Google sticks by censorship policy

An attempt to force Google to stop censoring its search results in repressive countries has been rejected by its shareholders. The office of the comptroller of New York City, which oversees New York City pension funds, proposed the motion at the search giant's annual shareholder yesterday more...

Skills gap is hampering virtualisation progress

Over half (53 per cent) of UK businesses are unable to implement virtualisation technology because of a lack of relevant skills, according to independent research commissioned by IT consultant Avanade. Although 46 per cent of respondents have mapped a virtualisation strategy, a skills gap in this area is proving a stumbling block for more than half more...

Highest mobile call climb begins

A British climber is in the closing stages of an attempt to set a world record for the highest mobile call. Rod Baber is making final preparations to scale Mount Everest and make the call from its north ridge more...

Joost reveals five new investors

Joost, the on-demand video service from the founders of Skype, has raised $45m (£22.8m) from five investors including the broadcasters CBS and Viacom. Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstroem set up Joost in January 2006 to offer broadband users full-screen, high-quality video on their computers more...

Study says iPods can make pacemakers malfunction

iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to a study presented by a 17-year-old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday more...

Microsoft releases final iPod fix for Vista

Microsoft released what they call the final patch for Vista users who have issues with their iPods. The release follows an announcement in February from Apple that iPod users should avoid upgrading to Vista in order to prevent corruption when using the ejection feature undock the device more...

YouTube sued for showing football

The English Premier League is suing YouTube, the video-sharing website, for alleged copyright infringement. The league said that the site, which is owned by Google, was engaged in a "deliberate strategy" of "promoting and encouraging massive copyright infringement" by enabling excerpts of games to be posted more...

ID card costs rise above £5bn

The official cost of the controversial ID card scheme has risen to £5.31bn. The figures were released as Tony Blair announced his departure, leading to claims from the opposition that the government was "burying bad news" more...

MP3 players could boast sat-nav

Computer scientists are hoping to add GPS satellite navigation technology to hand-held music devices like MP3s, to help guide pedestrians around cities more...

Google Earth to get sound enhancement

The sounds of the planet are to be linked to Google Earth to enable users to hear what a place sounds like, as well as what it used to sound like. Bernie Krause has spent 40 years collecting the sounds, and his company Wild Sanctuary has accumulated over 3,500 hours of recordings, covering everything from the cracking of glaciers to midnight in the jungle more...

Gaming, music and TV to drive mobile market

Mobile content is set for a revolution, with gaming, music and TV all poised to transform the market in the next five years. With regulatory and competitive pressures pushing down the average consumer spend on voice and messaging, Screen Digest mobile analyst David McQueen advised mobile operators to look to new content offerings to deliver the business growth they've enjoyed over the past decade more...

Blu-ray a possibility for Xbox 360

Community site Xbox Circle has reported that during a recent interview with ITMedia, Microsoft boss Peter Moore stated that the Xbox 360 could see an add-on Blu-ray drive launched for it more...

The kids are alright online

While parents fret about timewasting games and online predators, young people are alert to the dangers and relaxed with technologies' potential, says Richard Sarson more...

Do people care how environmentally friendly their PC is?

Not judging by the reaction to the latest ruminations from Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, whose latest bit of blogging, entitled "A Greener Apple" - about the company's past and future environmental objectives - has drawn noticeably less interest than his previous one, in which he discussed whether online music should be sold with or without digital rights management software more...

Concerns over child porn inquiry

A BBC investigation has raised concerns about the way the UK's biggest internet child porn inquiry was conducted. Operation Ore focused on over 7,000 people whose credit cards were used to buy illegal porn from a US website more...

Second Life 'child abuse' claim

Second Life is being investigated by German police following allegations that some members are trading child abuse images in the online world. The investigation follows a report by a German TV news programme which uncovered the trading group and members who pay for sex with virtual children more...

M&S employee details at risk

Marks and Spencer has confirmed that a laptop containing information on 26,000 employees was stolen three weeks ago. The laptop was taken from a printing firm that had been given the personal information in order to write to employees about pension changes more...

Smart hat brings play to disabled

A "smart" cap that allows disabled children to "drive" radio-controlled cars and boats, has been launched. The Dream-Racer device has four motion sensors that detect small movements of the head, which are then fed wirelessly to control the toy's direction more...

'Guessing' robots navigate faster

Robots that use educated guesswork to build maps of their surroundings are being tested by US researchers. The approach could let them navigate more easily through complex environments such as unfamiliar buildings, the researchers claim more...

Touch-and-pay cards get go ahead

UK consumers will soon be able to settle bills of less than £10 with a touch of their credit and debit cards. The system, which is being led by Visa and Mastercard, will be running from September, said payment group Apacs more...

Touch-and-pay cards get go ahead

UK consumers will soon be able to settle bills of less than £10 with a touch of their credit and debit cards. The system, which is being led by Visa and Mastercard, will be running from September, said payment group Apacs more...

Web snares new Spidey game

Activision has revealed it's working on a new Spider-Man game to be released this autumn.
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe aims to offer "A new twist on the legend" and "A new take on the movies", according to the freshly launched website more...

Google's biggest hits around the world

Doberman, blood diamond, Vietnam war, bookshop. Alternatively, what about tango, zeus, Zara and the police? A world map of the mind can be sketched out by the words people search for on the internet, which are recorded by country by Google Zeitgeist (google.com/press/zeitgeist) more...

Linux evolves for mobile phones

A version of the increasingly popular Linux operating system Ubuntu will be developed for use on net-enabled phones and devices, it has been announced. The Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded project aims to create the open source platform for initial release in October 2007 more...

LG Unveils 'Full HD' Plasmas & LCDs

So confident was LG of a joyous reception to its latest products that it launched them at a plush London event last week with Lily Allen on the mic and Primal Scream front man Bobbie Gillespie manning the decks. Well you'd be confident too if you had 'Full HD' 1080p plasmas and LCDs up your sleeve more...

Currys to eject audio cassettes

The digital world has finally caught up with the humble audio cassette as electrical retailer Currys announced it will stop stocking them. Last year Currys sold just 100,000 tapes compared with 83 million in 1989. The store will also phase out tape decks, which are currently available in less than 5% of audio equipment more...

BBC appoints Microsoft man to control future media

The BBC has appointed a Microsoft executive, previously responsible for promoting Windows Media, to a key post in the division responsible for the roll out of its iPlayer online media initiative. Ashley Highfield has announced Erik Huggers as controller of the future media and technology group. He also becomes a possible successor more...

Next target of cellphone industry

After hitting alarm clock makers and camera manufacturers, the cellphone industry has a new target -- personal navigation device makers. Handset makers see navigation as one of the next major value-adding offerings and even at this very early stage, analysts say the annual market for phone navigation is worth hundreds of millions of euros more...