WikiLeaks suspends all operations
WikiLeaks has temporarily shut down, citing funding problems as the reason the site is no longer in operation.
The site, a hotbed for anonymous tip-offs and submissions regarding sensitive information, has been around since 2006 and has been staying afloat thanks to numerous donations from undisclosed sources.
It seems that these donations have dried up, forcing the site to take a temporary hiatus.
Change the world
Somewhat pertinently, WikiLeaks says on its homepage: "We have received hundreds of thousands of pages from corrupt banks, the US detainee system, the Iraq war, China, the UN and many others that we do not currently have the resources to release. "You can change that and by doing so, change the world. Even $10 will pay to put one of these reports into another ten thousand hands and $1000, a million."
WikiLeaks had been hoping for a grant from the Knight Foundation to expand but this has not been forthcoming.
The website will not accept government funding – we doubt it would get it – or any sort of corporate funding, so now it waits in digital limbo hoping that some deep-pocketed investigate journo or campaigner can foot the bill.
Those whistles won't blow themselves.
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UK is Europe's biggest online spender
The UK has proved itself to be the most adept country for spending cash online, with the news that we are now Europe's biggest online shoppers.
A whopping 30 per cent of online shopping is done by us Brits, with web sales set to hit آ£42.7 billion in 2010.
In 2009, we spent آ£38 billion last year with individual spending racked up to آ£1,102 on average over the course of the year.
Strong 2010
"While the retail industry is showing slow signs of recovery, the online shopping sector bucked the trend in 2009 delivering double-digit growth, and is expected to continue to perform strongly in 2010," said Bruce Fair, Managing Director of Kelkoo UK, the company who carried out the report.
Fair continued:"We do not see consumers' appetite for online shopping showing signs of abating anytime soon.
"In these hard times it is no surprise that shoppers are turning to the internet rather than the high street, especially when you consider that purchasing items online can result in savings of 20 per cent or more."
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Review: LG GM750
LG's GM750 is an entry-level touchscreen smartphone, boasting a decent specification and both Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system and LG's S-Class interface.
Hardware buttons are limited, with most functions carried out via the 3-inch touchscreen display. There's also a small optical pad, which works well and lets you swipe a finger to navigate the interface.
The display itself is a resistive panel and is frustratingly unresponsive. It's bright and easy to see in most conditions, but it fails to stand out in any way.
The onscreen keyboard is infuriatingly inaccurate to use. Presses of the screen have to be particularly firm otherwise your touch won't register. As a result, it's very difficult to strike up a fast typing rhythm. We also found the text correction software was quite poor, compounding the issue.
The lack of a built-in stylus is noticeable when trying to click the icons at the very top, and it's particularly tricky for those with larger hands. The phone would also benefit hugely from having a Back button, as without it you'll find yourself repeatedly starting again from the home page.
S-Class
The S-Class interface brings with it several home pages and you can swipe a finger to move from one to the next. Pages include one with customisable widgets – letting you see items such as a calendar, clock and calculator, and the menus will be familiar to existing LG users.
The problem comes when you want to access Windows Mobile features, as the operating system is so well hidden it's difficult to access. While some users may prefer this, we found the handset was more confusing than a regular S-Class device and slower than most Windows Mobile smartphones.
One advantage the Windows OS brings is the inclusion of Office Mobile software. We wouldn't want to use it to create documents from scratch, due to the unresponsive display, but it's nice to be able to open and edit your files when on the move. It's also easier than ever to set up an email account, with support built in for webmail services such as Google Mail, along with more business-orientated clients such as Microsoft's Exchange.
Compact design
The handset itself features a neat and compact design and it's a lot easier to slip into a pocket than many other touchscreen rivals. The plastics are all study enough for daily use and the weight adds to the robust feel.
The 5-megapixel camera produces reasonable images but, as with most other features on this handset, it doesn't really stand out from the crowd. There's also a noticeable lag between pressing the shutter and your photograph being taken – often resulting in blurred photographs. Connectivity is top-notch though, with 3G/HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in.
Overall, with its unusual mix of operating systems, this handset isn't the success it could have been. The screen is simply too unresponsive – at least on our review sample – to use comfortably, and performing the simplest processes takes far longer than it should.
