The Technology newsbucket: Apple sues, Evernote .Not, Google wanted Jobs, and more

Smartphone patent lawsuits and deals - updated

A quick burst of 7 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

Apple countersues Motorola over multi-touch iPhone patents >> AppleInsider
"As expected, Apple has responded to a patent suit from Motorola with its own legal action, accusing the company of violating six patents related to multi-touch features found in the iPhone."

Lessons from Evernote's flight from .NET « Tim Anderson's ITWriting
Evernote says that since giving up .Net for C++, it's got an app that starts five times faster, and uses half the memory. Tim Anderson looks at why it did: "WPF is not only based on .NET. It also uses DirectX and hardware acceleration under the covers, enabling rich multimedia effects. The layout language of WPF is XAML, giving freedom from scaling issues which cause hassles in the native API. So what are the lessons here? Is WPF no good?
"It is not so simple. WPF is brilliant in many ways, offering the productivity of .NET coding and a powerful layout framework. However it was a technology which Microsoft itself hardly used in its key products, Windows and Office – a warning sign."

Microsoft: Our strategy with Silverlight has shifted >> Mary Jo Foley
Basically, it's HTML5 in future for cross-platform products.

Enterprises: We'll run Windows XP even after retirement - Computerworld
Not a large survey (950 companies) so don't stake your house on its precision. Still: "Microsoft has been pushing XP customers of all stripes, including enterprises, to upgrade to Windows 7. While Dimensional didn't query IT professionals about what operating system they were leaving behind as they migrated to Windows 7, they're doing the latter in increasing numbers. More than a third, or 38%, of those polled said their companies have implemented a partial roll-out of Windows 7, up from 15% in January 2010, the last time Dimensional surveyed IT administrators and staffers.
"Six percent of the companies have fully deployed to Windows 7, a six-fold increase over the 1% who said the same back in January."

Larry And Sergey Wanted Steve Jobs To Be Google's First CEO >> Business Insider
Interesting detail. They didn't actually get as far as asking him, as he was already re-ensconced in Apple.

Exploring Earth's History with Wolfram|Alpha >> Wolfram|Alpha Blog
Likely to make creationists' brains melt.

LIVE BLOG: Microsoft Earnings Call >> Business Insider
Everywhere has done well apart from Online. Which still hasn't.

You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on delicious

To suggest links, tag articles on delicious.com with "guardiantech"

View the original article here

Google turns off GMail data feed

8 November 2010 Last updated at 10:50 GMT Google is keen to get at the wealth of information inside Facebook. GMail contacts will no longer be automatically handed over to other websites and services, says Google.

The search firm will now only share user information if the site wanting access provides reciprocal data feeds to others.

The policy switch was primarily aimed at Facebook, said Google, complaining that the social network left users in a "data dead end".

Google said the policy switch would be implemented over the next few weeks.

Like many other web firms, Google lets others get at the data it holds on users of its many services via what is known as an Application Programming Interface (API).

Before the policy switch sites such as Facebook used Google's API to let their users automatically import GMail contacts so they could rapidly fill out their profile and find others that use the service.

Now Google will only give automatic access to GMail contacts to those sites and services that let others mine the data they hold.

In a statement shared with the Reuters newswire, Google singled out Facebook for criticism.

"We have decided to change our approach slightly to reflect the fact that users often aren't aware that once they have imported their contacts into sites like Facebook, they are effectively trapped," said Google.

Facebook has yet to comment on the row.

Gartner analyst Ray Valdes told Reuters that Google's decision is tied into its business ambitions.

"Google needs to evolve to become a big player in the social Web and it hasn't been able to do that," he said.

Analysts also suspect that Google's decision is related to the deal struck between Facebook and Microsoft that allows user data to power the Bing search engine.

Although Google has stopped the automatic siphoning of GMail data it is still possible for users to download their contacts and then can be shared with any web service.

View the original article here

Google doodle celebrates 115 years of X-rays

Google's X-ray doodle celebrates 115 years since Wilhelm Röntgen realised he had discovered a new form of radiation

Google is celebrating the 115th anniversary of the X-ray with its latest doodle - and also nodding to its own past April Fools jokes, with the idea of "PigeonRank", where the ordering of pages would be determined by pigeon pecks.

The X-ray is usually credited to Wilhelm Röntgen, who was the first to study its effects in 1895, though he wasn't the first to observe them: that occurred in 1875, when scientists investigating cathode rays - high-energy electron beams - noticed that unexposed photographic tubes put near the tubes in which the rays were generated became fogged.

