Yesterday, TorrentFreak reported that the popular BitTorrent tracker Demonoid was to be resurrected, under a new administrator. Now, less that a day later the site has < href="http://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-is-back-080411/">made its comeback after exactly 6 months of downtime
Mobile phones, iPods and other consumer devices may soon be able to hold a hundred times more information than they do at present thanks to a breakthrough in storage technology. Scientists at IBM say they have developed a new type of digital storage which would enable a device such as an MP3 player to store about half a million songs — or 3,500 films — and cost far less to produce
eBay is using Australia as a guinea pig to trial a new policy where all other modes of payment are barred except its own transaction gateway, PayPal. Direct deposits, personal cheques and money orders will no longer be payment options from 17 June. This is the first time these restrictions will be imposed by eBay anywhere in the world and could be enforced in other markets in the future
The European Parliament rejected attempts to criminalise the sharing of files by private individuals and threw out the idea of banning copyright abusers from the Internet. The vote was close, with 314 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) voting in favour of an amendment to scrap what many consider draconian and disproportionate measures to protect copyright over the internet, and 297 voting against the amendment
The United Nations refugee agency has unveiled a new partnership with Google to help track refugees from Iraq to Darfur and raise public awareness of its work. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched its new service using the Google Earth Outreach
programme, which allows organisations to add their own data and information as a layer
on top of the existing Google Earth service
For the first time, the amount of malicious software being released has outstripped that of legitimate software. Malware now makes up the majority of all new applications: 65 percent of the 54,609 applications developed and released to the public for Windows-based PCs in the past six months were malicious, according to Symantec’s latest threat report
Telstra says it has begun the process of laying down 9,000 kilometres of cable from Australia to Hawaii in a bid to improve internet speed
EMC reached a deal to buy data-storage firm Iomega for $US213 million ($228.84 million) in cash, scuttling a deal Iomega previously made with a group of Chinese companies. The two sides agreed to the deal after EMC sweetened its offer to $US3.85 a share
Yahoo has rejected Microsoft’s takeover bid a second time as too low. Microsoft’s initial offer was valued at $31 a share, but the declining price of Microsoft shares reduced the offer to just more than $29 a share
Hundreds of police officers across South Australia caught using their work computers to illegally copy movie DVDs will escape prosecution. The activity — strictly banned under federal copyright laws — was detected during an audit conducted by the information technology branch of SA Police
Chinese authorities appear to have lifted a block on the English-language version of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, but politically sensitive topics such as Tibet and Tiananmen Square are still off limits. Internet users in Beijing and Shanghai confirmed on Saturday that they could access the English-language version of one of the world’s most popular websites, but the Chinese language version was still restricted
Dell, the personal-computer maker that pioneered selling custom-made machines directly to clients, is moving away from its build-to-order model to reduce costs. Dell is limiting the degree to which buyers can dictate specifications while expanding its line of prepackaged models, operations chief Mike Cannon said Wednesday. Dell will also outsource more PC manufacturing to partners, he said
The internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds. At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, the grid
will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds. The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call
A lawyer who sent out hundreds of thousands of threatening letters demanding that alleged file-sharers pay 400 euros, has been banned from operating for 6 months. Elizabeth Martin, who had been working with Swiss anti-piracy outfit, Logistep, was condemned by the Paris Bar Council
The head of one of Britain’s biggest internet providers has criticised the music industry for demanding that he act against pirates. The trade body for UK music, the BPI, asked internet service providers to disconnect people who ignore requests to stop sharing music. But Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse, which runs the TalkTalk broadband service, is refusing. He said it is not his job to be an internet policeman
Microsoft has dropped two strong hints in the past two days that the next version of its Windows operating system will arrive in 2009, shaving up to a year off previous expectations. It could also be a signal that Microsoft intends to cut its losses with Windows Vista, which has been poorly received or shunned by customers, especially large companies. Microsoft has long said it wants to release Windows 7 about three years after Vista, which was released to manufacturing in November 2006 but not officially launched until January 2007. Given Microsoft’s recent track record — Vista arrived more than five years after XP — most outsiders had pegged some time in 2010 as a safe bet for Windows 7’s arrival
Microsoft has announced that a version of Windows XP Home will continue to be available until either 30 June 2010, or one year following the release of its next-generation Windows 7 operating system
Firefox 3 Beta 5 was released today. This last beta release sports performance-boosting improved connection parallelism. Not only has ‘the memory leak’ been fixed: Firefox now uses less memory than other browsers. The final release of Firefox 3 is expected in June — via Slashdot
Google plans to split off its search marketing arm from its affiliate marketing business and sell the search marketing business at its recently acquired DoubleClick advertising technology unit. The online search and advertising leader is looking to spin off its Chicago-based search marketing business, Performics, which employs 200 of DoubleClick’s 1,500 staff. Tom Phillips, director of DoubleClick’s integration efforts with Google, said the company wants to dispose of the search marketing business to eliminate the perception Google might favor the unit in its search results and other efforts
Adobe is readying a new version of its Creative Suite, the software bundle that includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and other applications for print and Web design. Only this time there’s a twist: The new version of Photoshop will support 64-bit memory addressing for the first time — but only if you’re running Windows
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