Der US-Softwarekonzern Microsoft und mehrere andere Unternehmen haben sich nach Angaben von Insidern bei der EU-Kommission über das neue soziale Netzwerk von Google beschwert. Wie mit der Sache vertraute Personen erklärten, wurde die Beschwerde gegen Google+ informell vorgebracht.

Die Spannungen zwischen der Mobilfunk-Branche und EU-Regulierern sind auf dem Mobile World Congress in Barcelona offen zutage getreten. Die EU-Kommissarin Neelie Kroes griff via Twitter den Vodafone-Chef Vittorio Colao an.

Der Umsatz mit Grosskunden im traditionellen Festnetzbereich ist in den vergangenen vier Jahren bei Swisscom um rund 20 Prozent zurückgegangen. Die Gründe dafür seien einerseits im starken Wettbewerb, anderseits in der zunehmenden Verbreitung der mobilen Telefonie und der datenbasierten Kommunikation wie SMS, E-Mails oder Internetdiensten zu suchen, lässt Swisscom wissen.

Die ICT-Dienstleisterin T-Systems eröffnet in der Schweiz ein internationales Kompetenzcenter. Damit wolle man dem Bedarf an harmonisierten IT-Landschaften weltweit nachkommen, heisst es sinngemäss in einer Aussendung.

Der E-Book-Vertrieb Smashwords ist von Ebays Bezahlservice Paypal dazu aufgefordert worden, gewisse Bücher aus dem Angebot zu nehmen, wie Techcrunch berichtet. Texte, die sich mit Vergewaltigung, Inzest oder Sodomie beschäftigen, dürfen nicht mehr verkauft werden. Paypal droht bei Missachtung der Anweisung damit, die Zusammenarbeit zu beenden.

Dem weltgrössten Onlinenetzwerk Facebook droht wenige Monate vor dem Börsengang eine Patentklage des Konkurrenten Yahoo. Es gehe um 10 bis 20 Patente, berichtete die "Financial Times" unter Berufung auf informierte Personen. Sie deckten Bereich wie Funktionen von Onlinenetzwerken, Werbung und Personalisierung ab.

Wie die Marktbeobachtung «Sourcing Monitor 2011» des Zürcher Beratungsunternehmens Active Sourcing zeigt, gab es im abgelaufenen Jahr im Unterschied zu 2010 keine Rekordquartale mehr und niedrige Vertragsvolumen. Aus dem Forecast lässt sich ein aktiver Jahresbeginn 2012 ableiten, zur Jahresmitte sollen aber vermutlich wieder zwei schwache Quartale folgen. Für das letzte Quartal 2012 werden jedoch erneut viel versprechende Geschäfte erwartet.

Die auf Geschäftsprozessoptimierung und elektronische Kommuniktion ausgerichtete deutsche Retarus will ihr Partnergeschäft mit Beratungs- und Systemhäusern, Software-Herstellern sowie Service-Providern ausweiten. Auch in der Schweiz, wo das Unternehmen über eine Niederlassung in Zürich verfügt.

Hayri C. Bulman, Unternehmer und ICT-Fachmann, der sich unter anderem bei Xerox und General Electric Information Services seine IT-Sporen verdient hat, übernimmt per sofort die Geschäftsleitung der Schweizer-Post-Konkurrentin (Incamail) RPost.

Im Zürcher Marriott Hotel werden am 21. März ab 18.30 Uhr erstmals die Swiss App Awards vergeben. Eine Jury hat aus 130 Einreichungen jeweils fünf Finalisten in den Kategorien Best User Experience App, Most Downloaded App, Best Web App, Best Game App und Best Bank App ausgewählt. Fünf dieser Apps stehen zudem im Rennen um die App of the Year.

jfruh writes "You'd think that, of all events, security conferences would have tight security. But one anonymous human pen tester managed to sneak into the RSA conference without credentials, using tried and true techniques like waving a badge from another conference at security guards and slipping in through exits."

zacharye writes "AT&T on Monday announced a new plan that will let developers pay for the data used by their apps and services. The data consumed by apps that make use of this new feature would not apply toward a user's data cap. The new service was pitched as a way for content providers to ease customers' growing concerns over wireless data usage, however one public interest group sees the feature as a slap in the face to AT&T subscribers. 'This new plan is unfortunate because it shows how fraudulent the AT&T data cap is, and calls into question the whole rationale of the data caps,' Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge, said in a statement. 'Apparently it has nothing to do with network management. It's a tool to get more revenue from developers and customers.'"

compumike writes "CircuitLab today released a browser-based schematic editor and circuit simulator for the online electronics community. SPICE-like device models and mixed-mode simulation support allows engineers and hobbyists to tackle a wide range of board-level design problems. While most EDA software is Windows-only, CircuitLab is 100% web-based, Windows/Mac/Linux cross-platform, and requires no installation or plug-ins. Instead of today's typical forum posts with static screenshots from different desktop tools, the online electronics community can now use CircuitLab to share useful URLs (as well as PNGs and PDFs) which link directly to interactive, editable, runnable schematics. In just a few clicks, another designer can open that circuit, make a change, simulate it, and post the new version back to the community."

coondoggie writes "Natural gas has never been much of an option for U.S. car drivers, and it's going to take a lot of effort by the government and auto manufacturers to make it a viable alternative to gas. But that's just what a $10 million program from the Department of Energy's advanced project development group The Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy (ARPA-E) aims to start anyway. ARPA-E's Methane Opportunities for Vehicular Energy (MOVE) program wants to develop system 'that could enable natural gas vehicles with on-board storage and at-home refueling with a five-year payback or upfront cost differential of $2,000, which excludes the balance of system and installation costs.'"

