Google gets fresh with search algorithm tweak

Google has tweaked its search algorithm to give more up-to-the-minute results for searches, improving the likelihood of more recent news and reviews. The changes are an extension of last year’s integration of Google’s Caffeine technology, which has been designed to bring more recent results for specific types of searches. The changes announced on Thursday will improve this further, making news searches and details of events more current, Google says. “Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we’re making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness,” blogged Google Fellow Amit Singhal. For breaking news stories, the search engine will now weigh more heavily the most recent coverage in its results, not just those sites that are the most linked to. For regular events such as annual conferences, the algorithm will display information on the most current event, rather than on those that have now passed. For more general searches, the results now generated will include more up-to-the-minute information, he wrote. For example, reviews would take the most recent device specifications rather than the most common ones.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/03/google_fresh_search_algorithm_tweak/

Ofcom expects file-sharing letters to go out in 2013

Ofcom has confirmed it expects the first file-sharing notification letters to be sent in late Spring 2013. Campbell Cowie, Ofcom's Director of Internet Policy, spoke about Ofcom's current thinking at a event in London yesterday. Ofcom told Which? that these timings are dependent on the code being approved by the government, so could be subject to change. The code is currently going through governmental processes. The proposed actions are part of Ofcom's duties under the Digital Economy Act 2010 in which it is charged with devising a regulatory code of practice aimed at reducing online copyright infringement. The first draft of the code was published by Ofcom in May 2010 and was originally expected to go live in Spring 2011. It detailed how and when Internet Service Providers (ISPs) covered by the code will send notifications to their customers to inform them of allegations that their accounts have been used for copyright infringement. It set out a three stage notification process for informing internet users of infringements through notification letters.

Source: http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/10/ofcom-expects-file-sharing-letters-to-go-out-in-2013-269015/

Google Translate: Real-Time Speech Translation in 14 Languages

Phrase books and botched pronunciations may soon be a thing of the past--well, for smartphone users, anyway. Google Translate for Android makes it easier for world travelers to ask for directions in foreign lands without embarrassing themselves or creating an international incident. Translate's Conversation Mode, which Google unveiled in January, allows Android users to translate speech between languages in real time. The initial version supported only two languages, English and Spanish. But the new and improved edition is a multilingual powerhouse that works with 12 additional languages, including French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Czech, Turkish, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Korean, and Polish.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/241896/google_translate_realtime_speech_translation_in_14_languages.html

Google Launches First Chromebook Store in London

Google has moved forward with the next phase of its plan to directly compete with Apple for your computing cash by opening an actual Chrome laptop store in London. Dubbed the "Chrome Zone," the store is designed to give consumers a hands-on sample of what cloud computing is like using a Google Chromebook. Inside the store, staffers stand at the ready to walk customers through the Google ecosystem of cloud services and applications on the notebooks. Commenting on the launch, Google Product Marketing Manager Laura Thompson said, "Many things in life, like football and rock music, are best experienced in person. Chromebooks are no exception." Perhaps the most surprising thing about this new retail initiative is that Google decided to put its first non-travel centric retail experiment in London, of all places. Those following the company's recent history in Europe know that Google hasn't had an easy time in terms of public perception in the region, but a recent initiative tied to Britain's Tech City indicates that the brand is truly committed to making London the beachhead of its integration into Europe's consumer market. Referring to Google's recent Tech City plans, former Google EMEA Head of Corporate Development Anil Hansjee gave us some insight into what Google's increased presence in the U.K. means for tech innovation: "The emerging ecosystem of Internet startups in East London already has amazing resources at its fingertips such as Seedcamp, Techhub and The Trampery co-working spaces. With the Google announcement more resources are being added… The Google building is more than just about working space. They have understood what start-ups actually need at the very early stages and are bringing mentorship, skills and resources…"

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394169,00.asp#fbid=JDg7Dfm4JcB

Science world in shock after Cern light speed claim

A British physicist even promised to eat his boxer shorts on live television if it turned out to be correct.

