eBay has said it is laying off 10% of its workforce, as part of a move to streamline the business.

The amount is approximately 1,000 staff and hundreds of temporary workers. It is also expected a number of "open" positions will now be closed.

The firm hopes to cut costs and strengthen the organisation and its competitiveness. EBay - which already owns online payment firm Paypal - has signed an agreement to buy Bill Me Later for $820m in cash and $125m in options.

"PayPal and Bill Me Later belong together," said eBay president and chief executive John Donahoe in a statement.

View: eBay

An interesting slide show from PCWorld about the 10 Most Overrated Products against Underrated ones.

Hype springs eternal. Lots of technologies, products and services don't merit the praise heaped on them. Here are 10 tech items that don't live up to their billing -- and 10 that deserve respect that they don't receive. Worth a check out.

One comparision among the many : PCWorld feels XP is overated and Vista under-rated.

"Save Windows XP! is the rallying cry of Windows users dismayed by the needless bloat of Vista. But didn't everyone have the same critique of Windows XP when it first galumphed into public view like an unsteady rubber monster?

What did Vista get right? For starters, though the User Account Control feature is like an annoying little sister who constantly pokes you, it makes Vista more secure than XP. Vista also trounces XP in handling mobile de­­vices, networking, multimedia files and photos. On top of that, it has a cleaner, more navigable interface -- one eerily reminiscent of a certain Mac operating system."

Link: tech.msn.com

Can machines think? That was the question posed by the great mathematician Alan Turing. Half a century later six computers are about to converse with human interrogators in an experiment that will attempt to prove that the answer is yes.

In the Turing test a machine seeks to fool judges into believing that it could be human. The test is performed by conducting a text-based conversation on any subject. If the computer's responses are indistinguishable from those of a human, it has passed the Turing test and can be said to be "thinking".

No machine has yet passed the test devised by Turing, who helped to crack German military codes during the Second World War. But at 9am next Sunday, six computer programs - "artificial conversational entities" - will answer questions posed by human volunteers at the University of Reading in a bid to become the first recognised "thinking" machine. If any program succeeds, it is likely to be hailed as the most significant breakthrough in artificial intelligence since the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. It could also raise profound questions about whether a computer has the potential to be "conscious" - and if humans should have the 'right' to switch it off.

View: The Guardian

A Saanich web design school is holding its ground, following a threat by Apple to take legal action if the local firm does not change a corporate logo it has used since 2005.

Calling his company a dedicated customer that uses Apple hardware and software almost exclusively in its operation, Victoria School of Business and Technology vice-president Christopher Boag said he and partner Dieter Gerhard were surprised to receive a strongly worded letter with no advance warning.

"It was a total shock," he said. "It was like the small guy was kind of getting blown away and Apple was pushing hard in order to get us to (submit to their demands)."

Boag and Gerhard argue that the apple is a "traditional representation of education" and that the logo in question, which incorporates the mountain logo of a sister company and has the words VSBT in one corner, in no way can be confused with the Apple logo.

View: School Victoria

Crunchgear has sneaked a couple of shots of the BlackBerry Application Center, RIM’s answer to Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market.

The application center is the same as Apple and Google's offerings, you browse, purchase, download and rate applications wirelessly.

The Application Center is set to debut with the BlackBerry Storm software version 4.7 and app data will be stored at the carriers locale meaning carriers can put the applications they like on their own store.

Screenshot: >> Click here <<

Over 90 per cent of UK firms are putting their customers at risk of identity fraud, according to the results of a study released today to mark National Identity Fraud Prevention Week. The event is aimed at advising consumers and businesses on best practice for preventing ID theft. The survey highlighted that, in many cases, consumers blame companies for any problems, and not their own housekeeping.

The report, commissioned by Fellowes for National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, found that 97 per cent of UK consumers are not completely confident that the organisations they deal with are taking adequate steps to protect their information. Worse still, 92 per cent of employees at the firms in question confessed that the identity of their customers could be stolen by a fraudster, while 75 per cent admitted that their employers could be doing more to prevent fraud.

View: The full story @ vnunet

Steve Ballmer has distanced himself from the ongoing “Vista Capable” legal spat by claiming he had no direct involvement in Microsoft’s marketing campaign for the operating system. In a document filed last Friday, the software giant’s CEO effectively exonerated himself in the Windows Vista Capable blame game, choosing instead to point the finger at a pair of retired MS wonks:

"I was not involved in any of the operational decisions about the Windows Vista Capable program. I was not involved in establishing the requirements computers must satisfy to qualify for the Windows Vista Capable program. I was not involved in formulating any market strategy or any public messaging surrounding the Windows Vista Capable program".

View: The full story @ The Reg

Sony is introducing a second electronic book reader to its range in the U.S. that comes with upgraded hardware and will go on sale in November. The PRS-700 features a similar 6-inch electronic paper display to that used in the PRS-505 that's currently on sale but added to the screen in the new model is a touch panel and a reading light. The touch panel means users will be able to turn pages on-screen and also search through e-books by using an on-screen keyboard and highlight passages using a stylus. The light will aid reading in dark environments.

