Mars rover technology could improve solar power efficiency on Earth

Technology designed to help NASA scientists explore Mars could hold the secret to solving the world’s energy problems by improving solar power efficiency, experts claim. The devices scouring the red planet have sensors which detect dust build-ups and zap the surface of their solar panels with an electrical charge to keep them shiny

Solar panels could be kept free from dust and grime which hampers energy output using a self-cleaning system developed for NASA’s Mars rover robots.

The devices scouring the red planet have sensors which detect dust build-ups and zap the surface of their solar panels with an electrical charge to keep them shiny.

Dr Malay Mazumder, who helped create the technology for NASA, said it could help boost efficiency of large solar power plants, many of which are situated in arid and dusty desert locations.

"A dust layer of 4g per square metre decreases solar power conversion by 40 per cent," said Dr Mazumder, from Boston University.

"In Arizona, dust is deposited each month at over four times that amount. Deposition rates are even higher in Australia, the Middle East, and India."

The technology, used on the Mars rovers since they landed on the planet in 2004, involves coating the solar panel surface with electrodes of Indium tin oxide, a transparent, electrically-sensitive material.

Sensors monitor dust levels on the surface of the panel and energise the material when dust concentration reaches a critical level.

Electrodes on the panels then produce a cascading wave of electrostatic pulses, which shake off the dust leaving them clean and more energy efficient.

Dr Mazumder said the process removes about 90 per cent of dust in two minutes and uses only a small amount of the electricity generated by the panel for cleaning operations.

The research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Scientists have weight of the worlds on their shoulders

Scientists will now be able to accurately measure planets such as Jupiter thanks to a new breakthrough

AS scientific problems go, it has been one of the weightiest in the solar system: how do you accurately measure a planet, its moons and any rings it may have to see how heavy they are?
Now, an Australian-led international team of scientists has found a new method of weighing planetary systems that promises to fine-tune models of the solar system and improve spacecraft flight plans.

The breakthrough will also speed up the quest for gravity waves, the ripples in space and time that Albert Einstein predicted in his 1915 general theory of relativity.

The new planetary scale uses radio signals regularly emitted by small rapidly spinning stars called pulsars to measure the weight of planetary systems.

"This is the first time anyone has weighed planetary systems: planets with their moons and rings," said team leader David Champion.

"And, we've provided an independent check on previous results, which is great for planetary science."


The new technique is to be published in an upcoming edition of the Astronomical Journal.

Until now, scientists weighed planets by measuring the orbits of their moons or of spacecraft as they flew past them and calculating the planet's gravitational pull.

According to team member and CSIRO astrophysicist George Hobbs, the new approach is more versatile than existing methods.

"It can be widely used to detect a range of objects, from planets to asteroids," he said.

One in 20 people reprimanded for inappropriate emails

One in 20 people have been reprimanded at work for sending an ill-advised email, according to a survey.

Inappropriate jokes, angry messages sent in the heat of the moment, and scathing email replies forwarded to the wrong people are among some of the email gaffes that have landed office workers in hot water with their employers or clients.

One in five of those questioned said they had sent an inappropriate email in the heat of the moment, while almost a third said they had accidentally hit “reply all” instead of “reply”.

More than one in 10 of the 2,000 people surveyed admitted they had mistakenly sent an email criticising a colleague to the person they were insulting.

According to the research, carried out to mark the DVD release of Going Postal, the television adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s novel, men were more likely to make an email gaffe than women, with 28 per cent admitting to sending an ill-judged message, compared to 17 per cent of women.

There have been a number of well-documented email gaffes. Last year, a worker at Deloitte had to resign after emailing colleagues asking them to name the best-looking man in the office, while in 2000, nine members of the Financial Services Authority were suspended after forwarding copies of explicit emails allegedly sent by Claire Swire to her then-boyfriend, Bradley Chait, who worked for law firm Norton Rose.

Google: Hey, We've Got Places Too

Don't forget, prospective Facebook Places users, Google offers similar features to the Facebook's new location-sharing service with Google Maps for Mobile. Just one day after Facebook announced Places, Google announced in a blog post that more than 100 million people a month are now using Google Maps on their mobile phones.

Although the search giant never mentions Facebook by name, it's awfully strange timing to send out a reminder about Google Maps for Mobile right after Facebook launched Places.


What to Do With Google Maps for Mobile

Regardless of the timing, there's no doubt you can use Google Maps for Mobile to do a lot more than you can with Facebook Places. You can use My Location to get your bearings when visiting a new city or neighborhood. Google Latitude lets you broadcast your location to your friends, and Place Pages can help you find hours of operation, reviews and other information about nearby restaurants, shops and landmarks. You can also use Google Maps on your mobile device to get voice-guided directions.


