FCC makes Net neutrality rules official

The Federal Communications Commission today officially adopted controversial Net neutrality rules, but the fight is far from over as the FCC's authority to create and enforce these rules may still be in question.

Microsoft bringing Windows to ARM chips

At CES next month, Microsoft will reportedly unveil a full-featured version of Windows that runs on ARM processors--a big departure from the x86 architecture.

Web giants get bigger, location takes off

The easiest way to sum up the Web in 2010 is that it was a year of growth. The big got bigger and smaller companies came out of the woodwork with new plays on old ideas.

Commerce Dept. suggests new privacy regulations

The Commerce Department today edged toward endorsing new federal laws regulating companies' data collection practices and requiring that customers be notified of data breaches.

Yahoo slashing products like Delicious, MyBlogLog

Layoffs apparently aren't the only thing Yahoo is doing to slim down size and cut expenses:

Are states unleashing the dogs of cyber war?

NO NATION state has ever been definitively linked to an act of cyber warfare, but the internet is certainly being used as a battlefield. Even though governments are not owning up to it, two recent events make state involvement look more likely than ever.

7 reasons you won't want a Windows 7 slate

Word on the street is that Microsoft plans to announce a Windows-powered iPad contender at next month's Consumer Electronics Show.

Facebook founder named Time's 'person of year'

NEW YORK (AFP) – Time magazine named Facebook co-founderMark Zuckerberg its "person of the year" Wednesday, beating out a push by readers of the magazine for WikiLeaks maestro Julian Assange to take the honor.

Google's Chrome PC may see muted demand in China

Google Inc's new Chrome PC may meet with chilly demand from China as tensions between Beijing and the searchgiant curb the latter's offerings and as netbook sales slowly fall off the cliff in the world's second largest PC market.

Scientist says he found Japan fish thought extinct

TOKYO – A Japanese salmon species thought to be extinct for 70 years is alive and well in a lake near Mount Fuji, a science professor said Wednesday.

Julian Assange UK bail appeal to be heard Thursday

LONDON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will spend at least one more night in a British prison, after court officials said Wednesday that an appeal against the decision to grant him bail would not be heard for at least 24 hours.

WikiLeaks' Assange granted bail in London

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange was granted bail today by a London judge, but prosecutors said they will appeal the decision.

Appeals court: Feds need warrants for e-mail

Police must obtain search warrants before perusing Internet users' e-mail records, a federal appeals court ruled today in a landmark decision that struck down part of a 1986 law allowing warrantless access.

Who's afraid of Google's book store?

After many delays Google has finally got into the bookselling business. Its eBooks store is only available in the United States for now, but it is far more ambitious in scope than might have been imagined.

Anonymous Wikileaks attackers 'easy' to find says study

Working out who carried out web attacks on behalf of Wikileaks would be easy, suggests a study.

The tool used in the attacks leaks the net addresses of everyone who used it, reveal Dutch computer scientists.

Facebook in challenge to Google crown

While Google delivers search results selected by algorithms that take into account a user's Web history, Facebook boasts a richer level of personalisation based on one's own "likes" and the recommendations of Facebook friends.

WikiLeaks could be vulnerable to Espionage Act

news analysis If WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange is indicted by the U.S. government for disseminating classified information, as even his own lawyer now expects, his defense is likely to face long legal odds.

Behind the China attacks on Google (FAQ)

Computer attacks on corporations happen all the time, but most companies don't publicize them. They fear damage to their reputation and they don't want to jeopardize the investigation or reveal any information that could be used in future attacks.

Symantec: Stuxnet clues point to uranium enrichment target

Symantec researchers have figured out a key mystery to the Stuxnet worm code that strongly suggests it was designed to sabotage a uranium enrichment facility.

International intrigue puts security on global stage

From the attacks on Google that originated in China to the Stuxnet worm that experts say was written to sabotage Iran's nuclear program, 2010 was notable for international intrigue in the security world.

