Die US-amerikanische Netzwerkkönigin Cisco kauft für fünf Milliarden Dollar (rund vier Mrd. Euro) den Softwareentwickler NDS. Die Führungsgremien beider Unternehmen hätten den Plänen zugestimmt, liess Cisco verlauten. In Medien war bereits länger über den Zukauf spekuliert worden.
Trendforscher haben ein neues Schlagwort geprägt: den "Social-Ismus". "In Zukunft wird es kaum noch etwas geben, das wir nicht teilen, tauschen, ausleihen, und wiederverwenden - kurz: gemeinschaftlich konsumieren", sagt Trendforscher David Bosshart, Leiter des Gottlieb Duttweiler Instituts in Zürich-Rüschlikon.
Kurz vor dem Verkaufsstart der nächsten iPad-Generation ist die Apple-Aktie am Donnerstag im New Yorker Handel kurzfristig über die 600-Dollar-Marke gesprungen. Als Apple im April 2010 die erste iPad-Generation vorstellte, kostete das Papier noch um die 240 Dollar.
Das Beratungshaus Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) und die Bankensoftware-Entwicklerin Avaloq wollen bei Fatca-Dienstleistungen künftig kooperieren. Ferner soll eine Plattform für Finanzdienstleister den Fatca-Dialog vereinfachen.
In dem erbitterten Patentstreit mit Apple hat Samsung eine weitere Niederlage eingesteckt. In den Niederlanden sei der Versuch gescheitert, dort den boomenden Verkauf von iPhone und iPad verbieten zu lassen, räumte der südkoreanische Eletronikkonzern ein. Immerhin verabreichte ein Gericht in Den Haag dem Hersteller der Galaxy-Tabletcomputer ein Trostpflaster, indem es ihm eine Klage auf Schadenersatz nahelegte.
Bei der auf Telekomtechnologien fokussierten Ascom folgt eine weitere Restrukturierungsrunde, nachdem der Jahresgewinn um 29 Prozent auf 23,1 Millionen Franken eingebrochen ist. Im Geschäft mit dem Testen und Optimieren von Mobilfunknetzen werden Stellen gestrichen.
Nützliche rechtliche Hinweise und praktische Tipps für den Online-Einkauf: Dies bietet der virtuelle „Wegweiser Online-Shopping“ unter www.e-commerce-guide.admin.ch. Die Plattform haben diverse Bundesstellen unter der Federführung des Staatssekretariats für Wirtschaft (Seco) und des Eidgenössischen Büros für Konsumentenfragen (BFK) erstellt, in Zusammenarbeit mit den Konsumentenorganisationen und weiteren Partnern.
Die Psychiatrischen Dienste Aargau (PDAG) bauen künftig auf "Managed Print Services". Im Bereich Informatik arbeiten die PDAG bereits seit zwei Jahren mit der auf ASP- und IT-Outsourcingdienste im Gesundheistswesen fokussierten Hint zusammen. Neu werde diese Partnerschaft nun unter Einbezug der René Faigle auf das Output-Management ausgedehnt, heisst es in einer Medienmitteilung dazu.
Der chinesische Google-Rivale Tencent wird angesichts politischer Hürden und eines schwächeren Wirtschaftsumfelds vorsichtiger. Chinas nach Umsatz größter Internet-Konzern warnte am Mittwoch davor, dass sein Geschäft mit Kurznachrichten zurückgehen könnte, sobald sich die Nutzer mit ihrem richtigen Namen registrieren müssen.
