E Buzz - 29 November 2010

by Libergraph 29. November 2010 09:41
WP7 vs Android: a struggle for supremacy
Microsoft may be pandering to carriers by backing away from controlled updates, but predictable user experience is the best way to win fans from fragmented Android. Google can no longer dismiss criticisms of OS strategy from majors such as Netflix. For all its flaws, one attraction of Google‘s "carrier-lite" sales model for the Nexus One was that it freed users from the whim of the operator or handset maker when waiting for software updates. Google has never ceased to ram that point home, with new Android releases and enhancements consistently turning up on the small base of Nexus Ones out there, well ahead of any carrier‘s update program. But generally, there is little incentive for carriers or OEMs to upgrade devices – vendors would rather users bought a new phone, and so would operators as long as it comes with a new data plan.

Tube to get phone coverage by the Olympics
London's tube network will become mobile-friendly by next year, according to Mobile Magazine, which reckons a contract is only weeks away. London taxes will be subsidising this contract. That contract is said to be worth £150m, which will be spent by the network operators to provide both 2G and 3G coverage to the entire network, including between stations, but the annual running costs will need public money to make the project worthwhile, the quantity of which remains a sticking point.

Tajikistan Plans New Taxes on Mobile Phone Use
The Central Asian country of Tajikistan has proposed a 3 percent excise tax on mobile phone use. The bill was passed last week by the Parliamentary lower house, but still needs to be passed by the Upper House before heading to the president's desk for approval. "The new excise tax on mobile services will let Tajikistan's state budget receive an additional 30 million somoni ($6.8 million) a year that will be spent on the development of the social sector," Tajik news service AsiaPlus reported Tajik Finance Minister Safarali Najmiddinov as saying on Wednesday.

Symbian Foundation Web Sites to Shut Down
As Nokia has changed its plans for licensing the Symbian operating system, the Symbian Foundation says that it will be reducing its day-to-day operations, including shutting down its websites from next month. Although the website will be closed down, the content, such as the source code, kits, wiki, bug database, reference documentation & Symbian Ideas will be made available via a DVD or USB from next February. The @Symbian Twitter feed and the Symbian.org fan page on Facebook are also likely to be discontinued. Websites such as www.symbian.org will close on 17th December.

Ireland too scared to tax big tech
It seems that Ireland's austerity measures, which are going to hit the working class for years,  do not apply to the large foreign tech companies who invested in the Emerald Isle. Ireland has been frantically cutting its minimum wage, upping its property taxes, slashing the welfare state,  everything that will hurt, in a bid to get the country's economy working again and getting a bailout from its international partners. But while much of the 15 billion Euros in savings the Irish have pledged to find over the next four years will come from the welfare state and the working class, it seems that the measures will not touch large businesses like Microsoft, and Intel which have created thousands of jobs and fuelled exports in Ireland for years.

Microsoft follows Apple's evil ways
Software Imperium Microsoft appears to think that the autocratic controls of Apple have something to offer. A top Windows Phone executive has blabbed to the press that the Imperium could follow Apple in blacklisting users that unlock Windows Phone 7 to allow third party apps. While Microsoft released Windows Phone 7 OS it lacked features found under the bonnet of other phones on the market. However the phone has such a nice interface that people still want it.

KPN, Telefonica partner to target enterprise
European carriers KPN and Telefónica have struck a deal to support the delivery of global services within each other’s markets to multinational customers. The agreement will enable provision of service to more than 1,200 multinational corporations across both Telefónica and KPN’s relative markets, incorporating a footprint across the European region and key emerging territories.

MIG hits Deloitte Technology Fast 500 number one spot
Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) has secured the number 1 spot in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 rankings for EMEA with a five-year fiscal growth rate of 26,885 per cent. Now in its 10th year, the annual Deloitte Technology Fast 500 ranks the fastest growing public and private technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies from 24 countries across EMEA. “MIG and all the other 2010 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 winners deserve enormous credit for the remarkable growth they have achieved in what remains a challenging economic environment,” says David Halstead, Deloitte partner in charge of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 programme.

Blackboard and txttools Partner For Mass Notification Services
Blackboard, which provides the Blackboard Connect mass notification service, and txttools, the UK provider of text messaging solutions for education, healthcare and government, have partnered to deliver mass notification services to clients in the UK and Ireland. The partnership draws on Blackboard Connect’s experience delivering over 1bn voice, email and text messages and txttools’ pioneering work in two-way text messaging. With the partnership, txttools will market and sell Blackboard Connect mass notification services to existing and prospective clients.

Europe risks missing broadband targets
Europe is still far from reaching broadband access targets set out in its Digital Agenda, despite connection speeds almost doubling in the year to July. Research by the European Commission found that 29% of citizens had access speeds of 10Mbps or more by July 2010, up from 15% in July 2009, but noted the region faces a long road to achieving targets of basic broadband connections for all by 2013 and high speed access by 2020. Digital Agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said agreement on an EC radio spectrum proposal for mobile broadband is urgently needed to help meet the targets.

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E Buzz - 26 November 2010

by Libergraph 26. November 2010 13:36
Chrome OS device codenames revealed
Likely codenames for the first Chrome OS netbooks have been revealed – with Mario and Andretti the motor racing-themed monikers to emerge. Tech Crunch has taken a look at the Chromium issue tracker – working out what names have emerged from people testing machines from within Google HQ. Mario Andretti – as if you didn't already know – is one of the most iconic racing drivers, and has won raced in Formula One, IndyCar and Nascar.

Ireland plans 'startup nirvana' to poach global talent
Ireland is to launch a major new initiative later this year to attract international startup talent in a bid to carve out a role as Europe's Silicon Valley, the Guardian has learned. Despite yesterday announcing the harshest public sector cuts in Irish history, the government also confirmed its budget commitment for its substantial development agencies.
 
Mobile advertising and marketing hot news: Pepsi, Augmented Reality and iAd
Chinese mobile marketer Madhouse has announced that a mobile campaign it ran for Pepsi has won a major mobile advertising award. The Mobile Marketing Associationhas awarded it the Best Use of Mobile Marketing – Cross Media-Integration APAC, for the Battle of the Bands campaign, which tied in with TV, flash and mobile video.

