Techno-News Blog

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

The search engine wants to weed out sites that create low quality articles simply as a way of luring people to online ads. Google is working on ways to rid its search results of “content farms”—sites that create many pages of very cheap content crafted to appear high up in Google’s results. Speaking this week at Farsight 2011, a one-day event in San Francisco on the future of search, the firm’s principal search engineer, Matt Cutts, said that Google is considering tweaks to the algorithms that guide its search results. It’s also considering more radical tactics, such as letting users blacklist certain sites from the results they see.

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/32254/?p1=A3&a=f

By Michelle Maisto, eWeek

The mobile device market has no lack of attractive Android-running smartphones, and still Samsung has managed to score big with its Galaxy line. During the seven months following the phones’ launch, Samsung sold more than 10 million of them, which, during the fourth quarter of 2010, helped it to pass the 80-million-phones mark for the first time in the company’s history. Looking to keep the momentum going, Samsung at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show announced that it has created a 4G smartphone and tablet for Verizon Wireless. It also plans to introduce a Galaxy S successor phone with a dual-core processor and Super AMOLED Plus display during the first half of 2011.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Samsungs-Growing-Galaxy-Lineup-Make-It-a-True-Apple-Competitor-254490/?kc=rss

By: Wayne Rash, eWeek

It’s no secret that those of us who work on the U.S. East Coast have been subjected to a cycle of major winter storms that have hit about every four to six days. The Midwest has had a similar cycle that seems to alternate between the upper and lower Midwest. As those storms hit with blizzard conditions or with sticky, wet snow, freezing rain and high winds, the results are basically the same: Power goes out, employees get stuck in commuter hell, phone service is spotty and cell service vanishes. The only real differences are in how skilled the regions are in getting back online after one of these events.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Winter-Storms-Underscore-Need-for-Real-World-Emergency-Preparation-751940/?kc=rss

by Jozef Hall, BBC

Advertisement31 January 2011 Last updated at 10:54 ET Help London Luton Airport has become one of the first airport in the world to introduce holographic announcers. The project is part of a series of initiatives aimed at simplifying the security process at the airport. Custom designed for London Luton Airport, the holograms, in both male and female versions, are technically referred to as tensator virtual assistants.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12328160

by the BBC

Paying for a sandwich will soon be possible via a mobile phone as operator Orange rolls out what it claims is the UK’s first mobile payments service. The service, due for launch in summer 2011, sees the phone operator partnering with payments firm Barclaycard. Businesses that have contactless technology include Pret a Manger, Little Chef and the National Trust. More services are expected to roll out in the run up to the 2012 Olympics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12287009

by the BBC

In an exclusive interview with the BBC’s Stephanie Flanders, Google’s Eric Schmidt discusses his changing role, and is asked about the threat posed by Facebook and other social media. Mr Schmidt will hand over the chief executive role to Larry Page in April, and become Google’s executive chairman

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12304336

by the BBC

The new media has played a crucial part in the communication of protests in countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Iran. The BBC’s Adam Mynott reports on the role played by social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in galvanising popular support for various causes around the world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12304750

by the BBC

Amazon has announced that in the US it sold more e-books for its Kindle device than it sold paperback books in the last three months of 2010. But its profit margins were down as it spent money on discounting, acquisitions and building new depots. Amazon shares fell 9% in after-hours trading as its sales were not as good as had been expected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12305015

by Ian Hardy, BBC

Cinema takings went up last year, largely thanks to the buzz surrounding 3D movies. But in the home, it’s been a different story. Despite the hype at big technology shows like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, sales of 3D-ready televisions have been disappointing, which could in part be due to the unpopularity of the expensive and unfashionable glasses.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9379383.stm

by Erica Naone, Technology Review

In a paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Cornell University describe a model for predicting how a social group will break apart during a turbulent split. Jon Kleinberg, a professor of computer science at Cornell, who led the work, says researchers have traditionally focused on predicting how a group will look once the conflict has shaken out. He says this work proposes a way of looking at the process of the split itself. Kleinberg notes that his group’s model doesn’t apply to every situation. Instead, it portrays extremely polarizing conflicts. A sociological theory called “structural balance” describes the decisions that group members are forced to make when a group splits completely apart. The model best fits ” situations where the logic starts to become, ‘If you’re not with me, you’re against me,'” Kleinberg says.

