19 April 2009
Vodafone speeds cost cutting, ups impairment
Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile phone group by revenues, is to accelerate cost cutting after increasing full-year impairment charges to 5.9 billion pounds due to problems in Spain and Turkey. Vodafone also posted 2008-09 revenue, earnings and free cash flow in line with analyst forecasts on Tuesday. In November, it said it would cut 1 billion pounds of costs to maintain profit and boost free cash flow when saying conditions would be challenging. Vodafone also set out forecast ranges for 2009-10 but failed to give an exact revenue forecast after twice downgrading that target during the financial year just ended.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSLI33670520090519
‘Skip Vista, jump straight to Windows 7′
Businesses that have not yet begun a deployment of Windows Vista should skip the operating system and start preparing for Windows 7, analysts at Gartner have advised. In an advisory, Michael Silver and Stephen Kleynhans said Windows 7’s release was so close that it would not make sense to move to Vista beforehand. “Preparing for Vista will require the same amount of effort as preparing for Windows 7 so, at this point, targeting Windows 7 would add less than six months to the schedule and would result in a plan that is more politically palatable, better for users, and results in greater longevity,” the Gartner analysts wrote in the advisory.
http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,39432473,00.htm
EU could enforce a two-year guarantee for software
Consumers could get the same legal protection for software that they get for other goods under new proposals from the EU. Commissioners Meglena Kuneva and Viviane Reding have called for software makers and companies to be made to take on more accountability for the products they offer to consumers. They hope to extend the EU Sales and Guarantees directive that is incorporated into UK law as the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002.
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/news/2242435/ec-force-software-developers
Facebook Becomes Largest OpenID Relying Party
OpenID is getting a big boost today as Facebook goes live with its support as a relying party for the standard. It’s a major win for OpenID, which has long had to deal with major companies only half-heartedly embracing the standard, sometimes announcing support to reap the press coverage only to let the effort languish for many months. Facebook announced its intended support of OpenID in April, and less than a month later they’ve delivered. So what changes for users? You’ll now be able to link your Facebook account with your Gmail account, along with those from other OpenID providers. This means that if you’ve logged in to Gmail to check your messages, and you pop over to Facebook, you won’t have to sign in with your Facebook username – you’ll already be logged in. New Facebook members will also be able to register with their Gmail accounts.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/18/facebook-becomes-largest-openid-relying-party/
Database of all children launched
A controversial database which holds the details of every child in England has become available to childcare professionals for the first time. ContactPoint, a response to Lord Laming’s report following the death of Victoria Climbie, is beginning its national roll-out in the north west. But the system, costing £224m, has been delayed twice amid data security fears.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8052512.stm
Nine games computers are ruining for humanity
If we ever manage to build a working quantum computer, the first killer app might be online poker. Thanks to the counter-intuitive rules of quantum mechanics, players will be able to use mind-boggling strategies like betting and folding simultaneously. Poker wouldn’t be the first game to have been revolutionised by computers. Artificial intelligence researchers have taught computers to play a wide range of strategic games well enough to compete with skilful human players – and in a few cases, they’ve beaten them convincingly…
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17145-nine-games-computers-are-ruining-for-humanity.html
