Worst stock shortages in 20 years, says Brightpoint

LONDON, UK. November 22, 2010. – A leading distributor of handsets claims that mobile phone stock shortages will become a global issue as the market moves into 2011. The lack of supply, the worst experienced in 20 years, is being caused by increasing demand for components common to a range of consumer electronics devices. The [...]

Rising Solar-Panel Generation Means Increasing Industrial Demand For Silver

HONGKONG, China. November 22, 2010 (Kitco) – The sun is adding some shine to the silver market. One of the growing industrial uses for silver is photovoltaic cells in solar panels as the world seeks alternative forms of energy, metal consultancies said. There has been a jump in such demand in recent years, and analysts [...]

Why ‘build your own OS’ won’t work for businesses

The Russian government’s move to create a state-sponsored, Linux-based operating system is unlikely to spawn copycats among enterprise IT shops, according to industry analysts. Last week, Russia announced its intention to reduce its dependence on U.S. technology and boost IT security by spending US$5 million to build out a Linux-based OS. The exact details of the new OS will be [...]

Google CEO: China’s Internet censorship will fail

China’s strict controls on its Internet usage will eventually fail as more of the country’s people go online and express themselves, said Google CEO Eric Schmidt. “Ultimately, the people will win over the government. The yearning is so strong,” he said on Wednesday during a talk hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. Schmidt’s comments [...]

Google’s Schmidt: Computers ‘Augmenting’ Humanity

More and more, computers will serve to “augment humanity” by filtering and directing relevant information to users, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said Tuesday.

YouTube over a third of worldwide mobile video traffic

Google-owned video service YouTube now represents 36 percent of total video traffic on wireless networks worldwide according to mobile web platform provider Bytemobile’s second-quarter 2010 Mobile Minute Metrics report.

Twitter Not Loved in Europe

Despite Twitter’s success in the U.S., the three-year-old company’s service hasn’t caught on in Europe. According to Twitter’s search tool, Twitter Scan, there is one account under Tesco, the U.K.’s largest retailer, but it has only one outside comment so far. The same goes for financial services firm HSBC, which has 18 followers but no status updates.

Most European companies haven’t even heard of Twitter, and some might think it’s a time waster. A spokeswoman for energy firm Total says that Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie has no idea what Twitter is. British Telecom says it doesn’t have a Twitter account and doesn’t plan to open one. Nestle’s communications manager says using Twitter “just never came up within the group strategy.” In general, experts say Europeans don’t latch on to new social networking technologies as quickly as Americans.