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3G Apple iPad UK release date unveiled
Apple has announced via its UK website it will be shipping the 3G version of the iPad in April for the UK.
This means the official UK version of the iPad will first land in late March, and barely days later will be followed by the better specified but more expensive 3G iteration.
Jobs said at the time of launch that the iPad data plans internationally would be announced in June or July, so it must mean that a deal to provide data in the UK has been struck sooner than expected.
Apple has decided to keep pricing close to its chest, stating only the cost of the iPad will be 'announced', but it is expected to start around آ£400 in the UK.
Micro-managed
A number of networks, including Orange, O2 and Vodafone, have been tipped to provide the data, which will be enabled through microSIM cards - different to those seen in your average mobile.
This means that users on a decent price plan for their phone won't be able to just buy a 3G iPad and then just put their mobile SIM in whenever they want to surf the net.
We're awaiting more news on who will be supplying the iPad data in the UK - and just how much that will cost too.
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In Depth: The best sites to download free movies, music, TV and books
There's never been a better time to be a cheapskate. Instead of buying CDs, you can stream almost any song ever recorded without paying a penny.
Instead of expensive DVD box sets, you can get entire series online for free. Movies new and old are mere clicks away, with no admission fee bar the odd advert.
Established authors want you to flick the pages of virtual editions of their work, while up-and-coming writers hope that free copies now will make you a lifelong fan later.
Getting free content couldn't be easier – and it's all perfectly legal. Who needs dodgy downloads when there's a lifetime's worth of legal stuff to consume first?
The best free ebooks
The web is awash with things to read, but even the best pieces of writing online have usually been chopped into pieces and plastered with adverts. If you'd rather lose yourself in a book, there's no shortage of content to choose from – and you're not limited to the ancient, out-of-copyright titles on Project Gutenberg either.
One of the best places to start is Matthew McClintock's site Manybooks.net, which collates ebooks from a wide range of sources and provides download links via the website and its associated RSS feeds. The emphasis is largely on older publications – you won't find the latest Dan Brown novel here – but the choice is enormous. We particularly like the banned books category.
Few mainstream publishers offer free downloads of entire books, so science fiction and fantasy publisher Baen Books deserves enormous credit for its library of published novels. As Baen's Eric Flint explained back in 2000, Baen is giving away books to fight piracy: "I'm quite confident that any 'losses' I sustain will be more than made up for by the expansion in the size of my audience," he wrote. Nine years on, Baen's still adding books to the list of freebies.
Magazine publishers are beginning to embrace free content too. Both www.issuu.com and www.iudu.com attempt to recreate the printed magazine experience in your web browser – we use the former to showcase features on the PC Plus website – and while the available publications tend to be niche titles, a bit of browsing uncovers plenty of little gems.
FREEBIES: Issuu delivers a traditional magazine experience inside your web browser
If you'd rather read publications in PDF format, PDF Geni aims to be the Google of the PDF world. It's fast and works well, but it's best suited to technical and business-related documents.
Everyone's an author
You'll find lots of PowerPoint presentations and documents about running electrical substations on Scribd, but the so-called 'YouTube of Print' also provides access to an enormous catalogue of fiction and non-fiction books.
One problem with sites like this is their accessibility. The fact that anybody can upload means the odd bit of piracy and a lot of pretty bad writing.
If you like the idea of discovering new authors but don't want to wade through the dross, HarperCollins' Authonomy might be the solution. It's a cross between a publishing platform and a social network, with aspiring authors uploading their work and rating others' efforts. Books are free to read, and if you don't mind reading works in progress – few of the available books have been edited by professional editors – you might just discover the next blockbuster author.
If you're too busy to read entire manuscripts, try www.dailylit.com. It takes an interesting approach to online reading: instead of giving you the entire book, it chops it up into daily instalments and delivers it via email or RSS. There are more than 800 free books to choose from – from self-help to science fiction.
Back in the bad old days of digital music, the choice was simple: if you wanted free music, you'd either download MP3s from unsigned musicians or you'd break the law. Now, though, the landscape has been transformed. Free music is everywhere online, the sound quality is usually superb and the artists are people you've actually heard of.
Radio stations were quick to move online, and your local radio station almost certainly streams over the web, as do all the BBC ones. Some stations also publish their programmes as podcasts that you can listen to when you're not online. The BBC has a comprehensive collection at www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts, but there's an even wider selection in Apple's iTunes software.