The tubes in which the rays were generated were known as Crookes tubes, which generated free electrons - then a topic of intense study - by applying a (DC) voltage of up to 100 kilovolts across a gap. The electrons in the elements of the air in the tube were accelerated as they travelled from the cathode to the anode; some were accelerated enough that the generated X-rays when they struck the glass of the tube.

Röntgen- who had an extremely difficult academic life, came across X-rays on 8 November 1895 while experimenting with Crookes tubes, and began systematic studies of them. He dubbed them "X-rays" to indicate that the radiation being observed was unlike any recorded previously. His discovery won him the first Nobel Prize in Physics, which was awarded in 1901.

It's not known exactly how he discovered X-rays, because he ordered all his papers, including his lab books, should be burned after his death. The best suggestion of how it came about it that he was investigating cathode rays with a fluorescent screen painted with barium platinocyanide and a Crookes tube wrapped in black cardboard so visible light from the tube wouldn't interfere. He noticed a faint green glow from the screen, about 1 metre away, and realised that some invisible rays coming from the tube were passing through the cardboard to make the screen glow. He found they could also pass through books and papers on his desk.

Röntgen threw himself into investigating these unknown rays systematically. Two months after his initial discovery, he published his paper.

X-rays have since become a part of daily life - especially for the luggage of people who are travelling, which is regularly subjected to X-rays. (However, travellers are not - the arches you walk through are metal detectors, which use electromagnetic fields.)

Marissa Mayer, one of its senior executives, explained the doodle's significance on Twitter earlier on Monday - and pointed out that the small 'g', with its pigeon feathers and bones, is a nod to the "PigeonRank" April Fool's joke of 2002:

"PigeonRank's success relies primarily on the superior trainability of the domestic pigeon (Columba livia) and its unique capacity to recognize objects regardless of spatial orientation. The common gray pigeon can easily distinguish among items displaying only the minutest differences, an ability that enables it to select relevant web sites from among thousands of similar pages. "

View the original article here

Google in breach of UK data laws

3 November 2010 Last updated at 14:10 GMT Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham: "I think the important thing was to get the foot in the door for an audit of Google which had to be by consent"

There was a "significant breach" of the Data Protection Act when Google collected personal data via its Street View cars, the UK's Information Commissioner has ruled.

But Google will not face a fine or any punishment, Christopher Graham added.

Instead, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will audit Google's data protection practices.

The move marks a U-turn for the ICO which originally ruled that no data breach had occurred.

Last week the ICO vowed to look again at the evidence, after the Canadian data agency found the search giant in breach of its law.

Its decision was welcomed by MP Robert Halfon, who has been critical of the ICO and of Google, which he recently accused of deliberately collecting the data for commercial gain.

However, he said that action had come too late.

"The ICO failed to act when it should have done, despite the fact that Google staged a significant infringement of privacy and civil liberties, by harvesting millions of e-mails, wi-fi addresses, and passwords.

"Furthermore, the ICO has already proved that it lacks the technical expertise to audit Google's activity. What confidence can we have in their audit now? People feel powerless."

The ICO said it "strongly refutes" Mr Halfon's suggestion that it did not have "the necessary expertise to audit" Google.

"We have a team of experienced and qualified auditors who regularly check organisations compliance with data protection requirements."

Mr Graham said Google must delete the data - collected from unsecured wi-fi networks - "as soon as it is legally cleared to do so".

Google has apologised for collecting the data, which it said had been done by mistake.

'Profoundly sorry'

Google has been the subject of scrutiny from data protection agencies around the world, following news that software in its Street View cars collected personal information.

Street View has been under scrutiny in Germany

This was revealed following a request from the German data commissioner to audit all the data being collected by Street View cars.

Google discovered that, along with legitimate data about the location of wi-fi hotspots, the cars were also hoovering up personal details from unsecured networks, known as payload data.

Peter Fleischer, Google's Global Privacy Counsel, said the firm was "profoundly sorry for mistakenly collecting payload data in the UK".

Google said it happened as the result of code written by one of its engineers being mistakenly incorporated in the Street View software.

"Since we announced our mistake in May we have co-operated closely with the ICO and worked to improve our internal controls," said Mr Fleischer.

"We are in the process of confirming that there are no outstanding legal obligations upon us to retain the data, and will then ensure that it is quickly and safely deleted."

