband satellite offers hope to rural areas
High speed broadband connections could finally extend to remote rural areas thanks to the launch of a new satellite. The “Highly Adaptable Satellite” (Hylas) will offer up to 350,000 con nections across Europe when testing is finished in early 2011. Originally planned for last year, Hylas’s launch, from French Guyana, will be the first of a new generation of satellites that offer users speeds of up to 10mbps for fees that are likely to be around £25 per month. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Fifth of Facebook feeds include "dodgy" links
More than a fifth of Facebook users have dodgy links on their news feeds that could lead to malicious or spam content, according to stats from BitDefender. Some 60% of those links are from third-party apps from Facebook's own developer platform - suggesting the social networking site needs to clean up its app-approval system. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news

Web Snippets 12th April 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-04-04T08:46:45.033

Teacher Suspended for Facebook Status Update

A teacher in New Jersey has been suspended from her job for posting a status update that said she felt like a warden overseeing future criminals, the New York Times reports. The teacher, whose name has not been disclosed, was suspended with pay from the Paterson, N.J. district after "a significant number" of parents that saw the Facebook post showed up at the school, clamoring for her removal. The Times also noted that the Paterson school district is one of the most troubled in the state. www.pcmagazine.co.uk

BBC website crashes for an hour

Technical problems with the BBC website saw a total outage of the news site, iPlayer and other web services for a period on the 29th March. BBC bosses admitted that there had been a "major network problem" caused by multiple systems and their backups failing. The fault was fixed by restarting network hardware. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Bereaved denied access to loved ones' digital assets

Grieving families are being left out of pocket because people are forgetting to include passwords to their digital assets in their wills, according to a new study entitled Dying in a Digital Age. The research found that 80 per cent of people own digital assets, but only nine per cent have thought about passing them on when they die. Bank accounts, music and photograph collections are increasingly stored online. This report shows that we should all take a moment to think about our own digital footprint and who we’ll pass it on to. http://www.computing.co.uk

Web Snippets 21st February 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-02-13T08:21:56.78

Video game sales fall
Video game sales slumped in the US - their biggest market - in January. NPD group said stores sold $1.14bn (£720m) worth of games over the month, down 34% on the previous year. It added that hardware sales were down 38%. The consumer data provider linked the drop to a lack of major new releases. Other analysts also pointed to worries about the economy and said this might have an impact on the upcoming launch of Sony's PlayStation Vita console. Microsoft's Xbox 360 held onto its title as the top selling hardware platform for the sixth month running. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Kodak kills off cameras
Kodak has confirmed it will stop selling digital cameras and photo frames as it struggles to turn around its business after filing for bankruptcy protection. Kodak will halt sales of "capture devices" - such as digital cameras and pocket video cameras, as well as digital frames - in the first half of this year, a move that will help the ailing firm save $100 million a year. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Teenagers prefer social media to TV
Teenagers now list using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter as their number one pastime, overtaking watching television, according to a new report. Sixty-five per cent of the 16-24 year-olds who were polled for the survey, listed talking to their friends via Facebook and Twitter, as their top leisure activity. The study, which polled 1,300 people across the UK and was conducted by digital marketing agency, Click Consult, found that the appeal of social media was also growing in older age groups, with nearly a third of those aged over 55, logging onto social media sites before switching the TV on. http://www.independent.ie

Snippets 1st March

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-02-21T08:21:19.99

Cyber crime 'costs UK £27bn a year'
Cyber crime costs the UK more than £27bn a year, according to a report commissioned by the Cabinet Office into the integrity of computer systems and threats of industrial espionage. The extraordinarily high estimate was revealed by the security minister, Baroness Neville-Jones, and reflects the spread of computers into many aspects of domestic and business life. The report, by information consultants Detica, calculated that the theft of intellectual property alone from businesses costs £9.2bn. Cyber crime also costs private citizens £3.1bn a year, the report said. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Facebook leaves stressed users in "neurotic limbo"
Having a lot of Facebook friends can push you towards toward a life of stress, Scottish researchers have claimed. According to research conducted by psychologists from Edinburgh Napier University, the more friends you have, the more likely you are to suffer “Facebook-related anxiety”.“Our data suggests that there is a significant minority of users who experience considerable Facebook-related anxiety, with only very modest or tenuous rewards," said study lead Dr Kathy Charles. Like gambling, Facebook keeps users in a neurotic limbo, not knowing whether they should hang on in there just in case they miss out on something good. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/

Japanese woman sues Google for displaying images of underwear
The woman, who has not been named, is suing the internet giant for 600,000 Yen (£4,588) claiming the images caused her psychological distress, according to Japan's Mainichi newspaper. The first hearing in the case was held this week in the southern city of Fukuoka. "I was overwhelmed with anxiety that I might be the target of a sex crime," the woman told a district court. "It caused me to lose my job and I had to change my residence." http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Snippets 20th April

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:33:36.017

AOL plans to sell or shut down Bebo.

Internet company AOL has announced plans to sell or shut down the social networking site Bebo. The company said it was unable to provide the "significant investment" Bebo needed to compete with its social networking rivals. The news comes just two years after AOL bought the site for $850m (£417m at the time). Bebo has been struggling against more popular rivals such as Facebook. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Labour ditch candidate following Twitter gaffe
A LABOUR election candidate was sacked after a string of "offensive" comments he posted on Twitter appeared in a newspaper. Stuart MacLennan, who was hoping to stand in the Moray constituency, reportedly branded the elderly "coffin dodgers" and posted a series of foul-mouthed rants about politicians, including Tory leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. http://news.scotsman.com

"Arrogant" Facebook slammed over child safety
Facebook has been branded “arrogant” in its refusal to do more to protect children online. Jim Gamble, head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said the rising number of complaints seen on the social networking site was raising “real concerns”. He cited 252 complaints being received this year alone of harassment, bullying and sexual grooming of children. His comments are likely to fuel the dispute between Facebook and CEOP over the social network’s refusal to add a “panic button” for children to its pages. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 17th January 2012

CharlesDouthwaite — 2012-01-09T08:20:52.74

'Europe's biggest' free wi-fi zone set for London
Mobile operator O2 is to provide free internet to "millions" of residents and visitors in central London by launching Europe's largest free wi-fi zone. The service will be rolled out across the boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea . London's service will be powered by equipment attached to lamp-posts and other existing structures on London's streets, and should be completed by March. O2 said the deal, which will have no cost to the taxpayer, will enable visitors to "make the most of what London has to offer". http://news.bbc.co.uk

Stan Collymore subjected to racist abuse on Twitter
A man has been arrested after Stan Collymore, the football player turned radio presenter, made a formal complaint that he was racially abused on Twitter. Police in Northumbria arrested the suspect, 21, on suspicion of racially aggravated harassment after Collymore, who works for the radio station Talksport, reported two tweets to officers. The Twitter user's account has been removed from the site and the tweets prompted an outpouring of support for Collymore from other users of the microblogging site who condemned the racist abuse. http://www.guardian.co.uk

iPhone 4S owners "chewing through data"
Apple's iPhone 4S users consume twice as much data as owners of the the previous iPhone and even more than iPad tablets, according to research. Data-use figures released by network management company Arieso reveal that increased use of services such as the iPhone 4S's Siri personal assistant are putting further strain on networks. The research found that iPhone 4S users demanded three times as much data as iPhone 3G users and twice as much as iPhone 4 users, who were identified as the most demanding in a similar 2010 study. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 23rd November

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-11-15T13:39:45.39

Tory councillor arrested over Twitter stoning post
A Conservative Birmingham City councillor has been arrested over allegations he called on Twitter for a female writer to be stoned to death. Erdington councillor Gareth Compton made the remark about Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on his Twitter page after Ms Alibhai-Brown had appeared on Radio 5 Live's breakfast show on Wednesday discussing human rights in China. Afterwards, Mr Compton allegedly tweeted: "Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really." http://news.bbc.co.uk

Royal Navy website sunk by hackers
Britain's Royal Navy was forced to take down its website after it was disrupted by hackers, according to the Ministry of Defence. A message on the Royal Navy website read: "Unfortunately the Royal Navy website is currently undergoing essential maintenance. Please visit again soon." It comes only weeks after the Government announced a £650 million national cyber security programme. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Apple I computer could sell for £150,000
Auction house Christies believes an Apple I machine could fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds when it goes on sale later this month. The computer – a 1976 Apple I, one of just 200 or so machines hand-built by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak – will be up for auction in London on Nov 23. According to its auction listing, the Apple I was shipped from Steve Jobs’ family garage, where the current Apple chief executive and his former colleague built and tested machines. It will be sold complete with its original packaging and manuals, along with a letter from Jobs himself. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 13th Jan 2010

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:52:31.487

Australian Web Filter To Block Obscene Sites
Australia is forging ahead with plans to filter internet content in a bid to stop its citizens accessing obscene and crime-linked websites. Under the Chinese-style system, internet service providers (ISPs) in the country would be legally obliged to filter out banned material. The move would mean more than 1,300 sites that show child pornography, sexual violence or give instructions about committing crime would be blocked. The government says such a system would help protect people, especially children, from harmful material found online. http://news.sky.com

Susan Boyle tops most popular YouTube videos of 2009
Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle was the star of the most popular video of 2009 on video site YouTube. The Scottish singer's surprising rendition of I Dreamed A Dream on the show has been watched by more than 120 million viewers worldwide. Susan had more views than the next three most-watched videos combined. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Microsoft and EU settle browser row
Microsoft and the European Union have finally settled their long-running dispute over the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows. It concludes a lengthy tussle with the European authorities, who upheld rival browser developer Opera's complaint that Microsoft was unfairly squeezing rivals out of the market. The agreement sees Microsoft agree to Windows users a "browser choice" screen that gives them a random selection of 12 browsers to choose from. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 9th February

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:50:00.197

Brits Are Europe's Top Web Spenders

British shoppers splashed almost a third of the cash spent on the internet in Europe last year, making them comfortably the continent's top online spenders. Consumers in the UK spent an estimated £38bn online in 2009, accounting for 30% of total European internet sales, according to price comparison site Kelkoo. Germany and France occupied the second and third positions. http://news.sky.com

Apple launches iPad

Unveiled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and described by the company as "magical and revolutionary", the iPad hopes to become the one device that fills the elusive gap between a smartphone and a notebook. Measuring around 13mm thick and weighing just 0.7kg, the tablet-like system may win over consumers on looks alone. Running Apple’s iPhone operating system, the iPad is equipped with a 1GHz Apple A4 processor, up to 64GB of Flash storage, Wireless N and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as a built-in accelerometer and compass. Surprisingly, there is no onboard camera. http://www.hexus.net

Windows 7 sparks profit spike

Microsoft says the success of its Windows 7 operating system is the main factor behind a record quarterly revenue of $19 billion (£11.7bn) for the last three months of last year. The Redmond-based giant said the revenue represented a 14% increase from the same period in 2008 and resulted in a $6.6bn (£4bn) profit for the period. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 26th April 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-04-18T08:56:32.337

Spotify halves listening time for free users

Spotify is to cut the amount of music its free users can listen to from 20 hours per month to 10 hours. Free users will also be limited to just five plays of a song. After that they will need to buy the track or sign up to one of Spotify’s subscription services. The music streaming service said new users will, for their first six months of the service, continue to get the current version of the free service: 20 hours of listening per month and no cap on plays of each track. However, after six months the new limits would apply. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Sweden most connected country

Sweden and Singapore are the most competitive countries in the digital economy, according to a study by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Nordic and Asian economies are best at using information and communications technologies (ICT) to boost their growth, the WEF said. Finland is in third place, Switzerland fourth and the United States fifth. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Users sabotage work PCs to force upgrades

Want a new computer or phone at work? The best way to get an upgrade might be to sabotage the old one, according to research from online backup company Mozy. The company claimed one in four employees were getting fed up with using old machines, and would consider sabotaging their hardware in a bid to force the IT department to upgrade them. The warning came after a survey involving 3,000 workers in Britain, France and Germany, which reported that 40% of users believed their old PC was hurting their efficiency at work. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 22nd June

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:23:14.797

BP buys top Google search result for 'oil spill'
BP has bought the top Google and Yahoo! search result for terms like "oil spill" in a bid to recover its

public image following the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. BP, under fire over its role in one of

the worst ecological disasters in US history, has purchased the news results in an attempt to stem the tide of criticism on internet sites. A search for the term "oil spill" last week brought up a link to BP's

website with the tagline: “Learn more about how BP is helping.” But the move has only succeeded in

provoking further criticism. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Microsoft Launches Office Web
Microsoft has formally launched a free, online version of its popular Office desktop productivity suite.

Office Web, as it's called, includes online editions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The Web apps are

formally part of Microsoft Office 2010, which rolls out this week. The free web based Software allows

Microsoft to protect its flank from Web-based software from Google and from free, open source-based offerings. http://www.informationweek.com

Apple Launches iPhone 4
Apple launched the iPhone 4 during the company’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference. While Apple CEO Steve Jobs praised the iPhone 4 as a substantial leap forward for the device, it faces rising competition from the growing family of Google Android smartphones. The iPhone 4 includes a larger battery, thinner body, a proprietary A4 processor under the hood, a front-facing camera for video conferencing, and a 5-megapixel camera. http://www.eweek.com

Snippets 3rd August

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:11:14.563

Google Waves Goodbye To Nexus One

Google has quietly closed its Nexus One online presence, relegating the handset to other "no longer available" products like Google Notebook and Google Answers and closing its direct sales store for the handset only seven months after it was launched. Nexus One was Google's first foray into the consumer hardware sector with Vodafone being the only mobile network operator in the UK to sell it. www.itproportal.com

Clamping down on file-sharers goes against the Digital Economy Act.

