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BetaNews.Com (14 non lus)

FinCEN gets so-so security report card from GAO

Publié: février 3, 2009, 11:32pm CET

The Treasury Department bureau responsible for watching out for money laundering isn't watching its security closely enough, according to GAO auditors, who claim much of FinCEN's problems lie with the notoriously security-poor IRS.
Verizon Wireless denies it's sponsoring a Sony Vaio-P rebate offer

Publié: février 3, 2009, 11:28pm CET

Reports yesterday of a $200 rebate being offered by major carrier Verizon Wireless toward the purchase of a Sony Vaio-P netbook computer, spread like wildfire.
T-Mobile to roll out Android update

Publié: février 3, 2009, 10:07pm CET

From February 5 to February 15, G1 users will be receiving an over-the-air update to the Android operating system. This release, known as RC33, adds a number of new features, including Google Voice Search.
EMI's digital music fortunes rise, while its CD market share falls

Publié: février 3, 2009, 9:57pm CET

For major UK-based record label EMI, digital music revenues rose 38% for a recent six-month period over the same six months the year before. But despite job cuts, lowered royalty payments to musicians, and other big cost savings measures, the gains on the digital side didn't offset sliding CD sales and large interest on a $2.7 billion bank loan. EMI's share of global CD sales dropped to 9.8% from a prior level of 10.6%. Still, in results reported Friday, EMI did better on the whole during the six-month stint ended September 30, 2008 than for the earlier six-month period. The music company reported a loss of only $221.3 million, in contrast to a loss of $462.5 million before, and operating profits of $8.6 million this time around, in contrast to a loss of $285 million previously. EMI cut 1,500 jobs after a recent acquisition by privaty equity firm Terra Firma.
Rumored Apple tablet PC patent app has some history behind it

Publié: février 3, 2009, 9:23pm CET

An article in this morning's Electronic Pulp shows what turns up to be a patent application filed early last month for a kind of laptop computer assembly where the logo is etched on panes of translucent plastic, such that it's invisible when turned off but illuminated eerily below when turned on. The publication talks about it as a possible application for a tablet PC or MID computer design. A diagram from the application is reproduced, and the accompanying text reads, "Something tells me that the device illustrated above, taken from one of Apple's recent patent applications, shows us...Apple's upcoming tablet PC." The presence of the Apple logo, the writer went on, suggests that the company's design is "near complete." Well, unfortunately, he's quite right. "The rest of the story," as Paul Harvey would say, after the jump...
Shazam Android music app now available throughout Europe, too

Publié: février 3, 2009, 8:15pm CET

Following a rollout last year in the US and UK markets, the highly rated, Android-based Shazam mobile music application is now available throughout Europe. Countries added to Shazam's availability list today include Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Could Shazam give Apple's iTunes and Microsoft's Zune some real rivalry whenever more Android devices come to market? Shazam's Android-accessible database contains more than 8 million tracks, including pre-release tunes and music from various eras and parts of the world. Shazam was the third most popular app when the Android Marketplace launched last fall, and it now holds a rating of "4.5 stars out of 5 stars" among more than 6,000 Android Marketplace reviewers, according to Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher.
Metamorphosis complete: Skype 4.0 for Windows is released

Publié: février 3, 2009, 8:09pm CET

Today, the "gold version" of Skype 4.0 for Windows is available. The latest version of the popular voice chat client has been in development since 2006, and is the team's "most distinctive new release in Skype's five year history."
Sony's new 'mofiria' aims for more accurate biometric ID

Publié: février 3, 2009, 7:48pm CET

Sony today unveiled a new finger vein authentication technology called "mofiria." In comparison to other biometric authentication techniques, vein authentication is more accurate and harder to forge, Sony contended in a statement, explaining that finger veins are different in each person and each finger, and that veins don't change over the years. The new "mofiria" technology uses a CMOS sensor to "diagonally capture scattered light inside the finger veins, making a plane layout possible." After the vein pattern is extracted from the captured image of the finger vein, data from the pattern is compressed, enabling storage of the biometric identifier on a mobile device or gateway security system, for example. Sony is looking to commercialize the new biometric technology within the 2009 fiscal year.
Wireless devs plan more apps for Windows than iPhone or Android

Publié: février 3, 2009, 7:14pm CET

Whether or not they're being overly optimistic, 94% of corporate developers expect wireless application development to either stay the same or rise over the year ahead, despite the economy. Forty percent more of the developers plan to focus on Windows Mobile than on Apple's iPhone, and 46% more will focus on the .NET Compact Framework than on Google's Android, say the newly released results of an Evans Data Survey.
Version 3.0.6 of Firefox goes live, formal release is pending

Publié: février 3, 2009, 6:58pm CET

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 for Windows from Fileforum now. This morning, our Fileforum editor dutifully noticed that the Mozilla organization has placed the final candidate for the sixth update build to Firefox 3.0 on its FTP servers. As is Mozilla's procedure, this happens prior to the official "release" of the build to general users; and indeed, according to the development team's checklist, contributors are just now being notified of the availability of this build for final testing. Users of earlier editions are not yet seeing notices that the new edition is available, and exactly what issues have been addressed have not yet been listed. Download Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 for Linux from Fileforum now.
IBM raises the goalpost: 20 petaflops in three years

Publié: février 3, 2009, 6:04pm CET

Typically, the reason a manufacturer helps a government agency build a supercomputer is to establish bragging rights. But this time, IBM plans to help the DOE put its latest creation to work with the nation's infrastructure.
Dell thin clients feature SUSE Linux

Publié: février 3, 2009, 6:02pm CET

Dell's new OptiPlex Thin Client devices will be pre-loaded with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Thin Client. This version of the SUSE Enterprise Linux desktop is optimized for use on the smallest thin client footprints, offering images from 128MB in size. Linux is the preferred operating system for resource-constrained devices, and IDC in June forecasted that it will reach 30.5% OS market share on thin clients by 2011, totaling around 1.8 million Linux-based units. Dell's OptiPlex thin Clients can be configured with a single core Intel Atom 230 processor or a dual core 330, hold between 512MB-4GB of 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM, and have between 512MB-2GB of Flash Memory.
Financial firm sued for re-packaging software company's service

Publié: février 3, 2009, 5:46pm CET

Massachusetts software company NewRiver Inc. has sued financial research firm Morningstar Inc. for allegedly using NewRiver's proprietary technology to amass a database of US Securities and Exchange Commission Prospectuses.
Google execs face jail time in Italy over a user's video

Publié: février 3, 2009, 5:41pm CET

Four Google execs face trial today in Milan, Italy, on criminal charges of defamation and privacy around a cellphone video, in a case that raises questions around the applicability of country-specific laws to user-submitted content.