Scientists at CERN, the world's largest physics lab near Geneva, stunned the world of science on Thursday night by announcing they had observed tiny particles known as neutrinos travelling slightly faster than light.

The claim – if true – would be inconsistent with Einstein's theory of special relativity, a cornerstone of modern physics which states that nothing can travel faster than light.

Researchers were so astonished by their findings that they spent months checking their data, without finding any errors that would disprove their claim, and cautiously invited the world to prove them wrong.

Reacting to the news yesterday, scientists working on the project – known as OPERA – stressed the need for the results to be checked before drawing any conclusions about our understanding of the universe.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8785366/Science-world-in-shock-after-Cern-light-speed-claim.html

Pirated movies traced to Swedish film body

The Swedish Film Institute (SFI) is facing filesharing allegations after an anti-piracy company traced films that had appeared on filesharing site The Pirate Bay to an IP address at the Institute.

”From our point of view we have done everything in our power to see if there is any substance to these allegations, but so far we have found nothing,” said SFI CEO Bengt Toll to The Local.

Two weeks ago the film production company Strix and Swedish cinema giant SF Bio approached the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) with information they had received regarding Swedish films being spread illegally from the Institute and ending up on The Pirate Bay. These suspicions, they said, were well-known in the film industry. The information originated with an anti-piracy company called DoubleTrace who say that they have been able to trace filesharing activity over the summer to an IP-address registered to the Swedish Film Institute.

Source: http://www.thelocal.se/36028/20110908/
Toll said in a statement on Wednesday that they are taking the matter very seriously.

”But for us to be able to move forward now in any sort of investigation we need to get access to their information. We have been asking for this for about a week now,” he told The Local.

According to Toll, the Institute's IT specialists have been checking everything from the activities of institute staff to that of the building's other tenants who share the same IP addresses.

Google: 'Considerable Progress' on Fighting Copyright Infringement

Google on Friday provided an update on its plans to tackle copyright infringement across the network, including the removal of takedown requests within 24 hours and banning piracy-related terms in search. "In December, we announced four initiatives to tackle the problem of copyright infringement online," Kent Walker, senior vice president and general counsel at Google, wrote in a blog post. "We've made considerable progress on each front, and we will continue to evolve our efforts in all four areas in the months to come." Earlier this year, Google built tools intended to speed up the process by which it removes content suspected of containing pirated material. The company said Friday that those tools are now being used by partners that make up 75 percent of all URLs submitted in Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests for Web search. "Our response time for these partners is now well below the 24 hour target," Walker wrote. "In the coming months, we will be making these tools available more broadly to those who have established a track record of submitting valid takedown requests." Under the DMCA, content sites like YouTube must remove items suspected of containing copyrighted material in a timely manner if they do not want to be held responsible for distributing pirated content. It's not just YouTube videos; Web search is also included, and Google has been working to remove terms "closely associated" with piracy from search results. "Beginning in January, we started filtering terms closely associated with infringement from Google Autocomplete, our feature that predicts search queries based on popular searches from other users," Walker wrote. On the other end of the spectrum, Google said it has started adding snippets of authorized content in search results.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392367,00.asp

Think before you tweet: Social media libel cases have doubled

If you've ever tweeted in anger, beware – libel cases involving social sites are on the rise. Libel cases in the UK related to new media have doubled in recent years, jumping from from three in 2008-09, to seven in 2009-10, according to legal information company Sweet and Maxwell. "'The rise in defamation cases linked to the internet is inevitable if internet users like bloggers or tweeters fail to put in place the same kind of pre-publication controls that traditional media uses,” Korieh Duodu, a barrister at law firm Addleshaw Goddard, said in a statement. Thanks to the broadcast nature of sites such as Twitter, libellous or defamatory messages can reach huge audiences very quickly and, once posted, can be retweeted by others, making the message hard to ever remove from the site entirely.