New broadband satellite offers hope to rural areas
High speed broadband connections could finally extend to remote rural areas thanks to the launch of a new satellite. The “Highly Adaptable Satellite” (Hylas) will launch this evening and offer up to 350,000 connections across Europe when testing is finished in early 2011. Originally planned for last year, Hylas’s launch, from French Guyana, will be the first of a new generation of satellites that offer users speeds of up to 10mbps for fees that are likely to be around £25 per month. A larger version, Hylas 2, is planned for launch in 2012. David Williams, chief executive of Avanti, the company that owns British-built satellite, said services will be available through 60 providers across Europe and will offer a similar level of service to that available from most fixed broadband providers. Power can be switched from one area to another, allowing maximum use of the satellites resources around the clock.

KDE releases openCloud web-based storage app update
The KDE project has announced the release of version 1.1 of ownCloud, an open, web-based storage application which runs on a user's personal server. According to KDE contributor and openCloud founder Frank Karlitschek, thanks to a growing development team, the 1.1 update includes a variety of bug fixes, as well as new features. The latest release of ownCloud features a new plug-in system, new user management controls and experimental PostgreSQL support. Other changes include clean up of the existing code, a text viewer with syntax highlighting and support for OCS private attribute storage and activity. Karlitschek says that future updates will include versioning of all files using Git as a back end, improved file sharing and a syncing client to allow users to access their files while off-line.

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Now Has 15,000 Devs
Microsoft has announced that its Windows Phone 7 mobile OS now boasts 3,000 apps and a community of 15,000 developers. In a blog post, the company said that the platform had posted solid growth figures, nearing 3,000 apps by the end of this week and seeing an 80 per cent growth in its developer community since September. Microsoft said that the upcoming holiday shopping season will be the biggest yet and that it is already rolling out new marketing drives to push its new Windows Phone 7 platform. The company also encouraged its developers to start making efforts to promote their own individual apps on the web.

London Tube Map app does 65,000 downloads a month
The free app, made by Bappz, gives iPhone and iPad users a scrollable London tube map. It has 106,000 unique users. It's pretty straightforward. There's no live navigation element because there's no cellular connection on the London underground.

A simple change in the law could open up online access to the BBC's archives
In the melee of the last days of the Labour government, among the casualties were clauses in the digital economy bill that would have solved the intractable problems that stand in the way of giving public access to this country's great archives of radio and television programmes. Think of George Orwell and W H Auden, of Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft, of any British artist or musician you can name. The BBC's archives are a treasure trove of their work, of interviews with them and discussions and documentaries about them. But the BBC can't make them available to us, as it would like to, because of the prohibitive administrative costs of clearing the rights.

Kinect hacks let you control a web browser and Windows 7 using only The Force
Hacking the Xbox 360 Kinect is all about baby steps on the way to what could ultimately amount to some pretty useful homebrew. Here's a good example cooked up by some kids at the MIT Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group attempting to redefine the human-machine interactive experience. DepthJS is a system that makes Javascript talk to Microsoft's Kinect in order to navigate web pages, among other things. Remember, it's not that making wild, arm-waving gestures is the best way to navigate a web site, it's just a demonstration that you can. Let's hope that the hacking communinity picks up the work and evolves it into a multitouch remote control plugin for our home theater PCs. Boxee, maybe you can lend a hand?

HTC 'most searched for' phone
Phone comparison site GoodMobilePhones.co.uk says HTC now dominates the Top 10 most searched for phones.
The Wildfire, Desire and Desire HD take the top three spots in the Top 10, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S, Nokia N8, Apple iPhone 4, Blackberry Curve 8520, Samsung Tocco Lite and Blackberry Torch and Sony Xperia X10 Mini.
Such stats will add to the sense that iPhone is being caught by its rivals.

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E Buzz - 25 November 2010

by Libergraph 25. November 2010 11:56
Smartphones, Twitter top Japan hit product survey
TOKYO (Reuters Life!) – Smartphones and Twitter were the hottest products in Japan in 2010 and travel and leisure were back on the menu, an ad agency survey showed, as penny-pinching consumers rediscovered their fun side. Flat-screen TVs equipped for digital broadcasting placed fourth in Dentsu's annual "Hit Product Recognition Survey" and energy-saving appliances ranked eighth.

Telstra Starts High-Speed Mobile Service in Hong Kong With 4G Network
Telstra Corp.’s Hong Kong mobile- phone unit started a fourth-generation network in the city to meet demand for high-speed wireless services and lift revenue. The network, based on LTE, or Long Term Evolution, technology now covers 50 percent of the city’s population, Joseph O’Konek, chief executive officer at Telstra’s CSL Ltd. unit, said at a briefing today.

It’s time to get realistic about mobile payments
Mobile shopping is in the news a lot this holiday season. It has mostly been appearing in the form of services like ShopSavvy or shopkick – where the mobile is used to compare prices, or earn location-based rewards. But a lot of people are trying to make mobile payments more attractive consumers, where they can actually use their phone to pay for goods instead of cash or a credit card. We spoke to Jay Emmet, General Manager of OpenMarket, about the need for the mobile payments industry to get real.

US e-commerce to rise 11 per cent over xmas
Online shopping is predicted to reach $32. 4 billion (£21.6 billion) over the period covering November and December, compared to a four per cent increase experienced last year. E-commerce has already had a positive start as the sector has witnessed a 13 per cent increase in sales in the first 21 days of the holiday season compared to last year. In the first three weeks of November, online shoppers have spent $9.01 billion (£5.7 billion)

Brits blow millions on over-priced ink
British consumers are wasting £440m a year on branded printer cartridges rather than cheaper white label replacements. A survey from YouGov found half of all households always buy brand name cartridges, which are typically a third more expensive than equivalents from the likes of WH Smith. Switching would save an average of £44 a year. Researchers spoke to 2,000 households. The average UK home gets through 4.85 cartridges a year. Cartridges from HP, Canon or Lexmark cost an average of £30 each - so the annual bill is £145.50 - the same as a TV licence.

Virgin Provides Fibre For UK Government Network
Virgin Media Business has offered up its fibre-optic network to underpin the UK government’s Public Sector Network (PSN), designed to deliver voice and data technology and related ICT services over a single core network. The PSN was pioneered by the previous Labour government, which in its ICT Strategy proposed setting up a network that was “secure, based on open standards, interoperable, energy efficient and competitive”. This would replace the current hotchpotch of public sector networks, which were described as “fragmented, unreliable and expensive”.