'Serious violation'

It announced recently that it would appoint a head of privacy and ensure that all its engineering teams followed strict privacy protocols.

New impetus was given to the UK enquiry, which had originally ruled that no significant breach had occurred, following harsh criticisms of Google from the Canadian authorities.

Last month it found that the search giant had breached its privacy laws.

"This incident was a serious violation of Canadian's privacy rights," privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart concluded.

But she said that no further action would be taken if Google tightened its privacy policies.

Backlash

Street View is now available in around 20 countries and allows uses to walk through towns and cities using photos taken by the Street View cars.

Anyone wishing to have an image removed can request this from Google.

But there is a growing backlash against the service, following complaints from people that their privacy was breached when the photos were taken.

In Germany, where Google is imminently rolling out a service, the government forced it to allow people to opt out of the service before pictures went live.

Italy has asked it to give citizens notice before starting mapping operations while the Czech Republic has banned it from taking any more pictures.

View the original article here

Google sues US in software battle

2 November 2010 Last updated at 10:48 GMT Google is trying to promote its Google Apps for government use Google is suing the US government, saying it was unfairly excluded from a $58m deal to revamp e-mail systems at the Department of the Interior.

In a lawsuit filed with the US Court of Federal Claims, Google says the terms of the five-year contract rule out its products and favour rival Microsoft.

The search giant wants to offer its Google Apps software for the contract.

But Google says it was told that only Microsoft's business software could be used - a move it called "arbitrary".

The Department of the Interior, which employs about 88,000 people, declined to comment on Google's legal action.

Security fears

Google says in its lawsuit that it was told there would be "full and open competition" for the contract, but that the bid specified that only the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal could be used.

This is a special version of Microsoft's suite of business tools that was designed for the US federal government.

Google has its own special version of its software designed to address government security concerns, Google Apps for Government.

However, the firm says it was told its product did not comply with the department's security requirements.

Google says the decision was "arbitrary and capricious", as well as being "unduly restrictive of competition" and against US law.

It calls for an open contracting process, which it says "could save US taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and result in better services".

View the original article here

The Technology newsbucket: Apple sues, Evernote .Not, Google wanted Jobs, and more

Smartphone patent lawsuits and deals - updated

A quick burst of 7 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

Apple countersues Motorola over multi-touch iPhone patents >> AppleInsider
"As expected, Apple has responded to a patent suit from Motorola with its own legal action, accusing the company of violating six patents related to multi-touch features found in the iPhone."

Lessons from Evernote's flight from .NET « Tim Anderson's ITWriting
Evernote says that since giving up .Net for C++, it's got an app that starts five times faster, and uses half the memory. Tim Anderson looks at why it did: "WPF is not only based on .NET. It also uses DirectX and hardware acceleration under the covers, enabling rich multimedia effects. The layout language of WPF is XAML, giving freedom from scaling issues which cause hassles in the native API. So what are the lessons here? Is WPF no good?
"It is not so simple. WPF is brilliant in many ways, offering the productivity of .NET coding and a powerful layout framework. However it was a technology which Microsoft itself hardly used in its key products, Windows and Office – a warning sign."

Microsoft: Our strategy with Silverlight has shifted >> Mary Jo Foley
Basically, it's HTML5 in future for cross-platform products.

Enterprises: We'll run Windows XP even after retirement - Computerworld
Not a large survey (950 companies) so don't stake your house on its precision. Still: "Microsoft has been pushing XP customers of all stripes, including enterprises, to upgrade to Windows 7. While Dimensional didn't query IT professionals about what operating system they were leaving behind as they migrated to Windows 7, they're doing the latter in increasing numbers. More than a third, or 38%, of those polled said their companies have implemented a partial roll-out of Windows 7, up from 15% in January 2010, the last time Dimensional surveyed IT administrators and staffers.
"Six percent of the companies have fully deployed to Windows 7, a six-fold increase over the 1% who said the same back in January."

Larry And Sergey Wanted Steve Jobs To Be Google's First CEO >> Business Insider
Interesting detail. They didn't actually get as far as asking him, as he was already re-ensconced in Apple.

Exploring Earth's History with Wolfram|Alpha >> Wolfram|Alpha Blog
Likely to make creationists' brains melt.

LIVE BLOG: Microsoft Earnings Call >> Business Insider
Everywhere has done well apart from Online. Which still hasn't.

You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on delicious

To suggest links, tag articles on delicious.com with "guardiantech"

View the original article here