Beim amerikanisch-schweizerischen Mäuse- und Computer-Zubehör-Spezialisten Logitech stehen grosse Änderungen an der Spitze ins Haus. So soll Bracken P. Darrell per 9. April 2012 zu Logitech wechseln und Chairman und CEO Guerrino De Luca unterstellt sein. Ab 1. Januar 2013 werde Darrell dann Nachfolger von Guerrino De Luca als CEO, lässt das Unternehmen wissen.
alphadogg writes "Judea Pearl, a longtime UCLA professor whose work on artificial intelligence laid the foundation for such inventions as the iPhone's Siri speech recognition technology and Google's driverless cars, has been named the 2011 ACM Turing Award winner. The annual Association for Computing Machinery A.M. Turing Award, sometimes called the 'Nobel Prize in Computing,' recognizes Pearl for his advances in probabilistic and causal reasoning. His work has enabled creation of thinking machines that can cope with uncertainty, making decisions even when answers aren't black or white."
zacharye writes "A new subscription service allows potential gadget owners to test out new devices like Apple's new iPad tablet before committing to a purchase. YBUY, which bills itself as a try-before-you-buy online subscription service, charges users a flat monthly fee of $24.95 for access to a wide range of consumer electronics as well as home and kitchen gadgets. Users can choose one device at a time from YBUY's catalog and trial the gadget for up to 30 days before returning it. Beginning in April, the company's inventory will also include Apple's new iPad."
Barence writes "The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has been accused of heavy-handed tactics that could drive small companies to incriminate themselves. The Microsoft-backed piracy watchdog generates a quarter of its cases by offering employees cash rewards for informing on their own employer. 'It is basically harvesting allegations from disgruntled employees and farming them out to expensive law firms,' one small business owner told PC Pro, who said he was 'nauseated' by the tactics. The BSA then sends out a letter demanding the business owner fill out a software audit, or potentially face court action — even though the BSA has no power to demand such an audit and hasn't pursued a court case in five years. 'It's designed to scare the recipient into thinking that they're obliged to provide certain information when, in fact, it's difficult to see that they are,' said a leading IT lawyer."
tverbeek writes "The U.S.-based Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Canada-based Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund have announced that the Canadian government has withdrawn all criminal charges in R. v. Matheson, a case which involved a U.S. citizen who was arrested and faced criminal charges in Canada relating to manga found on his computer when he entered the country. Customs agents declared the illustrations of fictional characters to be 'child pornography.' The defendant, a 27-year-old comic book reader, amateur artist, and computer programmer, has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. Despite financial assistance from the CBLDF and CLLDF, he has an outstanding debt of $45K for his defense."
volts writes "Troubled LightSquared's primary Skyterra 1 satellite has been out of service since the solar storm on March 7. The company says it is 'working through the rebuild of the satellite tapping into the resources that were involved in the original program.' This development follows a stream of bad news including layoffs, default on payments, the resignation of CEO Sanjiv Ahuja and FCC rejection of a scheme to repurpose satellite frequencies for cellular data due to interference with GPS. Another kick in the teeth as company struggles to avoid bankruptcy."
New submitter Manzanita writes "The domain of personal analytics, or 'Quantified Self,' is rich with interesting things to measure and many hackers have started projects. But they will only take off if it is sufficiently easy to gather and use the data. Stephen Wolfram has collected and analyzed a lot of his personal data over the last 20 years, but that is far beyond what most of us have the time for. What do you find worth tracking? What is ripe for developing into a business?"
In this video, Brian Alspach tells you how Gamestar Mechanic helps turn kids from game players into game authors, which helps them learn a lot about programming and how computers work in easy steps while having a good time. If you're a parent, you'll especially want to read this page on their site, which will help reassure you that these folks know what they're doing, and might even (hint hint) give you the idea of suggesting that your local school should subscribe to Gamestar Mechanic, which several thousand schools already do. The price varies between free and $6 per month, which is a great deal for something that can engage children for many hours every day -- and just might keep a parent or grandparent interested, too.
n1ywb writes "Goerge 'geohot' Hotz, famous for being the first to jailbreak an iPhone and for his spat with Sony over PS3 jailbreaking, was busted for possession of a small amount of marijuana at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas on his way to SXSW. The shakedown goes like this: drug dogs are run around vehicles; when they signal, DHS searches the car and finds the contraband; DHS then turns evidence and suspects over to the local sheriff. Willie Nelson, actor Armie Hammer (who played the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network), and Snoop Dogg have all gotten in trouble at the same checkpoint under similar circumstances."
