Brown pledges super-fast broadband for all by 2020
Super-fast broadband will be available to every home in the UK by 2020, the prime minister has promised. In a speech, Gordon Brown called super-fast broadband "the electricity of the digital age" which "must be for all - not just for some". The Conservatives say they have made a similar pledge and have attacked a £6-a-year landline levy planned by Labour.
BBC News

China denounces Google 'US ties'
China's state media has attacked Google for having what it said were "intricate ties" with the US government. Google provides US intelligence agencies with a record of its search engine results, the state-run news agency Xinhua said. It also accused Google of trying to change Chinese society by imposing American values on it. Google denied that it was influenced by the US government, a spokesperson for the company was quoted as saying by AP.
BBC News

Bing for iPhone hits 1m users and gets updated
Microsoft has launched an updated version of its Bing search app for iPhone, which it says has been downloaded by more than one million users so far. The new features include stability fixes and design tweaks, but also more significant changes. Users can now bookmark maps, directions, websites, businesses, search terms and local weather reports, accessing these bookmarks from the Bing homepage.
Mobile Entertainment

Internet is biggest threat to endangered species, say conservationists
The internet has emerged as one of the greatest threats to rare species, fuelling the illegal wildlife trade and making it easier to buy everything from live lion cubs to wine made from tiger bones, conservationists said today. The internet's impact was made clear at the meeting of the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). Delegates voted overwhelmingly today to ban the trade of the Kaiser's spotted newt, which the World Wildlife Fund says has been devastated by internet trade.
The Guardian

Security expert breaks into TV star's Facebook account
A security expert has highlighted the dangers of Facebook by hacking a television presenter's account and projecting his personal pictures onto an advertising billboard. Graham Cluley is Sophos's senior technology consultant and was invited by the ITV Tonight programme to see what it could uncover about presenter Jonathan Maitland.
PC Pro

Premier League football available on Freeview soon
Premier league football matches could be made available on terrestrial Freeview services under new plans by Ofcom, the media regulator, which will try to make pay-TV channels more freely available. In effect, this will mean that consumers will be able to purchase individual channels, at more competitive rates, without needing a Sky dish or subscription. Right now, If you want to enjoy Premier League football, going to the pub or using Virgin Media are the only substitutes to a costly Sky subscription.
T3

Every citizen to have a webpage under new public services plan
Everyone in the country is to be given a personalised webpage for accessing Government services within a year as part of a plan to save billions of pounds by putting all public services online, Gordon Brown is to announce. The Prime Minister has previously hailed the potential for the internet to slash the costs of delivering services by reducing paper forms, face-to-face contact with officials, postage, phone calls and building costs. He is now set to use a speech on Monday to unveil plans to give every voter a unique identifier allowing them to apply for school places, book GP appointments, claim benefits, get a new passport, pay council tax or register a car.
The Independent

Google Street View under fire again
Google’s controversial Street View service has been in trouble once again, following the nationwide roll out of the technology a fortnight ago. The system lets users of Google Maps switch from the traditional birds-eye view to a 360-degree street level view of towns and cities photographed by Google's car-top cameras, with approximately 210,000 miles added to the service with the latest update. However, according to widespread reports the web giant has been hit by yet more complaints, after its cameras were found to have captured the image of murdered teenager Ashleigh Hall standing outside her home just weeks before she died.
V3

Skype Co-Founders Raise $165 Million For New Fund—Short Of Initial Goal
Skype co-founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis have raised $165 million for their second venture fund which will mainly back European high growth tech startups. Zennström and Friis—who also started Kazaa and Joost—had initially aimed to raise $266 million for the fund a year ago but downplay the shortfall telling the Financial Times, “when we started we had a flexible number” and “we think we have exactly the right amount of money.”  Zennström and Friis started their investment company—Atomico Ventures—four years ago. Over the last year, it has backed several startups, including mobile gaming firm Zattikka, music service Rdio, and social games site Playfire
mocoNews

