E Buzz 09 September 2010

We're reporting live from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where Google's just taken the wraps off its latest software product. The announcement itself is taking its time right now, with background facts like Google recently crossing the one billion users a week milestone, but the Google Instant service has been activated and you can see details about its immediate result delivery at the source below. Basically, the Goog no longer waits for you to hit Enter while searching and starts updating its results page Instantly as you type.  

Engadget 

Browser betas, like puberty, can be a confusing time. Sure, we're eager to be getting new functionality, but all the crashes and compatibility breaks and unrequited crushes can be a bit tough to handle. Now Mozilla is giving us something big for all our blood, sweat and acne: Firefox 4 Beta 5 has Direct2D hardware acceleration on by default. t at the frame and shoot the file over. 

Engadget 

BT has launched a mobile app for broadband customers that automatically connects their iPhone and Android mobiles to free, unlimited Wi-Fi. The BT FON app, which is only available to BT Total Broadband customers, notifies users of the nearest Wi-Fi hot spots. Users then enter their BT internet email username and password, and can choose to be automatically logged in whenever they are in a BT Wi-Fi area. Because access is unlimited and free for BT Total Broadband customers, this prevents them racking up extra costs on their mobile phone bill. BT FON and BT Openzone currently has 1.6m Wi-Fi hot spots worldwide.

Guardian 

Talk Talk, one of the country’s leading internet service providers, has been rapped by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for failing to disclose details of a software trial that gathered information about the websites visited by its customers.The Information Commissioner said that Talk Talk should have informed its customers – and the ICO – about a trial it was carrying out to help protect web users from websites infected with malicious software.

A recent study of Canadian university students suggests the heaviest users of Facebook are narcissists and people with low self-esteem. The study of 100 students ranked participants based on levels of narcissism and self-esteem. It revealed that those who ranked high for narcissism almost universally spent more time logging into and updating their Facebook profile. The study, which defines narcissism as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and an exaggerated sense of self-importance," seems common sense enough as Facebook is seemingly the perfect tool for bragging and showing off. How students deemed to have low self-esteem used Facebook was more surprising.

Edmonton CTV CA  

A senior official at the Federal Trade Commission hinted on Wednesday that the agency is planning to prod online advertisers and Web companies to adopt new education tools and data-collection restrictions in an effort to protect consumer privacy. "Right now the consumers really don't understand what's going on. So I think that is the real issue that needs to be addressed," Loretta Garrison, a senior attorney at the FTC, said here at the O'Reilly Media Gov 2.0 Summit. "We think they sort of know they're being tracked, but they don't really understand the wealth of information that's being collected and the many different parties that are involved and the various ways in which [information] is being used."

The American telecommunications company had written to its customers “updating” them on the company’s “exciting plans to make your wireless experience better”. The letter from Tom DeVito, its vice president and general manager in its New York office, wrote to its millions of customers paying tribute to the company’s expansion and multi-billion pound investment plans. But in a decision he might come to regret, Mr Devito asked customers at the end of the letter, dated September 8, to leave their thoughts at the company’s public Facebook page.

Telegraph 

The film industry is using pirate tactics to beat the pirates – by employing “cyber hitmen” to launch attacks that take out websites hosting illegal movies. Girish Kumar, managing director of Aiplex Software, a firm in India, told this website that his company, which works for the film industry, was being hired - effectively as hitmen - to launch cyber attacks on sites hosting pirated movies that don't respond to copyright infringement notices sent to them by the film industry. 

Researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will this month begin looking for technology that will let wireless communications work even through the most extreme and nasty interference. The agency said on Sept. 20  it will detail its Communications Under Extreme RF Spectrum Conditions (CommEx) program which looks to develop wireless communication networks that can operate under severe and complex interference, anticipating traditional interference and communications threats, high power threats, as well as novel interference resulting from new adaptive threats, DARPA stated.

Daimler is launching a pilot carpooling project that combines ride sharing with social media. If all goes well, drivers can make sure carpool passengers share their taste in music and pony up for gas. Called car2gether, the service is an outgrowth of of Daimler’s car2go Smart-sharing program and, according to the company, answers the question of “how flexible and independent mobility can be achieved without car ownership.”