Die Bedienung von Touchscreens auf Smartphones und Tablets könnte aus Anwender-Sicht deutlich verbessert werden. Eines der Hauptprobleme bei der Steuerung der berührungsempfindlichen Eingabegeräte ist das unabsichtliche Ankommen oder Abrutschen auf den Tastenfeldern virtueller Keyboards oder ungünstig am Bildschirmrand angebrachten Funktionsbuttons, heisst es aus der Forschungsabteilung von Nokia Research.
Das neue Microsoft-Betriebssystem Windows 8 wird wie erwartet im Herbst erscheinen. Die Auslieferung der Software an die PC-Hersteller starte Anfang August. Ab Ende Oktober würden dann die ersten Computer mit Windows 8 in den Handel kommen, sagte Windows-Chefin Tami Reller auf der Partnerkonferenz von Microsoft in Toronto.
Apple hat seine Computer aus einem offiziellen Register für umweltfreundliche Elektronik genommen. Das kalifornische Unternehmen habe entschieden, seine Geräte nicht länger mit dem Umweltsiegel Epeat ausstatten zu lassen, teilte die für die Vergabe zuständige US-Einrichtung im Internet mit.
Das grosse Chaos rund um die Schad-Software DNS Changer ist am Montag ausgeblieben. Die Zahl der infizierten PCs ist laut Aussage des FBI am Sonntag bei 211.000 weltweit gelegen. Wie viele Nutzer tatsächlich nicht ins Netz konnten, ist allerdings unklar.
Als erste Ländergesellschaft hat SAP (Schweiz) in Regensdorf ein SAP HANA Customer Lab eingerichtet. Das in seiner Art bislang einzigartige Kompetenzzentrum für die In-Memory-Technologie biete Anwenderunternehmen und Partnern die Möglichkeit, spezifische Projekte auf Basis von SAP HANA zu prüfen, teilt SAP dazu mit.
Die SBB verlängert den Dienstleistungsvertrag mit Schwerpunkt auf SAP-CRM und SAP-Logistik mit der seit 2011 zur T-Systems gehörenden Data Migration Consulting (DMC) um weitere viereinhalb Jahre bis 2016.
Die IT-Branche hat in der Arbeitswelt immer noch mit einem massiven Imageproblem zu kämpfen. Viele junge, potenziell vielversprechende Jobanwärter schrecken deshalb vor einer IT-Karriere zurück, weil sie nicht mit der Vorstellung leben können, selbst den Stempel einer "nerdigen" und "sozial untauglichen" Persönlichkeit aufgedrückt zu bekommen.
Jeder Computer kann sich mit jedem vernetzen, weltweit, allein mit Hilfe technischer Protokolle, aber ohne Vorgaben staatlicher Behörden: "Auf dieser bisherigen Basis funktioniert das Internet eigentlich ganz gut", sagt der Vizepräsident der Internet Society, Markus Kummer. Doch der Schweizer Diplomat macht sich Sorgen, dass einige Staaten die offene Infrastruktur des Netzes unter eine striktere Kontrolle bringen wollen: Ihr Hebel könnte eine Weltkonferenz der Internationalen Fernmeldeunion in Dubai werden.
Bei Dienstleistungen in der sogenannten digitalen Wolke strebt die EU-Kommission einem Bericht zufolge gemeinsame europäische Standards für Datenschutz und IT-Sicherheit an. Wie die "Financial Times Deutschland" (FTD) am Montag berichtete, will die Kommission in diesem Monat eine Mitteilung für "eine ganzheitliche Cloud-Computing-Strategie in der EU" vorlegen. Angestrebt werde ein "Made in Europe"-Siegel für Cloud-Dienste. Die Mitteilung wäre rechtlich nicht bindend.
Durch eine Software-Panne sind beim deutschen Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) und bei der deutschen Bundespolizei über Monate Beweismittel in Ermittlungsverfahren gelöscht worden. Betroffen sind Daten aus der sogenannten Telekommunikationsüberwachung (TKÜ), wie sie in Ermittlungen gegen Schwerkriminelle und Terroristen gesammelt werden.
gManZboy writes "GM's new CIO Randy Mott plans to bring nearly all IT work in-house as one piece of a sweeping IT overhaul. It's a high-risk strategy that's similar to what Mott drove at Hewlett-Packard. Today, about 90% of GM's IT services, from running data centers to writing applications, are provided by outsourcing companies such as HP/EDS, IBM, Capgemini, and Wipro, and only 10% are done by GM employees. Mott plans to flip those percentages in about three years--to 90% GM staff, 10% outsourcers. This will require a hiring binge. Mott's larger IT transformation plan doesn't emphasize budget cuts but centers on delivering more value from IT, much faster--at a time when the world's No. 2 automaker (Toyota is now No. 1) is still climbing out of bankruptcy protection and a $50 billion government bailout."
