Microsoft shows off next Windows

13 September 2011 Last updated at 16:31 ET

Microsoft has taken the wraps off the next generation of its Windows operating system.

Windows 8 is designed to run on tablet computers, as well as desktop and laptop PCs.

The software, which is due to be released in 2012 will work on the popular ARM-designed low power processors for the first time.

Microsoft has been under pressure to come up with an answer to Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms.

Unveiling Windows 8 at the Build developers' conference in California, Windows division president Steven Sinofsky declared: "We re-imagined Windows. From the chipset to the user experience."

The system will function through one of two interfaces; a traditional desktop, similar to that seen in previous editions of Windows, and a tablet version, known as Metro.

Metro features larger, chunky controls of the sort that best suit touchscreen use. The current lack of such an input method is widely seen as the reason why few Windows 7 tablets exist.

Microsoft said that it would also be launching its own online marketplace - the Windows Store - to sell downloadable applications.

Chip changes

One of the biggest innovations for Windows 8 will be its compatibility with processors designed by ARM holdings.

Chips based around the ARM architecture typically use very little power, and as a result are found in the vast majority of smartphones and tablets currently available.

To date, Windows devices have required Intel or Intel-compatible processors, with the exception of Microsoft's Windows Phone range.

ARM chips are likely to be predominantly used on Windows 8 Metro devices, and will require ARM-specific versions of applications.

The company has not given details on the chips that will be integrated into desktop and laptop machines.

Tapping into any section of the Windows market will be seen as a huge boost for Cambridge-based ARM Holdings.

The company faces growing competition in the mobile device sector since Intel launched its tablet and smartphone-focused Oak Trail chipset in April 2011.

Tapping into that particular market is seen as vital for hardware manufacturers, and software-makers, such as Microsoft, as the market for traditional computers continues to be eroded.

Industry analysts Gartner predicted in April that the global market for tablets would reach 70 million this year, and grow to 300 million in 2015.

Sales of desktops and laptops are expected to continue growing, but at a much slower rate than in the past.

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Skynet seeks idle computer power

13 September 2011 Last updated at 05:19 ET

Idle home computers are being sought to help search through mountains of astronomical data.

The Skynet project involves using the spare processing capacity of computers as a giant, distributed supercomputer.

PC's joining Skynet will scour the data for sources of radiation that reveal stars, galaxies and other cosmic structures.

People who process the most data could win a visit to one of the observatories gathering data for the project.

Star searchers

The Skynet project is being run by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and it is seeking the help of thousands of PCs to analyse data.

One of the sources of data will be the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) that will use thousands of dish antennas to create the most sensitive sky watching instrument ever made.

A decision about where to build the �1.5bn SKA will be made in February 2012 and it will be sited in either Australia or South Africa.

While it will have its own cadre of supercomputers to analyse data, the SKA is expected to produce so much information that a system to filter this down to the most interesting samples will be needed. Skynet will be part of that large-scale filtering system.

"As we design, develop and switch on the next generation of radio telescopes, the supercomputing resources processing this deluge of data will be in increasingly high demand," said Professor Peter Quinn, director of ICRAR in a statement.

"SkyNet aims to complement the work already being done by creating a citizen science computing resource that radio astronomers can tap into and process data in ways and for purposes that otherwise might not be possible," he added.

Prior to the SKA being built and switched on, the computers joining ICRAR's Skynet will crunch data from current radio astronomy research projects.

Those signing up to help will download a small program that will get a computer looking through data when that PC is not being used for anything else.

ICRAR said the Skynet program was small and should not slow down any PC it is running on. Also, it said, data would be split into small packets to ensure it did not swamp a participant's net connection.

Distributed computing projects that harness idle machines are a well-established way of scouring through research data. One of the earliest looked through radio signals for evidence of extra-terrestrial intelligence.

More recent projects simulate protein folding and help physicists search for the Higgs boson - the missing piece of what is known as the Standard Model, the most widely accepted theory of particle physics.

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Legal action on college book plan

13 September 2011 Last updated at 06:37 ET

Writers from Australia, Britain and Canada are suing five US universities for creating online libraries made up of millions of books scanned by Google.

They argue that the books were digitised without authorisation.

The lawsuit accuses the universities of "engaging in one of the largest copyright infringements in history".

The case could have implications for the long-running court battle between Google and publishers.

Abducted?

The lawsuit centres on the HathiTrust repository, set up by the University of Michigan to allow students and university staff members access to so-called orphan works.

Orphan works are defined as out-of-print books whose writers could not be located.

The other universities named in the lawsuit are the University of California, the University of Wisconsin and the universities of Indiana and Cornell.

Paul Courant, the dean of libraries at Michigan University, told the AP newswire he was surprised by the lawsuit.

"I'm confident that everything we're doing and everything we're contemplating doing is lawful use of these works," he said.

He said that Google had so far digitised about five million books from Michigan's library, with several million more to scan.

But authors are convinced that the project is a massive infringement of copyright.

"This group of American universities has no authority to decide whether, when or how authors forfeit their copyright protection. They aren't orphaned books, they're abducted books," Angelo Loukakis, executive director of the Australian Society of Authors told the AP news service.

His views were echoed by Daniele Simpson, the president of Canadian authors guild the Union Des Ecrivaines et des Ecrivains Quebecois.

"How are authors from Quebec, Italy or Japan to know that their works have been determined to be 'orphans' by a group in Ann Arbor, Michigan? If these colleges make up their own rules, then won't every college and university, in every country, want to do the same?" she asked.

Unfair advantage

Alongside the US Authors Guild and eight individual authors, the groups aim to prevent the first release of 27 works by French, Russian and American authors scheduled for October.

The authors said books from nearly every nation have been digitised, including thousands of works published in 2001 in China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain and the UK.

"This is an upsetting and outrageous attempt to dismiss authors' rights," said Mr Loukakis.

Mr Loukakis and Ms Simpson are among the authors involved in the lawsuit. Others include UK author Fay Weldon, poet Andre Roy and Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro.

The lawsuit comes ahead of the next hearing in the six-year battle between Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers.

Lawyers for authors and publishers are due to go back to court in 10 days time to see if a new deal can be done with the search giant.

A $125m (�79m) royalties settlement was rejected by Judge Denny Chin who argued that the deal would give Google an unfair advantage.

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