Russians and SEC working to shut down stock hacker
The ongoing case against hackers using stolen share trading accounts to manipulate stocks is seeing good co-operation between Russian businesses and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The case against Russian firm Broco now looks to be developing into a search for a client who used the company's share dealing system to illegally manipulate stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange."The equivocal account belongs to our client," said Dmitry Zelenko, head of Broco's legal department.
Yahoo! News UK

Web inventor calls for government data transparency
Countries should be judged on their willingness to open up public data to their citizens, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web has told the BBC.  He said "openness of data and the neutrality of the network" should be considered as important as free speech.
BBC News

Google moves browser translation out of beta
Google has decided to take its browser translation features out of beta status. The company said that it would be extending the feature to all Windows versions of its Chrome browser as part of the "stable channel" category. First unveiled earlier this month in beta versions of Chrome, the translation tools support 52 different languages and allow the browser to translate text within web pages at high speeds.
V3

Security Chief: Facebook Needs Panic Button
The head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) has said he "cannot understand" why Facebook does not install a "panic button" for children. It follows criticism of the site after sex attacker Peter Chapman used it to make friends with 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by posing as a teenager.
Sky News

Amazon launches Kindle ebook reader for Macs
The free Kindle for Mac application will give users access to more than 325,000 books in the Kindle Store, allowing them to download and read the ebooks on their computer, and even add a virtual bookmark to a page so they do not lose their place.
Telegraph

Online piracy could cost €240bn and 1.2 million jobs by 2015
Digital piracy could cost Europe €240bn and 1.2 million jobs by 2015, says a report from the International Chamber of Commerce's Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (Bascap) initiative. The report, prepared by the Tera Consultants, showed that the EU's creative industries contributed 6.9%, or €860bn, to total European GDP, and represented 6.5%, or 14 million jobs
Computer Weekly

Google beaten by Facebook
New figures suggest that social networking is continuing to gain in popularity on the web, and that the way users search the internet is changing. According to research firm Hitwise, Facebook.com now accounts for 7.07 per cent of all American web traffic, while Google.com is the destination for 7.04 per cent of traffic. Facebook has grown from 200m users in April 2009 to 400 million this February and is continuing to grow faster than Google.com. That means the social network’s lead is likely to increase in coming months.
The Telegraph

Microsoft loses another patent case
THE SHY AND RETIRING, softly spoken Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will have to write a cheque for $106 million to an outfit called VirnetX. VirnetX apparently owns patents that covers ways to secure virtual private network connections. The technique involves the use of encrypted data so that snoopers can't look at it. A Texas jury awarded VirnetX $106 million after determining Microsoft violated two of its patents.
The Inquirer

More than 150,000 iPad Sold During Weekend According To Estimates
According to the data released by Investor Village's AAPL Sanity Board, Apple's iPad tablet device has received around 152,000 pre-orders during the first weekend of its release; the device is not currently on pre-order outside the US. However, the rate at which people are pre-ordering the device has dropped significantly after the weekend.  The data revealed by the APPL Sanity Board was derived from tracking the pre-order IDs which were submitted by volunteers on the board.
ITProPortal

Digital economy bill: Online piracy law unlikely to face major scrutiny
The government is planning to introduce controversial measures, backed by the Conservatives, that would force internet companies to block websites that host substantial amounts of pirated content as it scrambles to get its digital economy bill through parliament. But because of the truncated timetable for getting the bill into law before a looming general election, the government's as-yet unwritten clause is unlikely to face any major scrutiny before coming into force.
The Guardian

Microsoft rushes to stop Internet Explorer exploit
Microsoft said on Friday it is testing a patch to fix a new hole in Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 following the release of exploit code on the internet. With the announcement it seems increasingly likely that the company will be issuing a patch for the hole before the next Patch Tuesday in about four weeks, if the testing of the patch goes quickly.
ZD Net

The thing that's on my mind this week is salaries in the PR profession.  Attracting and retaining the best PR and marketing talent is what we all strive for in the agency environment.  I'm sure most agencies worth their salt have developed and introduced mature processes - regular performance reviews, mentoring and personal development, training modules etc.  Quite right too if they want to be regarded as good employers.
 
