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Jobs, Ballmer, Ellison, Schmidt in gay robot marriage shock?

It's an engaging image — the four leading men in the IT soap opera pledging themselves to each other and a giant sex android at a secret ceremony.

Indeed, just by raising the possibility, I've already opened the question as to whether or not it may be true. And by putting the question mark at the end, I've already flagged that it probably isn't.

As if Steve Jobs would have anything to do with an android.... Read more

IDF Day One: Intel turns on the TV

Day 1 at IDF, which means three things: keynotes, technical briefings and the press room coffee.

The keynotes – one from CEO Paul Otellini and one from general manager of Intel Architecture Dadi Perlmutter – were broad brush pictures. Intel is keen to promote itself as a service provider, supporting developers across a continuum of devices from handhelds to high performance computers, all linked by the... Read more

BBC iPlayer: social media and the public interest

The BBC is preparing a new version of iPlayer, and it could be with us as early as Monday - the current iPlayer is mostly not working this Sunday afternoon, which may be the Beeb's equivalent of taking the Apple Store down.

Of course, this flashy new Flash app has social network stuff in it: you can recommend things you like and share them with friends. It will recommend stuff to you off its own bat, once... Read more

Apple's elephant in the cloud

Apple has an obsession with elegance. Just look at the line-up at yesterday's annual orgy of consumer desire. A new iPod Nano that looks like a tiny, animated, touch-sensitive, acid-drenched postage stamp - without losing a microgram of cool. An iPod Touch that generates and displays video, plays games and audio, and runs a kazillion apps, all with fewer buttons than a Mark 1 Walkman. An Apple TV that hooks... Read more

Android dreams dashed: annoyed by Droid, dismayed by Desire

Not having a good Android time of it at the moment, although that's not the fault of the burgeoning operating system.

As I mentioned, I managed to break the screen of my HTC Desire - just as my initial thrill of delight with the box was hardening into a long-term love affair.

I still don't know how I did it - this is the first time I've had a phone do that in my possession since the early days of TACS, but... Read more

Fuming nitric acid, robots and fraud: chasing counterfeit chips

Silicon chips are small, expensive and come from far away. They're also sometimes difficult to get hold of: the chip makers have to guess well ahead of time what will sell, and an unexpected interest in one particular part can quickly exhaust supplies and push prices way up.

All this is a tempting recipe for fraudsters, especially in parts of the world where it is perhaps easier to get hold of some unofficial... Read more

Aerial warfare and the iPhone 4

When it comes to the actual technology inside the new iPhone, Apple has been heavy on the adjectives ("Magic", "Amazing", "Astounding", et cetera) and light on the details. This is smart marketing, but frustrating for those of us who like to know how things work - and how magic, amazing, astounding those bits will be in practice. The implication that we're supposed to take away is that Apple's tech is unique and... Read more

The Thick of IT

The misdirected email is a staple of modern politics and, therefore, of modern political satire. One badly forwarded message can contain within itself enough evidence to bring down a government, nicely wrapped in confirmation of origin and, if you're lucky, some juicy asides.

The latest TV show to use the idea is The Thick Of It, noted for world-class swearing, excruciating incompetence, a bravura ensemble... Read more

O2 goes to great lengths to say very little

Many unhappy O2 customers today, as the company announced that it's stopping 'unlimited' data deals. Instead, you get a gigabyte a month on the £60 tariff, or 500 MB on the £25-£35. Existing contracts won't be changed and new ones won't start being capped until October, but the message is clear: if you want to actually use all those great things you bought your iPhone for, you'll have to pay more.

O2... Read more

T-Mobile makes good. Desire satisfied

Yesterday, all my Desires seemed so far away. Promised delivery of the HTC Desire on Tuesday lunchtime, a call to T-Mobile later that afternoon had produced the unwelcome news that there'd been a terrible mistake and no such gadget had actually been despatched.

Result: misery.

My Gerätlieben (*) is subtle these days, as I have the ageing geek's disdain for the mainstream and love of the obscure, antique... Read more

Community highlights

manek

Passwords are here to stay: get used to it

Blog Post It's been mildly amusing to see, once more, a vendor of two-factor...

21 May, 2012 by manek
First Take

Next-generation 802.11ac routers

Blog Post A recent flurry of announcements from networking equipment vendors —...

21 May, 2012 by First Take
Jack Schofield

The three big questions about Facebook's IPO

Blog Post The three big questions about Facebook's stock exchange launch are: (1) Is it...

18 May, 2012 by Jack Schofield
Jack Schofield

Cardbox database goes from £299 to free

Blog Post Thirty years after Cardbox released its flat-file database of that name, the...

