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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.

Click for more on Mobile phone may have killed Korean quarry worker »

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.

Click for more on Google to Offer Free Online Storage »

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.

Click for more on Google service uses cell towers to locate users »

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).

Click for more on Google Wins Again »

Pirate Bay officials think it is the overzealous Swedish government officials that will be walking the legal plank

The Pirate Bay’s enemies are circling it like a pack of hungry sharks, waiting for it to slip. First there is the Swedish government assault, led by prosecutor Håkan Roswall, who seeks to press charges against The Pirate Bay before January 31, 2008.  The planned charges will be against multiple pirate bay admins for allegedly supporting copyright infringement on a massive scale.

Click for more on Pirate Bay Officials Respond, Laugh Off Lawsuits, Prince »

Eizo FlexScan SX2461W-U LCD helps colorblind users to distinguish between colors

For most computer users who spend many hours working on a computer each day, a large screen LCD display is very welcome. However, for some users — particularly those who are colorblind — working on a computer can be very difficult.

Gizmodo is reporting that Eizo has a new 24-inch LCD display called the FlexScan SX2461W-U that is aimed directly at users who are colorblind.

Click for more on Eizo Announces 24-inch LCD for Colorblind Users »

Among the fixes Mozilla has released is a patch for the well-known flaw in how Firefox handles .jar files

Mozilla has released an update to its Firefox browser, fixing a widely publicized flaw in the open-source software.

The 2.0.0.10 update fixes a handful of memory corruption flaws that crash Firefox and a cross-site request forgery flaw that could give attackers a way to get unauthorized access to certain Web sites.

Click for more on Handful of bugs squashed in Firefox security fix »

Windows Live Messenger 9.0 will feature SPIM, a new security feature that reports users who send unsolicited messages

Microsoft’s next version of its instant messenger application will have a new security feature to report users who send unsolicited messages, known as SPIM (spam over IM). That’s one of several new features in Windows Live Messenger 9.0, which was released to some private beta testers on Tuesday.

The problem with SPIM is that it’s annoying and, at worst, dangerous. The tricky part is that the hacker may have obtained someone’s IM account details, so it appears that a genuine contact is sending the messages. After compiling a list of IM contacts, hackers try to trick users into clicking links. Those links can often launch an unwanted installation of spyware or other malware via a browser vulnerability or other security hole.

Other new features might be in version 9.0 include:

• Animated .GIF files can be used in the display photo area.
• Allows users to associate a specific sound with an action performed by one of their contacts.
• URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) can be clicked on in the status area

Click for more on Live Messenger 9.0 will feature SPIM »

Test shows significant improvement over old version

Before I go any further, a few disclaimers and notes.  First off, I’ve carried out this test on a single system running Windows Vista Home Premium on which Firefox had not been previously installed.  The system has 2GB of RAM.  Both Firefox 2.0.0.9 and Firefox 3.0 b 1 were installed fresh using a standard install.  For each test I visited the same web pages and did my best to make the browsing the same on both versions.

OK, with that out of the way, on with the tests.  I simulated three different browsing scenarios:

• Loading a five pages into the browser
• Loading a single page and leaving the browser for 10 minutes
• Loading 12 pages into the browser and wait 5 minutes

Click for more on Memory test - Firefox 2.0.0.9 vs Firefox 3.0 b 1 »