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Labour goes Brown while US Army invades YouTube

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ID cards keep going up, and up

ID card costs are going up faster than the budget for the Olympics. The latest jump of £600m was announced the day Blair finally announced his departure.

Mobile maps gets green light

Google's maps are now available in the UK for mobile devices. The service links to Google Earth, but it won't be the cheapest way to get directions unless you are on an unmetered data tariff. The service is not quite complete, with the traffic information capability still in neutral.

Internet telly start-ups: the race is on

There are still several companies fighting for the crown of top internet telly company, but Joost - started by the guys behind Skype - got a big boost this week in the form of £45m in funding.

Big Blue gets smaller and greener

IBM announced 1,300 redundancies earlier this month. But some observers reckon this is just the start. In fact, they're predicting about 100,000 job losses, or one third of Big Blue's blue-suited staff.

Big Blue is not just getting smaller, it's changing colour too. The company is promising to double capacity in its data centres without increasing the power bill.

Where's my bloody phone?

A survey from Nokia this week revealed how we carry our mobile phones. Right hip pocket is top choice for blokes. And what's with those protective phone covers?

Hotmail is, like, hot!

Hotmail has gone all Web 2.0. If you've got an account you probably know this already. If not, go here for Hotmail hotness.

Privacy goes public

This week's prize for largest data loss goes to the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) which has misplaced 100,000 employee records. The TSA isn't sure the records are lost, it just can't find them.

Keeping up for the Brits is M&S which has lost a laptop with 26,000 staff records on it. It's not just data loss, it's M&S data loss.

Currys kills off cassettes

Good news for the music industry this week. Currys is stopping stocking audio cassette tapes. So home taping won't be killing the music industry any more.

iSoft saviour rumours

Struggling health provider and key player in the government's largest IT project iSoft might be rescued by an Australian company. Shares rose slightly on the news.

Virgin joins the bandwidth throttlers and struggles on numbers

What to do about "bandwidth hogs" is a problem for all broadband providers. Virgin joined the majority view this week and introduced bandwidth throttling. Virgin insists that by limiting speed rather than actual downloads its solution is fairer.

Virgin's numbers were also released this week. The company is predicting problems for the next quarter due to its loss of Sky programmes such as The Simpsons and 24.

Galileo goes for broke

The European alternative to the US-controlled GPS system is struggling to get any cash out of its private backers. Originally set up as a public, private partnership, the European Commission is now considering putting in more funding to make up the shortfall. Where now for Galileo?

CV lies

It is one thing gilding the lily on your CV, it is something else to do the same thing in court. A man in the US is facing three years in prison for over-egging his computer experience on his resume. By repeating the claims in court he's laid himself open to perjury charges. As a computer forensics expert you'd think he'd know better.

Bumper bulletin for Patch Tuesday

Microsoft's regular patch Tuesday was a bumper edition this week. Problems being actively exploited in Office and Windows DNS Server are probably the most urgent holes in need of a fix.

Email and web use guidelines

Keeping compliant with new regulations on web and email use is difficult. We've got a free guide on getting your business up to scratch. Download it here.

US Army invades YouTube

YouTube and other video sites have long been criticised for supporting the wrong side in The War Against Terror. But the US Army Multi National Force Iraq is embracing the future and now has its own channel on YouTube. The channel has bits of various missions, but promises there won't be any swearing. That's okay then.

Labour turns Brown

Hats off to web designers at what used to be called New Labour. The day after Blair finally announced his departure, the new purple tinted website for the Labour Party was up and running. Truly a new dawn, or something.

Red Hat rejigs desktop and speaks middleware

Red Hat this week introduced two new versions of its desktop package. So what's the difference between the two? Ask a blogger.

Red Hat boss Matt Szulik also talked about VMware and virtualisation.

Friday rumour fallout

This week saw the fallout from a bunch of takeover rumours from late on Friday. As seasoned journos we know the over-excitement a liquid lunch can provide. Microsoft buying Yahoo! was top of the list, although by Monday much of the excitement had gone out of the story. As luck would have it we had a chat with Yahoo!'s European boss before the shenanigans began. He asks some very fair questions about how people see the company and even commented on the company's problems in China before an alert PR shut him up. Yahoo! not! dead! yet!

doPi and Budgies

Heard the one about the backwards iPod? Apple has filed a patent to put the scroll wheel on the back of a device. Scroll wheels have been used for years on electronic devices, and Apple failed in a previous attempt to get a scroll patent on the idea - but that only covered the front of the device. Truly lateral thinking.

And, finally, eye-watering news from an Irish prison. A search of prisoners' cells found the usual selection of mobile phones, sim cards, and drugs. But they also uncovered a budgie. But the surprise comes from the claim as to how the feathered friend got into the prison.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading and have a good weekend. ®

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