Die Messe "Swiss Online Marketing 2012" steuert den Angaben der Veranstalter zufolge auf eine weitere Bestmarke zu. Nachdem bei der vierten Auflage der Fachmesse für Digital Marketing bereits die Ausstellerzahl mit 106 und die Ausstellungsfläche mit den Hallen 9.1. und 9.2. der Messe Zürich grösser denn je ist, deutet der bisherige Publikumsandrang auf einen neuen Besucherrekord hin.
Während das Geschäft des stationären Buchhandels im Jahr 2011 um drei Prozent schrumpfte, seien im E-Book-Bereich erstmals nennenswerte Umsätze erzielt worden, sagte Gottfried Honnefelder, Vorsteher des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels, am Mittwoch vor der Eröffnung der Leipziger Buchmesse (15. bis 18. März). «Wir sind angekommen in einem E-Book-Markt.»
Der Krise in der japanischen Fernsehindustrie fällt ein weiterer Spitzenmanager zum Opfer: Der Elektronikkonzern Sharp kündigte an, Präsident Mikio Katayama durch den Leiter des globalen Geschäfts Takashi Okuda zu ersetzen. Dieser erklärte, das Geschäftsmodell angesichts des Rekordverlustes umkrempeln zu wollen.
Unter dem Motto "Mission Innovationsförderung" fand an der Cebit in Hannover zum 9. Mal die Preisverleihung der Initative Mittelstand statt. Ausgezeichnet wurden Unternehmen, welche sich der Unterstützung progressiver IT-Neuerungen für den Mittelstand verschrieben haben. Unter den Gewinnern befindet sich mit Avanon die Zürcher Software-Spezialistin für Risikomanagement und Compliance-Lösungen. Prämiert wurden deren Lösungen Easy und Grow.
Mit Biochips diagnostizieren Ärzte heute Krankheiten wie Erbleiden oder Tumore. Dank einer Entwicklung von Forschern der ETH Lausanne könnten die winzigen, ziemlich teuren Geräte in Zukunft rund zehn Mal billiger produziert werden.
Nach dem Siegeszug des Handys in der aufstrebenden Wirtschaftsmacht Indien haben dort inzwischen mehr Haushalte ein Mobiltelefon als eine Toilette. 53,2 Prozent verfügen über ein Handy, wie aus am Mittwoch im Internet veröffentlichten Statistiken hervorgeht. In weniger als der Hälfte aller Behausungen (46,9 Prozent) können die Bewohner eine Toilette nutzen, wie die bei der jüngsten Volkszählung 2011 erhobenen Daten weiter ergaben.
Datenschützer warnen vor der Nutzung des Internet-Musikdienstes Spotify. Der diese Woche in Deutschland gestartet ist. Der Bundesdatenschutzbeauftragte Peter Schaar bezeichnete den Anmeldevorgang des Online-Anbieters in der "Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung" als rechtswidrig. So sei ein Zugang zu Spotify nur mit einem Profil beim sozialen Netzwerk Facebook möglich.
Peter Lorenz, langjähriger Top-Manager des Softwareherstellers SAP, will eine Auszeit nehmen. Statt Lorenz übernehme der Chef und Gründer des jüngst von SAP erworbenen Cloud-Software-Anbieters SuccessFactors, Lars Dalgaard, die Verantwortung über die Entwicklung von Mietsoftware und Cloud-Anwendungen, sagte ein Sprecher am Dienstag in Walldorf.
Der Boom von Smartphones und Tablet-Computern wird den Umsatz der Mikrochiphersteller Marktforschern zufolge stärker antreiben als bisher erwartet. Die US-Firma Gartner veranschlagte das Plus für 2012 am Dienstag auf vier Prozent. Im Schlussquartal hatte die Auguren noch mit knapp der Hälfte gerechnet.
Das neue iPad ist mit dem schnellen Mobilfunkstandard LTE ausgerüstet - zumindest für US-Käufer. Für den internationalen Einsatz fehlen noch die Standards für das Highspeed-Surfen. Auch im nächsten iPhone wird der neue Mobilfunkstandard integriert sein, und auf der Cebit zeigte Vodafone sein erstes LTE-Smartphone.
BayaWeaver writes "These are exciting times in anthropology. Recent analysis of fossils first discovered in China in 1979 indicate that a human-like species may have co-existed with modern humans as late as 11,500 years ago. This presumably new species has been nicknamed Red Deer Cave people because of their apparent taste for the extinct giant red deer. Other species recently discovered include: the 'hobbits' on the Indonesian island of Flores which are also thought to have been around until 12,000 years ago and the Denisovans discovered in 2010 that co-existing with modern humans in Siberia about 30,000 years ago."
itwbennett writes "A pair of NASA videos released today show the moon as you've never seen it before. In one video, you get an up-close tour of the moon's craters, thanks to video and images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. In the other, you can watch an animation of the moon's creation and evolution."