Google Feeling the Pressure?

There's no doubt Google Maps is a useful service, and with more than 100 million users every month it's clearly popular. But now Facebook is attempting to popularize location-sharing among its 500 million users in a way that services like Google Latitude, Foursquare, or Gowalla could never do. So perhaps it's wise to remind users of all the great things you can do with Google Maps for Mobile just in case Facebook Places (powered by Microsoft's Bing Maps) starts to include other features that could compete with Google Maps.

Then again, maybe it's complete chance that Google Maps for Mobile just happened to reach 100 million users per month at the same time Facebook got into the location game. Just like the time Google and Bing just happened to strike real-time search deals in the

Mastering Places Privacy Can Be Tricky, Facebook Critics Charge

Facebook Places, a new 'location tool' which has been accused of copying rival Foursquare, has launched with a new logo depicting the number '4' in a square.

Facebook rolled out its Places feature this week to much fanfare -- so much, in fact, that the official Facebook Blog has an update note posted that users who are unable to access the service should try back soon to see if they can check in. The app, available on the iPhone as part of Facebook for iPhone and available to all other mobile users through the touch.facebook.com website, allows people to indicate their location in the physical world to all their Facebook friends in the virtual world.

For its part, Facebook has been quick to point out that Places is an opt-in application. One must specifically enable the geolocation tool and then choose to use it. However, privacy experts continue to worry that the privacy controls on Facebook's many tools are difficult to navigate. For example, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has posted specific recommendations about four different settings that users should adjust when choosing to use Places.

Tunneling Through Menus
Places allows users to "check in" to a specific location, via Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Maps, when they arrive. Examples given by the service include a live show or a meeting place for an event. However, one can also check other people in -- a mark similar to tagging a friend in a photograph or status update. Thus, people who are Facebook friends can indicate their physical location with or without their knowledge. One can imagine a host of scenarios in which this might not be optimal under even the best of circumstances. Under the worst of circumstances, such as situations of stalking and domestic violence, the potential problems could become dangerous.

If a user chooses to use the Places app, EPIC recommends customizing its settings:

"(1) disable "Friends can check me in to Places," (2) customize "Places I Check In," (3) disable "People Here Now," and (4) uncheck "Places I've Visited." The organization is pointing out that, once again, users must make their way through a range of settings before accomplishing the goal of protecting their information in the ways they wish.

Where's the Scare?
Despite the worries, Places seems to have rolled out without a great deal of privacy concern among users. This may be due in part to how the service has positioned the opt-in nature of the service. In his blog post on the subject, Places product manager Michael Sharon was quick to point out that, "with Places, you are in control of what you share and the people you share with. You choose whether or not to share your location when you check in at a place. When you check in, you can tag friends who are with you but only if their settings allow it. When you are tagged, you are always notified."

However, he also notes that users who have their master privacy controls set to "Everyone," are, in essence, allowing anyone who visits that user's Profile page exactly where they are. What many users may not understand about this is that even non-Facebook Web surfers have access to that profile. That is, those who, on purpose or inadvertently, have their Facebook settings on "Everyone" are publishing their information for public access on the Web.

No One's Going Anywhere Over Places
Will any of this diminish the use of Facebook? Probably not, according to Jennifer Golbeck, assistant professor of information studies at the University of Maryland. While individual users may be angered by changes in particular privacy settings, or, in this case, by the need for them to change their own settings to prevent others from publishing their whereabouts, they are unlikely to leave the service. Facebook has become a crucial part of most people's communications structure, Golbeck told TechNewsworld. Thus, leaving the service would mean leaving behind the information shared only there by hundreds of friends and colleagues.

It's an issue about which people need to become educated and aware, Claire Simmers, chair of international business at St. Joseph's University, told TechNewsWorld. While privacy experts debate the legalities and regulation concerns over Facebook's constantly changing settings, the rest of us must still do what we can to protect our information and those of people like our children who perhaps don't understand the import of the choices they may make.

Motorola's Droid 2 is a refresh, not a revelation

As the Smartphone Summer of 2010 lurches to a close, Verizon Wireless and Motorola have refreshed their product lines with the Droid 2 ($200 with a two-year contract), an update to the 10-month-old popular Droid slider phone.

It's a nice update -- the first phone to ship with Android 2.2 (a.k.a. Froyo) -- with some good tweaks. However, after spending a few days with one, I've concluded that it's unlikely to make your heart go pit-a-pat.

