November 2008 News
North Wales To Get Super-Fast Broadband
A £30million project that will give North Wales access to super-fast broadband has been given the green light. Called Fiberspeed, the project is being funded both privately ... More »
Online Retailers Get Ready For Cyber Monday
Despite the heavy duty deals for online companies during "Cyber Monday", the sales are expected to be fairly flat after years of strong growth. Things like offering free... More »
Canon Says Digital Camera Market May Shrink In '09
The global digital camera market may contract next year, the president of industry leader Canon Inc warned, as sluggish economic conditions dampen consumer demand. Tsuneji Uchida ... More »
Nokia's Symbian Acquisition Reportedly On Schedule
Nokia this week at a meeting in London said its acquisition of Symbian, the company with the eponymous mobile operating system, is on track. That means that Nokia, the world's la... More »
U.S. Army Goes Bot Hunting
Most people whose computers have been turned into bots and linked to a botnet have no idea that their machines have been commandeered by cybercriminals. Their PCs send spam, stea... More »
Panasonic, Sanyo Far Apart On Acquisition Price
Panasonic's effort to acquire Sanyo Electric broke off abruptly this week with the two sides far apart in the prices they were offering for a deal. If combined, a Panasonic-Sanyo ... More »
Microsoft Warns Of Attack Exploiting Windows Vulnerability
Microsoft is warning users of a malicious Internet worm after detecting a wave of attacks exploiting a recent critical Windows security vulnerability. The worm has the potential ... More »
Nokia Starts Shipping First Touch-Screen Phone
Nokia has started deliveries of its first touch-screen phone, the 5800, the mobile phone maker's answer to Apple Inc's iPhone. The company said last month the model will cost $360... More »
Chipmakers Squeezed as Downturn Bites Harder
Fresh signs of a downturn in global chip demand emerged on Friday, as STMicroelectronics cut its fourth-quarter outlook while industry sources said two leading Taiwan companies are... More »
UK Bans Apple 3G IPhone Advertisement
The U.K.'s advertising regulator banned a video advertisement for Apple's 3G iPhone, saying Wednesday that the ad exaggerates the phone's speed and is misleading. The Advertising ... More »
Jadu Brings PHP And .NET Closer Together
Content management firm Jadu has released a new tool which could bring together the fiercely opposing spheres of PHP and Microsoft's .NET, bridging developer skills gaps and loweri... More »
Seagate Fixes Bug In Barracuda Drives
Seagate has fixed a bug in its Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB hard drive which caused applications to hang intermittently. "Some Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB hard drives may show ... More »
Lycos Europe Outlines Liquidation Plans
Lycos Europe has outlined its future business plans to shareholders in the face of disappointing interest from prospective buyers. The firm has carried out extensive research int... More »
Retailers Offered Flexible e-Payment Solution
Smart Technology Solutions (STS) has unveiled what it claims is the first payment system to support all payments standards with either a retailer's electronic point of sale system ... More »
End Of The Road For 'Rip And Replace' IT
The wasteful 'rip and replace' culture adopted by many IT support departments will be wiped out in 2009 as businesses focus on making better use of the systems they already have, a... More »
Woman Cleared Of MySpace Bullying
An American woman, accused of driving a teenage girl to suicide by bullying her on MySpace, has been cleared of one of the most serious charges against her. Lori Drew, 49, was fou... More »
Yahoo! Loses Another Boss
Yahoo!'s European managing director Toby Coppel is joining the exodus from the firm. Coppel was previously chief strategy officer for the ailing internet firm. Rich Riley is repl... More »
UK Media Set For Thousands More Job Cuts-Analysts
British media companies could cut tens of thousands more jobs in the coming years as the economic downturn hits an industry already ravaged by the Internet revolution. British new... More »
UK Prosecutors Investigate BT Over Online Ad System
British prosecutors are investigating whether incumbent operator BT illegally tested an online advertising system without users' consent. The inquiry focuses on Webwise, a system ... More »
VAT Reduction To Cost IT 115m
Chancellor Alistair Darling's 2.5 percentage point temporary cut in VAT will cost businesses £115m in terms of the IT services costs involved in changing accounting systems, ... More »
Whittard Of Chelsea Brews Web Site Revamp