Ofcom should tear up its draft code designed to cut down on illegal file sharing and start again, the Open Rights Group (ORG) has claimed. The campaigning organisation said the draft, which features guidelines for how accusations of copyright infringement should be sent to internet users and internet service providers (ISPs), does not include essential requirements to outline important “standards of evidence”. By not including a specification on the means of obtaining evidence or a standard of evidence, the code fails to comply with the Digital Economy Act, ORG said. www.itpro.co.uk

MySpace loses 49% of visitors in 12 months

The net research firm ComScore has revealed that in May 2010, just 3.3 million web users visited the social network, compared to 6.5 million in May 2009. At its peak MySpace had 100 million members and was acquired by News Corp in 2005 for £351m. Facebook recently announced it had reached the 500 million members mark globally - 30.4 million in the UK. Twitter has 4.3 million users in the UK, up 62 percent on last year. ComScore also revealed that 90 percent of UK web users aged 15 and over used social-media sites in May 2010. www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Snippets 7th September

admin — 2010-07-30T13:55:05.987

Google offers free voice calls via Gmail
Google is taking on internet telephone companies like Skype by allowing users to call from its free web-based email service. The service allows users to make calls to land lines and mobiles from inside their Gmail account. Phoning anywhere in the US and Canada will be free until the end of the year, while calls to the UK, France, China and Germany will cost 2 cents a minute. Until now Google offered only computer-to-computer voice and video chat services. The product will initially be rolled out in the US, the firm said. However, for a brief time, international users were also able to use the feature because of an error. Google says it hopes to roll out the service internationally soon. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Facebook now 'worth $33 billion'
Facebook is now worth as much as $33.7 billion, after investors have paid up to $76 for a share in the company ahead of its much-hyped flotation on the stock market, according to a report. The Financial Times has said that the implied valuation means that Facebook is now has a higher valuation than technology giants such as eBay and Yahoo!, which have capped market values of $30.1 billion and $18.3 billion respectively. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

YouTube UK to launch free movie service in UK
YouTube is to launch a free movie service after striking deals with US studios including Sony Pictures. YouTube, which already delivers TV through deals with Channel 4 and Channel 5, will initially make more than 400 titles available for free and on-demand. The new section, www.youtube.com/movies, is offering films ranging from horror to classics. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Web Snippets 5th July 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-06-23T09:01:18.447

Web domain names to get make-over
The worldwide body that oversees internet domain names has voted to revamp the domain naming system for websites, allowing them to end with nouns instead of suffixes such as ".com" or ".co.uk". Top level domains could also be created in any language, not just English. Currently there are only 22 top level domains with 250 country domains. Icann said it will accept applications for domains with new suffixes from January 2012. Experts say corporations and cities should be among the first applicants to register for new generic top-level domain names, resulting in domain names ending in brands like ".nissan", ".apple", or place names like ".chicago". http://www.independent.ie

British Library signs landmark deal with Google
The British Library has signed a landmark deal with Google, making one of the largest collections of books and pamphlets in the world available and searchable online for the first time. The arrangement will allow Google to index and produce links to texts which date back to the 18th century. Internet users will be able to search for and access the huge volume of out-of-copyright works for free for the first time on the internet. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Hackers took details of 1.3m Sega users
Sonic the Hedgehog game maker Sega has admitted data from 1.3 million customers was stolen in the latest attack against gaming sites. Names, birth dates, email addresses and encrypted passwords of users of Sega Pass online network members had been compromised, Sega said, though payment data such as credit card numbers was safe. Sega Pass had been shut down. The attack against Sega follows other recent significant breaches at Sony. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 28th June 2011

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-06-20T08:18:29.147

Husband cleared of harassing wife's lover on Twitter
A husband who humiliated a millionaire City broker who had an affair with his wife by exposing graphic details of the relationship on Twitter and in internet blogs has walked free from court , claiming a “victory for free speech”. Ian Puddick, 41, a plumber, was cleared of harassing Tim Haynes, by publishing the contents of sexually explicit texts and emails which he had sent, and calling him a “toad”. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Student file sharer facing extradition to U.S.
A British university student faces being extradited to the United States for hosting a website which provided links to downloadable pirated films and TV shows. Undergraduate Richard O'Dwyer, a student at Sheffield Hallam University, is accused of criminal copyright infringement by U.S authorities. The 23-year-old could now be extradited to America to face trial there, in a case echoing that of Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker who has spent years fighting U.S. extradition. Mr O'Dwyer ran the site TVShack. The website, which he has since shut down, provided links to other sites where users could download pirated films and TV shows like The Hangover and Lost. http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Juror jailed for Facebook contact
A juror who made contact with an acquitted defendant during an active court case has been jailed for contempt of court. Forty year old Joanna Fraill was sentenced to eight months in jail for contacting an acquitted defendant via Facebook. The £6m trial subsequently collapsed. Fraill chatted via Facebook with the acquitted defendant Jamie Sewart while the jury was still deliberating a verdict in the case as she felt "empathetic" and saw "considerable parallels" between their lives. http://www.zdnet.co.uk

Web Snippets 22nd Feb

Charlesdouthwaite — 2011-02-15T08:21:29.797

Hackers could track the person behind your usernames

A new wave of online crime is on the way – and all that's required is your username. Hackers may soon be able to identify which screen names belong to one person just by analyzing the characters that make up the name. “I don't think it would be hard to pull off such an attack," says Daniele Perito at the National Institute for Computing and Automation Research, in Grenoble, France, the lead author of the work. Perito and colleagues have studied how usernames alone can identify a person. The team took almost 10million usernames from Google, eBay and MySpace, and used statistical analysis to create a tool that calculates how unique a username is. Unsurprisingly, they found that names owned by an individual tend to be extremely similar. www.newscientist.com

Microsoft will pay Nokia billions of dollars

Microsoft will pay Nokia billions of dollars in marketing as part of the partnership to put Windows Phone 7 on Nokia smartphones. Nokia has "substantial value to contribute," Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop told the AP. Elop is the former president of Microsoft Business division, which makes Office. Nokia, based in Finland, is the world's largest phone maker that has been hurt in the smartphone market by competition from Apple's iPhone and competitors' phones that run Google Android. www.nwsource.com

Cyber security alarm after e-mail leak

The cyber activist group Anonymous has posted tens of thousands of private e-mails from a respected security researcher, prompting many responsible for protecting the digital secrets of others to re-examine their own practices. Some security professionals were appalled at the lax practices that allowed Anonymous to win access to unencrypted e-mail between HBGary Federal and federal agencies including the FBI. www.ft.com

Web Snippets 11th January

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-01-04T15:57:13.277

Online Christmas sales up 15%
Hard pressed Christmas shoppers turned to the internet with online sales up nearly 15% on a year ago, according to figures released this week. Shoppers spent more than £4.67 billion online last month - the equivalent of £76.67 for every person in the UK - according to the IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. www.metro.co.uk

Computer games lose value quicker than cars
Which? report questions huge devaluation in pre-owned games market; CEX offers. It claims that a Ford Focus loses around 60 per cent of its value over three years. By contrast, Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops was found to have lost up to 70 per cent of its value in just three days according to the trade-in prices offered by some retailers. www.mcvuk.com

Chrome helps Firefox top IE across Europe
Firefox has edged out Internet Explorer as the top browser in Europe, according to StatCounter. Firefox itself is down slightly from 40.8% at the end of 2009, while IE has fallen from 44.84%. Microsoft appears to have lost share to Chrome, which is up to 14.58% from 5.06% over the same period. www.pcpro.co.uk

BT Content Connect service faces 'two-tier net' claims
BT has introduced a controversial service that some say could allow broadband providers to create a "two-tier internet". Content Connect, as it is known, allows Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that use BT's network to charge content firms for high-speed delivery of video. However critics say it will also reduce competition for consumers. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Snippets 5th October

AndreasH — 2010-10-08T16:05:35.123

Stuxnet worm hits Iran nuclear plant staff computers
Iran's official news agency has announced that a sophisticated computer worm purportedly designed to disrupt power grids and other such industrial facilities had infected computers at the country's first nuclear-power plant but had not caused any serious damage. The Stuxnet worm appeared in July and was already known to be widespread in Iran. In addition to emphasizing the threat posed by the worm, there is increased speculation about Stuxnet, the sophistication of which is creating suspicion that a nation state, such as Israel or the U.S., might be behind its creation. http://news.cnet.com

Researchers seek true level of cyberstalking
More than one million women and 900,000 men are stalked in the UK every year, according to the British Crime Survey, but until now no research has been undertaken to find out how many people are stalked or harassed online. Cyberstalking includes: Communicating with the victim by e-mail; Damaging the victim's reputation online; Identity theft; Using the internet for surveillance of the victim and Tricking other internet users into harassing or threatening the victim. Last month the Electronic Communication Harassment Observation (Echo) survey was launched by researchers at the University of Bedfordshire. They are hoping to find people who have been stalked, harassed or threatened through e-mail, on internet chatrooms or on social networking sites like Facebook. http://news.bbc.co.uk

US Digital music sales flat.
The rapid rise of digital music sales has stalled in the United States, the world's biggest and most important market, with sales in the first half of 2010 flat compared with a year before. According to the Nielsen research, digital music sales were up 7 percent in Britain, 13 percent in Germany and 19 percent in France. http://uk.reuters.com

Snippets 14th December

CharlesDouthwaite — 2010-12-06T12:58:51.613

Britons well ahead of the pack in adopting new technology
Britons are early technology adopters who have embraced smartphones more rapidly than other nations and spend more online than any other European country, according to research from Ofcom. The communications regulator said that the UK was near or at the front of almost all the basic categories it studied, including percentage of broadband users, adoption of new TV technologies, use of social networking, smartphone and mobile internet take-up, and use of laptops rather than desktop computers to access the net. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Wikileaks forced to change domain
Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has been forced to change its web address after the company providing its domain name cut off service. EveryDNS.net said it had terminated services because Wikileaks.org had come under massive cyber attacks following the release of thousands of confidential US diplomatic communications. But Wikileaks swiftly reappeared using a Swiss web address. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Israeli army 'monitoring Facebook'
The Israeli military said its monitoring of Facebook has helped catch 1,000 women lying about their religious background to avoid serving. Israeli military service is largely compulsory, but religiously observant Jewish women can be exempted from service. The army hired investigators two years ago to help stem the increase of people dodging national service and have used Facebook to find evidence of those women lying to avoid conscription. A military official said that one woman who said she was a religious Jew posted a photo of herself on Facebook holding a menu from a non-kosher restaurant. Another updated her profile on the Sabbath. They were both brought back to duty. Israel's military has suffered an increase in draft evasion in recent years.
http://www.pressassociation.com/

Web Snippets 17th May 2011

Charlesdouthwaite — 2011-05-09T08:28:44.597

Flexible phone made from electronic paper to debut
A prototype flexible smartphone made of electronic paper has been created by Canadian researchers. The PaperPhone can do all the things bulkier smartphones can do such as make and take calls, send messages, play music or display e-books. The gadget triggers different functions and features when bent, folded and flexed at its corners or sides. The device emerged from a collaboration between researchers at the Human Media Lab at Queen's University, Canada and Arizona State University's Motivational Environments Research group. The millimetres thick prototype is built from the same e-ink technology found in Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Amazon Kindle tablet set for summer launch
First Amazon’s Kindle revolutionised the book market – now the company is set to release its own rival to Apple’s iPad. Taiwanese manufacturers are gearing up to produce up to 800,000 of the new tablet devices per month in the second half of this year, sources at Quanta, a company that also works for BlackBerry and Sony said. The new Kindle is likely to be based on Google’s operating system Android, and has caused excitement because Amazon already sells movies and music downloads. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Facebook and Google both circling Skype deal
Facebook and Google are separately considering a tie-up with Skype after the VoIP and video conferencing service delayed its initial public offering, according to sources close to the discussions. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has taken part in internal discussions about buying Skype, according to one of the sources. Google has also held early talks for a joint venture with Skype, the second source said. A Skype deal could be valued at $3 billion to $4 billion. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 15th Feb

Charlesdouthwaite — 2011-02-04T11:32:16.277

Amazon claims a first as eBooks outsell paperbacks
Amazon is claiming a breakthrough success for its Kindle, after announcing that eBooks had overtaken paperback sales on its US site. Since the beginning of the 2011 “for every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the company has sold 115 Kindle books”, the company said. The news came as the company announced its fourth quarter results for 2010, with net sales increasing 36% to $13 billion. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/

Hacker steals virtual poker chips from online gaming firm
A UK-based hacker stole 7.4m worth of virtual poker chips from gaming firm Zynga. Ashley Mitchell, already under a suspended sentence for hacking into computers at a local council, will face a lengthy prison sentence for the theft. Mitchell was caught in a sting operation after Zynga was alerted to the theft by the volume of chips going missing, according to the BBC. Security experts said the “chips” were merely values in a database. Mitchell simply manipulated these values once he had access to administration controls.www.computerweekly.com

Cyber war rules of engagement drawn up
Proposals for adapting the Geneva and Hague conventions to provide "rules of engagement" for "cyber war" will be delivered to the Munich Security Conference. World leaders attending the annual Munich gathering include Mr Cameron, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. It will be argued that the new rules will be needed to protect civilian facilities such as hospitals and schools from being hit in future online conflicts. They believe that current laws of war in the Geneva and Hague accords no longer suffice when all organisations rely so heavily on their online operations. www.thetelegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 9th August 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-08-01T08:37:47.827

Flat-screen TV electricity consumption falls by 60%
Flat-screen TVs became one of the products most loathed by environmentalists over the past decade. But improving energy efficiency means they have become greener than the hulking cathrode ray tubes they replaced, and cut their average electricity consumption by more than half, new figures show. Technology advances have driven down the energy use of all new TVs by 60% since 2006, leaving a 42-inch LED TV today costing just £14 a year to run compared with around £80 for a plasma screen in 2006, in present day prices. Globally TVs account for about 6-8% of electricity consumption in homes. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Anger as judge forces BT to block pirate site
Web campaigners have reacted with dismay to a High Court decision forcing BT to block access to a pirate-friendly website. The ruling is seen as a landmark case in the fight against online piracy, and forces BT to block access to a site – Newzbin2 - that aggregates potentially copyrighted material from files from Usenet. The decision was welcomed by the film firms that brought the case, as well as BT, which wants courts rather than ISPs and rights owners to decide which sites should be blocked, consumer groups worry the decision could mark a move toward web censorship. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Radio revolution threatened as analogue sets outsell DABs three to one
Digital radio switchover plans are facing a new crisis after it was revealed that three analogue sets are still being sold for every one which has the new technology. With millions continuing to buy traditional sets the ‘aspirational’ target of 2015 to move all major stations off FM and AM and on to digital looks even more unlikely. http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Snippets 18th January

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-01-10T12:22:16.697

Facebook document 'reveals profits and suggests IPO'
A document sent by Goldman Sachs to its clients, shows that Facebook made a net profit of $355m (£230m) on revenues of $1.2bn in the first nine months of 2010. The paper also reportedly showed the firm is seeking to raise $1.5bn. The fundraising has fuelled speculation that Facebook is set to go public. After making a separate investment of $450m in the social networking site Goldman was also reported this week to have valued Facebook at about $50bn. This valuation is at the high end of estimates and would make it worth more than Time Warner, eBay or Yahoo. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Why have global spam levels declined?
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, thinks there are several reasons.“One of the biggest reasons is that the affiliate programme, Spamit, which supplies lots of the content for the pharmaceutical spam emails it sends, has shut down” The other trend in this area which analysts have noted is that spammers have started to attack social networks, such as Facebook, much more, rather than email services as their anti-spam controls are much more immature than email services. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Twitter endorsements face OFT clampdown
The OFT watchdog says online companies who did not disclose paid-for promotions by celebrities and bloggers were deceptive, with US artists such as Snoop Dogg earning a reported $3,000 (£1,900) for sending a tweet endorsing a product. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has begun a crackdown on Twitter users and bloggers using their online presence to endorse products and companies without clearly stating their relationship with the brand. www.guardian.co.uk

Web Snippets 22nd November 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-11-11T13:57:56.227

Woman Burns Down House After Facebook Un-Friending
The friendship of Nikki Rasmussen and Jennifer Harris apparently hit a rough patch while the former friends were planning a party via Facebook. When the big event went bust with many declined e-vites, Harris allegedly held Rasmussen accountable, and according to news reports, posted some unsavory items on her Facebook wall. In this modern age, Rasmussen exacted her revenge with a few clicks of the mouse and de-friended Harris. This affront was too much for Harris who took her anger offline and allegedly torched the family’s garage, melting the siding clean off the home. The Associated Press says that the fire destroyed a detached garage and damaged the home of the Rasmussens, but caused no injuries. Harris is being held in the Polk County Jail on $100,000 bond. http://newsfeed.time.com

Apple updates iOS 5 to fix iPhone battery bug
Apple has released an update – 5.0.1 – to its iOS operating system to fix the short battery life problem experienced by some users. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Away from Facebook and Twitter most adults have 'only two close friends'
MOST adults have only two people they consider to be close friends, a new study has claimed, despite the increasing popularity of social-networking sites. Matthew Brashears, an assistant professor at Cornell University, asked 2,000 adults to name the people they had “discussed important matters” with in the past six months. The average number was 2.03. The figure is less than a similar study 25 years ago, which found that most adults have three people they consider close friends. In an age where many spend several hours a day on social-networking sites, the findings of the study may come as a surprise. The average number of Facebook friends is 130. http://www.independent.ie

Snippets 26th October

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-10-18T09:57:16.717

Snippets 12th October

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-10-11T16:20:46.283

Change to 'Bios' will make for PCs that boot in seconds
New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers. The upgrade will spell the end for the 25-year-old PC start-up software known as Bios that initialises a machine so its operating system can get going. The code was not intended to live nearly this long, and adapting it to modern PCs is one reason they take as long as they do to warm up. Bios' replacement, known as UEFI, will predominate in new PCs by 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Stuxnet Worm hits Iranian nuclear sites
Iran has arrested a number of "nuclear spies" as it tries to fight off a sophisticated cyber-attack, its intelligence minister has said. He also said that "electronic worms" had been distributed through the internet "to undermine Iran's nuclear activities". Mr Moslehi was referring to reports that a complex computer worm known as Stuxnet has been targeting Iran's nuclear programme. No one has claimed responsibility for creating the worm, though suspicion has fallen on Israel, which is known to be trying to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme, fearing it could be used to create a nuclear weapon. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