Keep an eye out for podcasts such as Chicago Public Radio's Sound Opinions, which has played host to artists including Radiohead and Arcade Fire, and NPR's All Songs Considered, which has featured guest DJs including Thom Yorke, Lily Allen, Conor Oberst, Ray Davies and Randy Newman.
ALL THE SONGS: NPR's All Songs Considered is an excellent music podcast. Apple's iTunes has plenty more available for free
The world of online radio is rather fragmented, with aggregators such as Shoutcast featuring so many stations they're a pain rather than a pleasure to browse, but things should improve early next year for UK users when the BBC and the commercial sector come together in a joint online radio project, aggregating up to 500 UK radio stations in a single portal. The – unnamed as we went to press – project is expected to enter beta testing just before Christmas, and it should be available to the public in early 2010.
Meanwhile, you could always try the radio versions of your favourite magazines: NME, Q and Kerrang have all expanded to become media brands rather than mere print publications, with online radio stations catering specifically for each publication's demographic.
Hang the DJ
Obviously, the problem with radio is that you're not in charge of what's playing, which is why Spotify's on-demand music streaming is so appealing. The free version has retreated behind an invite-only wall – that is, you can't sign up until another user invites you – but a quick trawl through Twitter soon uncovers lots of people with invites to spare.
Don't worry if you can't find an invitation, though, because Spotify isn't the only on-demand music service floating around the internet. Grooveshark, Deezer and PureVolume all have wide selections of music, with the latter focusing on emerging artists.
UNKNOWN MUSIC: PureVolume's emphasis on new artists makes it an excellent way to discover new music
The advertising-supported site We7 Digital has a good mix of mainstream and indie stuff that's as current as the charts. The ads are more intrusive than the ones on Spotify's free service, but at least We7 doesn't have the Conservatives annoying you between tracks.
If you prefer the thrill of discovery to the familiarity of your existing record collection, then Last.fm is the place to go. As a free music service it's pretty good, but as a way of discovering new music it's superb: simply enter the names of artists you like and Last.fm suggests others you might not be aware of.
The iLike service operates on a similar principle and is available through www.ilike.com, while Musicovery generates a playlist based on the buttons and sliders you click.
Free online TV
The BBC iPlayer is a wonderful thing but, as a BBC announcer might put it, other video services are available. Channel 4's 4oD service is very good, with the option to PIN-protect the service so young children don't watch the channel's more mature output available.
It's not just a catch-up service for the last few days' programmes, either: 4oD is offers entire archives, so you can watch the entire first and second series of things like Green Wing if you fancy it. It's one of the best ways to kill time watching TV series legally.
Channel Five offers video on-demand too, with free programming in exchange for pre-roll advertising, and both it and ITV make programmes available for 30 days after broadcast.
Sky's getting in on the act too, but it's not quite as generous as its terrestrial rivals: much of the Sky Player's free programming has a little asterisk after the word 'free'. Sky is rather keen on protecting its subscription revenues, so content you'd normally need a Sky dish to watch is only free to existing Sky subscribers – and only if you're already paying to get that particular channel.
Even YouTube is getting in on the TV act. In September, Channel 4 became the first broadcaster to agree to deliver full-length TV programming on Google's video service. The deal means Channel 4 will publish more than 3,000 hours of archive programmes such as BrassEye and Teachers, with Google and Channel 4 splitting the ad money.
You'll also find Channel 4 content on movie rental site LoveFilm, whose video-on-demand service is peppered with freebies such as Derren Brown Mind Control. If you're using an ad blocker you'll need to switch it off, as LoveFilm – reasonably enough – needs to pay the bills in order to deliver free programming.
One of the most interesting video-on-demand services is Hulu, a joint venture between NBC Universal, News Corp and Disney that streams content from nearly 190 different companies including FOX, ABC, Sony, Warner Bros and Comedy Central.
US ONLY: The popular video-on-demand service Hulu is finally coming to the UK at some point in 2010
That makes it a one-stop shop for almost any popular US programme: The Simpsons, Lost, The Office, 30 Rock… it's a superb service and there's just one problem: the UK launch has been delayed until at least 2010, so if you're outside the US you can't use it unless you're willing to bend the rules a little bit.
