Production of floppy discs to be stopped by Sony

According to the reports, technology writers took time out Monday to write obituaries for the floppy disc after Japanese technology giant said it would stop making them in March 2011.

A eulogist from Wired wrote, "RIP, my floppy friend."

It sold 12 million floppy discs in Japan last year but demand has dropped to the point where it they are no longer profitable, Sony said.

In most markets the technology has been replaced by UBS flash cards and improved storage on hard drives.

It was also reported that a writer from PC World put the floppy in perspective.

He said, "Consider those 12 million disks sold in Japan last year. Together they can hold about 17GB of data, which isn't even enough to fill a single-sided Blu-ray Disc."

TCS becomes new victim of hackers

In a fresh instance of rising number of cyber crimes, India's biggest softwareexporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) failed to remain insulated from cyber attacks.

Hackers hacked the website of the company which claims to have high internet securitymechanism for protecting its data. Going yet another step, the hackers also put its domain name on sale by taking advantage from the loopholes in the security system.

It is not the first instance of in the country when hackers challenged the digital securitynetwork in the country. Many government websites including the website of telecom regulator TRAI (trai. gov. in) and PM Manmohan Singh's website was played by the hackers in the recent past.

TATA's website continued to flash message 'this domain name is for sale' for hours and it was only around at 7am when the company restored the portal. Techie-buzz. com claims that a France based hacker were involved in this malicious exercise who tried to compromise the server through DNS hijack.

A TCS spokesman informed, "The TCS website www. tcs. com was disrupted. Subsequently, it has been restored and is functioning fine. None of the servers were compromised. Initial investigation reveals a DNS redirection at the domain name registrar's end. Further investigations are on."

Microsoft loses second Word patent appeal, on the hook for $240 million in damages

And the intellectual property rollercoaster continues. Microsoft's second appeal of that $240m judgment banning sales of Word with features infringing on i4i's XML-related patents has been rejected, leaving the Redmond giant with a huge fine to pay atop its undoubtedly sky-high lawyer bills. The appeals court held that Microsoft was explicitly aware of i4i's patents before implementing the relevant XML code into Word -- undoubtedly because i4i had been selling an extremely popular XML plugin for years and had approached Microsoft about licensing it. Yeah, oops. Don't worry, though, there shouldn't be any consumer impact here: old versions of Word aren't affected, and current versions of Word 2007 and Office 2010 don't have the offending features. Still, Microsoft might be able to appeal yet again, depending on a panel ruling on the matter -- at this rate, we'd expect it.

New Internet Explorer with ‘safety’ edition released

Microsoft has earned another reason to get appreciation by deciding to launch a new customized version of the IE8 in order to promote online safety for families. This step has been taken in collaboration with CEOP, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

The new customized version of IE8 contains advice, help and report services directly into the toolbar and also provides access to information on cyber bullying, viruses, hacking, mobile protection, harmful content and sexual behaviour.

Regarding the release, the Microsoft business and marketing officer, Methew Bishop said, "As more and more young people are learning, playing and communicating online, it is vital we provide the appropriate safety information as we know this is one of the most effective ways of helping to protect people."

In addition to this, IE8 has released with the improvements on the shortcomings of IE6 and IE7. But the IE8 is not recommended for the users who are much concerned about the securitythreat from the viruses and bugs. Moreover, IE8 is slower as comparable to the other browsers.

A new threat comes up for the app world

Developers have created a Smartphone application called "WeatherFistBadMonkey." It exploits the threat of 'botnet' and has come up as the recent threat to the cyber world.

Botnet is a kind of network that is controlled by a hacker and runs on an autonomous basis. There are many other layers of computers which are used as the controlling threads.

In answer to this kind of hacker attacks, Derek Brown and Danny Tijerina from a security firm, TippingPoint, had developed software named WeatherFist.

It was originally used for forecasting the weather and looking at its properties, it was later shifted to providing aid in collecting files from phones, logging keyboards and sending emails through other people's ids. This sift was done after upgrading it.

Now, the software aids in the understanding of 'How botnets works?' and the version of thissoftware is available on ModMyi, an alternative app store.

The app store refers to iPhones that have been customized, known as jailbreaking, to acceptsoftware that are not available on the official app stores.

Experts believe that this move may affect the positioning of Apple.

