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Bill Gates, who built his fortune equipping the personal computer, predicts that the keyboard and mouse will soon become relics.
The founder of Microsoft Corp used his swansong to the technology industry on Sunday to spell out a vision of a “digital decade” of telephones, televisions and cars that respond to voice and touch.
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Social networking site Bebo announced on Thursday that it has struck a deal with AIM, AOL’s instant-messaging arm. Through this partnership, users of either service can now easily invite friends to the other.
More specifically, Bebo users who have provided the site with their AIM usernames will now see an AIM icon displayed on their profiles so that other members can click on it to IM them directly through Bebo’s interface. There’s also a new “AIM Friend Finder” in Bebo so that members can invite the denizens of their AIM buddy lists to join Bebo, as well as a co-branded downloadable client so that Bebo has a presence on AIM as well. Continue reading »
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MOSCOW - Goose-stepping guards and medal-bedecked space veterans laid flowers at the Kremlin wall tomb of the father of the Soviet space program Thursday as Russia celebrated the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite.
The name of Sergei Korolyov, the visionary rocket scientist whose brains and determination made it possible for the Soviet Union to thrust open the door to the space age, was a top state secret during his lifetime. It became known only became known after he died and was given a lavish state funeral.
“We take a rightful pride in the fact that it was our nation which opened the way to the stars for humanity,” President Vladimir Putin said in a statement. Continue reading »
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What is going on at the FCC? The agency established the rules for the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction back in August, but it turns out that these were not so much “rules” as “suggestions for discussion.”
Verizon, AT&T, and Frontline Wireless have all since petitioned the FCC to change the rules in different ways. AT&T wants more clarity around the “public/private partnership” part of the auction, while Frontline wants a lower reserve price. Verizon, however, is directly targeting the most innovative part of the auction, the “open access” requirements on some of the new spectrum. It has filed a federal lawsuit asking that this part of the rules be struck down by a judge, and it also appears to be lobbying the FCC directly to water them down.
Google, which fought hard for those rules (and actually wanted more “open” conditions applied), is now attacking Verizon both in public and at the FCC. Continue reading »
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More than 100,000 old books previously unavailable to the public will go online thanks to a mass digitisation programme at the British Library.
The programme focuses on 19th Century books, many of which are unknown as few were reprinted after first editions.
The library believes online access to the titles will help teachers.
“If there are no modern editions teachers cannot use them for their courses,” said Dr Kristian Jensen, from the British Library. Continue reading »
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The second largest file-sharing network on the internet has been severely disabled in a significant coup for the music industry’s fight against piracy.
Seven servers on the notorious ‘eDonkey’ network, on which millions of users illegally share music and other files, were this week shut down following orders by German courts, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said.
The closure would knock out about third of eDonkey’s 4 million users and cause “a major disruption” to one of the world’s “top three file-sharing networks” the IFPI said in a statement. Continue reading »
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According to an article from last week at the Russian IT site CNews, Linux is slated to be installed in every Russian school by 2009. The article makes it appear that it will be going by the (unimaginative) name ‘Russian OS.’ As stated in the article: ‘The main aim of the given work is to reduce dependence on foreign commercial software and provide education institutions with the possibility to choose whether to pay for commercial items or to use the software, provided by the government.’ Initial testing installations are supposed to begin next year in select districts. Is 2008/09 the year of Linux on the (Russian) desktop? Continue reading »
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The Internet and the law collided awkwardly again recently, as a judge in Connecticut has ruled that a man, Andrew Reitenbach, who sent three threatening e-mails to a female student, be prohibited from accessing the Internet. Reitenbach, a 21 year-old student at the University of Connecticut in Torrington, had been arrested last Saturday and charged with second-degree breach of peace, second-degree harassment, and attempt to commit coercion. The judge also ordered Reitenbach to stay away from the victim and her friends, possess no weapons nor explosive devices, and submit to an evaluation and possible treatment for substance abuse. Continue reading »
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NEW YORK (AP) — A teenager in New Jersey has broken the lock that ties Apple’s iPhone to AT&T’s wireless network, freeing the most hyped cell phone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones.
eorge Hotz, 17, confirmed Friday that he had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile’s network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from San Antonio-based AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone’s cellular technology.
While the possibility of switching from AT&T to T-Mobile may not be a major development for U.S. consumers, it opens up the iPhone for use on the networks of overseas carriers.
“That’s the big thing,” said Hotz, in a phone interview from his home in Glen Rock. Continue reading »
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