We're told that anonymisers such as Hotspot Shield can fool services such as Lulu.com and the Lala.com streaming music service into believing you are a US resident, although using such trickery is definitely against the terms and conditions.
It's also worth noting that broadcasters are actively trying to block anonymiser services, so what works today might not work tomorrow. The Boxee media centre software is engaged in an ongoing battle with Hulu: the service bans Boxee, Boxee finds a way round it, Hulu blocks that and so on.
There's a surprisingly large selection of free movies to choose from online, although if you're looking for the collected works of Pixar you're out of luck. If you like short movies by new filmmakers, however, you're spoilt for choice.
The BBC Film Network showcases short films from up-and-coming British filmmakers, while Seattle-based Short Of The Week does the same for global indie films, highlighting the best movies from sprawling sites such as www.dailymotion.com. We'd particularly recommend The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon.
You'll find award-winning shorts at Coffee Shorts too, and while the selection is fairly limited the quality is generally very high. The same can't be said for the enormous Revver.com, which hosts the films that Coffee Shorts displays: as with most 'anyone can upload' video sites, browsing its pages feels like being trapped inside an episode of You've Been Framed.
Vimeo is much more successful, perhaps because users can create their own channels and moderate the content to weed out the really bad stuff. While the site has more than 29,000 movies in its library, finding something interesting doesn't feel like a chore.
Prefer self-improvement to escapism? Videojug hosts thousands of how-to videos ranging from DIY to dating. If comedy's your thing then you'll be happy to hear you can get that online too. YouTube's always a good source of older performance footage, but if you prefer your comedy to be cutting-edge then Will Ferrell's Funny Or Die mixes up material from amateur comedians with clips from established stars.
A voting system is designed "to eliminate all the junk that people have to pick through to find videos". It's often hilarious but every now and again the content is a bit too American, which also applies to The Onion News Network. The video wing of the satirical newspaper misses as often as it hits, but when it's good, it's very good indeed.
Movie magic
Short films are all very well, but what if you prefer entertainment that lasts a bit longer? You can download documentaries of the tinfoil hat variety from www.freedocumentaries.org and hoot at the conspiracies – not all of the films are crazy, though a reasonable proportion are – but if you'd prefer something more interesting, then the Internet Archive has an extraordinary collection at www.archive.org/details/movies.
HISTORICAL INSIGHT: The Internet Archive is a great source of old film footage. It includes newsreels, public info films and movie classics
With an archive including wartime propaganda, videogame footage, newsreels, Night of the Living Dead – the original one, that is – and masses of terrible public information films, it's a site you can end up spending lots of time on. It's got an excellent collection of audio recordings too, including the 1938 broadcast of Orson Welles reading War of the Worlds.
Some of cinema's earliest efforts are now in the public domain, which means they pop up everywhere. Veoh has a decent collection at www.veoh.com/collection/cultclassics that ranges from 1938's STI warning movie Sex Madness to the iconic – and unconnected – Things To Come, although annoyingly you need to install Veoh's player software to watch anything more than a preview. Classic Cinema Online is the place to go for movies such as Dracula, House on Haunted Hill and, er, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.
JOIN THE CULT: Overall Veoh is a bit of a mixed bag of films and clips, but its Cult Classics section is excellent
The good news is that things are just going to get better for cheapskates. Hulu's coming to the UK, YouTube's expanding into other areas – the recent U2 concert broadcast on the service shows the shape of things to come, with artists offering free footage in exchange for a cut of the ad money – and other free services such as Vevo, a joint venture between Universal Music and YouTube, are preparing to launch.
The increasing amount of free content isn't because firms are feeling generous. It's because they want to make money. Free content does two things: it keeps people away from piracy – why bother with file sharing if you can download something from the iPlayer? – and it can be a gateway 'drug', something to get you hooked on a service that can then tempt you with premium products.
THE SILVER SCREEN: Classic Cinema Online is heaven for old-movie buffs. It's stuffed with everything from biopics to spaghetti westerns
Converting just a few people into paying customers can be very lucrative. With those customers paying the bills, the rest of us can continue to enjoy something for nothing.
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Blu-ray discs set for possible price hike
Blu-rays and DVDs could well be set for a price hike after it was announced that the cost of procurement prices for polycarbonate is set to rise.