Motorola Droid 2Physically, the phone is nearly indistinguishable from its predecessor. At 2.4 x 4.6 x 0.5 in., it's nearly the same size as an iPhone 4 -- just 0.1 in. thicker, thanks to the slide-out keyboard. Although, at 6 oz., it's slightly heavier than a Droid X (again, keyboard), it's a half-inch shorter and about a quarter-inch narrower, with a 3.7-in. screen instead of the X's 4.3-in. display. It's a good size for one-handed operation.

The four function keys along the bottom are fixed-function targets rather than actual buttons that move when you press them, as they are on the Droid X; they're in slightly different order on the Droid 2 than on the original Droid.

Where pressing a physical button on the Droid X will wake that phone, one consequence of the Droid 2's buttonless buttons is that you'll need to find the hard on-off switch along the phone's top edge to wake it from sleep. And because the phone is so very rectangular, that key can be a little hard to find.

The physical keyboard, a landscape-oriented affair which slides leftward from behind the display, is a marked improvement over the original Droid's. The keys are more domed, there are now inverted-T cursor keys instead of the previous square pad, and other keys now have more room. Opening the keyboard automatically causes the display to orient toward it. The keyboard feels more substantial than, say, a Palm Pre's, but it's not nearly as refined as a BlackBerry's. Also, it's meant for two-handed (or two-thumbed) operation.

If you're devoted to single-handedness, the Droid 2 also has an excellent soft keyboard that can use the excellent Swype entry system. But the smaller size of the Droid 2 compared to the X makes the soft keyboard feel a little cramped. For this function, slightly bigger would have been slightly better.

Despite its 1-GHz processor, a significant upgrade over its 550-MHz predecessor, during testing the Droid 2 frequently felt slow and underpowered. Contact details were sometimes agonizingly slow to come up -- a particular disappointment because the software brilliantly pulls together contact information and recent activity.

Similarly, the powerful K-9 e-mail app, available for free through the Android Market, was sometimes sluggish to the point of apparently hanging. When you're standing on a street corner waiting for a taxi, you don't want to your phone software to be lagging.

Bottom line
In the end, the Droid 2 might be more important to Verizon Wireless and Motorola than to their customers. The smartphone business moves pretty fast, and after just 10 months, the original Droid is getting a little old. The Droid 2 fills a gap in their product line: the hard-keyboard Android phone.

If you like Verizon's network and you want an Android phone with a hard keyboard, the Droid 2's your baby. But if the keyboard is negotiable and you don't mind a slightly bigger phone, you may want to step up to the Droid X.

Dan Rosenbaum, by day a search strategist and content maven, has been reviewing mobile technology since the 1990s. His MicroTAC and StarTAC phones are still in a box somewhere.

Easy Agenda for iPad

Simplicity is often a desirable attribute for iPhone and iPad apps. The entire App Store and app experience seems to lend itself to allowing users to find good apps and get things done with them with a minimum of muss and fuss. The release of the iPad, with its relatively vast screen real estate, was accompanied by some apps that were more sophisticated than ones designed to accomplish similar tasks on the iPhone. But for the most part, users can get up and running and doing things with apps within a few minutes.

Sometimes, however, ease-of-use and simplicity can be taken too far, and this is the case with Easy Agenda, a personal scheduling app from Diego Chiodini. Easy Agenda's main screen consists of a page that contains the day and date in the upper-right-hand corner and a line for each hour from 6 a.m. to midnight. For each hour, you can type one line (which can go on well past the edge of the screen) of information. But still, you are restricted to one line only. Hours cannot be divided into segments. Agenda items cannot be created as repeating appointments.

Easy Agenda also enables you to draw (with one line thickness in one color) on a separate page, and you can combine material you type into a free-form text box with your drawing. As with the calendar page, text can be entered only in a single font in a single size and style. You can e-mail both drawing pages and daily agenda pages from within the app.

The developer has also included a six-month calendar, which allows you to easily tap on a date and enter an appointment or task or note. However, the app does not include "reminder" capabilities; when you get to that day, you'll see what you have to do. The calendar, unfortunately, provides only a six-month view, divided into the year's first six months and its last six months. If it is June, the last six months of the year cannot be accessed in the calendar view; you can only enter an item for a date past July 1 by flipping through daily pages one at a time until you arrive at the correct date.

Easy Agenda is clearly designed for those that have, well, a very easy agenda. Many simple "sticky note" apps would serve such users just as well.

