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Sat, 27 Feb 10
EU Grouses at Google Over Privacy on Its Streets
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69432.html
The European Union has requested that Google make some changes to its Street View service. It wants Google to delete the images that it captures after six months, according to a letter sent to Google from the head of the EU Article 29 Data Protection Group, which is comprised of data protection officials from EU countries. It also wants Google to alert residents when its Google Street View cars will be in their area. Google takes the photos for this service using cars that drive up and down streets and roads.

Sat, 27 Feb 10
Microsoft vs. the Zombie Hordes
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69436.html
Microsoft did its best Woody Harrelson impression this week and set out to bag some zombies. The zombies we're talking about here are PCs infected with malware. The bad guys spread the malware around and then remotely control victims' computers as part of a botnet that can do stuff like send out spam email or carry out DDoS attacks. In the real world, of course, you have to aim for the head to kill zombies, and that's basically the new strategy Microsoft used. In order to take down Waledac, which was one really bad botnet, it was granted a temporary restraining order.

Sat, 27 Feb 10
Just How Green Is the Bloom Box?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69434.html
With all the hype surrounding Bloom Energy's newly launched Bloom Box, it may be tempting to view the new device as a cure-all for the world's energy concerns. After all, the promise of an on-site power source that can provide homes with reliable clean energy at an affordable price seems like nothing short of a panacea. Just how affordable the devices will really be has already been questioned. In addition, given the Bloom Box's use of natural gas and biofuels, it's not entirely clear how clean or green it will be in the long term.

Sat, 27 Feb 10
A Sour-Grapes Special: SXSW Snubs ECT and Me
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69426.html
Austin, Texas, is the home of the annual South by Southwest Festival, which in 23 years has grown from a music-only celebration featuring a few Sixth Street bars, a handful of bands and lots of Shiner Bock beer, into a two-week, multi-media extravaganza featuring hundreds of Next New Thing musicians, filmmakers and technology movers/shakers -- and lots of Shiner Bock beer. I was living and working in Austin in 1988, the festival's second year, and remember having a great time sweating up a storm while dancing to some great live music at Antone's.

Sat, 27 Feb 10
Tools for Putting Web Apps to the Cross-Browser Test
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69431.html
Web-based applications and cloud computing have presented new challenges for software developers. Most software makers are by no means tone-deaf to user concerns about security and usability issues, but even those software writers who are receptive to these worries must contend with hard-to-plug holes that can open up in cross-platform programs such as Web browsers. For Web app developers, the problems occur on two fronts. Not only do they have to harden the application itself, but they also have to keep up with the occasional new browser release.

Sat, 27 Feb 10
Intuit's Quicken for Mac App Sticks to Essentials
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69427.html
Intuit has rolled out its first Mac-native application for Quicken. The company's recently acquired Mint.com product team contributed to the product redesign. Quicken Essentials for Mac, or QEM, offers several new features welcome to Mac users seeking a financial application -- including an expected increase in the number of financial institutions, banks and credit unions they can access. However, Quicken appears to have watered down some of the more sophisticated functionality.

Thu, 25 Feb 10
Tech Titans Lend Credibility to Bloom Box Hype
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69418.html
After years of keeping everyone in the dark about its solid oxide fuel cell technology, Bloom Energy officially brought its first product out into the sunlight Wednesday with a media event launching its Bloom Energy Server, a cleantech refrigerator-sized power plant for homes and businesses. Bloom used the San Jose, Calif., headquarters of one of its first customers, eBay, as the backdrop for announcing the availability of what it's calling a greener and cheaper way to wean consumers and businesses off power grids and fossil fuels.

Thu, 25 Feb 10
Italian Court Shoots the Messenger
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69416.html
In a ruling that could have profound implications for the future of the Internet, three Google executives were convicted of privacy violations on Wednesday over a video that aired briefly in 2006 on the now-defunct Google Video site. David Drummond, Google's SVP and chief legal officer, Peter Fleischer, the company's chief privacy counsel, and George Reyes, its CFO, were all given six-month prison sentences by Judge Oscar Magi for allowing the posting of a video depicting the bullying of a disabled teen by classmates in a Turin technical school.

Thu, 25 Feb 10
FTC Delivers Stern Warning About P2P Data on the Loose
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69412.html
The Federal Trade Commission is getting proactive in trying to reduce the risk of data breaches due to peer-to-peer programs, notifying nearly 100 organizations of data breaches it traced back to file-sharing. The FTC did not identify the organizations, but said they ranged in size from small businesses to publicly held corporations with tens of thousands of employees. It warned all of the organizations that it was their responsibility to secure their data against theft, noting that in some cases, it was the agency's responsibility to enforce laws mandating data security.

Thu, 25 Feb 10
The Trouble With Augmented Reality and Other Cool Tech
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69413.html
Clearly, exponentially growing technologies are set to change social communications, bringing up a number of touchy privacy and control questions. This year's TED conference showcased a wide variety of gadgets and ideas, one of the most interesting being Microsoft's new "augmented reality" mapping technology. Demonstrating the ability not only to see photo representations of streets but also to go inside a building, see three-dimensional graphics all around, Microsoft's Bing maps architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas wowed the crowd.

Thu, 25 Feb 10
Kate Puts Other Text Editors to Shame
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69405.html
As communication becomes more Web-centric, text editors become more essential writing tools. Blocks of text get tweaked with HTML codes to provide a more graphical appearance. So good text editors are those with many of the same features found in word processors, only without the added formatting and graphic components. One of the best text editors for anyone who handles a heavy flow of words is the Kate Text Editor. This is one my two favorite text-writing apps. Unless I need a final copy in a polished printout, Kate is a more convenient choice than a full-fledged word processor.

