News written by James Delahunty (December, 2010)

The Lord Chief Justice for England and Wales, Lord Judge (not a typo, that is his surname), has given the green light for tweeting inside a court room.

He said that using mobile devices to send tweets out for the general public's consumption during proceedings is fine if the judge believes it will not interfere with the administration of justice. The recording of sounds or images during a court hearing remains illegal.

The question around using social networking sites such as Twitter from a court room came to light as journalists used mobile handsets to tweet from the court room at a bail hearing of Julian Assange, founder of the Wikileaks website.

"The use of an unobtrusive, hand-held, virtually silent piece of modern equipment for the purposes of simultaneous reporting of proceedings to the outside world as they unfold in court is unlikely to interfere with the proper administration of justice," Lord Judge ruled.

Toshiba Corp. will show off its 3D television sets that do not require that a viewer to wear glasses to witness the 3D effect from the displays.

At CEATEC in Japan earlier this year, Toshiba's 12-inch and a 20-inch 3D glasses-free televisions drew large crowds that wanted to experience it first hand. The displays featured a thin sheet of small lenses in front of the display that split light from the television to one of nine points in front of the TV.

To witness the 3D effect, a viewer needs to view from one of these spots. Toshiba will bring the televisions to the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January. "It has been three months, I think we should show [the TVs] with better technology," said Masaaki Oosumi, president of Toshiba's digital media network unit.

Oosumi recognized that to make a splash in the United States, the televisions would have to offer a good 3D effect without glasses and be larger than the screens currently shown. While both the 12-inch and 20-inch products go on sale in Japan before the end of the month, he expects the U.S. market would require sets that are 40-inches or larger.

A British conservative MP is pushing for Internet Service Providers (ISP) to be forced to block Internet pornography by default to its subscribers.

Claire Perry, elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Devizes this year, is using children as usual as an excuse for the government-forced censorship. "We are not coming at this from an anti-porn perspective. We just want to make sure our children aren't stumbling across things we don’t want them to see." she told the Sunday Times.

The British government will meet with UK ISPs next month to discuss censoring Internet porn, including the possibility of implementing a system that would force Internet subscribers to request access to pornographic content. The Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) in the UK is (obviously) uninterested in such a system being put in place.

Putting aside the inevitable negative reaction from British Internet users who would have to inform their ISP of their intention to view pornographic material, ISPA also points out that such a system would be extremely difficult to implement and would be very expensive to maintain.

A Sony Corp. executive has revealed that the electronics giant is likely to fall short of its LCD television sales target this year.

Sony Executive Deputy President Hiroshi Yoshioka revealed to media sources that the company would struggle to make the division profitable this year, reports Reuters. He also said the company is not expecting a substantial change in the business for the next financial year either.

This year has been a good year for sales of new television sets in the Japan, driven by the digitization of terrestrial broadcasting and a government stimulus plan. However, these factors won't help Sony beyond December in the country.

Additionally, the market is under-performing in the United States where unemployment remains very high. Best Buy shocked its investors last week by announcing a drop in quarterly sales at its existing stores in the U.S, saying that sales of 3D television sets fell behind industry expectations.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Google Inc. has requested that manufacturers of televisions based on its software delay their release, citing sources close to the company.

Several major electronics companies are getting ready to bring Google TV-ready television sets to the market around the world. Google has allegedly asked them now to delay the planned introduction of the televisions to the market, saying it will give the company time to improve the software.

Televisions armed with Google TV software lets users browse the Internet and use applications without the need for an external set-top-box. Sony Corp. and Logitech already have introduced devices based on Google TV.

LG Group, which includes LG Electronics, LG Display and LG Innotek, has announced it will increase its investment in 2011 by 12 percent.

The $18.2 billion investment will focus on strengthening its position in the market for smartphone handsets, as well as give it an extra boost in its TVs and display devices segment. While two million Optimus One smartphones have been sold since its October launch, LG's handset business is making losses.