Polycarbonate is found everything from water bottles to sunglasses, but it is a key ingredient in creating Blu-rays, CDs and DVDs.
According to Digitimes, if prices for the material increase throughout the first quarter of the year then manufacturers will have to up their quotes.
High price
There is a silver lining in that to counteract the price hike that is inevitably to come from Taiwanese manufacturers, retailers in the Taiwan market have increased the amount of discs they have been purchasing – meaning that if there is a price increase we shouldn't see it in the shops for some time to come.
Blu-ray prices have stayed consistently high since the format's launch, so any price hike at this stage would be a major blow. Especially considering disc-based media is already fighting off the internet and the rise of the digital copy.
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iPad UI now available for the iPhone
The iPad user interface is now available for iPhone users - meaning a new fancy 3D view and iBooks too.
The option is only available for those with jailbroken iPhones (did you really expect anything else?) but means you'll be getting the full 10-inch experience in a teeny screen.
What's more, the interface doesn't just squeeze the icons down to an impossible size - everything is re-calibrated to make your iPhone into an iPhad.
Skillz needed
You'll need a modicum of modding expertise (or just be a little bit foolhardy) as well as the ability to head to the Cydia app store to get it, but come on - who wouldn't want that on their phone?
Check out the video below if you want to see the modification in action - and be warned, you may think you've suddenly become a giant holding an iPad like an iPhone.
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Virgin Media offering free landline to mobile calls
Virgin Media has announced it will be allowing its customers to make free calls to mobiles.
Although only available from Virgin Phone lines to Virgin Mobile customers, this will be important to a lot of people who see landline to mobile calling as prohibitively expensive.
The new service will go live from 1 April this year, with Virgin Media claiming that آ£1.6 billion is paid in charges from landline to mobile.
Big claim
Virgin Media claims that nearly 500,000 customers subscribing to its quadplay (broadband, phone line, TV and mobile services) will be able to take advantage of the offer, with more than 4 million home phone customers also able to make free calls to anyone with a Virgin Mobile phone.
Graeme Oxby, Executive Director of Mobile and Telephony at Virgin Media said: "At a time when other providers seem keen on giving their customers less from their phone service, we are extremely proud to be leading the way in this field, being the first to offer free home phone to mobile calls.
"Our successful quadplay strategy has demonstrated customers are looking for exceptional value by bundling more services together, and this move to include free calls to mobiles with our home phone service underlines our commitment to ensure Virgin Media customers get the best deals possible."
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Tablet PC makers shaken up by iPad pricing
While Apple looks set to kickstart a whole new category of 'tablet computing' with the launch of the iPad this year, competing manufacturers are quickly re-evaluating their strategies in light of the surprisingly low $499 price point of Apple's new machine.
New that the competition is having to rethink their pricing for tablet PCs comes from a recent rumour in Digitimes, citing unnamed sources who claim companies such as ASUS and MSI were expecting Apple's iPad to launch at around $1,000.
So what now for the competing Android-based offerings to the iPad?
The iPad's highly aggressive pricing strategy is something of a departure for Apple, an attempt to create a new market for tablet computers amongst consumers and, no doubt, in part, a reaction to the increasingly low cost of netbooks in the last year.
Acer cans tablet plans
In related news, Taiwanese netbook giant Acer has announced that it is now no longer planning to make a tablet PC of its own.
Acer Taiwan president Scott Linn has ruled out a similar tablet computer, says the latest DigiTimes report.
According to that report: "Lin pointed out that designing an iPad-like device would not pose any technical challenges for Acer, but said such a product does not fit into Acer's business model."
He goes on to cite how the iPad will be supported through iTunes, and that given that no one has come up with a real rival digital media store so far, "other players are unlikely to be able to replicate its result simply by copying."
Linn added that the netbook sector was a "different consumer [group]" to potential iPad or tablet PC buyers.
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Sky 3D football: the verdict
There were more people than normal seeing double in pubs up and down the UK yesterday, with some lucky football fans watching the Super Sunday clash between Arsenal and Manchester United in Sky 3D.
This has already been a significant tie in the tech calendar as it was also the match chosen to be the first to be shown in HD, some year earlier. With the complete success HD has had in the home, the stakes are high for 3D to make the same sort of impact.