I'll admit to being a bit too much carrot and not enough stick as I have a generous nature and perhaps want to be seen to be doing the right things.  Ultimately though, it has to come down to how motivated individuals are to carve out a career in PR.  In the industry, we all know it's not a nine to five job, it's not a career you can do half-heartedly.  It's a full-on commitment and a career that demands passion and hard work.  But oh, look what you get in return.  Job satisfaction has to be high on the list of PR professionals.  No two days are the same and it's a career where you can definitely reap what you sow if you have the aptitude.  It's a career where you can really make a difference.
 
We publish our salary bands which are reviewed against Median's annual salary survey and are transparent with what is on offer and how PR professionals can progress through the agency.  We also offer benefits which are on a par with agencies much larger than Mi liberty because some things are easy to grant to loyal staff and we want to retain the best talent to take the agency to the next level. 
 
So, in summary - it's not really just about the salary, it's about the package and how it is communicated.  There will always be staff turnover, it's the nature of business life, but on the whole it's like a communications plan.  If you get the mix right, the plan will deliver.

US plans to give high-speed broadband to every American
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which will now submit the plan to Congress, said broadband was the "greatest infrastructure challenge". It estimates that one-third of Americans, about 100 million people, are without broadband at home.
The FCC's goal is to provide speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to an average 4Mbps now.
BBC News

Lords pass controversial internet piracy bill
The Digital Economy Bill is now expected to be rushed through the Commons before the general election. Peers had earlier rejected a bid by ministers to include wide-ranging powers over future online piracy law. But despite criticism, the government said it was still committed to giving courts the power to block websites which are infringing copyright.
BBC News

Facebook removing stalker applications
Facebook says it is "aggressively disabling" applications that claim to allow users to see who is viewing their profile. It has also confirmed that the programmes do not work and won't allow access to private information. Several variants of the so-called "stalker apps" have appeared on Facebook in recent days. Unwitting users have helped spread the rogue software by attempting to install it.
BBC News

Twitter embeds itself in the web
Twitter has announced technology that it hopes will further embed the service into the fabric of the web. @anywhere, as it is known, will allow people using websites such as Amazon or the New York Times to follow new users or share media directly from the page. It was unveiled at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.
BBC News

Traffic to Twitter and Facebook fell in February in US, says Compete
Figures about web traffic are notoriously hard to interpret - as in, to what extent should you trust them? It can be like trying to discern which opinion poll to believe. So bearing in mind our story about Facebook passing Google for traffic in the US in a week in March, according to Hitwise, see how you like these numbers: according to Compete.com, in the US in February Twitter's web traffic fell by 9.63 per cent, Facebook's by 4.32 per cent, LinkedIn's by 8.30 per cent, while MySpace lost 11.5 per cent of its unique visitors.
The Guardian

Juniper predicts $18.9bn of web 2.0 mobile revenues by 2014
Juniper Research's latest report predicts that Web 2.0 applications and services will be generating $18.9 million of mobile revenues by 2014. Where will the dosh come from for these services in mobile? According to Juniper, it'll be a mixture of ads, messaging, premium services and virtual economies, along with mobile micro-payments.
Mobile Entertainment

Google hires heavyweights to lead mobile charge
Web giant Google has been busy adding more ‘hero’ executives to its ranks as it prepares to really stake a claim in the mobile space. As of Monday morning, Tim Bray, co-founder of web technology XML, works for Google as developer advocate for the Android platform.
Telecoms.com

Motorola prepares for network unit sale
Motorola is planning to sell its mobile network infrastructure business, but may team up with a rival to form a joint venture, according to reports. The company is planning a group demerger that will result in separate companies for its handset and infrastructure businesses early next year. Greg Brown, co-CEO of Motorola, will lead the companies that make network infrastructure and mobile radio equipment for the emergency services.
Global Telecoms Business

