Die Buchhandelskette Barnes & Noble hat die neueste Generation seiner Tablets, das Sieben-Zoll-Modell Nook HD und den Nook HD+ im Neun-Zoll-Format, vorgestellt. Die leichtgewichtigen Android-Geräte konnten US-Medienvertreter bei der Präsentation beeindrucken.

Die Europäische Kommission hat die geplante Übernahme des deutschen Unternehmens Magirus durch die US-amerikanische Distributorin Avnet abgesegnet. Die Akquisition gebe keinen Anlass zu Wettbewerbsdenken, weil alternative Vertriebsgesellschaften und IT-Hersteller einen ausreichenden Wettbewerbsdruck ausübten, glaubt die Kommission.

Die Analysten des Bankhauses Lampe stufen die Aktien von Kabel Deutschland weiterhin mit "Halten" ein. Das Kursziel wurde von 52,00 Euro auf 56,00 Euro angehoben. Nach Einschätzung der Experten setzt sich das Wachstum bei Kabel Deutschland unverändert fort.

Die Telekom-Anbieterin Sunrise übergibt die Führung ihrer Geschäftskundensparte "Business Sunrise" per 1. Oktober an Hans Jörg Denzler. Damit wird Denzler, der in der Schweiz den Ruf eines erfahrenen Telekommanagers geniesst, die Verantwortung für den gesamten Bereich der Geschäftskunden von Sunrise.

Wenn SchweizerInnen im Web surfen, benutzen sie immer öfter Smartphones. Nun haben die multifunktionellen Telefone sogar Laptops als das am häufigsten benutzte mobile Gerät für den Internetzugang verdrängt.

Die auf Automatisierungslösungen ausgerichtete Komax Gruppe mit Hauptsitz in Dierikon erneuert ihre Kommeunikationsinfrastruktur und setzt dabei mit dem Einsatz von "Managed Communications & Collaboration" (MCC) von Swisscom ganz auf einen umfassenden Managed Service aus der Cloud.

Für das vierte Quartal 2012 erreicht der "Swico ICT Index" einen Wert von 105.4, was gegenüber dem Vorquartal einer deutlichen Reduktion um fünf Punkte entspricht. Der Stimmungsbarometer bewege sich immer noch im positiven Bereich, nähere sich jedoch spürbar der neutralen Zone an, so der Branchenverband in seiner Studie.

Die Schweizer Handysoftware-Firma Myriad ist im ersten Halbjahr 2012 noch tiefer in die roten Zahlen gerutscht und hat weniger Umsatz erwirtschaftet. Zudem kommt es zum Chefwechsel, wie Myriad, die aus dem Zusammenschluss von Esmertec und Purple Labs entstanden ist, am Mittwoch mitteilte.

Die deutsche Bundesregierung prescht in der EU mit einem neuen Gesetz zur Regulierung des umstrittenen superschnellen Computer-Börsenhandels voran. Das Bundeskabinett verabschiedete nach Angaben aus Regierungskreisen einen Gesetzentwurf, mit dem der Hochfrequenzhandel erstmals einer besonderen Kontrolle der Börsenaufsicht unterworfen wird.

Wenig Hoffnung hatte gestern die Aussage von Google-Manager Eric Schmidt gemacht, wonach der Konzern aktuell keine Anstrengungen unternehmen würde, um seinen Kartendienst als iOS-App zu veröffentlichen. Nun gibt es doch Licht am Horizont für geplagte User von Apple Maps.

DeviceGuru writes "Suitable Technologies today unveiled a telepresence robot based on technology from Willow Garage, a robotics research lab. Beam (as in 'Beam me up, Scotty' — no, really!) implements a video chat function on a computer you can remotely drive around via Internet-based control. Beam, which stands 62 inches tall and weighs 95 pounds, adheres to four operational imperatives, which are intended to mimic human interaction and behavior: reciprocity of vision (if I see you, you must see me); ensuring private communication (no recordings of what goes on); transparency of technology (keeping the interaction natural); and respect social norms (don't push or shove Beam!). But the big question is: Does Beam also adhere to Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics? Let's hope so!"

Third Position writes "The most unambiguous data to date on the elusive 113th atomic element has been obtained by researchers at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-based Science (RNC). A chain of six consecutive alpha decays, produced in experiments at the RIKEN Radioisotope Beam Factory (RIBF), conclusively identifies the element through connections to well-known daughter nuclides. The search for superheavy elements is a difficult and painstaking process. Such elements do not occur in nature and must be produced through experiments involving nuclear reactors or particle accelerators, via processes of nuclear fusion or neutron absorption. Since the first such element was discovered in 1940, the United States, Russia and Germany have competed to synthesize more of them. Elements 93 to 103 were discovered by the Americans, elements 104 to 106 by the Russians and the Americans, elements 107 to 112 by the Germans, and the two most recently named elements, 114 and 116, by cooperative work of the Russians and Americans. With their latest findings, associate chief scientist Kosuke Morita and his team at the RNC are set follow in these footsteps and make Japan the first country in Asia to name an atomic element."

