Business

It looks as if Apple has attempted to fix the widespread connection glitches with the iPhone through a new software update. But it comes amid increased concerns about how much control the company has over users. As we reported earlier this week, ... customers worldwide have complained about calls mysteriously dropping . It still appears the problem is that the phone often fails to pick up even a strong 3G signal (the high-speed connection which makes many of the data features possible) and was repeatedly switching to a traditional network signal instead, which often triggered the glitch. The ... (view more)

A performance and metrics researcher reportedly estimates that more than one in every three new PCs -- approximately 35% of over 3,000 PCs -- has downgraded from Windows Vista to Windows XP, either at the factory or by the buyer. The data was ... provided by users to Devil Mountain Software Inc's. Exo.performance.network -- which it kicked off last year and expanded by partnering with InfoWorld -- to come up with their numbers. By collating things such as the vendor and system model number with manufacturer's catalogs, machines were identified that were probably shipped within the past six months ... (view more)

iPhone users worldwide are complaining of dropped calls, and it's looking increasingly likely the cause is the phone itself. The problem appears to be occurring with the "3G connection," the fast-access which allows many of the smartphone features ... to operate. Because the phones aren't getting a strong enough connection on the 3G networks, they often need to switch to a traditional phone network in mid-call. This doesn't always go smoothly and is sometimes causing temporary disconnections which are enough to terminate the connection. There doesn't seem to be any strong geographical pattern in ... (view more)

iPhone users have spent $30 million on applications for the new 3G model in the month since it's released. But Apple will get 'only' $9 million of that take. Users can buy applications, produced by third-party developers, from the iTunes store. ... There have been around 60 million application downloads so far, though many of these (estimates say as much as 90%) are free. Paid applications range from around a dollar for novelty items to around ten dollars for games, so an average $5 price would fit the estimates. The most expensive item, a thousand dollar screensaver, was pulled by Apple recently ... (view more)

Google has said sorry to users of its Gmail service after they were left without access to their emails for almost two hours early last week. The firm made a rare apology on its official blog after the outage, saying "The issue was caused by a ... temporary outage in our contacts system that was preventing Gmail from loading properly." (Source: blogspot.com ) There has been some speculation the problem may be connected with a recent change to Gmail's contacts system, designed to separate contacts users have manually added from those which are created automatically when you send or receive a ... (view more)

Google is to introduce close integration between its two main advertising systems. It should mean better targeted ads, though it will lead to extra tracking information on users' computers. The changes involve both Doubleclick -- an online ad ... company Google bought for just over $3 billion last year -- and Google's own Adsense system. They work in different ways: Doubleclick tracks the browsing history of a user and builds up a picture of their interests, while Adsense ads are specific to a particular website's content (though they do take into account a user's geographical location to provide ... (view more)

Apple has removed an unusual third-party product from iTunes: an iPhone screensaver costing $999.99. The product was listed by a developer named Armin Heinrich and sold through the iTunes Store's iPhones apps section, which allows people to buy ... add-ons for their phones. This particular product, named "I Am Rich", did nothing but display a glowing ruby on a phone's screen (though if you clicked on the ruby, it promised to display a mantra for success.) This wasn't a scam as such; Heinrich openly admitted it was useless in the product description, which read "The red icon on your iPhone or iPod ... (view more)

Google has upgraded its Google Search Appliance, making it better and smaller. The "Google for the office" appliance is a box (previously a rack of 5) that can store and search through 10 million documents. Usually sold to large businesses and ... government in a refrigerator-sized rack, the new version offers the same punch in a smaller package. The boxes run on Dell storage hardware but use Google software for searching. New features include greater security encryption and the ability to search in 27 languages and deliver results in 40. The system can also provide notifications when documents ... (view more)

Chinese Internet use is notoriously restricted, which may explain why Google -- a North American cultural icon -- is not the major search engine used by the nation's Internet-connected public. Instead, Baidu is to the Chinese what Google is to the ... rest of the world. Within China, Google has only 26 percent of the search market share, while Baidu holds 63 percent. (Source: crn.com ) Google may be edging in through the launch of a free music search program. How? Baidu is the main gateway for Internet music piracy in China, where less than 1 percent of music downloads are legal. Google's new ... (view more)

Google's Street View mapping system has got the go-ahead from regulators in the United Kingdom, but is continuing to cause legal problems in the US. The system involves taking photographs of streets in major cities around the world. Unlike the ... better-known Google Earth system, these are not satellite images; instead photographers take shots from a standing position. This allows Google to produce maps which are more human-eye than bird's-eye. Britain's Information Commissioner had been asked to investigate the project after complaints it could be a threat to privacy because people might be ... (view more)