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Citibank Releases Biometric Finger Scanning Payment System

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Citibank Singapore is offering a new way for credit-card holders to make payments using their fingerprints instead of credit cards.

Citibank this month began rolling out biometric payment systems in Singapore that allow Citibank Clear Platinum credit card holders to pay using their fingerprints.

Before putting the biometric system into operation, Citibank officials took a long hard look at whether the system was secure ��" and came away satisfied that it was.

For its part, Citibank hopes the biometric technology makes payment more convenient for its card holders, eliminating the need for them to always carry credit cards while still allowing them to buy things. But don't expect to see biometrics replace Citibank cards any time soon. "The technology will be used in conjunction with a credit card," Cavale said.

So far, Citibank's biometric payment systems are in place at only a handful of outlets in Singapore, including local coffee shops and the popular Zouk night club. But the bank has plans to quickly expand the number of such systems and the number of Citibank card holders able to use them.

"Our intention is to roll it out very quickly to other cards," Cavale said.

Article Source Citibank Releases Biometric Finger Scanning Payment System

Alcatel Sues Microsoft Over Patents

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Alcatel, the French manufacturer of telecommunications gear, has filed two separate complaints against Microsoft in a Texas court, claiming that Microsoft has infringed on seven Alcatel patents.

The court documents do not give examples of Microsoft's alleged bad behavior, but we think that it relates to digital video and network communication.

It said the action, lodged in the US District Court for Eastern Texas was to protect its intellectual property.

The French firm added it hoped to resolve issues "through discussions rather than the courts".

Microsoft said that the suits appeared to relate to a long-running dispute between it and US-based Lucent Technologies which Alcatel is set to take over.

Article Source Alcatel Sues Microsoft Over Patents

$100 laptop prototype goes on show - But costs $150 to make

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The One Laptop per Child project on Thursday showed off the latest prototype of what's widely known as the $100 laptop for school children in developing nations. The only hitch is that the computer costs $150 to make.

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project on Thursday showed off the latest prototype of what's widely known as the $100 laptop for school children in developing nations. The only hitch is that the computer costs $150 to make.

Walter Bender, president of software for the not-for-profit OLPC, said higher-than-expected costs for the laptop's display and battery (made of nickel-metal hydride) hiked up the price.

He said: "The goal is to get it to $100 by 2008."

The price per device has been creeping upward. Earlier this year, OLPC founder and chairman Nicholas Negroponte said the group was looking at a range of $135 to $140.

Negroponte, who also co-founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, outlined the initial plan for the device at the World Economic Forum in January 2005. He envisioned developing a low-cost laptop that governments could afford and then redistribute to students for free, thus improving their educational opportunities.

Nearly two years later, the not-for-profit has received a key working prototype from the Quanta factory in Shanghai.

Bender said OLPC plans to debug the prototype, called B1, and then build a second prototype, B2. By the end of the second quarter of 2007, it plans to have a version of the laptop ready to ship to children in Argentina, Brazil, Libya and Nigeria.

At that time, it plans to ship 1.2 million laptops to children and teachers in Libya, and roughly four million more to the other countries, Bender said.

The B1 prototype is a lime-green-and-white laptop that's roughly the size of a schoolbook. It's made of dirt-resistant materials such as a rubber membrane keyboard. Its features include a built-in video camera, voice over IP capabilities, and a screen that swivels for e-book use. The dual-mode display can also be used in full-colour mode, or in a black-and-white sunlight-readable mode.

It runs a version of the Linux operating system, as well as various applications developed by MIT researchers and open source programmers around the world. For example, the University of Montreal built a music education application for the laptop.

Power for the laptops comes from conventional electric current or batteries, since many countries targeted in the plan do not have power in remote areas. For connectivity, the systems use wi-fi and built-in "mesh networking", a peer-to-peer concept that allows machines to share a single internet connection.

