Ten things you should know about the Ice Cream Sandwich OS

Ice Cream Sandwich is the fourth incarnation of Google’s Android operating system (OS) for smartphones and tablets – the successor to previous versions Gingerbread and Honeycomb (a tablet-only version)This increasingly nippy time of year seems an odd choice to be discussing ice cream sandwiches – unless said confection is the latest in a tasty-sounding software series from Google. Ice Cream Sandwich is the fourth incarnation of Google’s Android...

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Atom-smasher shut down for two months

The world's largest atom-smasher has been shut down for two months following a helium leak, just 10 days after it was switched on amid great fanfare to probe the secrets of the universe.“There has been an incident in a test. One section of the machine will have to be repaired,” James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), said Monday.CERN said in a statement that a fault occurred Friday afternoon, resulting...

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NASA spots Earth’s twin (or closest match yet) outside solar system

Bill Borucki, Kepler principal Investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center, speaks during a news conference about the newly discovered planet Kepler-22b on Monday in in Moffett Field, Calif.A newly discovered planet is eerily similar to Earth and is sitting outside our solar system in what seems to be the ideal place for life, expect for one hitch. It’s a bit too big. The planet is smack in the middle of what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone,...

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Yahoo to weigh deals for Asian assets

The "Yahoo" sign, which overlooks the I-80 freeway from 6th St. is dismantled,2011 in downtown San Francisco.Yahoo Inc.is discussing a plan to slash its stakes in China’s Alibaba Group and a Japanese affiliate in a complex deal worth roughly $17-billion (U.S.), sources familiar with the matter said. The deal – the latest proposals put forth in recent months to resuscitate the once high-flying Internet company – is expected to be considered by Yahoo’s...

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China passes U.S. as top patent filer in 2011

Published applications from China’s patent office have risen by an average of 16.7 per cent annually from 171,000 in 2006 to nearly 314,000 in 2010, data from Thomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index showed. Workers are seen inside a Foxconn factory in the township of Longhua in the southern Guangdong province in this May 26, 2010 file photo.China became the world’s top patent filer in 2011, surpassing the United States and Japan as it steps...

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Twitter unwraps advertiser-friendly redesign

A new Twitter experience is rolling out over several weeks; access it now by getting the iPhone or Android apps released today. Feedback on the changes? Share your thoughts with @feedback using the hashtag #newlook. If you need help, pose any questions to @support.Twitter revamped its website on Thursday in an effort to make the microblogging service easier to use and to help companies better showcase their brands. The new version of Twitter, which...

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Smartphones dialling up new business for stores

The meteoric rise of smartphones and tablets is revolutionizing the way people shop, but it’s also breathing new life into an unlikely place: the traditional bricks-and-mortar store. For years, a growing number of shoppers have opted to do their buying on the Web rather than in the mall. But now, the digital and the physical retail worlds are intersecting as new devices – and the software available for them – are helping shoppers do everything from...

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Chinese microbloggers mock latest round of state controls

China further tightened rules on microblogs on Thursday, requiring new authors on seven websites in southern Guangdong province to register their real names, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, in a move users decried as ineffective. Microblogs such as Sina’s Weibo allow users to issue messages of a maximum of 140 Chinese characters that can course through tens of millions users everyday, defying censors with posts on sensitive topics such as...

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BlackBerrys to clock off alongside VW workers

The working day is over and the Christmas holiday has officially begun, but the blinking red light or vibration of a BlackBerry is still maddeningly hard to ignore. Angered by the blurring of the dividing line between the workplace and home, Volkswagen’s powerful works council has struck an agreement with management that employees who use a BlackBerry and whose pay is governed by a collective wage tariff agreement will be subject to new e-mail restrictions.So...

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