The PC Pro weekly news round-up

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 1 Jun 2007 at 15:22

Google dominated the news this week, hosting its first Developer Day and upping the mapping ante with Mapplets for geographic mashups and StreetView panoramas for major US cities. It also snapped up the photo geotagging website Panoramio and announced Google Gears, which seeks to bridge the gap between online services and desktop software. The company described it as the next evolution in browsing.

Seemingly from the realm of science fiction, we also covered source software cracking the equation that will allow scientists to make objects invisible, and also Israeli scientists make advances towards integrating living cells into memory chips, imprinting rudimentary memories on an artificial culture of live neurons.

Finally, you can never keep Microsoft out of the news, especially when Bill Gates shares a stage with Steve Jobs for the first time in two decades, and the company has to clarify comments about the number of Zunes sold - it is 'on track' to reach one million sales by the end of June.

Here's our pick of the week's headlines:

Friday 1 June
Dell to shed 10% of global workforce
Dell cuts 8,800 jobs worldwide as the company attempts to rein-in market-leader HP

Bandwidth throttling petition launched
A Dundee engineer launches an e-petition on the Prime Minister's website to campaign against slumping broadband speeds.

Scientists put life into memory chips via neuron networks
Researchers make advances towards integrating living cells into memory chips, imprinting rudimentary memories on an artificial culture of live neurons.

Thursday 31 May

The spy lurking in Apple's 'DRM-free' music
Apple's so-called 'DRM-free' music tracks are actually embedded with the name and account details of the person who downloaded the track.

Google reaches out to developers
Google is embracing the developer community with its first Developer Day. Marking the debut of Google Gears and also its 15th API - for Google Mapplets, which help mashup mashups - Google is hosting events at 10 locations around the world.

Google to make web apps work offline
Google creates web software that runs both online and offline, marking a sea change for the internet industry by letting users work on planes, trains and the most remote locations.

Wednesday 30 May

Microsoft hasn't sold a million Zunes after all