Australia might not be the only country having issues with the new iPad’s claim that it will have 4G, despite the fact that it doesn’t have it anywhere in the world except for the US and Canada (which we have explained before). European regulators are starting to take notice with such claims as well.

Pocket-lint is reporting that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority have confirmed to them that they are assessing similar complaints from UK customers – though have not confirmed that they will launch any action against those claims.

“We are aware of the news from Australia regarding the iPad 4G marketing claim,” a spokeswoman told the site. “Without going through due process we can’t say whether the (UK) ad is likely to be problematic.”

The Wall Street Journal is also noting that the Swedish Consumer Agency is also considering launching their own investigation. “One may rightfully ask if the marketing of the new iPad is misleading,” Marek Andersson, a lawyer for the agency, told the paper. “The question is whether this information is clear enough in Apple’s marketing.”

The ACCC has already launched legal action, with Apple announcing that it will offer refunds to people who felt that they were misled thinking that they would be able to connect to a 4G network (namely, Telstra’s network).

via MacRumors

The UK Cabinet Office has warned that internet services may be slower during the 17 days, and that users could even experience drop outs and data rationing because of an unusual amount of traffic during “peak time”.

“It is possible that internet services may be slower during the Games or in very severe cases there may be drop outs due to an increased number of people accessing the internet,” the report warned.

“In addition, ISPs may introduce data caps during peak times to try and spread the loading and give a more equal service to their entire customer base.”

The report did also note that no ISP in the UK has confirmed that they will be rationing data usage.

But it also appears that companies are not ready with potential internet problems. Talking to The Guardian newspaper, Kathryn Hurt from MWB Business Exchange said, “A lot of businesses have still not prepared for the enormous risks presented by the London Games”

“There’s been a lot of discussion about traffic hotspots, but very little about potential internet traffic problems. The risk is that home workers are unable to work effectively due to over-capacity.”

As with every event of a large magnitude, telephone networks might also experience slowness during “peak times”, but the Games organisers have set up additional mobile capacity and coverage to reduce the strain on those networks. But of course, they can only go so far – so, just don’t expect some of your messages and calls going through.

Image: World Economic Forum/Flickr (Creative Commons)

The phone hacking scandal appears to be widening to an overall hacking scandal with revelations by a British newspaper that emails of the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were illegally accessed by “private investigators commissioned by national newspapers”.

The Independent in the UK claims that Brown’s private communications were identified by Scotland Yard as “potentially hacked material”, and are currently looking at evidence from around 20 computers.

The paper also claims that the computers also hold evidence that reveal “hundreds of individuals” may have also had their emails hacked.

According to the paper:

A source with knowledge of the contents of some of the computers seized from private investigators told The Independent that analysis of a portion of the hundreds of thousands of messages found on the machines showed that Mr Brown and [Derek] Draper [former Labour adviser and lobbyist] were targeted while the former Prime Minister was Chancellor of the Exchequer. The period includes potentially sensitive episodes in the difficult relationship between Mr Brown and Tony Blair.

While the operation – Operation Tuleta – was opened due to reports of computer hacking related to the News International phone hacking scandal, there have not been any alleged links made to the paper. However, Brown has made allegations before against News International for accessing private details illegally – including his bank accounts.

Draper’s emails were leaked before, published in 2008 and 2009. Those emails revealed internal crises in the Labour Party over Gordon Brown and their plans of smearing the then-Opposition Leader David Cameron and then-Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

However, there have not been any allegations that those leaks were acquired through illegal hacking techniques.

The year 2011 was one year that we will all never forget. Even though they were all in the beginning of the year, the floods in Queensland and Brazil, the earthquakes in Christchurch and the tsunami in the north of Japan are still present in all of our minds. We also saw the death of a tech luminary, Steve Jobs; and the powerful News Corporation losing its influence over politicians in the UK after the phone hacking scandal took a drastic turn from celebrities to victims of crime.

This year, we’ve decided to recap the top 11 tech stories of the year – from security problems to business failures, and even the growing popularity of Windows Phone 7.

You can explore the choices below.