Orange adds three MVNO deals
Orange has signed three new mobile virtual network operator deals. The company has secured the deals on its Orange Partner Platform, through Transatel, Orange’s mobile virtual network aggregator partner. Orange has signed two deals with UK fixed line providers, Unicom — not connected with China Unicom — and Axis Telecom, and the third with Catalyst, a company working with students, ethnic minorities and small and medium enterprises.
Global Telecoms Business

Dotcom web address celebrates silver anniversary
The internet celebrates a landmark event on the 15 March - the 25th birthday of the day the first dotcom name was registered. In March 1985, Symbolics computers of Cambridge, Massachusetts entered the history books with an internet address ending in dotcom. It took until 1997, well into the internet boom, before the one millionth dotcom was registered.
BBC News

Google '99.9 per cent' certain to pull China search plug
Google is now "99.9 per cent" certain it will shut down its Chinese search engine, according to a report citing "a person familiar with the company's thinking". The Financial Times reports that the web giant has drawn up detailed plans for closing Google.cn, saying the company's discussions with Chinese authorities reached an impasse. The news came hours after a Chinese minister warned Google that it would "have to bear the consequences" if it stopped censoring results on Google.cn.
The Register

HD video to help stroke patients get early diagnosis
Doctors expect to save hundreds of lives a year by assessing stroke patients taken ill overnight via high definition video links. The first three hours after a stroke are crucial, but patients who live in rural areas can spend most of this time travelling to the nearest specialist. A 15-week pilot study at five hospitals in the east of England has already saved six lives by enabling doctors to make an early assessment, and the technology is to be rolled out to 17 hospitals across the region.
Computer Weekly

Street View slammed as 'service for burglars'
Google Street View is seen by most UK consumers as an intrusive technology and nothing more than a ‘service for burglars’, according to a new poll reported in The Telegraph. Discount website myvouchercodes.co.uk interviewed over 1,300 people about the service, which lets users of Google Maps switch from the traditional birds-eye view to a 360-degree street level view of towns and cities photographed by Google's car-top cameras. According to the report 57 per cent of those interviewed described the service an ‘intrusion' while 24 per cent said that they believed it was ‘a service for burglars’.
V3

Online music revenue growth offsets CD decline for the first time
PRS for Music, the music collection agency, has revealed royalties from digital music are growing at a faster rate than the decline in revenues from physical music sales for the first time. Digital revenues grew by £12.8m (72.7 per cent) to £30.4m in 2009 as platforms such as Spotify, MySpace Music and iTunes expanded their user base, according to PRS for Music. This compared to an £8.7m fall in CD and DVD revenues through the year. Total revenues grew by 2.6 per cent from £608.3m in 2008 to £623m last year.
New Media Age

Iran hacks opposition Web sites, arrests cyber activists
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps hacked into 29 Web sites affiliated with U.S. espionage networks, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Sunday. "The hacked websites acted against Iran's national security under the cover of human rights activities," Fars reported. It did not disclose details of the attacks. The 29 Web sites were identified in a statement (in Farsi) released on a Web site operated by the Revolutionary Guards.
Macworld UK

How do you get attention in a multi-channel world where potential customers synthesise opinions from multiple narratives about the client?

As a PR professional you have to decide what is the best approach to this multichannel world for each client on a spectrum from frenetic bursts of fame to slow-burners.  You also have to closely observe what other narratives are forming around the client and attempt to shape them.  And that's shape, not resist.  Resistance is futile because it looks like denial and merely fuels contrary opinions.  Shaping narratives requires subtle skill.  Journalists clearly have a role in this shaping as influencers and this is the basis of media relations, but the other truism is that PR is required to build relationships with influencers, just as it has always been.  Certainly, companies can speak directly to their customers, or to journalists, but do they have the patience to build relationships and the skill to shape narratives?
 
