'Twitter' for cars

Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally will announce on Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that the automaker is incorporating a Twitter application into its next-generation Sync in-car communication system.

It is one of three free apps — the others are online entertainment services Pandora and Stitcher — in the first wave of what Ford hopes will become a portfolio of mobile-phone-like apps available for tech-minded motorists. "It's about bringing the Internet to the car," said Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "What they're doing is making it really easy."

Sync, co-created with Microsoft, is a system that lets drivers operate their Bluetooth-enabled smartphones and music players with voice commands and have text messages read to them, among other functions. Since Sync was unveiled three years ago, Ford has sold more than 1 million vehicles with it.

Encouraging outside developers to create apps — useful and fun applications sold or offered free — for the system seemed a logical next step. The goal is to get in on the apps revolution that has helped make mobile devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch so popular.

For the full story visit the USA Today website by clicking here...

source: USA Today

Malware suspected of 'Black Screen' issue

Malware has been blamed for a problem with the Windows 7 operating system, dubbed the 'Black Screen of Death'. Some Windows users are confronted by a totally black screen after they log on to their system.

Initially it was thought that Microsoft's own security update could have caused the problem but that has now been ruled out. The software firm that suggested the security update was the problem has apologised for its claims. Reports suggest the problem also affects Windows Vista and XP.

In a blog posting on its security site, Microsoft said that it had investigated the claims and "found that our November Security Updates are not making changes to the system that these reports say are responsible for these issues".

For the full story from the BBC click here...

source: BBC

'Road trains' get ready to roll

Road trains that link vehicles together using wireless sensors could soon be on European roads.

An EU-financed research project is looking at inexpensive ways of getting vehicles to travel in a 'platoon' on Europe's motorways. Each road train could include up to eight separate vehicles - cars, buses and trucks will be mixed in each one.

The EU hopes to cut fuel consumption, journey times and congestion by linking vehicles together. Early work on the idea suggests that fuel consumption could be cut by 20% among those cars and trucks travelling behind the lead vehicle.

For the full story click here...

source: BBC

Microsoft reveals new-look MSN

Microsoft's web portal MSN.com has been given an extensive revamp for the first time in almost ten years.

New features include fewer links, a column dedicated to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, and a large search engine box. The company hopes the new look will drive more traffic to its Bing search engine, launched as a competitor to Google in June 2009.

It will roll out in 2010 with a small group of US users getting access now.

For the full story from the BBC click here...

source: BBC News

Microsoft bets on Windows success

Microsoft is hoping that its newly-launched operating system will be one that "doesn't let you down".

Early sales figures indicate that consumers do not feel let down at all. More than 500 people queued outside PC World in central London to be the first to get a copy when the store opened at midnight on October 21. A spokesperson for the store said Windows 7 packages were selling at a rate of three per minute between midnight and 0100BST.

"Across the group, within the first hour of trading this morning we were up 180% on sales," said Anina Castle from DSGi group - an electrical retailer which includes Dixons, Currys and PC World. The figure was set against a standard day of Vista sales.

For the full story from the BBC click here...

source: BBC

Will Google Wave change how we work?

SiliconRepublic.com today asked itself: 'Will Google Wave topple the email status quo and change the way we work?' This is what they wrote...

'Two weeks ago, Google began rolling out a preview version of a new web tool known as Wave to a limited 100,000 users. With mixed reviews, it has been labelled everything from “game-changing” to “unremarkable”.

Google Wave is a combination of email, instant messaging and collaborative work tool all within your web browser. It is early days yet, but Wave may have the potential to transform how you work with both colleagues and clients. While many businesses already use collaborative tools such as Microsoft OneNote, what Google Wave will do when it is released publicly later this year is bring this kind of functionality to the masses as it has previously done with document collaboration through Google Docs.

Essentially, Google will have brought out a free, platform-agnostic unified communications tool.'

For the full story click here...

source: SiliconRepublic.com

Insurers fail to impress online

The economic climate is promoting spending online, with 63% of adult Britons who conducted an insurance transaction online last year saying they have increased their online spending habits due to ease of comparison and prices.

The 2009 Survey of Online Consumer Behaviour, conducted by Harris Interactive®, commissioned by Tealeaf®, also finds that insurers are not taking the chance to seize this opportunity.

A high proportion (79%) of those who conducted an insurance transaction online reported problems doing so. Error messages, navigational issues and getting stuck in a loop were all common problems revealed by the research, which also discovered that consumers were more affected by positive remarks on blogs and social networks rather than negative ones, which could provide additional business for insurers with good websites.

For the full story click here...

source: Insurance Daily

Twitter's Major Cash Boost

Social networking website Twitter has confirmed that it has closed a "significant round of funding".

Co-founder Evan Williams said in a blog post that the site had secured money from five investment firms. Industry watchers have pointed out that the firm still has no way of making money.

However, earlier this month the site revised its terms and conditions to allow advertising on its service.

For the full story from the BBC click here...

source: BBC

Award Winning VW Security

Volkswagen’s latest security system has been honoured at this year’s BusinessCar Techies Awards with the advanced electronic Intelligent Key being named Best Security Device.

A new standard feature on all Volkswagen Touareg 4x4 and Phaeton models, the key maintains a record of whether the car has been locked and alarmed. By simply pressing a button on the key and looking at the red light indicator, an owner can check, even when they are not with the car, the ‘locked’ status of their vehicle. It can also provide vital evidence to insurers and fleet managers as they can confirm by interrogating the car key’s data chip whether the vehicle was secured before any theft or break-ins occurred.

For the full story visit the Volkswagen website here...

source: VW

In-Car Emergency Systems

Reported in this weeks BVRLA update, the European Commission has made a final call to EU countries to voluntarily implement its "eCall" strategy for in-car technology to alert emergency services to road accidents.

It warns that if there is no significant progress in rolling out the system by the end of 2009 it could propose regulations to compel manufacturers to install it.

In its recently published strategy document the Commission says eCall could save lives by halving emergency response times and calls for it to be installed in all new vehicles sold in Europe by 2014.

A copy of the strategy can be found by clicking here...

or visit the BVRLA website here...

source: BVRLA

Rivals 'in Battle for T-Mobile'

Vodafone and O2 have both tabled bids of about £3.5bn to buy T-Mobile from owner Deutsche Telecom, the Sunday Times has reported.

The report says a decision was likely to be made within weeks.

Vodafone and O2, which is owned by Spain's Telefonica, declined to comment on the report.

See the full story on the BBC website here...

source: BBC

Your Brand as a Domain Name

A complete overhaul of the way in which people navigate the internet has been given the go-ahead in Paris.

The net's regulator, Icann, voted unanimously to relax the strict rules on so-called "top-level" domain names, such as .com or .uk.

The decision means that companies could turn brands into web addresses, while individuals could use their names.

A second proposal, to introduce domain names written in Asian, Arabic or other scripts, was also approved.

Read the full story on the BBC website...

Google's Rival Plans

Google has announced plans for a new PC operating system to rival Windows.

They informed the media that the new system, based on Google’s Chrome web browser, is designed for all classes of PCs, from small netbooks to full-sized desktop systems, and will be available in machines from multiple PC makers in the second half of next year.

See Google's press release here...