• The Revolutions Heard Around The Globe
• The Catastrophic Disaster of the PSN
• Steve Jobs: 1955 – 2011
• The Phone Hacking that killed the News
• A Global War – Apple v Samsung
• A 50 Day Hacking Campaign, for the lulz
• The Rise of Windows Phone 7
• An annus horribilis for RIM and Netflix
• Palm is dead, WebOS lives on
• Social: Google enters, LinkedIn goes IPO and Timeline
• Gone Viral: Friday – an instant success amongst the haters
• Credits

Image Credits: Al Jazeera English (Left) and David Shankbone (Right). All are licensed under Creative Commons.

Image: Esther Dyson/Flickr (Creative Commons)

According to a London newspaper, Chief Executive of News Corporation’s UK arm, News International, James Murdoch has resigned as a directors of the two companies that publishes News Corporation’s papers in the UK.

Murdoch has, according to the London Evening Standard based on corporate filings, stepped down from the boards of News Group Newspapers, which publishes The Sun; and Times Newspapers Limited, who owns The Times and the Sunday Times.

His resignation however does not mean he is leaving his current role in News International, which owns the two companies. He also remains a director in the editorial board for the Times, which maintain its editorial line, and as chairman of BSkyB – the satellite broadcaster that News Corporation wanted to acquire.

As The Next Web points out, the move has meant that there is no Murdoch on the boards of any UK newspaper. Some are even speculating that News Corporation may be forced to sell their newspapers in the UK due to the constant fallout of the phone hacking scandal. In addition, the fallout has seen more anger from its shareholders. The ABC’s Inside Business reported that there was growing dissent in its annual general shareholders meeting in October.

The likelihood of the Murdochs, however, being forced out of the company will most likely not happen. Due to some complex arrangement, the family owns 39 percent of voting stock despite owning 12 percent of the company. This effectively gives it some veto power.

Despite this, the phone hacking scandal still continues with more and more cases of wrongdoing. It appears to be a bottomless pit of scandal, with no end in sight in the near future for News Corporation.

Julian Assange, the founder of the controversial website Wikileaks, will now be extradited to Sweden to hear allegations of rape and sexual assault by two former volunteers, after his bid to block the extradition failed.

Two judges from the High Court in London rejected his appeal that the extradition was unlawful, ruling that the warrant stands and that Assange should face questioning over the allegations made.

“There can be no doubt that if what Mr Assange had done had been done in England and Wales, he would have been charged and thus criminal proceedings would have been commenced,” the High Court wrote in its judgement rationalising its rejection.

All four of Assange’s grounds to appeal the extradition were rejected.

Assange, who has been on house arrest for almost a year, has criticised their judgement.

“I have not been charged with any crime in any country. Despite this, the European arrest warrant is so restrictive that it prevents UK courts from considering the facts of a case, as judges have made clear here today,” he said in London.

He has continuously denied the allegations, saying that they were politically motivated. He, and his supporters, feared that he could be then sent to the United States to answer charges after publishing the US State Department cables and the logs of Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Late last year, a London court approved his extradition to Sweden. However, Assange managed to secure an appeal. Assange has now 14 days to file an appeal and could submit this to the Supreme Court, which in London is higher in the judicial hierarchy. If successful, he could have a full appeal hearing, according to the BBC, around May next year – delaying it further.

His lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson QC, told the ABC’s Lateline that Assange will likely face an unfair trial.

“He’s going to be tried in secret, and this is outrageous by our standards and by any standards. t’ll be secret justice. They hold rape trials customarily in secret,” he said.

“He will also be tried – they don’t have a jury, they have a judge and two retired hack politicians, one from each party. So – and both parties have been critical of him, so it’s hardly a fair trial. And those issues will have to be addressed if he does go to Sweden in the next couple of months.”

Robertson is calling for the Australian Government to intervene.

“I think Canberra may have to do something about. It’s got a duty to help Australians in peril in foreign courts. It didn’t do anything for David Hicks and that was something of a disgrace,” he said.

