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Recent Headlines
Microsoft Says Tablets Top of Mind Amid Apple Suc... Google Science & Tech News

TrustedReviews

Microsoft Says Tablets Top of Mind Amid Apple Success
BusinessWeek
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said tablet computers are high on his priority list as Apple Inc. takes the lead in a market his company has tried to foster for more than a decade. ...
Ballmer: Microsoft Working on Better TabletsWall Street Journal
Ballmer talks up Microsoft's consumer businessCNET
Microsoft Plans Intel 'Oak Trail'-Based TabletsInformationWeek
Reuters UK -ZDNet (blog) -CNNMoney
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The Cloud's Possible Impact on Hosting Firms Linux.com
<p>
The rush to the clouds will result in an industry shakeout for all of today&#39;s hosting companies.</p>
'Boris Bikes' Launch Despite 'Many Concerns' - Sk... Google Science & Tech News

Sky News

'Boris Bikes' Launch Despite 'Many Concerns'
Sky News
Boris Johnson's flagship cycle hire scheme for London will officially be launched in the morning by the Mayor with more than 11000 people already signed up. The Barclays Cycle Hire project will allow people in the capital to use bicycles stored at ...
9000 sign up for London bike hireMetro
Hire scheme aims to get Londoners on bikesReuters
On your bikeBBC News
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Heard on the Street: The High Cost of Amazon's Ch... Google Science & Tech News

Globe and Mail

Heard on the Street: The High Cost of Amazon's Cheap Kindle
Wall Street Journal
There must be something in the water at Amazon.com, given its commitment to price-cutting whatever the short-term pain. The retailer's decision to introduce a new, cheaper Kindle, just weeks after slashing the price of the existing ...
Kindle First Impressions: It's All GoodPC World
Will Amazon Start Kindle Subscriptions?ITProPortal
Amazon unveils two ebook readers for the UKWhich?
TechRadar UK -Bloomberg -InformationWeek
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Sky 3D television channel gets October UK launch ... Google Science & Tech News

Daily Mail

Sky 3D television channel gets October UK launch date
Metro
There seems to be no stopping the 3D revolution – and now it's going to be beamed directly into your home, as Sky announce they will launch Europe's first 3D TV channel in millions of British homes on October 1. To immerse yourself in the full 3D ...
Sky set for 3D television launchBBC News
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Sky will launch 3D serviceInquirer
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Searchable Facebook user data posted to Pirate Ba... Google Science & Tech News

Telegraph.co.uk

Searchable Facebook user data posted to Pirate Bay
CNET
LAS VEGAS--A researcher has compiled a list of more than 170 million Facebook users and the Web address of their profile page on the site and released it on a file-sharing site, meaning it is making the rounds of thousands of computers ...
Facebook data hoarder speaks outBBC News
The Facebook Data Torrent Debacle: Q&APC World
Man who published details of 100m Facebook users 'learning how to break passwords'Telegraph.co.uk
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Mundie: Microsoft's Research Depth Enabled Kinect... Google Science & Tech News

The Age (blog)

Mundie: Microsoft's Research Depth Enabled Kinect
PC World
Few companies have the research depth to build something like Kinect, Microsoft's forthcoming Xbox add-on that allows a user to control a game through body movements -- in fact, Microsoft itself initially thought it would be ...
Microsoft defends the cost of KinectTechwatch
Microsoft's 'Avatar' Project Builds on 'Kinect'PC Magazine
Microsoft Defends Kinect PricingITProPortal
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E.ON backs Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Acceler... Vnunet.com

Andrew Charlesworth, BusinessGreen, Thursday 29 July 2010 at 18:31:00

Now there are eight investors

E.ON is the latest investor to join the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA).

The five founding members of the OWA - DONG Energy; RWE Innogy; ScottishPower Renewables; SSE Renewables and Statoil – were recently joined by Mainstream Renewable Power and Statkraft. E.ON joining the party brings the total investment into the project to £9.2m so far.

The OWA is an R&D initiative designed to reduce the total cost of offshore wind energy. Giant offshore wind structures need to be installed at a rate of around two per day for the next decade if the UK is to meet its target of deriving 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Currently less than one turbine a week is installed, but the OWA aims to reduce costs by 10 per cent over the next decade which would enable deployment to happen faster.

Collectively the OWA partners represent 61 per cent of the offshore wind capacity licensed in UK waters (30GW).

“E.ON has installed 64 per cent of all offshore capacity in Europe so far this year, and we have another 4000MW of offshore wind in our project pipeline, so reducing the cost is of vital importance to us,” said Michael Lewis, European managing director of E.ON’s Renewable business. “The OWA will help focus the industry’s efforts to tackle the big issues in a coordinated way and the results will benefit us all.”

A report to be published soon by consultancy Arthur D Little criticises the government’s fixation with wind energy.

