Author: Gary Cutlack
Over 60,000 portable gadgets left in London taxis over the last six months
Oh, so that’s what happened to your previous phone. And your previous MP3 player. And your previous laptop. And your previous house keys, wallet, trainers, watch and coat.
A survey by security firm Credant Technologies asked London cabbies what devices they’ve found in the backs of their cabs recently, coming up with the amazing figure that more than 60,000 gadgets have been forgotten in taxis by people we would assume to have been massively intoxicated, over the last six months…
Government says Phorm is phine – the spying ad software can be rolled out in the UK
The UK government has said the incredibly controversial Phorm software can be rolled out in the UK – but users must be told first and allowed to opt-out if they wish.
The Phorm system, which anonymously tracks your internet usage so it can offer you targeted advertising, was secretly tested on a small group of BT users without their knowledge, creating uproar among the sort of people who like to create uproars about privacy issues. The EU then got involved, asking for clarification about the hows and whys of Phorm, thinking that it might be a BAD THING.
So, the UK government investigated and has decided it’s OK and that Phorm is fine. Here’s what it told the EU investigators about its Phorm phindings and how users will be put in charge of turning it on and off…
Digital Camera of the Hour: GE E1050TW with HDMI output for HD Ready lounge synching
Here’s another marginally different image-capturing box to save your brain from having to do any remembering of what things look like. This one’s called an E1050TW. It is not a particularly romantic or evocative name, although maker GE tells us the TW at the end stands for “Touch and Wide” – because there’s a 3″ touchscreen round the back instead of your usual buttons.
Here’s what the front looks like.
Inside the box there’s a 10.1megapixel sensor, mechanical bits to support a 5x optical zoom and image stabilisation…
The European Union is investigating the Yahoo/Google ad sales deal – anti-trust action on the way?
The EU is getting angry again – and looking daggers the way of Yahoo and Google. Transatlantic daggers. Intercontinental ballistic daggers.
The bureaucratic RAGE is thanks to the two companies and their deal to sell Google ads on Yahoo in the US and Canada – a right old stitch-up which…
Terrorists planning their next deadly attack using… World of Warcraft?
That’s the 100% crackpot theory being investigated by the US military at the moment, as senior officials worry that shifty-looking foreign people are massing on WoW servers to practise unleashing death.
A man called Dr. Dwight Toavs, who is a professor at the US National Defence University, gave a presentation (PowerPoint file here) on how a virtual world…
When rumours become FACTS – Xbox 360 only £129 from this Friday
And that is OFFICIAL. No more relying on dodgy scans and the assurances of 13-year-olds on internet forums. Xbox 360 Arcade, the non-hard drive model of the console, will cost £129 from this Friday.
The 60GB hard drive one, which Microsoft refers to as the plain old “Xbox 360” is also coming down in price, to £169, with the all-black Elite worrying PlayStation3’s arse by costing only £229. The war has just got DIRTY. Here’s what Microsoft’s chief European war commander, Neil Thompson, said…
Guess what The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium is up to these days?
It is sequencing the DNA of a potato.
The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium, who we would very much like to work for, reckons it will have the white potato perfectly sequenced by 2010, which will help with things like making them grow in the apocalyptic desert wastelands of the future.
It’s not an easy task – even something as seemingly simple as a potato is made up of 840 million DNA pairs. One pair tells it how thick the skin is. One pair tells it what leaves to grow. Another pair is in charge of telling it to grow the potatoes underground instead of on branches…
Dell & Tesco bringing Linux to the masses – launching £299 Inspiron Z530 "Web Browser" in October
Tesco selling Dell laptops – a match made in retailer heaven. Only, the thing is, and we’d hate to be the ones breaking this to the poor, confused buyer, the Z530 will be running Linux.
The Z530 is described by Tesco as a “Web Browser” rather than a Laptop, PC, portable computer or any of the more usual terms, so presumably Dell and Tesco are aiming…
Google planning offshore, tax-evading, auto-powering, floating data warehouses
Google is planning to launch a fleet of ships to house its search operations. These ships will power themselves by harnessing wave energy. The “water-based data centres” will cool themselves using the sea.
This staggering and frankly unbelievable lurch into piracy was revealed by The Times, which says Google will also benefit by avoiding paying tax on its data warehousing spaces by housing some of its facilities in international waters…
The sensational return of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Episode 2: Not connecting with real people
The double act no one really wants to see the return of has returned, as the two extremely rich men try to act like they’re normal and in touch with us common folk. All in the name of making Windows Vista look cool. It is not working. It didn’t work before. And this one’s even worse.
See Bill and Jerry order Chinese food, as if they don’t have in-house chefs back home at their respective palaces cooking up high-nutrient, low-fat foods at any time of day. They joke about being rich. This all goes on for a completely bewildering four and a half minutes. Here. See how far you can get through it.
Bill does a bit of robot dancing at the end…
