March 5th, 2010 by Richard Morgan

Daily News 05/03

BBC – YouTube adds video captions for deaf

YouTube is making the tens of millions of videos it hosts more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing by putting automatic captions on them.

IT PRO – Mobile surfing now more popular than reading

Europeans spend more time accessing the internet from their mobile phones while they’re out and about than reading newspapers or magazines.

The Guardian – Plans to fight cyberwar are a ‘recipe for disaster’

Senior security experts have criticised the west’s approach to online threats, suggesting that not enough is being done to stem the growing tide of cyberattacks.

The Register – Google says desktop PC is three years from ‘irrelevance’

Google’s European sales chief says that desktop PCs will be “irrelevant” in three years. This week, as reported by Silicon Republic, Google Europe boss John Herlihy told a “baffled” conference audience that very soon the smartphone will completely eclipse the desktop. “In three years time, desktops will be irrelevant,” he said. “In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs.”

ComputerWorldUK – BBC order pulls plug on iPhone iPlayer app

A promising and potentially useful iPhone application that would have allowed users to browse, view and even download content from the BBC has been blocked by the corporation.

ComputerWorldUK – European IT managers have cloud aversion

Barely one in five of European IT managers think that cloud computing represents a game-changing change in methodology for enterprises, roughly the same proportion that believes that cloud computing is a fad.

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January 7th, 2010 by Lisa Francis

Daily News: 07 /01

Computing.co.uk – Bad winter could cost businesses £230m per day
The Forum of Private Business has warned that severe weather conditions could costs businesses £230m per day if they do not take steps to enable staff to work from home. The figure is based on one employee per company being off for one day and not working.

Silicon.com – Windows Azure users will have to pay from next month

Microsoft will start to charge developers to use its Windows Azure cloud computing platform from next month.

BBC – Bigger Amazon Kindle DX lays down gauntlet to rivals

As the e-reader market heats up, Amazon is trying to stay ahead of the competition with the international launch of its bigger Kindle DX.

Total Telecom – T-Mobile UK, 3 UK in talks to sell Google’s Nexus One
T-Mobile and 3 UK have confirmed they are in discussions to sell Google’s first own-branded Android smartphone, Nexus One, in the U.K.

The Guardian: Boris Johnson to launch London ‘Datastore’ with hundreds of sets of data
Fund of up to £200,000 will help developers to create innovative use of 200 datasets in new free data initiative

Computerworld UK – Year-end glitch blocked email across world

Email sent in the first few hours of 2010 may not have reached its recipient thanks to an embarrassing “2010″ bug buried in the open source SpamAssassin anti-spam engine used by many Internet Service Providers.

Computer Weekly – 2009 sets new records for malware, says Panda Security

PandaLabs, the anti-malware laboratory of Panda Security identified record 25m new strains of malware in 2009. This is 10m more than the company has recorded in the past 20 years and includes a large number of new examples of banker Trojans, making up 66 per cent of the total

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January 6th, 2010 by Lisa Francis

Daily News: 06/01

Computing.co.uk – Most SMEs will use cloud computing in 2010
More than half of small and medium sized enterprises are planning to use cloud computing technology this year, according to new research published by internet service provider Easynet Connect.

BBC – 3D TV, e-readers and tablet PCs to debut at CES show

Connectivity, 3D, e-readers and tablet computers are the trends to watch at the world’s biggest technology conference in Las Vega this week.

The Register – Sony to co-launch 3D TV channel?
Sony may partner with two leading video entertainment giants to launch a dedicated 3D TV channel, it has emerged, just hours after sports broadcaster ESPN confirmed plans for its own 3D telly service.

Computerworld UK – Good news on IT jobs
There has been a significant increase in the demand for IT staff, according to an extensive survey of recruitment firms.

The Financial Times – Cybersitter sues China for piracy

A small California company that was one of the first to bring an internet porn filter to market sued the government of China and several major computer companies on Tuesday, accusing them of misappropriating its censorship program for use in the controversial “Green Dam” project.

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December 18th, 2009 by Lisa Francis

Daily News: 18/12

BBC – Iraq insurgents ‘hack into video feeds from US drones’
Insurgents in Iraq have hacked into live video feeds from unmanned American drone aircraft, US media reports say.

