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Richard Waters techfile 09.07.09

July 9, 2009 6:19 am by Richard Waters
  • Google’s unveiling of the new Chrome OS at least a year before consumers will actually be able to buy it brought cries of “vapourware!” from critics.  Yet the prospect of a Google PC operating system to rival Windows created an even bigger splash than the arrival of the Chrome browser last year. Fake Steve had the last laugh - while also successfully puncturing some of the hype that has already built up around the promised software.
  • With both public and private websites in the US and South Korea coming under assault in an unusually powerful cyber-attack, it was not surprising that suspicion fell on North Korea. Yet if this follows the pattern of most other attacks, the true source will never be identified.
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David Gelles techfile 08.07.09

July 8, 2009 6:00 am by David Gelles
  • Microsoft and Brussels have started a new round of talks over a potential settlement of the software company’s antitrust travails in Europe. The resumption of what one person close to the situation described as the “on again, off again” discussions comes as the regulators move closer to imposing stringent penalties on Microsoft over its practice of “bundling” its Internet Explorer browser with the Windows operating system.
  • Facebook showed off the power of its Connect service today, as about 1m of its users logged into sites like CNN, ABC and MTV to chat about the Michael Jackson memorial service. Some members were wallflowers, but others were chatty, posting upwards of 800,000 status updates through the partner sites. Twitter, no doubt, also experienced a boost during the memorial service, but Facebook clearly proved that it, too, could be a prominent forum for public discussion.
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David Gelles techfile 07.07.09

July 7, 2009 6:00 am by David Gelles
  • The Department of Justice has started an informal review of the exclusive arrangements that limit handsets such as Apple ’s iPhone to particular wireless communications companies, according to people familiar with the matter.
  • EMC upped the ante in the battle for Data Domain, offering $2.4bn, or $33.50 a share, for the innovative data storage company that had agreed to be purchased by NetApp. The bidding war, rare for the technology industry, reflects the perception that Data Domain’s technology will be especially important as the storage industry evolves.
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David Gelles techfile 3.07.09

July 3, 2009 6:00 am by David Gelles
  • FriendFeed accelerated the move towards truly real-time search engines, with the introduction of real-time, constantly updating search results. As companies including Twitter, Facebook, Google and even Microsoft jockey to capture the audience for real-time search, FriendFeed remains a small player, but a technological innovator.
  • The woman accused of cyberbullying a 13-year-old into committing suicide had her conviction overturned by a federal judge. Lori Drew and a group of teenagers had harassed Megan Meier by through pseudonymous accounts on MySpace, leading Ms Meier to hang herself.
  • Microsoft withdrew the new ad for Internet Explorer 8 that had been roundly criticsed as tasteless, and described by some as “the worst technology commercial ever”. The ad, which was meant to highlight a feature in IE8 that lets users surf the web without their browsing history being recorded, featured a woman projectile vomiting after she saw what her husband had been looking at online.
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Richard Waters techfile 02.7.09

July 2, 2009 5:00 am by Richard Waters
  • The Palm Pre is heading for the UK, with O2 close to announcing an exclusive deal to sell the well-received smartphone, according to the Guardian. Meanwhile, an analyst said he believed Palm was on track to deliver 1m of the handsets to Sprint in its first quarter, well above most most estimates.
  • A California appeals court ruled that MySpace – and by extension other internet service providers – could not be held liable if paedophiles use its service to make contact with minors. The NewsCorp social networking site is guaranteed more time in the headlines on Thursday when Lori Drew, the mother convicted on three misdemeanour counts for online harrassment of her daughter’s friend, who later committed suicide, faces sentencing.
  • Facebook will begin encouraging users to make more of their personal information public to everyone on the web, a shift that moves the company into more direct competition with micro-messaging service Twitter.
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    David Gelles techfile 1.07.09

