Smartphones get novel memory material

Smartphones could have their battery life extended by up to 20% by changing what type of memory they use, writes the BBC.

Samsung has announced plans to produce memory modules built of what is known as a phase change material.

These modules are built of a substance that records or erases data when it is heated, and typically use far less power than existing equivalent technologies.

Updated Web sites operated by the US Treasury Department are redirecting visitors to Web sites that attempt to install malware on their PCs, reveals The Register.

The infection buries an invisible iframe in bep.treas.gov, moneyfactory.gov and bep.gov that invokes malicious scripts from grepad.com. The code was discovered late on Sunday night and was active at time of writing, about 12 hours later.

To cover their tracks, those behind the compromise tailored it so it attacks only IP addresses that haven't already visited the Treasury Web sites. That makes it harder for white hat hackers and law enforcement agents to track the exploit.

Less than two-thirds of surfers are now using Microsoft's browser on the Web, as Google's Chrome continues its northward assault, reports The Register.

Internet Explorer slipped below 60% of the market in April - 59.95%, to be precise - according to the latest figures from Net Applications. That was down from 60.65% in March and 67.77% in April 2009.

IE first drifted into below 70% territory in January 2009, meaning it has taken 15 months for Microsoft to drop the last 10 percentage points.

Advertisers and Internet companies have been scrambling to head off regulation they say will hamper growth of online advertising. The pressure is expected to build today as lawmakers prepare to announce proposed privacy legislation, says The Wall Street Journal.

More than a year in the making, the draft legislation proposes regulating Internet companies' tactics for collecting information about Web visitors and the use of that data for ad targeting.

It could also apply to the practices for collecting consumers' information in the offline world.