"The focus for 2011 will be bolstering our core businesses of smartphones, tablets, TVs and large-sized displays and also supporting new growth engines such as solar cell, new types of displays and small-sized display panels for smartphones and tablets," the group said in a statement.

eBay Inc., the world's online auction giant, has announced it will buy Germany's largest shopping club, Brands4Friends.

The company will acquire Brands4Friends to boost its position in the European markets in a deal worth $200 million. It will obtain Brands4Friends' equity interests in SecretSales.com, a UK shopping site and in the Japanese brands4friend.jp service.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, and eBay said it does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial results for the year.

China Mobile, which has the largest mobile telecommunications network in the world, revealed that it hit a massive 579.6 million subscribers in November.

The state-owned enterprise, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Hong Kong stock exchange, said the figure included 18.8 million users of its relatively new 3G Network. China Mobile also is said to be the most valuable mobile telecommunications company in the world.

Rapid expansion of China Mobile's 2G network across mainland China meant that by 2006, over 97 percent of China's massive population lived in an area where there was reception, giving it a much greater share of rural market than any of its competitors.

Apple's iTunes Music Store has increased its share of the digital music market to over 66 percent despite increasing competition from Amazon and others.

The NPD Group issued figures on the digital music market based on music sales this year. It puts Apple's iTunes music store clearly at the very top again. Its share of the market jumped from 63.2 percent to 66.2 percent. Rival Amazon witnessed a growth in its market share from 11 percent to 13.3 percent.

Amazon has attempted to lure customers away from iTunes by offering "daily deals" where albums are sold for as little as $3.99. In order to offer such a price cut, Amazon needs to take a loss on the sales, reportedly paying the wholesale price of the album despite the discount to customers.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has said in an interview that Nintendo could consider cutting the price of a Wii console in half to boost demand.

Riccitiello believes that a recent slump in sales of Nintendo Wii consoles could be avoided again by cutting the console's price in half to just $99. Additionally, he suggested that Nintendo should do more to promote third-party titles than focusing so much on its in-house titles.

Recent launches of PlayStation Move for the PS3 and Kinect for Xbox 360 means that the Wii can no longer cling to motion control features to differentiate it from its competitors.

Blockbuster's Express movie-rental kiosks will have to wait 28 days before offering new releases from Warner Bros. for rental, putting it in the same boat as Netflix and Redbox.

The company agreed to the 28 day window in order to maintain a close relationship with Warner. It had tested same-day launches as recently as just weeks ago, including the title Knight and Day from Fox. The rental chain also cited lower distribution costs and a healthier supply for agreeing to the 28 day window.

It already had similar agreements with Fox and Universal in place. Blockbuster recently filed for bankruptcy in part as it shed popularity in the face of cheaper and more convenient alternatives.

Reports suggest that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. may get the go ahead to acquire full control over BSkyB without the need for concessions.

News Corp. is seeking to buy a 61 percent share of BSkyB that it doesn't already own, giving it complete control over the company. The deal is estimated to be worth about £7.8 billion (over $12 billion). Next week, the European Comission will back the deal, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

The European Commission will report that the deal does not have any significant anticompetitive impact. The communication's regulator in Britain is also reviewing the deal to determine if it would give News Corp. too much control over UK media, where it already owns The Sun, News of the World, the Times and the Sunday Times newspapers.

The European Commission set a December 22 deadline for its decision in the case.

Google has informed the Connecticut attorney general that it will not comply with an information request related to the interception of wireless payload data by its Street View cars.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has issued a civil investigative demand to determine exactly what content Google's Street View cars had accidentally captures from unsecured wireless networks while photographing streets for its online services.

The privacy breach occurred in over 30 different countries. "I am disappointed by Google's failure to comply with my information demands," Blumenthal said in a statement. "We will review any information we receive and consider whether additional enforcement steps -- including possible legal action -- are warranted."

Google's popular search engine service now warns users about possibly hacked or otherwise dangerous websites that make it into its search results.

The new warning system was announced on Google's Official Blog on Friday. If Google's system detects any signs that a website has been compromised by hackers, spammed or defaced in some way that may make it a threat to the searcher, it will add a small message reading, "This site may be compromised" directly under the search result.