Android Market to add film-like age restriction ratings
Google will be adding film-like age restriction ratings to all its apps onAndroid Market. The ratings will be added to ensure content is suitable for those downloading the applications. According to Boy Genius Report, applications can be rated all, pre-teen, teen, or mature. Google has also reported that locations-based applications should not be rated all, but should be labelled either pre-teen or teen to prevent children being at risk online.

China market: Mobile phone users top 842 million in October
There were 842.04 million subscribers of mobile communication services in China as of the end of October 2010, growing by 1.05% on month and by 15.42% on year, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The number of subscribers accounted for 62.5% of the country's population (user density).

Astronauts to be sent to the dark side of the moon for first time in 40 years in pre-Mars mission
Scientists are planning to explore the dark side of the Moon using a manned spacecraft for the first since since the Apollo landings of 1968. Engineers with aerospace giant Lockheed Martin want to send up astronauts into stationary orbit above Earth's best-known natural satellite to study it further. The firm hopes to use remote controlled robots dispatched from their spacecraft to collect samples and explore the South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon, one of the oldest craters in the solar system.

Driverless cars and vehicle networks: We predict the future of car tech
If you were to take a motoring pioneer from the early 20th century for a spin in a modern car, the only things likely to confuse a Charles Rolls or Henry Royce would be the fluffy dice and spinning rims. That will all change in the years to come, as power, connectivity and computing innovations accelerate our horseless carriages on to the digital superhighway. Fasten your seatbelts.


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E Buzz - 25 November 2010

by Libergraph 25. November 2010 11:56
Smartphones, Twitter top Japan hit product survey
TOKYO (Reuters Life!) – Smartphones and Twitter were the hottest products in Japan in 2010 and travel and leisure were back on the menu, an ad agency survey showed, as penny-pinching consumers rediscovered their fun side. Flat-screen TVs equipped for digital broadcasting placed fourth in Dentsu's annual "Hit Product Recognition Survey" and energy-saving appliances ranked eighth.

Telstra Starts High-Speed Mobile Service in Hong Kong With 4G Network
Telstra Corp.’s Hong Kong mobile- phone unit started a fourth-generation network in the city to meet demand for high-speed wireless services and lift revenue. The network, based on LTE, or Long Term Evolution, technology now covers 50 percent of the city’s population, Joseph O’Konek, chief executive officer at Telstra’s CSL Ltd. unit, said at a briefing today.

It’s time to get realistic about mobile payments
Mobile shopping is in the news a lot this holiday season. It has mostly been appearing in the form of services like ShopSavvy or shopkick – where the mobile is used to compare prices, or earn location-based rewards. But a lot of people are trying to make mobile payments more attractive consumers, where they can actually use their phone to pay for goods instead of cash or a credit card. We spoke to Jay Emmet, General Manager of OpenMarket, about the need for the mobile payments industry to get real.

US e-commerce to rise 11 per cent over xmas
Online shopping is predicted to reach $32. 4 billion (£21.6 billion) over the period covering November and December, compared to a four per cent increase experienced last year. E-commerce has already had a positive start as the sector has witnessed a 13 per cent increase in sales in the first 21 days of the holiday season compared to last year. In the first three weeks of November, online shoppers have spent $9.01 billion (£5.7 billion)

Brits blow millions on over-priced ink
British consumers are wasting £440m a year on branded printer cartridges rather than cheaper white label replacements. A survey from YouGov found half of all households always buy brand name cartridges, which are typically a third more expensive than equivalents from the likes of WH Smith. Switching would save an average of £44 a year. Researchers spoke to 2,000 households. The average UK home gets through 4.85 cartridges a year. Cartridges from HP, Canon or Lexmark cost an average of £30 each - so the annual bill is £145.50 - the same as a TV licence.

Virgin Provides Fibre For UK Government Network
Virgin Media Business has offered up its fibre-optic network to underpin the UK government’s Public Sector Network (PSN), designed to deliver voice and data technology and related ICT services over a single core network. The PSN was pioneered by the previous Labour government, which in its ICT Strategy proposed setting up a network that was “secure, based on open standards, interoperable, energy efficient and competitive”. This would replace the current hotchpotch of public sector networks, which were described as “fragmented, unreliable and expensive”.

Android Market to add film-like age restriction ratings
Google will be adding film-like age restriction ratings to all its apps onAndroid Market. The ratings will be added to ensure content is suitable for those downloading the applications. According to Boy Genius Report, applications can be rated all, pre-teen, teen, or mature. Google has also reported that locations-based applications should not be rated all, but should be labelled either pre-teen or teen to prevent children being at risk online.

China market: Mobile phone users top 842 million in October
There were 842.04 million subscribers of mobile communication services in China as of the end of October 2010, growing by 1.05% on month and by 15.42% on year, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The number of subscribers accounted for 62.5% of the country's population (user density).

Astronauts to be sent to the dark side of the moon for first time in 40 years in pre-Mars mission
Scientists are planning to explore the dark side of the Moon using a manned spacecraft for the first since since the Apollo landings of 1968. Engineers with aerospace giant Lockheed Martin want to send up astronauts into stationary orbit above Earth's best-known natural satellite to study it further. The firm hopes to use remote controlled robots dispatched from their spacecraft to collect samples and explore the South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon, one of the oldest craters in the solar system.

Driverless cars and vehicle networks: We predict the future of car tech
If you were to take a motoring pioneer from the early 20th century for a spin in a modern car, the only things likely to confuse a Charles Rolls or Henry Royce would be the fluffy dice and spinning rims. That will all change in the years to come, as power, connectivity and computing innovations accelerate our horseless carriages on to the digital superhighway. Fasten your seatbelts.


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E Buzz - 24 November 2010

by Libergraph 24. November 2010 14:58
Acer announces Clear.fi cloud server and alive store
Acer has announced Clear.fi, an 'innovative content sharing platform, and 'alive' a next generation store alongside a host of new tablets. The announcement of the dual touchscreen Iconia and a range of more traditional tablets somewhat overshadowed the arrival of Clear.fi and alive, but they are significant to the computer giant. "With Clear.fi, Acer has created an innovative content sharing platform that merges content stored on different devices across the same network around the idea that it is easier and better if this content is simply linked together under one system with a common interface," stated Acer's official release. "At the same time, Acer also developed 'alive' – its next generation store – from the desire to complete the circle of services and solutions offered by all Acer Group brands by adding content, convergency and continuity to the product mix."