Tea and coffee retailer Whittard of Chelsea has relaunched its web site to address customers' needs for a multichannel online experience. The new web site aims to enhance shopping... More »
Estonian ISP Cuts Off Control Servers For Srizbi Botnet
An Estonian ISP that temporarily hosted the command-and-control servers for the Srizbi botnet, responsible for a large portion of the world's spam, has cut off those servers, accor... More »
Nokia To Pull Out Of Japan Market
Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, plans to stop making phones for the Japan market, one of the largest in the world. The Finnish phone maker announced Thursday that it ... More »
Guyana To Close Net Cafes That Offer Cheap Calls
The South American country of Guyana plans to close hundreds of Internet cafes that it accuses of bypassing the telephone company system to offer cheap international calls. The Re... More »
AVG Anti-Virus Free 8.0.176
AVG continues to be one of the most popular free antivirus programs available on the internet and it maintains this position with a combination of effective protection and an easy ... More »
European Data Sharing System To Help Police Track Weapons
European law enforcement groups are setting up a data sharing system to improve the identification and tracking of organised criminals and weapons. The Odyssey system will allow s... More »
Cellcrypt Extends Voice Call Security To Windows Mobile
UK firm Cellcrypt has extended its mobile encryption tool to offer secure calls on Windows Mobile as well as Nokia handsets. Available immediately, Cellcrypt Mobile v4.0 uses encr... More »
Europe Adopts New Cyber Crime Agenda
The European Union has adopted the European Commission's strategy on cyber crime, and called for better co-operation between businesses and the police. Over the next five years th... More »
France Mandates Nationwide Broadband For All
France will shortly call on telecoms operators to offer broadband services across all its territory for a maximum of 35 euros ($45.15) a month, a government minister said on Thursd... More »
EU Caps Prices On Roaming Texts, Data Downloads
European Union governments agreed on Thursday to cap prices of roamed mobile phone texts and data downloading from July 2009, EU president France said. "It shows that Europe ... More »
Symantec Launches Norton Antivirus 'Gaming Edition'
Symantec on Tuesday announced the release of Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition. Designed for online gamers it maintains full-scale antivirus and antispyware protection without i... More »
London 2012 Games Makes Key IT Appointment
Michèle Hyron has been appointed as chief integrator for the technology supporting the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Hyron is expected to contribute with her ex... More »
ICO Launches New Privacy Report
Data privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) today published a new report designed to give firms advice on how to design privacy into their information systems... More »
Samsung Unveils BizBee Business Mobile Brand
Samsung has launched a new business smart phone brand dubbed BizBee. The new range is aimed squarely at the busy executive who is out and about and needs a smartphone with all th... More »
Lenovo Launches Netbook
Laptop giant Lenovo today launched the new IdeaPad S10e netbook, a 10.1in mini laptop with LED backlit display weighing less than 1.2kg. The S10e is designed as a lightweight mobil... More »
LinkedIn Redesigns Search
Professional social networking site LinkedIn has launched a new search platform designed to give firms an easier way to find potential new recruits as well as enabling users to loc... More »
Apple Prepares To Offer Holiday Discounts
Apple is will be cutting prices on selected hardware by as much as 15 per cent this holiday season. Apple resellers are already advertising price cuts of up to $100 on MacBooks, pr... More »
NHS Chooses Optenet For Content Security
NHS organisations in south west Yorkshire have invested in a web gateway security appliance from Optenet to protect the 11,000-plus users on their books and ease the management of ... More »
Banks To Cut Back On IT Spending
The recent £50bn liquidity injection provided by the government to banks will trigger a period of limited IT support investment across the sector until the second quarter of ... More »
First ID Cards Are Dealt Out
All foreign nationals from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who successfully apply for an extension to stay in the UK on the basis of marriage, civil partnership or as a st... More »
YouTube Videos Get Widescreen Treatment
YouTube has expanded the viewable width of all videos appearing on the site, creating an image that viewers will likely associate more with a movie theater screen or high-definitio... More »
