News: Best of Tech News July 2009

Google OS in 2010

In certainly the best news since the start of the Internet, Google announced that they are busy working on their own operating system (OS). It will be free, very web friendly and is set to appear in the second half of 2010. Be prepared for one of the biggest corporate IT battles ever: Google vs Microsoft. The fight promises to be even more exciting than the Xbox 360 vs the PS3, HD-DVD vs Blu-ray or VHS vs Beta.

Search Engine race heats up

The global search market received a bit of a shake up in a deal that sees the world\'s third largest search engine, Microsoft\'s new Bing, becoming the engine that drives the world\'s second largest search facility Yahoo. Under this 10 year deal, Yahoo retains 88% of all advertising sold next to the search results, while Microsoft grabs the rest. Google, with 81% of world-wide search market share, is still, by far, the alpha-male.

Nokia local content

In a cool move to get more SA content on the local Ovi Store, Nokia SA has launched the Calling All Innovators South Africa competition. The carrot they are dangling in front of developers’ noses is a whopping $85,000 main prize. Visit http://callingallinnovators.com/southafrica/ for more info.

Piracy in decline

A recent UK survey suggests that British music fans are no longer downloading music illegally; instead they\'re rather opting to stream music over the Net. Thanks to the UK’s high speed broadband teenagers are using sites like Spotify, YouTube and MySpace to listen to music instead of illegal filesharing.

Cyber-attack hits US and South Korean sites

United States and South Korean websites came under serious cyber-attack. No one took responsibility for the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, but all fingers are pointing to good neighbour North Korea. Up to 12 000 infected PCs in Korea and 8 000 abroad took part in the coordinated attack.

Pirate Bay: Sold or Sold Out?

In a dark day for illegal file sharers everywhere, The Pirate Bay, one of the web’s most recognisable brands, is sold for a so-so R60 million. The new owners are set to launch a new business models that will allow appropriate compensation to content providers and copyright owners. No word yet on whether they will be dropping the “Pirate” from the name.

SAT-3 goes down

Large parts of the west coast of Africa experience massive Internet blackouts caused by a fault on the SAT-3 cable. The daughter of recently deposed General Bigtrouble Uarin of Nigeria is now having even more trouble moving her father\'s money out of the country.

Tech News in Short

The Seacom Cable is switched on. Can the price war please start now?
Seattle in the US is pumping $6 million into replacing all 40,000 of their streetlights with long life LEDs.
A Chinese man working in a factory that manufactures the iPhone commits suicide after one of the Apple prototypes he was responsible for went missing.
Sam Raimi, director of the Spider-man movies, is set to direct the World of Warcraft flick.

Best of Tech News July 2009

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