Image: Luc De Leeuw/Flickr (Creative Commons)

More allegations are coming forward in the aftermath of the widely-publicised phone hacking scandal with people, such as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, coming forward accusing newspapers of attempting to hack into victims’ computers via malware.

According to Sophos’ Naked Security blog, Brown claims in his speech to the House of Commons that it went far beyond hacking phones:

Amassed against these guiltless victims and against a succession of other victims of crime whose names I know about and have seen, and have yet to be made public, was the systematic use of base and unlawful methods - new crimes with new names: blagging, hacking, Trojans to break into computers and not just phones. It was not the misconduct of a few rogues or a few freelancers but, I have to say, lawbreaking often on an industrial scale, at its worst dependent on links with the British criminal underworld.

In addition, Dr Brooke Magnanti – known famous for her Belle de Jour blog and books – alleges that she was targeted in the attacks. She claims that it was sent as an attachment and the email came from a journalist from the Sunday Times – another UK newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International. She says that it mainly due to expose the identity of her other persona, which was not revealed until very later on in 2009, again with the Sunday Times but she does say that she approached them.

These allegations could put News Corporation in more hot water than it is already thanks to the phone hacking scandal. And although News Limited, the Australian owners of its newspaper brands, has said that they are investigating internally of unauthorised payments, maybe it should also extend to whether it has hacked into other people’s computers.

It feels like this story has no ending – just more and more revelations of the dirty tricks of journalism.

BREAKING NEWS:

“News Corporation announces that it no longer intends to make an offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (“BSkyB”) not already owned by it,” it said in a statement.

“We believed that the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News Corporation would benefit both companies but it has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate. News Corporation remains a committed long-term shareholder in BSkyB. We are proud of the success it has achieved and our contribution to it,” Deputy Chairman and President of News Corporation Chase Carey said in that statement.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned company has been pressured to pull its deal after The News of the World was caught up in a scandal over the use of phone hacking to gather stories, and more allegations have continued to emerge on not only The News of the World, but other newspapers in the UK. This has now sparked all over, with reports of a US Senator wanting an investigation after alleged phone hacking on 9/11 victims, and in Australia where News Limited is launching its own investigation.

The deal was heading to the Competition Commission to decide on its approval after reneging its deal on Sky News. However, the deal is already unpopular, and a scheduled debate and vote by the Labour opposition to condemn the move was already to be supported by the Conservative-led government. In addition, there is already plans for an inquiry over the role of the media – and looks like it will continue on despite the bid.

News Corporation already owns 39 percent of the company. A full buyout would allow News International, its UK subsidiary, a lot of money in a market where its newspapers not as profitable as they were.

News Corp withdraws bid for control of #BSkyB, BBC's @Peston says http://bbc.in/mZIyVE

July 13, 2011 11:19 PM via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@BBCBreaking

BBC Breaking News

More coming soon.

The teenager, from Wickford, Essex, has been detained after a joint operation with the Metropolitan Police and the FBI. He currently remains in custody for questioning, and is being held under the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act.

Metropolitan Police confirmed reports of an arrest after news broke on Twitter by Channel 4 News:

19-year-old suspected of being mastermind behind computer hacking group LulzSec arrested in Wickford, Essex. #c4news

June 21, 2011 9:10 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@channel4news

Channel 4 News

However, while Channel 4 News reports that it was a LulzSec member, the Metropolitan Police have not confirmed that allegation.

The arrest follows news that the group have managed to obtain data from the 2011 UK Census, which holds details on every UK citizen, after a document on Pastebin, with the traditional LulzSec header, was located. However, breaking tradition, LulzSec has not posted the news on Twitter.

“We have blissfully obtained records of every single citizen who gave their records to the security-illiterate UK government for the 2011 census,” LulzSec said on the Pastebin document.

“We’re keeping them under lock and key though… so don’t worry about your privacy (…until we finish re-formatting them for release).”

That last message was soon repeated on Twitter with the latest tweet: “Our next step is to categorize and format leaked items we acquire and release them in #AntiSec “payloads” on our website and The Pirate Bay.” However it is unknown if it has anything to do with the census data or another hack on a UK government website.

Census officials have confirmed that they are looking into the information.