Thu, 25 Feb 10
Making IT Security Less Artsy and More Scientific
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69411.html
Security may be the hottest topic in IT, but it's also one of the least understood. So BriefingDirect assembled a panel to examine the need for IT security to run more like a data-driven science, rather than a mysterious art form. Rigorously applying data and metrics to security can dramatically improve IT results and reduce overall risk to the business. By employing and applying more metrics and standards to security, the protection of IT becomes better, and the known threats can become evaluated uniformly.

Mon, 22 Feb 10
Buzz's Latest Tweaks Make for Some Awkward Social Interactions
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69387.html
Last week, Google Gmail customers saw a promised round of software changes whose purpose was to make Google Buzz users more aware of their privacy options, and to give them a more obvious way to back out of Buzz. These changes came a mere nine days after the social networking product's rollout as an element of Gmail, although some have already claimed personal damage and have already begun legal action. Before we went to that extreme, Betanews tested the Buzz changes on accounts where Buzz was already set up.

Sun, 21 Feb 10
Opera Hits Some Unexpected High Notes With New Beta
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69386.html
Recently we saw yet another daily build of what Opera Software was calling its "pre-alpha" of the Opera 10.5 Web browser, a product that the company certainly wanted folks to test, even though they were warned it wasn't even ready for daily use. With various software publishers' development schedules being organized so differently from one another, it's difficult enough distinguishing "previews" from "alpha previews" from "preview alphas" -- just yesterday, for example, Mozilla finalized a public "developer preview" of Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1.

Sat, 20 Feb 10
Look Who's Not Talking About Chinese Schools and Google Hack
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69382.html
News that students in two Chinese schools could be behind recent well-publicized online attacks on Google and other major U.S. corporations doing business in China has security experts running for cover. McAfee, which has dubbed the hacks "Operation Aurora," described the series of attacks as highly sophisticated and a watershed event in cybercrime. The attacks have led to a standoff between Internet megacompany Google and the government of China over Beijing's censorship of the Internet.

Sat, 20 Feb 10
The Blazing Backlash Against Buzz
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69380.html
Google would like you to know that it's very, very sorry that its new Buzz social network treated your social life like Procter & Gamble treats bunny rabbits. It's all a big misunderstanding. And by the way -- no one was actually harmed, no personal data was leaked, and you're the one who's confused, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at the World Mobile Congress this week. The big complaint about Buzz was that it could accidentally reveal a list of the people you write to most and divulge your email address to people who shouldn't be able to have that info.

Sat, 20 Feb 10
Lawsuit Alleges School Used Webcams to Lurk in Students' Homes
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69379.html
A Pennsylvania couple has filed a lawsuit against their local school district for allegedly using the webcam in a school-issued laptop to spy on their son at home. The suit -- which was filed last week in U.S. District Court by Michael Robbins and Holly Robbins on behalf of their son, Blake Robbins -- alleges that the Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, Pa., invaded students' privacy and stole private information, violating numerous laws. The family seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as class action status for the suit.

Sat, 20 Feb 10
Has Google Cut a Backroom Deal With Big Pharma?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69373.html
I had planned on using Hayden Hamilton, founder of the Portland, Oregon-based ProgressiveRx.com, as my source for updates on how things were going in Washington with healthcare reform -- especially regarding any technology-driven solutions to spiraling healthcare costs. After all, Progressive is an online pharmacy resource that helps consumers buy discounted drugs from overseas outlets, one of many that have sprouted on the Internet and seen their traffic soar along with the cost of buying medications.

Sat, 20 Feb 10
Linux and the Power of Virtual Mega-Machines
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69377.html
Cloud computing describes an Internet-based computing infrastructure that has abstracted users and user applications from the underlying computing resources that support them. In concept, cloud computing is functionally different from previous IT architectures in that users no longer need to own, have expertise in, or have control over the underlying technology -- they are only aware of borrowing and consuming IT services, much as they would with telephony, electrical or plumbing infrastructures.

Sat, 20 Feb 10
Word 2011's Ribbon Will Tie Mac Users in Knots
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69370.html
Microsoft was under no obligation to build a ribbon component, similar to the one premiered in Office for Windows, for the Mac. That's especially true given the fact that the menu bar is such a prominent element of the Mac user experience. Ever since System 7, the menu bar -- which remains fixed to the top of the screen -- indicates which application is active. In Windows, applications have their own menu bars, if they have them at all; and starting with Office 2007, the ribbon replaced the menu bar.

Fri, 19 Feb 10
Evil Kneber Botnet Packs Mighty Malware Punch
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69372.html
As botnets go, the Kneber botnet, which has hit about 75,000 PCs in roughly 2,500 companies worldwide, is fairly minuscule. However, it's disproportionately dangerous because it's aimed at very specific targets -- corporations and government departments -- whose PCs store critically important information, such as Social Security numbers and corporate login credentials. The botnet used the ZeuS Trojan, a highly sophisticated piece of malware. It's also infected about half its victims with a second Trojan, Waledac.

Fri, 19 Feb 10
Nanotech 'Trojan Horse' Sneaks Drugs Into Cancer Cells
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69361.html
Good things come in small packages, as the saying goes, and nowhere is that more true than in nanotechnology. Research in the field has recently led to several new strategies for employing nanotechnology in the fight against cancer, and -- so far, at least -- the results are promising. One of the hardest parts of fighting cancer is that drugs often hit healthy cells at least as hard as the cancerous ones, causing patients to get sick. However, researchers are using nanotechnology to sneak cancer-fighting particles into just the cancer cells, leaving the healthy ones alone.

Fri, 19 Feb 10
Could WinPho7 Be a Contender?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69369.html
With the latest iteration of its mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft aims to narrow the gap between its OS, the iPhone OS and Android. Built to focus on consumers, Windows Phone 7 Series -- or WinPho7 -- was designed from the ground up. "We made a very big decision to re-examine everything because the industries surrounding mobile are at an inflection point," said Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business, about the operating system.