MrSeb writes "You've heard of laser printers — and now a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge in England have created a laser unprinter that can remove ink without damaging the paper. Despite both methods using lasers, their (un)printing approaches are fundamentally very different. In a laser printer, a laser is used to give individual 'pixels' on a piece of paper a positive charge (a separate heat source is used to fuse toner). In the laser unprinter, picosecond pulses of green laser light are used to vaporize the toner, or ablate in scientific terms. The primary goal of unprinting is to cut down on the carbon footprint of the paper and printing industries. Manufacturing paper is incredibly messy business, with a huge carbon footprint. Recycling paper is a good step in the right direction, but it still pales in comparison to unprinting. In a worst-case scenario, The University of Cambridge unprinting method has half the carbon emissions of recycling; best-case, unprinting is almost 20 times as efficient."
Velcroman1 writes "Yahoo is suing Facebook for patent infringement — and the people responsible for Yahoo's patents are outraged. Andy Baio sold Upcoming.org to Yahoo in 2005 for an undisclosed sum, and agreed at the time to help the company file for patents based on the site he had invented and the code he had written. Baio was hesitant to do so, but told Wired.com that he thought he was helping as a precautionary measure. 'I thought I was giving them a shield,' Baio said. 'It turns out I gave them a missile with my name permanently engraved on it.' He helped Yahoo file for eight patents, four of which were later granted. And while none were cited in the Yahoo complaint, Baio said a handful were now 'weaponized to use against people like me.'" bdking points out that Mark Cuban is sick of the patent fiasco as well but his approach is slightly different. "He's rooting for Yahoo to 'destroy' Facebook in its patent lawsuit. Why? Because if Yahoo collects, say, $50 billion from Facebook and forces the social networking company out of business, consumers will revolt and demand patent reform."
jfruh writes "AC beat DC in the War of the Currents that raged in the late 19th century, which means that most modern data centers today run on AC power. But as cloud computing demands and rising energy prices force providers to squeeze every ounce of efficiency out of their data centers, DC is getting another look."
Michael J. Ross writes "Prior to Google+, the company's previous attempts at social networking — Orkut, Dodgeball, Jaiku, Wave, and Buzz — were largely failures, and tended to frustrate users who had devoted time and effort to contributing content and establishing connections with other users, only to see the services wither on the vine. In contrast, Google+ appears to be receiving far more nurturing by the Internet behemoth, and as a result has arguably better chances of not just surviving, but expanding to the point of eventually challenging Twitter and Facebook. Like its rivals, Google+ offers online help information to explain to newcomers the basics of how to use the service. But there is little to no advice on how to make the most of its capabilities, and even the basic functionality is not always clearly explained. That is the purpose of a new book, Google+: The Missing Manual." Keep reading for the rest of Michael's review.
chicksdaddy writes "Threatpost is reporting today on the findings of an ENISA study that looked at whether consumers would pay more for goods in exchange for more privacy. The answer — 'Sure...just not much more.' The report (PDF): 'Study on Monetizing Privacy: An Economic Model for Pricing Personal Information' presents the findings of a laboratory study in which consumers were asked to buy identical goods from two online vendors: one that collected minimal customer information and another that required the customer to surrender more of their personal information to purchase the item, including phone number and a government ID number. The laboratory experiment showed that the majority of consumers value privacy protections. When the prices of the goods offered by both the privacy protecting and the privacy violating online retailers were equal, shoppers much preferred the privacy protecting vendor. But the preference for more privacy wasn't very strong, and didn't come close to equaling consumers' preference for lower prices. In fact, consumers readily switched to a more privacy-invasive provider if that provider charged a lower price for the same goods. How much lower? Not much, researchers discovered. A discount of just E0.50 ($0.65) was enough to sway consumers away from a vendor who would protect the privacy of their personal data."
Qedward writes "Iran is privately being blamed for a major cyberattack on the BBC that blocked access to its popular Persian TV service and disrupted the Corporation's IT using a denial-of-service attack. The multi-pronged March 2 attack took down much of the BBC's email, overloaded its telephone switchboard with automatic phone calls, and blocked a satellite feed for the BBC Persian station. BBC servers were also on the receiving end of a DDoS. In an unprecedented tactic, the BBC has trailed a speech to be given this week to the Royal Television Society in which Director General Mark Thompson will mention the attacks in some detail while stopping short of formally naming Iran as the perpetrator."
alphadogg writes "There are holidays, and then there are holidays for nerds, and March 14 (3.14) is one of those. Based on the mathematical constant number that represents the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of a circle, Pi Day has grown to become somewhat of a day to celebrate for mathematicians and techies. Here are 10 things to do on the big day."