The hacker group has also recently announced a partnership with Anonymous, amidst rumours of a war which both sides have denied. Called “AntiSec”, both sides are calling for all hackers to unite together in order to expose corruption and dark secrets – a-la Wikileaks.

However, for me, questions are emerging on their goals. Yes, I admit that opening dark secrets do help for real change, but at the cost of many people’s data? It may be a security fault that exposes my data, but I rather someone tell the company the security hole rather than plastering my personal details on the internet where identity thieves and people who do it for the “lulz” could use for purchases on condoms and random books.

But, that’s my personal view. Hopefully, LulzSec isn’t like other companies and attacks those who start criticising or questioning their actions and motives.

Thompson has confirmed that it will be launching “this year” with a subscription of less than $10 per month to view – which is stunningly low for the typical quality of a majority of the corporation’s programming.

RT @psmith: Mark Thompson says iPlayer will be released internationally this year for "a few dollars a month". #ftmedia11

March 2, 2011 8:03 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@shovell

Stephen Lovell

Mark Thompson confirms BBC iPlayer to be offered internationally "this year" for "a few dollars a month - less than $10" #ftmedia11

March 2, 2011 7:49 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@benwood

Ben Wood

However, its catalogue is unknown at this stage – will it offer a way to watch shows on demand after their UK premiere, or will it be a-la PLUS7, where it has archived programming. If it is the latter, hopefully it is more than two seasons of Doctor Who and not all of the BBC’s drama catalogue.

It is also unknown what platform will it be on, with speculations of it being an iPad-only service (though highly unlikely with the new Apple subscription requirements). Hopefully, it will be on a browser and as mobile applications.

Talking to the UK’s The Telegraph, he was nominated for revolutionising the technology industry in recent years with the iPhone and iPad, and have created a boom in internet usage for mobile devices. However, he was rejected by Downing Street.

“Apple has been the only major global company to create stunning consumer products because it has always taken design as the key component of everything it has produced,” the unnamed MP, who left Parliament in last year’s election, said.

“No other CEO has consistently shown such a commitment.”

It should be noted this is speculation and not the actual reason why his knighthood has been rejected. Microsoft’s former CEO Bill Gates has been knighted for not only his business work but also for his philanthropy record in trying to reduce poverty. It could be that simply being the guy who has launched one phone that has made it easier to connect to the internet is not a good enough reason.

Though, should Steve Jobs be knighted?

Image by: Marcopako/Flickr

The company is claiming, according to The Register, that it has 36 percent of the UK smartphone market in December and topping both the iPhone and Android – both strong competitors. RIM is citing numbers from GfK as proof of this statistic.

Only one tiny problem, it cannot be verified as GfK doesn’t release its stats to journalists, but to companies. However, it does pose a somewhat-accurate view of consumer taste as it tracks over-the-counter sales, rather than shipments to stores.

But a better question is: Is this true?

While Egypt is amid protests, London is also facing another round of protests by students angry by their Government’s recent announcement of a rise in tuition fees. However, it appears modern technology will be taking a more active role, with a new mobile app designed to help them avoid trouble.

Sukey is designed to allow protesters to be protected and also informed. The mobile app is set to go live tomorrow on January 29 (January 30, Melbourne time) and is a web app – allowing a wide variety of phones access to the service – that will keep them up to date with live updates about any troubles between the police and protesters along the route of their protests.

It uses several APIs, such as Google Maps API, to highlight where there are trouble spots during the protest routes, based on your GPS location on your phone. It will also provide SMS alerts for those who have no web browser on their phones.

According to The Next Web, the developers are also working on a second edition that will allow protests around the UK to tap into the service, and even open-sourcing the project so many will be able to adapt it for their own protests. It does require an internet connection, but a project for the social good does get a lot of brownie points.

Its budget being cut by 25 percent, 200 sites being shut down and at least 360 jobs being cut from the public broadcaster over two years.

The broadcaster will instead focus in ten specific areas: News, Sport, Weather, TV and iPlayer, Radio and Music, Search, Homepage, Knowledge and Learning, and CBeebies and CBBC – the latter two are its children offerings. Each will share a unified design and all sites will have improved navigation to content.