Fri, 19 Feb 10
Gorillacam Swings In With Bunches of Tasty Photo Features
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69363.html
Without Apple headlining, Macworld 2010 was proclaimed a snoozefest before it even started. Now it's over and we're all left to sift through the various blog posts and news articles coming from reporters on the scene -- which are decidedly fewer in number and weaker in excitement than in previous years. One item that did catch my eye was about Joby's new accessories. Joby makes Gorillapods -- those clingy little portable camera tripods that you can pose in various ways to get a steady photo almost anywhere.

Fri, 19 Feb 10
Will the Decade's Best Distros Please Stand Up?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69368.html
We may be halfway through February already, but that doesn't mean it's too late to look back at the past 10 years and ponder what has been. No indeed! Bloggers did plenty of backward-gazing last month as well, of course, but recently a fresh example came up that caught Linux Girl's attention. "Best Linux distributions of the decade" was the title of Jun Auza's post, which kicked up quite a flurry of excitement in the already snow-covered blogosphere. "There's no doubt that Ubuntu is the best Linux distribution of the last decade," he concluded.

Thu, 18 Feb 10
US Cybersecurity Hypothetically Pathetic
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69365.html
Earlier this week, Cyber ShockWave, a simulated cyberattack on America, once again showed that the U.S.'s cybersecurity is not up to the task of protecting the country's infrastructure. Under the hypothetical scenario cooked up by Cyber ShockWave's planners, the attack was launched through smartphones, which are becoming increasingly plausible as a potential threat. Cyber ShockWave simulated a devastating cyberattack on the U.S. Thursday that shut down telecom networks, electrical grids and gas lines -- all within the participants' imaginations, of course.

Thu, 18 Feb 10
Outlook Takes Timid Step Into Social Networking
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69359.html
Microsoft has forged deals with LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook to connect their networks through its popular email and personal information manager, Outlook. The company introduced Outlook Social Connector when it rolled out a beta of Microsoft Office 2010 last November. The OSC connects emails, contact information and networking sites within the Outlook application. Microsoft also introduced a public beta of LinkedIn for Outlook. Using the OSC, users can view their contacts' status updates and photos next to their email messages.

Thu, 18 Feb 10
Will a Slightly Better Browser and Free Server Keep BlackBerry Fans Happy?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69351.html
Research In Motion released details about several anticipated new offerings for its BlackBerry device at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. They include a new WebKit-based browser, a free version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express, and an assortment of new apps. RIM executives at the trade show emphasized the new BlackBerry browser's ease of use and speed, compared to competing offerings on the market. It is expected to be available later this year.

Thu, 18 Feb 10
NoteCase: Much More Than a Mindless Text Drone
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69354.html
To be really useful, a note-taking program needs more than the ability to simply put letters on the screen. It requires a database mentality with a quick and simple user interface. NoteCase Manager is designed with all the features needed to be a true digital note-processing system. I tend to be finicky when it comes to note taking programs. Typically, this app category is filled with programs that offer little more than basic text entry and a titling system.

Wed, 17 Feb 10
Microsoft Builds Zune, Xbox Into New Windows Phone Platform
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69352.html
With the demonstration of its newest mobile platform Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft vastly extended its mobile platform and at the same took it in a new direction, at least from a naming and branding perspective. It's dubbed the new platform "Windows Phone 7 Series." For the new platform, Redmond is bringing together Xbox Live games, the Zune music and video experience, social networking, mobile apps, access to Microsoft Office and photographs.

Wed, 17 Feb 10
HTC Unleashes Solid, Speedy New Androids
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69353.html
Smartphone manufacturing giant HTC on Tuesday unveiled three new smartphones and announced upgrades to its Sense user interface at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Two of the smartphones -- the Legend and the Desire -- run the Sense UI on top of Android. The third, the HD mini, runs Sense on top of Windows Mobile 6.5. The devices will be released in Asia and Europe. Both the Legend and the Desire support Bluetooth 2.1. For file transfer, they use FTP and Object Push Profile.

Wed, 17 Feb 10
Before Making the Leap, Check Cloud Security - and Check Your Own
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69324.html
Most of us are probably familiar with safe deposit boxes -- you know, the secure storage areas that banks and post offices provide to keep things like jewelry and important documents secure. Even if you've never rented one yourself, chances are you're probably familiar with the concept: a safe place where you can put important and one-of-a-kind items so that they'll be protected should the unexpected occur in your home. Ask yourself this: Is a safe deposit box insecure because it's located and accessed from outside your home?

Wed, 17 Feb 10
Google Adds a Little Sparkle to Chrome for Linux
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69350.html
Google has updated the beta version of its Chrome for Linux with a variety of fixes designed to make the browser more reliable, the company announced Thursday. Version 5.0.307.7 of Chrome for Linux addresses several bugs that were problematic in the previous version. One fix, for example, changes an out of memory killer mechanism so that it terminates runaway tabs before it closes the browser when memory is low. The upgrade was released in tandem with a similar update to the Mac version.

Wed, 17 Feb 10
Get Ready for Apple to Murder the Status Quo One More Time
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69344.html
As near as I can tell, Apple is the ultimate tech industry disrupter. In recent memory, Apple's iPhone put applications in the hands of millions of consumers, wrenched a good measure of control out of the cold grip of cellular service providers, and sparked a fire of touchscreen smartphone competitors. Before the iPhone's multi-touch, sure, there were touchscreens, but the dominant pundit discourse put the need for a physical keyboard high on the list of smartphone success factors -- but it turns out you don't really need one to succeed.

