Apple wins ground in Flash fight

The punches that Apple is throwing in its fight against Adobe Systems are beginning to land. This is prompting some companies to shift away from Adobe's video and animation technology, and forcing Web designers to work with competing standards, states The Wall Street Journal.

Programmers and Web designers say clients are increasingly asking that their Web sites or applications be compatible with Apple's iPhone and iPad.

Those sites can't be built with Adobe's Flash technology, which is widely used for online video and animation, but which Apple has banned from its devices.

The new coalition government has promised to give data back to the people in a radical overhaul of public sector databases, surveillance cameras and DNA storage, reports Computing.co.uk.

The restoration of individuals' privacy was a central campaign of both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties while in opposition.

Under Labour, the UK became one of the most watched societies in the world. Surveillance was higher than in any other European Union country, and at the same level as Russia and China, according to Privacy International statistics.

Japanese aerobiomimetics boffins have developed a tiny ornithopter modelled on a swallowtail butterfly, says The Register. Biomimetics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.

According to Hiroto Tanaka and Isao Shimoyama, the team behind the diminutive flying flapper-bot, the fact that it flies is highly significant.

The machine, like the butterfly it is modelled on, beats its wings in simple flapping motions without any fancy control inputs - rather as though it were an aeroplane without elevators, ailerons or flaps.

Facebook confirmed yesterday that it has, at least in some circumstances, sent the user name of a Facebook member to its advertising partners. That can be used to glean a person's name, interests, and list of friends, writes CNet.

A Facebook spokesman told CNet that the apparent privacy leak has been fixed.

News of this data-sharing could prove embarrassing to the social networking site, which is already on the defensive after Washington politicians have been calling for regulatory action on privacy grounds, and over a dozen advocacy groups have charged that Facebook engages in "unfair and deceptive" business practices.