BBC – YouTube video leads to Hollywood contract
A producer from Uruguay who uploaded a short film to YouTube in November 2009 has been offered a $30m (£18.6m) contract to make a Hollywood film.

Guardian – Privacy groups file FTC complaint against Facebook

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Center for Digital Democracy and eight other organisations have filed a complaint to America’s Federal Trade Commission about the changes Facebook has made to its privacy settings.

CBR – CERN looks to Platform for cloud infrastructure

Platform Computing has announced that CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, is using its Platform LSF grid infrastructure to power what is said to be the world’s largest cloud computing environment for scientific collaboration. CERN is using Platform’s private cloud management and HPC cloud-enabling software services, Platform ISF and Platform ISF Adaptive Cluster, to enable more powerful computing performance and a better IT infrastructure to 10,000 researchers from 85 countries.

The Daily Telegraph – Blippy: the social network based on credit card transactions

Blippy, a new social network which allows people to share information about your credit card purchases with friends or strangers is set to launch in 2010. Created by web entrepreneur, Philip Kaplan, the site is currently in beta (accessibly only by invitation) and plans on using credit card transactions to help people locate each other.

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September 29th, 2009 by Matthew Watson

Daily News 29/09

Computer World UK – Google wants to make the web faster. Good news for the enterprise?
Raise your hand if you’re nostalgic for the days of waiting for web pages to load. That’s right, the days of going to make coffee while you wait for Netscape to load pictures of your five-year old niece’s birthday party on Geocities. We’ve come a long way since the “World Wide Wait” and thankfully today we take for granted instant access to high bandwidth services such as video and browser-based SaaS.

Computing – Too many tools, not enough communication
Despite advances in technology, organisations find that a proliferation of communications tools is thwarting collaboration and slowing down their decision-making process, according to a survey sponsored by mobile network operator Orange. Orange surveyed more than 600 CIOs from multinational corporations across a number of industries in Europe. Nearly half – 45 per cent – of respondents said multiple communication channels cause severe delays in the response time from colleagues which can negatively impact business processes and productivity.

CBR – Technology democracy hits the workplace
Employees are demanding a greater degree of freedom to choose the IT applications and devices the use in the workplace – but are finding that enterprises are struggling to adapt to revolution.
The findings appeared in a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, which found that users are adopting for work use the applications and devices that they use in their personal lives.

IT PRO – One in five homes broadband-connected by 2010
The number of households with broadband continues to grow, with one in five households worldwide predicted to have a fixed broadband connection by the end of 2009. This would mean that 422 million households have a fixed broadband connection in 2009, according to Gartner, up from 282 million in 2008.

Total Telecom – Twitter users twice as receptive to advertising
People who use Twitter appear to be much more open to advertising than those who use other social media, a tendency that might pay off for investors in the micro-blogging service. The finding, published in a report by Los Angeles-based research group Interpret LLC, provides a shot in the arm for the wildly popular micro-blogging service, which has so far been unable to make money.

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September 18th, 2009 by Matthew Watson

Daily News 18/09

Computer Weekly – More businesses block social networking sites
More businesses are blocking social networking sites for security reasons than three years ago, an IDC security conference in London has heard. There has been a significant increase in the number of businesses taking a more stringent view on access to sites like Facebook, said Eldar Tuvey, chief executive of web security firm ScanSafe.

BBC News – Silicon Valley ’seeing revival’
Silicon Valley is stirring back to life, following a bruising economic downturn, according to industry insiders and start-up entrepreneurs. The view seems to underscore Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s belief that the US recession has ended.

Silicon.com – White House looks to the cloud for IT cost-cutting
The Obama administration on Tuesday announced a long-term cloud-computing policy intended to cut costs on infrastructure and reduce the environmental impact of US government computing systems.

IT PRO – UK shines when it comes to IT competitiveness
In the wake of economic turmoil, the UK ranks sixth in the world in IT competitiveness, according to study released by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The study, now in its third year, surveys the IT industry environments of 66 economies to discover the extent to which they enable IT sector competitiveness. The UK scored a 70.2 out of a possible 100 in the index, a figure that pushed the country down three places from 2008.

New Scientist – Super-dense data stores cool down
Engineers in Korea have created a material that could allow super-dense “millipede”-style data storage systems to work at room temperature. The discovery brings the technology closer to commercial reality – good news for people struggling with over-full digital memories.