Tue, 16 Feb 10
Consumer Reports: How Technology Can Curb Accelerator Breakdowns
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69348.html
Toyota's well-publicized problems with sudden, unintended acceleration have led Consumer Reports to issue a list of suggested fixes automakers can implement to prevent such problems. These include designing cars so that sustained pressure on the brakes can stop them even if the gas pedal is fully depressed, making it easier to turn off the engine in an emergency, and making it easier to shift into neutral when the car accelerates out of control. Toyota has recalled over 8 million cars and trucks worldwide because of the acceleration problem.

Tue, 16 Feb 10
The Death of the PC Model and a Tablet That Could Crush the iPad
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69325.html
I spent last week at the annual Intel analyst conference and was impressed by what I saw, but I started connecting the dots between what Apple is doing with the iPad, Google is doing with the Nexus one, Microsoft is doing with the Zune and Xbox, and Intel is doing with its Atom/Moblin efforts, and I had an epiphany. I checked my meds and confirmed I hadn't missed any anti-epiphany medication I was supposed to be taking and concluded that the PC model that created the market appears to be dying, and that we simply may be waiting for a definitive moment to say it is dead.

Tue, 16 Feb 10
The Dating Game, Linux-Style
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69347.html
Well the Day of Love is safely behind us again for another year, and not a moment too soon! For some it may be a joyous occasion -- a time of bubbles, flowers and pink puffy pillows -- but let's just say that sentiment is by no means unanimous. No, at the other end of the introversion scale, Valentine's Day is fraught with anxiety, doubt and *way* too much time in the card aisle. It's not often that geeks wax philosophical about the World of Amour, but HeliOS's Ken Starks was recently brave enough to venture into those treacherous waters.

Tue, 16 Feb 10
A Mac-Friendly Fix for Wimpy WiFi
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69340.html
Tired of "dead spots" in your WiFi coverage? How about a wireless Internet connection with crawling performance? hField Technologies has a solution it calls "Wi-Fire," and the Mac version of its software has recently been overhauled. Wi-Fire is a gadget that plugs into the USB port of a computer and, according to hField, increases the range and speed of WiFi connections. Although the gizmo works with other platforms, like Window and Linux, it has proven to be very popular in the Mac market, maintained hField Marketing Manager Blake Kleintop.

Mon, 15 Feb 10
Vietnam's Disappearing Online Voices
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69345.html
Two pioneering Web sites that stretched the limits of free expression in Vietnam say they have been hacked and shut down, just months after the communist government blocked the social networking site Facebook. Both sites had been critical of Vietnam's policies toward China, a subject of great sensitivity to the government, whose efforts to maintain good relations with its massive northern neighbor sometimes run afoul of nationalist sentiment. However, both sites were generally restrained in tone, and neither had called for an end to Vietnam's single-party system.

Sun, 14 Feb 10
Laptop Encryption Chips: Dissolved, Needled, Prodded and Hacked
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69335.html
Deep inside millions of computers is a digital Fort Knox, a special chip with the locks to highly guarded secrets, including classified government reports and confidential business plans. Now a former U.S. Army computer security specialist has devised a way to break those locks. The attack can force heavily secured computers to spill documents that likely were presumed to be safe. This discovery shows one way that spies and other richly financed attackers can acquire military and trade secrets, and comes as worries about state-sponsored computer espionage intensify.

Sat, 13 Feb 10
Google Buzz Biffs It Big-Time on Privacy
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69337.html
Google's launch of Buzz on Tuesday, widely seen as an attempt to outdo Facebook, succeeded all right -- in the way it ran roughshod over users' privacy. The sheer volume of complaints over this issue forced Google to tweak privacy controls for Buzz users. Why is it that while Google was building Buzz, it didn't bear in mind the repeated run-ins Facebook has had with its users over privacy concerns? Perhaps we can chalk this up to the mindset of the Google leadership, which apparently thinks privacy is passe -- so long as it applies to other people.

Sat, 13 Feb 10
How to Have a Cybersafe Olympics Experience
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69334.html
As the 2010 Winter Olympics kick off, the games are on everyone's radar, including the cybercriminals who are looking to capitalize on this world event. Spam campaigns featuring breaking news stories filter through to in-boxes faster than ever before, as automated scripts scrape headlines and the text of news stories from hundreds of Web sites. This year, cybercriminals are going one step further, sending sinister emails using the Olympics as a guise to distribute malicious content in highly specialized, targeted attacks.

Sat, 13 Feb 10
Open Source: Fuel for the Smartphone Explosion
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69329.html
It may not seem obvious at first, but the tragic earthquake in Haiti, the historic election that put a Massachusetts Republican in the U.S. Senate and the 2010 Super Bowl all have something in common: the smartphone. During each event, billions of consumers around the globe were glued to their phones, either donating to charities and updating their Twitter accounts about the crisis in Haiti, posting on blogs about how change seems to be in the air in U.S. politics, or conveying their happiness (or unhappiness) about the big game.

Sat, 13 Feb 10
Google's New Social Scene-Stealer
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69333.html
A few weeks ago, I was hearing rumors about Facebook opening a new email service. Looks like Google beat them to the punch, though, because Gmail just opened up a new Facebook service. Maybe not technically -- Facebook plays absolutely no role in "Buzz," which is what Google named its creation. Buzz just seems to feature some of the same social networking capabilities as Facebook, as well as some Twitter-like traits. In fact, Buzz is sort of like what would happen if Facebook and Twitter had a love child that Gmail adopted and raised.

Sat, 13 Feb 10
Microsoft to Take Another Stab at Mobile
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69332.html
Microsoft is expected to announce a major revamp of its phone software Monday, in an attempt to regain momentum in a crucial market where it's been overshadowed. CEO Steve Ballmer will be speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the world's largest cellphone trade show, and analysts expect him to reveal Windows Mobile 7. The software could be in phones by late this year. The new software comes as Microsoft, dominant when smartphones were young, has taken a back seat to Research In Motion's BlackBerry among corporate users and Apple's iPhone among consumers.