Yes, PR's can do their job entirely electronically, but electronic communications are easy to ignore.  They are mostly textual and don't really convey the rich mix of communication that face to face or even verbal contact brings.  You can build a more powerfull relationship face to face than in 140 characters.  It's also easier for a journalist (or other influencer) to say no to an anonymous text or email or to decline a self-serving Facebook request.
 
So if you wonder how to get the most from the brave new world of social media, we've built a programme around Socialnomics.  It fits in with the traditional mix of communication channels so that it works where it is relevant.  Amazingly, we've got a book in hard format that explains more about this, but we've also got a video you can watch to get you thinking.
 
In a world suffering from attention-deficit disorder, relationships focus the attention, so don't assume that because it's electronic, the PR's job is redundant.  It's just as relevant, if not more so!

http://www.miliberty.com/SocialNomics/ best watched with volume turned up!

AOL appoints first director of video
AOL Europe is bolstering its commitment to video with the appointment of Kelly Sweeney to the new role of director of video. She will be responsible for commissioning original productions and managing relationships with production partners and advertisers. Formerly, Sweeney served as head of original content at social network Bebo and was line producer on shows such as KateModern. She has also worked on productions for the BBC, ITV and Sky.
New Media Age

IT budgets enjoy 2010 spending increase
This year will see IT spending rise for the first time since the global recession took hold, although a full-scale recovery is unlikely in the short term, analysts have predicted. Around a third of businesses expect their IT budgets to increase in 2010, according to a worldwide survey carried out by analyst house Ovum.
ZDnet

UK plastic fraud losses fall for first time in 3 years, online banking losses up though
A rise in online banking fraud losses took some of the shine off the overall fall in debit and credit fraud in the UK last year. Official figures from the UK Cards Association, which represents UK credit and debit card providers, published on Wednesday show that fraud on debit and credit cards fell by 28 per cent in 2009 to £440.3m in total, compared to £610m in 2008.
The Register

Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users
Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years.
By early 2011 all hard drives will use an "advanced format" that changes how they go about saving the data people store on them. The move to the advanced format will make it easier for hard drive makers to produce bigger drives that use less power and are more reliable.
BBC News

Google announces its own app store
INTERNET ENABLED GIANT Google is taking the marketplace idea it uses for Android apps and extending it for the rest of its online apps portfolio. The search giant has teamed with over 50 other companies to launch the Google Apps Marketplace, which allows administrators to access a host of cloud based applications for deployment to their domains.
The Inquirer

Google Buzz survey: Yeah, no one's using it
Google Buzz has a great deal of work to do to convince even tech-literate Web users that it's a viable service, a CNET UK survey shows. We asked our exquisitely discerning readers what they think of Gmail's status-updates feature and the results are in.  Some 220 people responded to the survey, 44 of whom had used Buzz. Criticism of the service ranged from its implementation -- "clustered and annoying" said one user -- to its openness, with one respondent concerned about the recent privacy kerfuffle. The low adoption rate put others off, with no one to talk to.
cnet UK

Apple iPad Network War - Let the battle commence
The carriers for the Apple iPhone are now set to battle it out to gain exclusivity of the Apple iPad.  In the US, AT&T have captured the rights for coverage of the iPad, but here in the UK, Vodafone, O2 and Orange are at loggerheads and the final decision will be made by Apple itself, who are making their way over here to deliver the verdict.
Unbeatable UK

Tech giants attack Digital Economy Bill
A number of influential tech industry players have signed an open letter to the Financial Times opposing government plans to tighten up internet regulation, particularly the moves to cut off illegal file sharers without a fair trial.  The signatories warn that the proposed amendment to the Digital Economy Bill could limit the right to free speech, and harm the UK's reputation as a place to do business. The letter has been signed by BT chief executive Ian Livingstone, TalkTalk chairman Charles Dunstone and Google UK managing director Matt Brittin, among others.
V3 UK