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August 18th, 2009 by Matthew Watson

Hot off the press 18/8

Total Telecom – BSkyB tells BBC of concerns over Project Canvas consultation
Satellite broadcaster concerned about timeframe, lack of regulator for on-demand content service. British Sky Broadcasting PLC has written to the British Broadcasting Corp. expressing concern over a consultation process for a proposed new online on-demand service, the BBC reports on its Web site Monday.

ITVT – BBC Unveils its Red-Button Interactive TV Schedule for the Coming Weeks
The BBC announced Friday the line-up of content that will be available through its red-button interactive TV service for the next two weeks (and beyond).

IT PRO -Brits are a nation of mobile addicts
Three-quarters of British people have addictive tendencies when it comes to technology, putting gadgets and gizmos ahead of many other things in their lives.

FT.com – IT outsourcers face cloud computing challenge
Cloud computing is threatening the business model of the Indian IT outsourcing industry as the global recession pushes business to cut costs, according to the chief executive of Infosys. But Kris Gopalakrishnan, one of the leading figures in the Indian IT industry, also said he saw opportunities to expand Infosys’s customer base as cloud computing would allow it to tap into mid-sized companies.

Computing – Tesco global IT services arm overhauls security
Tesco’s Bangalore-based Hindustan Service Centre (HSC), which hosts and protects much of the retailer’s corporate data, is implementing a managed security solution from Fortinet. Tesco HSC provides offshore IT services for the firm’s worldwide operations and provides business information services to more than 3,200 Tesco stores in 12 countries. “The complexity of managing these multiple point products created a strain on IT resources and a risk to the security of our worldwide corporate data

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July 16th, 2009 by Matthew Watson

Hot off the press 16/7

BBC News – Windows 7 flies off virtual shelf Amazon has said that sales of Windows 7 in the first eight hours it was available outstripped those of Windows Vista’s entire 17 week pre-order period.

Silicon.com – Facebook plots the way ahead as users hit 250 million Facebook has officially grown to 250 million active users across the world, according to a post on the company blog by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Computer Weekly – Cybercriminals adopt business strategies Online criminals are using state of the art business strategies to commit cybercrimes, says network equipment maker Cisco. The Cisco midyear security report published yesterday showed that internet criminals are using software as a service (SaaS), collaborative partnerships, and other enterprise strategies to do improve profitability. 

Financial Times – Cyber-attack investigation has leads but no suspects
The probe of the cyber-attacks on US and South Korean websites last week has turned up a number of suspected command computers, including a possible “master” server in the UK.

Computing – Does Azure have the allure to drive enterprises into the cloud?
Enterprise buyers continue to harbour doubts about putting business-critical applications in the cloud, their chief concerns being security and availability. But with industry heavyweight Microsoft recently unveiling its massively scalable cloud computing platform, Azure, IT leaders may take a closer look at cloud services.

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July 15th, 2009 by Matthew Watson

Hot off the press 15/7

Silicon.com – Virtualisation and cloud: The new weapons in the outsourcing arms race
As IT outsourcing becomes a top priority for many cash-strapped organisations, giant suppliers are reaping the benefits, potentially forcing smaller providers to offer services such as cloud and virtualisation in order to survive.

ITVT – ClipSync Launches Social TV Application for Facebook
San Francisco-based social TV company, ClipSync, contacted [itvt] Monday to let us know that it has launched an application called ClipSync Viewing Parties for Facebook, which it claims is the first Facebook application to combine social networking with social TV, allowing users to host, invite and gather Facebook friends into live viewing parties.

Total Telecom – Telco gear firms see better Q2
Taking the pulse: European telecom equipment vendors and mobile phone manufacturers are expected to report relatively minor improvements in operating performance in the second quarter compared with a very challenging first quarter, overshadowed by continuing weak end-user demand and uncertainty about the timing of a recovery.

Computer Weekly – Apple App Store won’t be caught any time soon
Apple’s online store for applications for iPhones, has sold 1.5 billion applications in its first year. The App Store has more than 65,000 applications created by more than 100,000 developers.

Computer Weekly – Dell cloud services could cut SMEs IT costs by 30 per cent
Dell UK has launched three cloud-based services that it says could help small and medium enterprises cut their IT costs by 30 per cent.

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