Science & Technology World

Twitter has bought Mixer Labs, the company that created the GeoAPI location service for developers building application atop Twitter. Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, announced the acquisition on the company's blog , saying "when current location is added to tweets, new and valuable services emerge--everything from breaking news to finding friends or local businesses can be dramatically enhanced." Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it would appear Twitter is putting some of that money it now gets from Google and Microsoft to work. Elad Gil, the co-founder and CEO of Mixer Labs, is a veteran of Google and McKinsey, saying on his company bio that he co- founded Google's Mobile team. Seven employees are listed on Mixer Labs' "About" page , but that might not be an exhaustive list. Twitter acquired Summize in July 2008 , but the company has made few acquisitions, instead fending off perpetual rumors that Google, Microsoft, or another tech heavyweight is poised to snap up the company. Geo-location is definitely one of the hotter segments among the social-media butterflies, with companies like Foursquare and Gowalla drawing significant attention.

The group behind the $100 laptop has revealed the design for its latest computer aimed at connecting children in the developing world. The XO-3 , as it is known, is a slim-line touchscreen tablet PC. One Laptop per Child (OLPC) said it would be " available in 2012 " and would cost "well below $100 ". The new design replaces the proposed XO-2 , a foldable e-book that was first shown off in 2008 but has since been scrapped by the organisation. The XO-3 will eventually replace the original XO laptop that first went into production in 2007. The innovative machines, which have been designed for use in remote and harsh environments, were designed for use by school children and featured a sunlight readable display and open source software. 'Bigger appeal' OLPC originally aimed to sell the low-cost laptops in lots of one million to governments in developing countries for $100 each. However, the non-profit organisation had difficulty getting governments to commit to bulk orders. The machines - which are able to run both Linux and Microsoft Windows - are now offered in single units and cost around $200. So far the XO has been distributed to more than 1.4 million children in 35 countries. The high-price has not however put off all governments. Uruguay has bought a computer for every one of their school children. Walter de Brouwer, CEO of OLPC Europe said that these "saturation projects" were the future of the organisation both in the developed and the developing world. "I'm talking to three four countries in the EU at the moment," he told BBC News. "Once one says yes, the others can't say no." The organisation believes the new design will cost significantly less. Mr Brouwer said that because of the pace of technological change and the ever decreasing prices of electronics he could imagine the design selling for "50 , 60 or 70 euros". He said governments could pay this back over a number of years, allowing pupils to have a laptop for less than one euro per month. "This is very realistic," he said. The concept shows a touchscreen, a camera, induction charger, and a carrying ring on one of its corners. Its inner workings - including a chip from UK firm ARM - will come from an interim design - the XO 1.75 - set for launch in 2011. The 1.75 will merge elements of the current machines with technologies - such as a touchscreen - intended to be included in the XO- 3. OLPC recently said that the organisation would just focus on promoting its concepts and educational aims, rather than manufacturing laptops. "We are not a laptop company," said Mr Brouwer. "Manufacturing a laptop is not such a big deal. The bigger appeal for us is deploying them and integrating them with education systems to transform a society." Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the group, said that he hoped that industry would now copy the design for the XO-3.

An Israeli hacker claims to have broken the copyright protection on Amazon's Kindle e- reader, reports say. The hack will allow the ebooks stored on the reader to be transferred as pdf files to any other device. The hacker, known as Labba, responded to a challenge posted on Israeli hacking forum, hacking.org. It is the latest in a series of Digital Rights Management hacks, the most famous being the reverse engineering of iTunes. The Kindle e-book reader has been very successful since it was launched in the US in 2007. Amazon hopes to have sold a million devices by the end of the year. It leaves it to individual publishers whether they want to apply DRM but books in its main proprietary format .azw, cannot be transferred to other devices. It did not immediately respond to the news but it is likely it will attempt to patch its DRM software. DRM has long divided opinion. While rights holders regard it as a crucial tool to protect copyright, consumers tend to hate it because it limits what can be done with content. "DRM is not an effective way of preventing copying nor is it a good way of making sales. There isn't a customer out there saying 'what I need is an electronic book that does less," novelist and co-editor of the Boing Boing blog Cory Doctorow told the BBC when the Kindle was launched. As soon as a new DRM system is active, hackers begin to try and break it. Most famously Jon Lech Johansen, known as DVD Jon, cracked the copy protection on DVDs in 1999. He went on to break the copyright protection on iTunes, leading Apple to offer DRM-free music. DVD Jon now runs a company with an application to take the pain out of moving different types of content between devices.