Sat, 13 Feb 10
Google's New Buzz: Not Exactly Light Years Ahead
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69326.html
Innovation was certainly on display at this week's Google Buzz press conference, but there was only one moment that truly registered an 9.5 on my personal Coolness Quotient meter. That was during the mobile segment of the demonstration. Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra spoke into his Android phone, and the magic of Google Voice, combined with GPS-tagging and location-based services, allowed him to post his "buzz." I know that reads like something Jeff Spicoli of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" might have said.

Fri, 12 Feb 10
What Dreams May Come With Google's Super-Speedy Network?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69323.html
What will developers and users do with Google's planned ultra high-speed broadband network? Google's answer can be summed up in four words: We don't know yet. "If the Internet has taught us anything, it's that the most important innovations are often those we least expect," Google spokesperson Dan Martin told TechNewsWorld. "In the same way that the transition from dial-up to broadband made possible the emergence of online video and countless other applications, ultra high-speed bandwidth will lead to new innovations ..."

Fri, 12 Feb 10
Biotech Push Needed to Avert Global Food Crisis, Scientists Warn
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69321.html
World leaders must embrace agricultural biotechnology if they are to cope with the severe food shortages likely to result from global warming in the coming decades, warns a group of scientists. Yields from some of the most important crops for human consumption begin to decline sharply when average temperatures exceed about 30 degrees Celsius, or 86 Fahrenheit, they explain in an article that will appear Friday in the journal Science. "You're looking at a 20 percent to 30 percent decline in production yields in the next 50 years," said coauthor David Battisti.

Fri, 12 Feb 10
Pondering a Peck of Possible Pads
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69318.html
Well, it's been a few weeks since the launch of Apple's comically named "iPad," and there's no doubt the world has much to think over. That's particularly true for those in the FOSS community, of course, given the decidedly closed nature of Apple's new device. Fans of Cupertino may be swooning with delight, but the picture is less clear for those of us in the rest of the world. The new device is "a frightening step backward for computing and for media distribution," according to the Free Software Foundation.

Fri, 12 Feb 10
Siri: A Capable but Confusable Concierge
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69311.html
Google's mobile search app has long been a resident of my iPhone's home screen. The best thing about it is its voice search feature -- I can just say what I'm looking for and it'll run a search without my having to plunk out words with my clumsy, sausage-esque thumbs. However, even though Google's app does emphasize local results based on where you're searching from, it's still a Google search, meaning it gives you tons of links to everything having anything to do with your search terms.

Fri, 12 Feb 10
Sun-Gazing Observatory Set for Launch
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69310.html
Originally planned for launch on Tuesday, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory was delayed once again on Wednesday due to high winds. The new planned launch for the device from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida is Thursday, Feb. 11; the launch window is between 10:23 a.m. and 11:23 a.m. EST. The SDO will undertake a five-year mission to investigate in unprecedented detail the energy processes driving the sun's stormy activity. The 6,555-pound spacecraft will return 1.5 terabytes of data every day -- equal to half a million downloaded songs.

Thu, 11 Feb 10
Google's Enterprise and Mobile Plans: Killer Buzz or Buzzkill?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69315.html
While the technosphere was busy Tuesday pitting Google's new Buzz service against Facebook and Twitter in some kind of social media steel-cage deathmatch, the search giant's executives were hinting at what they see as the real winning uses for Buzz -- within the enterprise and out and about in the mobile arena. "We think it will change the ways businesses will communicate," Bradley Horowitz, Google vice president for product management, told the audience of tech journalists gathered for the announcement Tuesday.

Thu, 11 Feb 10
Will Apple Open the Window for Opera's iPhone Serenade?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69314.html
Opera on Wednesday announced that it will preview a version of Opera Mini 5 for the iPhone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, next week. Perhaps Opera, which already makes a popular line of mobile browsers for several other phone platforms, wants to increase its reach by leveraging the iPhone's rapid growth. Opera claims its Mini 5 browser, which is in beta, is much faster than other mobile browsers and has several features more often found on desktop PC browsers.

Thu, 11 Feb 10
Krusader Conquers Linux Files
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69301.html
Krusader is one of those must-have computing tools that turns difficult or tedious computing tasks into easy, point-and-click operations. It's an advanced twin-panel file manager that's loaded with features. When I made the switch from the Windows to the Linux operating system, I had a short list of program requirements. This list was a match to critical computing procedures I relied upon in Windows. I quickly discovered that Linux offers numerous twin-panel file managers, but very few have the power built into Krusader.

Thu, 11 Feb 10
Google Buzzes Social Networking Scene
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69308.html
Google is making a play for social media users with Buzz -- a new tool that enables Gmail users to view media and status updates of friends. Typically, when Google enters new territory, it is enough to send stock prices plummeting and analyst wheels spinning. Oftentimes, there is a good reason. Consider the ruminations on the fate of standalone GPS providers such as TomTom following Google's introduction of a GPS-based navigation app. This time, though, things may be different.

Wed, 10 Feb 10
Google Buzz Bridges Social Media and Gmail
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69306.html
Google has certainly generated more than its share of buzz regarding its plans to get deeper into social media. On Tuesday, the search giant revealed those plans: Google Buzz, which takes a big step into Facebook and Twitter territory while keeping one foot firmly planted on its Gmail foundation. While the initial version of Buzz released during a press conference and demonstration at the company's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters focused on consumer-friendly uses, Google made it clear that there will also be a future place for Buzz in its enterprise goals.

Wed, 10 Feb 10
Nvidia Optimus Gives Laptops a Graphical Gearshift
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69304.html
Nvidia on Tuesday unveiled Optimus, a technology that automatically chooses the best graphics processor for running a given application, thus lengthening a laptop computer's battery life. Based on the application's needs, Optimus will route the workload to either an Nvidia discrete graphics processing unit or graphics processors integrated into Intel chips. Asus will release a netbook with Optimus technology later this week. Optimus technology automatically detects most types of applications such as Cuda, Compute, and many video applications.

