Twitter hackers spread Ground Zero attack scare before account suspension
Twitter acted swiftly to suspend the account of a so-called 'hacktivist' group which was suspected of gaining control of the official NBC News twitter account and posting messages claiming that another attack was underway at New York's Ground Zero. Coming two days before the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the prank by a group calling themselves the 'script kiddies' was greeted with widespread opprobrium from other twitter users. "Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking. More as the story develops," the hackers wrote in one of the fake tweets sent out from the NBC account.
Guardian

Google launches Google Music web app for iOS devices
Google has launched its Google Music service for iOS-based devices as a web app. Google Music, which will rival Apple’s iCloud and Amazon’s Cloud Player, allows users to stream music they have stored on their Google Locker account. Before this, the service was only available for Android users as an application available for the Android Market. Like the Android version, the Google Music web app for iOS device allows users to browse their music collection stored on the Locker by artist, album, song, playlist, and genre. The user interface looks similar to the Android app. The web app, which was announced by Google over Twitter, comes with basic iOS play, pause and skip controls. However, the app, which is based on HTML5, does not allow users to store music files in a cache for offline listening or allows users to shuffle the songs.  Google Music is Google’s attempt to take on Apple in the music business, but it does not have the backing of music labels that Apple has.
ITProPortal

Government bans civil servants from using Facebook
According to a report by the Press Association (PA), the government has revealed that civil servants have been banned from accessing Facebook. However, staff at the Department for Work and Pensions can still access Twitter and LinkedIn for work-related purposes. "The department recognises social media is a valuable tool for engaging with jobseekers and partners," said Chris Grayling, employment minister. He added sites like Facebook have been restricted or blocked, even though communications workers could still log in to Facebook because they needed to use social media. This information was revealed after a written Parliamentary question from East Dunbartonshire Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson.
T3

Peugout’s Future Car is called “World’s First Diesel Hybrid”
The latest future car to peek out from behind the Frankfurt Motor Show curtain, the Peugeot HX-1 plug-in hybrid. It features gullwing doors and a unique design the company calls “the first diesel hybrid in the world.” Peugeot says its goal with this concept car was to create a conveyance for six passengers that uses plug-in hybrid technology and can still deliver sporty performance while maintaining fuel efficiency. The French carmaker is getting creative with this concept, with 2.2-liter HDi diesel “Hybrid4″ technology consisting of a diesel engine powering the front wheels while an electric motor powers the rear wheels. It’s a somewhat simpler method of delivering plug-in hybrid power, unlike hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic hybrid which use a combination of an electric motor and internal combustion engine applied at the same time on the car’s front wheels. According to Peugeot’s press release, the long, low-slung car can accommodate six passengers thanks to two retractable jump seats nestled between the front and rear seats. That small crowd of riders will be whisked to its destination post haste, thanks to the 299 hp of the combined electric and diesel power plants.
Mashable

Twitter ads scheduled to land in UK in October
Tweets which have been paid for, as well as trends and promoted accounts, have been in existence for over a year from Twitter's US office. Now this service is coming to UK. Brands pay Twitter for a tweet to appear in timelines of users who aren't following them, to promote accounts and also pay for topics to appear in the trending topics list. The ads users see is based on their followers, whom they follow, which makes it a tailored opportunity for advertisers. The microblogging firm's members have been negotiating with UK-based media agencies, offering bundled deals (rumoured to be up to six-figures) for promoted tweets, trends and accounts. Another rumour is that ads will be rolled out on a regional basis as well. Twitter is said to have spoken with O2, Vodafone, Sky and Sony about using Twitter ads before the launch was delayed this year.
T3