Lip-reading could come to mobile phones
Mobile phones could soon be able to read your lips, making so-called “silent conversations” a reality. By measuring tiny electrical signals produced by the muscles involved in speech, researchers have been able to develop a device which can record what a person is saying, even if it is inaudible, and then generate a synthesized version elsewhere.
The Telegraph 

The Rubicon Project offers mobile ad optimization tool
A new mobile advertising tool is promising to help premium web publishers maximize the value of their mobile platforms. REVV for Mobile has been created by online ad optimization specialist The Rubicon Project in conjunction with mOcean Mobile, an independent mobile ad platform.
New Media Age

Cybercrimes expand to global brands
While financial institutions still top the phishing radar, cybercriminals are now moving beyond to top brands, with one of the recent victims being a hardware manufacturer, according to the latest Anti-Phishing Work Group report. The report for the fourth quarter of 2009 revealed that 356 brands were hijacked in October, an increase of 4.4 per cent over the previous high of 341 recorded last August.
zdnet

Mobile retail market to exceed $12 billion by 2014
A new report from Juniper Research has found that one to one marketing allied to the rapid proliferation of smartphones will be among the key drivers of a mobile retail market which is anticipated to exceed $12 billion by 2014.
Comms Business

Google 'trialling TV search service'
It has been rumoured that Google is set to make a play for the set-top box space. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company is working with Dish Network on a new feature that would let users search both TV content and web videos on set-top boxes "using elements of Google's Android operating system".
The Guardian

Microsoft launches Bing TV ad campaign
Microsoft has launched a three month TV advertising campaign in an effort to make ground on Google in the UK search market. Starting this week, the campaign will attempt to increase Bing's market share from the three per cent it currently holds.
IAB UK

US eases Cuba, Iran, Sudan sanctions to allow freer web
US technology firms will now be allowed to export online services such as instant messaging and social networks. Companies had not offered such services for fear of violating sanctions.
BBC News

Mobile-phone wallet stymied by lack of understanding
In a new white paper from the 'Forum (pdf), the industry body explains the various technologies available as well as the business relationships which are necessary to make proximity payments happen, all presented on the basis that users are just dying to pay for everything with a wave of the mobile telephone.
The Register

Android native code kit apes iPhone game 3D
Google has opened the door to iPhone-like 3D games on certain Android handsets, offering support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics standard with its latest Android Native Development Kit (NDK).Mountain View announced the third release of its Android NDK in a Monday blog post. The chief addition is Open GL for Embedded Systems 2.0 native libraries, bringing the platform in line with Apple's iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre.
The Register

Palm gives away EA games for the Pre
Smartphone maker Palm has announced it is offering three free EA games to every Palm Pre user. After a good start, Palm is struggling to gain market share for its Pre high-end smartphone. Meanwhile, computer game giant EA has seen the writing on the wall and realised it needs to focus a lot more heavily on the mobile market. So it makes sense for the two of them to collaborate in the great mobile Internet land grab.
Hexus Channel

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests. The survey, conducted by GlobeScan for the BBC, also revealed divisions on the question of government oversight of some aspects of the net.
Web users questioned in South Korea and Nigeria felt strongly that governments should never be involved in regulation of the internet. However, a majority of those in China and the many European countries disagreed. In the UK, for example, 55 per cent believed that there was a case for some government regulation of the internet.
BBC News

Browser makers demand screen time
Makers of small web browsers want their programs to be given more prominence on Microsoft's browser choice screen.  Six software firms have complained to the EU saying many do not realise their programs were on offer. To see all 12 web browsers, users must scroll to the right when viewing Microsoft's ballot screen. The choice is being offered as part of a settlement of an anti-trust case brought against Microsoft by the European Commission.
BBC News