Wed, 10 Feb 10
Cisco Guns for Burgeoning Government Security Market
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69299.html
Cisco looks to be gearing up to take advantage of the Obama administration's emphasis on cybersecurity and cooperation between the public and private sectors. It has appointed former White House cybersecurity adviser Melissa Hathaway as consultant. She will help liaise with the federal government. "We have the opportunity in Cisco to transform how we do defense, build up critical private and public networks, and improve information sharing among government and private networks," said John Stewart, the networking giant's chief security officer.

Wed, 10 Feb 10
Sorry, You Just Can't Pin Down Apple Consumers
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69298.html
When I first noticed the Retrevo Pulse headline for its study that examines consumer interest in buying the Apple iPad, my first reaction was eerily in line with the traffic-grabbing headline, "Apple iPad Hoopla Fails to Convince Buyers." I'm an unabashed fan of almost every Apple product the company in Cupertino produces, and yet I'm still not convinced the iPad is a worthy addition to my personal Apple lineup. Sure, I love the idea of kicking back on the couch and browsing the Web with flicks and pinches.

Wed, 10 Feb 10
Phone-Hater Linus Torvalds Blesses Nexus One
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69297.html
Google's Nexus One phone is a winner, according to Linus Torvalds, founder of the operating system it's based on. "I generally hate phones," explained Torvalds, who is known as "the father of Linux," in a blog post on Saturday. "At the same time I love the concept of having a phone that runs Linux, and I've had a number of them over the years," he wrote. Torvalds has rarely used the phones he has had, including Google's original G1, he said. However, he's been a happy camper since he bought the Nexus One last week.

Tue, 9 Feb 10
Endeavour Lifts Off to Fit ISS With Giant Observation Deck
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69294.html
Following a day's delay due to cloudy weather, space shuttle Endeavour launched successfully early Monday morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle, which launched at 4:14 a.m. EST, is carrying a new module and an attached cupola for the International Space Station. "What a beautiful launch we had this morning... the orbiter performed extremely well," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations, during the postlaunch news conference. "This is a great start to a very complicated mission."

Tue, 9 Feb 10
IBM Taps Green Power With New Chips, Servers
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69292.html
IBM on Monday launched a one-two punch with its new Power7 processors, which the company claims have twice the performance of the Power6 line but consume less power. These processors power IBM's Unix servers, four new models of which were also unveiled Monday in a move that might strengthen IBM's position in the Unix server market. The Power7 uses a 45 nanometer process. Each Power7 processor has up to eight cores and four threads per core. That's four times the maximum number of cores and eight times the number of threads per chip as the Power6.

Tue, 9 Feb 10
Trend Micro Rejiggers Small-Biz SaaS Security
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69288.html
Trend Micro on Monday announced a new and completely overhauled version of its Software as a Service for small and medium-sized businesses. The new version, named "Worry-Free Business Security Services," replaces "Worry-Free Business Security Hosted," which was launched only 10 months ago. "This is a new solution built from the ground up," Dal Gemmell, senior manager for product marketing at Trend Micro, told TechNewsWorld. Trend Micro also introduced several new features to the SaaS product that were initially available only in its enterprise solution.

Tue, 9 Feb 10
How Microsoft Could Beat Apple and Google: Needed - One Child Executive
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69277.html
The iPad has captured much of the technology coverage so far this year. It is a poorly named copy of a product that Microsoft launched nearly a decade ago, based on a concept Steve Jobs personally thought was stupid: the tablet computer. Yet Apple has effectively convinced the market that its device is new, different and desirable. Microsoft had Flash before Adobe; it had a touchscreen phone before the iPhone; and it effectively had an iPod touch before there even was an iPod. In all cases, the problem to overcome wasn't competitive -- it was institutional stupidity.

Tue, 9 Feb 10
Open Symbian: New World Order or Big Yawn?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69290.html
It's not every day that a major operating system gets opened up, never mind one that leads the global market in its category. So, when the news came out last week that that's just what the Symbian Foundation had done -- and four months ahead of schedule, no less! -- it was hard not to get excited. Android is no longer the only big kid on the open source mobile block, it seems, and the scales are now tipped considerably more in FOSS' direction.

Tue, 9 Feb 10
Tune-Up App Lets You Get More Intimate With Your Mac
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69285.html
It's been both a boon and bane for the Mac that it has some characteristics of an appliance. For some users, "it just works" is what makes Apple computers so much more attractive than their competitors. Others, though, just feel incomplete unless they can get under the hood of their byte box. For them, there are programs like MacTuneUp. MacTuneUp, which was recently updated to version 3.6, is a suite of utilities for improving system stability and the performance of a Mac.

Mon, 8 Feb 10
Facebook's Virtual World War II Memorials
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69270.html
Henio Zytomirski's Facebook profile picture stands out from most. The grinning 6-year-old is captured in black and white and poses in an old-fashioned buttoned-up shirt and shorts. The photograph, shot in 1939, is probably the last taken of him before he was murdered in the Holocaust. A group in the boy's hometown of Lublin is using the social networking site to breathe virtual life into Henio's stolen childhood and give people around the world the chance to get to know him -- as well as mourn the millions of others killed by Nazi Germany.

Sun, 7 Feb 10
The Critically Complex World of Cars' Sparky Bits
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69284.html
Your most expensive piece of electronics probably is not your flat panel TV or your computer. More likely, it's your car, which can pack 50 microprocessors to control everything from the fuel mix to the rearview mirrors. The recalls and other technical problems besetting Toyota in the last few weeks highlight the risks of relying on electronics instead of the mechanical rods and cables that controlled vehicles for most of the 20th century. Such advancements bring many benefits, but the worry is that the car is a computer on wheels that could freeze up and potentially crash.