RIM Announces BlackBerry Tablet
RIM (Research In Motion ) has announced the details of its much-anticipated BlackBerry PlayBook tablet aimed toward business users. The device will use the new BlackBerry Tablet OS, will feature a 7-inch screen, and weighs less than a pound. It will also feature dual front and rear-facing cameras, which RIM says are useful for video conferencing. RIM expects the PlayBook to be commercially available in early 2011. http://www.constructech.com

Web Snippets 20th Jan 2010

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:52:08.647

Google Unveils Nexus One 'Superphone'
Google has unveiled its new smartphone in a direct challenge to the Apple iPhone. The internet giant billed the Nexus One as a "superphone". Google worked with Taiwanese electronics firm HTC to make the touch-screen device which features innovations such as 3d Graphics and speech recognition. Google said its European customers should be able to use a Nexus One by the middle of the year. http://news.sky.com

Cellphone Radiation May Thwart Alzheimer's
After years of controversy over whether cellphone radiation might cause cancer, scientists have reached the startling conclusion that it might actually cure Alzheimer's disease. According to a study led by University of South Florida researchers, young mice exposed to long-term radiation equivalent to human cellphone use of a couple of hours a day were protected from Alzheimer's, and memory function was restored in old mice already afflicted.
http://www.technewsworld.com

O2 admits iPhone overwhelmed data network
O2's chief executive has admitted that his company's data network has been unable to keep up with the "explosion" in popularity of the iPhone. The mobile operator's London data network has suffered a spate of crashes over the past year, as it was hit with unprecedented demand from data-hungry smartphone customers. The success of smartphones has caused an 18-fold increase in data traffic since the beginning of 2009, according to the company. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 8th June

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:25:45.833

Google Pac-Man eats up work time
The Pac-Man game Google put on its home page gobbled up almost five million hours of work time, suggests a study. The playable version of the classic video game was put on Google's front page on 21 May to celebrate 30 years since the launch of Pac-Man in Japan. The search giant reworked the game so the layout was arranged around letters forming its name. The Pac-Man game proved so popular that Google has now made it permanently available on its own page.http://news.bbc.co.uk

YouTube Now Streaming Two Billion Views Per Day
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been five years since YouTube launched and changed the way people share video online (it was acquired by Google a year and a half later). To celebrate its birthday, YouTube has just announced a major new milestone: it’s streaming a whopping two billion views per day (the company notes that this is “nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major US television networks combined”).http://www.techcrunch.com

Apple's iPad sales break the two million mark
Apple today said it has sold two million iPads, less than two months after launching the touchscreen tablet in the US, much faster than predicted. This is despite the fact the company had to delay the device's international launch by a month because it could not keep up with demand. The iPad finally went on UK sale on the 28th May. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Snippets 29th June

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:21:44.253

YouTube launches online video editor
YouTube has launched an online video editor to make it easier for people to edit and publish their clips on the video-sharing site. The YouTube Video Editor allows users to "mash" multiple existing videos to create a new, longer video, as well as to trim the beginning or end of videos to make them shorter. The editor can also be used to add soundtracks to a click, and provides one-click publishing to YouTube without needing to re-upload the new clip first. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Getty taps into Flickr snappers
Flickr's 40 million registered users are being given the chance to make money out of their snaps. For two years, Getty Images has tapped into more than 100,000 photos taken by professional and semi-pro

photographers who post on the site. Now the doors are being opened to all Flickr users as Getty takes

advantage of a library of four billion pictures. Getty wasn’t forthcoming about actual rates saying they

vary from job to job. It is generally thought the average rate for an image is between £100-£160.
http://news.bbc.co.uk

Broadband speeds vary by a third each day
Want speedier broadband? Then stay up late. That's the conclusion of new tests conducted by Top10.com, which reveal that heavy demand and traffic shaping reduces speeds by as much as 33% during the day. While average speeds in the UK slow to a 4.73Mbits/sec crawl around 8pm in the evening, by 2am the average recovers to a much snappier 7Mbits/sec. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 20th July

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:19:32.06

Gamers to play for cash at home
Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has a new business venture - a website allowing console gamers to organise competitive matches, enter tournaments, and win cash prizes. Virgingaming.com promises to become a destination for competitive gamers who want to compete in tournaments from home. Xbox and PS3 gamers can use the website to compete over the net for anything between $1 to $1,000 a game. http://news.bbc.co.uk

One third of young women check Facebook when they wake
One third of women aged 18 to 34 check Facebook when they first wake up, before even going to the toilet, according to new research according to a study conducted by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research. The study polled the habits of 1,605 adults using social media between May and June 2010 in an effort to chart behavioural trends. 42 per cent think it is fine to post drunken photos of themselves onto the social network. Seventy-nine per cent are also happy to be seen kissing in photographs posted on Facebook.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Mozilla unveils Firefox 4 beta
Mozilla has released the first beta of Firefox 4. The latest version of the open-source browser features a new add-on manager, crash protection from third-party plug-ins, more support for CSS3 and better performance with accelerated hardware support, Mozilla said. The most obvious change is the tabs have moved to the top of the screen, following the lead of rival Google Chrome. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 6th September 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-08-30T09:22:19.76

'Black swans' busting IT budgets
One in six big IT projects go over-budget by an average of 200%, according to new research. The study by Oxford University and McKinsey also found that spending on technology was three times more likely to spiral out of control than construction or other major projects. Researchers said that rare but high-impact problems, dubbed "black swans", were often to blame. They can lead to cost over-runs capable of bankrupting vulnerable firms. It found that while most projects ran less than 30% over budget, a sixth ended up costing on average three times as much. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Google TV Coming
Google is to launch a new era of ‘internet TV’ in the UK with a service that allows users to search using their TV screens. Google TV will mean viewers can use their set for television and the internet – and even both at the same time. Users will be able to watch material from catch-up services like the BBC iPlayer and ITV Player on their main television screen. Google TV, which is accessed through a special set-top box, will launch in the UK within six months. http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Man held over 'email threats to Tory's MP's children'
A 59-year-old man has been arrested by police investigating alleged threats made over the internet to the children of Louise Mensch, a prominent Conservative MP. The back-bench Tory who is also a bestselling novelist, called police after she disclosed the threats on the social networking website Twitter. Scotland Yard said officers had arrested a suspect in the Gloucester area on suspicion of sending malicious communication. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 15th December 2009

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:53:45.413

'Spam gang' leader faces $15m fine

The mastermind of a "vast international spam network" has been ordered to pay a fine of $15m (£10m) by US courts. New Zealander Lance Atkinson sent billions of e-mails marketing prescription drugs and weight-loss pills. The fines follow a lengthy investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into the “HerbalKing” gang, which used a global network of hijacked computers - known as a Botnet - to send out the junk messages.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Google enters Property Market

Housebuyers will soon be able to take a virtual walk down their new street before buying using a new property website planned by Google. The firm has already spoken to UK estate agents about the project, which could threaten existing property sites. The UK site is expected to mirror Google's Australian property site. It combines listings with pictures of properties taken from Google's Street View service and allows people to explore the neighbourhood around a potential home.

http://ww.thisislondon.co.uk

Police shut scam websites

UK police last week shut down more than 1,200 scam websites that claimed to be selling designer clothes and jewellery, in what is thought to be the biggest single swoop of its kind in the world.

Police said the fact the sites had ".co.uk" web addresses meant innocent British shoppers were duped into making what appeared to be bargain purchases, but they received either counterfeit products or nothing at all.

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Web Snippets 10th May 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-05-03T08:17:04.407

PlayStation Network credit card details were encrypted
Sony has revealed that credit card details held on its PlayStation Network were stored in securely encrypted files. The news offers some hope to users worried about their personal data after the online system was hacked. Sony had previously warned that card numbers and expiry dates may have been among the stolen data. However, other information, including dates of birth and home addresses, did not have the same level of protection. The company said that up to 77 million PlayStation Network members may have had their personal information taken during an "external intrusion". http://news.bbc.co.uk

Twitter user reports bin Laden attack live
As U.S. forces in Pakistan swooped in on Osama bin Laden, at least one Twitter user was unknowingly reporting details of the raid. Some of the first public accounts of the military operation that killed the terrorist leader came in the form of tweets from Sohaib Athar, an IT consultant in Abbottabad, the city where bin Laden was found. The first clue from Athar came when he tweeted: "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)" His first reaction? Annoyance at the noise. "Go away helicopter - before I take out my giant swatter :-/," he wrote. http://www.cnn.com

TomTom Sold Drivers' Speeding Data to Dutch Police
GPS mapping company TomTom apologized after it admitted selling data collected from its customers to Dutch police, the Financial Times reported. The Amsterdam-based company sold data to police in The Netherlands that was then used to help police set speed traps for motorists. Unsurprisingly, many customers reacted angrily to their data being sold to the police for this purpose. http://www.foxnews.com/

Snippets 25th January 2011

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-01-28T17:35:28.257

BT unveils duct and pole broadband pricing
BT will open up its ducts and pole infrastructure to rival Internet Service Providers from this summer. BT's Openreach arm has proposed a tariff of £0.95 per metre to let rival ISPs run their own cables through its ducts, and £21 per telegraph pole to string up lines. Such pricing "compares favourably with similar solutions offered in other European markets," BT claimed, saying its duct access pricing is 15% below the average prices in France, Spain, Portugal and Germany. www.pcpro.co.uk

T-Mobile new fair use policy explained
T-Mobile caused a stir last week when it released a new fair use policy for data on its handsets, with a statement on the T-Mobile explaining to users that "browsing means looking at websites and checking mail, but not watching videos, downloading files or playing games" and that if "you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband.” www.t3.com

Sony launches legal action against PlayStation hackers
Sony has launched legal action against hackers who uncovered and published security codes for the PlayStation 3. The hack potentially allows anyone to run any software on their machine, including pirated games. But George Hotz, one of the hackers at the centre of the controversy, told BBC News that he was "comfortable" the action would not succeed. The twenty-one-year-old, who rose to prominence for breaking the iPhone's security, is named in the lawsuit alongside more than 100 people associated with a hacking group known as fail0verflow. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Web Snippets 28th Feb 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-02-20T08:27:21.52

Student hacked Facebook from his bedroom
A student who hacked Facebook from his bedroom in York, and could have brought down the entire £31billion empire, was jailed for eight months. Glenn Mangham, 26, impersonated an employee of the social networking site while on holiday and hacked into three of its servers. Using the code name ‘Gamma Ray’ he stole the secret code ‘that gives Facebook its value’ and downloaded it to his hard drive on his home computer. His theft of valuable computer code from the company, caused panic among authorities including the FBI, who feared it was a case of industrial espionage. http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Apple 'to announce iPad 3 on March 7'
Apple's new iPad will have a faster processor, an improved display and will be announced in the first week of March, according to reports. The new tablet will be announced on Wednesday, March 7, according to Apple blog iMore, which cites "sources who have been reliable in the past". The blog says it can confirm reports that the iPad 3 will have a quad-core processor. A flurry of rumours, from a range have sources, say that the new iPad will have a 'retina display' - that is, an improved screen resolution delivering 2048 x 1536 pixels. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

701 apps launched every day last year
In total 255,922 apps were launched last year in the British version of Apple’s incredibly popular App Store and on average 21,326 apps were launched per month, says a breakdown of the digital store’s figures. Out of the total number of apps launched, 67 per cent were created for the iPhone , while 33 per cent were designed specifically for the iPad. http://www.independent.ie

Snippets 29th March 2011

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-03-21T08:27:57.34

Microsoft shuts down spam network

The sudden drop in activity of a major spam producer was the result of a large co-ordinated attack on spammers, it has emerged. Raids on the network's infrastructure were triggered by a long-running investigation by Microsoft. During the raids, servers that acted as Rustock's command and control systems were seized. In 2010, the Rustock botnet - a collection of infected machines - was the most prolific producer of spam on the internet, at its peak accounting for nearly half of all spam sent globally - some 200 billion messages a day. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9

Microsoft has launched its new web browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9). Microsoft hopes that IE9 will help stem the rise of rival browsers such as Google Chrome. Adopting a cleaner interface, IE9 now uses a single box for web addresses, searching and users’ web history. Since the release of the beta, Microsoft has also improved how IE9 allows users to protect themselves from tracking, and adjusted which notifications pop up. Unfortunately, IE9 does not run on Windows XP. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Sales of eBooks jumps 115%

Sales of eBooks jumped 115% in January from the year before, according to a report by the Association of American Publishers. The group said eBook net sales increased to $69.9 million compared to $32.4 million in January 2010 in the US, continuing the rapidly rising demand for Kindle, ePub, iBook and other formats – while sales of hardcover and paperback books continued to fall. Sweeping technological changes have worried the book industry as it grapples with eBook readers such as the Kindle and tablets such as the iPad pushing into the publishing market. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 16th November

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-11-08T09:21:51.013

100,000 subscribe to 'The Times' online edition
The parent company of 'The Times' and "Sunday Times" newspapers say that they have secured more than 100,000 sales from people who have paid to access the paper digitally since they began charging for access online. In addition, the company said that about 100,000 people, who already subscribe to the print edition of the papers, had activated their online accounts. Print subscribers access the websites for free.
http://www.independent.ie

The Queen joins Facebook
In a sign of the Queen's determination to master new technology, Buckingham Palace has launched a Facebook page called "The British Monarchy". The page will feature the latest Royal news, photographs, videos and speeches from the Royal Family, together with several daily updates about the activities of the Queen and other members of the Royal Family. Facebook, the world's most popular social networking site with more than 500 million users, has also created a special new application for the Queen's official page.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Twitter muggers stab rap star in buttock
The British rap star DJ Ironik was stabbed in the left buttock by robbers who had tracked him by Twitter. DJ Ironik was mugged outside his home in North London as he returned from a gig. He was with his manager but, outnumbered, threw a diamond cross and jewellery at the gang and ran to his front door. He still got stabbed. From Ironik's Twitter page, they knew he would be going home after performing at the Element nightclub in Southend. Before the attack, he had re-tweeted a photo of himself performing on stage to the 1,500-strong crowd. The rapper recently boasted on TV that his diamond chain was worth thousands.
http://www.theregister.co.uk

Snippets 27th July

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:12:03.237

Apple admits it’s not perfect
Apple has acknowledged signal problems with the iPhone 4, and will give users a free case or a full refund. Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, admitted that the company was “not perfect” at a press conference to address reported signal problems with its latest must-have gadget, the iPhone 4. He said that iPhone 4 users would be given a full refund if they were unhappy with the device, and that all purchasers would be issued with a free case. Jobs said the problems had affected less than one per cent of iPhone users. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Raoul Moat's tribute page removed
A controversial Facebook tribute page to gunman Raoul Moat has been removed by the woman who created it. Siobhan O'Dowd confirmed she had taken the page down, but has not ruled out putting it back up. She told Talksport radio she did not condone Moat's actions but said "he was still a human being" and everyone was entitled to their own opinion. Moat was on the run in Northumberland for a week after shooting three people, one fatally. http://news.bbc.co.uk

PC sales soar, but iPad hurts netbooks
Computer sales are soaring, according to figures out from two research groups, but the impact of Apple's iPad is taking its toll on netbooks. The global PC market grew by 22.4% in the second quarter of the year, said IDC figures, and they were backed up by rival research company Gartner, which put the sales upswing at 20.7%. Although the overall figures remain positive, the netbook has seen growth drop significantly, suggesting that the netbook sector has been hit by the popularity of the iPad. www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 30th November

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-11-22T09:10:20.057

Warning as Facebook blamed for jilted boy's asthma attack
A case of Facebook triggering asthma has prompted warnings about the psychological dangers of social-networking sites. Doctors in Italy reported on a depressed 18-year-old who was dumped by his girlfriend and then saw her picture on Facebook. The shock brought on an asthma attack, which was repeated each time he logged on and accessed his ex's profile. When a psychiatrist persuaded the teenager to stay clear of the site, the attacks stopped. Writing in 'The Lancet' medical journal, Dr Gennaro D'Amato, from Naples, and two colleagues pointed out that psychological stress was a recognised cause of asthma attacks. http://www.independent.ie

