tech spotlight

Google has downplayed concerns that refinements to its search technology could leave surfers more exposed to search engine manipulation attacks. Google Inside Search aims to speed up web searches by pre-loading content from remote sites. The so-called Instant Pages technology only works with Google Chrome…

Reports that $500,000 worth of Bitcoin currency was stolen from one user’s computer this week has highlighted the poor security of the digital cash and the systems available for managing it. For the currency to gain large-scale popularity, it may need to create or work with financial institutions—making Bitcoin less distinct from the conventional currencies some users hope to supplant. To use Bitcoin, a person downloads the official software client, which connects over the Internet to a global network of other copies of the program. Together, these implement the mathematical scheme that ensures that bitcoins can be transferred, created, and verified without any need for a central authority such as a bank

Government plans to curb illicit filesharing under the Digital Economy Act will have cost rights holders, Ofcom and internet providers almost £6m by the time the controversial legislation is implemented next year, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The communications regulator Ofcom spent £1.8m investigating the filesharing measures last year. It expects to spend a further £4m in the financial year to March 2012, Ofcom confirmed in response to an FoI request on Thursday.

The costs are incurred as part of the regulator’s process of researching a base level of copyright infringement, setting up an appeals body, and launching a nationwide education campaign.

A startup’s new technology will let smart phones recognize objects by mimicking the human visual system

Some customers must be thinking HTC’s engineers were schooled at Hogwarts - after all, they’ve witnessed the phone manufacturer managing to create a secret stash of memory on every HTC Desire in the world in less than 24 hours.

That’s the only explanation I can come to after watching the Android 2.3 car crash on HTC’s Facebook page.

Yesterday’s news that the HTC Desire, one of its most popular phones and the handset that propelled it (and Android) to the forefront of the smartphone game, wouldn’t be getting Android 2.3 was devastating to many that were waiting for all the goodies the new version would bring.

But I was willing to accept the explanation: HTC discovered there wasn’t enough memory on board, and it would be the stupidest move conceivable to tout an update that it knew couldn’t ever be delivered, so it made sense to own up sooner rather than later…

Scientists are reporting development of the first self-powered nano-device that can transmit data wirelessly over long distances. In a study in ACS’s journal Nano Letters, they say it proves the feasibility of a futuristic genre of tiny implantable medical sensors, airborne and stationary surveillance cameras and sensors, wearable personal electronics, and other devices that operate independently without batteries on energy collected from the environment

laurawhitehead:

about time.

podcaster:

Full article over at
http://www.fastcompany.com/1760460/what-tumblrs-success-can-teach-us-about-blogs-twitters-future

soupsoup:

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of GNM, and Andrew Miller, chief executive of parent company Guardian Media Group (GMG), today outlined to staff a major transformation programme in response to “inexorable trends” in media consumption.

Rusbridger told employees that GNM would “move beyond the newspaper, shifting focus, effort and investment towards digital, because that is our future”.

Miller said GNM was “embarking on a major transformation that will see us change from a print-based organisation to one that is digital-first in philosophy and practice”.

Most people think giving their names to a politician is a bad idea because they’ll spend the rest of their lives being nagged by the party. New Zealand’s Labour Party has taken this to a whole new level, leaving donor details – including names and donation amounts – in plain view.

The predictable result is that a right-wing blogger in the Land of the Long White Cloud has grabbed the details from the party’s online donation system, and is threatening publication. According to New Zealand’s Dominion Post, the breach has Labour trying to contact 16,000 donors to tell them their information has been compromised.