Xbox and Bing play host to Windows Phone 7 push
Microsoft has confirmed that it will be using the Xbox and its Bing search engine as a way to hammer home the message about its Windows Phone 7 product. Windows Phone 7 represents a huge push from Microsoft back into the consumer phone market – and the software giant is prepared to leverage some of its most successful brands to make it a success. That will include hawking Windows Phone 7 apps and phones through the Xbox platform, and using the visual search of Bing to push its wares as well

Nokia comes out with two bargain basement handsets
Finnish phone maker Nokia has released a pair of affordable phones, trying to woo price conscious punters. After suffering the ignominy of admitting a power management fault with its high-end N8 smartphone, Nokia has released two devices pitched at those who want to spend less than £100 on a device. The C2-01 and X2-01, priced at €70 and €80 respectively, offer features that the firm claims are "a fit for the needs of as many people as possible".

Opera Mobile 10.1 beta arrives on Android
The Opera Mobile 10.1 browser is available to download for Android handsets, following an announcement by the Oslo-based company. The browser brings desktop Opera features such as Speed Dial shortcuts, Visual Tabs for easier navigation, Password Manager and Turbo mode to the mobile platform, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Turbo mode compresses images and other graphical elements by up to 80 percent using Opera's servers in order to speed up page loading times on sub-par connections.

Flirto In The Money Again
Online and mobile flirting company Flirtomatic has secured investment from Oxford Capital Partners, joining Nauta Capital and other existing investors. The investment brings Flirtomatic’s total amount of funds raised in 2010 to $10m (£6.3m). The company says it will use the investment to bring in further talent across Europe and the US, to help support marketing efforts and the growth it has experienced across different territories. Flirtomatic now has over 1m members in the US after launching there earlier this year, and, with over 3m members worldwide, the company will be launching into further European countries in 2011.

Computer expert jailed after hacking victims' webcams
A computer hacker who took control of his victims' webcams was jailed for 18 months today. Matthew Anderson, 33, was a key member of an international gang who abused his skills as a computer security expert to target businesses and individuals with spam containing hidden viruses. He accessed highly personal data and photographs in a sophisticated email scam from his mother's front room, taking control of some victim's webcams remotely to see inside their homes, at one point boasting to a friend that he made a teenage girl cry by doing so. Files he saved on his own computer included webcam images of a girl in school uniform, a family photograph of a mother and her newborn baby in hospital and intimate pictures of a sexual nature.

What Is Google Doing With Chrome OS?
In February 2009 Google unveiled an operating system it promised would change the world. A platform based entirely in Cloud, completely free and blazingly fast. Tongues wagged, Google had finally stepped directly on Windows' toes and announced its intention to take over our desktops.  One year on with missed deadlines, momentum slowing to a crawl and Android starting to dominate smartphones and tablets it begs the question: what on earth is going on with Chrome OS? The latest delay came just this month with Google CEO Eric Schmidt using the Web 2.0 summit to admit the platform won't be available for at least the "next few months." Speaking to eWeek a Google spokesperson stressed "We are very happy with the progress of Google Chrome OS, and we'll have more details to share later this year." I'd suggest this runs a bit hollow.

GSMA launches mobile app contests for brands and bands
The GSMA has announced two separate app contests for the run-up to February's Mobile World Congress. The Brand App Challenge will get developers to submit app ideas for brands including Coca-Cola. The contest will cover platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, Symbian and Windows Phone 7. Developers are being asked to upload brief videos with their concepts, with the deadline for submissions being 10 January. The winning developers will get cash prizes. "The Brand App Challenge will create networking and business opportunities which benefit the brands, application developers and the broader mobile ecosystem," says GSMA chief marketing officer Michael O'Hara.

Yelp launches 'check-in deals' as social commerce buzz grows
In return for ‘checking in’ at places they visit, Yelp users will be able to take advantage of deals from local businesses. Mobile check ins have been an emerging trend this year, with stand-alone services Foursquare and Gowalla gaining momentum and Facebook adding its own Places service. Check ins are just one facet of so-called “social commerce” sites that use social networks to drive marketing and purchases. Groupon, a website that allows businesses to advertise deals which are made available to members if enough people sign up for the deal, has this week been the focus on rumours suggesting that Google plans to buy the company for anything between $2.5bn and $3bn. The New York Post reported earlier this week that a deal would happen “in the next month”.

Ovi discovers the price of popularity
Nokia isn't coping well with the new-found popularity of its Ovi store, with delays to the signing process driving some developers elsewhere despite public apologies. Nokia reckons it is the popularity of the Ovi store that's causing the delays, which are running into weeks... and upsetting developers who based their schedules on Nokia's five-day promise. One developer, however, was surprised to see his application on sale despite failing the quality-testing process. Nokia tells us it has seduced 400,000 developers to Ovi in the last year, and is now delivering three million downloads every day. It said India was its biggest market, followed by the UK. Nokia has been bending over backwards to help developers with an on-device app store for the latest phones, as well as a point-and-click application development with the Ovi App Wizard. The Wizard makes creating an application trivial, even if the applications thus created are a bit identikit (RSS... rendered).

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E Buzz - 23 November 2010

by Libergraph 23. November 2010 12:09

O2 outs liars and philanderers with live status feed
O2 has launched a live network checker, showing the current network status by post code and updated hourly.The "Live Status Checker" popped up briefly on Wednesday, though it wasn't clear if it was using live data at the time, but now the system is fully operational and reporting that there are currently no network problems around Vulture Central. You can check where you're at here. Not only that, but install Silverlight and O2 will provide you with a graphical interface showing coverage, masts and bundled Wi-Fi networks using technology from Synectics Technical Consulting - or it will try: when we gave it a look, the Wi-Fi and mast flags weren't working, but the coverage map seemed accurate.
The Register  

Virgin looks to copy BT hotspot network
WIFI HOTSPOTS apparently are the hot new thing with Virgin Media, as media reports claim the UK Internet service provider could be looking to create such a network. Hotspots will work off the back of the company's cable network. A report at the Daily Telegraph adds that Virgin Media WiFi hotspots could provide data transfer speeds of up to 5Mbps but the company will locate them only in city centres that are economic. Virgin Media's director of advanced technology, Kevin Baughan told the Torygraph that the hotspots network "takes the sheer power of the cable broadband network and puts it where people need it," but that they will only be located where there is sufficient demand.
Inquirer  