Beatles albums offered on iTunes
The Beatles' back catalogue is finally available on iTunes, after years of negotiations. It will mean that for the first time consumers will be able to purchase some of the Fab Four's most popular songs via the store. Apple and record label EMI have been in talks for along time about getting the catalogue online. For years The Beatles' music label Apple Corps was involved in a bitter trademark dispute with Apple the computer company. http://news.bbc.co.uk

China denies 'hijacking' internet traffic
China has denied US allegations that it "hijacked" highly sensitive internet traffic – including emails sent to and from US military websites – earlier this year. A state-owned telecoms company in China had access to 15% of global internet traffic, including confidential emails from Nasa and the US army, for 18 minutes in April, according to an annual security report delivered to the US congress on Wednesday. The report warned that the capture "could enable severe malicious activities" by China. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Snippets 28th September

AndreasH — 2010-10-08T14:51:03.77

Microsoft launch Internet Explorer 9 web browser
The firm has released a beta, or test, version of its latest web browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), which it hopes will help revive its fortunes in an increasingly competitive market. Since 2003, the company has seen a 97% lead in market share dwindle to 60%. Google Chrome now commands more than 7.5% of the market, despite only being first released in December 2008. Mozilla, which has recently launched a test version of Firefox 4, has nearly a quarter of the market and in some countries is the dominant web browser. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Home ransacked after 'away message'
Burglars ransacked a house after the occupants left a message on an internet social networking site saying they were away, detectives said. Officers said thieves broke into the house in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, after spotting a message on Facebook. Police said the case should serve as a warning to internet users about the kind of information they posted on the web. http://www.independent.ie

Apple iPad "to offer newspaper subscriptions"
Apple is planning to launch a subscription model for accessing electronic versions of newspapers, according to reports. The service, which would be suited to the company's iPad, could come as a welcome relief to publishers, who are battling against declining print sales worldwide. However, the terms of the deal would see Apple take a large bite from any revenues generated for publishers through the model. The report claims Apple would probably seek a 30% cut of all subscriptions sold via the App Store, and as much as 40% of the advertising revenue. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 12th July 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-07-04T07:52:42.257

MySpace sold at last
News Corporation has sold its ailing social networking site MySpace to online advertising firm Specific Media. News Corp paid $580m (£361m) for MySpace in 2005, but users and advertisers left the site for rival social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Unconfirmed reports were that the price paid was as low as $35m. Pop star and actor Justin Timberlake will also take a stake in the business, Specific Media said. MySpace was a leading social networking site when it was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. But the business was eclipsed by rivals, and despite attempts to revive MySpace's fortunes the site has been a financial millstone. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Google redesigns Gmail and Calendar services
Gmail and Google Calendar have been given redesigns as part of a “series of interface updates”, Google has confirmed. Gmail’s new theme is designed to “strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful”. The theme simplifies Gmail’s design, making the colour scheme largely black and white with touches of red and blue. Google Calendar gets a similar look which will be rolled out to users over the next few days. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Facebook hires hacker who started Sony legal war
George Hotz, the 21-year old computer whiz whose legal tussle with Sony triggered one of the largest hacker assaults on a single company has found himself a job with Facebook. Hotz became a star among hackers when he "unlocked" Apple's iPhone and then the Sony PlayStation games console. Facebook swooped to hire Mr Hotz last month, just weeks after he settled the lawsuit from Sony that so enraged fellow hackers that they launched an attack on the company that has cost it tens of millions of dollars. http://www.independent.ie

Web Snippets 11th October 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-10-03T08:19:35.763

Burglars using Facebook and Twitter to target victims
The majority of burglars use social media such as the websites Facebook and Twitter to target their victims, a survey suggests. The results were based on the answers of offenders who were convicted of burglary this year. With many users posting constant updates, the sites can unwittingly provide the thieves with information about recent high-value purchases such as televisions as well as the dates and times when they are out. Other websites, such as Google Street View, show photographs of individual houses from which the would-be burglars can gauge security and ease of access by looking for alarms and side entrances. Four out of five of the criminals said social media websites were being used by burglars. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Amazon Kindle Fire tablet launched at $199
Amazon's eagerly anticipated tablet has been unveiled as a 7in Android-based tablet, at an astonishingly low price of $199. It features a dual-core processor, 8GB of storage, and weighs 14.6 ounces. Amazon promises battery life of eight hours when reading or 7.5 hours if playing video. A demo suggested it supports multitasking. It will not come with 3G, limiting users to Wi-Fi. It also doesn't have a camera or a microphone, according to reports. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

IBM beats Microsoft in tech giants ranking
IBM's closing price on 29 September was $214bn (£137.4bn) while Microsoft's was a shade behind at $213.2bn (£136.8bn). The values cap a sustained period in which IBM's share price has moved steadily upward as Microsoft's has generally been in decline. The growth means IBM is now the second largest technology company by market value. Apple still holds the top slot with a value of $362bn (£232bn). http://news.bbc.co.uk

Snippets 13th July

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:20:33.807

Man fined over fake eBay auctions
A man has been fined £3,000 and ordered to carry out 250 hours community service after fixing an online auction on eBay. Paul Barrett, from County Durham, became the first person to be convicted of shill bidding in April. That's when online sellers bid on their own items to artificially bump up the price or get friends and family to do it for them. Barrett pleaded guilty after an investigation by Trading Standards found he had bid against himself on several items. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Finland guarantees broadband for all its citizens.
Affordable broadband of 1Mbit/sec is now a legal right in Finland, placing internet access in the same category as postal and telephone services. Finland is relatively far ahead when it comes to broadband penetration, with it's own government claiming 96% of its population is covered. The Government also plans to get 100Mbit/sec lines within 2km of 99% of Finns' homes and businesses by 2015. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Over-50s Lead UK Broadband Uptake
Research conducted by the UK Online Measurement Company suggests that older users now make up the majority of new surfers. The company said that the number of people accessing the internet in the UK had risen from 36.9 million users in May 2009 to 38.8 million users in May 2010. Of the 1.9 million users who accessed the internet for the first time, more than 50 per cent were aged above 50. http://www.itproportal.com

Web Snippets 7th June 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-05-31T08:31:43.26

Lockheed Martin computers suffer 'significant attack'
Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's biggest IT and arms supplier, has thwarted a significant and tenacious attack on its computer network. In what appeared to be one of the most audacious acts of cyber-warfare conducted so far, the breach came against a backdrop of repeated attempts by rivals of the US, chiefly China and Russia, to infiltrate information networks and glean details of major weapons systems. The company said that no customer or employee data had been compromised during the attack, while the Pentagon said the impact on its operations had been "minimal". Lockheed is the maker of the F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter jets as well as warships and other multibillion-dollar arms systems sold worldwide. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Twitter gives data to council
South Tyneside Council says Twitter has released information after it acted in a US court to identify a Twitter user behind allegedly libellous statements. The council went to court in California after three councillors and an official complained they were libelled in a blog called "Mr Monkey". Media law experts suggest the case may prompt more UK citizens to take action in the US, where Twitter is based. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Chinese Prisoners Forced to Farm Gold in Online Games
Prisoners at a labor camp in northeast China were forced by guards to play online games in a moneymaking scheme, a former prisoner has told The Guardian. The scheme, a practice referred to among gamers as “gold farming,” required some 300 prisoners at the Jixi labor camp to gather currency (usually by repeating monotonous tasks) in multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest, which the guards then hawked online for cash. http://www,guardian.co.uk

Web Snippets 19th July 2011

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-07-11T08:09:42.223

EU ready to fight Microsoft on access to cloud data
European Parliament members are up in arms after a recent admission by Microsoft that they may be required by the Patriot Act to secretly give U.S. authorities access to European data stored in Microsoft's cloud. The controversy stems from the EU's Data Protection Directive, which dictates that companies must notify users if/when their data is handed over to another party. If Microsoft is forced to follow Patriot Act guidelines, then that would mean the U.S. law would trump European law. Parliamentarians have taken up the cause to prevent that from happening. http://www.wpcentral.com

iPhone 5 'now in production'
Apple suppliers have begun manufacturing the next version of iPhone, expected to be released in September, which is expected to be thinner and lighter than last year's iPhone 4 - and possibly include wireless charging, according to reports. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday from Taipei, Taiwan, where a number of key suppliers to the company are based, that the new version will also include an 8-megapixel camera, putting it on a par with many other top-end phone cameras.
http://www.guardian.co.uk

Illegal UK film downloads up 30%
The number of illegally downloaded films in the UK has gone up nearly 30% in five years, new figures suggest. That research, from internet consultancy firm Envisional, indicates that the top five box office movies were illegally downloaded in the UK a total of 1.4 million times last year. Film industry bosses say it is costing £170m every year and putting thousands of jobs at risk. The research also shows a big rise in TV shows being pirated online. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Snippets 5th April 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-03-28T08:35:13.217

MySpace loses millions of users in a few weeks
Tech analysts comScore say figures show MySpace lost more than 10 million unique users worldwide between January and February. There were almost 63 million users of MySpace in February 2011, down from more than 73 million. Year on year the site has lost almost 50 million users. The loss of users comes despite a series of changes to the site to make it more about music. It was the social network site that helped launch the careers of artists like Arctic Monkeys, Kate Nash and Lily Allen but has been severely impacted by the rise of Facebook. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Apple iPad 2 UK launch event produces record queues
The Apple iPad 2 launched across the UK on the 25th March. Queues were long, even by Apple standards. The first person in the UK to pick up up an iPad 2 was Jewels (not Jules) Lewis, a dedicated fan who took his place at the head of the line 34 hours before the store opened its doors. www.gadgetsandgizmos.com

Goodbye to Cheap CDs
A decade-long bonanza of cheap CDs and DVDs, delivered to your door at VAT-free prices, could be over within 12 months as the chancellor outlined a clampdown on this tax loophole. The tax dodge cost the Treasury £130m in lost VAT last year. Currently goods under £18 that are purchased and imported from outside the EU qualify for a VAT waiver. With the arrival of the internet, retailers have been able to make this importing process so easy for consumers that many remain unaware that the discount prices offered online are available only because of elaborate warehouse and shipping operations offshore, largely on the Channel Islands. www.guardian.co.uk

Web Snippets 25th October 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-10-17T13:00:48.22

One in six mobile phones contain E coli
One in six UK mobile phones are contaminated with faecal bacteria due to poor personal hygiene, scientists have found. Researchers said that 16% of the devices were contaminated with E coli, which can cause food poisoning, most probably because people fail to properly wash their hands after going to the toilet. The study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London, also found that Britons tend to lie about their personal hygiene. While 95% of the 390 people surveyed said they washed their hands with soap where possible, 92% of mobile phones and 82% of hands were contaminated with bacteria. http://www.guardian.co.uk

One in five' considers leaving Blackberry
One in five BlackBerry phone users is considering switching to another supplier because of recent service problems which hit millions of people. A survey of more than 1,000 BlackBerry customers by shopping comparison website Kelkoo found that 19% are thinking about moving to another manufacturer, 42% will consider changing later and 8% said they have bought a new mobile phone already. http://www.independent.co.uk

Teachers caught calling pupils 'inbred' and 'thick' on Facebook
Teachers have angered parents after posting on Facebook that their children are 'inbred' and 'thick' .An investigation has now been launched into the comments which are believed to have involved four teachers at Westcott Primary School, Hull - including the head. The school governors are heading the inquiry into the inappropriate remarks and have the authority to make the decision over what action to take. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 1st November 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-11-02T12:55:56.11

Microsoft’s YouTube Channel is hacked
Computer giant Microsoft’s official YouTube channel appears to have been hacked with all of the official videos, including recent ad campaigns, being removed. In their place were short clips soliciting advertisers. http://mashable.com

Duqu Malware – son of Stunet?
Malware based on the infamous Stuxnet has been discovered by computer scientists. The malware, christened Duqu, was uncovered in an organization based in Europe. Greg Day, Security CTO at Symantec EMEA, says the attack was of a similar level of sophistication to Stuxnet and shared a lot of the same code. Stuxnet was a ground-breaking virus that delivered a highly-specific payload attacking control systems in Iranian nuclear processing plants. http://online.wsj.com

Facebook denies “Shadow Profile” claims.
Facebook has hit back at claims it creates 'Shadow profiles' of web users that have not signed up to the social network. However, Irelands Data Protection Commissioner confirmed it would be investigating the complaints as part of a pre-planned audit of the social network, which is expected to begin before the end of October. According to The Guardian, if Facebook is found to be breaching data protection laws, the social network could face a fine of up €100,000. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/

Online fears about Personal Details
More than two-thirds of Britons think existing laws fail to provide sufficient protection of personal information. A survey of more than 1,200 people for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) showed public confidence falling, with less than half (49%) believing organisations handle personal information in a fair and proper way, down from 56% last year. Online firms concerned most people, with only one in four (26%) agreeing that web-based organisations collect and keep their personal details in a secure way. http://uk.news.yahoo.com

Web Snippets 6th December 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-11-27T08:38:33.063

Robotic prison wardens to patrol South Korean prison
Robot wardens are about to join the ranks of South Korea's prison service. A jail in the eastern city of Pohang plans to run a month-long trial with three of the automatons in March. The machines will monitor inmates for abnormal behaviour. Researchers say they will help reduce the workload for other guards. The robots move on four wheels and are equipped with cameras and other sensors that allow them to detect risky behaviour such as violence and suicide. http://news.bbc.co.uk

79% of under-11s own mobiles
Nearly three-quarters of Britons think it is inappropriate for children under 12 to own a mobile phone, despite the fact that most children already have them. The survey of 2,000 people by Recumbu.com found that expensive bills, unmonitored internet use and lack of parental control were some of the reasons adults felt uncomfortable about children owning mobiles. However, the vast majority of parents (90%) also liked the idea of a child having a phone in case of an emergency. According to Recombu, 79% of 7 to 11-year-olds already owned a mobile. www.pcpro.co.uk

Kinect for Windows to offer 'Minority Report' computer control
A new generation of PCs controlled by gestures is on its way, after Microsoft revealed it is specially adapting its Xbox Kinect technology for Windows to allow Windows users to control software with the wave of a hand, as envisaged in the Steven Spielberg film Minority Report. Kinect has proved a major hit on Xbox. A small device sits on top of the console or television and translates gamers’ body movement in to commands. The Windows version offers the prospect of users controlling everyday office applications simply by moving their hands. www.telegraph.co.uk

Snippets 16th March

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:37:14.787

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests. The survey - of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries - found strong support for net access on both sides of the digital divide. Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that access is a human right for their citizens. International bodies such as the UN are also pushing for universal net access. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Couple nurtured virtual child while real baby starved
Police have arrested a South Korean couple whose toddler starved to death while they were raising a virtual child online, authorities said. The couple fed their 3-month-old daughter once a day between marathon stretches in a local Internet cafe, where they were raising a virtual child in the fantasy role-playing game Prius Online, police said. http://www.cnn.com

Apple iPad to go on sale in late April
UK gadget fans will be able to get their hands on the device around a month later than expected British consumers will be able to buy both the Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi and 3G versions of the device in late April, Apple confirmed. The launch date is slightly later than anticipated, but analysts have been warning that unspecified "manufacturing problems" could lead to some delays.http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 14th February 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-02-06T08:33:22.243

FBI probes Anonymous intercept of US-UK hacking call
The FBI is investigating how activists linked to the Anonymous network managed to intercept a conference call between British and US police in which they discussed legal action against hackers. Anonymous has released a tape of the call in which detectives give details of alleged hackers being tracked. The FBI said the information had been obtained illegally. Later, it emerged Anonymous had also hacked the websites of US police forces and the Greek justice ministry. Anonymous is a loose collective of "hacktivists" which has been responsible for cyber attacks on various companies, governments and individuals in recent years.http://news.bbc.co.uk

