The Queen has today detailed a number of plans for the UK government’s Digital Economy Bill, including enabling it to cut off persistent file-sharing pirates outright. The plan is to allow the Government the power to ban pirates from the internet by 2011. According to the speech, the bill – which will also ensure the introduction of a new ‘12’ certificate for computer games – will "ensure communications infrastructure that is fit for the digital age, supports future economic growth, delivers competitive communications and enhances public service broadcasting". This is in line with Digital Britain minister...Read More »

The Maemo OS that has earned a proud spot within the brain of Nokia’s new N900 handset won us over. After years of struggling to keep up with the crowd with the now archaic Symbian operating system, the powerful and more intuitive Maemo (as seen in the N900) was a real breath of fresh air. Now, news out of the Nokia N900 meet up is that Nokia has confirmed plans to have every N-Series handset running on Maemo by 2012. - See our Nokia N900 review It’s big news for the company, as...Read More »

A new website launched by both NASA and Microsoft aims to enlist the help of both professional astronomers and keen members of the general public to help map Mars and make sense of the data coming back. The idea is that, with new images and information continually being filtered back from the red planet, a problem shared is a problem halved. Thus, anyone willing can sit down and start ‘exploring’, mapping or sorting info - like a the astronomical equivalent of charity work. Director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Doug McCuiston says the website means that...Read More »

Looks like AT&T's not getting its holiday wish after all -- a federal judge just ruled against Ma Bell's request to have Verizon's Map For That ads pulled off the air. That doesn't mean that this whole thing is over, though: the judge called the ads "sneaky" and said that it was possible people might misunderstand them because "most people who are watching TV are semi-catatonic." Whether or not that's enough to support a legal conclusion that the ads are misleading is a fight for another day -- specifically December 16th, when AT&T will have a...Read More »

The world's most closed open company It is a truth universally acknowledged that if Google offers the world a web service, large numbers of people will convince themselves that it's superior to anything else they can get their hands on - and less likely to condemn them to some sort of Redmondian future in which a single corporation has them in a metaphorical vice grip.… Full published article at: Read More »

We don't have details on exactly what has changed yet, but that minor Android 1.5-based update Sprint had announced it'd be pushing out to the Hero has now launched. The best-case scenario would have the SMS issue -- which causes the phone to stay awake when it shouldn't -- get resolved, but until Sprint hands out a proper changelog, it'll be a matter of testing and guessing. Just a thought: if they've managed to squeeze a proximity sensor into the update, that brings 'em up to the speed with the Droid Eris. Hey, it could happen. Read More »

Delivers IE 9 standards vagueness PDC Microsoft has unveiled major and long-awaited basic features in the next version of Silverlight, hoping to take on AJAX and Adobe Systems' Flash.… Full published article at: Read More »

Remember the Land Warrior program, which only took 15 years and half a billion dollars outfit our troops with high-tech battlefield uniforms? With DisOPS ("distributed operations") Lockheed Martin is taking a different tack. Deployed to Special Forces in Afghanistan, the system is comprised of the Connect software which runs on ruggedized laptop computers, allowing squad leaders to plan missions on a map, and View PDAs that receive info over tactical radio, cellphone, or even WiFi networks. The PDAs provide "friendly force tracking of other team and squad leaders, land navigation tools, photo capture and transmission, and...Read More »

Good news. For Intel Less than a week after accepting $1.25bn from Intel in exchange for dropping its legal actions against Chipzilla, AMD has announced how it plans to use that windfall.… Full published article at: Read More »

Microsoft's been pretty cagey with the future of Windows Mobile so far, but apparently the Office Mobile 2010 team just doesn't care -- in addition to leaking a new interface in that confidential slide deck last month, they've now included this screen shot on the Office Mobile 2010 beta website. Here's what's wild: this design language completely matches the first set of Windows Mobile 7 leaks we saw nearly two years ago, so either Microsoft hasn't made any changes in that time, or what we're seeing here is something else entirely. Combine that with rumors that WinMo...Read More »