Online-Händler Amazon hat angekündigt, sein Trade-in-Angebot in den USA auch auf CDs auszuweiten, berichtet die Huffington Post. Künftig können User neben Büchern, Videospielen, DVDs und Elektronik auch gebrauchte CDs an Amazon schicken. Für Scheiben in gutem Zustand sollen Nutzer zwei bis drei Dollar in Form von Gutschriften erhalten, vermuten Analysten.

Mit neuen Warnstreiks will die Gewerkschaft Verdi ihre Bereitschaft zu einem grösseren Arbeitskampf bei der Deutschen Telekom untermauern. Vor der entscheidenden vierten Tarifrunde würden zunächst am Montag deutschlandweit 6000 Beschäftigte die Arbeit niederlegen, erklärte die Gewerkschaft am Sonntag.

Der US-amerikanische IT-Riese IBM kauft die sich in Privatbesitz befindliche kanadische Software-Firma Varicent Software. Varicent, deren Hauptsitz sich in Toronto befindet, wurde im Jahre 2003 gegründet. Über den Kaufpreis wurde nichts verlautet.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) hat eine öffentliche Betaphase für seinen ersten Public-Cloud-Dienst angekündigt. Der Startschuss dafür fällt am 10. Mai. Interessierte können sich ab sofort online anmelden (www.hpcloud.com/sign_up).

Kurz nach dem grössten Zukauf seiner Firmengeschichte hat Facebook erneut zugeschlagen: Das sich mitten in den Vorbereitungen für den seinen Börsengang befindliche soziale Netzwerk erwirbt den US-Coupon-Spezialisten Tagtile.

Eine App namens "Win8 Metro Testbed" des Unternehmens Splashtop vereint zwei sonst kaum kompatible Welten miteinander. Sie bringt die Consumer Preview von Microsoft Windows 8 auf Apples iPad. Dabei setzt das Tool auf eine Streaminglösung via WLAN und ermöglicht den Nutzern des Tablets aus Cupertino damit den Test des kommenden Betriebssystems auf Basis einer Touchoberfläche.

Der jüngst in den Technologieindex Tecdax aufgestiegene Netzwerkausrüster Euromicron will sein Wachstum mit der Ausgabe neuer Aktien finanzieren. "Bei den geplanten 500 Millionen Euro Umsatz halte ich zehn Millionen Stückaktien für eine ausgewogene Entwicklung. Das bedeutet, dass wir in den nächsten vier Jahren bis zu 3,3 Millionen Aktien ausgeben müssten", sagte Vorstandschef Willibald Späth der deutschen "Wirtschaftswoche".

Der strauchelnde Nokia-Konzern hat den Softwarefehler bei seinem ersten Windows-Smartphone mit der ultraschnellen 4G-Technik behoben. Um die Panne zu beseitigen, müssten sich die Nutzer die neueste Software-Version herunterladen, teilte das finnische Unternehmen am Samstag mit.

Die Kulturhäuser des Landes Vorarlberg - das „Vorarlberg Museum", das Vorarlberger Landestheater und das Kunsthaus Bregenz (KUB) - wollen aus Protest gegen die am 1. April in Österreich wirksam gewordene Vorratsdatenhaltung am kommenden Montag „keine wie immer gearteten elektronischen Daten empfangen bzw. bearbeiten".

Google hat sich nach einem jahrelangen Rechtsstreit die Marke und den Domainnamen „Gmail.de" für sein E-Mail-Angebot in Deutschland gesichert. Google musste kurz nach dem Start seines Mail-Dienstes in Deutschland im Jahr 2005 auf den Namen "Googlemail" ausweichen, weil der deutsche Unternehmer Daniel Giersch Markenrechte für „Gmail" geltend gemacht hatte.

First time accepted submitter jcho5 writes "China's 600-year-old Forbidden City is looking less forbidding these days. As part of a major restoration, the Chinese Palace museum will use 3D-Printers to re-manufacture and replicate many of the city's most precious and unique objects. From the article: 'PhD student Fangjin Zhang—along with her colleagues at Loughborough Design School in the East Midlands of England—had, for a number of years, been looking into the use of 3D printing as means to restore sculptures and archaeological relics. According to a Loughborough press release, Zhang developed a “formalized approach tailored specifically to the restoration of historic artifacts.” After reviewing Zhang’s techniques, the Palace Museum then invited Loughborough researchers to repair several Forbidden City artifacts, including the ceiling and enclosure of a pavilion in the Emperor Chanlong Garden.'"

bdking writes "In an effort to protect sensitive data from internal security threats, some organizations are 'using new technology to look at the language of their IT staff's emails to determine whether their behavior or mind-set has changed,' the Wall Street Journal reports. Is secretly spying on and linguistically interpreting employee emails going too far in the name of security? from the article: 'I understand the need to be aware of the attitudes of workers with high-level access to data and networks, but this strikes me as creepy. What if an IT employee suddenly has relationship problems or family issues? Will they then be flagged by HR as potentially troublesome or even a data security risk? And all without them even knowing there's a dossier being created of them and their "suspect" behavior?'"

