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