Satellite phone encryption cracked
Security researchers have warned that the satellite phones relied on by businesses, charities and government agencies in trouble spots and emergencies worldwide can be easily intercepted and deciphered. German academics said they had cracked two encryption systems used to protect satellite phone signals and that anyone with cheap computer equipment and radio could eavesdrop on calls over an entire continent. Hundreds of thousands of satellite phone users are thought to be affected. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Facebook graffiti artist stands to earn $200m
A graffiti artist who decorated the walls of Facebook's headquarters seven years ago is set for a $200m windfall when the social network makes its initial public offering (IPO). David Choe, 35, reportedly thought the social network was "ridiculous and pointless", but nonetheless accepted a few thousand pounds of shares as payment when he was commissioned by Sean Parker, Facebook's then president. The decision will make Mr Choe one of at least 1,000 of Facebook's early employees and advisers who were rewarded in shares and are now set to cash in. http://www.independent.ie

Snippets 11th May

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:31:21.683

Apple Draws Scrutiny From Regulators

U.S. antitrust enforcers are taking a keen interest in recent changes that Apple Inc. made to its licensing agreement with iPhone application developers and are likely to open a preliminary investigation into whether the company's actions stifle competition in mobile devices, according to people familiar with the situation. www.wsj.com

Twitter is the New CNN

A new study paints the popular micro-blogging service Twitter in a whole new light and sets it up to take on traditional news media. A group of Korean researchers recently completed and presented the results of a unique quantitative study that paints Twitter, in fairly stark terms, as the likely future of news. www.pcmag.com

Microsoft's Internet Explorer losing browser share

Whilst Internet Explorer still dominates the market Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) web browser, now accounts for less than 60% of market share, down from 95% at its peak in 2003. Latest statistics, from measurement firm NetApplications, show that IE has 59.9% of the market, with Firefox gaining on it, with 24.5%. While third-place Google Chrome's 6.7% share of the market looks tiny by comparison it is rising sharply, up from just 1.7% this time last year. Other contenders include: Apples Safari - 4.7%, Opera – 2.3%, Netscape - 0.46%, Flock – 0.06% and Lunascape at 0.04%. Microsoft has gradually been losing market share, largely due to concerns over security, experts said. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Snippets 1st June

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:27:33.24

Pac-Man hits 30 without losing its way
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, Google.com allowed visitors to play the classic video game in the shape of the Google logo. Pac-Man is one of the few early games to have survived the novelty of the arcade era with more than 10 billion games of Pac-Man having been played worldwide. Back in the day, Namco licensed nearly 294,000 arcade editions of the original, and its success spawned numerous ancillary cottage industries. www.washingtonpost.com

Britons spend nearly 'one day a month online'
British web users are spending 65% more time online than three years ago, according to research of net habits. According to a UKOM survey, time spent online comprised Social networks/blogs - 22.7%, E-mail - 7.2%, Games - 6.9%, Instant Messaging - 4.9%, Classified/Auctions - 4.7%, Portals - 4%, Search - 4%,Software info/products - 3.4%, News - 2.8%, Adult - 2.7% http://news.bbc.co.uk

HP expands recall of laptops for fire hazard
Hewlett-Packard Co is expanding a voluntary recall of laptop computers due to the risk of fire from overheating batteries, the company and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said recently. The commission said that since an initial recall in May 2009, HP has received additional reports of overheated and ruptured batteries, leading it to expand its recall to include more models. www.uk.reuters.com

Web Snippets 19 April 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-04-11T08:45:11.047

Pensioner cuts Armenia off from internet
An elderly woman in Georgia is facing a prison sentence after reportedly causing internet services in neighbouring Armenia to crash. The country found itself offline for hours on 28 March after cables linking Georgia to Armenia were damaged. A Georgian interior ministry spokesman said a 75-year-old woman had admitted damaging fibre-optic cables while scavenging for copper. She has been charged and reportedly faces up to three years in prison. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Student 'addiction' to technology 'similar to drug cravings
Withdrawal symptoms experienced by young people deprived of gadgets and technology is compared to those felt by drug addicts or smokers going “cold turkey”, a study has concluded. Researchers found nearly four in five students had significant mental and physical distress, panic, confusion and extreme isolation when forced to unplug from technology for an entire day. The University of Maryland research described students’ thoughts in vivid detail, in which they admit to cravings, anxiety attacks and depression when forced to abstain from using media. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Cyberstalking 'now more common' than face-to-face stalking
The first study of its kind to look at the extent and effect of cyberstalking, taking in social networking sites, email and mobile phones, has revealed the profile of perpetrators to be radically different from those who pursue victims face-to-face. Victims surveyed by Bedford University, reported that their harassers were more likely to be a complete stranger or a casual acquaintance than a former partner. Another major finding was that nearly 40% of cyberstalking victims are men. Past studies have identified women as much more at risk from face-to-face stalking. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Web Snippets 23rd August

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-08-13T13:09:07.347

Apple using 'bogus' patents to make Android more expensive, says Google
Google has accused Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and "other companies" of trying to make Android smartphones more expensive to consumers by running a "hostile, organised campaign" against it by using "bogus patents" acquired from the bankrupt Canadian company Nortel and their existing patent holdings. Its chief legal officer, David Drummond, asserts: "Microsoft and Apple's winning $4.5bn (£2.7bn) for Nortel's patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1bn. Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anti-competitive means – which means these deals are likely to draw regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop." www.guardian.co.uk

German court bans sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1, says Apple
A German court has issued a temporary ban on the sale of a Samsung digital product in the UK and every single EU member state with the exception of the Netherlands after Apple was successfully granted the injunction against the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10. Apple alleges that Samsung has violated its Community design rights over the way the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (a rival to Apple's iPad ) looks. www.theregister.co.uk

22 further fake Apple Stores discovered in China
After news that crooks in China had copied an entire Apple Store last month, Chinese media have reported that a further 22 fake Apple Stores have been uncovered in the city of Kunming. The first fake Apple Store was uncovered by an American blogger living in Kunming. http://www.t3.com

Web Snippets 10th January 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-01-03T14:55:27.807

Hackers Disclose Israelis’ Credit Card Information
Israeli credit card companies say hackers claiming to be Saudis disclosed credit card information of thousands of Israelis on the Internet. The companies, however, disputed the hackers’ claims that 400,000 credit-card holders were affected. Israel’s central bank put the number at 15,000. Credit card companies say the compromised cards have been blocked to Internet purchases and will be replaced soon. It’s unclear how the information was compromised. http://techland.time.com

'Spam capital' India arrests six in phishing probe
Police in India say they have arrested six foreign nationals suspected of defrauding hundreds of people using text message and email scams. Scam victims were duped after being told they had won a lottery. Authorities seized 14 laptops, seven memory sticks and 23 mobile phones, as well as fake documents and cash. The arrests come after security firm Kaspersky reported that India now sent more spam than any other country in the world. http://news.bbc.co.uk

2011 saw album sales fall, digital downloads rise
According to figures released by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), 26.6 million digital albums were sold in 2011, a 24 percent rise over 2010, however even though digital sales had been gaining, they were not enough to prevent an overall decline in music album sales. CD album sales were down by 13% to 86.2 million albums sold, 6% fewer than last year. www.allvoices.com

Snippets 27th Jan 2010

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:51:39.523

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 takes $1bn in sales

Video game Modern Warfare 2 has become one of only a handful of entertainment franchises to take more than $1bn (£625m) in revenue. It went on sale in November and made an estimated $550m in its first five days. In terms of revenue, it puts it alongside other entertainment franchises such as the recent 3D science fiction smash Avatar. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Women's handbags getting lighter

The weight of women’s handbags has more than halved in the last two years because of new technology. Although the size of handbags has grown the weight of contents has decreased. Research by Debenhams has shown that the average handbag weight has plummeted from about 3.5kg in 2006 and 2007 to 1.5kg last year (2009) – a reduction of 57 per cent. And researchers believe the drop in handbag weight – is because of the introduction of iPhones and Blackberries which have replaced laptops, mobile phones, PDAs, chargers, MP3 players and filofaxes. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Facebook Fugitive Caught

Craig ‘Lazie’ Lynch, the 28 year old escapee from the Hollesley Bay Prison, had attracted a following of 40,000 people after he began taunting the police authorities from his Facebook account, challenging them to catch him. Lynch was serving a seven-year jail sentence for aggravated robbery at the Suffolk prison before he escaped. http://www.itproportal.com

Snippets 14th September

AndreasH — 2010-10-08T14:47:28.413

Google promises faster browsing with Chrome 6 release

Google has updated its browser to Chrome 6, touting improvements in performance, enhancements to security and a stripped-down user interface. According to Google, the Chrome update makes the browser faster in JavaScript performance, with the company claiming that Chrome is now three times faster than when the browser launched two years ago. Other changes are more cosmetic, concentrating on the look and feel of the browser. Google said the more streamlined approach should make browsing easier. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Technology Takes Up More Than Half The Day
People are spending almost half their waking day using some form of technology, Ofcom research shows. That includes watching TV, talking on mobiles, texting and visiting social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The average user is now sending four times as many texts per day as they did six years ago, with many using several types of media at the same time. That allows the average person to cram more than eight hours of media into less than seven hours of an average day. http://news.sky.com

Google adds 'priority inbox' to Gmail
Google has launched a 'priority inbox' feature for Gmail to help people manage the email deluge more easily. Google has launched a new 'priority inbox' service for its web-based email service, Gmail. The search giant has developed a complex set of algorithms that can analyse a user's email behaviour, and rank emails depending on their perceived importance. Users who switch on the priority inbox function will see their messages separated in to three categories, with emails deemed important and unread bumped to the top of the inbox. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Snippets 18th May

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:30:28.193

Internet Explorer 9 drops Windows XP
Good news for fans of Microsoft's in-house browser (but bad news for folks who still use XP): the next iteration of Internet Explorer adds a slew of attractive features. The good news: Internet Explorer 9 will add support for HTML5 and allow for the browser to run more complicated video and graphical elements. IE9 is also getting hardware acceleration, meaning more resources to work with for a speedier browser overall. The bad news: XP users are going to be left behind, as Microsoft has made it official that IE9 will not support Windows XP.http://dvice.com

Women blame BlackBerrys and iPhones for poor sex life
Modern gadgets such as the Blackberry and iPhone are ruining women's sex lives because their husbands are too distracted in the bedroom. The research by pharmaceutical firm Bayer found that woman say they are having less sex because of the technology. More than a quarter of women (28 per cent) claim that email and internet are disrupting their love lives, with hand-held devices particularly to blame. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Chrome gains as Microsoft's browser share slips below 60%
Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been losing market share for years, but now its losses are going mainly to Google Chrome instead of Firefox. Meanwhile in operating systems, it's Windows 7 that is growing fast, and it is on track to overtake Vista, according to figures released by Net Applications. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Web Snippets 30th August 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-08-22T19:31:14.183

Google maps Amazon rainforest
Google has started mapping the Amazon rainforest for its StreetView service. The team deployed to map the area by the technology giant have been travelling by boat and bike, armed with cameras, to collect panoramic images of the location and communities who live there. Google’s last really ambitious StreetView project was charting Antarctica and producing an interactive tour of the area.It is not yet known how long the Amazon project will take. www.telegraph.co.uk

Student hacker ‘penetrated’ Facebook
Specialist cyber crime police allege that between April 27 and May 9 Glenn Steven Mangham, 25, sucessfully and repeatedly hacked into a Facebook server using software he had downloaded. Just over a week later he allegedly used software to secure access to another Facebook server. Despite the extent of the alleged intrusions, Facebook said its users’personal data was not compromised. http://www.itnewspost.com

BT rolls out free wi-fi in 100 London pubs
BT broadband customers will be able to access free wireless internet in 100 London pubs later this year. The free wi-fi service is the result of a joint venture between BT and Heineken, and is available to BT’s five million broadband customers. The move brings the numbers of BT hotspots across the country up to 3 million. www.which.co.uk

Web Snippets 16th August

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-08-08T09:06:51.547

Too distracted to work
Bosses spend millions of pounds on handing out smart phones to make sure their staff are in constant touch. But the devices supposed to boost productivity appear to be having the opposite effect. A survey of more than 1,000 British office workers found that many are so addicted to new technology that they can’t help but take phone calls, send text messages and access social networking sites when in meetings. For some, the lure of being constantly in touch is so strong that they will continue to take calls and listen to messages even when told to switch off their phone by their boss. Many don’t realise the constant distractions are stopping them from doing their job properly. http://www.dailymail.co.uk

US man charged over Facebook spam turns himself in
A US man charged with sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users has turned himself in to FBI agents in California. Prosecutors say Sanford Wallace posted messages on Facebook users walls - purportedly from friends - urging users to visit a website where their account details were then harvested. They were then redirected to an affiliate website that earned Wallace "substantial revenue", the charges say. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Logging on to computers helps us get out more
The commonly held belief that the internet is turning an entire generation into solitary web-junkies is a myth, according to new research. Stefan Bauernschuster, Oliver Falck and Ludger Woessmann of the Ifo Institute in Munich reject the claim that the internet isolates people socially and erodes the traditional foundations of society. The economists found that once adults had access to broadband, their attendance at theatres, cinemas, bars or restaurants actually increased. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Web Snippets 15th March 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-03-07T08:36:21.543

Boom in Mills & Boon electronic book sales
The guilty pleasure that is Mills and Boon romances is driving sales of electronic e-books as they allow customers to avoid the "embarrassment factor" of being seen reading and buying them. The British publisher said electronic sales of the bodice-rippers have more than doubled over the last year and have now overtaken actual paper book sales. While the company refuses to reveal the total number of downloads sold, official figures show it must be more than the 3.3 million paperbacks purchased in 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Average broadband speeds 'less than half those advertised'
Data released by Ofcom, the communications watchdog, shows that the average broadband speed is still less than half of the average advertised speed. The Ofcom report says that Britons get an average broadband speed of 6.2 megabits per second (Mbps) – less than half the average advertised speed of 13.8Mb. Ofcom is pushing for a change in the way internet providers, advertise "up to" broadband speeds, which most customers are unable to receive. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Microsoft Tries to Bid IE6 Adieu
In terms of durability and the sheer numbers of people who have used it, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 is one of the most successful software products of all time. But between its security holes and its poor compatibility with Web standards, it's also one of the most headache-inducing applications ever. And in 2011 -- nearly a decade after IE 6 first shipped -- it's a product from another era. Yet 12 percent of Internet users worldwide are still running it. So the company has launched an Internet 6 Countdown site, with stats on IE6's current usage and a stated mission of driving usage down to under 1 percent.
http://www.pcmag.com

Web Snippets 13th September 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-09-05T08:33:56.957

Apple employee 'leaves prototype of new iPhone in bar’
An Apple employee is thought to have left a prototype of the next iPhone in a bar in California, in a bizarre repeat of an incident last year involving the previous version of the device. The staff member was reported to have been drinking in San Francisco’s Mission district, when the much-anticipated iPhone 5 went missing in July. Selected employees are allowed to take prototypes of new gadgets outside the computer giant’s secure testing laboratories, to ensure they work in everyday settings. The loss prompted a frantic but fruitless investigation by Apple executives and local police to recover the device. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Fraudsters can work out your PIN from heat traces.
Fraudsters can work out your PIN by the heat traces your fingers leave on a cash machine, researchers from the University of California have found. Some 80 per cent of the time scientists were able to correctly identify the four-digit code using an infrared scanner on the ATM. Even a full minute later the camera was able to show clearly which numbers had been pressed, giving a fraudster ample time to get what they needed. All they would then need to do would be steal the person’s wallet and they could help themselves to their money. http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Facebook pays out to 'whitehat' hackers
Facebook is paying out an average of more than €1,100 per day to outside security experts to act as "bounty hunters" by finding bugs in its software that could be exploited by malicious hackers. The three-week-old project has already handed out rewards totalling around €28,000, including more than €5,000 to one individual who has reported six potential vulnerabilities. http://www.independent.ie