Fri, 5 Feb 10
US Intel Chief Paints Dark Picture of Cyberattack Defense
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69273.html
As the United States' private and public sectors increasingly leverage the Internet, the U.S. intelligence community fears that they are severely endangering the country's critical infrastructure. On its own, neither the public nor private sectors can combat this threat, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told Congress this week during an annual threat assessment briefing on national security. "Malicious cyberactivity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication," he said.

Fri, 5 Feb 10
Breakthrough Could Lead to Cure for AIDS and Other Deadly Viruses
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69259.html
Viruses have long been the bane of the medical world. For centuries, healthcare experts have struggled to treat everything from virus-induced sniffles to lethal epidemics. At the very core of the problem is the constant emergence of new viruses and the continuous flux of old ones. It doesn't help that even the strongest antibiotics are impotent against even the weakest virus. This is why the recent discovery of a new broad spectrum antiviral treatment is nothing to sneeze at.

Fri, 5 Feb 10
Can't We All Just Get Along? Post-Merger IT Integration
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69267.html
Enterprises that have merged with or acquired the systems and assets of another company know how difficult it is to combine disparate systems -- platforms, databases and software solutions -- with its existing infrastructure. Mergers can be very disruptive, especially if the companies have standardized on differing platforms, protocols and encryption methods. Some of the issues inherent in combining systems, software and processes can be eliminated by replacing multiple legacy file transfer solutions with a single, platform-independent managed file transfer solution.

Fri, 5 Feb 10
NotifyMe Needs to Up the Nag Factor
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69265.html
For some types of personalities, a simple to-do list is all that's needed to keep things on track. They don't need reminders; they check their notes on their own accord. They don't like being bugged about stuff, so please get off their case already; they know what they're doing. Others need a little more prodding, goading and hammering. Maybe they're absent minded, incredibly busy, or just the type of worrier who sleeps with three alarm clocks set at five-minute increments.

Fri, 5 Feb 10
Motherboard Madness and Mayhem
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69264.html
Misery loves company, as the saying goes, and nowhere is that more evident than on the Linux blogs. Case in point: Linux Planet's Carla Schroder recently told a woeful tale about her attempt to upgrade the CPU on her ECS motherboard, and it has inspired a vast outpouring of sympathy from geeks far and wide. "My nice new Phenom X3 CPU worked beautifully at first," Schroder wrote. "The whole system was more stable, and I could do things in Audacity that I couldn't before, like 32/96 recording. But the good times did not last, and after a couple weeks of happiness it croaked."

Thu, 4 Feb 10
Twitter Smells a Password-Snatching Rat
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69261.html
Twitter users have come under attack from scammers once again, and the microblogging site has asked several users to reset their passwords. This latest attempt came through torrent file-sharing sites that contained hidden security exploits and backdoors. Opinion is divided as to whether these security holes were the result of bad coding or, as Twitter claims, were deliberately created so the coder could later activate them. Twitter noticed a "sudden surge" in followers of a few accounts over the five-day period leading up to Tuesday.

Thu, 4 Feb 10
Obama Gazes Past the Moon to Mars
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69260.html
President Obama on Monday proposed a dramatically new path that would end NASA's Constellation moon program and shift the agency's focus to developing new technologies for deeper space exploration instead. "We were not on a path to get back to the moon's surface" in a reasonable time frame, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden explained while presenting the proposed budget for fiscal year 2011. "As we focused so much of our effort and funding on just getting to the moon, we were neglecting investments in the key technologies that would be required to go beyond."

Thu, 4 Feb 10
Plan Ahead to Prevent Maintenance Window Pain
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69242.html
System administrators are well aware of the pain associated with maintenance windows. This effort is usually taking place off-hours and requires challenging coordination between different activities and often different departmental personnel. Although almost every system administrator will agree to pass on the project, maintenance windows are very important to obtain an updated infrastructure and to mitigate risks of an unplanned outage.

Thu, 4 Feb 10
F-Spot: An Able-Bodied All-in-One Image Machine
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69251.html
Few, if any, photo viewing apps on any platform provide a perfect photo management experience. However, F-Spot Photo Management for Gnome gives Linux users a fairly complete set of photo tools. F-Spot ranks among the most well-known photo apps for Linux. In many ways it is similar to Google's repackaged Picasa Photo Organizer and the popular GIMP photo program. F-Spot's primary drawback, despite its usefulness, is its sometimes quirky operation. Provided your flavor of Linux supports the Gnome desktop, F-Spot can be a solid choice.

Wed, 3 Feb 10
Facebook: A Tempting Danger Zone for Businesses
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69253.html
Social networking sites are a threat to online security, and Facebook is the worst offender, a report from Sophos states. The number of businesses hit by malware and spam attacks through social networks rose by 70 percent in 2009, the report found. More than 72 percent of businesses believe employees' behavior on social networking sites could endanger security. The issue of social networks is rife with contradictions -- although social networking sites help malware authors spread their attacks, they have also been instrumental in spreading knowledge.

Wed, 3 Feb 10
Google Shows Off a Chrome Tablet With 1,000 Faces
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69250.html
Fresh off the introduction of its Nexus One smartphone, hailed by some tech analysts as the first real iPhone killer candidate, Google has debuted mockups of a possible tablet device running its yet-to-be released open source Chrome OS. The mockups, posted on Google's Chromium Web site, depict a device that might have a 5- to 10-inch screen, an on-screen keyboard, and a touch interface. An animated concept video shows the ability to launch multiple instances of the browser at once, a feature conspicuously absent from Apple's recently announced iPad tablet.

