Tech and Web from Times Online

Test Bench: Car trackers

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:31 GMT

BEST FOR FEATURES

Secret Rihanna gig to stream live on mobile phones

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:55:05 GMT

The music business will join forces with the internet that has nearly killed it next weekend as the mobile phone giant Nokia streams a live concert by the singer Rihanna from a secret venue in London.

Ubuntu: the complete beginner's guide

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:57:54 GMT

Let's start with a couple of assumptions. Let's assume that, some time in the past two or three years, you or another member of your household has updated their computer, and has left their old one to petrify under a bed.

EU agrees internet restriction guidelines

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:30:08 GMT

Europe’s MEPs and Council representatives on Wednesday night agreed that restrictions on access to the internet within the EU may “only be imposed if they are appropriate, proportionate and necessary within a democratic society”.

X-ray machine voted most important invention in Science Museum poll

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:01:32 GMT

Russell Reynolds had only one wish when in 1896 at the age of 15 he learnt of the discovery of X-rays: to possess his own X-ray machine.

Computer giants forced on to mobile battlefield

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:13 GMT

More and more they resemble mini personal computers, with internet, e-mail, cameras, keyboards and/or touchscreens and ever bigger memories, and — more and more — PC manufacturers have been waking up to the fact that smartphones are presenting them with a clear and present danger.

Technology: is it different for girls?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:35:16 GMT

I am frustrated. I am bored. I feel patronised. PC World is telling me my world is pink (it has not been pink since I was 7) and I need a new laptop to match my outfit (it would never even occur to me to match my outfit with my technology). Samsung is asking me, “What Colour is my Life?” (hello?) and Dell is telling me that technology is like candy (do me a favour).

Is access to the internet now a human right?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:05 GMT

Can checking your e-mail really be a human right? Carphone Warehouse hopes so. After the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, announced his plans to disconnect persistent internet pirates last week, the owner of Britain’s largest internet service provider, TalkTalk, threatened him with legal action under human rights legislation.

Britons targeted in new online scam

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:38:00 GMT

Britons selling goods on internet sites such as eBay are being targeted by scammers who try to dupe people into sending their items abroad before they ever receive payment.

ITV stuck with Friends Reunited as OFT refers sale to watchdog

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Ownership of Friends Reunited has proved costly for ITV, but yesterday the broadcaster was told that it might not be allowed to sell it, even for a £145 million loss.

Illegal file-sharing sites up 300 per cent

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:39:29 GMT

Attempts to close down illegal file-sharing sites may simply spread the problem more widely, according to a new report.

Santas get training on high-tech presents

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:38:00 GMT

Twenty-first century children are expected to make such high-tech demands of Santa Claus this year that the UK’s leading retailers are giving Santa a leave of absence from his grotto to gen up on the latest gadgets and gizmos.

Orange avoids price war with its iPhone launch

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:01:25 GMT

Orange, the mobile phone operator, has resisted the temptation to spark a price war in the market for Apple’s iPhone with its launch next week of the sought-after handset.

Stephen Fry quits Twitter (and then comes back again)

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:06:17 GMT

Stephen Fry may be a national treasure to some, but to most of those who follow his regular musings on Twitter he is rather more.

Monday manifesto: In a world of music and warcraft, there’s still so much to play for

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:01:59 GMT

Times were troubled when Jean-Bernard Levy joined Vivendi, the French media to telecoms giant. A huge acquisition spree had gone wrong and money was tight — so much so that executives wanted to sell the company’s impressive headquarters in the centre of Paris.

Taxman hits YouTube to root out offshore ‘fiddlers’

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

The taxman is making his first appearance on YouTube today in an attempt to increase pressure on savers who have not declared their offshore accounts.

The robot on track to be grandmother's little helper

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:01:00 GMT

It has suction cups instead of hands, two sets of tank-tracks instead of feet, and is strong enough to carry an adult up a steep flight of stairs.

3D goes mobile

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:20:25 GMT

Touchscreens may be all the rage today, but their replacement, reach-out-and-touch-me screens, is already being lined up. The first displays that can show three-dimensional video without the need for silly spectacles are about to be launched.

The beer can that terrifies bad guys

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:19:38 GMT

In a hostile situation, nobody wants to poke their head above a wall or round a doorway to see the enemy. A far more appealing option would be to take a miniature reconnaissance robot from your pocket and throw it into the danger area to act as your eyes.

Fallout 3 triumphs at UK video game awards

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:53:35 GMT

It is perhaps in keeping with the times that there was a distinctly apocalyptic edge to the 27th annual Golden Joystick awards for video games, presented on Friday in London.

Web address revolution ends Latin-alphabet monopoly

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:24:41 GMT

Internet regulators today heralded a new era of international web use that will no longer be dominated by the Latin alphabet.

Juniper launches 'comprehensive assault' on Cisco

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:57:07 GMT

Juniper Networks launched a flurry of new products and services today, in an effort to rebrand the company and take on competitors in the networking industry, such as Cisco Systems.

Mandelson’s piracy tactics leave Tories with a dilemma

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:01:00 GMT

James Blunt, who wrote to Lord Mandelson on the vexed subject of internet piracy, called the internet service providers “drug pushers” in an e-mail that the minister saw fit to publish this week.

The Philips DirectLife — calorie counting while you work

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:01:00 GMT

As I write these words, the movement of my fingers, hands, and wrists is being monitored by a tiny gadget hanging around my neck, which will soon conclude what I already know: typing doesn’t count as exercise.

The new hi-tech teaching aids, made by Q

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Futurelab does not look like something that grew out of a Whitehall department. On one table sit several smartphones that can be used to make a nearby postcard of Abraham Lincoln recite the Gettysburg Address. On another, a movement-sensitive robot is duct-taped to the surface, presumably so that it does not walk off the edge in excitement when passers-by activate its sensors. And although Stephen Breslin, the chief executive, wears a snappy suit, everyone else in the building in Bristol’s Harbourside is dressed like a graduate recruitment advert for a technology company — which is, at least in part, what it is.