Is the web dying? It doesn't look that way

Chris Anderson, Wired magazine's editor in chief, says the Web is being crippled by a world of apps and screens in a cover story titled "The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet."

Mr. Anderson argues that a world of downloadable apps, which work through the Internet and arrive through gadgets like the iPhone or Xbox, are quickly cannibalizing the World Wide Web as consumers prefer buttoned-up, dedicated platforms, designed specifically for mobile screens.

Is he right? Should we plaster R.I.P. signs all over the Web? Not exactly.

A chart Wired used for its story shows that since 2000, Web traffic has decreased as a percentage of overall Internet traffic in the United States. The graphic's data comes from a Cisco report that uses data from the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, a collaborative group that monitors Internet infrastructure.

The Web site Boing Boing notes that if you change the graph to show actual traffic growth online, you can see hockey-stick-like growth over every aspect of the Internet through the past two decades, including the Web.

Although Wired might be right in its assessment that apps are on the rise, with billions downloaded from Apple alone, many areas of the Web continue to grow dramatically too.

Take Facebook for example. Not only has the company grown to over half a billion users, but it has also seen major growth in its mobile applications, all while its Web site has grown with rapid speed too. In other words, the entire platform has grown dramatically.

There's another piece of the puzzle too. Most of these apps and Web sites are so intertwined that it's difficult to know the difference. With the exception of downloadable games, most Web apps for news and services require pieces of the Web and Internet to function properly.

So as more devices become connected to the Internet, whether they're built to access beautiful walled gardens, like mobile apps or TV-specific interfaces, they will continue to access the Web too, enabling each platform to grow concurrently.

Sony announces new 320GB and 160GB PS3s and confirms Move launch date

320GB PS3? Move confirmed for Sept 15th? A new Ratchet & Clank game? Yes, Sony have just finished their Gamescom press conference. Read on for full details.

12 months ago Sony used Gamescom to unveil PS3 Slim. SCEE CEO Andrew House said global PS3 sales are up by 57% year on year since Slim launched. This year though the hardware announcements were less exciting. Two new PS3 models - a 320GB and a 160GB - were unveiled and will take over from the current models in the marketplace. Launching in September the 320GB model (which will replace the existing 250GB model) will come bundled with Move and cost around 299UKP. A 160GB model PS3 will phase out the current 120GB model at the same price of £249.99.

Talking of Move, Sony confirmed that the motion control system will launch on Sept 15th. The cost?

The PlayStation Move motion controller is RRP £34.99, whilst the PlayStation Move navigation controller is priced at RRP £24.99. The starter pack that comprises a PlayStation Move motion controller, PlayStation Eye and a Starter disc is priced at RRP £49.99.

The big software announcements were Resistance 3 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. The latter will - as you'd expect given the title - offer four player multiplayer and will hopefully see the franchise return to the form it showed in the first couple of games. The newly 3D and Move-enabled Virtua Tennis 4 was also shown.

Elsewhere there was a "chat" update announced for PlayTV. This will allow users to mail each other while watching TV - think sports - and could help bring more interest in what is a rather nifty piece of hardware for the PS3. Xbox owners can do this on Sky Player of course, but they need to stump up 35 quid a month to do so. PlayTV - once bought - uses freeview and so is, er, free.

The PSP may be out of fashion now but Sony seems to be pitching the handheld console towards the "youth" market. Digital comics and more cheap "mini" games are Sony's plan for the PSP.

So that's basically it. More will come out of Gamescom when it opens tomorrow but for now what do you think about the Sony announcements?

Facebook users warned over rogue 'dislike' scam which gives away personal information

Facebook members have been warned of a rogue 'dislike' feature luring users into giving away personal information to scammers.

The social networking website said it was investigating examples of the scam which tricks members into giving away permission to access their profile pages.
The scam was launched amid calls for the introduction of an official dislike feature to accompany the 'like' button already in place, according to IT security firm Sophos.

Spokesman Graham Cluley said: 'Facebook users should think carefully before they click on an unknown link in a friend's status update as these scams are becoming increasingly common.
'Giving away personal information in a survey and allowing an application access to your profile is extremely risky and Facebook users need to wise up to this rather than just clicking on links that they see, just because they appear to be from a trusted source.'
Two versions of the scam were reported to Facebook by Sophos.
A spokesman for Facebook said the website disables malicious applications as soon as they are reported.
'We're always working to improve our systems and are building additional protections against this type of content,' she said.
'As always, we encourage people not to click on suspicious links anywhere on the web, even if they've been sent or posted by friends.
'We also have a robust reporting system in place and encourage our users to report any content they suspect to be spam or have the potential to compromise a user's account through the 'flag' button underneath each post.'