Sparrowvsrevolution writes in with a link to a Forbes story about the lackluster code produced by government agencies."Humans aren't very good at writing secure code. But they're worst at it when they're paid to do it for the U.S. government, according to a study that will be presented at the Black Hat Europe security conference in Amsterdam later this week. Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer of bug-hunting firm Veracode plans to give a talk breaking down a vulnerability analysis of 9,910 software applications over the second half of 2010 and 2011. Government-built applications came out far worse than those created by the commercial software industry or the finance industry. Only 16% of government web applications were secure by OWASP standards, compared with 24% of finance industry software and 28% of commercial software. By SANS standards, only 18% of government apps passed, compared with 28% of finance industry apps and 34% of commercial software. Wysopal and others blame the difference on a lack of accountability of federal contract developers, who aren't held to security standards and are even paid extra to fix their bugs after creating them."
suraj.sun writes in about the recent small claims case against AT&T's throttling of 'unlimited' plans. From the article: "AT&T has about 17 million smartphone customers on 'unlimited' plans, and has started slowing down service for users who hit certain traffic thresholds. Spaccarelli maintained at his February 24 small-claims hearing that AT&T broke its promise to provide 'unlimited' service, and the judge agreed. In a letter dated Friday, a law firm retained by AT&T Inc. is threatening to shut off Matthew Spaccarelli's phone service if he doesn't sit down to talk. Spaccarelli has posted online the documents he used to argue his case and encourages other AT&T customers copy his suit."
New submitter Ashenkase writes "Michal Geist reviews what stayed and what was rejected by the Bill C-11 Committee Review. Looks like SOPA-style amendments are dropped except Digital Locks. There is still a chance for Canadians to have their voices heard before third reading: 'The Bill C-11 legislative committee concluded its clause-by-clause review yesterday as eight government amendments were added to the bill and all opposition amendments were defeated. The amendments included an expanded enabler provision and some modest tinkering to other elements of the bill. There are still several steps needed before the bill passes including third reading at the House of Commons, Senate review, and ultimately royal assent, but Canadian copyright reform is well on its way to completion before the summer starts. In the days leading up to the clause-by-clause review, many focused on three key issues: no SOPA-style amendments such as website blocking or warrantless disclosure of information, maintaining the fair dealing balance found in the bill, and amending the digital lock provisions. By that standard, the changes could have been a lot worse. The government expanded the enabler provision, though not as broadly as CIMA requested. Virtually all other copyright lobby demands — website blocking, notice-and-takedown, iPod tax, copyright term extension, disclosure of subscriber information — were rejected. Moreover, the provisions supported by consumer and education groups including user generated content protection, time shifting, format shifting, backup copies, Internet provider liability, and statutory damages reform were left untouched. This represents a major victory for the many Canadians and groups such as Open Media that spoke out on these issues.'"
MojoKid writes with an excerpt from an article at Hot Hardware: "Walmart's burgeoning partnership with the Ultraviolet DRM system backed by major Hollywood studios and their plans to 'assist' customers in registering DVDs with the Ultraviolet system, made headlines not long ago. Walmart has also since announced additional details to the program and it's a clever attempt to drive more users to Vudu, Walmart's subsidiary movie streaming service. Here's how the service works. 'Starting April 16th, 2012 in more than 3,500 stores, Walmart customers will be able to bring their DVD and Blu-ray collections to Walmart and receive digital access to their favorite titles from the partnering studios. An equal conversion for standard DVDs and Blu-ray discs will be $2. Standard DVDs can be upgraded to High-Def (HD) for $5.' Anyone who doesn't have a Vudu account will have one created for them as part of this process. That's part of the genius to the plan. If customers embrace the offer, Walmart signs up hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of people for Vudu. Even better, from Walmart's perspective, is that first-time users who pony up $2 for a digital version of their DVDs are effectively paying to create Vudu accounts."
An anonymous reader writes "Hot on the trail of a stolen iPad using the 'Find my iPad' feature in iOS, Police in San Jose tracked the stolen device back to an apartment complex where they then stumbled onto 750 pounds of meth. All told, the meth is worth about $35 million on the street. The seizure was one of the largest drug busts in recent memory."