Posted 11/18/09 at 07:03:13 AM by Paul Lilly

According a new study, UK's IT workers rank as the least active professionals with the unhealthiest diets. The study, which was commissioned by weight loss and personal training agency Fat Free Fitness, pinged more than 1,700 professionals running the gamut from Taxi drivers and shop attendants, to marketing gurus and customer service reps.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that those paid to sit in front of a PC all day tend to lead sedentary lifestyles (Maximum PC notwithstanding), but what's a little shocking is that only 19 percent of those surveyed met the government's activity guidelines recommending 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times a week. That puts IT workers in last place by a wide margin. Receptionists ranked as the second unhealthiest bunch, with 26 percent meeting the government's guidelines.

Just 14 percent said they ate five portions of fruit and vegetables every day, but even more startling, the study found that the average IT worker consumes the caffeine equivalent of 10 cups of coffee every day.

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Posted 09/17/09 at 06:50:38 PM by Pulkit Chandna

A couple of weeks after eBay agreed to sell 65% of Skype to a group of investors, the founders of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, contrived to gatecrash eBay’s party. Joltid, a company in which the two Skype founders are stakeholders, filed a copyright lawsuit on Wednesday against Skype. Skype's founders retained control over the peer-to-peer technology at the VoIP client’s core even after selling Skype to eBay for $2.6 billion. They had agreed to license the source code to eBay.

Joltid has accused eBay of unlawfully modifying and sharing the source code. An adverse decision could even force eBay to shut down Skype until it can come up with an alternative version. The San Jose-based internet company has said that it is making arrangements to face any such eventuality. However, the presence of a contingency plan should not be construed as a lack of confidence on its part. “We remain on track to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2009,” an eBay spokesperson said.

Analyst Jeffrey Lindsay of Sanford C. Bernstein believes he has pinned down Joltid’s real motive behind the lawsuit. According to Jeffrey, Joltid is still smarting from its failed bid to buy back Skype earlier this year. And that it now wants to preclude the sale of Skype until it is presented with “a financial settlement or the opportunity to buy the business back themselves at a lower price than Silver Lake, et al are offering."

This lawsuit is an extension of Joltid’s legal onslaught against eBay – and Skype’s potential buyers. It fired the first salvo in March, when it filed a similar case against eBay in a London court.

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Posted 09/14/09 at 04:45:14 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Samsung today launched a mobile apps store in the UK. The prosaically named Samsung Application Store currently only features around 300 applications for the company’s Omnia and Omnia HD phones, however, the company expects that count to rise to around 2,000 by the end of this year. The apps store will soon feature apps for other Omina phones, namely the Omnia II, OmniaLITE and Omnia Pro. To access the apps store, users will have to download a software update. Though paid apps can only be bought using a credit card at this time, Samsung plans to also support carrier billing in the future.

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Posted 08/19/09 at 08:14:12 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Microsoft has turned British passports into Windows 7 discount coupons. According to the British arm of tech website Cnet, the full version of Windows 7 Home Premium will be selling for about $105 (£65) in the UK, at almost half its US price, which is $200 (£122). The full version in the UK is even cheaper than the upgrade version on the other side of the Atlantic. The upgrade version costs $120 (£72) in the US. 

An Amazon.co.uk spokesperson told Cnet that this unbelievable price is to stay indefinitely. However, Microsoft is still to return the website’s call for comment on the issue. Ask your British cousins to carry some spare Windows 7 Home Premium copies in their baggage the next time they sail across.

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Posted 07/30/09 at 10:15:06 AM by Paul Lilly

Broadband subscribers living in the UK will soon be able to watch TV shows over the Internet with a new online TV player Microsoft plans to launch next week, UK newspaper Guardian reports. Dubbed the MSN Video Player, the move fills a void left by the defunct Project Kangaroo and gives MIcrosoft a head start on other competing services like Hulu and Arqiva.

"The hole left by Kangaroo was something that provided a catalyst," said Ashley Highfield, the former BBC director of future media and technology who was briefly Project Kangaroo chief executive before moving to Microsoft. "To some degree there is a void left by Kangaroo, there is a gap for an aggregator."

Microsoft has already struck programming deals with both BBC Worldwide and All3Media. As such, the ad-funded video service will launch with over 300 hours of content from BBC shows, including Peep Show, Shameless, The League of Genlemen, Hotel Babylon, and The Young Ones.

Looking long term, Microsoft hopes to expand its service to the Xbox 360 and to mobile devices.

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Posted 07/14/09 at 10:02:29 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Microsoft is preparing to launch a music streaming service by the end of July. Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN, told UK’s Telegraph about Microsoft’s plans to foray into the music streaming industry in the UK. Its service will rival Spotify – European company that provides both ad-supported music streaming and paid downloads. In fact, Bale said that Microsoft’s music streaming service will mimic Spotify’s revenue model.

“We are looking at how other similar businesses have structured their business models and trying to figure out what will work best for both consumer and Mircosoft.” Bale said. He added that the service may eventually become associated with the Xbox 360, though he would not say how.

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Posted 07/08/09 at 08:50:13 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Youtube was probably as tailor-made for copyright woes as it was for success. Apart from a copyright infringement law suit filed by Viacom, it is also contesting the claims made by a group of copyright owners in a separate class action law suit.

It got something to cheer about on Tuesday when the court jettisoned a foreign copyright holder’s claims for punitive and statutory damages against it. The UK’s Football Association Premier League had its claims denied by the Judge because, under US copyright law, only copyrights registered in the country are eligible for statutory damage.

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Posted 07/07/09 at 04:54:44 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Sir John Sawers, the incumbent British ambassador to the UN, is soon going to be the country’s top spy, the chief of MI6. However, the missus doesn’t reckon it is a big deal. Ah! Humble Lady Sawyers. She has caused quite a stir by posting family photographs featuring Sir Sawers on a Facebook account with minimal security settings.

Lady Shelley Sawers probably forgot that though posting family photographs on Facebook is a fundamental right of every free human being, it should be exercised in moderation when those photographs can betray certain vital details about your country’s top spy – the location of his London flat, personal details of his children and that he is a beach bum with trunks that this writer can neither exalt nor properly deride. The pictures have now been removed from Facebook.

The British government has a decent sense of humor and has downplayed the entire incident, although the pesky British tabloids certainly think it is serious stuff. “It is not a state secret that he wears Speedo swimming trunks,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband quipped in a TV interview.

Miliband also liked the entire idea of having Sir Sawyer's photographs on Facebook as it paints a more human picture of the soon-to-be MI6 chief. Facebook is certainly making counterespionage very easy.

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