Public sector wastes £70m a year on IT disposal
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According to a National Audit Office (NAO) report - ‘Improving the disposal of public sector ICT Equipment’ - the public sector could save £70m a year by replacing its hardware more frequently.
At the moment, the average public […]
Google adds copyright protection to YouTube
by Jan Harris
Google has revealed plans to use sophisticated copyright protection technology to prevent the unauthorised posting of copyright video on YouTube.
The search engine hopes to have the content filtering software running on YouTube by September.
The plans were revealed by Philip Beck, a lawyer representing Google in a case brought by English football’s Premier League […]
July 30, 2007
Wikia acquires Grub in open source search project
by Jan Harris
Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, is planning to go head to head with Google and Yahoo with a community-developed web search service. The open-source search engine will be developed with the help of volunteers.
At a conference of software developers in Oregon Wales revealed that Wikia has acquired web crawler ‘Grub’, which will allow the planned […]
More Governments curtailing free speech on Internet
by Jan Harris
According to a new report there is a growing and accelerating trend for Governments and state organisations to impose restrictions on the use of the Internet.
The report - ‘Governing the Internet’ - from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), finds that over 20 countries now impose rules which prevent citizens from […]
July 28, 2007
UK farming faces flooding crisis
by Brian TurnerRepresentatives of the English farming industry have warned that it faces a crisis after extensive damage to crops and livestock by the severe flooding in June and July.
Entire crops have been wiped out, and other farms only expect to be able to harvest around 40% of normal. Additionally, the loss of hay and silage means […]
July 26, 2007
Artic Systems wins tax case in Lords
by Brian Turner
Article Systems have won their landmark case against HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in the House of Lords.
The case began in 2003, when the Inland Revenues disputed how the company distributed its dividends.
While Geoff and Diana Jones were both co-owners of the business, the HMRC made the surprising decision to claim that in receiving dividends […]
July 23, 2007
SME’s not worried on interest rates
by Brian TurnerA study by The Royal Bank of Scotland has found that SME’s are generally unconcerned with interest rate rises, with only 1% listing it as a concern.
The survey covered 1,400 companies with a turnover of less than £1 million.
Main concerns highlighted included keeping profits levels on the rise, and dealing with red tape. The majority […]
July 20, 2007
Ask announces anonymous Web search tool
by Jan Harris
Search engine Ask has announced a new ‘AskEraser’ tool that will allow users to search the Web anonymously. Ask is the first major search engine to offer this option.
AskEraser will allow users to adjust their privacy preferences to stop their Web search history being stored by the search engine. A user’s privacy settings will […]
Multi-gigabit technology could soon eliminate wires
by Jan Harris
Scientists at the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing wireless technology for super-fast connectivity which could soon consign wired computers to the history books.
GEDC researchers are investigating the use of extremely high radio frequencies to achieve broad bandwidth and high data transmission rates over short distances.
Using radio […]
July 19, 2007
Firms unaware of employee Internet legalities
by Jan Harris
Chambers Ireland has released its eBusiness Survey 2007, which analyses the use of information and communications technologies among companies in Ireland.
According to the survey around two-thirds of companies are ill-informed about the legalities surrounding their employee’s online activities.
The survey found that only 37 per cent of companies know that they are responsible for their […]
July 18, 2007
Adobe unveils Flash successor: AIR
by Jan Harris
Adobe has unveiled AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), the successor to its Flash application which has long dominated the interactive web.
AIR, which was previously codenamed Apollo, is designed to further enhance cross-platform interactivity and to ultimately succeed Flash.
It is described by Adobe as a cross-OS runtime which enables developers to use existing Web development skills […]
EZURiO extends Bluetooth range
by Jan Harris
EZURiO has launched a Bluetooth wireless module which significantly extends the range of the technology which is usually considered to have limited application.
EZUIiO’s technology allows Bluetooth to be used for embedded and M2M (machine-to-machine) applications where additional range and high-performance are essential.
The new BISM II PA module, which is the size of a […]
July 17, 2007
Logitech unveils motion-controlled laser mouse
by Jan Harris
Logitech has announced an innovative laser mouse with motion-control and wireless technology.
The Logitech MX Air rechargeable cordless air mouse doesn’t even need a surface to work on. It can be used to click and scroll while being held in the air up to 30 feet away from a computer.
Logitch designed the mouse to meet […]
Firefox gains market share in Europe
by Jan Harris
New research from French Web-monitoring company XiTi Monitor, shows that the Mozilla Foundations’s Web browser, Firefox, gained on average an extra 3.1 per cent of the market in 32 European countries in the four months to July.
In the first week of July 2006, Firefox held 21.1 per cent of the market. A year later […]
July 16, 2007
Google cookie cut unlikely to satisfy privacy concerns
by Brian Turner
An announcement by Google that it will auto-delete cookies after two years is unlikely to satisfy privacy campaigners.
Google have already agreed with the EU to ensure user data is anonynimised after 18 months. The latest move in stating that cookies storing user information will autodelete after two years is additionally intended to make the company […]
Google to launch new webmaster tag
by Brian Turner
Google have revealed that they are introducing a new tag for webmasters to use, to prevent Google displaying temporary webpages.
Dan Crow, director of crawl systems at Google, while speaking at a presentation in New England, revealed that Google planned to launch the new tag - currently known as “unavailable_after†which will allow people to tell […]
Veoh Networks tests internet video browser
by Jan Harris
San Diego based company Veoh Networks is testing a new piece of software which acts like a Web browser but displays only Internet video.
The new software programme, VeohTV, presents full-length television shows and popular clips from leading video sites such as NBC.com and YouTube.
The product should be available to the public later this […]
Chinese company sues Google over brand name
by Jan Harris
Google’s subsidiary in China, which was launched in 2005, is being sued by a Chinese company who says the search engine’s registered Chinese name is too similar to its own.
The company, Beijing Guge Science and Technology, claims that similarities between the names have created confusion and harmed its operations.
People trying to call Google are […]
July 13, 2007
Google tops list of 10 leading e-commerce developments
by Jan HarrisThe Software & Information Industry Association has published a list of the top 10 most significant developments in e-commerce over the past decade.
The list recognises the importance of e-commerce in the growth of the global economy. The listed developments have acted as a catalyst for a multitude of innovative products and services.
Predictably the […]
Apple files iPod, web tools and mice patents
by Jan Harris
Apple has filed several new patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for innovations to iPods, web pages and mice.
The patent applications, which have been posted on the PTO’s web site, have caused speculation that WiFi-capable iPods could soon be able to share songs and other media.
One of patents seems […]