Qinetiq wins $159m contract to support engineering at Kennedy Space Centre
The contract, which is expected to begin in March next year for a base period of five years, could rise to as much as $1.8bn depending on NASA's requirements. The arrangement could be extended to eight years. QinetiQ North America is likely to aid the space centre's development of ground and flight systems, equipment for launch vehicles, and support engineering.
The contract announcement follows the defence group reporting a 14pc rise last week in first-half profits to £52m before tax and exceptional items.
The Telegraph  

Majority of staff happy to leave with company data
A new survey conducted by security specialist Imperva has discovered that the majority of staff leaving a firm are likely to take sensitive company data with them. Indeed, many feel it’s their right to do so. IT Pro reports that 72% of respondents intend to take such sensitive details with them when they leave their employment. Concerning the type of data they’d nick, a quarter said it would be intellectual property, and over 20% would make off with customer records.
Tech Watch  

Kuwait bans use of DSLR cameras
Three ministries in Kuwait have banned the public use of Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras (DSLRs), on the streets and in malls, for anyone who isn't a journalist. Kuwait's Ministry of Information, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Finance have joined forces to bring about the ban, although smaller digital cameras and camera phones are exempt. There's little or no word from the Kuwaiti government on why it has taken such drastic action, and the Kuwait Times says that the move has baffled the Kuwaiti youth and local artists. Many wonder what to do with their expensive cameras now that they can't use them in public, and are bemused as to why such laws have been implemented.
Pocket Lint  

Google docs  cloud connect invades Microsoft Office
From now on, Google Docs is the cuckoo in the Microsoft Office nest. Google has launched Google Cloud Connect a new plugin that lets you share and edit Microsoft Office documents in the cloud. We’re sure Steve Ballmer is delighted. No need to use Microsoft Office web apps. Google Cloud Connect syncs documents, spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations from Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 with Google Docs. Essentially it takes the file from your desktop, slings a copy up into Google Docs, slaps a URL on it and syncs the data with anyone sharing the document.
Electric Pig  

Japanese mobile music revenues continue to slide
Japanese mobile music sales fell during the first nine months of this year, pulling down the country's overall digital music figures. 297.6 million mobile music units were sold between January and September this year, down 6% year-on-year. Sales fell 4% to 56.6 billion Yen (around $678.4 million). Ringtone decline is a big part of that, but even single-track mobile sales were down 2% by both volume and revenue year-on-year. Mobile accounted for 87% of the Japanese digital music market in the first nine months of this year, so the decline is a concern for both operators and record labels.
Mobile Entertainment  

BlackBerry will claim top spot in 2015
In a new report from ABI Research, global smartphone shipments to mobile business customers are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 15%. The mobile business customer smartphone installed base will exceed 30% worldwide; in North America, it will exceed 65%. But behind these numbers will be a hyper-competitive marketplace defined by the operating system. According to enterprise practice director Dan Shey: With the iPhone and now Android, business customers simply have more choices. While each region will have a different set of competitive dynamics, within a few years regional installed base market shares of 50%+ will be a thing of the past.
Mobile Business Magazine  

Zynga 'not for sale', says founder
The company, which was only founded three years ago, is now reportedly worth $5.5 billion, after its latest round of investment and employs over 1,300 staff. Talking exclusively to The Telegraph in San Francisco, Pincus said: Zynga is not for sale. That is not my goal. I want to build an international tresure; an entitiy which lasts in people’s live for a long time. I cannot say Zynga will never be up for sale but we are more likely to IPO [go public] rather than be sold. Being sold is not my ambition. Going public makes it easier for investors to monetise your product.
The Telegraph  

Amazon shows cojones, gets in on mobile price check game
One of the most popular uses of mobile phones when it comes to shopping is research  by which I mean comparison shopping. Having a communications hub in your pocket is a handy thing on the shop floor, if you want to see what prices an item is for sale at elsewhere. On-line retailer Amazon has realized this, and today has released a pretty comprehensive (and ballsy) app to allow shoppers to very easily run a mobile price check.The application runs a search for any item you care to check on various on-line sources. It then presents you with a list of prices for the item, including the Amazon price. If you want to buy it through Amazon, you can set the app up for one click purchasing  once you’ve entered your details once, you can simply click order and the item will be payed for and delivered to your door.
GoMo News  

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E Buzz - 22 November 2010

by Libergraph 22. November 2010 11:31
Blyk rolls out in India
Mobile advertising and marketing firm Blyk has struck its first deal outside of Europe, launching operations in India with Aircel. In India Blyk will target the 16-29 year old demographic, which will be sent content by way of messages, both SMS and MMS, across categories they sign up to such as entertainment, sports, lifestyle, dating and careers advice. As users respond to the content over a period of six to eight weeks, they are then sent more content from their areas of interest, which tailors the marketing to the user.

Putting the internet into neutral, or neutering the net?
The usually perspicacious Neelie Kroes, the European Digital Agenda Commissioner, has finally hit a wall in Net Neutrality legislation, perhaps seeing the conflicting sides to the net neutrality argument. These are the same arguments that the US Government and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have been unable to sort out for the past five years. Across the globe there are those who, plainly and simply, hate markets to be too highly regulated and will resist any attempt to force the internet down the same road as telecoms. But Kroes had not previously been one of these.

Pole positions: Base station spotters scrap for prize
Our competition last year to identify genuine mobile phone base stations went down well, with more than 30,000 of you having a shot at divining the antennas from the trees. In the end it was Robert Jeffrey who scooped the coveted El Reg goodie bag, but for those who didn't manage it, here, much belatedly, are the answers...

Facebook is stealing a march on Google in the battle for ad revenue
According to an interview that Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, gave at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco last week, it stems from conversations he had some time ago with teenagers. He asked them how they communicated and noticed that email played a diminishing role in their social lives. So he's had a team of 15 engineers beavering away on the messaging project for quite a while. As with everything Facebook (or Google) does these days, the new service attracted lots of hyperbolic comment. "Facebook has not only reinvented the idea of the inbox," burbled Om Malik, normally a sober observer of these things, "but it has gone one better: it has done so by moving away from the traditional idea of email.