Source: https://www.silicon.com/management/sales-and-marketing/2011/08/28/think-before-you-tweet-social-media-libel-cases-have-doubled-39747872/

Comment 63 inShare499 It’s Official: HP Kills Off webOS Phones And The TouchPad

Brace yourselves, webOS fans.

In the hours leading up to their Q3 conference call later today, HP has just confirmed that they will be discontinuing operations surrounding the TouchPad and all webOS phones. To quote their press release: HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

This news will come as a rather huge punch to the gut for webOS die-hards (myself included, though you can’t say that we couldn’t see it coming), many of whom have stood by the product for years — first in hopes that Palm would eventually launch a device worthy of the rather fantastic operating system, and later in hopes that HP’s acquisition of Palm would be the spark to the fire that just never seemed to light. On the upside, webOS itself isn’t dead — at least, not just yet. HP’s wording up above leaves things a bit vague, with at least two potential routes left open: licensing webOS to others, and sticking webOS in other, non-phone/tablet devices (HP has already mentioned plans to put it in printers and cars.) Until further notice, however, it’s essentially dead in the water.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/18/its-official-hp-kills-off-webos-phones-and-the-touchpad/

Android has sights set on innovation

The robots are taking charge. Rather than fearsome cyborgs created by Skynet, the march is by a friendly looking green droid, which emerged two years ago and now dominates the smartphone world. This week Google revealed that 500,000 phones running its Android operating system (OS) are activated every day. Senior managers say this is only the beginning, as they look to expand the system to running homes and cars, adding that the UK will play a crucial role in its development. Dave Burke, engineering director for Google in the UK, oversees Android development in the region and has been working on the system since its launch. He said the success of the platform so far had "exceeded our wildest dreams". Google had already developed a "mobile excellence centre" before it bought mobile software developer Android in August 2005, which brought current Android head Andy Rubin with it. Yet despite rumours, Android did not emerge on a handset until October 2008, with the launch of T-Mobile's G1. Mr Burke said: "It was clear we were seeing a dominant source of traffic from smartphones. They were using a disproportionate amount of data. It became about usage not units." Since then the popularity of the OS has soared and there are currently 310 Android devices available.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/android-has-sights-set-on-innovation-2305650.html

Apple iPhone Patent a Huge Blow to Rival Smartphone Makers

Apple has been awarded its long sought-after patent on the iPhone. Intellectual property experts say it's so broad and far-reaching that the iPhone maker may be able to bully other smart phone manufacturers out of the U.S. market entirely. Some three-and-a-half years after filing for a patent on the iPhone, Apple on Tuesday was awarded U.S. patent number 7,966,578 for "[a] computer-implemented method, for use in conjunction with a portable multifunction device with a touch screen display, [that] comprises displaying a portion of page content, including a frame displaying a portion of frame content and also including other content of the page, on the touch screen display." That's just the beginning of the abstract for Apple's iPhone patent, which the company filed back in December 2007. It gets quite a bit more technical in its full form, but there's one thing patent experts consulted by PCMag agree on—Apple has been awarded an incredibly broad patent that could prove to be hugely problematic for other makers of capacitive touch-screen smartphones.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387401,00.asp

Virgin Media UK Identifies 1500 Broadband Users Infected by the SpyEye Trojan

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has detected that roughly 1,500 of Virgin Media's broadband ISP customers have been infected by the SpyEye Trojan, which puts the users at risk of identity theft or fraudulent bank activity. Luckily Virgin's Malware Defence Campaign, which was launched last year (here), has enabled the provider to proactively write to related customers and inform them of how to solve the problem. SpyEye typically finds its way onto computers via spam (junk) emails or fake product order messages and can sometimes even be accompanied by a fake digital signature for its attachment. SpyEye targets MS Windows based operating systems and is invisible from your Task Manager. It also hides its files and registry keys from regular searches.