Google comes up with POP3

Google developers have listed their latest feature on the GmailLabs. It aids an ability to access POP3 (Post Office Protocol) account mails.

This simultaneously helps in importing emails at a faster rate from the POP account.

What is important is that this service allows a user to import emails even while one is chatting.

The new POP accounts also help in automatic updating of emails without using the Gmailplatform. A user can access his accounts with a single click without making much of changes in the settings.

The feature has been developed for those who bank upon Gmail for bringing in the emails from their other accounts.

This feature also helps in manual refreshing and sorts of all the latest emails.

Adding to the current list of features and telling about it Developer Emmanuel Pellereau, at Google said, "Turn on Refresh POP accounts from the Labs tab under Settings, and the refresh link at the top of your inbox will not only update your inbox with your new Gmailmessages, it will also fetch messages from any other accounts which you have set up".

Bio-fuel not better option than fossil fuel in terms of environmental impact

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io-fuel is found to be inferior as compared to fossil fuels so far as the environmental impacts are concern. The forests have been cleaned up to produce thebiofuel crops.

A study in UK revealed that fossil fuels are better than to clean the forest to produce the biofuelcrops. The study also claimed that commonly-used biofuel crops such as rape seed, palm oil and soy have failed to meet the sustainability standard of the European Commission.

As per the minimum sustainability standard set by the European Commission, the emissions from biofuel should reduce by at least 35% as compared to fossil fuel. But the result of a study revealed that palm oil increases emissions by 31% because of the indirect land use change (ILUC). ILUC is producing an ample amount of carbon just because the forests and grasslands have turned into biofuel crop plantations.

However, Environmental Transport Association (ETA) commented that biofuel must have to be environmental friendly. ETA has questioned the EU's biofuel policy and said that in such circumstances biofuel couldn't be treated as a possible substitute for the fossil fuels like diesel or petrol.

iPad prices leaked

The priceinformation of the yet to be launched iPads has been leaked. The launch is due for March.

Information available with Geeky Gadgets says that the 16GB iPad will cost £389. The 32GB edition will be priced at £439 and the 64GB version will cost £489.

When calculated in terms of American dollar, the figures come down to $499, $599 and $699 respectively.

If the figures revealed are true, then the prices are very high and not very competitive considering the market.

What is worth mentioning is that all the three models are part of the first shipment of iPads and are devoid of 3G technology.

Furthermore, iPad lacks USB port. This means that a consumer has to either opt for a 3G connection during the purchase or be content with no connection at all.

This is surprising since integrated 3G enablers are the ones that make equipments very expensive. Whether in mobiles or in laptops, they tend to shoot up the price. In laptops they add close to £100.

Without these features, it would be a concern for iPad to be able to attract consumers at this high a price.

Twitter facing phishing attack

The trust factor is lacking amidst the fast moving technological world and online users should be careful about their security.

According to the expert at security firm Sophos, the Twitter followers needs to be cautious now to face a new challenge, as from now onwards if you click on the links in the tweets, you might become the victim of the fraud.

The most popular networking site of US has been affected by the Phishing attack leaving the users in a dilemma.

However to play on the safer side, if the users find a URL, having a message "This you???", then just avoid that. Reason? When you click on the link, a login page will appear where the hackers are all set to take away your credentials.

Also they can automatically send the pishing message from the users account after you have been duped.

The word for caution to all Twitter users, when in doubt don't even trust your friends as they could be the hackers in disguise, ready to invade your account and mutilate your privacy.

35 percent despised of high speed internet

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broadband data states that the thirty - five percent of Americans are devoid of high speed netentrée at their residence. This piece of evidence was corroborated by the Federal Communications Commission who tallied the list which summed up to 80 million people.

The FCC has been allotted the task for delivering a national broadband plan to Congress by March 17. FCC has also provided a rough draft of its studies.

The basic cause behind non-usage of high speed internet is due to three major factors; affordability, absence of digital competency and the lack of association or the relevance factor. It was shockingly observed that the maximum percentage 15 percent was composed of those who either were least interested for internet or thought it to be an unnecessary luxury.

Rest percentage comprised of a mixture of 'unmanageable to pay - lots' and 'the ignorant ones'. With this data, which was analyzed for the broadband connection which cost a meager $41, people have turned their backs to the bestowing hands of technology. This is a point to be pondered upon.