Google to add Like.com to its pockets for $100 million

The latest company to be blessed with a Google acquisition is Like.com, an intriguing website specializing in "visual search," a technology Google has been toying with for years.

Google has its own visual search engine incorporated into Android - users can take a picture of a monument, landmark, or ever a person and receive results based on its extensive combing on images on the Internet. It is a technology that Google has been interested in for a while, but has had trouble finding ways to incorporate it.
Enter Like.com. It's a visual search-powered e-commerce site. Largely focused on apparel items, it tries to identify products for users based on the color and design of the items they're searching for. For example, if users really like that sequined gown, Like.com will be able to provide other items that are similar in design, color, etc.

Tech Crunch broke the story that Google is looking to buy the unique online store and all the back-end technology that comes with it. Combined with all of its existing search strength, Google could bring this into something really powerful.

Like.com reportedly grosses around $50 million per year so a $100 million price tag is a reasonable investment. It's a slight step away from the social networking/gaming scene that Google has been so focused on lately, but it does ensure that it can stay on top of the latest search technology in addition to going off on all of these side projects (like social gaming) as well.

Neither Google nor Like.com has yet confirmed the potential acquisition.

WSJ: Hurd tried to outflank HP board

For average stock investors, programmed to buy and hold, the one place they don’t want to find their stock is leading the news reports. When that happens, the company — and its long-term supporters — are thrown for a loop.

The most recent case involved Hewlett-Packard, where chief executive officer Mark Hurd was forced to resign in the wake of sexual harassment allegations and a related internal probe over inaccurate expense reports purportedly used to cover Hurd’s tracks.

It was shocking news for investors, particularly because this was no clear-cut case. It wasn’t a chief executive filing misleading balance sheets and accounting statements or giving overhyped guidance to pump up shares and then trading against shareholders behind it.

It wasn’t even a "Something must be wrong with the company" moment, akin to when former Enron leader Jeffrey Skilling left the company with very little news in the wind, a sign of that company’s troubles to come.

This was a personal peccadillo, a matter that seemed to make H-P struggle over the right thing to do. According to a report from Larry Ellison, chief executive at Oracle (ORCL) and a close friend of Hurd’s, the H-P board was split 6-4 on whether to even disclose the harassment claims. Ellison was critical of the decision to allow Hurd to go.

Whenever a stock is in the news, the people who trade it are looking for the fast move (up or down), the average buy-and-hold shareholder is wondering if they should hang on, and the outsider is left wondering whether there’s a buying opportunity.

It’s why a number of H-P shareholders — not the least of them being my own mother — got in touch over the weekend wondering what’s the next move for a shareholder when a favorite company is in crisis.

"When CEOs up and resign suddenly from a high-quality company on a Friday afternoon, it just doesn’t get any weirder than that," said Tom McIntyre of McIntyre, Freedman & Flynn, a money-management firm in Orleans, Mass.

Because the Hurd situation is about interpersonal relations, details are sparse. While there is a temptation to focus on the sensational aspects of the story, what matters to shareholders is what happens next, as well as their personal situation and the kind of long-term profits they might be sitting on.

H-P investors can recall that Hurd got the top job in April 2005, when the company needed to get its financial house in order because it was still choking on its huge 2002 deal to buy Compaq. That deal was engineered by Carly Fiorina, who Hurd replaced because the board was unhappy with H-P’s performance.

Known for his attention to the operations side of the business, Hurd set some difficult goals, and then went out and reached them. And H-P’s financial ship was righted in the process.

For someone who has ridden with the company from Hurd’s arrival -- when H-P shares were trading in the $20s, they have doubled their money, even after the stock lost about 20 percent off of its 52-week high. They may be willing to ride things out longer, and not rush into a capital gain.

Indeed, investors need to guard against knee-jerk reactions in both directions. H-P supporters will say that Hurd’s actions didn’t truly affect the balance sheet, so that the company is unchanged except for the top dog; critics will note that change at the top trickles down to many different levels. And Fiorina’s detractors will certainly attest to the fact that not every H-P leader has been equal.

For someone who picked H-P well into Hurd’s tenure, they have less gain to protect, and more concern that they should sell out now.

And for any average investor looking to for a bargain, it’s always a big risk to buy a company where the management amounts to a blind pool. Hurd could be replaced internally, or they could go outside; it’s an open question how much of his team will stay in place.