An anonymous reader writes "Engineer and designer Luc Fusaro from the Royal College of Art in London has developed a prototype running shoe that can be uniquely sculpted to any athlete's foot. It's as light as a feather too, weighing in at 96 grams. The prototype is aptly named, Designed to Win, and is 3D printed out of nylon polyamide powder, which is a very strong and lightweight material. The manufacturing process uses selective laser sintering (SLS), which fuses powdered materials with a CO2 laser to create an object. This process means 3D scans can be taken of the runner's foot so as to ensure the shoe matches the shape perfectly. Fusaro can also change the stiffness of the soles according to the athlete's physical abilities. The shoe can improve performance by 3.5%, meaning a 10 second 100-meter sprinter could see his time drop by 0.35 seconds, which is a huge time saving relatively speaking. Imagine if Usain Bolt put a pair of these running shows on."
MrSeb writes "Researchers from the University of Oulu in Finland has created an indoor navigation system (IPS) that uses the Earth's innate magnetic field to ascertain your position — just like a homing pigeon or spiny lobster. According to IndoorAtlas, the company spun off by the university to market and sell the tech, its system has an accuracy of between 0.1 and 2 meters. The Finnish IPS technology is ingenious in its simplicity: Basically, every square inch of Earth emits a magnetic field — and this field is then modulated by man-made concrete and steel structures. With a magnetometer (compass), which every modern smartphone has, you can first create a magnetic field map — and then use that map to navigate the shopping mall, underground garage, airport, etc. Compared to most other IPSes, which require thousands of WiFi or Bluetooth base stations to achieve comparable accuracy, IndoorAtlas' infrastructure-free approach sounds rather awesome."
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Alexander Abad-Santos writes that in any other country, the late Dr. Abdus Salam would be a national hero: he's the Nobel laureate in physics who laid the groundwork for the biggest physics discovery in the past 30 years--the Higgs boson. But that isn't the case in Pakistan, where Salam has been wiped from textbooks and history for not being fundamentalist enough. 'He belonged to the Ahmadi sect, which has been persecuted by the government and targeted by Taliban militants who view its members as heretics,' says Sebastian Abbot. 'His grand unification theory of strong, weak and electromagnetic fields opened the gateway for the discovery of bosons and laid down the basis for this quantum electrodynamics project,' writes Anam Khalid Alvi for Pakistan's Express Tribune. But Pakistan can't celebrate his achievements, since Ahmadis like Salam are and were prevented from 'posing as Muslims,' and can be punished with prison and even death. By contrast, fellow Pakistani physicist A.Q. Khan, who played a key role in developing the country's nuclear bomb and later confessed to spreading nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, is considered a national hero. Khan is a Muslim."
pigrabbitbear writes "Have you heard of the Superbus? You could have already, as it has been in prototype production for years, and has recently been gaining more attention at auto shows and through public demonstrations. Like a stretch Batmobile that seems yet another triumph for Saudi and Emirate auto enthusiasts, passengers and their entourages enter the car under a row of gull-wings. The bus runs on batteries, and it can fly along at nearly 300 km/h (or 192 mph), and quite 'silently.'"
Nerval's Lobster writes "IT security writer Steve Ragan writes: 'The word "cloud" is sometimes overused in IT—and lately, it's been tossed around more than a football during a tailgating party. Be that as it may, organizations still want to implement cloud-based initiatives. But securing assets once they're in the cloud is often easier said than done.' He then walks through some of the core concepts of cloud security, along with the companies operating in the space."
First time accepted submitter Udigs writes "You might have heard of the Google LunarX Prize. It's a competition where private, often non-profit organizations race to build a vehicle capable of completing a short mission on the moon. But one of the problems facing these private teams is the issue of raising money to make the trip. However, one Florida team is taking an interesting approach: they are offering to send your DNA to the moon for a price. For the inclined, they've started a kickstarter page."
jfruh writes "In the wake of its decision to cede control of its Linux distro to its community, Mandriva is trying a tricky balancing act: offering Linux products based on two different code bases. Desktop and OEM offerings will be based on the Mandriva distro, while server products will be based on the traditional Mageia codebase." Update: As babai101 points out the codebases were reversed in the original post.
