Google may be turned upside down

Google's new privacy policy is under attack from regulators in its largest European markets. Picture: AP

WHILE you were sleeping European nations threatened to turn Google's business model upside down, demanding it overhaul practices they say let it create a data goldmine at the expense of unwitting users.

The Europeans complain that Google's new privacy policy doesn't allow users to figure out which information is kept, how it is combined by Google services, or how long the company retains it.

Facebook was also under scrutiny overnight, but its problems are more to do with users becoming bored with what is has to offer. In other science and technology news, the US will spend $100 million on a brain-mapping project, a black hole snacked on something the size of a planet and rats share our habit of gorging on junk food when there are healthier options available.

This illustration released by NASA, shows a supermassive black hole like the one which has enjoyed a planet-sized snack. Source: AP

Elsewhere, the final moments of condemned Kuwaiti inmates have been captured in a series of grim pictures, North Korea has vowed to restart a nuclear reactor with Kevin Rudd saying it's losing its close relationship with China, a UK couple has been found guilty of setting a fire that killed six of their kids, the bodies of 20 fisherman killed by pirates and tossed into the sea have been recovered, the FBI has accused two politicians of attempting to rig the New York City mayor's race and a woman has spoken of the pain caused by her doctor secretly filming her with his spy watch.

A Saudi man smokes his last cigarette before being hanged for the murder of a compatriot just west of the capital Kuwait City. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

Also, four more people have contracted a new strain of bird flu, a priest had admitted to dealing crystal meth, the search for the remains of victims in the rubble of the World Trade Center has begun anew, the UK is taking a DIY approach to mental health treatments, 500 students were sickened by the food in their dormitory and some Syrians are surviving on a diet of herbs as war ravages the country.

A Syrian woman carries her children near their makeshift refugee camp in the moutains in the area of Kherbet al-Khaldiye, on the Syria-Turkey border. Source: AFP

In entertainment, Pixar and Disney have announced a Finding Nemo sequel called Finding Dory, Lindsay Lohan has confirmed her pregnancy tweet was an April Fool's joke, Ruby Rose says she is doing better in her ongoing battle with depression and Arianna Huffington - a rock star of the internet news scene - has been accused of trashing an apartment.

Disney and Pixar have announced that Finding Nemo is getting a sequel called Finding Dory. Picture: Disney/Pixar Source: Supplied

Jury selection has begun as Michael Jackson's mum seeks as much as $40 billion from concert promoters over his death, Jimmy Fallon and Jay Leno have made sweet music together, Lady Gaga's stylist has left fashion house Mugler, Justin Bieber has been given four weeks to retrieve his pet monkey, Madonna has opened a new school in Malawi, Transformers 4's investment deal with China has more than meets the eye and Steve Buscemi will join Vampire Weekend for a concert.

Justin Bieber's capuchin monkey 'Mally" sits on the head of an employee in an animal shelter in Munich. Picture: Matthias Schrader Source: AP

In sport, the Australian cricket team is keeping its Champions Trophy squad a secret but England have recalled Chris Tremlett for Ashes consideration, Red Bull's owner says Mark Webber is still a candidate for the 2014 season, FIFA has made its choice for goal-line technology and it's not Hawkeye, cyclist Peter Sagan has apologised for pinching a woman's bottom on the podium and Asian Champions League action saw Pohang Steelers take a big step towards the knockout phase.

Following incidents like England's disallowed goal against Germany at the 2010 World Cup (above), FIFA has picked GoalControl as its preferred choice of goal-line technology system. Picture: Michael Sohn Source: AP

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Google unveils high-end laptop

GOOGLE has unveiled a touchscreen notebook computer designed for high-end users, throwing down the gauntlet to Apple and its MacBooks.

Google said on Thursday that its Chromebook Pixel computers blending tablet and laptop technology, boasting heavyweight Intel chips and screens tailored for rich graphics, were released in the United States and Britain, starting at $1,299.

