Latest news

Facebook appears set to add Skype-powered video calls to its service, from within the Facebook interface, at a launch event next week.

If sources are accurate, Skype video chat and calling will be available to anyone with a webcam, anytime they log into the social network.

Skype did not deny the claim, simply saying: "We don't have anything to share at this moment. Will keep you posted if that changes."

Facebook and Skype have long been partners, but to a much smaller degree. You can currently call FB friends through Skype, after logging in and connecting your friends to the account.

Skype was recently purchased by Microsoft for $8.5 billion, and the software giant said its aim was to integrate Skype into every service possible, starting with its own platforms like Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Live. Microsoft was an early investor in Facebook.

Google+, the brand new rival social network from Google, offers group video chat with up to 10 simultaneous users.

In honor of the July 4th holiday, Electronic Arts (EA) has dropped the price of many of their most popular iOS games to 99 cents.

One of the biggest discounts is "Dead Space," an original chapter of the popular console franchise which originally sold for $10 on iPad and $7 on iPhone

Another big winner is Madden NFL 11, the premiere console football game.

Among the discounted are classics like Tetris, Scrabble, Battleship, Snood and Risk and on the newer side is the brand new (released last week) Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Check out all the games here: http://www.eamobile.com/sale

Tag Heuer, the luxury watch maker, has released its own Android smartphone, one that commands a huge $6700 price tag.

The "Tag Heuer Link" has a very unique design and seems to be built very impressively, but under the hood most tech enthusiasts will not be too excited.

Running the outdated Android 2.2, the Link has a 3.5" TFT screen with Gorilla Glass, a 5MP camera, 256MB of internal memory (expandable to 8GB with included MicroSD).

Full specs from Tag:

Main characteristics
Size: 118mm (H) x 67mm (W) x 16.6mm (D)
OS: Android 2.2
Form factor: Bar type touch screen
Weight: 200 grams (battery included)
3G Talk time: 6 hours 30 minutes
Stand by time: up to 330hrs (~14 days)
Battery included: Li-lon 1400mAh

Messaging
SMS / MMS / Email (Predictive Text Input XT9)
Image formats supported: JPEG / GIF / BMP
Sound formats supported: MP3 / AAC / AAC+ / RA / WMA

Acer Inc. adds new colorful netbooks to its line-up.

With unique names such as "Banana Cream," "Blueberry Shake," "Papaya Milk," and "Strawberry Yogurt," the Acer Aspire One Happy 2 netbooks bring a new sense of fun and style to the ultra-light, mobile PC experience. the Aspire One Happy 2 netbook's cover features a bright and shiny finish with a textured liquid water ripple pattern.

The 10.1-inch netbooks are light and portable enough to tote anywhere, and provide a battery life of up to eight hours. Featuring a 10.1-inch CrystalBrite LED-backlit display helps to save 22.2 percent power compared to other netbook displays.

The netbooks are powered by an Intel Atom Processor N570, come with 1GB of DDR3 memory and a large 250GB internal hard drive to store plenty of digital albums, music and documents. The netbooks run Windows 7 Starter Edition, and feature Microsoft Office Starter 2010.

They also feature 802.11 b/g/n wireless connectivity, a 0.3 megapixel webcam and use Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 integrated graphics.

   
   

European Commission to present plans for further reductions in mobile roaming tariffs in EU next week.

The EC has set a goal through its digital agenda to almost completely eliminate the difference between national and roaming tariffs by 2015. It will present a proposal to realize that goal on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the European Commission said.

The Commission introduced caps that operators could charge for customers making calls abroad in 2007 (see: Eurotariff) and adopted revised rules in 2009 that reduced the roaming prices within the EU even further.

At present, the maximum charge for making calls abroad is 35 cents (per min), and 11 cents for receiving. By 2014, the EU plans to reduce the cap further to 24 cents, and to effectively abolish higher roaming charges by 2016. Text messages will be capped at 10 cents each until July 2016.

Some telecommunications operators have attempted to challenge the Euro regulations through the European Court of Justice, but lost their case. They had argued that EU regulations were robbing them of revenues. Others disagreed, saying that lowing the cost of calls and texts while roaming would encourage people to use their mobile phones more often than they do now.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security calls for global action on cyber-warfare.

