Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Governments should not be able to stop operators from charging content providers for carrying their services, a lobby group representing Europe's operators has proposed.A bar on net neutrality legislation was one of several suggestions made last week by the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO), in a submission to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
Research In Motion has stopped making the cheapest version of its PlayBook tablet, a less successful rival to the iPad and to Android tablets.RIM has said it will no longer produce the 16GB version of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
The emerging Do Not Track standard should give web surfers privacy by default, Microsoft has insisted after the idea was turned down by the standard's working group.The working group at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) represents a wide spectrum of players including advertising and analytics companies, social networks, browser-makers and others.
The first patent-related court showdown between Apple and Motorola in the US since Google bought Motorola has been scrapped, after a Chicago judge decided neither company could back up the levels of damages they were calling for.Apple sued Motorola in 2010 over Apple patents allegedly used without a licence in Motorola's Android phones and tablets.
In a blow to Microsoft's idea of having browsers block tracking cookies by default, the working group dealing with the issue at the World Wide Web Consortium has come up with a proposal that bars any automatic Do Not Track setting.The proposal is a "grand compromise", as Stanford University's Jonathan Mayer put it in an email on Wednesday, with the privacy advocates in the working group losing out on two of the scheme's three biggest elements.
Google has pushed to make online shopping less risky by introducing a badge scheme called Google Trusted Stores, which is free to use for both consumers and retailers.Available in the US only for now, Google Trusted Stores is intended to increase shoppers' confidence, as stores have to offer a "great overall experience" to get the badge, Google Shopping group product manager Tom Fallows wrote in a blog post on Thursday.
The Chromium team is set to release its first a version of the Chrome browser for the Metro mode of Windows 8, the open-source project announced on Thursday.The version will run in both the Metro and desktop environments that come with Windows 8, but it will only run on the traditional x86 flavour of the operating system.
In a boon to those about to head off for their summer holidays, Google is to make it possible for people to use its mobile Maps app without a cellular data connection.Google Maps already had this feature, at least on Android, as a Labs add-on.
The glass companies Schott and Corning have both announced new developments that they hope will become standards in the consumer electronics industries.Schott says its Xensation Cover glass is stronger than Corning's Gorilla Glass.
Google has overhauled its DoubleClick ad-serving platform, promising that the newly-christened DoubleClick Digital Marketing product will allow ad agencies and media companies to control their campaigns in a more integrated way than before.DoubleClick Digital Marketing is still only partially developed, Google display advertising chief Neal Mohan said at the DoubleClick Insight conference on Tuesday.
3G mobile broadband coverage will be available to as many people in 2017 as legacy 2G coverage is today, the network equipment firm Ericsson has predicted.In its second 'Traffic and Market Report' (PDF), published on Tuesday, Ericsson said 85 percent of the world's population will have access to 3G broadband coverage in five years' time, as opposed to the 50 percent that have coverage today.
Google has bought the mobile productivity firm Quickoffice in a bid to make its Google Apps product suite more compatible with various file formats, the search giant said on Tuesday.Quickoffice provides word processing and other office task functions for smartphones and tablets, including those running Google's Android operating system, and iOS-based devices such as the iPad and iPhone.
Electronic signatures are to be harmonised and electronic identities mutually recognised across the EU, under proposals unveiled by the European Commission on Monday.The e-ID plan is intended to make sure that citizens can use their electronic identities, which they may have been issued through national schemes, for online services in other EU member states.
Toshiba has refreshed much of its notebook line, including its 'world's-thinnest' Portégé ultrabook, with Intel's 'Ivy Bridge' Core processors.Most of the updated models are being touted as business-friendly, even the Portégé Z930, a follow-on from last year's Z830.
Microsoft, IBM, SAP and others have moved to make the Microsoft-derived Open Data Protocol an official international standard.The Open Data Protocol (OData) is used for data-sharing, which makes it an obvious candidate for standardisation.