Altered gene can make boys develop as girls

An altered gene which causes male embryos to develop female genitalia, has been identified in humans.

Apple quietly drops iOS jailbreak detection API

Apple has disabled, without explanation, a jailbreak detection API in iOS less than six months after introducing it. Device management vendors say the reasons for the decision are a mystery, but insist they can use alternatives to discover if an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad has been modified so they can load and modify applications outside of Apple's iTunes-based App Store.

Online photo coincidences betray your friends

The power of coincidence may help identify the social ties of even the most privacy-conscious web user, a new study of image-sharing site Flickr suggests.

Last year David Crandall, now at Indiana University in Bloomington, analysed the geotags on Flickr photographs – the latitude-longitude coordinates that most smartphones and many cameras add automatically to photographs. Given a large enough photograph collection, he showed that it was possible to create accurate global and city maps.

Toy-de-force: Inside the steampunk Lego lab

Video: World's oldest computer recreated in Lego

Andrew Carol's computers can calculate the solutions to mathematical equations and tell you the exact time and date of a lunar eclipse several hundred years into the future.

Yet these machines compute without a hint of silicon. They crunch numbers without hard drives, wires or batteries. All Carol needs to build his computers are plastic blocks, gears and a hand-operated crank, because his machines are made entirely out of Lego.

Web Sockets and the risks of unfinished standards

Enthusiasm for a promising new standard called Web Sockets has quickly cooled in some quarters as a potential security problem led some browser makers to hastily postpone support.

The Web Sockets technology, which opens up a live communication link between a browser and a server, remains an important part of plans to make the Web a home for more dynamic, interactive sites. It could, for example, speed up Google Instant searching and multiplayer games. But Mozilla and Opera put their Web Socket plans on hold this week until the wrinkles are ironed out.

MPAA, RIAA: Lawsuits won't protect content

Lawyers representing independent filmmakers, including the studio that produced Oscar-winner "The Hurt Locker," might learn something from a document filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce today by music, television, and film industry trade groups.

Chrome Cr-48, black MacBook: Separated at birth?

The all-black Cr-48 that Google is shipping to the first members of its Chrome OS notebook pilot project looked awfully familiar to us when it showed up at our office.

Bill Clinton Warns Dreamforce Crowd About Wikileaks Threat

former President Bill Clinton's keynote speech Wednesday at Dreamforce 2010 in San Francisco was delayed because his flight came in late, so Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff got entertainer Stevie Wonder on stage to talk about his life.

Google tunes up Chrome's JavaScript engine

Google's newest test versions of Chrome are equipped with a faster JavaScript engine, an increasingly important browser component for running Web-based programs.

The result is faster-loading pages, more powerful Web applications, and another round in the browser performance competition with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Opera.

Feds hint at charges for WikiLeaks' Assange

The U.S. government indicated today that WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange could be in legal jeopardy for disclosing classified information because he is "not a journalist."

When asked whether "traditional media" organizations that republish secret documents could be prosecuted, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that the administration applauds "the role of journalists in your daily pursuits."

Wikileaks To Keep Going Without Assange

In perhaps the least surprising development in the Wikileaks saga, the shadow army will continue its high-tech samizdat campaign even while founder Julian Assange is in court or even in jail.“Today’s actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won’t affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal,” Wikileaks said on its Twitter site.Wikileaks Assange appeared in court this afternoon (Tuesday London time) and was denied bail. His next court appearance will be Dec. 14, Wikileaks said.Much media attention has focused on Assange as an "Army of One." Why? Because there needs to be a villain, or hero, with a face.

New virus tweets its way into Twitter

A new virus is infecting Twitter users through the use of URLs shortened by the goo.gl service.
Apparently triggered last night, the virus is spreading as a result of users clicking on links that start with http://goo.gl, Google's URL shortener.

TechCrunch is saying that the virus started on Twitter's mobile site and has been growing through different URLs, including http://goo.gl/od0az and http://goo.gl/R7f68.