"You’d be buying it blindly right now, not knowing if they’ll hire someone who is likely to shake things up, take a lot of write-downs or whatever," said Brent Wilsey of Wilsey Asset Management in San Diego, Calif.

"H-P is a solid company, so if they hire someone who isn’t very good to take over, it will take that person a while to destroy the company," he added. "You’d like to think that won’t happen, but you watch the numbers and see how the changes play out over the next six or nine months."

Facebook dislike button scam warning

Messages on Facebook offering members the chance to install a 'dislike' button for the site should be avoided, experts say.

Facebook members have been warned to avoid a new application for the social networking site that claims to be a 'dislike' button.

Facebook's 'Like' button can be posted on third-party websites and used by members to tell their friends about websites, videos and articles that they've liked.

However, the function is regularly abused by scammers who want to get you to fill in surveys, often by using promises of videos as bait.

The latest variation of the scam tempts Facebook members with a 'dislike' button, supposedly offering you the chance to tell your friends about things that you don't like. However, if you click on any links to the dislike button, you'll end up filling in surveys for unscrupulous marketing companies.

Security experts pointed out that though this scam was similar to a wave of 'likejacking' or 'clickjacking' attacks on Facebook, it actually cons people into clicking because it is Facebook feature that they geniunely want.

"This bogus feature differs from recent scams as those behind it aren't preying on users' curiosity about shocking videos or celebrity scandals. This scam is actually posing as something that many Facebook users want," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

Cluley also warned Facebook members to take better care over their security when using the site.

"Giving away personal information in a survey and allowing an application access to your profile is extremely risky and Facebook users need to wise up to this rather than just clicking on links that they see, just because they appear to be from a trusted source."

The dislike button is actually a genuine Firefox add-on made by a company called FaceMod. Cluley said that though the add-on was being used as the bait, FaceMod had nothing to do with the scam.

"If you really want to try out FaceMod's add-on (and note - we're not endorsing it, and haven't verified if it works or not), get it direct from the Firefox Add-ons webpage, not by giving a rogue application permission to access your Facebook profile," said Cluley.

Meanwhile, Facebook has announced that it now has 150 million members who access the site from mobile devices. In all, there are more than 500 million Facebook members worldwide.

Verizon iPhone will get internal antenna, source says

More than half of all Verizon subscribers would likely buy an iPhone if Apple's device was supported by their current provider, a recent survey of U.S. consumers claimed.

According to Michigan-based market research firm Morpace, 51 per cent of current Verizon subscribers said they were either "somewhat likely" or "very likely" to purchase an iPhone if Verizon offered Apple 's smartphone . The results were based on a poll of 1,000 American consumers conducted from July 15 to July 20.

Morpace's results were nearly identical to those collected last May by ChangeWave, a research company that specializes in forecasting future spending trends. ChangeWave's poll of more than 4,000 U.S. consumers found that 53 per cent of Verizon subscribers were somewhat or very likely to purchase an iPhone if the carrier obtained rights to the device.

AT&T, which has been Apple's exclusive iPhone partner for three years, remains the device's only sanctioned mobile service provider in the U.S.

Morpace's figures -- and its implicit confirmation of ChangeWave's earlier estimate -- comes hard on the heels of yet more Internet buzz that Apple will soon release an iPhone that works on Verizon's CDMA network.

The newest speculation was sparked by the Daring Fireball blog, which last week pegged a January 2011 launch for a Verizon iPhone, two months earlier than forecasts by some Wall Street analysts, who have bet on a March debut.

Morpace's poll also revealed that nearly a quarter of current AT&T subscribers said that they would probably switch to Verizon if the latter offered the iPhone. Morpace attributed the strong showing -- AT&T customers were more likely to drop their current provider for Verizon than subscribers to either Sprint or T-Mobile -- to the persistent undercurrent of complaints about AT&T's network performance.

Those complaints started almost immediately after the iPhone's launch three years ago, and periodically rise and fall in volume and intensity. Apple has regularly defended its U.S. partner.

However, AT&T seems to be laying the groundwork for an end to the deal. In its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the telecomm giant said that the loss of any exclusivity arrangement would "not ... have a material negative impact" on revenues.

But Morpace's poll hinted at different results if Verizon gets the iPhone.

More than a third of current iPhone owners told the research firm that they have put off upgrading to the newest iPhone 4 because they're waiting for the smartphone to become available on a rival carrier.

Some believe that Apple would greatly benefit by adding Verizon to the iPhone's stable. Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher & Co., has estimated that Verizon could sell up to 11 million iPhones in 2011.

The move might also put Apple in a better position in U.S. smartphone sales, where it now lags both Google 's Android and Research in Motion's BlackBerry operating systems for market share.

