TECHNOLOGY

Microsoft's Bing Maps ties into the open source OpenStreetMap community

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsMicrosoft's Bing Maps unveiled a host of new features and functions this week, including the public beta of a revamped user experience with new visuals and dynamic map labels, and a handful of new Bing Map Apps submitted for the King of the Maps competition. One of the newe...

RIM: No back door into encrypted BlackBerry messages for any government

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsTuesday, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion confirmed that it will not provide a backdoor into its encrypted messages for the purposes of local government surveillance, despite the demands of certain countries.Since 2007, Research in Motion has had difficulties building a ...

Skype founders launch mobile subscription music service

By Ed Oswald, BetanewsSkype, Kazaa, and Joost creators Janus Friis with Niklas Zennström launched Rdio on Tuesday, aiming to offer an inexpensive way to provide unlimited streaming music from mobile phones. In addition, the service would allow users to save music to their device for offline listeni...
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United Arab Emirates Bans Blackberry

Due to monitoring concerns and terror fears, the United Arab Emirates will ban instant message, email and Internet browsing on the Blackberry beginning this October, according to regulators.

Smooth talk may be an effective hacking method

The initial "social engineering" contest at the infamous Defcon gathering in Las Vegas shows that smooth talk may be as effective as the ability for software manipulation when it comes to mounting attacks on the computer networks of the world's biggest companies.

Jailbreakme.com returns, iPhone 4 finally jailbroken

By Ed Oswald, BetanewsThe iPhone Dev Team has struck again, this time releasing a Web-based jailbreaking solution that is compatible with all iPhone models, including the iPhone 4. The solution requires only an Internet connection and mobile Safari to complete the hack.It should be noted that this o...

E-mail filtering software Cloudmark Desktop becomes DesktopOne

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsCloudmark today announced an update to its e-mail filtering software for Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird 3, Windows Mail, and Windows Live Mail. The software, formerly known as Cloudmark Desktop, is now called Cloudmark DesktopOne, and unlike previous versions, the sh...

Apple's iPhone 4 sells out in Australia

Apple's iPhone 4 smartphone has been sold out in Australia. In spite of a number of telecommunications companies saying that they expect new stock to arrive "over the coming days," Apple announced that it expects a delay of three weeks for the shipment of new orders.

Windows 7 adoption surpasses Vista use, Mac OS flat

By Ed Oswald, BetanewsUsage of Windows 7 has eclipsed that of its predecessor Vista for the first time, data from research firm NetApplications indicates. Regardless, Windows XP remains the most commonly used operating system.Share of Windows 7 in July hit 14.46 percent, a hair above Vista's 14.34 p...

Microsoft announces Office for Mac 2011 pricing, sets October launch

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsMicrosoft's Mac business unit today released the final pricing of Office for Mac 2011 when it is released in late October. The productivity suite will come in three different editions, and will include a couple of multi-pack options. Office for Mac Home & Student Edition wi...

Lesson for Microsoft: Advertising works

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsToday, the Windows Blog has a post about Internet Explorer gaining a seemingly minuscule amount of usage share in July. Ryan Gavin cites Net Applications data showing IE gains for the second month in a row against Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox declines. Month-over-month, I...

Facebook List Compiler Defends His Actions

Ron Bowes, the compiler of a downloadable list of publicly available profile addresses, has gained attention from privacy advocates in spite his claim that his tool is similar to a telephone directory.

Kmart releases details on $149.99 Android tablet

Kmart, the retailer, releases a circular advertising Augen's 7-inch tablet that runs on the Android operating system, giving an option to consumers who want easy, on-the-go internet access without the cost of an iPad or a netbook.

What is Microsoft's strategy for slates and tablets, exactly?

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsThursday, at the annual Microsoft Financial Analyst meeting, CEO Steve Ballmer gave a somewhat baffling explanation about Microsoft's position on tablet/slate computing that seems to run contradictory to the strategy of one of the company's biggest manufacturing partners.Th...

Gillard to announce wider NBN coverage

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be in Perth on Friday for the first time in the campaign for the federal election, and will declare that the coverage of the national broadband network will expand from 90 to 93 per cent of the country.

Researchers find 80 different Android wallpaper apps skimming sensitive data

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsWhile the superstar of the Black Hat USA 2010 security conference in Las Vegas this week was Barnaby Jack from IOActive showing off techniques for "Jackpotting" Windows CE-based ATMs, research from security company Lookout has had a much broader impact on consumers, especia...

Realview confirms 30,000 published editions can be viewed in iPad

Australian digital publishing services provider Realview today confirmed that more than 30,000 editions from over 2,000 publications it produces for clients can now be interactively viewed on the Apple iPad, without having to download anything from the App Store.

TNT opens new depot in East Arm

Freight company TNT announced in a statement today it had launched a new $6 million depot in East Arm, signalling its expanding international business and ongoing commitment to the Darwin region.

Microsoft wants to park a cloud container in your driveway

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsCloud computing dominated the morning's Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting 2010 presentations. COO Kevin Turner and Chief Research Strategy Officer Craig Mundie spent more time talking cloud computing than any other topic. For Mundie, it was a bold departure from previous yea...

Motorola beats the street, but smartphone sales haven't rebounded yet

By Tim Conneally, BetanewsShaumberg, Illinois electronics company Motorola Inc. on Thursday posted its earnings for the second quarter of 2010. The company's total revenue was $5.41 billion, which beat Wall Street's estimates of $5.19 billion, but was still down against last year's $5.49 billion. Th...

70% of Microsoft cloud 'wins' are new customers

By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsMicrosoft COO Kevin Turner made the bold statement this morning during the company's annual FInancial Analyst Meeting. "One of the most exciting things about our cloud strategy is that 70 percent of the wins in the cloud that we had in Q4, ladies and gentlemen, were new Micros...

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