Finishing school for Indian IT graduates
In a classroom in the southern Indian city of Mysore, several dozen young men and women listen rapt to their lecturer, Chhaya Srivatsa.The students here are all engineering graduates and their school, set up two years ago, Raman International Institute of Information Technology (RiiiT), is a finishing school for information technology (IT) professionals - some of whom are considered to lack the social skills which could help them get a job.
BBC News

US iPad launch slips (slightly) to April 3
Apple has announced that its iPad tablet will go on sale in the US on Saturday 3rd April. That's the Wi-Fi-only model - the Wi-Fi + 3G model will go on sale there in late April. That's a slight delay - the Wi-Fi version was expected to go on sale in late March. When it was unveiled on 27th January, CEO Steve Jobs said it would go on sale in 60 days.
Mobile Entertainment

Conservatives want big IT deals delayed
Shadow minister Francis Maude has asked the cabinet secretary to postpone the signing of important IT contracts until after the election.In a letter to Gus O'Donnell, Cabinet Office shadow Maude added that a minister must justify any cases where the government decides it must go ahead with a new deal. The Conservative Party is concerned about recent big deals signed by the Department for Work and Pensions, the renegotiation of contracts for the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) and the possible signing of a £1bn logistics deal by the Ministry of Defence.
The Register

Britain fends off flood of foreign cyber-attacks
Foreign states and terrorist groups are regularly launching cyber-attacks on the UK's computer systems with the potential to cause widespread damage, according to the government's security tsar. Lord West of Spithead, who is parliamentary under-secretary for security and counter-terrorism, told the Observer that the UK was under daily cyber attack, often from agencies working on behalf of foreign governments. He said there had been "300 significant attacks" on the government's core computer networks in the last year and warned of chaotic scenes if one successfully targeted infrastructure such as the UK's communications systems.
The Observer

YouTube 'under threat' from Digital Economy Bill changes
The High Court could be given the power to issue an injunction against a website accused of hosting "substantial" amounts of copyright-infringing material, under amendments to the Digital Economy Bill proposed by the Liberal Democrats. It means popular websites, such as YouTube, which often unwittingly carry content uploaded without the permission of copyright holders, could be "blocked" or forced offline if the amendment is upheld. The Digital Economy Bill was announced in the Queen's speech in November, with a major section dedicated to how best to deal with illegal file sharing.
Telegraph

Cyberwar declared as China hunts for the West’s intelligence secrets
Urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China. The attacks have also hit government and military institutions in the United States, where analysts said that the West had no effective response and that EU systems were especially vulnerable because most cyber security efforts were left to member states. Nato diplomatic sources told The Times: “Everyone has been made aware that the Chinese have become very active with cyber-attacks and we’re now getting regular warnings from the office for internal security.” The sources said that the number of attacks had increased significantly over the past 12 months, with China among the most active players.
The Times

Google improves collaborative Microsoft Office functions
Google has bought productivity specialists DocVerse, enabling users to edit Microsoft Office documents collaboratively online. Google's acquisition of DocVerse should prove to be a godsend to those working on joint projects where the team is using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to collaboratively create and edit their documents online. Google credited DocVerse's "small, nimble team of talented developers who share [Google's] vision." The announcement was made via the Google Enterprise blog and via DocVerse's own site.
TechRadar UK

Judge puts Apple-Nokia case on hold
A judge has put the Apple and Nokia legal battle on hold. The move is to give the feds a chance to investigate the matter, which involves patent infringement claims from both Nokia and Apple. The US International Trade Commission (ITC) is investigating Jobs' Mob's patent infringement complaint against Nokia as the legal handbags at dawn battle gets bogged down in knee deep mud. It all started in October 2009, when Nokia sued Apple claiming that Apple infringed ten of its patents without paying for them. When Nokia approached Cupertino with licensing terms, it was told that Steve Jobs invented everything including the wheel and fire and it would have to pay him instead.
The Inquirer

