Intel fights corruption claims

Chipmaker Intel says it will fight new allegations of corruption, as it faces a fresh onslaught of claims over its business practices, reports the Guardian.co.uk.

The company rejected the case brought against it yesterday by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo and said it would fight the claims in court.

Filing his case against the electronics giant, Cuomo said the company had "used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market", hurting competitors and consumers as a result.

T-Mobile has said a software fault on one of its back-end systems was responsible for a loss of mobile phone coverage for millions of its customers, says V3.co.uk.

The company's mobile phone base station started to malfunction and cut off an estimated 5% of the company's 33.5 million US customers from voice calls and messages. Judging from the outrage on forums, however, the figure may be much higher.

“On Tuesday, some T-Mobile customers may have experienced service disruptions impacting voice and messaging services. We restored full service to all affected customers later in the day,” said the company in a statement.

There are now over 100 000 apps available for users to download over the Apple App Store, according to dBTechno.

However, the big question is: are 100 000 apps really a good thing? The likely case is that probably 30 000 to 40 000 of them are pretty useless, and are not of high-quality, notes the publication.

An analysis by AppsFire found that only 1.76% of users have tried the 1 000th most popular app.

Contrary to popular belief, technology is not leading to social isolation, and Americans who use the Internet and mobile phones have larger and more diverse social networks, according to a new study, says AFP.

"All the evidence points in one direction," said Keith Hampton, lead author of the report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, released yesterday. "People's social worlds are enhanced by new communication technologies.

"It is a mistake to believe that Internet use and mobile phones plunge people into a spiral of isolation," said Hampton, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania.