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20
Jan 2010 |
Research firm TeleGeography has said that during 2009 Skype-to-Skype calls accounted for 54 billion out of a total of 406 billion international call minutes or 13 percent.
Stephan Beckert, an analyst at TeleGeography, said that while growth in international telephone traffic had slowed, Skype's traffic had soared.
He said that Skype's on-net international traffic grew by 51 percent in 2008, and TeleGeography's estimate for 2009 is 63 percent growth, to 54 billion minutes. In 2008 TeleGeography put Sky... |
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20
Jan 2010 |
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has joined the social networking revolution with a "Hello World," joining the ranks of the Twitterati and quickly becoming one of the microblogging site's most popular attractions.
Gates followed up with a couple of additional tweets, aimed at raising awareness about earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, also admitting he's a newbie when it comes to using the site.
Twitter has put a "Verified Account" seal on the feed, indicating it has checked and determined that @BillGa... |
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19
Jan 2010 |
Authorities in France have joined the German government in urging citizens to use an alternative browser after the threat caused by a flaw which allowed Chinese hackers to attack Google's systems continues to grow.
The world's largest software company last week admitted that the hack of Google's systems was caused by a vulnerability in version 6 of its popular web browser.
"The vulnerability exists as an invalid pointer reference within Internet Explorer," read a Microsoft security advisory.
"It is... |
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19
Jan 2010 |
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation is calling for donations to help it dispatch a consignment of machines to aid workers in disaster-hit Haiti.
The organisation announced in a statement this week that it is working with several technology companies to dispatch communication equipment to help aid efforts in Haiti. Tech companies - including Google, Microsoft and Apple - have also pledged help for the relief effort.
The statement said "We want free ruggedized XO Laptops running Linux (with Wi-... |
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19
Jan 2010 |
Twitter's popularity and use continues to grow the world over, but according to new stats from Sysomos the microblogging site is not doing so well in the United States.
The number of US Twitter users has declined but grown internationally since June 2009, with the high-growth areas being Brazil, Indonesia and Germany. Sysomos based its results on 13 million unique and active Twitter accounts from 16 October to 16 December 2009, found that unique US users totalled 50.9 percent.
This shows a decline in ... |
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19
Jan 2010 |
Microsoft today announced that it will cut the duration it stores its Bing search engine searchers' IP addresses from 18 months to 6 months. Google cut their retention times to 9 months in August 2008.
Microsoft executives said however that what thye're doing goes much further than Google in that Microsoft will delete all parts of the IP address after six months, while in contrast Google still retains part of the address after its 9 month cut-off point. The new policy will take between 12 and 18 months t... |
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13
Jan 2010 |
Google said Tuesday that it would stop cooperating with Chinese Internet censorship and consider shutting down its operations in the country altogether, citing assaults from hackers on its computer systems and Chinas attempts to "limit free speech on the Web."
he sudden change in Google's policy toward doing business in China - which was always a complicated dance - came after Google discovered that it and other businesses were the victims of "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack" aimed at gatheri... |
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13
Jan 2010 |
GSM cellphones had their security put into question once more on Friday when it was revealed that its second, more guarded encryption standard has been cracked.
Following a first crack of the simpler standard a couple of weeks ago, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science say they managed to crack the A5/3 security cipher (nicknamed Kasumi) by utilising what's known as a "sandwich" attack. The team dubbed the technique a sandwich attack because it was broken into three parts: two thick slices at ... |
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13
Jan 2010 |
A California man - who alleges he suffers from electromagnetic sensitivity - is suing his neighbor for refusing to turn off her cell phone and other electronic devices.
Arthur Firstenberg, who has actively opposed the proliferation of wireless systems in public buildings, has said he has been forced out of his home by Raphaela Monribot's rejection of his requests, who's home was only 7 metres away from his.
Monribot's actions have effectively ousted Firstenberg from the house he bought last year and f... |
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11
Jan 2010 |
A government-commissioned report proposes that internet firms like Google, Yahoo and Facebook should be subject to a tax on their online ad revenues, for which the money can be used to fund legal alternatives for buying books, films and music on the internet.
Critics however say the tax would be arduous to implement, while Google contends that it would slow down innovation.
France recently introduced legislation aimed at having those who persistently download illegal content from the internet removed,... |
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11
Jan 2010 |
The new Xbox 360 motion sensing tech - which tracks body movements in 3D using an RGB camera, depth sensor, microphone and custom processor - was recently confirmed for a 2010 launch. Microsoft's full-body game control system Project Natal will be launched in time for the US holidays this year, in what promises to be a big year for Xbox 360 users.
Natal's body gesturing system relies on cameras, sensors, microphones and software to understand voice commands and capture the motions of a player as they jum... |
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5
Jan 2010 |
Skype, the world's most popular Voice over IP software provider, has struck deals with electronics giants LE and Panasonic in a move that will see it offering its web video service past the PC and onto living room TVs.
Networking giants Cisco and Polycom plan to develop consumer video services with IBM, which makes the free video calls between Skype users direct competition.
The new HDTVs by LG and Panasonic will reportedly be unveiled sometime during the middle of the year. The sets will have Skype e... |
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29
Dec 2009 |
A computer engineer from Germany on Monday said that he had not only cracked the GSM mobile encryption algorithm, but published it as well. This encryption is used to safeguard most of the cellphone calls made around the world, and according to the engineer this is an attempt to expose the weaknesses in the 21 year old encryption method.
Mr Nohl told about 600 people attending the Chaos Communication Congress that "This shows that existing G.S.M. security is inadequate. We are trying to push operators to... |
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22
Dec 2009 |
Wildly popular microblogging website Twitter will, according to people familiar with the matter, turn a profit thanks to USD25 million from Internet search deals with Google and Microsoft, Bloomberg News reported Monday.
An agreement between Google and Twitter which makes tweets searchable on Google's search engine will account for around USD15 million, while the same deal with Microsoft's Bing will pull in around USD10 million.
The deals will allow Twitter - who's operating costs run at around USD20-... |
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22
Dec 2009 |
Intel today announced that come January 2010, new Atom chips will start appearing in computer systems, and will for the first time include integrated graphics capabilities and memory controller.
The Atom chip was first introduced in mid-2008 and has been one of the main drivers of the netbook market, which has also been one of the industry segments to perform well during the global recession.
The chip will now be available in entry-level desktop PC's, increasing Intel's domination over AMD.
As far ... |
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