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Amazon suffers temporary failure

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb news editor.
Johannesburg, 13 Dec 2010

Amazon suffers temporary failure

The European sites of Web retailer Amazon have suffered a temporary failure, amid ongoing threats against major sites by pro-Wikileak activists, writes the BBC.

British, French, German, Austrian and Italian sites were down for about 30 minutes on Sunday during a peak pre-Christmas shopping period.

A group of cyber activists, Anonymous, is hitting firms that withdrew services from whistle-blowing site Wikileaks. There has been no official comment from Amazon or from Anonymous.

Google refreshes Android Market

The Android Market has taken some hits for its poor user interface, one that made it hard to discover and sell apps, says Yahoo News.

Now the Android Market from Google is being freshened and updated with a new “ecosystem”. Or, as Apple Insiders preferred, “rewarmed”.

Android's Eric Chu said in the Android Developers blog that a “significant update” was being phased into the Android Market over the next two weeks, affecting devices with Android 1.6 or higher.

MS updates Windows Phone 7

Microsoft will unveil a second update to Windows Phone 7 in February, cracking open the operating system in an effort to put it on par with rivals, notes The Register.

Company chief executive Steve Ballmer will detail the changes to Windows Phone 7 at the Mobile World Congress.

Ballmer is keynoting at next year's Mobile World Congress - the event where he debuted Windows Phone 7 this year.

UN Internet forum petitioned

A number of Internet groups are petitioning the United Nations over plans for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), reveals V3.co.uk.

The group, which includes the Internet Coalition for Assigned Names and Numbers, the Internet Society and the Internet Chamber of Commerce, all asked the IGF to abandon a model that limits its governing group to member states.

The groups said in a letter that the plans laid out by the Commission on Science and Technology for Development were “deeply concerning”.

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