Janet Napolitano was speaking at a security conference in Vienna when she called for action internationally to being legal systems up to date to address the threat of cyber attacks.

Her comments come after a flurry of high-profile attacks against big targets, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States, the U.S. Senate, Defense contractor Lockheed Martin and more.

"Most countries don't even have a legal framework that really governs cyber. It is such a new phenomenon in that regard so the legal systems -- both domestic and international -- have not kept pace with the technological advances we have seen," Napolitano said.

"The threats are real. They demand our vigilance, including vigilance in protection of the values we cherish, and they demand continued cooperation," Napolitano said.

On investigation into the high-profile incidents of the past several months, Napolitano stressed there needs to be more cooperation in international investigations of their nature, saying that right now there is no comprehensive international framework in response to the growing threat.

Judge refuses to dismiss claim that Google violated federal wiretap laws.

Google had requested that the lawsuit be dismissed, but U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Francisco paved the way for the lawsuit to proceed. Individuals from various states in the U.S. say that Google intentionally intercepted data from their personal wireless networks.

The data was intercepted by Google's Street View cans. The search giant admitted last year that it had unintentionally collected payload data from unsecured wireless networks while its vans were taking panoramic pictures of locations all around the world.

Judge Ware did throw out some claims made by the plaintiffs however, which alleged violations of state wiretap statutes and a claim under California's unfair competition stature. The lawsuit against Google is seeking class-action status.

"We believe these claims are without merit and that the court should have dismissed the wiretap claim just as it dismissed the plaintiffs' other claims," Google said in a statement. "We're still evaluating our options at this preliminary stage."

Internet entrepreneur Kevin Ryan estimates a quarter of Facebook revenue will come from social gaming.

Research firm eMartketer estimated that Facebook Inc. would make about $4 billion in 2011, more than double the levels of 2010. Kevin Ryan, former CEO of advertising giant DoubleClick, estimates that over $1 billion of that will be due to social gaming through Facebook.

The chunk also includes revenue from Facebook Credits, which users of the social network can use to buy items for games and other activities. Facebook's ever increasing user-base is attracting more and more advertisers to the website.

"Assuming Facebook is on track to produce $4 billion in ad revenue this year, $1 billion of that coming from social gaming is not outlandish," said Paul Verna, a senior analyst at eMarketer.

Facebook doesn't disclose financial information and wouldn't comment on Kevin Ryan's prediction. It is backed up by Zynga Inc's Friday filing for a $1 billion initial public offering. The developer, which admits it makes the vast majority of its revenue through the Facebook platform, revealed that it generated $235 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2011.

Finnish mobile giant to shut remaining services in Japan.

Nokia stopped supplying mobile phones to Japanese carriers in 2008, but was still operating a phone service and some high-end Vertu mobile phone stores in Tokyo. The Nikkei paper reported that the company close the stores, located in Tokyo's Shibuya and Ginza districts by July's end.

Additionally, Nokia's phone service in Japan will be discontinued at the end of August as a contract with NTT DoCoMo Inc. (from which it leased the network infrastructure) ends. Nokia's Tokyo office will remain upon until the end of the year to handle fee returns and other matters.

Nokia sold Vertu high-end mobile phones in Japan for years. Manufactured by hand in the UK, Vertu handsets use precious metals in their design, such as gold, sapphire (used for screen) and rubies.

The luxury handsets sold for between ¥600,000 ($7,450) and ¥20,000,000 ($248,354) each.

Wii-maker to push up spending on research and development.

Nintendo announced plans to build a new research and development facility in 2009, located near Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto, Japan. It originally was reported to be spending ¥12 billion ($148 million) on the compound, but that figure has now jumped to ¥16.5 billion ($204 million).

The seven story building will be built on a 40,000-square-meter lot in Kyoto's Minami Ward. Construction on the new R&D compound is expected to commence in January 2012, with an eye to have it operational by the end of the following year.

The move will also allow the 1,500 employees to be much closer to Nintendo's headquarters, which is in the same district. The current R&D facility is located in Higashiyama Ward, which is some distance away.