    July 1, 2009 6:02 am by David Gelles
    • Mozilla released the latest version of its Firefox internet browser, warming up a battle between competing browsers that is dramatically increasing the speed with which web pages are viewed. The 3.5 version of the Firefox software was released to the public on Tuesday, with a capability of loading web pages more than twice as fast as its 3.0 predecessor, thanks to advances in JavaScript, the scripting language.
    • The Chinese government backed away from its Wednesday deadline for new computers sold in the country to come equipped with Green Dam/Youth escort, an internet filter ostensibly aimed at pornography sites that also blocks users from reaching some Web pages devoted to politically sensitive topics. While authorities said they would continue to move forward with the initiative, computer companies were encouraged and said strong domestic opposition and international pressure might shelve the harsh controls for good.
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    techfile 26.6.09

    June 26, 2009 6:00 am by morning call
    • The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN, picked as the nonprofit group’s chief executive Rod Beckstrom, who until earlier this year served as cyber-security czar at the US Department of Homeland Security. Like his predecessors, Mr Beckstrom didn’t accomplish much there, but it later emerged he had a skeleton staff and equivalent funding. ICANN is as close to a governing body as the internet gets, but its core mission is minding the process by which Website names and numeric addresses are assigned.
    • Some early buyers of Windows 7 will get it for the knock-down price of $49.99. Rob Enderle thought the limited-time special offer was a direct response to the $29 Apple is charging for an upgrade to Snow Leopard. Michael Gartenberg called it a “missed opportunity” to give all Vista users the chance to move beyond the much-maligned operating system.
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    techfile 25.06.09

    June 25, 2009 6:00 am by morning call
    • Apple‘s new iPhone 3G S, which costs an unsubsidised $599 to buy in the 16Gb version, costs only $179 to make, according to iSuppli. The research firm took the phone apart to price its parts and found Toshiba provided the most expensive component – the flash memory at $24.
    • Google unveiled a public trial of a key piece of its mobile internet strategy - an extension of the AdSense network to mobile app developers. Developers will be able to include adverts in their apps targeted by keyword, demographics and location. This potentially gives developers access to the entire base of AdSense advertisers, posing a big challenge to specialist mobile ad networks like AdMobs.
    • Seagate Technology, which has cut jobs and salaries and restructured to combat slumping hard-drive sales, may have turned a corner. In a trading update, it raised its sales expectations for the current quarter to between $2.2bn and $2.3bn and predicted the industry would sell 120m hard drives, compared to its earlier estimate of 114m.
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    techfile 24.06.09

    June 24, 2009 5:26 am by morning call
    • A Tennessee hospital has confirmed it carried out a liver transplant on Steve Jobs, Apple chief executive.  The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis said Mr Jobs was “the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available. Mr Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.”
    • Intel and Nokia unveiled plans to work together to create a type of mobile computing device beyond today’s smartphones and netbooks. The move takes Intel a step further towards a breakthrough into the highly prized mobile phone market. Nokia typically works with potential suppliers on joint research for several years before deciding to adopt a particular technology.
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    techfile 23.06.09

    June 23, 2009 6:00 am by morning call
    • Steve Jobs has quietly returned as active chief executive to Apple after nearly six months on medical leave. Mr Jobs was quoted in a press release announcing that the company sold more than 1m units of the new iPhone 3G S in its first three days on the market. The subtle move by Apple came just days after The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Jobs had a liver transplant two months ago, in a move to help him recover from ongoing complications from an earlier bout of pancreatic cancer.
    • At the same time as the launch of the 3G S, Apple had released a souped-up Safari 4.0 and claimed the title of fastest browser. But for how long? Mozilla has just issued the release candidate for Firefox 3.5, which it says is twice as fast at loading pages as 3.0 . The browser race is truly about speed these days.
    • Samsung has announced a new solid-state drive (SSD) that it says will give netbook makers more flexibility in design than provided by standard hard-drives. The SSD, in 16Gb, 32GB and 64Gb Flash memory flavours, has a  3Gb per second interface and is nearly 80 per cent smaller than a standard 2.5-inch hard-disk drive.
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