Web Snippets 3rd May 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-04-26T08:30:39.09

Death of the text?
Mobile text messaging could become extinct within a generation as millions of young people turn to other forms of electronic communication. Teenagers are increasingly using instant messaging from mobile phones and social networking sites such as Facebook. Experts predict the amount of texts sent in the UK will drop by 20 per cent in the next two years. It comes as teenagers and students are increasingly using BlackBerrys instead of iPhones and other smartphones because the device has a free instant messenger. Sales in Blackberries, that were once the preserve of the corporate boardroom, have increased six-fold during the last year, mainly due to being taken up by 16 to 24-year-olds. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

iPhone tracks users' movements
Apple iPhones and 3G iPads are secretly recording and storing details of all their owners' movements, researchers claim. Location data is kept in a hidden, unencrypted file according to security experts Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden. With the right software, it can be used to map exactly where a person has been. Apple has yet to comment on the revelation, however there is no suggestion that it has been uploading or using the information. http://news.bbc.co.uk

FBI shutdowns spark crisis for online poker
FBI investigators have thrown the online poker industry into chaos after shutting down three market-leading sites. Eleven defendants – including the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker – have been charged with money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud, running illegal gambling businesses and conspiracy to breach gambling rules. The action has plunged the online gambling industry into a state of flux, as analysts and industry experts try to predict the fallout from the charges. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 24th May 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-05-16T08:29:32.637

Limewire pays $105m settlement to music firms
File-sharing software company Limewire has reached an out of court settlement with record labels that sued it for helping people pirate music. The Lime Group, which developed the Limewire system, has agreed to pay $105m (£64.6m) to 13 music firms. The figure is far less than the billion dollar bill for damages that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) claimed it was owed. The prolonged legal fight has led to the Limewire service being shut down. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Taliban join the Twitter revolution
Tweets about attacks on 'infidel forces' give Taliban new weapon in Afghanistan's information war. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they eschewed most modern technology, including television and music players. But in the latest sign of the hardline movement's rapprochement with the modern world, the Taliban have embraced microblogging. Their Twitter feed, @alemarahweb, pumps out several messages a day, keeping followers up to date with often highly exaggerated reports of strikes against the "infidel forces" and the "Karzai puppet regime". http://www.guardian.co.uk

Study Reveals Facebook ban at work
A new study has revealed that almost half of UK firms are strictly against letting employees access sites such as Facebook and Twitter from their work places. The revelation was made by research carried out by HCL Technologies in collaboration with Lewis PR. The research also claimed that 63 percent of the staff surveyed admitted that they were strictly advised not to use social media sites from their work machines. http://www.itproportal.com/

Web Snippets 20th March 2012

Charlesdouthwaite — 2012-03-12T08:41:06.523

American soldiers warned that posting on Facebook puts their lives at risk.
Military authorities have highlighted the threat from the “geotagging” technology built into many smartphones, which can reveal where a photograph was taken. "Today, in pretty much every single smartphone, there is built-in GPS," said US Army spokesman Steve Warren. "For every picture you take with that phone, it will automatically embed the latitude and longitude within the photograph." In 2007, insurgents in Iraq used geotags embedded in images posted to Facebook to pinpoint the location of helicopters within a US base. Four AH-64 Apaches were destroyed in the subsequent attack, the US Army said. www.telegraph.co.uk

Met arrests suspect over abortion hack
The Metropolitan Police has arrested a 27-year-old man on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act following an attack against the website of an abortion advice group. The arrest follows a complaint made by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service amid fears that the hacker was preparing to reveal details of women who had used the abortion advice and clinical company. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Card fraud falls to its lowest level for 11 years
The amount of money lost due to fraud on credit and debit cards fell last year by 7% to £341m - its lowest level for 11 years. The drop from 2010 was mainly due to a 41% fall in fraudsters impersonating people to obtain or use credit cards. There was also a 24% fall in the amount of fraud from cards being faked. The UK Cards Association said it was the third year in a row that card fraud had fallen, with a drop of 44% since losses peaked in 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Web Snippets 8th December 2009

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:54:13.773

Apple "refuses to repair smokers' Macs"

Apple is reportedly refusing to repair the Macs of smokers because the tobacco residue inside the machines poses a health risk. Some Apple repair centres have allegedly told customers that they couldn't repair their Macs because their machines had been contaminated by cigarette smoke.

When a customer complained to Steve Jobs' office, she was reportedly told that nicotine was listed as a hazardous substance by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration and that the company wouldn't undertake a repair. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Google Row over Michelle Obama image

Google has apologised over a racially offensive picture of Michelle Obama that appeared when users searched for images of the first lady. The image came top of the Google Images results for "Michelle Obama". Google placed a notice over the picture titled "Offensive Search Results" but did not remove the offending image. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Hacker to be extradited

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon, who has Asperger's syndrome, is at serious risk of suicide, relatives claimed, after the home secretary rejected a last-ditch attempt to prevent his extradition.

Alan Johnson ordered McKinnon's removal to the US on charges of breaching US military computers, despite claims by his lawyers that extradition would make McKinnon’s death "virtually certain". Critics say an extradition treaty designed to speed up extradition between the two countries works in favour of Americans and fails to adequately protect Britons. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Snippets 23rd March

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:36:31.687

Apple's HTC suit 'is not necessarily a bad thing'
Even though Windows Mobile handsets are named in Apple's lawsuit against smartphone maker HTC, one Microsoft executive recently stated that the suit might help to sort out intellectual property ownership issues. The executive welcomed Apple's lawsuit as the opening salvo in a bigger effort to sort out who owns the technology used in smartphones and start collecting a standard set of royalties. www.appleinsider.com

Apple practices 'legal alchemy'
Nokia recently asked a federal judge to toss out Apple's antitrust claims, saying the iPhone maker indulged in "legal alchemy" when it tried to divert attention from its "free-riding" of Nokia's intellectual property. The filing was the latest salvo in a battle that began in October 2009 when Finnish handset maker Nokia sued Apple, saying the iPhone infringed on 10 of its patents and that the U.S. company was trying "to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation." Nokia is demanding royalties on all iPhones sold since Apple introduced the smartphone in June 2007. www.computerworld.com

China warns Google to comply with censorship laws.
China's top internet official has warned that Google will "pay the consequences" if it continues to go against Chinese law. It warned that it may shut down google.cn because of censorship and a hacking attack on the portal. Relations between China and Google cooled in January after what Google described as a sophisticated cyber attack in which the webmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists were targeted. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Snippets 21st December

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-12-13T08:43:31.843

Nasa sells shuttle PCs without wiping secret data
US space agency Nasa has been left red-faced after selling off computers without ensuring that highly sensitive data had been removed. An internal investigation found 10 cases where PCs were sold despite failing data removal procedures and another four PCs - which were about to be sold - containing data restricted under arms control rules. Such details could potentially provide hackers with "unauthorised access to Nasa's internal computer network". http://news.bbc.co.uk

Another monster Patch Tuesday from Microsoft
Last week, Microsoft announced a record 17 security updates to patch 40 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office, SharePoint and Exchange. The 17 updates are a record, beating the count from October 2010 by one. “This is partly due to vulnerability reports in Microsoft products increasing slightly [and to the fact that] Microsoft supports products for up to ten years," said Mike Reavey, the director of the Microsoft Security Response Center. www.computerworld.com

Eye Pictures Stop Bad Behaviour
Being watched over by a photograph of staring eyes makes people twice as likely to behave themselves, according to researchers at Newcastle University. Psychology student Max Ernest-Jones put up two different posters in a cafe telling diners to clear away their dirty plates. On one day the poster had a photograph of eyes on it, the next day it showed a picture of flowers. He found the figure doubled when the eyes were watching over them. His findings have been written up by his tutor, Dr Melissa Bateson, of the university’s centre for behaviour and evolution, and published online by the American journal Evolution And Human Behavior. http://news.sky.com

Snippets 9th November

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-11-01T11:07:53.947

China claims Supercomputer crown
China has claimed the top spot on the list of the world's supercomputers. The title has gone to China's Tianhe-1A supercomputer that is capable of carrying out more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations a second. To reach such high speeds the machine draws on more than 7,000 graphics processors and 14,000 Intel chips. China's Tianhe-1A has taken over the top spot from America's XT5 Jaguar at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee that can carry out only 1.75 petaflops. One petaflop is the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Internet worth £100 billion to UK
The internet contributes 7.2% to the UK's GDP - worth some £100 billion in 2009. Online activity is worth more to the country than construction, transport, or utilities, according to a Google-sponsored report from Boston Group Consulting. It predicted 10% to 15% growth by 2015, saying the UK is a "power user of the internet". Some 60% of the GDP boost is through spending, with £50 billion from online shopping and £10 billion spent getting online. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

LimeWire filesharing site ordered to close
Peer-to-peer file-sharing service LimeWire has been ordered to shut down after losing a four-year legal fight with US record labels. LimeWire has been shut down by a US court who found that the service had been used to infringe copyright on a huge scale. The ruling follows a long-running legal dispute with the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major record labels. In 2007, the RIAA filed a lawsuit against the peer-to-peer file-sharing network, accusing it of infringing the copyright of its members by facilitating the illegal trading of music, movies and other content. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Snippets 23rd Feb

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:48:43.743

Google takes on Facebook and Twitter
Google has taken the wraps off its latest social network known as Buzz. The service - integrated

directly with its e-mail service Gmail - allows users to post status updates, share content and read

and comment on friends' posts. The site pitches Google directly against rival networks such as

Facebook. Buzz will try to capitalise on the number of regular Gmail users, which is currently

around 170 million people. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Microsoft patch brings Blue Screen of Death misery
Microsoft's support forums are being inundated with complaints that its latest security updates are

crippling Windows XP machines. While Microsoft says it is investigating the cause of the complaints,

users have narrowed the problem to update KB977165, described by Microsoft as "MS10-015:

Vulnerabilities in Windows kernel could allow elevation of privilege". The patch was intended to

address a 17-year-old kernel bug present in all 32-bit versions of Windows. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Facebook pulls prisoner pages
At least 30 pages have been deleted from social networking site Facebook after they were used by

British prisoners to taunt their victims from behind bars. The move came following a request by UK

Justice Secretary Jack Straw amid a crackdown on inmates using contraband cell phones or accomplices

outside prison to access the Internet to intimidate. The move follows a campaign by the families of

murder victims, who have complained of prisoners using Facebook to publicize their exploits. http://www.cnn.com

Snippets 2nd February 2010

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:50:42.24

Manchester United bans social networking

Manchester United Football Club has posted a message on its website explaining that its players do not belong to online social networks. It advises users to treat any profiles in the names of its players with "extreme scepticism". The club says this is because of the high numbers of people impersonating team members online. There are many accounts across social network sites which claim to be in the name of high profile footballers. Manchester United players Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Darren Fletcher are believed to have had genuine accounts on Twitter, which are now closed. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Google profits leap despite recession

Recession, what recession? That's the message coming from Google, after it posted strong year-on-year revenue growth. The search company reported revenues of $6.67 billion for the fourth quarter of 2009 - a 17% hike on the same period in 2008. Interestingly, 12% of that revenue came from Google UK, with international revenues now accounting for more than half of Google's total turnover. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Bill Gates becomes overnight Twitter sensation

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has finally jumped on the micro-blogging bandwagon. It's a case of better late than never for Bill who has only just gotten round to signing up for the micro-blogging phenomenon. Still popular Bill managed to amass more than 150,000 followers in the first 24 hours. http://www.itpro.co.uk

Snippets 31st August

AndreasH — 2010-09-13T11:11:39.937

One in 20 people reprimanded for inappropriate emails

One in 20 people have been reprimanded at work for sending an ill-advised email, according to a survey. Inappropriate jokes, angry messages sent in the heat of the moment, and scathing email replies forwarded to the wrong people are among some of the email gaffes that have landed office workers in hot water with their employers or clients. According to the research, men were more likely to make an email gaffe than women, with 28 per cent admitting to sending an ill-judged message, compared to 17 per cent of women. www.telegraph.co.uk

UK firms can pass IT problems onto the cloud

David Bradshaw, European SaaS (Software as a Service) and cloud services research manager at International Data Corporation (IDC) has said that organisations can relieve themselves of a certain degree of responsibility by adopting cloud services. The comments come after recent research published by IDC revealed that revenue for public cloud computing is set to grow from $582 million (£375 million) in 2009 to $718 million (£463 million) in 2014. www.bcs.org

Facebook "Places" lets users track friends and services

Facebook's 500 million-plus users will soon be able to track friends' whereabouts across the United States. The new "Places" feature which began rolling out in August will go nationwide within weeks. It is touted as a tool to help users share where they are, figure out who is in the vicinity, and check out happenings and services within the same locale. The addition of so-called location services to Facebook opens new revenue opportunities for the company, but also presents it with delicate privacy challenges. www.reuters.co.uk

Snippets 9th March

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:47:43.183

Google bosses convicted in Italy

An Italian court has convicted three Google executives in a trial over a video showing an autistic teenager being bullied. The executives were accused of breaking Italian law by allowing the video to be posted online. Three Google employees received suspended six-month sentences, while a fourth defendant was acquitted. The guilty verdict has left Google outraged and much of the net community concerned about the ramifications. If firms can be held liable for every piece of content on their site they would face a nigh-on impossible job of policing and vetting everything before publication.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

BBC iPlayer usage doubles in a year

The number of requests to view shows on the BBC’s iPlayer has doubled in the past year, as the service breaks new viewing records. More than 120 million videos were viewed using the service last month, up from 61.5 million in the same month last year.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk

One driver in 20 'uses Facebook at the wheel'

Three years on from the introduction of tougher in-car mobile phone rules in the UK, many motorists are still flouting the law. Drivers are illegally using hands-held mobiles not just for making and receiving calls but for texting, surfing the internet and even checking messages on Facebook and Twitter, a YouGov poll found. The survey showed that 5% of drivers had read a post on Facebook, Twitter or another social website, with 2% even admitting posting on Facebook or sending an email while at the wheel.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 31st January 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-01-23T10:33:27.623

Wikipedia joins blackout protest at US anti-piracy moves
Wikipedia took its its English-language site offline on the 18th January as part of protests against proposed anti-piracy laws in the US. Users attempting to access the site saw a black screen and a political statement: "Imagine a world without free knowledge." Wikipedia, which attracts millions of hits every day, is opposed to the US Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) being debated by Congress. The legislation which has now been shelved; would have allowed the Justice Department and content owners to seek court orders requiring search engines to block results associated with piracy. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Amazon Kindles 'go unused' after Christmas
Amazon’s Kindle e-reader was among the most popular gifts at Christmas, but many have gone unused, a survey has found. More than a fifth of those who received a Kindle said they have not used it. The main reason was that owners had failed to download any e-books, the survey found. The Kindle was one of the big hits of Christmas 2011. A separate survey found one in 40 British adults was given Amazon's e-reader. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Megaupload takedown sparks wave of hacktivist attacks
US Government websites and the sites of rights holders have been hit in a tit-for-tat hacking attack following the closure of an alleged copyright infringing website. The attacks – claimed by hacktivists associated with the Anonymous group – were seen as a response to the closure of megaupload.com over allegations of “widespread copyright infringement”. The denial of service attacks targeted the Department of Justice site, knocking it offline temporarily, as well as disrupting the FBI’s site and those of the Recording Industry Association of America, Universal Music and the Motion Picture Association of America. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/

Snippets 6th July

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:21:04.117

iPhone 4 reception problem
Apple’s Newly launched iPhone 4 has a unique design feature—it uses the stainless steel frame and bezel to serve as radio antennas instead of hiding them inside the case. However, some users are experiencing a problem where holding the phone a certain way in the left hand can significantly reduce 3G signal strength. Essentially, gripping the iPhone in the left hand just right can cause the palm to bridge the left and bottom antenna sections of the bezel, cutting reception quality. The known workarounds for now include holding it in your right hand, or using a protective case. http://arstechnica.com