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/28827/?mod=chfeatured

By Duncan Graham-Rowe, Technology Review

Researchers in Germany have developed the world’s thinnest “pico” video projector. The prototype device contains an array of carefully shaped microlenses, each with its own miniature liquid-crystal display (LCD). The device is just six millimeters thick, but it produces images that are 10 times brighter than would normally be possible with such a small device. Handheld pico projectors can be used to display movies, maps, or presentations on nearby surfaces

http://technologyreview.com/computing/27127/?p1=MstRcnt

By Boonsri Dickinson, Technology Review

Each time a new version of Windows is released, many computer users find that their hardware is suddenly outdated. For cash-strapped schools, upgrading to the latest hardware with each major software release is simply impossible. A New York startup called NeverWare is offering a possible solution—a server that lets even decade-old PCs upgrade to the latest Windows 7 operating system. Once NeverWare’s server, called the JuiceBox a100, is added to a school’s existing computer network , it does the hard work of running the latest operating systems for numerous aging computers on the same network.

http://technologyreview.com/computing/32230/?p1=MstRcnt

By Katherine Bourzac, Technology Review

A new nanolithography method could bring down the costs of making experimental computer chips for electronics research and arrays of biomolecules for cell biology. The method makes it possible to deposit fine patterns of materials, or carve them away, using large arrays of silicon pens sitting on springs; it combines the ability to pattern arbitrary designs that have nanoscale features with the ability to work quickly and over relatively large areas.

http://technologyreview.com/computing/28829/?p1=MstRcnt&a=f

 By: Don Reisinger, eWeek

Net neutrality and the legal fight that surrounds it is something that can’t be explained so easily. In essence, the Federal Communications Commission believes that it has the power to establish some basic rules on user access to the Internet. Internet providers, however, feel that they can regulate themselves and that the intrusion of federal government officials into their businesses is simply unacceptable.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Verizon-FCC-Net-Neutrality-Suit-Is-Bad-News-for-All-Sides-10-Reasons-Why-174360/?kc=rss

By: Brian Prince, eWeek

During the past month, a number of bloggers and others have criticized Google for returning poor search results. At issue is what is known as Web spam, which Google defines as junk search results that pop up when Websites cheat their way to the top of search results with via search engine optimization techniques. “A decade ago, the spam situation was so bad that search engines would regularly return off-topic webspam for many different searches,” blogged Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer at Google. “For the most part, Google has successfully beaten back that type of “pure webspam” – even while some spammers resort to sneakier or even illegal tactics such as hacking websites.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Google-Answers-Search-Result-Quality-Complaints-823846/?kc=rss

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Toshiba launched a preview Website of its forthcoming Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet, a device geared to provide features Apple’s iPad lacks such as dual cameras, a swappable battery, several data ports and Flash support. EWEEK got a sneak peek of the tablet three weeks ago at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, but few specs were made available about the device, whose name Toshiba has yet to announce.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Toshiba-Android-30-Tablet-Touts-Swappable-Battery-835637/?kc=rss

Joe Meyers, News-Times

Westport writer Tessa Smith McGovern was fiddling around with an iPhone last year and thinking about all the applications that could be downloaded to her gizmo when that proverbial light bulb went on over her head. What about an “app” for short pieces of fiction and nonfiction? Like all writers, McGovern was well aware of the dwindling number of print outlets for short stories, so she started thinking about utilizing the new technology to deliver well-written and uplifting stories that could be read on the go. “It really got me excited in so many different ways,” McGovern said in a phone interview last week of “eChook,” the app she launched two months ago.

http://www.newstimes.com/entertainment/article/A-new-delivery-system-for-short-fiction-and-957028.php

by Michael J. Miller, PC Magazine

Last year’s big CES story was the emergence of 3D TVs. While they didn’t sell as many as some thought, most of the sets we saw last year had one thing in common: they required active glasses in which a shutter would open and close over each eye very quickly. This year, that technology was still out in full-force, but models that used passive glasses and those that work without special glasses at all were widespread as well. The result is a broader range of technologies that may help make 3D more palatable for a larger audience.

http://blogs.pcmag.com/miller/2011/01/3d_year_2_a_clash_of_technolog.php

by Stephen Shankland, CNET news.com

Those who lived through the days of xD card vs. Memory Stick vs. CompactFlash vs. Secure Digital may think people need a new flash memory card format like we need a hole in our heads. Who, after all, has a burning desire to upgrade the 9-in-1 flash card reader to a 10-in-1 model? An established industry standards group, JEDEC, has a new format it hopes will catch on, though. At the CES show last week, JEDEC members worked to build industry support for a faster successor called Universal Flash Storage (UFS).

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20028559-264.html

by Field Logix

CES is the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show held every year in Las Vegas in January. This year, recent advancements in vehicle, navigation and telematics technology made this area one of the most exciting parts of CES. Here are highlights of the new vehicle, navigation and telematics technologies showcased at CES 2011.

http://www.fieldtechnologies.com/new-gps-navigation-and-telematics-technology-exciting-part-of-ces-2011/

By Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun

Tablets and augmented reality are in, laptops and software giants are out. That’s part of the scenario that business information technology experts SAP envision for 2011. SAP is a German-based international business software company. Following on a year of fundamental shifts in the technological landscape, they indicated Wednesday in their widely circulated newsletter that they’re expecting more of the same in the next 12 months. Aggregating predictions and observations from a variety of IT market researchers, they’re listing nine trends to emerge this year -beginning with an accelerating mania for smartphones and tablet-type computers that will grab as much as a third of the global market for personal computers by 2013.

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/technology/Technology+likely+drive+business+trends+2011+report/4104561/story.html