The BBC, however, will close 400 top level domains connecting to the bbc.co.uk name, with 180 closing later this year – and most likely be archival content and programme websites (that could potentially mean the closure of the Doctor Who site, but that remains to be seen), and axing original content on its digital radio stations – 1Xtra, 5 live sports extra, 6 Music and Radio 7 – to automated content.

In addition, its local sites for the UK will be news-orientated, while it will reduce the number of blogs from its journalists. Live sporting coverage and sports news will also be reduced by the BBC, and its 606 community site will be axed as part of its overall reduction of community-orientated and message-board sites. This plan will also see the disposal of h2g2 – an encyclopaedia before Wikipedia became cool – to a brand new owner.

There is no word on how it will affect international visitors, such as the World Service or BBC World News.

Image: Elliott Brown/Flickr (CC)

The plan revolves around releasing its songs that debuts on radio stations on iTunes and other digital distribution outlets – a “on air, on sale” policy – allowing fans of the track to download the song right now, rather wait for six weeks before it is out on the same outlets.

“Wait is not a word in the vocabulary of the current generation. It’s out of date to think that you can build up demand for a song by playing it for several weeks on radio in advance,” Chief Executive of Universal Music, David Joseph, told the Guardian newspaper.

“What we were finding under the old system was the searches for songs on Google or iTunes were peaking two weeks before they actually became available to buy, meaning that the public was bored of – or had already pirated – new singles.”

The change is in response to the success of the X Factor in the UK, where the winner’s single – which has been released immediately – has sky-rocketed to the charts. As well, it is also a response to people recording the song from the radio – a very old technique – and posting it online, allowing people to download the song (via downloading the YouTube video).

No word when this new policy will extend to the other markets both Universal and Sony compete.

Image: erin MC hammer/Flickr (CC)

2010. What a year to end a decade. From political uncertainty in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, the leaking of important US documents – from Afghanistan to diplomatic cables – and even a possible upheaval of our classification system to finally allow a R18+ rating in Australia, bringing it in line with other western nations.

We got more information about the new National Broadband Network, while we also saw a big shift in the media landscape in all forms – online, on print, on radio and on television.

Here are some of the highlights of the year that was.

No more HD, Say hello to 3D

GEM, as well as 7mate and ABC News 24, were launched at the expense of a HD simulcast of the main channel.

In 2010, we saw a big shift in the media. We saw more stations pick up digital radio as a way to broadcast alternative content; and we also saw the launch of three new channels – ABC News 24, GEM and 7mate – at the expense of the HD simulcasts of the main channel, leaving many shows no longer able to be viewed in HD until the digital switchover is finished or when the stations get more spectrum.

And after a long wait, community television finally got onto the digital platform, meaning shows that target a niche are still able to broadcast in future years. They can only, and most likely will only do, broadcast one channel with no HD simulcast.

The television networks also flirted with 3D television – capitalising on the success of Avatar. Several matches of the World Cup in South Africa, and both the NRL and AFL grand finals were broadcast in 3D after ACMA gave trial licenses to broadcast on channel 40, despite the fact that a majority of Australians don’t have a 3D-capable television set.

Changing the online game-plan

Fairfax launches its online video platform. Also launched were Nine's FIXplay and Seven's PLUS7.

Our television industry have also finally caught up on the internet with the launch of their catch up services, with Seven and Nine finally releasing theirs (PLUS7 and FixPlay respectively) and Ten revamping theirs. The ABC, however, leads in the digital world with the increasing ways of getting ABC iview, such as their iPad application or on PlayStation 3, while also providing additional archived content to other services, such as Fairfax and Seven’s PLUS7 service.

We also saw the introduction of the print media changing their online and mobile strategy, with all the major newspapers offering their own iPad applications – to take advantage of the screen size and offer more content outside of their paper’s websites. And thanks to the In App Purchases in iOS 4, papers were now able to charge subscriptions to use their app – with Fairfax and News Corp’s The Australian taking full advantage.