Apple fires latest shot in patent war with South Korean consumer electronics giant.

Earlier this week, Samsung filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking a ban on the import of iPads, iPods and iPhones that it says infringe several of its patents. Apple fired the next shot on Friday when it asked a U.S. court to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent Samsung from infringing three Apple patents.

It all started in April when Apple sued Samsung in a California federal court, alleging that the firm "slavishly" clones its mobile products. Samsung quickly countersued Samsung in California. Apple then sued Samsung in South Korea and Samsung went to the ITC.

Patent rows have been flaring in recent years between tech giants who are looking for their slice of the smartphone and tablet PC market. After this latest action from Apple, Samsung responded with defiance.

"We're going to actively protect and defend our intellectual property and our ability to provide consumers with innovative technology," Samsung spokesman Kim Titus said. Apple also asked for a trial in the case to be fast-tracked so the intellectual property disputes may be cleared up.

Christopher Clarke has become the first person in Scotland to be convicted of illegally filming in a movie theater then uploading the movie for profit.

The 25-year-old pleaded guilty under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and was sentenced to 160 hours of community service.

Clarke was arrested after Cineworld and the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) investigated into a string of uploaded films.

Says John Dunn, area procurator fiscal for Glasgow (via BBC):

Christopher Clarke repeatedly pirated films from cinema screenings and uploaded them to the internet for profit. Piracy is by no means a victimless crime - it undermines legitimate businesses and the arts sector as a whole, and can be used to channel money into organised crime.

I hope this sends a strong message to all those who believe that they can remain anonymous solely because they commit their crimes over the internet. They should beware that the investigative authorities of Scotland work tirelessly to remain at the forefront of forensic computer analysis and technological specialism - we can and will track down those who pirate films, whether the profit is made in cyberspace or a marketplace.

Google appears to be in talks to buy on-demand streaming video site Hulu, according to sources close to the negotiations.

Hulu, which surprisingly began looking into selling itself earlier this month following an unsolicited bid from Yahoo, has also talked with Microsoft and continues to speak with Yahoo, say the sources.

The streaming site is expected to bring in $500 million in revenue this year from over 600 major brand advertisers, and those relationships appear to be very attractive to Google, alongside licensing agreements for popular shows.

Hulu has over 28 million monthly viewers thanks to its next-day access to popular series like "Glee" and "Modern Family." The site offers the last five episodes of a running series for free (with 2:30 of ads per 22 minute show), which is far superior than TV's 8 minutes of commercials per 22 minute show.

By using Hulu, users can pause/rewind/forward whenever they need to, on their computer, two more huge benefits over TV.

The company is looking for $2 billion.

Apple and a consortium that includes RIM, Sony, Ericsson, EMC and Microsoft have outbid Google and purchased 6000 patents from bankrupt telecom Nortel Networks.

Google opened the auction at $900 million but the final bid was a massive $4.5 billion.

The patents cover a wide range of topics from wireless, data and optical networking, voice, Internet and semiconductors.

Losing the patents is a massive blow to Google and its burgeoning Android platform, which is under attack from many angles and was looking to add the portfolio as a way to protect itself from litigation. There are currently 45 patent infringement lawsuits based on Android and Android devices, the biggest of which is Oracle's billion dollar suit over use of Java.

One analyst was shocked at Google's lack of commitment to Android saying: "In light of Android's patent problems it's surprising that Google didn't outbid everyone else. It could have afforded more than $4.5 billion but it doesn't appear to be truly committed to Android."

Firefox better stay on its toes.

According to the latest figures from analytics company StatCounter, Google's Chrome browser now has 20.17 percent of global market share, a huge run from the 2.8 percent it had in June 2009.

The clear leaders, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, have each dropped in the time frame, with IE falling from a commanding 60 percent to 44 percent and Firefox stalling, dropping from 30 percent to 28 percent.

Chrome launched in December 2008 and is now in version 12 (13 if you are beta tester).

The browser took off very quickly due to its sleek "minimalist" design and speed, which have now been replicated by rival browsers looking to win back share.

StatCounter bases data on a sample of 15 billion page views per month from 3 million websites.