Imeem Gets Into Mobile Ads With Android Updates
Social music service Imeem launched a mobile-advertising platform on Monday that enables advertisers to target consumers through "Imeem for Android," the company's Androi... More »
Google's U.S. Search Share Edges Upward
United States Internet users conducted 2 percent fewer searches in October 2008 than the year earlier, but used Google more often for those searches, according to data Nielsen Onli... More »
Security Firm: Google's Orkut Being Used To Spread Trojans
Someone is using Orkut to spread Trojan links in a message disguised as an official e-mail from the Google-owned social network, according to an alert from security firm Websense r... More »
New iPod Touch Faster Than iPhone 3G
Apple appears to have upped the processing speed of the iPod Touch in order to help it go after the portable-game market. Touch Arcade reports that the applications processor insid... More »
Samsung And InterDigital Settle Patent Spat
Samsung has settled its longstanding patent litigation with InterDigital for a rumoured $400-500 million. The company was accused of infringing on InterDigital’s patents on b... More »
Xerox Predicts Solid Growth In 2009
Xerox has delivered a positive message at its latest annual investor conference, bucking the trend of companies falling short of market expectations by at least meeting analyst pre... More »
Lenovo Taps SMS For Laptop Security
Lenovo is to offer the ability to lock down its ThinkPad laptops remotely by text message. The new Constant Secure Remote Disable feature will come with ThinkPad laptops from 2009,... More »
Fujitsu Siemens Offers Free Laptop Upgrades
Fujitsu Siemens is offering buyers the chance to get a free laptop upgrade every three years, if they purchase a Lifebook between now and April 2009. The promotion, called Lifebo... More »
Cisco Plans 4-Day Shutdown To Cut Costs
Cisco Systems Inc. will close most of its U.S. and Canadian offices for 4 days over the holidays as part of a plan to cut $1 billion in costs in the current fiscal year, the compan... More »
Facebook, Twitter In Talks But No Deal
Facebook, the fast-growing social network, offered to purchase micro-blogging service Twitter for 500 million dollars in stock but the talks broke down over price, AllThingsD.com r... More »
Online Fraud Trade Worth Billions Says Symantec
Computer security firm Symantec has put a price-tag on the size of the underground digital economy - and it's well over £4.5 billion. That's the total estimated value of all ... More »
Computing Awards For Excellence 2008
The best individuals, teams, departments, companies and projects in UK IT have been rewarded at the Oscars of the IT industry: the winners of the Computing Awards for Excellence 20... More »
IBM Dominates Green Supercomputer List
IBM produces the most powerful and energy efficient computers on the planet, according to the latest supercomputing Green500 list from Green500.org. The top 20 most efficient su... More »
UK Firms Offered Windows Vista Migration Training
IT staff can get up to speed on best practice for deploying Microsoft operating system, Binary Resource UK has introduced a training programme for companies planning a migration to... More »
Internet Attacks Expected To Hit A High Today
Research by security company PC Tools has revealed that today could be the worst day for web-based attacks on internet shoppers, as the festive shopping period begins to gear up. ... More »
U.S. Army Spending $50M On Videogames
The U.S. Army has announced plans to shell out $50 million over five years on a video game unit designed to help soldiers prepare for battle. In addition to the $50 million, the ... More »
PayPal Adds PIN-By-Phone Authentication
eBay's PayPal unit and VeriSign said Monday that the two companies have extended their partnership to allow two-factor authentication via mobile phones. Users now have a choice: ... More »
Opera Mini 4.2 Beta Now Surfing Google Android
Opera Mini 4.2 beta became on Monday the first third-party browser available for Google Android. Opera Mini for Android, which was previewed in April, includes most of the ... More »
Judge Awards $873M Fine For Spamming Facebook
A Canadian citizen was slapped with an $873 million fine Friday for sending approximately 4 million spam e-mail messages to Facebook users – the largest judgment ever handed ... More »
UK Leading European Technology Charge
The UK is leading the uptake of new technologies such as digital TV, broadband and mobile services, according to Ofcom's third International Communications Market Report. The repor... More »
Sun Microsystems To Lay Off 6,000