Google's Biggest Bombs and Bungles

Sure, Google Wave is the latest casualty, but the search behemoth has terminated a number of services over the years.

The untimely passing of Google Wave may be the most high-profile termination of a Google service which began with great expectations. (At least on Google’s part: Seems like a high percentage of the people who were supposed to love Wave were skeptical from the get go.) But Google has terminated a lot of services over the years–and Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land took Wave’s demise as an opportunity to remember some of them.

Danny didn’t mention my favorite Google dud, though. Google Web Accelerator, which went live in 2005, was a piece of Windows software designed to speed up Internet access by pre-fetching cached versions of popular pages. It had a nasty bug which caused it to sometimes show one person a cached version of another person’s account at sites such as message forums. It also had trouble displaying YouTube videos.

Accelerator was never popular, and Google axed it in 2008. But even though you can’t download it anymore, Google has left up the pages explaining the service and touting its benefits. Which is cool. If, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt says, launching products that fail is an essential learning experience, it makes sense to document them rather than to pretend they never existed.

Oracle sues Google over Android

Oracle Corp sued Google Inc, alleging patent and copyright infringement in the development of the popular Android smartphone software.

The suit, filed on Thursday in California federal court, claims that Google "knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property" in developing Android, Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said in a statement. "This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies."

Oracle acquired Java through its $5.6 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems earlier this year. Analysts said the suit against Google could signal that Oracle intends to be more aggressive in seeking licensees for Java, a technology that is used in many types of Internet-based products.

Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison has said he views the Java software as a key asset, pointing to its use in a variety of electronic devices, from PCs to DVD players.

"Sun's corporate philosophy was obviously very different from Oracle's in terms of enforcing the Java patents," said Edward Reines, an IP litigator at Weil Gotshall who is involved in separate patent litigation against Oracle.

A Google spokesman said he could not comment on the lawsuit as the company had not had a chance to review it yet.

Analysts say Google's Android operating system uses portions of Java technology.

About 200,000 smartphones and other devices based on the Android operating system are sold each day, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said at an August 4 conference.

The case is Oracle of America Inc v Google Inc, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California .

The Linux Foundation launches Open Source Compliance Program

The non-profit Linux Foundation has launched a new, largely free, assistance program – the Open Compliance Program - that is worth examining by those organizations which, though interested in using open source in their own products, may be somewhat wary of intellectual property issues.

According to the information forwarded by the foundation, the key components of the Open Compliance Program include an assessment checklist, training programs, as well as software tools for monitoring open source software usage.

In addition, the program also includes a community workgroup, a compliance directory of companies that use open source software, and a new Software Package Data Exchange standard that help create a packing list of all supporting software components of an application.

Noting that software development usually involves use of multiple programs, most of them open source, in a single stack, particularly in the fact-paced mobile device and consumer electronics scenario, The Linux Foundation’s executive director Jim Zemlin said: “You have a really complicated supply chain, where you might get source code coming from lots of different places, whether it is a chipset vendor, a mobile handset provider or embedded software vendor. Managing open source license compliance is complicated.”

Further adding that most companies lack the requisite knowledge about how different software licensing works with open source, Zemlin said that the wide array of tools and services comprising the Open Compliance Program help to get companies up to speed.

Microsoft rolls out gigantic security update

Microsoft's regularly scheduled security update is getting a bit more than its typical once-over this morning, as it patches 34 different problems, tying the record for the most vulnerabilities ever tackled in one of the company's standard updates.

Of course, the vast majority of the updates are classified as low risk, meaning they weren't necessarily a big threat but still deemed as a stability problem for Microsoft applications.
Fourt of the patches, though, are deemed extremely critical and relate to errors in Windows coding that could be exploitable for a hacker to take over an infected user's computer. These vulnerabilities specifically relate to:

- Microsoft's MPEG Layer-3 audio codecs was not protected against specific code that could be exploited through streaming Internet content

- Windows Media Player was vulnerable to playing back malicious media files that would render the user's computer useless

- Microsoft Office had an issue with not being able to protect against a potential attack through a specially formatted e-mail

- Microsoft's online services .Net Framework and Silverlight each had the same vulnerability that could have allowed remote code execution from a hacker

The software giant says that none of the critical vulnerabilities have led to a significant problem across its user base. Of the remaining 34 vulnerabilities, more than half were given a "1" on Microsoft's 1 - 3 scale of importance, however a whopping nine of them were set at "2" which is still nothing to scoff at.

