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Tens of thousands of Britons’ financial details are sold on the internet

Security breaches that are allowing the financial details of tens of thousands of Britons to be sold on the internet are to be investigated by the country’s information watchdog.

Without paying a single penny, The Times downloaded banking information belonging to 32 people, including a High Court deputy judge and a managing director. The private account numbers, PINs and security codes were offered as tasters by illegal hacking sites in the hope that purchases would follow.

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It was actually a ruse used by a co-worker to cover up an accidental vehicular homicide.

Police and a doctor who examined the body of a 33-year-old quarry worker had said on Thursday the victim was found dead with a burning mobile phone stuck to his chest and they were looking into whether he was killed by an exploding battery.

“The co-worker confessed to us last (Thursday) night that he had actually hit him by accident and lied about the mobile phone exploding,” said an official with the Cheongju Heungdeok police station, about 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Seoul.

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Any device, any application sounds impressive, but skeptics see a play for new spectrum.

Executing a neat reverse-field, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) declared last week that it will throw open its cellular network to third-party devices, applications, and services. Once considered to be one of the strictest gatekeepers of its network, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier is now setting an example for other carriers to open their systems to outside hardware and software.

Industry observers remain skeptical, to put it mildly. Verizon will never let itself become just a dumb-pipes provider for other companies’ devices and services, they maintain, and anyone who says otherwise is either a fool or a liar. Tactically, Verizon’s move could be another maneuver on the chess board that is the FCC auction of valuable 700-MHz spectrum for wireless broadband networks, now scheduled for January. On Dec. 3, companies planning to bid must file a “short form” license application for that auction, which is seen as the last, best chance for fully open and accessible wireless broadband networks in the United States.

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IBM is suing a company for selling fake IBM batteries that catch fire, asking $1M for each fake battery.

IBM is suing Shentech for selling laptop batteries that catch fire and sport allegedly fake IBM logos.

The suit, filed Nov. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, accuses Shentech of trademark infringement, false advertising, unfair competition and deceptive trade practices.

IBM says that a consumer in Ohio bought a battery from Shentech for a ThinkPad laptop. The battery overheated and caught fire, causing damage to the laptop, IBM said. The user reported the problem to Lenovo, which licenses the IBM trademark. After examining the faulty battery, IBM discovered that it was not a genuine IBM battery, the company said in the suit.

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Google Plans to Bid 4.6 Billion on 700MHz Band

Google Inc was set to announce on Friday it will bid on coveted airwaves to launch a U.S. wireless network, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The Silicon Valley-based company had said several months ago it was considering bidding in the auction of 700-megahertz wireless spectrum due to begin January 24. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission deadline for companies to declare their interest in joining the airwaves bidding is December 3.

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“I cannot think of any other cause of his death other than his mobile phone exploding”

A 33-year-old South Korean quarry worker was found dead with a burning mobile phone stuck to his chest, police and the doctor who examined the man said on Thursday.

The man, who was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital, had burns on his chest, fractured ribs and internal bleeding, the doctor said.

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Google prepares to roll out its latest free service — where will the giant stop?

While Google has its critics, the company seems to be one tech firm that is constantly in tune with what the consumer wants.  In terms of service, Google generally doesn’t waste time and effort cutting back or restricting its service, rather it simply strives to give the customer more. 

Now Google is preparing to quietly launch a new service, which both legitimizes previously existing internet software and improves upon it.  The service gives users free online storage space and many are dubbing it GDisk for short.  In the past applications exploit GMail’s very high amount of free storage space and allowed you to store files on it like a hard drive (GMail currently features over 5 GB of storage).  Google’s Picasa photo service also has allowed users to store up to 1 GB of pictures and other files.

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The new Google Maps with MyLocation service allows users without GPS-enabled phones to figure out their location by using nearby cell-phone towers

Google launched a location service for mobile users on Wednesday that doesn’t rely on GPS.

Google Maps with My Location, currently in beta, locates users who don’t have GPS-enabled phones based on their location to nearby cell towers. The result isn’t as accurate as GPS but works for people who lack the positioning technology in their phones.

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Google’s Goal: Get Rid of Coal

Google has set its sights on decreasing global dependency on coal Tuesday with the announcement of a new project intended to produce affordable renewable energy.

The effort, dubbed “RE<C”, will initially focus its efforts on solar thermal power, wind power technologies and enhanced geothermal systems. Specifically, Google wants to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy that is cheaper than coal, said Larry Page, Google’s co-founder.

“We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades,” Page said during a Tuesday conference call. One gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco, he said.

Solar power is “currently substantially more expensive than coal, depending on the type,” Page said. “It’s an ambitious goal to get it cheaper than coal, but it’s attainable.”

Google leads the way in search yet again, but Ask.com gains ground.

Google once again was the giant among search sites, as it took a 58. 5 percent share of the search market in October in the United States.

According to Internet ranking site ComScore, Google gained 1.5 share points versus the previous month. Yahoo sites ranked second with 22.9 percent, followed by Microsoft sites (9.7 percent), Ask Network (4.7 percent) and Time Warner Network (4.2 percent).

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