"We use a variety of automated tools to detect common signs of hacking as quickly as possible," wrote Google director of product management Mike Cassidy. "In addition to protecting users, these notices will also help webmasters more quickly discover when someone is abusing their sites."

An update to Kindle for Android will now allow users to either buy single issues of magazines or newspapers, or subscribe to them.

Users that opt to subscribe to a particular magazine or newspaper will have it automatically delivered to their Android device. Other news features added with the update are the ability to share reading progress through social networking sites and zoom closer to images.

"We want to give customers the freedom and flexibility to buy their newspapers and magazines once, and read them everywhere across the devices and platforms they chose—just like they do with Kindle books today," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle.

MasterCard has said it will cease processing payments to websites that offer illegal copies of movies, music and other content for download.

The credit card company supports the proposed Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, which authorizes the Department of Justice (DoJ) to shut down domain names of U.S.-based websites that are offering pirated content.

As for websites located overseas, the bill grants the DoJ the power to force ISPs, payment processors like MasterCard or online advertising networks from doing business with them.

"MasterCard in particular deserves credit for its proactive approach to addressing rogue Web sites that dupe consumers," Mitch Glazier, Recording Industry Association of America exec, told CNET. "They have reached out to us and others in the entertainment community to forge what we think will be a productive and effective partnership."

Sony's efforts to obliterate the PSJailbreak USB dongle that enables homebrew code to be launched on some PS3 consoles have been dealt a blow in Spain.

After already scoring some victories against PSJailbreak, including a notable victory in Australia, Sony's efforts have been impacted by a court in Spain.

Sony's decision to kill the OtherOS functionality in the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console may have hurt it badly in this case. The feature had originally been killed off due to concerns about the system's security, which remained strong at the time with the known information.

Trend Micro's TrendLabs blog has posted some information on a website that is redirected to from Wikileaks.org.

At present, the Wikileaks.org domain domain redirects to mirror.wikileaks.info, which is hosted on IP address 92.241.190.202. This IP address is registered to Heihachi Ltd, and this is where TrendLabs has put up a flag and felt the need to write about it.

While the site doesn't contain any malware, the TrendLabs blog regards the presence of the WikiLeaks mirror in this neighborhood as disturbing.

Despite the release of at least one fix to address reported problems, users of Call of Duty: Black Ops are still reporting serious problems with online play.

Gamers have complained about connection error messages in the middle of online gaming sessions that appear to be limited to the PC and PlayStation 3 (PS3) versions of the game. Other users report crashes, glitches and lags in the gameplay that can be very frustrating.

Treyarch says it is working hard on a fix and already released an update aimed at the reported issues two days ago. "People buy this game mainly for multiplayer features. The main feature being unplayable makes this nothing but an overpriced paperweight," said gamer "Ian" on the BBC's Newsbeat Facebook page.

Opera Software has pushed out Opera 11, touting some new features to enhance browsing experience for users, and some security enhancements to protect them.

Opera 11 has been released to the general public as a free web browsing solution. It's most touted new feature is "tab stacking", which essentially allows users to group similar tabs together to reduce clutter and better utilize on-screen workspace.

Opera has also gotten support for extensions, an area where it has lagged far behind its rivals in the area. Enhancements made to Opera's under-the-hood security features, geolocation features and its support of HTML 5 bring the browser in line with rival Desktop browsers.

It has an estimated share of the overall market of between 2 and 3 percent, but its success has come with mobile devices and games consoles, being the only available browser on Nintendo's Wii and handheld DS consoles.

Take-Two Interactive has reached one of its major goals in reporting a profit for a year that did not include the release of a new Grand Theft Auto title.

The published reported a 65 percent rise in revenue to $1.16 billion for the 12 months to October 31. It turned a profit of $49.7 million, in stark contrast to a sharp $130 million loss for the 12 months prior. "We have achieved our goal of profitability in a year without a new release of Grand Theft Auto," said outgoing CEO Ben Feder in a statement.

Two titles carried a lot of weight for Take-Two in the time frame; Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2K11. Red Dead Redemption is around the 8 million sales mark worldwide, while continuing to sell pretty strong. Helped by EA's cancellation of NBA Elite 11, the NBA 2K11 title managed to move 3 million copies.

