Google has added 1,023 more IBM patents to its technology arsenal to fend off legal attacks by rivals such as Apple and Microsoft. The purchases added to the 1,000 or so patents the firm bought from IBM in July and reportedly ranged from mobile software to computer hardware and processes. Google spokesman Jim Prosser told AFP that the patent transfers had taken place but would not disclose financial terms of the deal or specifics regarding the intellectual property. The push by Google ...

Gamers have taken to a purpose-written computer game called Foldit to twist open the secrets of an enzyme of an AIDS-family virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade - in a record three weeks. The exploit was published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors. Foldit Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, ...

Shares of Research In Motion (RIM) plunged almost a fifth on Wall Street on Friday after reporting sales and profits that fell short of expectations. The company's signature BlackBerry mobile phones have been selling like hotcakes in many developing markets, largely thanks to the budget-friendly low, fixed data price for messaging and browsing from the phone, but are struggling in the Americas and Europe. RIM shares lost 19 percent on the Nasdaq stock exchange to close at $23.93. It had a ...

This week I take a look at Dolphin, a highly intelligent smartphone web browser that Safari can learn a lot from. When it comes to browsers, I'm quite a weird guy. On the Macbook I use at work, I just can't decide which one I like more: Firefox is incredibly stable and supports tree-style tabbing (it'll change your life), but looks a bit too rigid. Chrome has the awesome "speed dial" screen when you launch and the aesthetically pleasing tabs with ...

Open source. Free information. The power to customise what I want, when I want. These are not simply words used to describe one of the biggest unheralded revolutions in modern times, Google's Android, they also sum up my ethos as a person. This comparison between operating system and personal philosophy may be a strange one, but considering how mobile devices have become essential tools to survive modern society, I believe it a very relevant one. Who is not affected? Consider the number ...

Handheld gamers rejoice. The Playstation Vita will be released on the 17th of December in Japan. Sony’s anticipated handheld gaming machine and the successor to the PSP will go on sale for 24,980 yen (US$325) for the Wi-Fi version and 29,980 (US$390) for the 3G model. The announcement was made at a pre-press conference before the Tokyo Game Show. Previously, Sony had said that it aims to release the console before the end of the year in Japan. The late arrival ...

Intel, left behind badly in the market for processors for mobile phones by comptitors like ARM, looking for a fast catch-up by teaming with Google to tailor chips to get top performance out of Android-powered smartphones. "Our collaboration with Google will bring a powerful new capability to market that helps accelerate industry innovation, adoption and choice," Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said at the opening of the US chip maker's developers conference in San Francisco. The alliance with the world's largest ...

One of the first pieces I wrote for the .Burn suite of websites was titled "How the Nintendo Wii is ruining gaming", an admittedly unnecessarily sensationalist title. The piece basically laid out my fears that the introduction of Microsoft's ground-breaking Kinect (and to a lesser degree Sony's Move) would follow a similar trajectory as the Wii before it. Almost a year on? I was right. The basic thesis was that the device would introduce to us a truly phenomenal piece ...

Microsoft pulled back the curtain on version eight of its Windows operating system that has been designed for the new touch, swipe, pinch and prod world of touch-screen devices, whether tablets, notebooks or desktops. Windows division president Steven Sinofsky boasted about the diverse types of hardware that Windows 8 will run after its official release, stressing tablets in particular. Sinofsky was part of a Microsoft team that provided an in-depth look at Windows 8 to software developers at a BUILD conference the ...

For those mystified by how Facebook chooses which of your friends to anoint as your nearest and dearest, the ones whose updates you most desire to be peppered with: it seems that it was, basically, random all along. At least it must be, as Facebook has just taken the covers off "smart lists" that automatically sort friends into categories and prioritize news from those dearest to members of the world's largest online social network. The rollout of smart lists commences on ...