Facebook counters Google block

Facebook has responded to Google's decision to block the export of contact information from G-mail by offering users a work-around solution, reports the BBC.

It has added a link, allowing users to first move their G-mail contacts to a PC and then upload them to Facebook. Google stopped this process happening automatically, because it said Facebook did not share its data reciprocally.

Google said it was "disappointed" with the site's actions, while Facebook declined to comment. "We're disappointed that Facebook didn't invest their time in making it possible for their users to get their contacts out of Facebook," a Google spokesperson said.

Microsoft could face an anti-trust investigation in Europe over its policy of pushing out its own Microsoft Security Essentials software via the Microsoft and Windows Update services, according to some security vendors, notes V3.

Luis Corrons, technical director at Spain-based Panda Security, argued that the accusations could be compared to the row that erupted over Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows, without giving users a choice of browser alternatives.

"It's pretty similar or even worse, because at least with browsers you can still have two or three running on a machine at once and nothing happens," he said.

Ofcom has unveiled a consultation on a new form of wireless communication, called white space technology, which could be used to offer enhanced broadband access in rural areas, writes Computing.

Spectrum frequencies between 500MHz and 800MHz are typically used for broadcast TV. However, TV transmissions do not take up the entire spectrum, and Ofcom believes the gaps, or “white spaces”, can be used by low-power unlicensed devices such as a router designed to pick up these transmissions.

White space signals travel further and more easily through walls and barriers than other forms of wireless communications technology, such as Bluetooth and WiFi.

AMD has finally shipped its first Fusion processors, years after they were first announced, says The Register.

"As of 4am Central Time, our facility in Singapore, our test and manufacturing facility, shipped the very first Fusion APUs - production units - to customers worldwide," AMD senior vice-president and GM Rick Bergman told his audience at the company's analysts day in Sunnyvale, California.

"So it's no longer the dream. The Fusion era has truly arrived for AMD, our customers, and end-users out there that really want that full HD, graphical experience that we've been promising for a couple of years now."