For this reason, Bender said OLPC is working with partner schools to ensure they have a server and internet connection that can be the gateway for the mesh network.

Article Source $100 laptop prototype goes on show - But costs $150 to make

Universal Music is suing MySpace.com

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Universal Music Group is suing MySpace - claiming the online social network site is encouraging its users to illegally share music and music videos.
It accuses MySpace of allowing people to illegally upload videos and of providing the technology for users to share the content with others.

Links to work by its artists including The Killers, Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani are available, Universal alleges.

But MySpace said it acted legally and dismissed the "meritless litigation".

It added that its procedures for removing illegal downloads were good, and that it fully complied with copyright laws.

Article Source Universal Music is suing MySpace.com

LG Launches Blu-ray Drive In UK Market

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

LG has announced three new optical drives for the PC this morning including a Blu-ray drive for PC users.

The GBW H10N boasts the world's fastest Blu-ray write speed of 4X, as well as writing to existing DVD formats at speeds of up to 12x.

Blu-ray discs hold more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs holding up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc.

LG’s new drive is also fully backwards compatible enabling it to read and write all three current DVD formats (DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD-RAM).

LG’s GBW H10N is equipped with a 4MB buffer memory for BD and 2MB for CD format with run prevention technology, which prevents errors and confirms the GBW-H10N as the ultimate desktop storage solution. LG has yet to set a price for the drive.

For those not yet ready to opt for the next generation format, LG has also announced two new high speed optical rewriters to the UK: the GSA-H22NB, its first internal 18x Super Multi Drive DVD Rewriter, and the GSA-E10L, its 16x Super Multi Drive DVD Rewriter with Lightscribe Direct Disc Labelling technology.

The GSA-H22NB will allow users to read and write in all three DVD formats (DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD-RAM) and is equipped with the latest Dual Layer writing technology to offer 8.5GB storage capacity as standard. The rewriter is suitable for all desktop PCs and is available in black, ivory and silver, at an estimated retail price in the region of £49.99 from Ebuyer, Dabs and PC World.

The GSA-E10L is a 16x Super Multi DVD Rewriter with Lightscribe Direct Disc Labelling technology. The optical drive supports read and write in all three DVD formats (DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM) and is equipped with dual layer recording to provide storage of up to 8.5GB.

Article Source LG Launches Blu-ray Drive In UK Market

Major Airlines To Install iPod docking stations on their planes

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The installation of iPod docks by U.S. and international airlines will make air travel a more personalized experience.

Apple announced that it would install docking stations in seats on planes belonging to United, Continental, Delta and Emirates. The installation will be carried out by Panasonic Avionics starting next year.

Air France and KLM said an announcement about their participation was premature, The Washington Times reported Wednesday.

The docks will include a power connection as well as a seat-back video screen that will enable flyers to listen to music or their own in-flight movie.

Analysts tell the Times it will help keep customers satisfied at a time when airlines are cutting perks in order to save money and the development of in-flight Internet connections has faltered.

The docks will likely be first installed in the first-class and business sections of long-haul flights, leaving the coach crowd to rely on their MP3 player batteries or a good book to pass the time.

Article Source Major Airlines To Install iPod docking stations on their planes

Apple iPhone Rumors

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The rumor about Apple’s iPhone has started again after Forbes reported that the Cupertino company has ordered 12m mobile handsets to Hon Hai Precision Industry, a Taiwan Source company.

The main source of this information is a Chinese newspaper, theCommercial Times.
The Commercial Times didn’t revelead the financial details of the contract, but it said that Apple will launch the mobile phone in the first half of next year.

The first rumors about an iPhone, based on the iPod design and compatible with iTunes, have started at the beginning of this year. On January 5, Apple made a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the phrase "Mobile Me" for use in a wide range of businesses. This move was just the start for speculation that Apple could introduce an iPod phone.