Twitter use 'could lead to mistrials'
Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice, warned it was all too easy for campaigners to bombard the micro-blogging site Twitter with messages in a bid to influence the outcome of a hearing. "We cannot stop people tweeting, but if jurors look at such material, the risks to the fairness of the trial will be very serious, and ultimately the openness of the trial process on which we all rely would be damaged," he said. "We have to remember that tweets stay on the internet and to allow court-based tweeting is likely to increase the potential for prejudicial material regarding a defendant or a witness to become available on the internet."

Google publishes online book to explain the internet
Search engine Google has commemorated the 20th anniversary of a paper crucial to the web’s development by producing an online book to explain how the internet works. Writing on the Google Blog, Chrome Product Marketing Manager Min Li Chan wrote that the book aimed to answer basic questions. He wrote “how do browsers and the web actually work? What is HTML5—or HTML, for that matter? What do terms like “cookies” or “cloud computing” even mean? More practically, how can we keep ourselves safe from security threats like viruses when we’re online?

Google kicks tires of Groupon
Google is reportedly interested in acquiring shopping deals website Groupon, and is willing to spend well over $3 billion (€2.1 billion) to do so. Sources close to the discussions say Google has been meeting with Groupon to discuss the terms of a potential purchase, All Things Digital reported. The prices being discussed are significantly higher than the $2 billion to $3 billion insiders say Yahoo offered in unsuccessful merger talks last month. US-based Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that operates in the Americas, Asia and Europe. It currently earns revenue of more than $50 million per month.

Murdoch and Jobs Working on Tablet-only Newspaper
News Corp chief Ruper Murdoch and Apple’s Steve Jobs are working together on a tablet-only daily newspaper called the Daily, which is due to launch at the end of the month, according to a report in yesterday’s Observer. The report says that the newspaper will be available exclusively on the iPad and similar tablet devices, and will be priced at $0.99 (£0.62) per week. It adds that 100 journalists have been hired to work on the title. A source quoted in the article says that Murdoch is keen on the idea, because it will demonstrate consumers’ willingness to pay for good quality, original, online content. News Corp’s Times newspaper in the UK recently put its web content behind a £2-per-week paywall, and said recently that it has attracted more than 100,000 paying customers.

Synchronica Achieves 60 Operator Landmark
Synchronica plc, the international provider of next-generation mobile messaging services, has announced that it has grown its customer base to 60 mobile operators after its successful acquisition of competitor iseemedia, and the agreement of a group-wide framework deal with a pan-African operator group. Synchronica has currently deployed its solutions to 31 mobile operators, and once all 60 are delivered, the company says its messaging solutions will be available to just over 990m mobile users worldwide.

Cheap handsets mean more phones than people in Brazil
Cheap mobile phones and tariffs in Brazil are booming, creating revenues for telecoms companies, however, recycling initiatives in the country still have a lot to answer for. In a recent review of the Brazilian mobile phone market, the country's telecom regulator Anatel found that there are now more mobile phones in the country in use than there are people. Analysts have said this is down to technology and telecoms being the primary markets in the country. Despite the surge Greenpeace warns that it doesn't look at local supplier recycling schemes. 

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E Buzz - 19 November 2010

by Libergraph 19. November 2010 10:38
BlackBerry PlayBook to go on sale by March 2011
RIM representative has let slip that the BlackBerry PlayBook wil go on sale by the end of Q1 2011. Gregory Wade, regional VP for Asia Pacific of RIM, told Digitimes that RIM's tablet offering will first be available to the US market. The PlayBook will then go on sale in the rest of the world shortly after. The BlackBerry PlayBook features video conferencing, Flash-enabled browser, a 7-inch screen, two cameras and HDMI support. RIM's tablet will run on QNX. The Playook will apparently be beaten to the market by Apple's iPad 2, due for launch in February 2011.
 
Yahoo adds GetJar apps to its mobile search
GetJar and Yahoo have announced a link-up which will see all of GetJar's apps appear in the search results of Yahoo Mobile.In a deal that the companies are calling a 'first of its kind', GetJar is hoping that melding information about its apps on to Yahoo Mobile will increase awareness of the site and the content that is on offer. The search results for the apps - of which there are 75,000 - will work by keyword. So if you search 'sport', then a bunch of sport-related apps will appear.

Google steps up its worldwide 'war for talent'
Google steps up its 'war for talent' this week, looking to hire over 2,000 new staffers worldwide. Google is looking to move into new markets and, as such, is currently listing 2,076 positions on its website. Google's finance chief told investors back in September that the internet industry was waging a "war for talent," and the latest round of new job vacancies clearly shows that this was more than a vapid PR line.
 
The phone that lets you leave your wallet at home
Depending on how 'smart' your mobile phone is, it could be your music player, camera, calendar, contacts book and perhaps even a games machine. How would you feel about it becoming your credit card too? That's the possibility offered by Google's next handset, known as the Nexus S, which includes a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip. Showing off the new handset in San Francisco this week, Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, said: “This could replace your credit card. The reason this NFC chip is so interesting is because the credit card industry thinks the loss rate is going to be much better, they’re just more secure.”

Android helping Scoreloop add 3m users a month
Social gaming platform company Scoreloop says it is currently adding more than three million new users a month, with much of that growth coming from Android. What's more, Scoreloop-registered players are submitting more than 18 million scores a week. CEO Marc Gumpinger points to a steady flow of high-quality game launches on Android as key to this growth - many, but not all of them coming from iPhone. "Many of the titles are cross platform and are bringing substantial growth to our community," says Gumpinger.
 
Cisco boss says sorry for poor sales
Cisco boss John Chambers has been saying he is really sorry for issuing a prediction of weak sales which sparked a sell-off in the company's shares. Chambers said the company was caught off guard by a sudden drop in orders from public sector clients in the last few weeks of its fiscal first quarter that ended October 30. He told an annual meeting of shareholders, held in Santa Clara, California and webcast live that he hated to be unpredictable, and "this clearly was a disappointment for us."

Dell doubles quarterly profits to $1.02bn
Dell has reported it made $1.02bn during the third quarter this year, compared to the $577m in profit it made in the fiscal third quarter for 2010. The company barely missed on revenue expectations, it said on Thursday. Analysts were looking for revenue between $15.42bn (£9.59bn) and $16.02bn, but it came in at $15.4bn. Dell's profit, however, doubled from the same time last year. Its $577m profit is equivalent to 42 cents per share, a record for Dell in the third quarter.