pigrabbitbear writes "Google is boasting that more than 90 million people have signed up for its Google+. Those are pretty impressive numbers. I mean, if you had 90 million people at your disposal, you could do anything. You'd rule the Internet. Except there's one little problem: No one is using the site. The Wall Street Journal has the hard, unfiltered truth: According to comScore numbers, users spent an average of 3 minutes on G+ in the entire month of January. Facebook users spent 405 minutes, or nearly 7 hours, on the site. People managed to find 17 minutes to spare to add connections on LinkedIn. Heck, even Myspace users — many of whom are probably ghost accounts — surfed for eight minutes over the month."

ananyo writes "NASA has said it will re-design its Mars exploration program, and that the new architecture would include input — and money — from the human program as well as the space technology division. Orlando Figueroa, the former deputy director for space and technology at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is to head up a seven or eight person committee, and to start developing mission concepts in the next month. One of those concepts would be a possible $700 million mission launching in 2018. The news offers a grain of comfort to a community still reeling from massive cuts to the Mars program."

PatPending writes with news that Google will be offering up to $1 million for the discovery of new exploits in their Chrome browser. This comes as part of the CanSecWest security conference, and the rewards will be broken down into categories: $60,000 for an exploit using only Chrome bugs, $40,000 for an exploit using a Chrome bug in conjunction with other bugs, and $20,000 for exploits that affect Chrome (and other browsers) but are due to bugs in other software, like Flash, Windows, or drivers. Google had originally planned to offer rewards through the Pwn2Own competition, but they were concerned by the contest rules: "Unfortunately, we decided to withdraw our sponsorship when we discovered that contestants are permitted to enter Pwn2Own without having to reveal full exploits (or even all of the bugs used!) to vendors. Full exploits have been handed over in previous years, but it’s an explicit non-requirement in this year’s contest, and that’s worrisome. ... We guarantee to send non-Chrome bugs to the appropriate vendor immediately."

New submitter Stowie101 writes "British master engineer Ian Shepherd is ripping Apple's Mastered for iTunes service, saying it is pure marketing hype and isn't different than a standard AAC file in iTunes. Shepherd compared three digital music files, including a Red Hot Chili Peppers song downloaded in the Mastered for iTunes format with a CD version of the same song, and said there were no differences. Apple or someone else needs to step it up here and offer some true 'CD quality downloads.'"

dstates writes "A recent article in in BMJ Open reports a strong association between the use of prescription sleeping pills and mortality. The study used electronic health records for 2.5 million people covered by the Geisinger Health System to find 12 thousand who had been prescribed sleeping pills and a matched set of controls. Death rates were much higher in the patients taking sleeping pills and the risk increases with age. Kudos to the authors for publishing this in an open access journal."

Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that Rick Santorum defended his robocalls urging Democrats in Michigan to vote in today's critical primary, a tactic that has come under withering criticism from rival Mitt Romney as a 'terrible dirty trick' and a 'new low for his campaign.' Santorum says he reached out to Democratic voters, who can vote in the primary, to show that 'we can attract voters we need to win states like Michigan,' and noted that the former Massachusetts governor has wooed Democrats in the past and used Santorum's own words endorsing him in the 2008 race on a robocall of his own. 'I didn't complain about it. I don't complain. You know what, I'm a big guy. I can take it.' Romney crossed party lines himself to vote for Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Democratic primary over Bill Clinton in order to cause mischief for the general election. 'In Massachusetts, if you register as an independent, you can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary,' said Romney, who until he made an unsuccessful run for Senate in 1994 had spent his adult life as a registered independent."

An anonymous reader writes "If you're sick of playing Angry Birds, or don't like touchscreen controls, there is now an alternative if you don't mind some construction. mbed have posted full instructions and a parts list for creating your very own USB slingshot, adding a physical element to playing the game. You need a decent branch for the slingshot, a microcontroller, USB connector, accelerometer, and a rubber stretch sensor. The C++ code is provided, and as a weekend project I can see this being pretty satisfying to create."

People who hear about the Seattle Pinball Museum tend to say things like, "Seems like a must-visit destination in Seattle," and, "Why did no one tell me about this place!??!" Timothy Lord, Slashdot Editor and Video Host, agrees. Watch the video to see a huge grin on Timothy's face. And if you ever get to the Seattle Pinball Museum yourself, you'll probably have a smile on your face, too.

miller60 writes "Despite the publicity around the U.S. Government's 'Cloud First' approach to IT, many agencies are reluctant to shift mission critical assets to third-party facilities. That's the analysis from Harris Corp., which has decided to get out of the cloud hosting business and sell a data center in Virginia, just two years after it spent $200 million to build and equip it. 'It's becoming clear that customers, both government and commercial, currently have a preference for on-premise versus off-premise solutions,' said Harris' CEO."

theodp writes "'Hate to see something happen to that multi-billion IPO of yours,' is essentially the IPO-threatening message Yahoo sent to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook investors on the eve of the social networking giant's IPO. Yahoo, unlike the Sopranos, is using IP as its muscle to collect its IPO-protection money: 'We must insist that Facebook either enter into a licensing agreement [for 10-20 Yahoo-owned patents] or we will be compelled to move forward unilaterally to protect our rights,' Yahoo explained in a statement alerting the NY Times to its demand. Yahoo issued a similar last-minute threat to Google on the eve of its 2004 IPO, prompting Google to pony up 2.7 million shares to settle Yahoo's patent lawsuit. BTW, should Facebook also be concerned that Amazon has been beefing up its PlanetAll social networking patents from the '90s, including the one issued Tuesday covering a Social Networking System Capable of Notifying Users of Profile Updates Made by Their Contacts?"