Wed, 3 Feb 10
iMac Firmware Aims to Smooth Out Flicker Glitch
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69255.html
Apple on Monday released its second firmware update in three months to resolve screen issues with its 27-inch iMac computer. This latest update is aimed at issues that "may cause intermittent display flickering," according to Apple's Web site. Some 27-inch iMacs have been plagued by problems since the model was launched in October 2009, and it's been reported that Apple has temporarily stopped production of the computer. Installing Apple's 27-inch iMac Display Firmware Update 1.0 requires the user to quit all open applications, then download the update.

Wed, 3 Feb 10
Women: IT Needs You - Men: Get Over It
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69247.html
I was idly scanning a press release in my inbox the other day stating that the National Academy of Sciences planned to honor 17 individuals in 2010 for their "extraordinary scientific achievements in the areas of biology, chemistry, geology, astronomy and psychology." Five of the recipients were women. I remembered having read about Marie Curie and Ada Lovelace as a child, and knowing that women have played a seminal role in computer science, I wondered why we don't see too many women anymore among the ranks of computer scientists?

Wed, 3 Feb 10
Taking the Good With the Bad in the New iPad
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69249.html
More so than than any other major Apple product in recent memory, Apple's new iPad tablet device presents the world with a confounding mixture of good and bad -- or perhaps it's more of a yin and yang, or some other sort of cosmic force. Depending on who you are, and depending on what you need, some of Apple's deal-breaker decisions might be the killer feature someone wants most. I still don't know if I'll buy an iPad. Oh, don't get me wrong: I want one, but want and desire, at least in this case, are far away from buying action.

Wed, 3 Feb 10
Will FOSS Jump Into the iPad Fray?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69248.html
Positioned somewhere between the smartphone and the laptop, Apple's new tablet is billed as "the best way to experience the Web, email, photos and videos." While the Macintosh, Windows and Linux platforms all compete to varying degrees on PCs, netbooks and smartphones, the iPad currently stands more or less alone in the tablet arena. It's clearly just a matter of time before competitors begin arriving; will an open source device be among them?

Tue, 2 Feb 10
Intel, Micron Cram 8 Gigs of Chip Into 4-Gig Bag
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69240.html
Intel and Micron have jointly announced what may be the world's smallest, densest NAND flash memory device yet. Their 25-nanometer NAND flash semiconductor offers 8 GB of memory in a single NAND processor. This could pave the way for higher capacity storage for consumer devices. The 25nm NAND semiconductor is sampling now; it will be in production in the second quarter of 2010. For consumer electronics manufacturers, the 25nn NAND processor provides the highest density in a single two bits-per-cell multi-level cell die that will fit a thin, small-outline package, Intel said.

Tue, 2 Feb 10
Jobs Mixes It Up With Adobe, Google
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69244.html
The comments were made during a town hall meeting. The person leading the town hall trashes a competitor who used to be a partner, and intemperate language may have been used. Another competitor who may yet end up as a partner is called "lazy." A media primed to snap up conflict and sensationalism does so, splashing the headlines all over -- just as the person who made the original comments may have suspected they would in the first place. A particularly juicy chapter in the political bestselller "Game Change" describing the 2008 Obama and Clinton campaign machinations? No.

Tue, 2 Feb 10
Rethinking the Fortifications: Q&A With Heartland CIO Steven Elefant
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69237.html
Following a breach of its computer systems a year ago, Heartland Payment System, one of the five largest payment card processors in the United States, came under considerable pressure to strengthen its IT security, and it's been embroiled in several lawsuits because of the breach. In January 2009, hundreds of thousands of business owners were stunned when Heartland announced its systems had been breached. Heartland's services include card processing, payroll services, check management, online payments and micropayments.

Tue, 2 Feb 10
The Folly of Ignoring Apple's Success
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69231.html
The technology and consumer electronics markets are awash with companies that seem to be barely meeting expectations or are, like Sony, Sun and Yahoo, on and off death watch. They aren't alone; the relatively new Obama administration seems to also be failing, and the latest State of the Union address wasn't particularly inspirational. Apple just reported incredibly high earnings and launched a product no one should want -- but it seems many do. This is because Apple has one skill these other entities lack: It knows how to get people excited and manage expectations.

Tue, 2 Feb 10
Life After Microsoft: IT Utopia or 'Apocalyptic Tailspin'?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69238.html
Well, the snow continues to fall here in the Linux blogosphere, and Linux Girl is beginning to wonder if it will ever end. Bread and milk are still in short supply at the local FOSS-y-Mart; children are getting cabin fever; and the snow drifts are getting taller than many netizens. Down at the Broken Windows Lounge, in fact, the snow now blocks out most of the light that would be shining through, making it seem as if there are no windows there at all. Such, perhaps, was the inspiration behind a recent conversation that's come close to fisticuffs.

Tue, 2 Feb 10
TopXNotes: A Concierge for the Constant Scrivener
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69232.html
If there's one software category that's proven it has legs, it's the personal information manager. Knowledge workers and computer jocks are bombarded with a blizzard of information every day, and they seem to never tire of programs that promise to organize it for them. TopXNotes, recently upgraded to version 1.5, is such a program. "Since Apple introduced its address book application that's built into the OS, there's not a big market for the kind of personal information managers that do contacts," said Chuck Rogers of Tropical Software.

Mon, 1 Feb 10
'FarmVille' Provides a Sugar-Coated Taste of the Ag Biz
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/69219.html
Even while calling Chicago home, Laura Hawkins Grimes is a country bumpkin. Her scenic rural spread has three dairy farms, two ponds and a log cabin, all skirted by a white picket fence as scarecrows stand sentry over her blackberries. The best part is the 40-year-old sex therapist never has to leave her computer to tend to it all. She's one of tens of millions of occupants of "FarmVille," a near-utopian, wildly popular online fantasy game where folks rush to another neighbor's aid, ribbons readily come as rewards, plants don't get diseased and there's never a calamitous frost.