TechEye |  |
- Intel makes Braswell pledge
- Russia's "Facebook" boss quits
- Yahoo puts the squeeze on government spying
- Accenture creates 2,000 UK jobs
- UK PM demands broadband details from BT
| Posted: 03 Apr 2014 03:16 AM PDT Chipzilla is starting to ramp up the promotion of Braswell which will be a mobile alternative to Broadwell. So far Intel and been doing reasonably well with its low-power Bay Trail and Haswell processors among budget notebook and tablet makers. But Intel is promising its Braswell next-gen chips will offer better performance and lower power consumption, while still targeting devices that sell for under $500. The new chips, code-named Braswell, will be available as a low-cost, low-power alternative to the 5th gen Core processors, code-named Broadwell. Intel says Braswell system-on-a-chip products will be based on a 14 nanometer design, which should help make the chips more efficient than the 22nm Haswell and Bay Trail chips they'll replace. Braswell is expected to find a home in future Chromebooks. Chipzilla is also planning 64-bit Bay trail chips for Android and Windows tablets with prices that could start as low as $99. Intel has introduced a version of Android 4.4 KitKat with a kernel that has been optimised for Intel's new 64-bit Bay Trail chips.        |
| Russia's "Facebook" boss quits Posted: 03 Apr 2014 03:15 AM PDT The founder of Russia's equivalent to Facebook, VKontakte (VK), has resigned as CEO of the company after seven years. Pavel Durov said that he could no longer "stick to the principles" of freedom and independence that he believed in. The move had been expected as the 29 year old had flogged his 12 percent holding in the firm in January to Ivan Tavrin, chief executive of Russian mobile phone operator Megafon, at an estimated value of $420 million. Megafon is co-owned by Russia's richest oligarch, Alisher Usmanov, who is a close chum of President Vladimir Putin. Writing in his bog, Durov said he had less freedom in managing the company after the changes occurred in the Vkontakte shareholders' structure in April 2013. The farewell letter included the picture of the dolphins from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, saying "so long and thanks for all the fish". VK is the second most popular social network in Europe, with a particularly strong following in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. It has around 200 million accounts and 45 million daily average users - compared to over one billion accounts and 665 million daily users for Facebook. Durov is known as an eccentric libertarian in start-up and left-wing groups. He made £170 million prior to selling his stake in the company. However it all started to go pear shaped in 2011 when protests against the Kremlin exploded in the streets amid allegations of election-rigging. Putin's allies demanded that Durov to shut down VK pages operated by activists. When he refused there was a police raid on Durov's home and he ended up charged with driving a white Mercedes over the foot of a traffic cop. He denied any wrongdoing but fled the country before police could arrest him. After the raid, two VK co-founders decided to sell their 48 percent stake to United Capital Partners (UCP), an investment firm managed by Ilya Sherbovich, who is believed to be close to Putin. Since then, Sherbovich slammed Durov's actions accusing him of using VK resources to promote the instant messenger Telegram, a Berlin-based firm that he funds.     |
| Yahoo puts the squeeze on government spying Posted: 03 Apr 2014 03:13 AM PDT Yahoo has rolled out HTTPS on almost all aspects of its Internet presence as part of its plan to lock the US government spooks out of its networks. Late last year, it was revealed that the agency was tapping into the cables of the Yahoo and Google and email providers, even those located outside the US. Yahoo's announcement is supposed to show how far it has gone to keep the spooks out. According to a statement, Yahoo has mostly dealt with the problem by implementing HTTPS for its services. As of the end of March, data traveling between Yahoo data centres have been fully encrypted. All searches done within Yahoo and its properties now make use of HTTPS for encryption. Even emails sent between Yahoo Mail and other providers can use HTTPS as long as the other end supports the SMTPTLS protocol. Yahoo will also roll out a fully encrypted version of its Messenger software in the coming months. Users are encouraged to ensure that they are using Yahoo's encrypted channels, or manually switch to them by simply using "https" instead of the usual "http" in their browsers when using Yahoo services.     |
| Accenture creates 2,000 UK jobs Posted: 03 Apr 2014 03:12 AM PDT In a sign that tech outsourcing is back on track, the US-listed tech outsourcing giant Accenture has said it will create 2,000 UK jobs this year. According to the company the new roles span a wide range of skills and capabilities and offer opportunities for candidates from experienced executives to entry-level recruits for its graduate programme. Olly Benzecry, Accenture's country managing director in the UK & Ireland said that the company was looking for highly motivated, skilled individuals who share our passion for how major UK businesses can transform themselves by harnessing the power of technology – particularly emerging digital technologies – to drive business strategy. The roles will be spread out across London, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The move was greeted with great enthusiasm by Prime Minister David Cameron. These jobs are among 10,000 that have been announced today – jobs that will give people financial security for the future, he enthused. Accenture says it is also hiring graduates for its Newcastle Apprentice scheme which was launched in 2012. The programme is aimed at enabling school leavers to earn a salary while developing expert IT skills. The company will be hoping that it never sees itself in trouble in Blighty like it was in 2003 when it took on a huge National Health Service contract which went nowhere and ended up costing the company £800 million when it had to walk away.     |
| UK PM demands broadband details from BT Posted: 03 Apr 2014 03:06 AM PDT UK Prime Minister David "one is an ordinary bloke" Cameron is demanding that BT "give more detail of their roll-out plans". It seems that David is miffed that rival ISPs can't see whether there are different ways of filling any gaps in the planned broadband coverage. At present the Government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) initiative is working with BT to make fixed line superfast broadband (25Mbps+) download speeds available to 95 per cent of the United Kingdom by 2017. Critics of the cunning plan, such as Margaret Hodge, have been frustrated by both the apparent lack of competition or alternatives to BT's infrastructure. She moaned that operators lack detailed broadband rollout plans to create conditions whereby alternative suppliers may be crowded out. Smaller ISPs cannot afford to bid for Broadband projects but they can apply to the £20m Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF). But this means that they cannot overbuild another Next Generation Access (NGA) network. This means that these smaller ISPs have to see if their plans will conflict with the BDUK or BT deployment. But BT is not telling anyone nuffick. The Liberal Democrat MP for Argyll and Bute, Alan Reid, asked Cameron for help at prime minister's question time yesterday, saying that his constituents are very frustrated that BT cannot tell them when, or even if, their home will be connected, which makes alternative planning impossible. Cameron said that he had a chat with BT about this subject and he was happy to have it again. "We have asked BT to give more detail in their roll-out plans about which homes and areas will get broadband so that other companies and organisations are then able to see whether there are different ways of filling any gaps," he said. However, Cameron did not agree with some who think that BT has somehow not been putting its shoulder to the wheel or any other clichéd metaphor. Cameron said that BT was putting a massive investment into broadband: 10,000 homes and businesses are being connected every week. This is a real success story for our country, apparently.     |
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