Articles by Katherine Noyes

Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery of a new species of hominid, thanks to fossils whose whereabouts were located with the help of Google Earth Dating back almost two million years, Australopithecus sediba was discovered in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. The species appears to have had long arms, like an ape...

Advocates of free and open source software were on the warpath Wednesday following the eruption of a bitter legal battle between IBM and a tiny French firm IBM has asserted that Hercules -- an open source mainframe emulator from Paris-based TurboHercules -- infringes on numerous IBM patents, and it sent an accusatory letter to the company last mont...

A group of 47 companies and organizations, including Google and AT&p;T, on Monday sent a letter to President Obama urging him to help provide consumers with more information about their energy use "Studies and experience show that when people have access to direct feedback on their electricity use, they can achieve significant savings through si...

The much-anticipated "Google TV" may be in the works, but a Swedish company has already won the race to the proverbial finish line with the world's first Android-based TV ...

A new tool developed at the University of Washington has the potential to make all software effectively open source -- in a way Rather than manipulating the software's code, however, the application -- dubbed "Prefab" -- hijacks what it displays and makes it customizable. ...

After six years of battle, a federal jury on Tuesday settled the longstanding SCO Group v. Novell case by ruling that Novell owns the rights to the Unix operating system In 2003, the SCO Group began campaigning to get Linux users to pay it license fees, arguing that unspecified SCO intellectual property had been improperly included in Linux. SCO f...

In what will surely be a blow to Linux fans the world over, Sony is dropping support for the open operating system on its PlayStation 3 The move will take effect Thursday with the release of a firmware update to version 3.21. That new version will disable the "Install Other OS" feature that was available on older PS3 systems -- those released prior...

Australia's proposed Internet filtering plan has already drawn criticism from censorship foes around the globe, and the U.S. Department of State recently weighed in with its own concerns The plan, which was announced in December, would require that Australian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) filter out a range of content, including child sexual ab...

After months of investigation by police and the FBI, a French hacker accused of breaking into the Twitter accounts of President Barack Obama and singer Britney Spears was arrested earlier this week Francois Cousteix, a 25-year-old unemployed man from central France who is known online as "Hacker Croll," is also accused of breaking into Twitter admi...

A new bill introduced in the Senate on Tuesday aims to put the United States in a leading role in the global fight against cybercrime Dubbed the "International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act," the bipartisan legislation was introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in response to the growing threat of cy...

Viacom's billion-dollar copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google's YouTube took a nasty turn Thursday as a series of documents filled with bitter accusations and unsavory secrets were released to the public Viacom has painted a picture of Google and YouTube as a group of reckless copyright violators.

The Nexus One smartphone is now compatible with AT&T's 3G network in the United States, Google announced Tuesday Though the unlocked device can be used with SIM cards from most GSM operators worldwide, frequency differences meant its 3G compatibility was previously limited to T-Mobile's network in the U.S....

The Nexus One smartphone is now compatible with AT&T's 3G network in the United States, Google announced Tuesday Though the unlocked device can be used with SIM cards from most GSM operators worldwide, frequency differences meant its 3G compatibility was previously limited to T-Mobile's network in the U.S....

Sun Microsystems' loss was Google's gain on Monday, as former Sun guru Tim Bray announced that he's joined Google's Android push in the role of Developer Advocate. "Google and I have been a plausible match for a long time," Bray wrote in a blog post announcing the decision. "Web-centric, check. Search, check. Open-source, check. The list goes on."

Users of Android smartphones now have a new option for browsing the Web: A beta version of Opera Mini 5 was released Thursday for the Linux-based Android platform ...

In a move sure to make the grade with cyclists across the United States, Google on Wednesday added bicycle routes to its Google Maps service Biking directions and extensive bike trail data are now available for the United States through Google Maps, giving cyclists nationwide a way to customize their trips, figure out the most efficient routes, mak...

A new industry group hopes to improve the design and construction of data centers through the application of open source principles Dubbed the "Open Source Data Center Initiative," the group was formed last week by GreenM3 along with the University of Missouri and ARG Investments.

With its US$99 price, the new Android-based Motorola Backflip clearly stands apart from Apple's iPhone on more than just appearance Both are smartphones, to be sure, and both are offered through AT&T. They also provide many of the same features and functionality....

With its US$99 price, the new Android-based Motorola Backflip clearly stands apart from Apple's iPhone on more than just appearance Both are smartphones, to be sure, and both are offered through AT&T. They also provide many of the same features and functionality....

TiVo stock skyrocketed Thursday following news that it had won its long-running court case against sister companies Dish Network and EchoStar Specifically, a federal appeals court affirmed a previous contempt finding against Dish and EchoStar for violating a court-ordered permanent injunction to stop making and selling their digital video recorder ...