News

Google has set out to enable all websites, free of charge, to be imbued with common social networking features as the Internet evolves toward becoming a giant community along the lines of MySpace or Facebook.

Google Friend Connect was previewed at a Campfire One gathering of third-party software developers at the company's "Googleplex" campus in Mountain View, California on Monday. [...]Read more

Research in Motion unveiled Monday its latest BlackBerry smartphone with new styling and technology that aims to bite into Apple's juicy iPhone sales.

Called the "BlackBerry Bold," it is the first in the handset series to run on high-speed HSDPA networks and comes with integrated GPS, Wi-Fi and a "rich set of multimedia features," the Canadian-based firm said. [...]Read more

A hacker broke into Chile's government sites mining data from six million people which he then posted on the Internet on two popular servers for several hours, the El Mercurio daily have said.

The personal data included names, street and email addresses, telephone numbers, social and educational background, and was taken from Education Ministry, Electoral Service and state-run telephone companies' websites from late Saturday to early Sunday. [...]Read more

Wikipedia, the upstart Internet encyclopedia that most universities forbid students to use, has suddenly become a teaching tool for professors.

Recently, university teachers have swapped student term papers for assignments to write entries for the free online encyclopedia. [...]Read more

Nissan Motor Co and NEC Corp will join forces in the world's first mass production of lithium-ion batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles, a newspaper said Saturday.

The two companies plan to spend 20 billion yen (194 million dollars) to build a plant in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, the Nikkei business daily said. [...]Read more

The yawning divide between the haves and the have-nots of the digital revolution is a "threat to national unity" and even world security, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Friday.

Yudhoyono told an audience including Microsoft chairman Bill Gates that information technology posed "formidable" challenges as well as great opportunities for developing countries like Indonesia. [...]Read more

Top US state attorneys have announced that Facebook has agreed to get tougher on keeping its young website users safe from bullies, porn, pedophiles and other online hazards.

Facebook has agreed to a child protection pact similar to the one sealed with leading social-networking website MySpace in January, according to Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal. [...]Read more

The United States warned China Thursday that it risked "technological isolation" for developing unique technical standards of its own that also are shutting out foreign competition.

Despite widely accepted international standards, China developed standards mandated by government regulations amid a lack of transparency and due process, said Under Secretary of Commerce Christopher Padilla. [...]Read more

A TorrentSpy lawyer vowed Thursday to appeal a 110-million-dollar legal judgment against the website for directing people to unauthorized online copies of films and television shows.

Valence Media shut its TorrentSpy website down in March and filed for bankruptcy last week in the face of a lawsuit brought against it by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). [...]Read more

Top US state attorneys announced Thursday that Facebook has agreed to get tougher on keeping its young website users safe from bullies, porn, pedophiles and other online hazards.

Facebook has agreed to a child protection pact similar to the one sealed with leading social-networking website MySpace in January, according to Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal. [...]Read more

MySpace announced Thursday it is opening the gates of its popular online community by letting users automatically transfer profile information to other social-networking websites.

MySpace said it will kick off a "data availability" project in coming weeks by letting members share profile information with Yahoo, eBay, Photobucket and Twitter and that it is open to working with arch-rival Facebook. [...]Read more

As US technology giants including Google place a multi-billion dollar bet on WiMAX, backers of the wireless data-streaming format say it will radically change mobile Internet use.

A WiMAX network of the kind to be deployed across the United States by a joint venture dubbed Clearwire may render cable or phone line Internet obsolete and set the stage for free Google mobile telephones supported by advertising. [...]Read more

As US technology giants including Google place a multi-billion dollar bet on WiMAX, backers of the wireless data-streaming format say it will radically change mobile Internet use.

A WiMAX network of the kind to be deployed across the United States by a joint venture dubbed Clearwire may render cable or phone line Internet obsolete and set the stage for free Google mobile telephones supported by advertising. [...]Read more

"Grand Theft Auto: IV" blew away videogame and Hollywood records as its creators reported Wednesday that it raked in an unprecedented 500 million dollars in its opening week.

Take-Two Interactive said approximately six million copies of "GTA IV: Liberty City Stories" have sold worldwide, with more than half of those games snatched up within 24 hours of the game hitting store shelves April 29. [...]Read more

In a major bet on the WiMax wireless Internet technology, Sprint Nextel and Clearwire said Wednesday they would combine their networks in a new company with investment from Google, Intel and others.

The new company, to be named Clearwire, will deploy a nationwide WiMax network that will "dramatically enhance the speed and manner in which customers access all that the Internet has to offer at home, in the office and on the road," according to a joint statement. [...]Read more

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, the leader of one of the world's most wired nations, is facing a barrage of online scaremongering and criticism over his decision to resume US beef imports.

The presidential Blue House has been forced to deny a spate of rumours spread by the Internet or mobile phone texts about the supposed dangers of mad cow disease -- including a claim that diapers contain dangerous US beef proteins. [...]Read more

Pope Benedict XVI will give a new meaning to the term religious text by sending "inspirational messages" to mobile phones during Catholic World Youth day in Australia, organisers said Wednesday.

World Youth Day coordinator bishop Anthony Fisher said the 81-year-old Pope would go hi-tech at the July event, expected to attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Sydney, by reaching young people "in their social space". [...]Read more

Cuban authorities have refused to give a travel visa to Cuban blogger to who was to have flown to Spain to received a top journalism award, the writer told AFP Tuesday.

"I have canceled tonight's flight" to Madrid, writer Yoani Sanchez, 32, told AFP, after learning that she would not be given authorization to make the trip. [...]Read more

Microsoft began making television shows available for viewing on its Zune MP3 players on Tuesday as it continues a campaign to wrest market share from Apple's globally popular iPods.

Microsoft started releasing a software update that makes television shows available for viewing on the devices for the first time and enables users to more easily share their tastes in music. [...]Read more

Hip hop star will.i.am, whose Internet videos for US presidential hopeful Barack Obama have attracted millions of hits, is one of the big winners in this year's Webby Awards, organizers announced Tuesday.

Will.i.am, frontman of the Black Eyed Peas, joins satirical comedian Stephen Colbert and French director Michel Gondry among the top winners being recognized for online excellence with the so-called "Oscars of the Internet." [...]Read more