Internationally, we saw the introduction of paywalls in order to increase revenue from dwindling subscription and advertising revenue. News Corp’s UK newspaper The Times took its site behind a paywall, charging about £2 for a week’s access, as part of an experiment to see if such a thing would work; while the New York Times announced that it would be charging frequent readers rather than those who skim through the website. Other papers have opted to offer additional content behind a subscription paywall, rather than closing their site off, while others, such as The Guardian, have opted to continue the existing model.

The Year of the Leaks

Julian Assange, founder and spokeman for Wikileaks.

2010 will no certainly be known for its leaks – most importantly, Wikileaks. The site created four of the major headlines, and used the “old” media in order to strengthen not only the credibility of the leaks but the importance of new and old media working together to deliver a scoop. The first leak, Collateral Murder, brought the attention of the media by showing the US army killing a Reuters journalist in Iraq; while the second and third leaks brought the attention of the military success and failures of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, the final leak it released at the end of November proved to cause the most chilling aftermath. Cablegate, the release of diplomatic cables inside the US State Department, has brought on a cyber war between proponents and opponents of Wikileaks’ cause, while also some politicians and right wing media pundits calling for Julian Assange’s execution despite many of the international press, including the Australian press, calling him an icon of the free press – of publishing the hard truths. The Australian Government’s response has been a mixed bag as well, with Julia GIllard opposing of the leaks and Kevin Rudd could not care less.

But Cablegate has brought up a serious challenge in this new world: the freedom of information. Do the people have the right to know about what is happening in the world or should there still be secrets kept for the stability of the world? Should we limit the press’ voice in order to protect controversial secrets that could affect the image of a nation? The United States’ Congress is soon to be deciding on a law that would see some limitations on the press and its reporting of secrets, but is that good or bad?

All we know is Wikileaks has brought an uncertain future to the freedom of the press.

Censorship: Just that one step

Image from: gnackgnackgnack/Flickr (CC)

Back home, Stephen Conroy’s filter was put on the backburner in July – ahead of the spectacle of the election we saw in the following month. You know, that one that no one was deemed the winner and that the major political parties had to woo the four independents plus the Greens in order to form some sort of stable government.

However, that backburner was to be deferred until a review of what content was to be banned. But with the current climate, plus with the Greens and Liberals opposing of such proposal, and that the change requires an act of Parliament, don’t expect to see your internet censored anytime soon.

While 2009 was the filter, 2010 was the video games censorship regime – and the proponents and the opponents got equal media share in trying to get their views across. While the biggest opponent, former South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, was no longer the biggest threat after resigning as the state’s Attorney General (despite a successful re-election campaign) – changes in the political landscape, including the dismissal of the Victorian Labor government (whose attorney-general was a big supporter of an R18+ game rating) means that we don’t know the new attorney-general’s view of the rating.

However, change was not to come as both sides to hear the fate of such rating next year, as the attorney-generals decided to delay making a decision till the new year, rather than in December.

The Privacy Dilemma

Mark Zuckerberg, Person of the Year (Picture: Time Magazine)

Did you know, Facebook’s privacy policy has more words that the United States Constitution? Yeah, its true.

2010 saw two important privacy-related stories. The first was Google’s collection of personal information thanks to its Street View cars in several countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. Criminal investigations were conducted but eventually, Google promised to delete all the information in order to make sure the data was never to be used or stolen. However, while that was controversial, deleting the data also made headlines as Germany wanted the information to be handed over to them.

However, the biggest privacy story was Facebook. The massive social network has several privacy faux pas, with several changes that have made maintaining your profile’s privacy even harder despite Facebook claiming to make it clearer. It was also made worse when leaked instant messages revealed the extent of Mark Zuckerberg’s view of privacy during his years are Harvard:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don’t know why.

Zuck: They “trust me”

Zuck: Dumb fucks.

However, despite the privacy violations and the fact that its API is essentially an open hose to get into a person’s information without actually needing to be friends with them and if they have essentially made their profile open to the damn world, people still continue to use the social network – with a possible hint at expanding at its most difficult market yet, Asia.