President Obama's long awaited cybersecurity tsar faces a "tough job", Security experts have warned. Despite saying the issue was a priority for the government, it has taken seven months to find someone to take the job. Howard Schmidt, a former eBay and Microsoft executive was appointed after others turned the post down. "I bring to this challenge lessons learned during 40 years of experience in government, business and law enforcement," said Mr Schmidt. "In our digital world the information technologies we depend on every day present us with great opportunity and great danger - for our national security, public safety and economic competitiveness as well as our personal privacy," added Mr Schmidt in a video broadcast posted on the White House's website. 'The right person' While applauding the appointment of the country's first cybersecurity co-ordinator, security professionals have also expressed some frustration at how long it has taken to fill the post. "While I am disappointed that it has taken this long, I am happy the government spent the time to get the right person for the job," said Ken Silva, the chief technology officer of VeriSign and someone who has known Mr Schmidt for around eight years. "What he brings to this job is the right level of senior government experience and industry experience. That is something that is hard to find. "Before getting down to the technology challenges he has to establish himself within government and industry in this new role," Mr Silva told BBC News. Mr Schmidt served under President George W Bush for three years, where his tasks involved reviewing how to improve network security for government agencies, the private sector and citizens. Some in the industry warn of the political pitfalls ahead as Mr Schmidt tries to pull together a number of government agencies and their various cybersecurity issues. "I think it will be a very tough job. He's going to have to herd some cats," said Roger Thornton, CTO and founder of security vendor Fortify Software. Cisco's chief security officer John N. Stewart agreed that Mr Schmidt has his work cut out for him. "Today more than ever, we need greater collaboration between government and business leaders to help enable national security and public safety, provide for economic prosperity, and ensure the delivery of critical services to the American public." Challenges In Mr Schmidt's video broadcast, he said that the President has already directed him to focus on several priority areas. These include "developing a new comprehensive strategy to secure American networks, ensuring an organised, unified response to future cyber incidents, strengthening public/private partnerships, promoting research and development for the next generation of technologies and leading a national campaign for cybersecurity, awareness and education". "When it comes to cyber security our vulnerability is shared," said Mr Schmidt. In May this year, President Obama pledged to personally appoint someone to the post. Mr Schmidt will have "regular access to the President and serve as a key member of his National Security Staff," said John Brennan, assistant to the President for homeland security and counterterrorism. The White House's acting cyber-security head, Melissa Hathaway, stood down in August after complaining that the post did not allow her to implement necessary changes. News of Mr Schmidt's appointment comes amid claims in the Wall Street Journal that the FBI is investigating a hacker attack on Citigroup Inc that led to the theft of tens of millions of dollars. The newspaper has reported that the hackers were connected to a Russian cyber gang. Citigroup has denied the report.

A Russian spacecraft carrying an international crew has docked with the International Space Station, Russia's mission control says. Spokesman Valery Lyndin said the Soyuz TMA-17 , launched from Kazakhstan on Monday, docked at 0148 Moscow time on Wednesday (2248 GMT on Tuesday). American Timothy J Creamer, Soichi Noguchi of Japan and Russia's Oleg Kotov were on board. They join an American and a Russian currently on the station. Jeff Williams and Maxim Surayev have been there since October.

Touchscreens are so yesterday. Remote controls? So last century. The future is controlling your devices with a simple wave of the hand. A wiggle of the fingers will change television channels or turn the volume up or down. In videogames, your movements will control your onscreen digital avatar. It's called 3 D gesture recognition and while it may not be in stores this Christmas a number of technology companies are promising that it will be by next year. Softkinetic, a Brussels-based software company, is one of the leaders in the gesture-control field and has teamed up with US semiconductor giant Texas Instruments and others to make this touchless vision of the future a reality. Besides TI, Softkinetic has forged partnerships with France's Orange Vallee for interactive TV, another Belgian firm, Optrima, a maker of 3 D cameras and sensors, and with Connecting Technology, a French home automation company. "On the consumer side you have three markets -- television, videogames and personal computers," Softkinetic chief executive Michel Tombroff told AFP in a telephone interview. "The objective is to be on the consumer market at the end of next year, by Christmas, so people can buy these things," he said. "In the same way that the Nintendo Wii completely changed the way that people play videogames this 3 D camera technology will allow us to completely transform the way people interact with television," Tombroff said. Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, said he believes that gesture recognition technology is "directionally correct because anything leading to a more natural interface for a human is better. "We're in that transition to a time when gestural input will be quite natural," Kay said. "From what I've seen of the demos they're pretty close. " On the gaming front, "using a camera in real time to capture motion and then take the representative avatar from that and play it on a screen with other elements in a virtual world is a pretty compelling experience," he said. US software giant Microsoft demonstrated a gesture recognition program called "Project Natal" for its Xbox 360 videogame console in June and has announced plans to launch it next year. Tombroff said Softkinetic's gesture recognition solutions involve using a 3 D camera that "looks like a little webcam" and is mounted on top of a television set or computer monitor. "It looks at the scene and it can analyze gestures without you holding anything in your hand or wearing any special equipment," he said. "It's really the ultimate gesture-based solution. "With the Wii you need to hold something in your hand," Tombroff said. "With this we look at your full body. You don't need to hold anything. "You just stand up or just move your hand," he said. "We let you interact without any intermediate component." Tombroff said the technology has the capability of transforming television. "It will become an active component of the living room," he said. "It's not just about sitting in the living room, turning it on and watching. "It's about interacting. The TV will recognize you. If you step in front of it, the camera will recognize it's you," Tombroff said. "Maybe it will start with a quick recap of your email, the weather, and the traffic because it knows you need to go to the office," he said. "That's the personalization," Tombroff said. " After that it may propose interactive programs. So instead of just sitting and watching TV you'll be able to play games or enter into programs. "In the same way that the iPhone completely transformed the user experience as far as the phone is concerned this will transform the way people experience television," he said.