The areas that the trademark covers include computing devices, mobile devices, and mobile services including digital music, video, games, e-mail, and messaging across Internet, intranets, extranets, television, cellular, and satellite networks, the filing shows. In one application, Apple’s "Mobile Me" would apply to "mobile telephone communications services" and "telecommunication services for the dissemination of information by mobile telephone, namely the transmission of data to mobile telephones."

In October, the iPhone has come again into the spotlight, after a research analyst from Prudential Equity Group, Jesse Tortora, said that his checks indicate that Apple may launch not one, but two cell phones, as soon as January 2007.

At the time, Tortora said that one model will be a smart phone, including integrated keyboard, video and music capability, while the other model will be a slimmer phone with just music functionality.

Article Source Apple iPhone Rumors

HP Takes Top Spot in Worldwide PC Shipments

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Hewlett-Packard has overtaken Dell as the world's NO.1 in PC sales, according to analyst Gartner.

Gartner Said HP had pipped Dell to the number one slot for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2003.

For the third quarter of 2006, HP shipped 110.000 more units than Dell.

Article Source HP Takes Top Spot in Worldwide PC Shipments

Sony Ericsson buys Symbian UIQ

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Sony Ericsson has snapped up the UIQ mobile phone user interface, paying Symbian an undisclosed sum for the software and the subsidiary company formed to develop and maintain it.

UIQ was the original user interface for the Symbian operating system until the company decided it should focus on the under-the-hood code and allow phone makers to implement their own UIs if they wish. Most famously, Nokia made just such a move, and developed the precursors to its current Series 60 and Series 80 - aka S60 and S80 - UIs, both of which sit on top of the Symbian OS.

UIQ remained as the UI for Symbian licensees unwilling to develop a user interface of their own. Siemens was originally a UIQ fan, but its support went the way of all flesh when it sold its mobile phone division to BenQ, never a vociferous Symbian supporter. That's left Sony Ericsson as the major UIQ licensee, adding to its P series of smart phones, its M600 smart phone and a number of its higher-end Walkman-branded handsets.

The acquisition, if OK'd by regulatory authorities and shareholders, brings this key resource firmly under Sony Ericsson's control, allowing it to evolve to suit even better the company's hardware. That said, Sony Ericsson will continue to allow other vendors to license UIQ, which will continue to exist as a separate business division within the larger handset company.

After the acquisition, both Nokia and Sony Ericsson own their own software systems for their phones. While the two have said they will license their software to rival handset makers, these competitors prefer to use the open-source Linux software - which is freely available, and which they regard as more stable, cheaper and more flexible and innovative than proprietary systems owned by a single company.

'We think 60 percent of our phones will be Linux-based in a very short time frame,' Christy Wyatt, a software vice president at the world's second biggest handset maker Motorola, said at an Open Source in Mobile conference here on Tuesday.

Motorola, which will sell around 200 million phones this year, has already shipped 5 million Linux-based handsets.

Motorola is working to standardise Linux for mobile devices jointly with Korean rival Samsung Electronics - the world's third biggest handset maker - and Japanese rivals NEC and Matsushita-owned Panasonic, as well as mobile service behemoths Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo.

Article Source Sony Ericsson buys Symbian UIQ

Windows users hit by zero-day flaw

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft is warning against a new exploit in all Windows versions except Windows 2003 that is actively being exploited by attackers.

The flaw affects a part of the Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 that is referred to as the XMLHTTP 4.0 ActiveX Control. The Core Service technology provides interoperability between applications that are based on the XML 1.0 standard and Microsoft's Jscript, VBScript and Visual Studio 6.0 programming environments.

The flaw allows attackers to take over control of a system. They could exploit the flaw by luring their victims to a specially crafted website or a page on a social service like Myspace. They could exploit the vulnerability through specially crafted advertisements that are placed on third party websites.

Microsoft warned that the company is aware of "limited attacks" exploiting the flaw.

Security website Secunia rated the bug as " extremely critical", its most severe rating.