“Given that offshore installation is dependent on favourable weather conditions, [two turbines a day] seems like a physically impossible schedule, even if all the supply ships and engineering equipment were available on the scale required for such an undertaking, which they are not yet,” Nick White co-author of the report and energy practice leader at the consultancy. “Policy makers seem to gloss over these real-world engineering constraints.”

Council takes specialist skills back in-house Vnunet.com

Miya Knights, Computing, Thursday 29 July 2010 at 17:56:00

Middlesbrough extends outsourcing deal, but limits scope to non-specialist and IT services

Middlesbrough Council has extended an existing business process outsourcing contract, but has chosen to leave some specialist services out of its scope.

The North England local authority said its partnership with business services group Mouchel has delivered in excess of £38m in savings over the past 10 years.

It signed a five-year contract extension last week, which it said is expected to deliver a further £12m in savings. But the deal will see a number of services returned to council control in June 2011.

The partners told Computing today that the new deal still included most of the technology originally outsourced to Hyder Business Services (which was acquired by Mouchel in 2007), in a deal involving the transfer of nearly 900 personnel in 2001.

But while Mouchel will continue to provide all the council’s IT development, support and maintenance, the people who provide the direct service for the council will move back in-house.

The functional business areas affected include accountancy, enterprise centres, environment quality management, facilities management, leisure business development, the press office, procurement, non-contact centre reception services and valuation and estates.

In the case of its accountancy processes, for example, Mouchel confirmed its team will continue to manage the council’s SAP system and all the related infrastructure, networks, PCs, laptops and servers.

A Mouchel spokesperson added that this would allow the council to continue its transformation programme around a series of jointly owned objectives, which are underpinned by IT.

“We are working on such projects as voice over IP technology, complex desktop management strategy including thin clients, mobile working technology and web site development and strategy, as well as electronic document and records management."

Mouchel will continue to provide frontline customer services and administration services, council tax and housing benefits administration, finance services including accounts payable and receivable, payroll and pensions administration, as well as human resources and IT services.

A Middlesbrough Council spokesperson confirmed the deal, but said they had nothing to add to comments already made by the council chief executive.

Ian Parker, chief executive of Middlesbrough Council, stated: “We will continue to work together with Mouchel to improve working practices and value for money for the people of Middlesbrough.”

Rachael Stormonth, senior vice president at market intelligence firm NelsonHall, told Computing that, where the original contract was fixed-price, this extension has more flexible arrangements for the council, being based on a maximum price and with the capacity to reduce it.

“This demonstrates the fact that councils will be needing the IT expertise of service providers, having made as many efficiencies as possible,” she added. “They will be looking to the providers to make service delivery even cheaper and move beyond just efficiencies to additional savings.”

Microsoft bangs the Office for Mac 2011 drum Vnunet.com

Lawrence Latif, V3.co.uk, Thursday 29 July 2010 at 17:33:00

Entourage personal information manager finally being replaced with Outlook

Microsoft is trying to generate interest in its upcoming Office for Mac 2011 productivity suite by drip-feeding information about new features.

The company has released the first in a series of videos showing that it will finally replace the cumbersome Entourage personal information manager with Outlook. Other additions include the debut of the ribbon interface on the Mac, and a template gallery.

For years Microsoft decided not to port Outlook to its Mac suite, instead sticking with Entourage. While the application had many functional similarities with its Windows cousin, poor integration with Mac OS resulted in a program which was difficult to use over prolonged periods.

Users will be delighted to hear that Outlook for Mac will properly integrate with Sherlock, the built in search for Mac OS. At this point it is unclear whether Outlook will be able to handle large mailboxes more efficiently, avoiding the common database corruption suffered by users.

The demonstration sees the appearance of the much maligned 'conversation view' from Outlook 2010 on Windows. Whether it will work more reliably remains to be seen, but it is nice to see Mac users having some sort of feature parity on Microsoft products after all this time.

Microsoft has also updated PowerPoint's template gallery, which now allows for easier browsing. The firm also mentions that it will integrate with third-party template web sites, allowing users to easily manage their library.

Again, there was no mention of increased compatibility between versions, vital for those times when presentations have to be loaded onto another machine.

In this preview Microsoft made no references to increased stability or inter operability among Windows and Mac versions. Those who use Word and Excel will have experienced first hand how poor the applications work in an enterprise environment, where documents are shuttled among users with different versions and operating systems thrown in.

Instead, the firm mentions that it combines the best of Apple design with its software development expertise. The problem for heavy users of Office on Mac is not design flourishes, but the ability to rely on a piece of software which, rather than helping to reduce their workload, adds to it.

So far, little of what Microsoft has announced in Office for Mac 2011 points to an easier life for Mac users. Its decision to ditch Entourage is a positive one, but major improvements to Word, and especially Excel, will be needed if Microsoft's claim of Office 2011 being the "definitive version of Office" holds true.

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IBM buys file compressor The Register - Storage
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Quantum quivers again The Register - Storage
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