"People will give up a MacBook Air for this," Google Chrome senior vice president Sundar Pichai said.

A Pixel model featuring built-in connectivity to the Verizon mobile internet service will hit the US market in April at a price of $1,449.

The newly unveiled version can connect online with wireless hot-spot technology or cables.

"It's a great looking product," Om Malik of technology news website GigaOM said at the Pixel debut in San Francisco.

"But Google is facing a selling problem, they have to compete on price originally and build a developer base for a high-end product."

Google is hoping enthusiasts will forego price comparisons with competitors such as MacBooks or laptops built on Windows 8 software and focus instead on the Pixel's touchscreen feature and the massive terabyte of Google Drive online data storage included.

"It seems like a pretty hard sell," said Forrester analyst James McQuivey. "I hope they are not planning to make a lot of money off it."

While the Pixel seems aimed at the MacBook market, it also faces fierce competition from touchscreen laptops based on Windows 8 software.

"It seems like more of a symbolic product release with Google trying to make a point that it is no longer just a low-end provider of devices," McQuivey said.

Analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group branded the Pixel move "a train wreck", arguing that notebook computers above $600 have historically not sold well and that Apple even sells a slick MacBook Air model for $999.

The booming popularity of tablet computers is also eroding the overall market for laptops.

"It just boggles the mind," Enderle said. "I have no clue what the hell Google was thinking."

The announcement adds a new dimension to the rivalry between the two tech giants, locked in a fierce battle over smartphones and tablets.

"This is for power users we expect to live completely in the cloud," Pichai said. "The Pixel is about pushing the state of the art."

Google custom built Pixel and is producing it with the help of electronics manufacturers in Taiwan.

"It is clear that touch is here to stay and that it is the future," Pichai said.

He described the Pixel screen resolution as superior to that on any laptop shipped today.

Within three months, Google will release Quickoffice software for handling documents and spreadsheets after complaints by Chrome notebook users over difficulties when trying to work with Microsoft's widely used Word or Excel software, according to Pichai.

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Microsoft's Outlook takes aim at Google

MICROSOFT has begun moving Hotmail users to a free, beefed up Outlook.com email service, aiming to grab back territory largely dominated by Google's multi-faceted online offering.

Microsoft's move follows a test phase in which it adapted the service to try and better serve lifestyles that now increasingly revolve around smartphones, tablets, social media and software "rented" as a service online.

The number of active accounts on Outlook.com grew to 60 million in just six months during the preview period, Microsoft said, stressing that it lets users connect to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The US software titan plans to gradually coax owners of the approximately 360 million Hotmail accounts globally to new Outlook.com addresses, which will be better synched to other Microsoft services, such as its Bing search engine.

"Starting today, Microsoft will begin to upgrade every Hotmail user to Outlook.com," the company said in a statement.

"The upgrade is seamless and instant for Hotmail customers; everything including their @hotmail.com email address, password, contacts, etc., will stay the same."

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington state, also synched Outlook.com to its SkyDrive service for storing digital data online at data centres and tailored it to fit the firm's freshly released Windows 8 operating software.

"This is a huge redesign," said analyst Wes Miller of Directions On Microsoft, an independent firm that tracks the technology colossus.

"The product is infinitely more usable than Hotmail was."

Launched in 1996, Hotmail was among the first web-based email services.

However, Microsoft let Hotmail drift as rival Google won fans to free Gmail service tied to the internet titan's array of online products, according to analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

"Google clearly attacked Hotmail," he said. "It was a strategic mistake to let Hotmail languish as much as they did."

Email services serve as "beachheads" internet firms work from to get people to use other products such as search or hosted data storage.

Google also scans email messages for keywords that provide clues for smartly targeted money-making online ads. For example, if home loan refinancing is mentioned in a Gmail message, ads from mortgage sellers might appear.

Microsoft has lambasted the tactic in ads that say "Don't Get Scroogled", referring to Google's mining of Gmail messages.

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