Byte Into It - 20 May 09

Microsoft Trying To Kill Off The Golden Windows 7 Goose | NetworkWorld.com Community

It should be obvious but here are the reasons Microsoft shouldn't even consider a price increase for Windows 7:
Vista upgraders and purchasers would like the product they already paid for.
This won't help seduce XP users.
Not going to help the battle against Linux.
Remember the bad economy?
Why should we pay (reward) Microsoft to fix your own problems.

Yes! The 50% small business tax break applies to IT purchases - News - PC Authority

Thinking about buying a shiny new server or a pile of PCs for your small business? Perhaps you've been considering rolling out smartphones to your sales team? Or maybe it's time to upgrade your ageing network infrastructure? If so, now could be just the time to make that substantial IT investment in order to take advantage of the federal government's new and improved tax break for small businesses.

What is the new tax break?

In the recent budget, the government raised the Small Business and General Business Tax Break from 30 percent to a whopping 50 percent. "The increased Tax Break provides small businesses with an even greater incentive to invest in new capital items," says the media release issued jointly by the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, and the Minister for Small Business, Dr Craig Emerson

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft patents 'magic wand'

Newly released patent applications from Microsoft have sparked speculation that it is to unveil a Wii remote rival at the E3 expo in Los Angeles.

An application was filed in 2007 for a motion controller, dubbed Magic Wand, that interacts with "a collection of sensors".

Microsoft says it will not "comment on speculation" about a possible launch.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Wiping data 'hits flu prediction'

Forcing Google to delete user data after six months could dent its ability to predict pandemics such as swine flu, said the search giant's co-founder.

Larry Page said he thought more debate was needed around the issue of storing user data.

The European Commission wants data ditched after six months but Mr Page said there were benefits to users.

"More dialogue is needed [with regulators]," he told UK journalists at a Google event in Hertfordshire.

Get a life, turn off the computer and become human again says Google CEO - News - PC Authority

In a world of chat rooms, fan forums and instant knowledge at the click of a single button, Schmidt warned students from the University of Pennsylvania that they shouldn't trade human connections for keyboards and motherboards.

"Nothing beats holding the hand of your grandchild as he walks his first steps," Schmidt told his audience. Although convincing graduates - aged mostly in their early twenties, some of which would be happy to spend hours couped up in a dark room somewhere drinking caffeinated beverages and playing first person shooters - to trade the virtual life for the one outside, may prove be a little tricky

BBC NEWS | Technology | Wolfram 'search engine' goes live

A web tool hailed as a significant rival to search giant Google has gone live to the public.

Wolfram Alpha is called a computation knowledge engine rather than a search engine and wants to change the way people use online data.

It aims to give people direct answers to queries rather than send them to other sites where they may find what they are seeking.

The system is the brainchild of British-born physicist Stephen Wolfram.

Wolfram Alpha was unveiled in late April and since then has been publicly demonstrated and some people have had a chance to run queries through it.

Typically the results it returns are annotated pages of data rather than a simple list of other sites that might help resolve a user's query.

For example, if asked about the weather in Manchester it would present a graph of average temperatures, rainfall and other salient data.

The computational horsepower behind the main site works out answers to question as they are put by grabbing data from databases and consulting feeds of relevant information.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Pirated pop keeps stars popular

File-sharing sites help make popular acts more popular, finds a study.

The research, by industry body PRS for Music, showed the most pirated pop songs tend to be those at the top of the music charts.

There was little evidence that file-sharing sites helped unsigned and new bands find an audience, it found.

It suggests file-sharing sites are becoming an alternative broadcast network comparable to radio stations as a way of hearing music.

The 'high' tech toilet that wants your credit card number - News - PC Authority

Budget airline Ryanair wants to commission Boeing to add the card machines to its toilet cubicles, in order to make passengers pay up when nature calls

With all the amazing technological changes happening to the airline industry these days, we can't help wonder what will be next.

Sure, the geek friendly Qantas A380 has those awesome high-tech seats with USB and in-flight SMS functionality, and more airlines are getting into the entertainment groove with some incredible video on demand (VOD) services listing hundreds of your favourite flicks and TV shows on large LCD 10" monitors.

Indeed, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner , with its incredible long-haul fuel capacity, is due to make its maiden test flight soon, making the future of high tech air travel appear rather rosy. Better still, American Airlines now boast speedy on-board internet.

But there's one high-tech airline addition we're not so sure about - it's a credit card operated toilet.

Sophos planning to supply anti-virus in Klingon - News - PC Authority

Security firm Sophos seems to be preparing to launch a version of its software security suite for users who prefer to speak Klingon..