But it seems that Facebook’s privacy violations, in addition to its growth, allowed Time to name Zuckerberg their Person of the Year. Still, congrats on the award. Please don’t release all my data to the data collectors.

Saying Goodbye

The KIN represented Microsoft's failure to find a mobile strategy, and was killed off just months after launch.

Google said goodbye to China this year and hello to Hong Kong after the company was hacked in January by the Chinese government and would no longer censor search results, after agreeing to do so in 2005 in order to get a foothold in the largest internet market. As well, Wave, the darling of Google’s projects and hopeful “future” of email, was shut down and its code given to Apache.

Craigslist also said goodbye to something: its adults services section. The controversial section, which was predominately used to promote prostitution, was pulled in the United States back in September, and in December was closed for international users. As well, P2P software Limewire got the plug pulled after a court forced the company to be shut down for distributing pirated content.

Yahoo, however, said goodbye to many things as Carol Bartz continues to reposition the company in the aftermath of the failed bid from Microsoft. Yahoo bid adieu to the search engine business as it handed over its search engine technology to Microsoft for its Bing in the United States and Canada, with that deal to extend worldwide next year. It will also be shutting down MyBlogLog, Yahoo Picks, Yahoo Buzz, AltaVista and Yahoo Bookmarks – while also trying to sell Delicious, after many rose in fury that Yahoo would shut down the service.

In the other news, Cuil – the supposed Google challenger – was killed off in July after incomplete, weird and missing results put people off the search engine, despite good hype; while Six Apart shut down its Vox blogging service, unable to compete with Tumblr.

As well, we saw the short arrival and quick death of Microsoft’s biggest flop since Vista – the KIN phone, which was unceremoniously dumped back to Microsoft by Verizon.

Oh, and Wired said the web was dead.

What was the most memorable moment of 2010 for you? Comment below!

• America – 18th January
• Mainland Europe – 19th January
• Australia and New Zealand - 20th January
• UK and Ireland - 21th January

The 13 are in addition to the 24 patents that it claims Apple infringed in United States courts.

“The Nokia inventions protected by these patents include several which enable compelling user experiences. For example, using a wiping gesture on a touch screen to navigate content, or enabling access to constantly changing services with an on-device app store, both filed more than ten years before the launch of the iPhone,” Paul Melin, vice president of intellectual property, said.

Nokia and Apple have traded lawsuits against each other in the past since October 2009, and since them, several other companies have jumped on the bandwagon to sue Apple for patent infringement for technologies used on the iPhone. Expanding the lawsuit to Europe means that Nokia is seeking quick resolutions and wins.

According to the New York Times, talking to an intellectual property lawyer, said that choices reflect that. Germany’s streamlined legal system means that patent infringement claims are resolved faster, while British courts are known for “legal discovery” – something that is not available in Europe mainland. The Dutch courts are also known to issue injunctions beyond borders in cases of patent infringement.

Google’s collecting of personal data, including full emails and passwords to sites, while its Street View cars were driving around cities has been described to be a “significant breach” of privacy in the UK by its information commissioner.

Christopher Graham has said that Google has breached the Data Protection Act in the UK. However, shockingly, rather than to make an example of Google for creating such a heavy breach, it will not inflict a financial penalty on the search engine and instead has told that the company should sign a document promising that these things do not happen again or face further enforcement action.

“It is my view that the collection of this information was not fair or lawful and constitutes a significant breach of the first principle of the Data Protection Act,” Graham said in a statement.

“The most appropriate and proportionate regulatory action in these circumstances is to get written legal assurance from Google that this will not happen again – and to follow this up with an ICO audit.”

Google will also be forced to delete the data once legally cleared to do so. This solution is seen as a better alternative than what happened in Germany, when German law officers demanded that Google handed over the personal data to it – though some questioned that it could be used by them to arrest them on crimes.

No word on how the Australian Government plans to handle the data collected on its citizens by Google.

Image from: Jon Delorey/Flickr

Talking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival organised by MediaGuardian, Thompson has said that the broadcaster will release the commercial version of BBC iPlayer “within a year”.