Source: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/06/16/virgin-media-uk-identifies-1500-broadband-users-infected-by-the-spyeye-trojan.html

How To Get Duke Nukem Forever For Free In The UK

We know of only one way to get Duke Nukem for free in the UK and it doesn't involve illicit downloads, cracks or keygen. Base, BlahDVD, 101cd and DVD.co.uk, all part of the same family, are offering Duke Nukem Forever for PC with either of six memory kits from the range of Kingston HyperX T1, with free delivery as well (ed : let us know if you know of any other such bundles). These are either available in triple channel or dual channel SKUs for £57 (three 2GB modules) or £5 (two 2GB modules); given that the game itself carries a suggested retail price of £29.99, this puts the price of each modules at around £8 a unit. CCL sells the 6GB memory kit for nearly £52 on its own and since we haven't found any trace of the Duke Nukem Forever promotion on Kingston's website, we suppose that the promotion must be exclusive to Base/Blah.

Source: http://www.itproportal.com/2011/06/14/how-get-duke-nukem-forever-free-uk

DNA computer 'calculates square roots'

Researchers have shown off a "DNA computer" of unprecedented complexity, which can calculate square roots. DNA computing uses chemical reactions to solve problems in which a number of DNA strands act as "bits". The work, reported in Science, required 130 strands of DNA to work in a cascade of programmed chemical changes. The approach is not designed to rival traditional electronics, but rather to allow computing to occur in biological contexts, perhaps even in the body. DNA computing was first proposed by Leonard Adelman in 1994, to solve what is known as the "travelling salesman problem" - determining the shortest path that joins a number of geographically separated locations. Since then, a wide array of approaches has aimed to make use of the properties that make DNA attractive for computing: it can be made to order and its interactions with itself are well-studied and reliable. In 2006, Erik Winfree of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and his colleagues published an article in Science a framework making use of one of these approaches, known as strand displacement. Stretches of DNA made of just one strand (rather than the two joined strands that form the well-known double helix) were used as anchor points for other single strands. By carefully "programming" the movement of these strands, the researchers were able to recreate a number of elements familiar from conventional computing, including logic gates, amplification, and feedback. "Those circuits were smaller [than those of the current work], but more importantly, they were built using more complex DNA molecules that made systems more difficult to debug and had other problems," Professor Winfree told BBC News.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13626583

Hackers attack another Sony network and post data

Hackers broke into Sony Corp's computer networks and accessed the information of more than 1 million customers to show the vulnerability of the electronic giant's systems in the latest of several security breaches undermining confidence in the company. LulzSec, a group that claims attacks on U.S. PBS television and Fox.com, said it broke into servers that run Sony Pictures Entertainment websites. It published the names, birth dates, addresses, emails, phone numbers and passwords of thousands of people who had entered contests promoted by Sony. "From a single injection, we accessed EVERYTHING," the hacking group said in a statement. "Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?" The security breach is the latest attack against high-profile firms, including defense contractor Lockheed Martin and Google Inc.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/03/us-sony-idUSTRE74Q1EC20110603?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Google rolls out +1 Button Internet-wide

As expected, Google has begun the Internet-wide roll-out of its new +1 Button, a social sharing feature that rivals Facebook‘s “Like” button. The +1 Button is now available for all web publishers who wish to put the button on their website. And a number of news organizations, online retailers and other popular websites are already on board. Like many other share buttons out there, +1 works with “a single click,” Google boasts, allowing people to tip off friends to cool articles, websites or products they like. Unlike other share features, however, +1 is fully integrated into Google search, so a “+1″ shows up next to a link in Google search results when that link has been shared by any of a user’s Google contacts. Not only that, but a particular search result receives a higher page ranking the more contacts share the link using +1. “With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article or favorite sci-fi movie to friends, contacts and the rest of the world,” writes Google software engineer Evan Gilbert, who worked on +1, in a post on the Google blog. “The next time your connections search, they could see your +1′s directly in their search results, helping them find your recommendations when they’re most useful.”

Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/google-rolls-out-1-button-internet-wide/

Cornwall to trial 4G mobile broadband

Cornwall is to be the location of the UK’s first consumer trial of LTE, a fourth-generation mobile broadband technology that enables speedy web browsing on smartphones. Analysts said the trial highlighted the way in which 4G mobile technology was expected to play an important role in providing fast broadband in parts of rural Britain, where internet access can be poor. Everything Everywhere, the UK’s largest mobile phone operator, and BT, the leading fixed-line company, announced on Wednesday that they had joined forces to run the trial this September. It will involve about 200 Cornish homes and businesses near Newquay. LTE provides much faster data download speeds on smartphones and laptops than existing 3G networks. The download speeds on 4G networks are comparable to basic fixed-line broadband. Everything Everywhere and BT are building a 4G network that will cover an area of about 25 sq km where there is little or no broadband internet access.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d6b609a8-8702-11e0-92df-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1NPBCJ7kF

BitTorrent P2P Filesharing Dominates EU Broadband ISP Internet Traffic

Sandvine, a firm that specialises in broadband ISP Traffic Management solutions, has released its latest Global Internet Phenomena Report: Spring 2011 and discovered that BitTorrent (P2P File Sharing) is the single largest internet traffic hog in Europe. The report found that European internet users download 14.7GB (GigaBytes) of data per month (median usage), which is more than double the North American figure of 7GB. It's claimed that a significant portion of this usage is BitTorrent traffic, accounting for 21.63% of all downloads and 59.68% of uploads (i.e. the single biggest internet application). However, while BitTorrent might be the biggest single internet app, the most dominant overall form of online service is actually Real-Time Entertainment (e.g. BBC iPlayer, 4oD, Sky Player etc.). RTE accounts for 33.2% of peak aggregate traffic in the EU, up from 31.9% last fall. In the UK, BBC's iPlayer is 6.6% of peak downstream traffic. Web browsing accounts for 18%.

Source: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/05/18/bittorrent-p2p-filesharing-dominates-eu-broadband-isp-internet-traffic.html

TalkTalk launches network-level security protection

Internet service provider TalkTalk has launched a network-level security service for its home broadband customers. The service, called HomeSafe, uses a blocklist system to alert TalkTalk customers if they are connecting to a web page infected with malware. It also provides parental control tools to stop minors from accessing inappropriate content. HomeSafe works by scanning the network's traffic and assigning websites to a whitelist or blacklist. The lists are recorded in temporary memory and are permanently deleted every 24 hours, a company spokeswoman told ZDNet UK on Monday. The company said it provides more comprehensive protection from web-borne threats than stand-alone products that run on an individual system as it protects any device registered on the network, including mobile phones, tablets and games consoles. "This is especially important now that children are regularly using devices like phones, and not just the main family PC, to access the internet. Our research found that 33 percent of children aged 12-17 use their mobile phones to surf social-networking sites and 29 percent use it to instant message when at home," Tristia Clarke, commercial director of TalkTalk, said in a statement.

Source: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security-management/2011/05/09/talktalk-launches-network-level-security-protection-40092709/

PlayStation Network hackers access data of 77 million users

Sony has warned that the names, addresses and other personal data of about 77 million people with accounts on its PlayStation Network (PSN) have been stolen. Gamers have been locked out of the network for a week, but the company has revealed that the system has been suspended since it was hacked last Wednesday. Sony said it discovered that between 17 and 19 April an "illegal and unauthorised person" got access to people's names, addresses, email address, birthdates, usernames, passwords, logins, security questions and more. Children with accounts established by their parents also may have had their data exposed, according to Sony, which put the warning on its US PlayStation blog – although the warning about the compromise might not be immediately visible to passing readers. The company is also emailing people who might be affected. The intrusion is potentially one of the biggest ever into a store of credit cards. Sony's PSN is one of the world's biggest holders of credit cards, though not as large as Amazon, eBay, PayPal or Apple's iTunes, which each hold more than 100m accounts.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/26/playstation-network-hackers-data