Like the current model, the PRS-700 can store about 350 e-books in its internal memory and more can be kept in Memory Stick or SD Card media. Sony says the battery supports up to 7,500 pages of continuous reading. It's compatible with e-book formats including Sony's BBeB (Broadband electronic book), Microsoft Word documents, Adobe PDF and the International Digital Publishing Forum's XML-based EPUB format.

View: The full story @ PCWorld

sk.com plans to upgrade its search engine on Monday with several enhancements that it considers significant and that it believes could give its popularity a boost in a market dominated by Google. Ask.com has sharpened the relevance of its search results, made the engine faster, and simplified the site's layout, said Ask.com President Scott Garrell.

"The strategy from a product perspective is to provide the best answer the first time, everytime," Garrell said. "We want to reduce the distance between your query and the answer you want." If Ask.com can consistently provide direct answers in its search results page, Garrell believes it will grow its user base. It generally takes people 3 to 4 clicks in any search engine to get the desired information, he said.

View: The full story @ InfoWorld

Google Inc and Yahoo Inc have decided to delay implementing a controversial search advertising partnership, Yahoo said on Friday. "The companies have agreed to a brief delay in implementing this agreement to continue our ongoing discussions with the [U.S.] Department of Justice," Yahoo said in a statement. "We have had discussions with regulators and look forward to responding to their questions about this agreement."

Google issued a similar statement. "When we announced our advertising agreement with Yahoo in June we agreed to delay its implementation until October to give regulators time to look at the details. As we are still in conversation with the Department of Justice we have agreed to a brief delay in implementing the agreement while those discussions continue," the company said.

View: The full story @ eWeek

The production value of digital music is likely to grow sharply, to account for half of the world's entire music market in 2010 if Nokia's recently launched 'Comes With Music' business mode proves successful, representatives from Nokia said recently at a presentation event in Singapore.

Citing internal estimates, the production value of digital music accounted for a mere 2% of the world's entire music market in 2004. The ratio is expected to expand sharply to 20% worldwide and even 30% in Asia, in 2008, the sources indicated.

View: The full story @ DigiTimes

According to a report by NewTeeVee a court has ordered RealNetworks to temporarily suspend distribution of its RealDVD product until Tuesday.

The Judge will review papers filed in the case by Hollywood movie studios until Tuesday when a decision will be made whether to keep the ban for longer.

The software, only available for a week, is a DVD ripping and archiving product allowing for personal copies to be made. As soon as the software was made available last Tuesday Real and the Hollywood studios both launched lawsuits almost simultaneously, with Real pre-emptively asking for a declatory judgment and the studios wanting sale of the product blocked, saying it violates copyrights.

Currently the RealDVD site has the following message for customers "Due to recent legal action taken by the Hollywood movie studios against us, RealDVD is temporarily unavailable. Rest assured, we will continue to work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs for your own use."

View: RealDVD

Given its history of moving deadlines at a moment's notice, it hardly seems surprising that Microsoft is keeping Windows XP alive even longer than expected, but its latest move looks particularly bad for Vista.

The apparent decision to allow OEM computer sellers to offer disks that downgrade installations of Windows Vista to XP until the end of July next year clearly bumps up against the period when Windows 7 might be released.

Microsoft had previously said it would end the scheme next January, but the continued lack of demand for Vista appears to be behind the change of heart.

If the move is confirmed, it's yet more bad news for Vista, as XP users may have the option to skip the unloved OS entirely and move straight to Windows 7.

View: TechRadar

The veiled threat to shut down iTunes if royalty rates on downloaded songs were hiked has been averted. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) opted to keep the status quo and turned down a request to increase royalties from 9 to 15 cents on songs bought online. The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) asked for the rise while Apple opposed it and said it could result in iTunes being shut down.

"We're pleased with the CRB's decision," said Apple's Tom Neumayr.

In testimony submitted to the CRB 18 months ago, but only brought to light this week, Apple executive Eddy Cue said: "Apple has repeatedly made clear that it is in this business to make money and would most likely not continue to operate iTS (the iTunes Store) if it were no longer possible to do so profitably." The CRB also rejected a call to cut the rate to 4.8 cents and in the end agreed to peg it at 9.1 cents a song for the next five years.

Link: Read more at BBC News

Researchers have demonstrated a flexible television screen which could result in people folding up their computer and putting it in their pocket. The design could be used for television and posters, as well as computers, while it could also pave the way for the development of newspaper display technology which would allow readers to upload daily news to an easy-to-carry display contraption.

The concept demo was unveiled by researchers from Sony and the Max Planck Institute in Germany who believe "Rigid television screens, bulky laptops and still image posters are to be a thing of the past". It is all organic, flexible and transparent with an extremely low energy requirement, while it has an almost unlimited viewing angle and high efficiency. There is no need for a backlight and response times are up to 10 times fast than LCDs (liquid crystal displays), meaning ultra-smooth motion without blurring. Due to the transparency, it is thought multiple layers can be stacked possibly for some types of 3D effects.