“Within a year we aim to launch an international commercial version of the iPlayer. Subject to trust approval, we also want to find a way of letting UK licence fee payers and servicemen and women use a version of the UK public service iPlayer wherever they are in the world,” Thompson told the audience.

Previously, the only way to access BBC content on iPlayer that was geoblocked – usually content that was broadcast on television – was to use a proxy. Opening a commercial version will most likely be tied with BBC Worldwide’s commercial channels, which include BBC America in the USA and UKTV, Cbeebies and BBC Knowledge in Australia and New Zealand.

BBC content is also available on demand in Australia via Nine’s FixPlay service and, when broadcast, by the ABC via its similar iView website.

BBC iPlayer, launched in the UK in 2007, has been a success in the UK, allowing users to catch up and download (under time constraints) with programming that has aired on the BBC’s ten domestic channels and 59 radio stations – including the World Service.

According to UK newspaper The Guardian, the service is to offer 400 movie titles from these studios, and most likely to include classics and mainstream titles from a couple of years ago.

For the UK, it will also offer 165 films for free via Blinkbox via an advertising revenue sharing deal. For Blinkbox, making such content free is to help build brand awareness for the company, especially when it charges £1.99 for movie and TV shows rentals.

“The size and scope of YouTube’s audience is immense and this exciting tie-up allows us to reach film fans and potential users outside of our usual audience and helping us build on our already rapidly growing customer base,” chief executive for Blinkbox, Michael Comish, told The Guardian.

The move is most likely to be within the UK and the US, but not in Australia. Get those proxies ready!

The Big Bang Theory? Pfft. This week sees the premiere of Series Four of The IT Crowd, one of my favourite comedies. However, while some prefer to wait on BitTorrent, or wait until the ABC acquires the rights to broadcast it, Channel 4 (the broadcaster in the UK) has put the entire first episode up on the web before its television premiere. Only problem: you must be in the UK. So fire up that proxy or VPN, get a disposable email address, and soon you’ll be watching that first episode.

However, if you prefer to wait, it airs on Friday June 25 – so make sure your favourite BitTorrent site is bookmarked. Right after the jump is a trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG1mEk5E-1k&NR=1

The phone will feature a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, a 5 megapixel camera, 512MB of RAM, 512MB of Flash memory (and is expandable because of an SD card slot in the device – 4GB SD card included), a 3.5mm headphone jack and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip inside. Design-wise, it is only 11.5mm thin and weighs 130g – making it thinner and lighter than the iPhone (yes, we actually compared the specs).

It will cost US$529 if you buy it from Google – and that means you are not tied to a carrier and is unlocked – or US$179 with a two year contract from T-Mobile. People from the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong are able to buy the phone from the website as well. No word on Australian availability. Gallery is below.

An inquiry that is reviewing the national DNA database will make allegations that police officers in England and Wales are routinely arresting people so that their DNA sample can be added to that same database; with the inquiry hinting that some of the DNA database could be racially motivated.

That same database is set to be shared with police officials in Canada and Australia; and is already being shared with several of its European counterparts; although, the deal between Canada and Australia is limited to 3,000 sets of fingerprints between each of the countries.

The allegations, to be made public tomorrow, according to UK’s The Guardian, will claim that three-quarters of young black males aged between 18 and 35 are included on the database. However, the chair of the inquiry, Professor Jonathon Montgomery, says that these results should be taken very lightly since the ethnicity of a person is up to the arresting officer.

The report will include testimony from a former superintendent that claims that it is the norm to arrest offenders for everything possible under the law. “It is apparently understood by serving police officers that one of the reasons, if not the reason, for the change in practice is so that the DNA of the offender can be obtained,” Professor Montgomery told the Guardian.

The UK Government announced that it will be keeping the DNA profiles for six years, after a landmark verdict in a European court found that it was illegal to keep the data for an indefinite span of time, even if the person has not committed a crime.

The national database, which is limited in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own police and judiciary), is already declared the largest in the world, with 5 million profiles listed, and has no independent body overseeing it.

The Home Office estimates that there could be up to 980,000 innocent people in the list.

Image: chadmiller/Flickr (CC)