Google seeks to patent new Web app tech:Google has filed at least four patent applications for technology it's building into its Chrome browser to try to make the Web a more powerful foundation for applications.
Three patent applications concern Google's Native Client, a technology for letting downloaded software modules run directly on a processor rather than more slowly through on-the-fly decoding as with the commonly used JavaScript. And one patent application involves O3D, a technology to let browser applications take advantage of 3D acceleration of graphics hardware...
Read More...Police want backdoor to Web users' private data:Anyone with an e-mail account likely knows that police can peek inside it if they have a paper search warrant.
But cybercrime investigators are frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing, or e-mailing companies these documents. They're pushing for the creation of a national Web interface linking police computers with those of Internet and e-mail providers so requests can be sent and received electronically...
Read More...HTML vs. Flash: Can a turf war be avoided?A difference of opinion among developers has become a high-profile debate over the future of the Web: should programmers continue using Adobe Systems' Flash or embrace newer Web technology instead?
The debate has gone on for years, but last week's debut of Apple's iPad--which like the iPhone doesn't support Flash--turned up the heat. Before that, Adobe had been saying with some restraint that it's happy to bring Flash to the iPhone when Apple gives the go-ahead...
Read More...Google's alleged tie-up with NSA raises concerns:Google has declined comment on a Washington Post report that it has asked the National Security Agency to help track down the cyberattackers who recently breached its databases.
Reporter Ellen Nakashima's front page story on Thursday rekindled concerns about corporations collaborating with government sleuth agencies. You might recall the alarm raised by privacy and civil liberties advocates in 2006 after a USA TODAY investigation revealed how the NSA secretly analyzed phone records of tens of millions of Americans...
Read More...Sony wants to build an iPad clone:Sony wants to make an iPad clone, according to the company's CFO Nobuyuki Oneda. Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo, Oneda said of the iPad: "That is a market we are also very interested in. We are confident we have the skills to create a product."
It's certainly no surprise that Apple's long-expected announcement last week would spur a slew of copycat designs -- one of the trends at this year's CES, which came *before* the iPad event. Las Vegas saw plenty of iSlate announcements, notably from Dell and also Microsoft's Steve Ballmer (nice guess on the name by the way, guys).
Sony is one of the companies that could pull it off, too, with expertise in making well-built, tiny and great-looking hardware, although it will be playing catch-up, as Oneda adds "Time-wise we are a little behind the iPad but it's a space we would like to be an active player in."...
Read More...Germanium laser finding brings optical computing closer:Researchers at MIT have demonstrated the first laser that uses the element germanium.
The laser, which operates at room temperature, could prove to be an important step towards computer chips that move data using light instead of electricity, say the researchers.
"This is a very important breakthrough, one I would say that has the highest possible significance in the field," says Eli Yablonovitch, a professor in the electrical engineering and computer science department of the University of California, Berkeley who was not involved in the research. "It will greatly reduce the cost of communications and make for faster chips."...
Read More...Symbian operating system, now open source and free:The source code for the ten-year old Symbian platform will be completely open source and available for free starting today. The transition from proprietary code to open source is the largest in software history, claims the Symbian Foundation.
"The dominant operating system provider out there is Symbian," says Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation, "and now we are offering developers the ability to do so much more."
Symbian, which powers most of Nokia's phones, has been shipped in more than 330 million devices worldwide. But in the last few years, Symbian has seen more than its fair share of changes. In 2008, Nokia, one of Symbian's largest customers, acquired a major share in the company. Nokia then created the Symbian Foundation to distribute the platform as an open source project, and began the process of opening up the source code that year...
Read More...What does a typical scientist look like?Much has been made of the lack of women in the sciences and the fact that the stereotypical image of a scientist is a grey-haired man in a lab coat, carrying a clipboard.
Ellin Saunders and her team from Imperial College London spent last year designing a project to challenge these beliefs. Saunders teamed up with Imperial's Women in Science, Engineering and Technology student society to launch a multimedia exhibition called '100 women - 100 visions', which is scheduled to appear in London's City Hall exhibition space on February 15...
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These are just a few stories that I thought you may find rather interesting.
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