The Nikkei business daily is reporting that Sharp Corp will make a sizable investment in production of small and medium sized LCD panels.

The report states that Sharp is planning to spend around ¥100 billion (US$1.2 billion) on production lines for the LCD panels, which Apple Inc. reportedly will purchase the bulk of for its iPhone and iPod touch line of devices.

Sharp will start installing equipment at the Mie Prefecture plant next year. Mass production then will commence in the second half of 2012. if all goes to plan.

Electronics giants are mulling further investments in LCD production as global smartphone demand continues to increase. Toshiba Corp. is planning to build an Ishikawa Prefecture factory to boost LCD supplies to Apple Inc., according to the report.

Nielsen has released the results of a study into how young teenagers use their gaming consoles as more and more features are added to them.

The survey was conducted on a general U.S. population sample of an unspecified size. It found, for example, that 13 year old PlayStation 3 (PS3) owners spend an average of 49 percent of the time using the device to play video games. It found that 27 percent of the time was spent watching DVD or Blu-ray movies and 13 percent of the time watching movies downloaded and streamed.

Users of the Xbox 360 console spent about 62 percent of the time gaming, 11 percent watching DVD movies and 16 percent watching downloaded/streaming content. Wii users spent 69 percent of the time gaming and 20 percent of the time using the Netflix feature.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is working on the assumption that all of the most sensitive computer networks under its guard have been compromised.

Speaking at a cyber security forum sponsored by the Atlantic and Government Executive media organizations, Debora Plunkett of the NSA said that they have to build computer systems based on the assumption that adversaries will be able to penetrate them. "There's no such thing as 'secure' any more," she said, reports Reuters.

She heads the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate which is tasked with protecting national security information systems and networks across the world. "We have to, again, assume that all the components of our system are not safe, and make sure we're adjusting accordingly," she said.

Her comments come as the world's governments and media watch the publishing of U.S. embassy cables and other sensitive information on Wikileaks, but she declined to comment on the website.

Google and MySpace have finally reached a new deal on search and ad services on the social entertainment website following months of negotiations.

Search-giant Google entered into an agreement to provide search and advertisement services for MySpace back in 2006. The deal was worth $900 million to News Corp.'s MySpace service, then the dominant social networking site on the Internet.

The deal gave Google the right to sell advertisements related to user searches on MySpace and some other News Corp. properties for three years from commencement. It expired in June this year, but was temporarily extended as the pair continued talks on a renewed deal. The pair announced a new deal has been reached on Thursday, but did not disclose the terms.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade group has once against highlighted the level of Internet music piracy in the UK in its annual report.

The group, which represents major and independent record companies in the UK, estimated that Internet users will illegally download 1.2 billion songs this year, and describes the estimate as "conservative." The number is compared to the 370 million tracks (including individual tracks in album downloads) that will be bought legally in the UK during the same time.

"Illegal downloading continues to rise in the UK," said Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive. "It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the fledgling digital entertainment sector."

Finnish mobile phone firm Nokia has filed patent infringement complaints against Apple Inc. in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.

"These actions add 13 further Nokia patents to the 24 already asserted against Apple in the US International Trade Commission and the Delaware and Wisconsin Federal courts," said Paul Melin, vice president, Intellectual Property at Nokia.

A complaint filed in the High Court in the UK covers four Nokia patents. They relate to the touch user interface, on-device app stores, signal noise suppression and modular structures.

In the Dusseldorf District Court in Germany, a complaint was filed by Nokia against Apple that cites several patents held by the Finnish giant. The patents relate to a touch user interface, antenna structures, messaging functionality and chipsets. Another complaint filed in Germany, in the Mannheim District Court, cites five Nokia patents related to on-device app stores, caller ID, display illumination and the integration of multiple radios.

Online auction giant eBay Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Critical Path Software for its ventures into the mobile marketplace.

eBay has bought Critical Path Software of Portland, Oregon, for an undisclosed amount. The company had already developed applications for eBay's ticket site StubHub, eBay Classified and for Shopping.com. The main work it has done for eBay however, is the development of the eBay iPhone application.