Waterstone’s to launch rival to Kindle
Waterstone's has announced it will challenge the dominance of Amazon's Kindle by launching its own electronic book reader next year. The British chain of bookshops announced the plans yesterday, two years after the US bookseller Barnes & Noble launched its Nook device, with a design similar to the Kindle. The managing director of Waterstone's, James Daunt, said that he had been inspired by the success of the Nook, which made Barnes & Noble one of the few high-street retailers to challenge Amazon's dominance in an increasingly lucrative market. "We in Waterstone's need to offer you a digital reader which is at least as good, and preferably substantially better, than that of our internet rival," Mr Daunt told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme. "You will have a much better buying experience purchasing your books through us."
The Independent

Google reveals its huge energy use
Internet search giant Google has revealed its energy footprint for the first time, and we doubt that it could buy its sandals off the shelf. It would not take a genius to speculate that the firm uses a lot of energy, but it's very huge indeed. Headline grabbing trivia include the fact that it could power Salt Lake City, Utah. According to the New York Times, Google's datacentres draw a continuous 260 million Watts or, if you prefer, around a quarter of the output of the average nuclear power plant. This is fine though, as while Google uses a large amount of electricity, it stops its users from using other fuel, like petrol. According to the company you should remember how much money is saved when, for example, someone does not drive to a library to look for information, but instead searches for it online. The same could be said for online shopping, perhaps. "The numbers] look big in the small context," said Urs Hoelzle, Google's SVP for technical infrastructure in an interview with the New York Times.
The Inquirer

Researchers develop drone helicopter ‘SkyNET’ for airborne wi-fi attacks
Researchers over at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey have created a drone helicopter capable of hacking into poorly protected Wi-Fi networks and use them to turn the system into a botnet. The device, creepily named SkyNET, is a DIY drone helicopter which costs less than $600 to build and can be used by hackers to create an army of botnets without raising an alarm. According to the Naked Security blog run by security firm Sophos, Theodore Reed, Joseph Geis and Sven Dietrich used an easily available Parrot AR.Drone remote-controlled quadricopter and a few hundred dollars to create a device capable of discovering wireless networks with poor security and infecting the computers attached to the compromised networks. The SkyNET botnet drone was created after the researchers set out to discover new ways to infect computers and turn them into zombie botnets.
ITProPortal

Mind your head: 1 in 3,200 chance that falling satellite could hit someone
Six years after ending its scientific mission, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is about to re-enter the planet's atmosphere and crash back down on home turf. While the spacecraft will break into pieces and most of it will burn up in the blazing heat of the friction with the Earth's atmosphere, some large chunks will make it through and fall to the ground. They'll hit during late September or early October 2011, but it's too soon to know their geographic target -- they could land anywhere in the six inhabited continents. "The risk to public safety or property is extremely small," American space agency Nasa writes, and says that there has "been no confirmed reports of an injury resulting from re-entering space objects" since the beginning of the Space Age. That being said, Nasa experts estimate a one-in-3,200 chance that a satellite part could hit someone.
Wired

Nike Air Mag Back to the Future Limited Edition shoes officially released
According to the movie, four years from now they will be the norm, but 1,500 lucky people, here and now in 2011, will actually be able to own a pair of the Nike Air Mag shoes from Back To The Future II.  Nike, teaming up with Parkinson's sufferer and star of the trilogy Michael J Fox, has created 1,500 pairs of the limited edition shoes to auction off for charity on eBay over the next 10 days. "This project is exciting to me because it brings together three very passionate audiences: the Parkinson’s community, the sneakerheads and Back to the Future fans," says Fox. "A few moments ago, Nike officially unveiled the Nike Air Mag AKA 'Marty McFly' shoe. As stated earlier, Nike announced that 1,500 pairs of this shoe will be auctioned on eBay, nikemag.eBay.com, with all net proceeds going directly to the Michael J Fox Foundation. The auction will begin tonight and end on September 18 (150 pairs will be posted on eBay per day for 10 days)," reports nicekicks.com, a site that covers trainer and sneaker news. The shoes, which are almost an exact replica of the trainers in the 80s movie, sadly don't offer power lacing, but they will glow as they are rechargeable.
Pocket-Lint