Steve Jobs' Flash rant put to the test

When Steve Jobs badmouthed Adobe Flash to The Wall Street Journal, he said it was buggy, littered with security holes, and a "CPU hog”. It's hard to argue with the first two, but a new study claims the Apple cult leader was wrong about the hog bit, writes The Register.

According to tests from the Streaming Learning Centre - an online media consultancy that conducts public seminars on the delivery of online video - Flash is no more of a CPU drain than Steve Jobs' H.264-powered HTML5 setup.

The issue is not whether you use Flash or HTML5, says Jan Ozer, who conducted the tests, but whether you back them with hardware acceleration.

Verizon Wireless plans to roll out its first mobile devices for its forthcoming 4G network in mid-2011, says CRN.com.

Verizon plans to open its 4G network, also known as Long Term Evolution, to customers in 25 to 30 markets by the end of the year, bringing wireless broadband speeds of up to five times faster than 3G networks to approximately 100 million people.

Verizon plans to introduce its 4G service nationwide in 2013.

Researchers have produced a mobile phone that could be a boon for prying bosses wanting to keep tabs on their staff's movements, reports the BBC.

Japanese phone firm KDDI has developed technology that tracks even the tiniest movement of the user and beams the information back to HQ.

It works by analysing the movement of accelerometers, found in many handsets. Activities such as walking, climbing stairs or even cleaning can be identified, the researchers say.

Many governments have used the Internet to curtail freedom of expression at home, the US state department says in its latest annual human rights report, states the BBC.

In many cases, new forms of electronic communications are restricted to control domestic dissent, it says.

The wide-ranging report also highlights continuing human rights violations in China against the Uighurs and extra-judicial killings in North Korea. Iran, Sri Lanka, Burma and Switzerland also come in for criticism.

Barclays' business customers are receiving new or re-issued contactless cards from this month, reveals Computing.co.uk.

This is part of the bank's drive to replace its portfolio with cards enabled with the "touch-and-go" technology, which allows customers to pay for low-value purchases by holding the card over a reader, without the need for a PIN code.

Since Barclays introduced contactless payment technology in 2007, over six million customers have been issued with a contactless-enabled Barclays Visa debit card or Barclaycard credit card.