An anonymous reader writes "Google today announced a huge change for Google Apps, including its Business, Education, and Government editions. As of October 1, users will no longer have the ability to download documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in old Microsoft Office formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt)." The perils of cloud computing; LibreOffice will probably be the best conversion utility at that point. Apropos: Reader akumpf writes with an essay about the dangers of letting our data and our tools be hosted by the same provider.

First time accepted submitter jansaell writes "When Sean 'Vile Rat' Smith was killed in the attack on U.S. Consulate in Libya, the EVE Online MMO and Something Awful communities banded together to help the family of a fellow gamer. A fundraiser for Sean Smith's family has now passed $100,000."

An anonymous reader writes "In an apparent reaction to the security vulnerabilities demonstrated by The H's associates at heise Security, the company behind WhatsApp Messenger is taking action against the developers of a library of functions for using the WhatsApp service via a PC. The developers have responded by removing the source code from the web. However, the popular texting alternative WhatsApp still has a major security problem. Attackers can compromise other users' accounts with relative ease, and send and receive messages from another user's account. Forked versions of the code are still available on Github."

colinneagle writes "Linux dude Bryan Lunduke blogged here about the top three approaches he thinks are the easiest for new users to pick up Linux. Lunduke's, for example, went Ubuntu -> Arch -> openSUSE. It raises a question that Slashdot could answer well in the comments: what's your distro use order from beginning to now? Maybe we could spot some trends."

crookedvulture writes "High-PPI displays are becoming increasingly popular on tablets and notebooks, but Windows 8 may not be ready for them. On a 13" notebook display with a 1080p resolution, the RTM version of Win8 scales up some desktop UI elements nicely. However, there are serious issues with Metro, which produces tiles and text that are either too small or too large depending on the PPI setting used. That setting, by the way, is a simple on/off switch that tells the OS to 'make everything bigger.' Web browsing is particularly problematic, with Internet Explorer 10 introducing ugly rendering artifacts when scaling pages in both Metro and desktop modes. Clearly, there's work to be done on the OS side to properly support higher pixel densities."

OverTheGeicoE writes "The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) recently filed a petition to force the Department of Homeland Security to start its public comment period on body scanners within 60 days or stop using them entirely. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has issued its ruling (PDF), and has refused EPIC's petition. DHS told the court earlier that it expected to have a formal rule proposal on body scanners by the end of February, so the court denied EPIC's motion on the expectation that public comment period would start by late March. TFA and this submission have a pessimistic headline on this ruling, but other sources seem to think the glass is half-full, and that EPIC in effect got what it wanted. Is this a victory or a defeat? Will the rulemaking process start on time, or will a TSA dog eat the proposed rule in late March and force further delay?"

Hugh Pickens writes writes "The Seattle PI reports that California has become the third state to explicitly legalize driverless vehicles, setting the stage for computers to take the wheel along the state's highways and roads ... 'Today we're looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow's reality,' said Gov. Brown. 'This self-driving car is another step forward in this long, march of California pioneering the future and leading not just the country, but the whole world.' The law immediately allows for testing of the vehicles on public roadways, so long as properly licensed drivers are seated at the wheel and able to take over. It also lays out a roadmap for manufacturers to seek permits from the DMV to build and sell driverless cars to consumers. Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at Stanford's Center for Automotive Research points to a statistical basis for safety that the DMV might consider as it begins to develop standards: 'Google's cars would need to drive themselves (by themselves) more than 725,000 representative miles without incident for us to say with 99 percent confidence that they crash less frequently than conventional cars. If we look only at fatal crashes, this minimum skyrockets to 300 million miles. To my knowledge, Google has yet to reach these milestones.'"

At MozCamp Warsaw, a presentation was given on the design principles behind the core Firefox OS experience. Layering of applications (if you're wondering why the Firefox mobile interface has that weird curve by the tab control, you'll find answers here), an emphasis on content over visual frills for their own sake, consistent iconography, and clean typography dominate.

nonprofiteer writes with news on what SceneTap has been up to for the last few months since. From the article: "SceneTap uses facial recognition technology to help bar-hoppers decide which night spot to go to based on how crowded a bar is and what the age and gender ratio is. ... Despite the fact that what the app does now is fairly innocuous. But what the app could do in the future, as described in a patent application filed in June, is pretty creepy. The patent application describes much more detailed data collection, including bar goers' race, height, weight, attractiveness, hair color, clothing type, and the presence of facial hair or glasses, and includes other possibilities usually left to the realm of dystopic fiction, including putting microphones in the cameras that could detect what customers are saying, and using facial recognition technology to identify customers and then get information about them from social networking websites and databases to determine 'relationship status, intelligence, education and income for the entire venue.'"