An anonymous reader writes "In response to the still-raging MPAA & RIAA, a kind of reverse piracy campaign has arisen. The "Send Them Your Money" campaign urges pirates and landlubbers alike to send scanned images of American currency to these agencies. According to the campaign's webpage, 'They've made it very clear that they consider digital copies to be just as valuable as the original.' The operation gained fame via sites like Reddit and Tumblr, inspiring citizens of other countries to send their legal tender to the MPAA and RIAA."
rudy_wayne writes "The end of Encyclopedia Britannica has been widely reported and its demise has been blamed on Wikipedia. However, this article at Wired points out that the real reason is something entirely different. 'In 1990 Britannica had $650 million in revenue. In 1996, long before Wikipedia existed, it was bankrupt and the entire company was sold for $135 million. What happened in between was Encarta. Even though Encarta didn't make money for Microsoft and Britannica produced its own encyclopedia CDs, Encarta was an inexpensive, multimedia encyclopedia that helped Microsoft sell Windows PCs to families. And once you had a PC in the living room or den where the encyclopedia used to be, it was all over for Mighty Britannica. It's not that Encarta made knowledge cheaper, it's that technology supplanted its role as a purchasable 'edge' for over-anxious parents. They bought junior a new PC instead of a Britannica. When Wikipedia emerged five years later, Britannica was already a weakened giant. It wasn't a free and open encyclopedia that defeated its print edition. It was the personal computer itself.'"
snydeq writes "Dan Bricklin, the co-creator of the PC revolution's killer app, weighs in on the opportunities and oversights of the tablet revolution. 'In some sense, for tablets the browser is a killer app. Maps is a killer app to some extent. Being able to share the screen with other people — that it's a social device — also might fit the bill. I think that for tablets, there isn't and won't be one killer app for everyone. It's more that there are apps that are killers for individual people. It's the sum of all those that is the killer app. This has been true since the original Palm Pilot.'"
lbalbalba writes "A location message sent from a stolen iPad by an anti-theft application turns out to be insufficient evidence to issue a search warrant for the Dutch authorities. A Dutch man reported his iPad as stolen to the Dutch authorities last month. Despite the fact that the rightful owner was able to locate his iPad within hours of the theft, thanks to the anti-theft application he had installed, the Dutch authorities did not issue a warrant to perform a search. According to the prosecutors, a search warrant is 'a very heavy measure,' that should only be used when there is 'sufficient suspicion.' The theft report by the owner was viewed as 'no objective evidence' in the case."
An anonymous reader writes "UC Berkeley Professor Walter Alvarez, most widely known for his theory that dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact, is developing an open source HTML5 timeline tool for visualizing all 13.7 billion years of the past called ChronoZoom. Originally conceived by one of his former students, Roland Saekow, ChronoZoom can zoom from a single day out to all of the Cosmos, passing Earth, Life, and Human Prehistory along the way. The idea and initial database was put together by students at UC Berkeley while students at Moscow State University in Russia wrote the code with guidance and support from researchers at Microsoft Research. The beta is available as of today, and the source code is available. The hope is that it will revolutionize teaching, study and research of the past."
First time accepted submitter eternaldoctorwho writes "Research has been underway to produce a coffee bean plant that naturally has no or little caffeine content. Now, it looks like that might become a reality in the near future: Paulo Mazzafera of the University of Campinas in Brazil has come closer than ever with a strain containing 'only 2% of normal caffeine levels.' Coffee, anyone?"
Mr_Blank writes "Cameras at UK petrol stations will automatically stop uninsured or untaxed vehicles from being filled with fuel, under new government plans. Downing Street officials hope the hi-tech system will crack down on the 1.4 million motorists who drive without insurance. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras are already fitted in thousands of petrol station forecourts. Drivers can only fill their cars with fuel once the camera has captured and logged the vehicle's number plate. Currently the system is designed to deter motorists from driving off without paying for petrol. But under the new plans, the cameras will automatically cross-refererence with the DVLA's huge database."