Techno-News Blog

by SC Now
New technology makes the Myrtle Beach Marathon more interactive. “The technology is there,” said race President, Shaun Walsh. “It’s evolved so quickly in the last couple of years that we’re able to use it now.” This year friends and loved ones can sign up for text alerts that will let you know how the runner is doing by giving their time and place in the race. New kiosks will be at the finish line. The kiosks will display results almost immediately after a runner crosses the finish line.

http://www2.scnow.com/news/2011/feb/17/app-among-new-technology-used-2011-myrtle-beach-ma-ar-1477372/

by Rafe Needleman, CNet news.com

Joshua Baer, CEO of the e-mail company OtherInBox, agitated for a new addition to e-mail standards at the Inbox Love e-mail conference today. He’s proposing a standard that would let e-mail messages carry with them the date of their own irrelevance. E-mails could use the the “x-expires” header to tell the receiving in-box that they become outdated after a certain absolute date, or a certain time relative to when they’re sent or received.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20036542-250.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

by Caroline McCarthy, CNet news.com

An entertainment reporter, Rachael Recker, wrote an article in which she quoted several Twitter users and identified them by username. For those of us accustomed to the tech press, this is no surprise–but for a local newspaper, it’s unorthodox territory. Recker was met with criticism from readers as well as some of the Twitter users quoted, who, according to a column published earlier this week in the Grand Rapids Press, thought that the journalist “wasn’t doing a full job of reporting, since she didn’t contact them personally for a quote…(and) questioned whether it is appropriate to use tweets in an online story without specifically asking for permission.”

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20036601-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER, NY Times

Google said late Thursday that it had made a major change to its algorithm in an effort to improve the rankings of high-quality Web sites in its search results — and to reduce the visibility of low-quality sites. While the company did not say so explicitly, the change appears to be directed in part at so-called content farms like eHow and Answerbag, which generate articles based on popular search queries so they will rise to the top of the rankings and attract clicks.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/google-tweaks-algorithm-to-push-down-low-quality-sites/

By Don Reisinger, eWeek

In 2010, the tablet space was dominated by a single company: Apple. The firm’s iPad was the most recognizable and worthwhile tablet in the space. The vast majority of consumers realized that it was better than any other device on the market. Admittedly, it wasn’t a difficult decision. The Dell Streak featured a 5-inch display and an outdated version of Android. The JooJoo tablet came from an unknown company with a short past. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, while arguably the best iPad alternative, was running Android 2.2, which Google itself said wasn’t ready for tablets. But 2011 will be a different story altogether. The iPad will continue to be the tablet to beat this year, but several companies, including LG, Acer and Motorola, among others, will be entering the space this year. Any one of them could very well deliver an experience that customers had been hoping for last year. Those who are interested in learning a bit more about those tablets should click through the following slides. The upcoming tablets won’t carry the Apple logo, but they could be the best alternatives to the iPad for any customer.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/10-Promising-NonApple-iPad-Tablets-to-Hit-Store-Shelves-In-2011-313793/?kc=rss

By: Fahmida Y. Rashid, eWeek

EMC has a sunny forecast for European businesses: the cloud will generate 2.4 million jobs over the next four years. If companies across Europe’s five largest economies, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, continue to adopt cloud technology as expected, they will generate more than $243 billion in revenue per year, EMC said in its Cloud Dividend Report Part 2 on Feb. 24.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Cloud-Computing-to-Bring-24-Million-New-Jobs-in-Europe-by-2015-108084/?kc=rss

By: Chris Preimesberger, eWeek

Other World Computing (aka OWC) now has an answer to personal or small business Big Data. It started shipping a new desktop RAID drive Feb. 23 that simply blows away competitors based on capacity alone. The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 is a monster 12TB enterprise RAID (redundant array of independent disks) storage drive, designed with a highly-reliable 2 million MTBF (mean time between failures) for critical business applications that must never go down. The QX2, which retails for $2,200, is comprised of four 3TB HDDs, all situated in hot-swappable drive bays, so replacing a bum disk is quite easy.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/Other-World-Computing-Ships-Monster-12TB-Desktop-Drive-645030/?kc=rss

by the BBC

The proportion of websites secretly harbouring malware has reached one in 3,000 according to security firm Kaspersky. It found a surge in the number of web-based attacks in 2010, with more than 580 million incidents detected. Risk was no longer focused on sites with illegal content, such as pirate films and music, the report said. Instead, criminals were increasingly using legitimate websites, such as shopping and online gaming.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12539993

By Maggie Shiels, BBC

By 2015 more than 12 billion devices will be capable of connecting to 500 billion hours of TV and video content, says chip giant Intel. It said its vision of TV everywhere will be more personal, social, ubiquitous and informative. “TV is out of the box and off the wall,” Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer, told BBC News. “TV will remain at the centre of our lives and you will be able to watch what you want where you want.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8272003.stm

by the BBC

Chip manufacturer Intel has announced it is to roll out a new technology for connecting computers and peripherals. The system, known as Thunderbolt, promises transfer speeds twice as fast as USB 3.0. However it won’t reach its theoretical maximum because Intel has opted to use copper wires rather than fibre optic cables. The company said it would gradually move to higher speeds over time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12570323