Sun Microsystems has added its name to the growing list of tech firms making major job cuts, announcing that 6,000 employees will go as part of a major restructuring of its softwar... More »
Surfers Getting Better At Online Protection
Internet users are getting better at protecting themselves, but are still not doing enough to keep PCs and identities secure when surfing, according to the fourth annual UK Interne... More »
Mozilla Launches Fashion Your Firefox Tool
Mozilla has introduced a new way for Firefox users to pick add-ons for the open source browser. Fashion Your Firefox is a tool designed to provide each user with a customised set o... More »
BNP Membership Details Leaked Online
An extensive membership list of the far-right British National Party (BNP) has been stolen and leaked online. The list contains 10,000-12,000 names, addresses, phone numbers, email... More »
Alarms Sounded Over Flash Drive Infections
The US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-Cert) is warning users and administrators to be on the lookout following the discovery of a malware outbreak being spread via USB keys. ... More »
IBM Plans To Develop Super Brainy Computer
IBM is pairing up with leading US universities to build a computer that emulates human brain capabilities. Big Blue and researchers from the likes of Stanford, Cornell and the Univ... More »
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Officially Arrives
It's official - the USB 3.0 specification has survived the murky world of development. Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF president and chairman, said: "SuperSpeed USB is the next advanc... More »
Samsung Unveils 256GB Solid State Drive
Samsung is upping the game in solid state hard drives again, with the launch of its first mass-produced 256GB SSD. The new 256GB SSD more than doubles the performance of Samsung's ... More »
Nokia To Start Own Mobile Network In Japan
Reports from Japan this weekend suggest that Nokia is about to take a leap into the unknown by starting its own mobile phone service there, offering both handsets and the monthly p... More »
Microsoft Yanks Fake Security Software
Microsoft said that the anti-malware tool it pushes to Windows users as part of Patch Tuesday removed fake security software from nearly a million PCs during nine days this month. ... More »
Getting To The Core Of Intel's New Core i7 CPUs
Intel's new "Bloomfield" quad-core Core i7 processors are the company's first to be based on its long-previewed "Nehalem" architecture. This is the first major ... More »
Apple Updates iPhone Software: Maps, Podcasts Enhanced
Apple unveiled early Friday a 2.2 software update for the iPhone, bringing new features such as Google Street View and over-the-air podcast downloads. The 246MB download is availab... More »
Psystar Offers Blu-ray Burner In Mac Systems
Mac clone-maker Psystar brought out an option for those users that want the ability to play and burn Blu-ray formatted disks. The Blu-ray option is available on its low-end Open an... More »
Acer Forecasts Strong Holiday Season
The global financial crisis hasn't dampened Acer's optimism about sales in the last three months of the year, which includes the all-important holiday season. The world's third-l... More »
Google's Lively Set To Die In December
Google launched Lively, its 3-D interactive chat environment, in July, hoping "to help people experience another dimension of the Web." That dimension turned out to be fl... More »
Readers Overwhelm EU's New Digital Library
Europe's heritage went digital on Thursday when the European Union launched an online library putting famous works such as Dante's "Divine Comedy" and Beethoven's 9th Sy... More »
Indian Space Agency Isro To Roll Out A Rival To Google Earth
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), which is based in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of the sub-continent, will roll-out a rival to Google Earth, the hugely popular onlin... More »
'No Concrete Plan' For Google Server Farm In Austria
Google has "no concrete plan" to build a new European server farm in the north of Austria, despite buying land there, the US Internet search engine giant said Saturday. ... More »
Pentagon Bans Computer Flash Drives
The Pentagon has banned, at least temporarily, the use of external computer flash drives because of a virus threat officials detected on Defense Department networks. As part of the... More »
Skills Drive Launched To Make IT Cool
A campaign to persuade more young people to enter the IT industry was launched today with a particular focus on getting more girls to consider a career in the sector. The BigAmbit... More »
UK Citizens Ready For Biometrics