French regulators have sent a warning to Google Inc. to avoid exploiting its market position in relation to search advertising.

The French regulator said that Google's market power was not bad or illegal, but that its practices would have to be closely monitored to watch for an anti-competitive impact on the market. A 10-month investigation into Google's activities was carried out by Authorite de la Concurrence at the request of the French economy ministry.

The investigation examined Google's advertisement services that allow firms to buy targeted advertising based on search keywords, or when a user loads a webpage with Google ads that contains related content. These services generate the majority of Google's revenues.

The regulator wrote that while Google's position in the market results from a great deal of innovation supported by continuous investments, its search ads, "represent a specific market that cannot be replaced by other forms of communication, notably because it allows for very fine-tuned targeting, and because no other equivalent alternative offer exists in the eyes of advertisers."

Social networking giant Twitter has announced that it raised $200 million in new finance.

The micro-blogging outlet received the new investment funds from some of its existing investors, and from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers. The new financing is valuing the social networking firm at $3.7 billion.

Twitter boasts 175 million registered users and currently employs about 300 people. The service is based around 140-character messages, dubbed Tweets, and has caught on very well in recent years, often being used to spread information in times of crisis. One such example is the disputed Iranian presidential election in 2009, where members of the green movement used Twitter to spread information.

A man in the UK has admitted to being part of a group involved in a £500,000 fraud involving music tracks sold from Amazon and iTunes.

Nineteen year old Lamar Johnson from Wolverhampton was part of a group that stands accused of gaining royalties from music sales through the use of stolen credit card details. The group added their own songs to both services and then used the credit card details to purchase them all about 6,000 times during 2008 and 2009, the BBC reports.

Johnson admitted in the Southwark Crown Court that he was responsible for about 2,000 of the illegal purchases. The group were then paid royalties for their music sales, which they had purchased themselves using "compromised credit card details," according to the prosecution.

An update distributed by Apple Inc. for its popular iTunes software that was intended to address stability issues with the software, has had the opposite effect for some users.

iTunes 10.1.1 is the first update pushed out since iTunes 10.1 added support for iOS 4.2 and Airplay functionality with Apple TV. It was issued as a fix for problems that caused the software to terminate unexpectedly during use.

AppleInsider reported that some of its iTunes users complained that after installing the iTunes 10.1 update, the program would crash once it was run. Apple's Support forums also started to get reports of similar problems, which seem to be occuring when iTunes' built-in Software Update feature was used for the update.

The Chinese government has announced that it will inspect computers owned by central and local government authorities for any pirated software that is being used.

The inspection is part of a new push by the Chinese government to tackle rampant software piracy in the country. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) estimated in 2009 that 79 percent of all software used on computers in the country was pirated.

Microsoft also said it has filed a lawsuit against 10 companies in China for selling computers with pirated versions of its Windows operating system and other products pre-installed. "Computers pre-installed with unauthorized software have always been a core problem for the software industry that must be resolved," said Microsoft China's intellectual property general manager, Yu Weidong, in a statement.

The U.S. company has been a major victim of piracy in the country but has been having some success using the Chinese legal system to fight back.

Opera is celebrating reaching a new milestone: 150 million users are now using its Web browser (mobile and Desktop versions.

The Opera.com website was changed on Wednesday to display the "inbox" of Opera co-founder Jon S. von Tetzchner. You can browse through folders of his inbox and read the mail in it, but the most important item is the very first one which states that the entire Opera team is out celebrating a 150 million user milestone.

Opera crossed 100 million users in April 2010, a figure which includes mobile versions of its web browser.

The recent release of an Opera 11 beta brought tab stacking, a new way to manage tabs, and also provided support for HTML5 and extensions. The company is also working on an improved auto-update system.

More Info: Opera.com

The Home Office in the UK is meeting civil liberties groups as part of a consultation about UK data interception laws.

The consultation is being carried out to meet EU requirements despite the Home Office saying earlier that a meeting with civil liberties groups was unnecessary. It will now meet the Open Rights Group and other organizations this week.