Full details on the record-tying security patch are available on Microsoft's website. The update will be rolling out automatically to users who have Automatic Updates configured on their PC.

Part of Space Station Could Carry Crew to an Asteroid, NASA Says

WASHINGTON — A room on the International Space Station could ultimately be recycled by carrying astronauts on their next great adventure to visit an asteroid, NASA scientists say.

The space station's Tranquility module, known as Node 3, could be repurposed as the main living space for human explorers headed out to a nearby asteroid, NASA officials said. The node could also connect with two space exploration vehicles and have add-on inflatable modules.

"There's no new ideas under the sun," said Brian Wilcox, a roboticist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. He added that the NASA "Blue Sky" group had focused on repurposing technologies for new missions during a brainstorming session this year.

Wilcox discussed the proposal for the space station node during NASA's two-day workshop on near-Earth objects under way here. The space station's is slated to continue operating through at least 2020, which roughly coincides with the earliest possible launch date for human exploration of an asteroid in 2025. President Barack Obama announced the 2025 goal for a mission to send astronauts to an asteroid in April.

The Node 3 module is one of the newest rooms on the International Space Station. It is nearly 24 feet (7.3 meters) long and 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide, making it about the size of a small bus.

Node 3 was delivered by a NASA space shuttle in February and currently is home to the Cupola observation deck, a seven-window dome that gives astronauts a panoramic view of space to operate the outpost's robotic arm. The module also home to much of the space station's life support equipment and some astronaut bedrooms, closet-like berths about the size of a phone booth.

But for the asteroid mission concept, Node 3 could be detached and outfitted with two space exploration vehicles, which each have a pressurized cabin that could typically carry two astronauts (or four in an emergency).

Inflatable structures similar to those proposed by space hotel mogul Robert Bigelow could also launch within existing rockets and expand the usable living or working quarters.

The interior of the node could also see major makeovers.

A spinning centrifuge device installed within the node might also create artificial gravity to help astronauts stave off muscle and bone loss, Wilcox said. The space station currently does not have such a device.

Google, Verizon propose net neutrality rules

Google and U.S. telecommunications giant Verizon have jointly proposed rules they say will preserve internet neutrality in the United States, although the companies' suggestions won't apply to wireless services.

The two companies on Monday announced seven principles for U.S. regulators to use when crafting so-called net neutrality rules.

The suggestions include the prohibition of wired broadband providers from discriminating between different kinds of internet traffic, a rule that would also prevent charging content providers extra fees for prioritized traffic.

The other proposed rules include requiring internet service providers to be transparent in how they manage and monitor internet traffic and a clarification of laws that would allow the Federal Communications Commission to impose penalties of up to $2 million US for net neutrality transgressions.

Protecting consumers a goal
The new rules would not initially apply to the wireless internet in order to preserve the incentives for service providers to continue investing in what is a relatively new technology, the companies said.

"In recognition of the still-nascent nature of the wireless broadband marketplace, under this proposal we would not now apply most of the wireline principles to wireless, except for the transparency requirement," wrote Google and Verizon executives on the search company's blog.

"In addition, the Government Accountability Office would be required to report to Congress annually on developments in the wireless broadband marketplace, and whether or not current policies are working to protect consumers."

The net neutrality rule suggestions are similar to those implemented in Canada by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission last year. The CRTC's rules, however, are stricter in that they apply to wireless internet services as well as wired.

U.S. regulators last week halted talks between parties to come up with a compromise for net neutrality rules after reports surfaced that the various parties involved were trying to cut back-room deals without input from consumers.

The FCC said that while the talks were productive, they had not resulted in a framework that would "preserve the openness and freedom of the internet."

The FCC is expected to draft its own set of rules.

The rules suggested by Google and Verizon, however, stand in contrast to the fears raised by newspaper reports and consumer groups last week. The New York Times reported that Google and Verizon were working on a deal that would allow content providers such as Google to pay ISPs such as Verizon for faster delivery of their content, an option expressly prohibited in the companies' suggestions.

Regulator's authority challenged
Net neutrality gained poignancy in the United States in 2007 when cable provider Comcast began blocking peer-to-peer traffic, a commonly used system for sharing files online.

The FCC imposed sanctions against the company, but Comcast challenged the regulator's authority in court. Authorities have been struggling with the issue since.

In Canada, a similar situation arose in 2007 when Bell Canada began slowing peer-to-peer traffic.

The dispute between Bell and its wholesale customers resulted in the CRTC issuing net neutrality rules that prohibit discriminatory practices, but allow network management as a last resort to combat congestion.