Maija Palmer

Tech news from around the web:

Yahoo, the struggling internet company, is on the verge of appointing a new chief executive, writes Kara Swisher of AllThingsD, with Scott Thomson, president of eBay’s PayPal business, expected to get the nod. An announcement could come as early as Wednesday. Yahoo has been without a permanent CEO since firing Carol Bartz last September. The company has been run by its board and Tim Morse, its former chief financial officer, while looking at a range of strategic options including a sale of all or part of the company.

Maija Palmer

Chaos Computer ClubKarsten Nohl, the celebrity mobile cryptography expert, has been at it again. Two years ago he caused a stir by showing that the secret code that protects GSM mobile handsets was easy to crack, leaving phone calls open to interception by third parties.

This year, he is due to show that handsets can also be hijacked to make unauthorised calls and send text messages, running up huge bills without their owners’ knowledge. GSM networks, which are vulnerable to this flaw, are used by around 80 per cent of the world’s mobile users.

Maija Palmer

ICO logoThe rhetoric over cookie legislation ratcheted up a notch on Tuesday, as the Information Commissioner’s Office told companies they “must try harder” in working out how to comply with the new rules on online privacy.

Christopher Graham, the commissioner, suggested that very few companies had yet come up with ways to get permission from online users to collect their details, as required by the new law.

Maija Palmer

Navx logoWhile we await the big decision by the European Commission on whether Google is behaving anti-competitively in the search market, there are a few smaller battles to watch, which may also prove significant.

Navx, the French location data company, is seeking €23m in damages from Google in the Paris Commerical Court, for alleged abuse of a dominant position, related to a dispute between the two companies over an Adwords contract.

The €23m is not, in itself, a huge amount of money for Google. But if Navx’s case is successful, it could open up the floodgates of other claimants who feel they have been treated unfairly by the Adwords system. This is certainly what Jean Cherbonnier, chief executive of Navx, would like to happen.

Maija Palmer

Iceland subsea connectionsIceland’s hopes of becoming a global hub for data centres came a step closer on Thursday, when plans for a new transatlantic subsea cable were announced, that would link New York and London via Iceland and Ireland.

Iceland has long been trying to market itself as a prime location for data centres. Its plentiful, cheap geothermal energy is attractive to data centre operators who are becoming increasingly worried about electricity costs, and the cold climate means cooling the racks of servers is virtually free.

Google, PayPal, Visa and leading mobile phone operators are all rushing to announce mobile payments services, in a battle to establish a foothold in a lucrative new market.

In September, Google launched its mobile wallet service in the US, allowing people to pay for goods at stores including Bloomingdale’s, Toy’R’Us and Walgreens, by using a mobile handset equipped with a near-field communications (NFC) chip that communicates wirelessly with the cash till.

Maija Palmer

George OsborneThe UK government does not have a lot of money to pump into the technology sector so it is trying to be generous with something it does have in plentiful supply – data.

On Tuesday, as part of the government’s Autumn Statement George Osborne, the chancellor, is expected to announce plans to open up access to more government data, including transport data, health records, house prices and Met Office weather information.

Maija Palmer

London cyberspace conferenceThe London Cyberspace conference is an elegant metaphor for why government involvement in the internet should be limited as much as possible.

Even its name is already out of date, as quaint as calling it the “information super-highway” these days.  A roomful of young people, convened as a “Youth Forum” on the fringes of the conference, were asked if anyone used the word “cyber” any more. No one raised their hands.

Maija Palmer

Nokia Lumia 800While Nokia was busy unveiling its new Windows smartphones at Nokia World on Wednesday, there was already speculation around the conference – will a Nokia Windows tablet follow?

Maija Palmer

Milko van DuijlStill high on overtaking Dell last week to become the world’s second largest PC manufacturer by sales, Lenovo is becoming ever more bullish. Milko van Duijl, Lenovo’s senior vice president, is now not shy of admitting the company is gunning for the number one position – which it could reach within two or three years.

Tech analysis and reviews

Netiquette at work

The new tech rules for office communication

From rpm to bits

Converting vinyl and other old formats to digital

FT techfeed

Archive

« JanFebruary 2012
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
272829  

Tags

Alibaba Amazon android anonymous AOL apple BlackBerry ebay Facebook google Google TV groupon hacking hewlett-packard HP htc intel ios iPad iphone IPO kindle fire Lenovo microsoft Mobile Motorola Netflix nokia patents PayPal privacy RIM samsung smartphones social media Sony Spotify Steve Jobs story of the week Tablets Toshiba twitter windows 8 Yahoo Zynga

FT Tech Hub

Analysis & reviews

About this blog Blog guide
Richard Waters, Chris Nuttall and April Dembosky in the FT's San Francisco bureau share their views - plus tech insights from Tim Bradshaw and Maija Palmer in London and Robin Kwong in Taipei.

The blog includes a separate section on personal technology.

Read about the authors


To comment, please register for free with FT.com and read our policy on submitting comments.

All posts are published in UK time.

Contact the FT Tech Hub team: richard.waters@ft.com, chris.nuttall@ft.com, april.dembosky@ft.com, maija.palmer@ft.com, robin.kwong@ft.com and tim.bradshaw@ft.com.

See the full list of FT blogs.