An anonymous reader writes "Expanding on previous research providing proof-of-principle that human stem cells can be genetically engineered into HIV-fighting cells, a team of UCLA researchers have now demonstrated that these cells can actually attack HIV-infected cells in a living organism. From the article: 'This most recent study shows that scientists can manipulate stem cells -- immature cells that can develop into any type of cell - by implanting genes, turning it into killer T cells which can kill the virus in living mice. While the mouse form of HIV is not exactly the same as it is in humans, the infection and progression closely mimic the virus in humans, and eliminating it is a huge step forward, researchers said.'"

An anonymous reader writes "It's good and bad news for Google. The FCC has ruled that Google did nothing wrong when it accidentally collected WIFI data with its Street View cars: '[The FCC] concluded that there was no precedent for the commissions' enforcement of the law in connection with WiFi networks. The FCC also noted that, according to the available evidence, Google only collected data from unencrypted WiFi networks, not encrypted ones, and that it never accessed or used the data.' However, they want to fine the company $25,000 because it 'deliberately impeded and delayed the investigation.'"

bobwrit writes in with a story about Boeing's new secure government phones project. "Earlier this week, it was revealed that aerospace firm Boeing was working on a high security mobile device for the various intelligence departments. This device will most likely be released later this year, and at a lower price point than other mobile phones targeted at the same communities. Typically, phones in this range cost about 15,000-20,000 per phone, and use custom hardware and software to get the job done. This phone will most likely use Android as it's main operating system of choice, which lowers the cost per phone, since Boeing's developers don't have to write their own operating system from scratch."

mikejuk writes "You can build a computer out of all sorts of things — mechanical components, vacuum tubes, transistors, fluids and ... crabs. Researchers at Kobe University in Japan have discovered that soldier crabs have behaviors suitable for implementing simple logic and hence — with enough crabs — you can achieve a complete computer. The Soldier crab Mictyris guinotae has a swarming behavior that is just right for simple logic gates(pdf). When two crab swarms collide they fuse to make a single swarm — and this is enough to build an OR gate."

alphadogg writes "Apple Computer came under fire for back-pedaling on its support for IPv6, the next-generation Internet Protocol, at a gathering of experts held in Denver this week. Presenters at the North American IPv6 Summit expressed annoyance that the latest version of Apple's AirPort Utility, Version 6.0, is no longer compatible with IPv6. The previous Version, 5.6, offered IPv6 service by default. While home networking vendors like Cisco and D-Link are adding IPv6 across their product lines, Apple appears to be the only vendor that is removing this feature."

theodp writes "Microsoft apparently could have been a contender in the smartphone market, instead of what WP7 is today. Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold says he tried to convince Microsoft to make an iPhone-like device more than two decades ago. 'The cost will not be very high,' Myhrvold wrote in 1991. 'It is pretty easy to imagine a $400 to $1,000 retail price.' So is Myhrvold bitter that cost-conscious and risk averse Microsoft opted not to pursue his vision? Nope. 'Hey, it was better than predicting the wrong thing,' Myhrvold explains."

Zothecula writes "Crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter have proven popular for groups and individuals looking to get a consumer product, movie, music or video game project off the ground. Now a group of researchers and scientists is adopting a similar crowd-funding model to raise money for scientific research projects. The Microryza website, which launched this week, lets the public get behind research they care about and maybe help it get out of the lab."

cowtamer writes "CNN has a writeup on a method of treating depression with implanted electrodes. If this works, we may be seeing a lot more of this type of technology in the future. '[The patients] were lightly sedated when the holes were drilled and the electrodes implanted, but they were awake to describe what they experienced. Several patients reported profound changes just minutes after the stimulator was turned on. One said the room suddenly seemed brighter and colors were more intense. Another described heightened feelings of connectedness and a disappearance of the void.' While I haven't looked into any of the academic literature on this, it seems that yet another Larry Niven Prediction has come true!"

raolin writes "I have been running without television service for the last few years, relying instead on Netflix Streaming, Hulu Plus, Amazon, and my personal video library. I have the latter indexed and easily searchable, but I have not managed to find a good aggregator for the streaming services that I use, so when I have friends over and the question 'Can we see X?' is asked, I have to search three streaming sources, which is kind of a drag. I know Netflix has a search API that I could work with, and it seems at least possible that Hulu and Amazon do as well, but before I try to build something myself I thought I'd ask the community. Any thoughts?"

New submitter Sekrimo writes "This article discusses an interesting advantage to writing documentation. While the author acknowledges that developers often write documentation so that others may better understand their code, he claims documenting can also be a useful way to find bugs before they ever become an issue. Taking the time to write this documentation helps to ensure that you've thought through every aspect of your program fully, and cleared up any issues that may arise."

HairyNevus writes "An international team of scientists used satellite technology to conduct a census of emperor penguin populations from outer space. Honing in on their colonies by looking for the brown patches of penguin guano that stand out in the snowy antarctic, high resolution images were taken and used to count the total number of emperor penguin species on the continent. The result was a census of 595,000 penguins, almost double the previous estimates of 270,000-350,000 emperors. This includes seven new colonies which had not been previously identified. Although this is uplifting data, computer modeling still shows that loss of ice flows in the northern reaches could result in problems for the penguins."