Public and private sector organisations considering rolling out biometric-based authentication technologies for customers received a boost this week with the findings of the latest... More »
EU Launches Green Datacentre Code Of Conduct
The EU launched a new voluntary code of conduct for datacentre operators yesterday, designed to help them cut energy costs and curb the IT sector's burgeoning carbon footprint. Fir... More »
Stuff The Phone - Get GPS In Your SIM Card
If you're one of the poor and unfortunate tech-deniers of the world, then chances are you've not got GPS in your mobile phone. Or a mobile phone. But help is at hand from Sagem Or... More »
Nokia Heads To Hollywood
Like a glamorous starlet heading a across the pond to make it big in among the glittering lights of Tinsel Town, Nokia has decided to open a laboratory in Hollywood. Nokia will als... More »
Massive PC Slowdown Forecast For 2009
The current economic crisis has meant that many industries have slowed production down to a snail's pace, and the computer market is no exception. Economic forecaster... More »
World of Warcraft Expansion Breaks All-Time Record
The wintry new expansion to the world's most popular MMO is now the fastest selling PC game in history. Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to Blizzard's World of Warcraft... More »
Virgin's In-flight Wi-Fi Coming Monday
Virgin America's in-flight Wi-Fi service will launch on Monday for a beta test that is intended to last just one week before a planned commercial launch Dec. 1. The fledgling domes... More »
Google SearchWiki To Customize Search Results
In a move to deepen user engagement and enhance ad revenue potential, Google is opening up its search results to annotation, alteration, and public comment. Google on Thursday laun... More »
Google To Seek Pre-Installation Of Chrome On PCs
Google reportedly plans to convince computer makers to pre-install its Chrome Web browser on PCs, a move that would escalate the battle against market leader Internet Explorer from... More »
PayPoint Launches Online Cash Payment Service
A new cash-based online payments service launched today could provide e-retailers with a new market, while helping to reduce transactional risks for goods bought online from their... More »
UK Leading Worldwide Digital TV Race
The UK is streets ahead of the rest of the world in terms of digital television take-up, at the moment, 86% of UK homes have digital television, some 16% ahead of its nearest rival... More »
British PM Comments On NASA Hacker Gary McKinnon
British prime minister Gordon Brown spoke on Thursday (at least indirectly) about the future of Gary McKinnon, a 42-year-old UFO enthusiast accused of hacking into several U.S. mil... More »
Georgia Government To Privatize IT Services
Gov. Sonny Perdue Thursday announced the signing of two contracts worth $1.2 billion to consolidate and outsource the state government’s information technology operations. Th... More »
One Million UK Kids Make Illicit Online Purchases
Nearly one million UK children are using their parents' credit cards to shop online without their knowledge, says CPP. A survey of 8-16 year olds by the 'life assistance' company r... More »
IT Slowdown Hits Dell's Revenue, Net Profit
Dell's revenue and net income dropped in its third quarter as the company tries to cope with a global IT spending slowdown and less demand for its products. Revenue for the quar... More »
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Won't Ship Until 2009
Microsoft will release one more public beta of the browser software in the first quarter of 2009, according to a blog posting Wednesday by Dean Hachamovitch, Internet Explorer gene... More »
Yahoo Lands T-Mobile Search Deal
Yahoo has signed a deal to provide mobile search software for T-Mobile in the US. The two companies announced on Thursday that Yahoo will be licensing its oneSearch system for use ... More »
Yahoo Introduces "Glue" Visual Search
Yesterday, Yahoo introduced its Yahoo! Glue service to the United States. Glue works by aggregating items returned by a search into a single visual presentation. Searches may retur... More »
BlackBerry Storm Launching Today
Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the Blackberry, has released its first mobile phone with a touch screen, its answer to the popular Apple iPhone. The BlackBerry Storm launches Fr... More »
Iran Blocks Access to Over 5 Million Websites
"The enemies seek to assault our religious identity by exploiting the internet," Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi, an advisor to Iran's prosecutor general, was quoted by Kargozara... More »
PayPal Expands Service to Mexican Peso
The arm of San Jose-based ebay Inc. said Mexican buyers will be able pay for online purchases using their credit cards or bank accounts with pesos as currency. The peso is the firs... More »