Mozilla profits get lift from Google search deal
Mozilla, maker of the Firefox web browser, saw its 2009 revenue increase 34 percent from $78m to $104m. The organisation's source of the $104m (£65m) continues to be from search partnerships, it said in its 2009 annual report, released on Thursday. The top billing goes to Google, though Mozilla did not break out a specific percentage and instead lumped the search giant's revenue in with Yahoo, Yandex, Amazon and eBay.

Twitter Testing A New “People” Tab: All Your Social Graph Steroids In One Place
Since the launch of New Twitter in September, things have been pretty quiet on the new feature front. Yes, they’re testing out a new analytics product, but in terms of features that the majority of end users will use, Twitter has mainly been letting people get used to the new layout of things. But now they’ve started testing something new. A new top nav tab called “People”. The area, which Twitter has confirmed their testing among a limited number of users, is basically a way to pull together all of the work they’ve done with features like “Who to follow” and “Similar to”. This new area, which resides to the right of the Messages tab, is all about finding new users to follow.

Ofcom sets LTE timetable for UK
Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards has unveiled an “ambitious” timetable for auction and implementation of 800Mhz and 2.6Ghz spectrum by 2014. Speaking at the Financial Times World Telecoms Conference, Richards (pictured) said while it could be challenging to stick to the timetable it was important to make it work due to the significance of the spectrum to the UK economy. Richards said he expected Parliament to consider the draft legislation regarding the spectrum release within the “next week or so”, paving the way for creation of new UK LTE networks through a series of steps.

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E Buzz - 18 September 2010

by Libergraph 18. November 2010 10:50
BlackBerry to allow Indian government to monitor messages
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) is ready to allow Indian authorities access to the emails and messages of its most high-profile corporate customers, according to a ministry official in the country. The secure communications of India's 400,000 BlackBerry owners could soon be lawfully accessed by government officials, the unnamed interior minister said, adding that RIM is preparing for "providing live access" to customers' encrypted servers. "They have in principle agreed to provide us recorded data from their servers," India's the Mint business newspaper quoted an unnamed Indian ministry official as saying.

Twitter says sorry to third-party developers, but keeps on encroaching on turf
Twitter has been in talks with Facebook about interoperating their services, after Facebook blocked Twitter integration – a move that Twitter co-founder Evan Williams described as "frustrating" at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. "We're talking to them often to see if there is a way to work together, but so far neither side has found out a way to do that," Williams said. He also admitted that the company had "screwed up" its relationship with third-party developers, who have complained about the way that its product development has begun to encroach on territories that they thought they had sewn up for themselves.

Virgin demands ISPs end broadband speed 'con'
ISP Virgin Media said today that it wants other ISPs to bring an "end to misleading broadband advertising" by dropping the infamous "up to" from the broadband bandwidths they claim to offer. A good call, but it's case would be strengthened enormously, we'd say, if it had the bottle to do so itself. "Up to 10Mb speed," says the company's website this morning of its own L offering, and its XL and XXL packages are similarly promoted. And not just in the small print - in a big, in-yer-face graphic too.

The First Augmented Reality Star Wars Game, Falcon Gunner, Hits The App Store
Star Wars and video games go hand-in-hand. There is a long line of Star Wars-themed games going back to the days of arcade games, and continuing through home console and mobile games. Now, the first augmented reality Star Wars game for the iPhone just hit the app store. It is called Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner. The game starts with the scene from the original Star Wars inside the Millennium Falcon after they escape the Death Star and the TIE Fighters attack. You are Luke Skywalker in the gunner’s turret below, and you turn the iPhone to rotate around and shoot the attacking TIE Fighters while Han Solo and Princess Leah either encourage or heckle you depending on your skills. In the 360-degree background is the Death Star and an earth-like planet, which come into view depending on which way you turn. The game is completely immersive, and works especially well while sitting in a swivel office chair.

Dell mobile chief departs amid consumer restructuring
Garriques, a high-profile hire from Motorola in 2007, was charged with heading a newly created consumer division at the PC maker. He was transferred to head Dell's communications products group in December. Dell released its first in a series of promised tablets, the Streak, under his watch, as well as a smartphone, the Dell Venue Pro. Dell's consumer business is experiencing further structural changes. The recently broken-out communications unit will be integrated across the consumer and small to medium-business, enterprise and public sector divisions. A company representative said the decision was motivated by the desire to incorporate mobile devices across all the company's business units, not just its consumer business.

BlackBerry Partners Fund reveals Developer Challenge Finalists
The BlackBerry Partners Fund has announced the 12 regional finalists in this year's BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge contest. Three from each of North America, Latin America, EMEA and Asia Pacific received finalist prize packages worth nearly $35,000 each, with more up for grabs in the fourth and final round of judging. "Over the course of this year’s Developer Challenge, we’ve reviewed and tested some of the most compelling apps available," says co-managing partner Kevin Talbot.

Facebook Credits go on sale in the UK
Social network Facebook has announced the UK launch of its virtual currency “Facebook Credits”. From this week, gift cards for the new currency will be sold in Tesco and Game shops. Facebook Credits can only be used to buy virtual objects, for instance in games, and can also be earned through some applications in the same manner as air miles. More than 200 apps and games currently accept Credits, and 22 of the 25 Facebook apps use them. Farmville, the most popular game on Facebook, is one of the more than 50 per cent of games to adopt the currency.

Government refuses to back net neutrality
The decision will be a blow to net neutrality campaigners, who want all internet traffic to be treated equally by internet service providers. Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, told the Financial Times World Telecoms Conference in London that the Government should try to avoid imposing a regulatory framework on the web. “A lightly regulated internet is good for business, good for the economy, and good for people,” Mr Vaizey told delegates.

FarmVille maker heads to CityVille
Facebook gaming developers Zynga – they of FarmVille fame – are heading to the city next year with a new game called CityVille. With something of a nod to Will Wright's classic SimCity, Zynga is taking its tried-and-tested casual simulation gaming model to the metropolis. CityVille will let players become urban planners in what Zynga calls its "most social game" so far. Versions will release at the same time in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. A beta version is due within the next few weeks, Zynga announced this week. There goes Christmas!

