Academic says gadgets threaten Internet's future - Technology

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Business News

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Microsoft CEO backs Web spending, "done" with Yahoo (Reuters)

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Wachovia CFO Wurtz to leave (Reuters)
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Jobless claims jump as housing market gets weaker (AP)

AP - Two cornerstones of the economy Â— jobs and housing Â— sank to new depths Thursday, with unemployment claims bolting higher and home prices recording one of their steepest drops on record.

LONDON (Reuters) - The rise of gadgets like the iPhone, Blackberry and Xbox threatens to unravel the decades of innovation that helped to build the Internet, a leading academic has warned in a new book.

By Peter GriffithsLONDON (Reuters) - The rise of gadgets like the iPhone, Blackberry and Xbox threatens to unravel the decades of innovation that helped to build the Internet, a leading academic has warned in a new book.Professor Jonathan Zittrain says the latest must-have devices are sealed, "sterile" boxes that stifle creativity and turn consumers into passive users of technology.Unlike home computers, new Internet-enabled gadgets don't lend themselves to the sort of tinkering and collaboration that leads to technological advances, he says.The mix of gadgets, over-regulation and Internet security fears could destroy the old system where mainstream technology could be "influenced, even revolutionized, out of left field"."I don't want to see a two-tier world where only the experts can survive ... and the non-experts are stuck between something they don't understand and something that limits them," Zittrain told Reuters in an interview.Zittrain, professor of Internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, says the Internet's simple, open architecture is key to its enormous success and also its flaws.Amateur enthusiasts have come up with scores of new ideas by tinkering with the Internet on home computers. However, hackers have caused huge disruption by exploiting its loose structure.Zittrain contrasts one of the first mass-produced home computers, the Apple II from the 1970s, with Apple's latest gadget, the iPhone. He says the iPhone is typical of what he calls "tethered appliances".

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Software News

Hasbro Orders Facebook to Remove 'Scrabulous' (PC Magazine)
PC Magazine - While "DMCA" may not be a valid word in "Scrabble," it may be the "Scrabulous" software that loses a turn -- or all of them.

Why iPhone 2.0 won't yet rule the roost in the enterprise (InfoWorld)
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Attack Code Released for New DNS Attack (PC World)
PC World - Attack code has been released for a major flaw in the Internet's DNS software.

Facebook to help some programmers, punish others (AP)

AP - Facebook Inc. is introducing more tools to help the software applications fueling the online hangout's popularity and is promising to intensify its efforts to weed out programs that violate its rules for protecting users' privacy.

Facebook expands winning open platform formula (AFP)

AFP - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg painted a vision of an Internet future with the website in its soul to a faithful throng of software developers at the Internet firm's annual "F8" conference..

Microsoft's Online Woes Hint at Larger Vulnerability (PC World)
PC World - Microsoft has built its massive software business by watching other companies take the lead in emerging technology markets and...

Microsoft CEO backs Web spending, "done" with Yahoo - 25, Jul 2008

Agreement reached for FCC to clear XM-Sirius deal - 25, Jul 2008

Once media-shy Taliban go hi-tech in propaganda war - 25, Jul 2008

Time to drop cable television? Not so fast - 25, Jul 2008

Scots boy must give up Narnia website: U.N. judge - 24, Jul 2008

Juniper names Microsoft exec Johnson as CEO - 24, Jul 2008

Batman fans get chance to fight with their hero - 24, Jul 2008

Digital revolution could be Olympics' salvation - 24, Jul 2008

Qualcomm, Nokia deal ends long legal battle - 24, Jul 2008

Microsoft exec who led Yahoo bid leaving company - 24, Jul 2008