18 May, 2012 by Jack Schofield

ZDNet UK Live

Burn-IT

Skittles with tapes and coffee cups. Old tapes so we didn't have to rewind them afterwards.

40 minutes ago by Burn-IT on Ten IT jobs to save up for those rare lulls
Fraud_fighter

What is mildly amusing to me is when someone thinks a strong password is as strong as one may need, when the truth is usernames and passwords are...

1 hour ago by Fraud_fighter on Passwords are here to stay: get used to it
Andy Bolstridge

Performance isn't really the big thing at the moment - not when my ADSL connection will only provide a 8mbps bottleneck to the 3.5gbps speeds these...

2 hours ago by Andy Bolstridge via Facebook on Next-generation 802.11ac routers
pjc158

So when is Amazon buying Waterstones?

3 hours ago by pjc158 on Waterstones to sell Kindles with in-store offers
J.A. Watson

@JoshArg - Well, I am writing this from my N150 Plus, running Ubuntu 12.04 and using a Bluetooth mouse (well, to be totally correct it is a...

4 hours ago by J.A. Watson on Samsung N150 Plus Netbook - Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04
J.A. Watson

@duncanjmurray - At least n the case of the specific system I put the SSD into, it is not the case. The boot time improvement is substantial, but...

4 hours ago by J.A. Watson on Netbook Upgrade - SSD IN, Windows OUT
archerthom

Sounds like only those who have bought their Kindle from Waterstones will be able to use them in-store - very disappointing. I have no intention...

6 hours ago by archerthom on Waterstones to sell Kindles with in-store offers
AndyPagin

From my mainframe operating days... 1) Play hoopla with write permit rings & a can of screen cleaner. 2) Make enormous paper chains (Christmas...

6 hours ago by AndyPagin on Ten IT jobs to save up for those rare lulls
61253

An OS X perspective Filenames beginning with a dot/period (.) should not be equated with HFS Plus resource forks; misunderstandings around ._ (dot...

7 hours ago by 61253 on SharePoint deployment: Pitfalls of a pioneer
ians1

There are many legal download sites for music at least that do not charge an arm and a leg like itunes or Napster. The "real" cost of an mp3 file...

8 hours ago by ians1 on The Pirate Bay infringes copyright, High Court decides
Jon Howells

@Crupal.. How does refusing your websites cookies help my privacy? A quick look at your page script reveals four sets of code provided by 3rd...

15 hours ago by Jon Howells via Facebook on Privacy watchdog to chase big companies over cookie law
Paul Carloss

There are hundreds, if not thousands of filesharing torrent sites, The Pirate Bay (TPB) is only one of them, while the TPB is blocked many more...

16 hours ago by Paul Carloss via Facebook on The Pirate Bay infringes copyright, High Court decides
Rebin Simpson

So could users DownGrade if the new OS didn't worked correctly ?

18 hours ago by Rebin Simpson on Sony delivers on Xperia Ice Cream Sandwich promise
duncanjmurray

Hmmm, I thought that with SSDs you could get to the mythical ubuntu 10 sec boot time? Is this not the case?

18 hours ago by duncanjmurray on Netbook Upgrade - SSD IN, Windows OUT
JoshArg

Thanks once again! I have installed Linux Mint 13 (Maya) everything runs well but.. bluetooh is not present, "there is no blueetooth adapter" do...

19 hours ago by JoshArg on Samsung N150 Plus Netbook - Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04
zdnetukuser

@JAW-- There’s a better-than-even chance that, had you made another choice of SSD, you would have noticed no improvement in battery life...

2 days ago by zdnetukuser on Netbook Upgrade - SSD IN, Windows OUT
Amb Rose

Please stop connecting the 'ATeam' to the UK Anonymous collective. Anonymous and the ATeam are not connected. The ATeam are not part of, affiliated...

2 days ago by Amb Rose via Facebook on UK Anonymous keeps up DDoS barrage on ICO
cpupal

Hi All I have looked into the cookie law today, there are a few solutions that these websites can use. Just add the widget and update your policy...

2 days ago by cpupal on Privacy watchdog to chase big companies over cookie law
dropz42

I read that many of the governments own websites are not yet compliant...shouldn't they sort that out before chasing others - slightly hypocritical !

2 days ago by dropz42 on Privacy watchdog to chase big companies over cookie law
Charles McLellan

@larrylisser Thanks for the feedback; you're quite right to surmise that the article's main point was to inform about developments in cloud-based...

2 days ago by Charles McLellan on VideoMeet: cloud-based video communication