Latest IE9 tops benchmark, but Microsoft stands firm
Despite the latest build of IE9 taking the lead in an influential browser benchmark, Microsoft has insisted that the tests are 'not very useful and at worst misleading’. Microsoft is at pains to point out that JavaScript is 'just one component' that defines browser performance, even as IE9's latest incarnation – Platform Preview 7 – knocks Chrome and Opera from the top of the well-respected Webkit SunSpider javascript test. Microsoft's latest IE9 build is Platform Preview 7 – coming just three weeks after the sixth incarnation – and it has edged ahead of both Google's Chrome and Opera.

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E Buzz - 16 November 2010

by liberty 16. November 2010 12:55

Tesco picks C&W Worldwide for online bank network
Tesco Bank has chosen Cable & Wireless Worldwide to provide managed datacentre services and hosted voice services to support its banking and insurance customer service centres in Newcastle and Glasgow. C&W Worldwide will provide a range of solutions to ensure that calls from the bank's 6.5 million customers are routed to the right person, with enough information to settle the issue quickly and efficiently, the company said in a statement. The service will use C&W Worldwide's global, high-speed next generation network. The network touches more than 400 towns and cities in the UK, with 802 unbundled exchanges covering 55% of the population. Internationally, the network stretches more than 500,000km, including interests in 69 global cable systems, and provides connectivity in 153 countries.
ComputerWeekly
 
Google’s new Android phone aims to replace credit cards
Google's Eric Schmidt has announced a new Android mobile phone that will power mobile payments
Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, showed off the company’s next Android-powered phone, which will contain a chip that will allow people to make payments via their handsets. Opening this year’s Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Schmidt showed off the new phone, which had the manufacturer’s label deliberately covered up, but is assumed to be the next Nexus device, following the Nexus One, and will contain a Near Field Communication chip, that will allow people to use their phones like credit cards.
The Telegraph
 
Fix the Web campaign aims to address Internet accessibility
When it comes to real life, the disabled are considered with measures such as wheelchair ramps alongside stairs. But the online virtual world is something which often fails to take disability into account, and a new campaign has been launched to do something about this.
Fix the Web aims to highlight lack of accessibility where it crops up on the net. The idea is that disabled people can report a problem to the site, which volunteers can assess and take forward to the webmaster in question, hopefully reaching a solution. There are some six million disabled and older folks who have difficulty accessing the majority of content on the Internet, according to a BBC report.
Techwatch
 
Twitter and the bomb joke that's blown justice to bits
He sat behind reinforced glass panels, flanked by two security guards, in the dock at Doncaster Crown Court last week. Trainee accountant Paul ¬Chambers was arrested in January under the Terrorism Act (remember that?) when police turned up at his office and hauled him away for  questioning about a threat to blow up a British airport. mCould there be a more unlikely ‘bomber'?‘When they [the officers] arrived for me I thought one of my family might have been in an accident,’ he said after leaving court. ‘I thought it was a joke that would be resolved in a few minutes.’ Understandably, in the circumstances. In fact, the joke lasted nearly a year, and cost him his job, not to mention thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money bringing him to ‘justice’.
Mail Online
 
Amazon launches 'Black Friday' sale in the UK
November discounts include 60% off consoles and half price Sony TVs. E-tail giant Amazon is set to bring the ‘Black Friday’ sale day to the UK, in what was formerly a US only discount day following Thanksgiving. On Monday November 22nd, Amazon will kick off ‘Black Friday Deals Week’ with over 200 discounts on a range of products including game consoles, TVs, Canon cameras, toys and Blue-ray movies.For many years, shoppers in the US have enjoyed massive savings on great products as a result of the 'Black Friday' phenomenon," said Amazon UK boss Brian McBride.
PCR

British Consumers Feel Little Loyalty to Mobile Operators
Nearly half of British consumers (45%) would leave their current mobile operator if they did not sell the handset they desired when seeking a replacement model, reports a survey by Art Technology Group (ATG). The research also demonstrates that a large proportion of consumers across Europe don't feel loyalty to their current mobile operators, with 31 per cent of those surveyed saying they have been with two mobile operators in the last five years. A further 10 per cent of consumers reported they have been with three or more mobile networks in the last five years.
Cellular News  

Wholesale App Community signs Sharp and Sony Ericsson
The Wholesale Application Community (WAC) is the telecoms industries response to the massively powerful application stores of Apple and Android. The alliance of operators, device manufacturers and other telecoms companies aims to create an open platform that they can all use to sell applications to their customers (see our report). Today, it announces the addition of nine new members, including two significant OEMs, bringing the total membership of the Community to 57. WAC does not have an easy job ahead of it. To really compete with iTunes and the Android Market, it has to work perfectly all over the world. It needs to create a single platform that every single member can use to develop, store, manage and sell applications through.
GoMo News
 
Handset market ships 346.2 million in third quarter
The mobile handset market is set for a stellar performance in 2010. The third quarter of 2010 notched up 346.2 million in handset shipments. For the first three quarters of the year, year on year growth has been hovering around 20%. This is a remarkable feat, irrespective of the rebound effect following the deferred handset purchases during the economic recession, said Jake Saunders, VP for forecasting at ABI Research. Layer on ‘smartphone-envy’ and you have a recipe for high handset volumes. This rebound is having some interesting consequences, said Saunders. He noted that component manufacturers have never had it so good. Nokia in particular reported a hardware crunch, especially with displays (such as AMOLED) and semiconductor components for low cost handsets.
Mobile Business Magazine

Kinect sells 1m units in 10 days
Microsoft's Kinect motion control accessory for the Xbox 360 has shifted 1m units in 10 days on sale. Not bad going considering the relatively high price and proof that motion control is here to stay. Microsoft have said they plan to sell 5m units before the end of the year. Just imagine how many more they could sell if, say, one of the fitness games was replaced by the Star Wars lightsaber game. Games for more hardcore gamers  like the Star Wars title  will start trickling through in 2011. For now, though, the Kinect is aimed firmly at the mass market.
Guardian
 
Google chief says TV industry is ‘wrong’
The search giant’s new TV service, which recently launched in the US and is expected to launch in the UK next year, integrates applications and the internet directly into televisions. It brings basic elements such as search or web browsing and goes as far as combining both web and TV simultaneously. However, at the end of last month, several major US broadcasters, including ABC, CBS and NBC, blocked some of their most popular television programmes from being accessible through Google’s new television service. Speaking at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, Schmidt said: The concern [from the TV executives] is that this enormous revenue stream will be affected negatively by this browser I disagree. I think people will watch more TV.
Telegraph 
 

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