BBC One, Two Going Live Online
BBC One and BBC Two are, as of the 27th, going to be available for streaming over the Internet at the same time as being broadcast via more traditional means. In the words of BBC V... More »
Web Host 1&1 Recycles Nuke Fuel Facility as Green Datacenter
A facility once destined for developing nuclear fuel is taking on a whole new life as a green datacenter. Web-host company 1&1 this week announced plans to build one of Europe... More »
Microsoft Grants XP Another Stay
Microsoft is planning to further extend the retail life of Windows XP. The company said that it will be adding another six months to the time in which vendors will be allowed to of... More »
Cell Phone Makers Go Green With Chargers
The companies have agreed to a common energy rating system that will enable customers to know which chargers are the most energy efficient. The new rating system will be star-based... More »
Hate The Way Gmail Looks? Now You Can Change It
Google just announced that it is finally offering themes to Gmail users. Gmail fans have been building unofficial extensions to spice up their inboxes for a while, but up til now t... More »
Netbooks Eat Into Microsoft Revenues
Netbooks may be little, but they seem to be causing big problems for Microsoft, which blames them for a drop in first-quarter earnings and decreased revenues, despite increased sal... More »
Microsoft to Offer Free Security
In a surprise move, Microsoft has announced it will offer a free anti-virus and security solution from the second half of next year. It will stop selling OneCare, its all-in-one se... More »
UK Firms Lead on Security Awareness Training
UK organisations are spending more money on security training and certification programmes than their US, Canadian and Chinese counterparts, and are reaping the rewards through imp... More »
Internet Spending Growth At Its Lowest After Seven Years
Based on the report from comScore Inc., an internet research company, online spending rate has reached an all-time low since 2001, accounting a scanty one percent increase from th... More »
Computer Virus Forced London Hospitals to Shut Down
Following a virus attack, three hospitals in London were compelled to close down their computer systems. The hospitals include St Bartholomew's (Barts) in the City, the Royal Lond... More »
Jerry Yang Quits As Yahoo! CEO
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has decided to step down from his post after a series of pitfalls plaguing the company. Yahoo has been struggling to turn its business around after it refu... More »
Apple Features Antifraud Protection in Safari
Safari 3.2, the latest version of Apple's widely popular browser, now features an antiphishing tool which alerts users whenever they are redirected to phishing sites. Subsequently... More »
Ex-Con Goes Back to Jail for Breaching Prison Computer System
Francis Janosko, a former inmate at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, was sent back to jail over charges of breaking into a prison computer system. Janos... More »
Security, Virtualization Top IT Organization's Priority List
Based on the research conducted by The Society for Information Management, security, server virtualization, as well as business-related technologies are among the main priorities ... More »
Open Source Portable Firewall Launched
Yoggie, an Israeli security firm, is taking a different turn on its portale firewall platform, creating an open source firewall by which applications can be built by various devel... More »
UK Identities Sold Cheaply on the Net
With just £80, anyone can purchase financial identities on the internet from cyber scammers. The package include names, addresses, passport numbers and classified financial ... More »
Microsoft Features Online Store
Microsoft has recently made its online store available for U.S customers. The company already has online marketplaces in the United Kingdom, Germany and Korea. The store, origi... More »
Apple Introduces Internal University
Apple Inc. has expanded its reach in the educational market through launching "Apple University" program. The company has employed the expertise of Joel Podolny, the ... More »
Facebook Removes Italian Neo-Nazi Pages
Social networking site Facebook has opted to take out pages posted by neo-Nazis to stir up violence. Facebook's move came subsequent to allegations made by European politicians th... More »
Woman Loses $400,000 Over Internet Fraud
Janella Spears, a nurse from Oregon, was preyed on by Nigerian internet scammers costing her $400,000 (€314,000). The case is purported to be the biggest of its kind in the h... More »