A web page under construction on the Sophos site shows the prospective download page. It appears that the software is ready to go and will be released in July.

"Use Sophos' Klingon Anti-Virus to quickly perform an on-demand scan and find viruses, spyware, adware, zero-day threats, Betazoid sub-ether porn diallers and Tribbles that your existing protection might have missed," the site reads.

Apple may be paving the way for iPhone background processes - Ars Technica

The limitation of one third-party app running at a time has been a major criticism of Apple's iPhone OS, though Apple has contended that the limitation is necessary for adequate battery life. However, the company may be devising a system to allow iPhone apps to run in the background, if recent rumors are true.

There are two possible methods Apple is supposedly exploring to enable background processes, according to Silicon Alley Insider. One method, supported by a rumor circulated at Macworld Expo earlier this year, would be a way for a user to choose one or two apps that would be blessed with background running status. Silicon Alley Insider's source indicates there is some evidence of this feature in the latest iPhone OS 3.0 beta.

Mac OS X 10.5.7 update boosting netbook battery life - Ars Technica

A number of non-Apple netbook users that have installed Mac OS X on their systems are reporting that the recent update to 10.5.7 for Leopard has brought significant improvements to the diminutive mobile computers. "A bunch of people running a hackintoshed Dell Mini 9 or MSI Wind are reporting an extra hour of battery life with 10.5.7 over 10.5.6," a developer told Ars.

This is corroborated by a user at MSI Wind forums, who says he is seeing a full five hours from a six-cell battery with the update—a 33 percent improvement over the 3:45 he was able to get out of 10.5.6. "I can verify this to be true," he wrote. I've fully charged and used it till it went dead twice now."

Apple hires former OLPC security head to harden Mac OS X - Ars Technica

Despite its assertion that Macs don't suffer from the viruses and malware that Windows does in a number of its "Get a Mac" ads, Apple has been criticized for not taking security seriously enough. This is particularly because Leopard does not implement (or implement fully) the same security measures as Windows Vista. Lest you think Apple is hoping that its relatively small market share will keep it safe forever, though, the company has hired former director of security architecture at One Laptop per Child, Ivan Krstić, to handle core security for its operating systems.

Krstić, who is an unabashed devotee of Linux and Python, created the Bitfrost security platform for the OLPC project. The system works by effectively running each application in its own sandboxed virtual machine. Each VM is equipped only with the hardware and network access approved either by a central authority server (such as in a school) or expressly permitted by the user. The system also includes an anti-theft mechanism that prevents a laptop from working once it has been reported stolen or otherwise can't check in with a central "leasing" server.

WWDC '09 keynote penciled in for June 8 with Phil Schiller - Ars Technica

Apple has announced the date and speaker of this year's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. As expected, it will be taking place on June 8—the first day of the week-long conference—and it will be led once again by Apple's VP of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller. The presentation will be at 10am Pacific Time.

The headliner for the WWDC '09 keynote will, of course, be Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. At WWDC '08, Apple previewed Snow Leopard to developers for the first time, and Apple senior VP of Software Engineering Bertrand Serlet confirmed that developers would be receiving a final Developer Preview release of the software this time around "so they can see the incredible progress we’ve made on Snow Leopard and work with us as we move toward its final release."

Also expected for the WWDC '09 keynote will be a status update on iPhone OS 3.0, which was previewed to the world in March. At that time, Apple fans are hoping that Apple will give details about an updated iPhone and possibly even a recently-rumored media pad. But don't go thinking you'll be able to squeeze your way into this year's keynote now—WWDC '09 is already sold out.

Twitter to launch business tools by year-end - Internet - iTnews Australia

Twitter plans to introduce tools and services by year-end to help businesses serve their customers, and may charge fees for such services, co-founder Biz Stone said.

"We're looking at who's using Twitter and for what," Stone told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York via videolink from San Francisco. "Are there any commercial usages that are making a lot of sense?"

Twitter, a two-year-old, venture capital-backed company that lets people send 140-character messages, or Tweets, has enjoyed explosive growth in recent months.

Visitors to Twitter jumped 83 percent in April from the previous month, to reach 17 million, according to comScore data.

Twitter is searching for ways to make money from its popularity. Stone said "phase one" of that effort was spent collecting intelligence on how people use the service.

The second phase will see Twitter launching tools and services on top of free micro-blogging, aimed at companies that wish to use Twitter to message customers.

It will be "simple stuff" such as lightweight analytics, Stone said. He reiterated the company's commitment to keeping the service free for everyone but added:

"If there is a way we can go above and beyond, and they (companies) can improve bottom line by offering services we can offer for a fee, (we) will do that."