Computing.co.uk – Firms urged to make key IT decisions
2010 will be a key year for enterprise IT investments, according to analysts speaking at the Gartner Symposium in Cannes this week. Gartner made a number of recommendations for boosting IT use and efficiencies, warning organisations that it is time to make key decisions about investments.

IT PRO – Sweden to get 100Mbps broadband by 2020
The Swedish government has ramped up its plans to provide high-speed internet to its citizens. Åsa Torstensson, the Swedish Minister for Communications, has announced a roll out 100Mbps broadband to 90 per cent of its population by 2020, with 40 per cent having it by 2015.
The Times – Is access to the internet now a human right?
Can checking your e-mail really be a human right? Carphone Warehouse hopes so. After the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, announced his plans to disconnect persistent internet pirates last week, the owner of Britain’s largest internet service provider, TalkTalk, threatened him with legal action under human rights legislation.

CRN – Twitter used as Swine Flu early warning system
Research scientists in the UK have been using Twitter to gather information about Swine Flu.  A trial using the micro-blogging service as an early warning system was conducted between May and August, and tracked more than one million tweets referring to Swine Flu, including ‘I have swine flu’ and ‘I have the flu’, or mentioning ‘H1N1′, ‘death’ or ‘outbreak’.

The Daily Telegraph – Facebook users spend three solid days a year on the site
Facebook users spend a full three days a year on the site, with addicts spending racking up than a whole working week, a new report shows. The average person who used Facebook in each of the last 12 months has spent 70 hours 26 minutes on the site during that period, according to a spokesman from Nielsen Online, the company which conducted the research. They also calculated that the most addicted users have spent over 125 hours on the site during the last year – the equivalent of more than a whole working week.

ComputerWorldUK – Race is on to fix global Internet security threat
A world-wide race is on to fix a major security flaw in the Internet. The problem lies in the SSL protocol, best known as the technology used for secure browsing on Web sites beginning with HTTPS, and lets attackers intercept secure SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) communications between computers using what’s known as a man-in-the-middle attack. Although the flaw can only be exploited under certain circumstances, it could be used to hack into servers in shared hosting environments, mail servers, databases, and many other secure applications, according to Chris Paget, a security researcher who has [studied] the issue.

ComputerWorldUK – Google Chrome gets version 4 beta
Google has upgraded the beta version of its Chrome browser with integrated bookmark synchronisation and boasting of a 30% speed improvement over the current production edition. Chrome 4.0.223.16, which runs only on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, includes the ability to sync bookmarked sites across multiple computers, said Idan Avraham and Anton Muhin, a pair of Google software engineers who announced the beta on a company blog.

Silicon.com – Labyrinthine IT systems lose MoD almost £300m

MOD latest victim of Govt IT blunder.  Failings in computer systems used by the Ministry of Defence led to the loss of almost £300m in payments and equipment, the National Audit Office (NAO) has found.

Silicon.com – Teachers get £5.6m to swot up on how to use tech

Teachers in England are to get help to learn more about technology thanks to a £5.6m training programme, funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.The programme is aimed at increasing teachers’ tech skills to help them make better use of ICT in their lessons, as well as improve the IT skills of their students.

Guardian Tech – Nationwide opts out of Phorm

Nationwide Building Society is the latest business to opt out of the controversial services offered by Aim-listed Phorm. Phorm provides targeted advertising based on an internet user’s browsing history, and has been attacked by campaigners concerned about the privacy aspects of tracking online behaviour.Nationwide said it had decided to opt out of the service to protect the privacy of its customers. In a letter sent in reply to a query about Phorm and posted on pro-privacy site No DPI, the building society wrote:

The Register – Windows 7 prepped for August 6 release

Microsoft has admitted there will be a Windows 7 family pack, while revealing it planned a phased release of the client’s code ahead of October’s official launch. The company has also hinted strongly at a release-to-manufacturing date for Windows 7 of August 6.

BBC News – iPhone sales boost Apple results

US technology giant Apple has seen quarterly results beat forecasts, thanks to strong iPhone sales. Net profits hit $1.23bn (£953m), or $1.35 a share, in the fiscal third quarter to 27 June, from $1.07bn, or $1.19 a share, a year earlier.

Computer Weekly – Cloud computing more secure than traditional IT, says Google
Cloud computing can provide higher levels of security than most in-house IT, says Google.

Computing – Global internet population to hit 2.2 billion by 2013
In a report titled Global Online Population Forecast, 2008 To 2013, Forrester says the engine of growth for this increase is Asia, especially since 43 per cent of the world’s population will live in the region by 2013.