Friends Reunited message board shut down

The hugely popular Friends Reunited Web site has been forced to shut down its message board after teaching unions complained about the abuse of teachers by their ex-pupils. According to a report in Sunday's Observer newspaper, the unions objected to allegations of child abuse and other forms of misconduct being made against teachers and former teachers on the site. This morning the site was offline for a while and when it reappeared the message board feature had been removed. ...more

Half man, half washing machine

Here's a difficult one to digest: the fully artificial machine heart has come of age. A recent article in New Scientist reveals that the first people with completely artificial hearts could be walking around as soon as this coming July. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration, the official body that controls medical products, has given the green light for two companies to replace patients' hearts with these devices. ...more

Google moves to protect user privacy

Google, with mountains of data on its users' search habits, is taking steps to boost consumer privacy protections in coming months, the company said late on Wednesday. The world's leading provider of Web search said it is taking steps to anonymize, or obscure details, after 18 to 24 months on the surfing habits of tens of millions of Web users that could potentially be used to identify individuals. The Mountain View, California-based company collects information on Web searches, such as the keyword queries, Internet addresses and 'cookies' used by Web sites and advertisers, to track Web surfing habits. ...more

Xbox could take five years to show profit

According to a recent analysis by the Wall Street Journal Microsoft's Xbox console could take as long as five years to break even, losing $2bn in the process. Once the investment period is over, though, the console is set to add $1bn per year to Microsoft's operating profit. Microsoft has not commented on the report. ...more

That's no Etch-A-Sketch, that's my WebPAD

Wander about the house as you may, you need never be away from the Internet with Honeywell's WebPAD. You can surf the Internet, send and receive email, and enter information via the wireless touch screen display, as long as you stay within 150 feet of the base station with a broadband Internet connection. With a touch-screen display, the device weighs under three pounds, is about an inch thick and has the dimensions of an A4 sheet of paper. ...more