BBC NEWS | Technology | Broadband speeds under scrutiny 

Broadband speeds in the UK are much slower than advertised by internet service providers, a study by Computeractive magazine has found. Some 3,000 readers took part in speed tests and 62% found they routinely ... got less than half of the top speed advertised by their provider. It is the latest in a series of questions over the way net firms advertise broadband services. Regulator Ofcom said it was aware of the issue and was "investigating". Testing times The figures were gathered from more than 100,000 speed tests that the 3,000 respondents carried out to build up a picture of their average net-browsing speed on ADSL lines. Statistics about net users in the UK show that half of current broadband users receive ADSL services that should run at speeds between one and four megabits per second (mbps). The other 50% are on deals offering up to eight mbps but the tests revealed that, in reality, very few achieve the top speeds. "This problem has been building for a while with a growing gu   [More...] [Less...]

House of Lords Inquiry: Personal Internet Security [pdf]

UK technology, news, reviews and downloads - vnunet.com 

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Technology news - CNET News.com 

NASA announced that it is taking applications for its 2009 astronaut class. The salary ranges is from $59,000 to $132,000 but the job may require extensive travel. Pudding Media to introduce Net phone ... service supported by ads related to what people are talking about during their calls. The New York Times Find more stories in: Advertising , Privacy An 18-year-old worker at a circuit board factory in Redwood City, Calif., apparently passed out over a vat of acid, fell in and died. FBI is checking allegations Unisys failed to detect cyber break-ins at Homeland Security Department and tried to cover up its shortcomings. Find more stories in: China , Defense/military , Federal government , Unisys So you want to go green but don't know where to begin? Lucky for you, a legion of building supply companies and distributors have started to crank out eco-friendly products. Solar energy will be all the rage in Southern California this week as the industry gathers for its principal conference, S   [More...] [Less...]

Patented technology an obstacle to mobile web, Berner-Lee says 

Berners-Lee urged the mobile web community to take note of the experience of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3). Supplier patents had made it difficult for the World Wide Web Consortium, which has a strict ... open IP environment, to bring wider functionality and capabilities to the web. But, Berners-Lee said, supplier CEOs eventually realised that although they might have 95% of a select market with their web products, they stood to gain about 60% of a considerably larger market if they opened up their patents to the W3C. Patents turn technology into a gravy train for suppliers, said Beners-Lee. They make a lot of money, but there is no connectivity, he said. Berners Lee said that integration of video is also difficult owing to the patents on video codexes.   [More...] [Less...]

BBC NEWS | Technology | Adobe challenges word on the web 

Adobe has joined a growing list of firms offering web-based alternatives to conventional office programs. The software developer has acquired the online word processor Buzzword, which allows users to ... create and share text documents on the web. Similar programs are already offered as elements of other free office software suites from Google, ajax13 and Zoho. Microsoft has also announced a new web feature for its Office suite which lets people access documents online. Microsoft Office Live Workspace is currently being offered as free test, or "beta", software. "Office Live Workspace will provide anywhere-access to Office documents, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint files," said Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's Business division. "In other words, these documents will go wherever people go when they're away from their usual desktop." People using the new feature will be able to post documents directly to an online workspace where friends or colleagues can be invited to colla   [More...] [Less...]

BBC NEWS | Technology | Africa waiting for net revolution 

More than a third of Africa's citizens should have access to broadband internet by 2012, a conference of technology leaders is set to hear. Fewer than four out of 100 Africans currently use the internet, ... and broadband penetration is below 1%. The barriers to broadband access are key talking points at the Connect Africa meeting in Kigali, in Rwanda. Dr Hamadoun Toure, head of the International Telecommunication Union has called for "immediate action". The conference features representations from organisations such as the World Bank, World Health Organization and United Nations, as well as high-profile technology leaders such as Intel's chairman Craig Barrett. The attendees were all invited to make financial commitments to improving technology and telecoms in the continent. More than $3bn has been pledged so far. Dr Toure said that despite the bleak picture of access issues in Africa there was plenty of opportunity. He told the BBC News website: "If you have just 1% of broadband access t   [More...] [Less...]

Untitled-1 

RESTON, Virginia There was bipartisan agreement on display Thursday about the impact of Web 2.0 technology on politics. Joe Trippi, senior advisor to the John Edwards presidential campaign, and Cyrus Krohn, ... the director of the eCampaign division of the Republican National Committee, both spoke of how social networking has changed the face of politics on a panel at ExecutiveBiz's The New New Internet conference here. "It's going to overthrow the current structure [of politics]," Trippi said of the impact of the Web, social networking, and social media. Krohn concurred, saying, "The floodgates have been opened it's going to change politics forever." While the "first Internet President" has yet to be elected and the Internet may not be the deciding factor in the 2008 election it's clear to senior people within several campaigns that social networking is the only way for them to reach a segment of the population that politicians have generally ignored in the past. "More than half of people   [More...] [Less...]

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google pushes into mobile phones 

Google has unveiled software it hopes will power a variety of future mobile phones and boost the web on the move. The software could lead to cheaper phones as it is designed to speed up the process of ... making mobile services. The firm is working with four mobile manufacturers - Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG - but a Google branded phone was not announced. The first phones using the so-called Google "software stack" will be available in the second half of 2008. "This is going to bring the internet into cell phones in a very cool way," Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms, told the Associated Press news agency. Mr Rubin's firm, called Android, was bought by Google in 2005 and the software it developed forms the basis of the new stack. Google has formed the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), made up of 34 companies, including chip manufacturers and handset makers. The move will be seen as a major competitor to Microsoft, Research in Motion, Palm and Symbian, who make the leading soft   [More...] [Less...]

TelecomTV - TelecomTV One - News 

US Mobile buyers want Internet ready phones 08/11/2007 09:11:00 - by Andrew Beutmueller Nearly half of all mobile purchase decisions made today hinge on handset Internet functionality, which is of course ... great news for Google right on the heels of its web apps announcement Monday. The Kelsey Group research with research partner ConStat indicates that 44.7 per cent of US mobile handset customers want an upgrade to "better" Internet access if they are going to spring for a new handset. Currently only 26 per cent of subscribers are signed up for mobile Internet access. Likewise, the most desired mobile Internet apps are maps and searches of neighbourhood businesses. According to the study, while 9.8 per cent of respondents used their mobile Internet enables devices to search for local products and services, 10.7 per cent accessed mobile maps and a further 10.9 per cent said they had "downloaded [Internet] search or mapping applications to supplement those that came with their mobile phone   [More...] [Less...]