TechRadar were lucky enough to be at the Slug And Lettuce in Islington – London, Manchester,Cardiff, Edinburgh and Dublin were the host cities – where one of the 3D matches were shown and we were initially impressed. Not convinced... but impressed.
There is no shock and awe factor with the new wave of 3D. While we did duck a few times when the Sky graphics swung past on the screen, the game itself is shot in a more subdued way.
There are no balls flying to the camera, no in-your-face goal celebrations. The 3D brings added to depth to proceedings. This can be seen within the advertising hoardings and the back tier of the crowds – everything is given a much better sense of perspective.
As with any nascent technology, however, there are problems. LG provided the TV screens for the match in all the pubs and while 47 inches is big enough for 3D in the home, on a crowded and rather long pub floor, the 3D effect is almost non-existent from the back of the room.
There is definitely a sweet-spot that only a few lucky punters managed to hit by sitting close to the screen. The rest of us were left wanting more.
Sky provided a separate commentary for the 3D feed of the match; this is something which may sit uneasy will football fans that are used to hearing the dulcet tones of Andy Gray and Martin Tyler.
In fact, Sky produced a completely separate edit for the game. Using eight 3D camera rigs (16 cameras in all) the feed was mixed so that the slow motion used suited the 3D footage better and some of the angles – corner of the goal-posts – were not used in the traditional broadcast.
Eight cameras are not enough to bring you all the angles you want from a football match. We have been spoilt in recent years with the sheer amount of cameras on-hand in a normal HD match that it is noticeable that some areas of the action were not being filmed (the dugout etc) and this meant that wide shots were used for the majority of the game – a shot which doesn't do 3D justice.
One of the biggest bugbears for watching Sky on 3D is the glasses. There's no getting around it, putting on the specs adds an extra barrier to the live action you are watching. You have to ask yourself: would you watch a crucial game in the World Cup in 3D, knowing that the technology is still playing catch-up?
Saying that, close-up look great in 3D and when the technology used – passive 3D, with a polarising filter built into the TVs – comes to the home this summer (at no extra cost, as long as you have a Sky HD subscription) there will be a feeling of immersing yourself in the game. This is something that's difficult to do in a crowded pub, when the six-foot Arsenal supporter in front of you tries his best to obscure your view.
In the end, it was the superb display by Man Utd which ended up being the star of the game, not the technology. We can't help thinking that Sky would have wanted the match to be a 0-0 draw, so that the talk of the pub was around 'is 3D the future?' and not Rooney's right foot. In the end, it wasn't.
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Competition: WIN! A Datawind UbiSurfer netbook
TechRadar and Datawind have teamed together to offer you the chance of winning one of four Ubisurfer netbooks. The UbiSurfer is the first netbook to offer users free Internet access in the UK and low cost roaming in Europe and USA, it also enables users to surf the web wherever there is a mobile phone signal.
Connectivity is one of the UbiSurfer's strongest assets. Apart from the standard Wi-Fi and LAN connections, Datawind has collaborated with Vodafone to offer an embedded SIM and GPRS modem. This allows access to the internet anywhere a mobile phone signal is available, at home and abroad.
Users are not limited to Wi-Fi hotspots and there is no need to buy a costly USB broadband dongle to ensure connection. Due to Datawind's patented acceleration technology the UbiSurfer delivers web pages faster than other portable netbooks on a mobile network, at five to seven seconds per page.
Another feature that makes the UbiSurfer stand out from the competition is the free-usage model which eliminates the complexity of purchasing mobile web devices by eliminating lengthy contractual payments, activation fees and credit checks. With the UbiSurfer you pay for the device not the usage.
For the average user, there are no monthly fees, airtime tariffs, contracts or recurring fees – those are paid for by Datawind. Users get 30 hours of free surfing a month for 12 months and 5p per minute roaming in Europe. Upgrading to an unlimited usage package is available, and only an additional آ£5.99 a month.
To be in with a chance of winning one of the four netbooks we have to give away, just click here and answer the competition question. Good luck!
Please note that this competition is only open to UK residents over 18 years of age.
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Google phases out IE6 support
Google is starting to phase out support for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6, following the aging browser being identified as a weak link in recent cyber-attacks against the search giant.
