Hackers hunt prey on smartphones, Facebook

Source: AFP

SAN FRANCISCO - Hackers are following prey onto smartphones and social networking hotspots, according to reports released Tuesday by a pair of computer security firms.

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Cell phone calls alter brain activity: study

Source: Reuters

Spending 50 minutes with a cell phone plastered to your ear is enough to change brain cell activity in the part of the brain closest to the antenna.

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Expect Nokia Windows phones in 2012: chairman

Source: Reuters

Nokia board chairman said on Wednesday Nokia Windows phones will be on the markets from 2012 on and noted that Nokia had other potential partners in addition to Microsoft and Google.

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HTC launches social smartphones with Facebook

Source: Agence France-Presse

Facebook users will be able to show friends their exact GPS location as well as sharing text and photos with

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HTC unveils 5 smartphone models

Source: Reuters

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC unveiled on Tuesday two social networking phone models, with a focus

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Sony Ericsson unveils first PlayStation smartphone

Source: AFP

Sony Ericsson has unveiled the first smartphone certified for PlayStation

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Could smartphones go stupid?

Source: AFP

Smartphones are rapidly becoming ubiquitous, but they risk becoming a victim of their own success, so clogging networks they are unable to do many of the smart applications that fuelled their sales.

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Smartphones thinner than a credit card?

SOURCE: CNA

Small is big business for Taiwan's flat panel industry.

Its shipment of flat panels under 10-inches accounted for nearly 60 per cent of global sales volume last year.

But to stay ahead of the game, the industry is planning on "downsizing."

Smartphones are getting thinner and thinner these days and new technology by Taiwan is promising to make smartphones thinner than a credit card.

Industrial Technology Research Institute display technology centre director John Chen said: "Our technology was built to be universally applicable to mainstream display products like the e-paper, e-reader, e-book and for mobile display like cellphone, notebook and tablet computer".

The super-thin screen is made using technology developed by Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute.

It places a layer of non-adhesive material between the plastic display and the glass base plate.

This allows the display to be easily lifted off from the glass upon completion, without causing any damage to the panel.

The idea actually originated from the making of traditional Taiwanese pancake on a hot Teflon pan.

This technology has won global awards and is now going into commercial production.

One of Taiwan's largest flat panel makers AU Optronics is going to be the first to use the technology to mass produce e-readers later this year.

"We hope this technology can in a way differentiate itself from our competing technologies. It may give us an opportunity to secure the intellectual property and upstream material equipment and downstream the process and manufacturing facilities," Mr Chen said.

Analysts predict the market for flexible displays will top US$2 billion this year.

And the technology is expected to put Taiwan further ahead of its rivals like South Korea and Japan in flat panel production.

But they warn that the recent rise of the Taiwan dollar may affect sales in the near term.

Taiwan's panel makers should also brace themselves for low-cost competition from China in 2013.

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BlackBerry to filter websites in Indonesia

SOURCE: AFP

BlackBerry smartphone maker on Monday said it will filter the web "as soon as possible" after the government threatened to curb its services if it failed to block access to pornographic sites.

Research in Motion (RIM) said in a statement that it has been in talks with its partners and the government on the matter and "continues to make it a top priority to implement satisfactory technical solutions as soon as possible."

Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring on Friday gave the Canadian company a two-week deadline to block access or risk restrictions being imposed, prompting protests on microblogging site Twitter.

"If RIM still doesn't block porn sites by then, users won't be able to use the RIM service to browse the Internet. But they can use the company's other services," ministry spokesman Gatot Dewabrata told AFP.

The ministry will meet RIM on January 17 to discuss the matter, he added.

The row is the latest in a series of controversies that RIM has faced, as several governments including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and India have complained about difficulties monitoring communications via the smartphones.

Indonesia has more than two million BlackBerry users in the country of 240 million people, seen as a major emerging market for information technology and mobile communications.

It is also the world's fourth most-populous country and has about 40 million Internet users, according to Internet World Stats.

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