Online 'more popular than newspapers' in US
Online news has become more popular than reading newspapers in the US, according to a survey.
It is the third most popular form of news, behind local and national TV stations, the Pew Research Center said. Sixty-one per cent of readers surveyed said they got their news online on a typical day, compared with 78% from local news channels and 71% from a national TV network such as NBC or cable channels such as CNN or Fox News.
BBC News

Cameron's Conservatives launch a free iPhone app
The UK's Conservative Party has launched an official iPhone app, designed to keep people up to date with news and policies in the run-up to the General Election. The free app launched over the weekend, and offers a mixture of news and policy info, links to the party's social networking profiles, a 'Call A Friend' feature to canvass contacts, and a tiltable 'swingometer'.
Mobile Entertainment

BBC Trust won't probe iPlayer open source gripes
The governing body of the BBC has no plans to investigate the Corporation's decision to block open source implementations of RTMP (real-time messaging protocol) streaming in the iPlayer, despite grumbles from many UK viewers and listeners of the service. the Beeb applied the update to its online video catch-up service on 18 February, and shortly after BBC forums were awash with complaints by Blighty-based iPlayer users who could no longer access the service.
The Register

Microsoft fluffs Feds with secure cloud
Microsoft has beaten rival Google to deliver a version of its online applications tailored for US government users. This week, the company announced delivery of its Business Productivity Online Suite Federal, which updates the existing online suite with security, privacy, and compliance features. The suite includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online. Among the features are secured and separate hosting facilities access to which is restricted to a small number of US citizens who have cleared rigorous background checks under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
The Register

Twitter and Facebook access for US troops
US troops are to be allowed to use social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook following a review of internet use and security. Defence department officials say the benefits of using social media now outweigh the risks to security. The ruling means that a number of sites blocked by the Pentagon in 2007 - including YouTube - will be unblocked. However, commanders will be able to temporarily block access to safeguard missions or save bandwidth. Correspondents say social media and the internet are becoming increasingly important for the US military.
BBC News

Nintendo to launch bigger console in Europe, US next month
Nintendo will next month launch its DSi XL hand-held game console in Europe and the United States, hoping to win over older users with its bigger screens, web access and electronic book reader. The DSi XL, unveiled in Japan in November, will hit European stores on March 5 and US stores on March 28, Nintendo said Friday. Gaming consoles increasingly compete with other web-enabled portable devices such as smart phones, tablet computers such as the Apple iPad, and electronic book readers like Amazon's Kindle. The DSi XL's double screen is 93 percent bigger than last year's model - the panel now measures 4.2 inches (10.7 centimeters) - making it easier to read books by flicking virtual pages with a stylus.
The Independent

US government rescinds 'leave internet alone' policy
The US government’s policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama’s top official at the Department of Commerce. Instead, an “Internet Policy 3.0” approach will see policy discussions between government agencies, foreign governments, and key Internet constituencies, according to Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling, with those discussions covering issues such as privacy, child protection, cybersecurity, copyright protection, and Internet governance. The outcomes of such discussions will be “flexible” but may result in recommendations for legislation or regulation, Strickling said in a speech at the Media Institute in Washington this week.
The Register

Palm ponders survival
Smartphone industry pundits wonder whether Palm can survive another year, given Palm's guidance today that its new smartphone sales failed to meet expectations. Palm revenues for the year will be "well below" a previous forecast, Palm said, because adoption of its Palm webOS smartphones, the Palm Pre and the Pixi, first announced in early 2009, is taking longer than anticipated. The news caused Palm's stock price to plunge 17% initially, and the question is being raised whether Palm can survive in its current form beyond the 2010 year-end holiday shopping season.
Techworld

Microsoft offers browser choices to Europeans
Microsoft is to ask millions of users across Europe if they want to use a web browser other than its own. Windows users will be offered the choice as part of a deal Microsoft struck with the European Commission. The agreement resolves a long-running case in which the software giant was accused of abusing its market position. A pop-up window will prompt people to choose and install one of 12 different browsers or let them stick with Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
BBC News