As of 1 March 2010 Google Docs, Google Sites and a number of other Google services will no longer work "properly" with the browser and Google is recommending users upgrade as soon as possible to a newer version of Internet Explorer.
The news follows recent cyber-attacks, in which hackers used a flaw in IE6 to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
The web evolves
Both the French and German governments advised their citizens to switch to a different browser until the IE6 issue had been resolved.
"The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice," wrote Google's Rajen Sheth in a blog post.
"Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively."
For its part, Microsoft has pledged to support the browser until 2014, despite many claiming that IE6 is holding the web back.
According to web analytics company StatCounter, Mozilla's Firefox is gaining ground rapidly on market-leader Internet Explorer in Europe, now having 40 per cent of the market compared with Microsoft's 45 per cent share.
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Macmillan demands higher prices for ebooks
Major book publisher Macmillan has demanded that its books are sold for more than Amazon's $9.99 special offer to its Kindle customers, forcing Amazon to now charge its customers $12.99 to $15.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.
All of Macmillan's ebooks were removed from the Kindle store late last week, which immediately suggested something was up between the major book publisher and the online retailer.
It quickly emerged via communications from Macmillan that Macmillan is unhappy with Amazon's loss-leading $9.99 pricing for Kindle copies of new books.
Higher pricing for ebooks
From now on, Macmillan wants all e-book sellers to use an "agency model" (ie in which online retailers such as Amazon act as sales agent of Macmillan) and that Macmillan would set each book's sale price individually. Macmillan books would be priced at $14.99 to $15.99, with the odd $12.99 new title.
In a post on the Kindle forum, an official Amazon company statement now reads:
"Dear Customers:
Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.
We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.
Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!
Thank you for being a customer."
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Tories pledge to deliver 100Mbps broadband
As we move closer towards a general election in the UK, the Conservative Party has pledged to deliver super-fast broadband in UK homes by 2017.
The Conservatives plans to develop a "nationwide super-fast broadband" will be part-funded by the BBC license fee.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne wants to see most UK homes having 100Mbps broadband connections by 2017, with cabling in those difficult-to-connect rural areas paid for by a combination of cash from private investors with the BBC license fee making up any shortfalls in the required funding.
Railways, motorways, broadband
Talking to the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Osborne said: "In the 19th Century we built the railways. In the 20th Century we built the motorways. In the 21st Century let's build the super-fast broadband network that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Britain."
Labour has recently pledged to get everyone in the UK on a minimum 2Mbps connection by 2012, with Treasury Minister Stephen Timms saying of the Tories latest broadband plans: "On broadband it's not Britain but the Tories that are playing catch-up.
"Labour have already announced measures for rolling out broadband across the country - and the Tories have opposed the plans to make that happen."
Fantasy economics
Meanwhile,the Liberal Democrats accused the Tories of "fantasy world economics" with spokesman Don Foster adding: "Anyone can promise the earth - what matters is how you pay for it.
"All independent research shows that the market simply cannot provide high-speed broadband in all parts of the country in the short term without investment.
"Hints that the license fee payer will be hit are the closest the Tories come to explaining how they intend to pay for this."
"We look forward to engaging with politicians from every party," a spokesman said.
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Steve Jobs says Google's "Don't Be Evil" mantra is 'bulls**t
Following the launch of the Apple iPad, the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, has branded Google's "Don't Be Evil" mantra as 'bulls**t' and said that the reason iPad and iPhone/iPod touch do not support Flash video is because Adobe is lazy.
Speaking to Apple employees at a company event after the iPad launch at One Infinite Loop, Jobs pulled no punches when discussing Google and Adobe, having plenty to say about Google's entry into the smartphone market with the Android-powered Nexus One and the reasons why Apple continues to not allow iPhone (and soon, iPad) users to watch Flash video on their devices.
Speaking about Google, Jobs stressed that Apple did not enter the search business. He added that employees should make no mistake and understand that Google wants to kill the iPhone.
Don't Be Evil is bulls**t
To top off the observations on Google, Jobs added: "I want to go back to that [Google] question first and say one more thing," he says. This don't be evil mantra: "It's bullshit."
Moving onto Adobe, Jobs said that the company was lazy and that Apple does not support Flash because it is too buggy, he says. The most common reason for a Mac crashing is because of Flash, he added.
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