The Bad Astronomer writes "50 years ago today, the US detonated a nuclear weapon 240 miles above the Pacific Ocean. Called Starfish Prime, it was supposed to help US scientists and the military understand how the Soviets might try to stop incoming nuclear missiles. What it actually did was blow out hundreds of streetlights in Hawaii 900 miles away, damage a half dozen satellites, and create artificial aurorae and intense radiation zones above the Earth. It taught the world what an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) was, and what the effects might be from a powerful solar flare, a nearby supernova, or a gamma-ray burst."
An anonymous reader writes "If you're a collector of video games, counting the complete back catalog of titles for one system as part of your collection is a commendable achievement, but what about having full gaming sets for 22 different systems? I doubt anyone has ever done that through game purchases alone, but one eBay seller is offering such a set. The price? A cool $1.2 million. That's a crazy amount of cash to spend on games, but when you find out what's included in this auction, and the condition the games are in, it might actually sound like a good deal. Here's the list of systems the auction is offering full game sets for along with the number of games for each one: Nintendo Famicon – 1,050 games Nintendo Famicon Disk – 200 games Nintendo Virtual Boy – 19 games Nintendo Super Famicon – 1,500 games Nintendo 64 – 200 games Nintendo DD64 – 10 games Nintendo Gamecube – 320 games Sega Master System (Europe) – 300 games Sega Mark 3 & Master System (Japan) – 80 games Sega Game Gear – 200 games Sega Megadrive – 450 games Sega 32 X – 19 games Sega Mega CD – 115 games Sega Saturn – 1,150 games Sega Dreamcast – 550 games PC Engine Hucard – 300 games PC Engine Supergrafx – 6 games PC Engine CD – 120 games PC Engine Super CD – 300 games PC Engine Arcade CD – 12 games PC-FX – total games not stated Pioneer Laseractive – total games not listed."
zacharye writes "U.K. Judge Colin Birss has ruled that Samsung can continue selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the region because the Android tablet is 'not as cool' as the iPad and therefore is unlikely to be confused with Apple's slate. Samsung's Galaxy line of tablets 'do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,' Judge Birss said. 'They are not as cool.'"
nk497 writes "Microsoft has confirmed Windows 8 will RTM the first week of August, with general availability in late October. Steve Ballmer suggested Microsoft expected Surface to sell "millions" of the 375m Windows 8 PCs expected to sell in the next year — spending much of the keynote talking about partners' devices. From the article: 'Tami Reller, chief financial officer and chief marketing officer of the Windows and Windows Live division, confirmed the release date at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto today, as she showed off a host of Windows 8 devices created by the software giant's manufacturing partners.'"
Jon Brodkin writes "Few game series other than Final Fantasy have consistently provided epic adventures for 25 years—and perhaps no company outside of Nintendo capitalizes on its history like Square Enix. In its latest attempt to merge the best of past and present into one experience, Square Enix has produced the music game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy for the Nintendo 3DS. Joining Guitar Hero-style mechanics, 3D perspective, RPG-like character building and battling, and the rich music catalog of the Final Fantasy franchise, Theatrhythm is impressive, enjoyable, and one of the best examples of why it's worth owning a 3DS and that wacky stylus." Read below for the rest of Jon's review.
MrSeb writes "Engineers at UCLA, led by Bahram Jalali and Dino Di Carlo, have developed a camera that can take 36.7 million frames per second, with a shutter speed of 27 picoseconds. By far the fastest and most sensitive camera in the world — it is some 100 times faster than existing optical microscopes, and it has a false-positive rate of just one in a million — it is hoped, among other applications, that the device will massively improve our ability to diagnose early-stage and pre-metastatic cancer. This camera can photograph single cells as they flow through a microfluidic system at four meters per second (9 mph — about 100,000 particles per second), with comparable image quality to a still CCD camera (with a max shooting speed of around 60 fps). Existing optical microscopes use CMOS sensors, but they're not fast enough to image more than 1,000 particles per second. With training, the brains of the operation — an FPGA image processor — can automatically analyze 100,000 particles per second and detect rare particles (such as cancer cells) 75% of the time."
judgecorp writes "Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology is suing Apple in China, claiming Siri infringes its voice technology patent. Zhizhen claims to have 100 million users for its Xiao iRobot software which responds to voice questions and commands. From the article: 'The move came only days after Apple Inc paid $60 million to Proview Technology (Shenzhen) to end a protracted legal dispute over the iPad trademark in China. Zhizhen's patent covers "a type of instant messaging chat robot system", according to the database of the country's State Intellectual Property Office. It was filed on Aug 13, 2004, and got approved on Feb 15, 2006. '"