Bought for $850m and sold for less than $10m
AOL has offloaded Bebo, the social networking site that once threatened the dominance of Facebook in the UK, for a tiny fraction of the $850m (£575m) it paid for the company two years ago. The sale is understood to be below $10m, putting the original acquisition in contention for the highly competitive title of worst purchase by a major internet company. http://www.independent.co.uk

Domain .xxx approved by regulators
Pornographic websites will now have a special suffix after internet regulators ICANN gave the .xxx domain the go-ahead at a meeting in Brussels. The adult entertainment industry has long campaigned in favour of a special .xxx suffix, similar to the .com and .co.uk domain names. Critics believe the domain would create the internet equivalent of a red light district, while supporters argue that it will make it easier for people to filter or block unwanted adult content. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 7th February 2012

Charlesdouthwaite — 2012-01-30T10:30:08.86

Android tablets challenge iPad dominance
Apple’s iPad accounted for 58 per cent of the global tablet market in the last quarter of 2011, but Google’s Android has climbed rapidly and now claims 39 per cent. The figures from Strategy Analytics reveal that Apple sold more than twice as many tablets in the last quarter of 2011 as it did in the corresponding period in the previous year. Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet was reported by Strategy Analytics as the key reason for Apple’s decline from 68 per cent to 58 per cent of the global market. The firm estimates that the total tablet market grew from 10.7m in the last quarter of 2010 to 26.8m in the same period of 2011. Within that, total Android sales tripled to 10.5 million worldwide.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Facebook 'to go public with $10bn share offering'
Facebook will begin the process of becoming a publicly-listed company this week, valuing the social networking site at between $75bn (£48bn) and $100bn, reports suggest. The company plans to file papers with the US financial watchdog on Wednesday, according to the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. The flotation later this year would raise about $10bn, they reported. This would be one of the biggest share sales ever seen on Wall Street.
http://news.bbc.co.uk

Twitter adds ability to censor tweets by country
Twitter says it has added the capability to filter tweets on a geographical basis in a bid to stave off legal challenges from officials in some countries. Twitter had previously been unable to censor tweets in one country while allowing the information to flow elsewhere, a situation which led to a UK judge last year adding Twitter to a list of media prohibited from breaching injunctions. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 16th Feb

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:49:25.847

Internet addiction linked to depression
There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said.
The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were "internet addicts", and many of these were depressed. The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems. The conclusions were based on 1,319 responses to an on-line questionnaire. http://news.bbc.co.uk

IE8 knocks IE6 off browser top-spot
Microsoft's troubled Internet Explorer 6 has finally been knocked off the top of the worldwide browser rankings, according to Net Applications stats. IE8, the latest version of Internet Explorer, now holds 22.31% of the market, compared to IE6's 20.07%. Users have been warned to upgrade their browser after a series of flaws became apparent in the nearly decade-old IE6 - including the vulnerability that led to Google being hacked. The Department of Health warned NHS staff to avoid IE6, while the governments of Germany and France have urged citizens to upgrade or switch. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Blockbuster Patch Tuesday
Microsoft’s February batch of security patches released on Patch Tuesday (the 2nd Tuesday of the month) will comprise 13 bulletins with fixes for a whopping 26 vulnerabilities. According to an advance notice from Microsoft, five of the 13 bulletins will be rated “critical” because of the risk of remote code execution attacks. http://www.itpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 13th December 2011

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-12-05T09:24:52.907

Second iPhone 'explodes'
A second iPhone has reportedly exploded in Brazil on a bedside table. The phone short circuited and started to burn 15 inches from a man's face as he slept, the online news website Mashable reported. Ayla Mota said he woke up to see sparks and black smoke coming from the iPhone 4. The incident came a day after Australian aviation authorities launched an investigation after an iPhone caught fire aboard a flight to Sydney. The domestic airline Regional Express Airlines said the phone glowed red and emitted "thick smoke" after the plane landed in Sydney. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Laptop WiFi May Damage Sperm
Men might want to consider keeping that laptop off their laps. A new study in the journal Fertility and Sterility found that when exposing sperm taken from 29 men to electromagnetic radiation from laptop WiFi for four hours, the sperm had DNA damage and decreased motility. Reuters reports that about 25 percent of the sperm had stopped moving after the four-hour laptop radiation exposure. Nine percent of the radiation-exposed sperm had DNA damage. http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Hard drive shortage pushing up PC prices
If you want an external hard drive, best buy it quickly. Prices of hard drives are being pushed up rapidly as manufacturers say that they will only be able to meet two-thirds of demand in this quarter, and shortages will continue into 2012 – and possibly beyond. The constraints have been caused by the deadly flooding in Thailand, where hundreds of people died as large areas were inundated. Industrial facilities, including those where many of the assemblies for the world's output of hard drives are made, were seriously affected. http://www.guardian.co.uk

Web Snippets 14th June 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-06-05T13:15:38.49

Google to abandon older browsers
Google is phasing out support for older browsers from 1 August. Those using IE7, Safari 3, Firefox 3.5 and their predecessors to view Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites will then lose some functions. Eventually, it warned, these web services will stop working for those sticking with older browsers. The move is part of a trend to stop the use of ageing browsers which can be insecure and not sophisticated enough to handle the latest web technologies. Google says it is keen to make use of the latest capabilities in browsers, and that required support for HTML5 technology. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Chinese teen sells his kidney for an iPad 2
A Chinese teenager was so desperate to acquire the new iPad 2 that he sold one of his kidneys for just £2,000 to pay for it, according to reports. The 17-year-old boy, identified only by his surname, "Zheng", confessed to his mother that he had sold the kidney after spotting an online advertisement offering cash to anyone prepared to become an organ donor. After negotiations, the boy travelled north to the city of Chenzhou in Hunan Province where the kidney was removed at a local hospital.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Internet-connected devices set to reach 15billion by 2015
Forecasters predict there will be 15billion internet-connected devices in use around the world by 2015 - more than two for every person on the planet. The recent growth in mobile phones and tablets has already pushed the number of devices above the five billion mark. And fresh technical developments - including internet-connected televisions and cars - will drive a new surge in appliance use in the next four years, according to technology giant Cisco. http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Snippets 2nd November

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-10-25T09:31:08.79

Microsoft sells 240 million copies of Windows 7
Microsoft's Windows 7 has sold more than 240 million copies in its first year, making it the fastest-selling operating system. The software launched a year ago to supersede the unpopular Vista. Although Apple's OS X and Linux-based operating systems have won some market share in the past few years, Microsoft still controls 90% of the world's 1.4 billion or so personal computers, and is expecting more customers to upgrade or switch to Windows 7. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Sex.com internet domain name sold for $13m
The domain was put up for auction in July 2010 when its former owner, Escom LLC, went bankrupt. Clover Holdings, an obscure company registered on the Caribbean island of St Vincent, put in the highest bid for the domain. The sex.com domain has changed hands several times and at one time was under the control of a conman who stole it from its original owner. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Social network users told they're at risk of burglary
A third of people who use social networking sites are putting themselves at risk of burglary, an insurer warned yesterday. Seven out of 10 adults use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but many are revealing too much personal information, The Co-operative Insurance said. Two-thirds of people have posted pictures of themselves on the sites, 60pc have disclosed their marital status and 42pc have shared their date of birth. More worryingly, 36pc of people use the sites to update others on their whereabouts, potentially alerting criminals to when their home will be empty. http://www.independent.ie

Web Snippets 22nd Dec 2009

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:53:11.14

Recession drives people towards printer ink refills.
The recession has sparked a dramatic slump in sales of manufacturers' own ink cartridges, in favour of cheaper refills and compatibles. Research firm IDC claims that sales of official laser toner consumables slumped by 24.9% in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, manufacturers' own inkjet consumables sales declined 19.2% year-on-year. However, the market for compatible ink cartridges and refills showed healthy growth. Refills and compatibles now account for 37.3% of the market, up from 29.6% a year ago. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Mobile menace
More people are now using hand-held mobile phones while driving than before the practice was made illegal, research showed last week. According to the new survey 2.8% of car drivers now use mobiles illegally. The researchers estimate that motorists are up to six times more likely to crash if holding their mobile phone while at the wheel. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/

MP3 players face noise limits under EU plans
MP3 players, including iPods, will be fitted with maximum volume restrictions to protect users' hearing under European Union plans. Fears that listening to the portable music players at high volume could cause hearing damage has prompted the EU to act. The EU plan to launch a consultation early next year with a final decision coming in the spring. Experts in Brussels hope to impose the new maximum setting at 85 decibels. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Snippets 21st September

AndreasH — 2010-10-08T14:50:12.477

New BBC iPlayer launched
A new and improved version of the BBC's catch-up television service, iPlayer, has gone live. The new-look BBC iPlayer features more personalisation options and better integration with social networks. The revamped iPlayer features a new design that makes it easier to find television programmes, personalisation tools, so that users can tailor-make their viewing experience, and social networking integration, to enable people to share their favourite shows on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The new-look iPlayer is the first major upgrade to the catch-up TV service since it launched in December 2007. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Parents Pay High Price For Kids' Gadgets
Parents spend around £500 a year on technology for children, with the bill for seven-year-olds averaging £760, research says. The findings, from price comparison site Kelkoo, show that 91% of kids in the UK between the ages of five and 16 own sophisticated gadgets including games, mobiles and laptops. More than one in 10 children has a smartphone, while 7% have a netbook and 3% even own a tablet PC. http://www.sky.com/news

Google launches instant search
Google has unveiled its new Instant search tool, which predicts what users are looking for as they type search terms. The widely predicted tool, which was teased in Google doodles, predicts what users are searching for with each letter typed in, much like its Auto Complete system. However, Google Instant serves up results, changing the entire listing with each letter entered, "providing results in real-time before you even have time to type your query," said Marissa Meyer, Google's vice president of search. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Snippets 2nd March

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:48:11.107

Please Rob Me
A website called PleaseRobMe claims to reveal the location of empty homes based on what people post

online. The Dutch developers told BBC News the site was designed to prove a point about the dangers

of sharing location information on the internet. PleaseRobMe extracts information from players who

have chosen to post their whereabouts automatically onto Twitter and makes it available in a map

format on the site. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Browser Ballot
Microsoft has revealed further details of how its forthcoming "browser ballot" will work, ahead of

next week's rollout. Last year, Microsoft agreed to offer Windows users a selection of alternative

browsers to settle its antitrust lawsuit with the European Commission. This is being implemented via

a Windows Update, which will start appearing as early as next week. The browser ballot will see

anyone with Internet Explorer installed as their default browser offered a range of alternatives,

primarily Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera. The browsers will be offered in random order, along with

a button that allows the user to instantly download and install the browser.http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Server failure takes 10m blogs offline
Millions of blogs went offline for almost two hours last week because of a massive outage at

WordPress.com, the blog hosting service. The technical problem took more than 10 million blogs

offline for 110 minutes. Wordpress is the most popular blog publishing application on the web.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Snippets 1st February 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-01-21T15:02:21.83

Risks of cyber war 'over-hyped' says OECD study
The vast majority of hi-tech attacks described as acts of cyber war do not deserve the name, says an OECD report. The report acknowledged the risk of a catastrophic cyber incident, such as a solar flare that could knock out satellites, base stations and net hardware, but said that the vast majority of incidents seen today were almost trivial in comparison as they did not last long and only hit a few people or organisations. http://news.bbc.co.uk

22 percent jump in Googles profits.
Shares of the world's No.1 Internet search engine have gained in the past three weeks as investors anticipate Google will benefit from healthy online advertising spending. Google, which is facing increased competition from social networking giant Facebook and iPhone maker Apple Inc, embarked on a recruiting and acquisition spree, adding more than 3,500 employees to its payroll and buying dozens of companies in 2010. In October, Google gave investors what it said was a "one-time" peek at some of its businesses beyond search, showing that it was generating $2.5 billion in revenue from display advertisements on an annualized run rate, and $1 billion from its mobile business. http://uk.reuters.com

3D Images Make Millions Sick
Optometrists say as many as one in four viewers have problems watching 3-D movies and TV, either because 3-D causes tiresome eyestrain or because the viewer has problems perceiving depth in real life. In the worst cases, 3-D makes people queasy, leaves them dizzy or gives them headaches. That isn't deterring the entertainment industry, which is aware of the problem yet charging ahead with plans to create more movies and TV shows in 3-D. http://www.foxnews.com/

Snippets 27th April

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:32:57.327

Israel Bans iPad Imports Over Wi-Fi Issue
The Israeli Communications Ministry has ordered customs agents in the country to confiscate all Apple iPads from overseas passengers. The move apparently comes after the ministry's engineering staff could not agree on a means to test the iPad's compatibility with Israel's wireless networks. One man had his iPad taken away and placed in a customs warehouse. He will have to apply to the Israeli government to have it shipped back to the U.S. www.pcmag.com

Porn virus publishes web history of victims on the net
A new type of malware is infecting PCs. The Japanese trojan virus installs itself on computers using a popular file-share service called Winni, and targets those downloading illegal copies of games in the Hentai genre, an explicit form of anime. Masquerading as a game installation screen, it requests the PC owner's personal details and then takes screengrabs of the user's web history and publishes it online in their name, before demanding a payment of 1500 yen (£10) to "settle your violation of copyright law" and remove the webpage. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Why you can’t do 3 things at once
A new study suggests the brain is set up to manage two tasks, but not more. Part of the brain divides so that half focuses on one task and the other half on the other task. This division allows a person to keep track of two tasks pretty readily, but if you throw in a third, things get a bit muddled. "We can cook, and at the same time talk on the phone, and switch back and forth between these two activities," said study researcher Etienne Koechlin of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. "However, we cannot multitask with more than two tasks." www.msnbc.msn.com

Web Snippest 31st May 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-05-23T07:26:38.147

Ban mobiles and wireless networks in schools, say Europe
Mobile phones and wireless internet connections pose a risk to human health and should be banned from schools, a powerful European body has ruled. A Council of Europe committee examined evidence that the technologies have "potentially harmful" effects on humans, and concluded that immediate action was required to protect children. The committee said it was crucial to avoid repeating the mistakes made when public health officials were slow to recognise the dangers of asbestos, tobacco smoking and lead in petrol. Fears have been raised that electromagnetic radiation emitted by wireless devices can cause cancers and affect the developing brain. The conclusions contradict advice from the World Health Organisation, which says exposure to electromagnetic fields poses little or no risk to human health. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Mobile wallet offered to UK shoppers
The first service that allows users to pay for purchases via their mobile phone has been launched in the UK. Among shops signed up to the system are McDonalds, EAT, Pret-a-Manger and some Boots stores. Users wishing to use the system - dubbed Quick Tap - will need Orange and Barclaycard accounts as well as a handset set up for contactless payments. Only purchases up to a value of £15 can be made using the service. http://news.bbc.co.uk

LinkedIn valued at $9 billion
LinkedIn's shares more than doubled in their public trading debut, with the business-networking firm now valued at $9 billion. The share price success raised concerns of another bubble surrounding tech and online firms. LinkedIn is the first prominent social networking company to publicly test just how hungry investors are for social media companies, with Facebook, Groupon and Twitter expected to go public soon. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 15th November 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-11-07T08:37:47.14

US: Russia and China stealing online from US companies

China and Russia are the most active perpetrators of economic cyber-espionage against US companies, a US intelligence report says. The report specifically cited Chinese "actors" and Russian intelligence as the top culprits. Robert Bryant, US national counter-intelligence executive, told reporters that online spying was "a quiet menace to our economy". The report, titled Foreign Spies Stealing US Economic Secrets in Cyberspace, claims both private firms and cybersecurity experts have reported an "onslaught" of computer network intrusions originating from China. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Apple, With 4 Percent of Handset Market, Captures 52 Percent of Profits

Apple may have lost its crown as the top shipper of smartphones this past quarter, but it made more than half of the mobile industry's operating profits during that period, according to a new research note from Canaccord Genuity. Samsung shipped the most smartphones in the third quarter with margins of 17 percent; Apple reported 35 percent margins whilst HTC and Research in Motion each had less than 10 percent. Sony Ericsson struggled to scratch out 1 percent. www.pcmag.com