A European Union investigation into how a controversial ad trackng technology, Phorm, was rolled out in the UK, prompted the consultation. The European Commission found that the UK has no legal redress for citizens who think their web browsing or other online activities have been monitored.

This puts the UK in breach of the European e-Privacy directive. Thousands of users of BT Internet services in the UK took part in Phorm trials without their consent. Phorm is one of many firms that tracks web behavior in other to better target advertisements to users.

Jim Killock, chief executive of the Open Rights Group, is not happy with how the consultation is being carried out however. "When the consultation started in November we heard about it through the grapevine rather than a public announcement. We wrote to the Home Office saying they needed to meet with representatives from civil society because the law was about individual rights," he said.

European Union regulators are to investigate practices by search giant Google after several antitrust complaints were made against the U.S. company in the region.

Earlier this year, British price comparison website Foundem and French legal search engine ejustice.fr alleged that Google unfairly demoted their sites in search result rankings because they were providing competing services.

Microsoft's Ciao also filed a complained with the European Commission relating to Google's standard terms of service. "The (European) Commission will investigate whether Google has abused a dominant market position in online search by allegedly lowering the ranking of unpaid search results of competing services," the EU executive said in a statement.

However, the EU invesigation into Google's practices does not mean there is anything wrong with how the company goes its business. "I want to be very clear that this does not mean that there is definitely a problem -- it is far too early to say that," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.

A new chip from STMicroelectronics will be make it possible to shrink the size of Blu-ray players and recorders, as well as cutting down on costs.

The new STODD01 power supply IC can generate all the voltages needed to operate the player's circuitry. Using it, designers can eliminate multiple individual power supplies from the printed-circuit board, which will reduce component costs, design complexity and assembly time.

The size of the board can also shrink down if used. The STODD01's power-supply channels benefit from highly efficient switched-mode conversion, which minimizes energy losses and heat generation. A true "shutdown mode" also works to cut down standby power consumption.

Virgin Media has announced a new deal with TiVo Inc., which the company says marks a transition from being a cable operator to an entertainment providers.

Virgin provides telephone, Internet and cable TV services in the United Kingdom to about four million customers. It has gained popularity due to its high-speed Internet offerings, including options of 100Mbit connections for some of its subscribers.

It competes with BSkyB in offering television services. BSkyB once also reached an agreement with TiVo Inc., but then decided to distribute its own boxes instead, forcing TiVo to pull out of the UK altogether. Virgin will now have thousands of TiVo boxes available for existing customers over the Christmas period.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google Inc. is in the final stages of preparing Google Editions, an e-book service that will compete with Amazon and other players in the emerging market.

While Google executives had hoped to launch Google Editions in the summer of 2010, the plans were interrupted by several technical and legal hurdles. Those distractions have now largely been dealt with, according to people close to Google.

Google's product management director, Scott Dougall, says the service will debut in the United States by the end of the year, while completing an international roll-out in the first quarter of 2011. Independent booksellers began receiving contracts from their trade groups in recent weeks.

"Because of the complexity of this project, we didn't want to come out with something that wasn't thorough," Dougall said. The service differs from its largest competitors by offering open, read anywhere e-books that are not tied to a single set of devices. Users will buy the e-books directly from Google which will be available from a book library tied to a Google account, which can be accessed from almost anywhere.

Adobe has announced a new beta of its popular Flash Player that greatly improves hardware acceleration and adds new features.

The beta provides a new method for video playback in Flash Player 10.2 that will allow developers to utilize complete hardware acceleration of the video rendering pipeline, greatly improving video playback performance. Stage Video can dramatically decrease processor usage and enables higher frame rates, reduced memory usage, and greater pixel fidelity and quality.

The player also takes advantage of hardware accelerated graphics capabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 web browser. Additionally, developers will also be able to define custom native mouse cursors to enhance user experience.

One other note-worthy change is improved support for Full Screen playback. Full screen content will remain in full-screen on secondary monitors, allowing users to watch full-screen content while working on another display.