Nokia unveils Lumia Windows phones

Nokia claimed a 'new dawn' as it unveiled its first handsets to use Microsoft’s Windows Phone, as well as four other devices aimed at emerging markets. Speaking at Nokia World in London, CEO Stephen Elop said his company’s devices were “the first real Windows Phones”, dismissing rival efforts by firms such as Samsung and HTC. He called the Lumia 710 and 800 models “a new dawn for Nokia” but acknowledged that the 147-year-old Finnish company had to deliver more if it was to have any realistic hope of regaining its previous dominance. http://www.independent.ie

Web Snippets 22nd March

CharlesDouthwaite — 2011-03-13T10:22:51.137

Home wi-fi '30% slower' than fixed broadband
People relying on home wi-fi are getting significantly slower speeds than from their fixed broadband connection, research suggests. The study ran one million tests over 14,000 wi-fi connections in the UK, US, Spain and Italy. On average, the results showed a 30% drop-off compared to the speed coming into the home. However, the research also suggests that users tolerate slower speeds in exchange for the freedom wi-fi offers. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Google warns users of coming tsunamis
Google broke with its minimalist homepage design policy to warn users in Pacific countries of coming tsunamis from the massive earthquake that shook Japan. The web giant normally keeps a strict limit on the number of words on its iconic homepage, but put a message beneath the search box warning users of a "Tsunami Alert for New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, and others.” Google occasionally uses its homepage to promote its own products or link to charity appeals, but this is the first known time it has issued its a safety alert on the world's most visited web page. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Six Facebookers in Forbes' billionaires club
Facebook executives are laughing all the way to the bank, according to the latest Forbes rich list, which sees six Facebook grandees check into the billionaires' club. Of the six founders and investors, four are new to the list. Founder Mark Zuckerberg remains on top of the Facebook financiers with an estimated worth of $13.5 billion - not bad compensation for the disappointment of managing only 52nd position on Billionaires Row. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 4th October 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-09-26T08:28:06.677

Facebook dismisses rumours of charging plans
Facebook has denied claims that it has plans to charge people to use the site, despite the increasing popularity of two groups which believe the opposite. The rumour about Facebook charging for its content appears to have come from a hoax email circulated on the site. Both groups collectively have nearly 200,000 members and believe that the site will soon begin charging somewhere in the region of £14.99 for use of the social network. However, Facebook flat out deny the claims. A spokesman for the company said: “We have no plans to charge users for Facebook's basic services. Facebook is a free service for its 350 million users.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Google+ opens to the public
Google+ has fully opened to the public, meaning anyone can now join the newest social network. Up until now, people have required an invitation from existing users or Google employees to join the social network hoping to take on Facebook. Launched in late June, the site has already surpassed 25 million members and is expected to reach 100 million members by the end of 2011. In 2004, it took Facebook 10 months to reach 1 million users. Google+ is by far the most successful social product Google has yet produced in an attempt to rival Facebook’s unparalleled popularity and success. http://www.independent.ie

One-third of Americans prefer texts to voice call
According to a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 31% of American adults prefer text messages to phone calls. An additional 14% said the contact method they prefer depends on the situation. To put this in perspective, most Americans (but just barely: 53%) still generally prefer to get voice calls rather than text messages. http://www.cnn.com

Web Snippets 1st May 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-04-23T07:23:25.41

YouTube loses court battle over music clips
YouTube could face a huge bill for royalties after it lost a court battle in Germany over music videos. A court in Hamburg ruled that YouTube is responsible for the content that users post to the video sharing site. It wants the video site to install filters that spot when users try to post music clips whose rights are held by royalty collection group, Gema. The German industry group said in court that YouTube had not done enough to stop copyrighted clips being posted. If YouTube is forced to pay royalties for all the clips used on the site it will face a huge bill. news.bbc.co.uk

Apple iPhone 5 'to be cased in Liquidmetal'
The iPhone 5, likely to be released later this year, is expected to be cased in a ‘metallic glass’, otherwise known as Liquidmetal, says a Korean news outlet citing ‘industry sources’. The case is expected to be 20 times stronger than the current encasement. According to The Register, ‘metallic glass is a metal alloy, but one with the disordered structure of glass’ www.telegraph.co.uk

Norwich sorry for setting police on fan who tweeted new kit
Norwich City football club has been forced to apologise over the heavy-handed way it dealt with a teenage fan who had posted pictures of a new kit on Twitter ahead of its official launch. In a marketing own goal, the club called in the police after 17-year-old die-hard fan and season ticket holder Chris Brown accessed images and posted links online. After a Twitter storm derided the decision to tackle the fan as a criminal, the club has backed down and said the police will take no further action. www.pcpro.co.uk

Web Snippets 20th Sept 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-09-12T11:13:26.233

Apple wins case over Samsung tablet in German court
Samsung can’t sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany because it is too like Apple’s iPad2, a Dusseldorf court has ruled. The company may not be able to sell the tablet in any other European Union country, although its subsidiaries maybe allowed to do so. Samsung is planning to appeal the decision. Two months ago, Apple was granted a preliminary injunction preventing Samsung from selling the tablet in most EU countries. http://www.independent.ie

Microsoft online services hit by major failure
Millions of Microsoft users were recently left unable to access some online services because of a major service failure. Hotmail, Office 365 and Skydrive were among the services affected. Microsoft said the problem appeared to be related to the internet's DNS address system. Such a major problem is likely to raise questions about the reliability of cloud computing versus local storage. Especially embarrassing is the temporary loss of Office 365, the company's alternative to Google's suite of online apps. The service also went offline briefly in mid-August. http://news.bbc.co.uk

£300m cable will save traders milliseconds
In the high-speed world of automated financial trading, milliseconds matter. So much so, in fact, that a saving of just six milliseconds in transmission time is all that is required to justify the laying of the first transatlantic communications cable for 10 years at a cost of more than £300M. The cable laying is a viable proposition because Hibernia Atlantic, the company behind it, is planning to sell a special superfast bandwidth that will have hyper-competitive trading firms and banks in the City of London and New York queuing to use it. In fact it is predicted they will pay up to 50 times as much as they do now. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Web Snippets 8th November 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-11-02T12:58:36.67

Google TV Update
The much-anticipated Google TV update has been released. Sony Internet TV devices are first in line followed by Logitech Revue units shortly thereafter. http://techcrunch.com

If I Were Starting Facebook Today, I'd Stay in Boston
In a recent interview, Facebook founder Zuckerberg explained that if he started Facebook again he would stay in Boston. “There’s a culture out here (in Silicon Valley) where people don’t commit to doing things, I feel like a lot of companies built outside of Silicon Valley seem to be focused on longer-term. You don’t have to move out here to do this”. www.pcmag.com

Samsung Is World’s Leading Smartphone Maker
Samsung Electronics has overtaken Apple as the world’s leading smartphone maker, according to sales figures for the July-September period. Samsung’s sales have skyrocketed since the company entered the smartphone market last year thanks to a sleek production system that quickly brings new products to market. Shipments of smartphones increased 44% from the previous quarter to 27.8 million units, nearly four times the amount shipped a year ago. Profits from Samsung’s telecoms division more than doubled from a year ago to $2.2 billion and accounted for around 60% of Samsung’s total profit. http://localizedusa.com

iPhone battery woes linked to iOS 5 update
Some users of the iPhone 4 have noticed poor battery performance since they upgraded to iOS 5, the latest version of the operating system that runs Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Oliver Haslam, of iDownloadblog, has suggested that the problem is related to the location settings of the iPhone claiming a bug in iOS 5 is causing the device to continually check the time zone it is in. www.telegraph.co.uk

Snippets 30th March

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:36:00.673

Facebook Tops Google In Web Site Visits
Facebook's heavily criticized redesigns and privacy feature changes apparently have done nothing to hurt the social networking site's growth which, according to Web metrics firm HitWise, have helped Facebook reach what it called "an important milestone" for the week of March 13, when the social networking site became the most visited Web site in the U.S., edging out Google (NSDQ:GOOG) for the week. http://www.crn.com

Your Next Facebook 'Friend' Could be a Federal Agent
An internal Justice Department document obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation reveals that U.S. law enforcement agents have been logging onto social networking sites in the name of crime fighting.
According to the 33-page presentation obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, federal agents can use social networking sites to gather valuable information from and about suspects. www.pcworld.com

Apple Files Mobile Social Networking Patent Request
A recently disclosed patent request suggests Apple may be working on a mobile social networking application. The patent request is leading to speculation that Apple wants to jump into the hot area of location-aware mobile applications, which offer data and services based on where users are. Twitter now allows its users to specify a geographic location for their "tweets" with Facebook reportedly working on a location feature for its social networking site as well. www.itworld.com

Web Snippets 27th Sept 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-09-19T16:44:12.397

Artificial blood vessels created on a 3D printer
Artificial blood vessels made on a 3D printer may soon be used for transplants of lab-created organs. Until now, the stumbling block in tissue engineering has been supplying artificial tissue with nutrients that have to arrive via capillary vessels. A team at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany has solved that problem using 3D printing and a technique called multiphoton polymerisation. 3D printing technology has been increasingly used in numerous industries, ranging from creating clothes, architectural models and even chocolate treats. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Troll sentenced to 18 weeks over heartless Facebook posts
A judge has issued a stark message to internet trolls by sending one to prison for 18 weeks for mocking the deaths of teenagers. Sean Duffy was sentenced after targeting Facebook tribute pages of various teenagers, but was singled out for his offensive remarks and postings about the death of 15-year-old Natasha MacBryde, who was killed when hit by a train. Duffy, who the court heard suffers from Asperger's syndrome, pleaded guilty to two counts of “sending malicious communications” to a Facebook tribute account set up by the girl's brother shortly after MacBryde's apparent suicide. http://www.pcpro.co.uk

Microsoft unveils Windows 8 at conference
Microsoft has given an extensive preview of the forthcoming release of Windows. The new operating system borrows some features from the increasingly popular Windows Phone operating system, using tiles and apps on an interface that is designed for both conventional PCs as well as tablets. It says a new interface, called “Metro” uses a simpler approach that is more appropriate for touchscreens, as well as working with a mouse and keyboard. The preview has been well received by commentators. http://www.independent.ie

Web Snippets 29th November 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-11-21T08:24:59.177

Amazon Kindles 'damaged by airport scanners'
Travellers have been warned that their holiday reading plans could be disrupted by airport security measures, following reports that Amazon’s Kindle e-reader can be damaged by X-ray scanners. Multiple complaints from users that their Kindle was ruined by a baggage check prompted claims that radiation permanently affected the device's electronic ink display. According to users, the firm has replaced Kindles that stopped working after passing through an airport scanner. www.telegraph.co.uk

Facebook publishes 25 worst web passwords
'PASSWORD' has topped a list of the 25 worst web passwords people commonly use to login into sites, leaving them more vulnerable to hackers. The second most common password is ‘123456’. Other passwords to make the list, generated by SplashData, an American password management data application, include: ‘abc123’, ‘iloveyou’ and ‘monkey’. Last month Facebook admitted that hackers are breaking into hundreds of thousands of Facebook accounts every day. Out of more than a billion logins to the website every 24 hours, 600,000 are impostors attempting to access users’ messages, photos and other personal information Facebook said. www.independent.ie

Google unveils Android-based online music store
Google has launched an online music store in the US, which will allow devices running its Android software to buy, store and stream MP3 files. EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and 23 independent labels are providing content to create a library of 13 million songs. The service poses a challenge to Apple's dominance of the sector. However, a new study by the research firm Gartner suggests that more than half of all smartphones sold between July and September ran Android. That accounts for more than 60 million devices. By comparison Apple's handsets accounted for 15% of the market over the same period. http://news.bbc.co.uk

Snippets 25th May

charlesdouthwaite — 2010-09-13T17:29:21.8

Smartphones Are the Latest Patent Battleground

The patent wars are raging in the mobile device market which could result in rising costs for handset makers and consumers. So far this year, Apple and HTC - two of the most innovative smartphone makers, have become embroiled in more patent-related litigation than in all of 2007, and are on track to beat their own 2008 and 2009 records, according to Bloomberg data. www.businessweek.com

Bitter aftertaste for Limewire

A federal court judge has likely dealt a death blow to LimeWire, one of the most popular and oldest file-sharing systems. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood granted summary judgment in favour of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), ruling Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton committed copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and engaged in unfair competition. Limewire’s lawyer referred to the decision as "fairly fatal". Gorton, Lime Wire, and Lime Group may become responsible for damages of $450 million. http://news.cnet.com

Google wi-fi data collection blunder

Google has admitted wrongly collected information sent over unencrypted wi-fi networks. The issue came to light after German authorities asked to audit data the company's Street View cars gathered for Google maps. The admission will increase concerns about potential privacy breaches as the data collected could include parts of an email, text, photograph or even the website someone may be viewing. This incident also highlights just how publicly accessible, open, non-password protected Wi-Fi networks are. http://news.bbs.co.uk

Web Snippets 27th March 2012

charlesdouthwaite — 2012-03-19T11:33:51.243

Black market gangs hijack new IPad launch
Black marketeers hijacked the launch of Apple’s new iPad in London, with hundreds of devices changing hands for inflated profits outside official stores. People queued through the night outside the computer giant’s two London stores to be the first to get their hands on the third generation of the best-selling tablet. But an Evening Standard investigation saw a lucrative black market open up, with dozens of people being paid by 'agents' to join the queue and grab iPads to sell on. A Met Office spokesman confirmed: 'There is no criminal offence in this'. The new iPads are expected to be re-sold for double or treble their original price in countries where they have yet to go on sale. www.dailymail.co.uk

Encyclopaedia Britannica stops print edition
ENCYCLOPAEDIA Britannica is to stop publishing its print edition after more than 200 years. The publisher is ditching its weighty tomes to concentrate on an internet version, after recognising that knowledge was changing so quickly that they were becoming obsolete as soon as they were issued. Its handsomely-presented volumes have been in print since they were first published in Edinburgh in 1768. www.independent.ie

One in ten ‘never delete email’
A new study claims Britons are ‘digital hoarders’ who use their email inboxes to record their lives. Larger inboxes and free email accounts mean that pressure to delete email has diminished rapidly in recent years. Microsoft estimates that the average inbox will receive 14,600 emails in 2012. The survey, conducted on behalf of Microsoft’s Hotmail, found that 38 per cent of users said their inbox was a practical means of maintaining a digital record. One in ten said they never deleted an email. www.telegraph.co.uk

Snippets 8th February 2011

charlesdouthwaite — 2011-01-31T08:40:12.353

UK police arrest WikiLeaks backers for Web attacks
British police arrested five young men last week as they and U.S. authorities conducted searches as part of a probe into Internet activists who carried out cyber attacks against groups they viewed as enemies of the WikiLeaks website. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that agents executed more than 40 search warrants as part of its investigation and that the attacks were facilitated by software the group made available for free on the Internet. www.reuters.com

Barclaycard to offer payment by mobile phones.
Mobile phones will soon have the capability of a credit card thanks to a partnership between Barclaycard and Everything Everywhere. The two companies are set to launch mobile devices that can also be used for contactless payments. The system will enable users to wave their handsets passed a reader to pay for goods in more than 40,000 shops. The technology and devices should be on sale by the summer of this year. www.itpro.co.uk

Advertising watchdog to sniff out ISP porkies
Communications providers must be clearer when advertising their broadband speeds, experts warned, following last week's announcement by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that it is to look into the accuracy of "up to" speeds and "unlimited" usage claims. According to reports, the ASA might insist that the speed advertised by ISPs is available to at least 10 per cent of users, or perhaps as many as 50 per cent of users. www.computing.co.uk

BBC iPlayer app finally coming to iPhone and iPad?
After more than a year of waiting, the BBC iPlayer apps will be available from the Apple App Store by the end of February. http://www.t3.com