h4Fewer customers through console door/h4 pGame Group saw sales growth slow to 11.4 per cent in the 44 weeks ended 29 November, down from 44.1 per cent in the same period last year but recent trading has been substantially worse - for the last 18 weeks of the period like-for-like growth fell to just 1.5 per cent..../p

http://www.last.fm/music/Army+Navy

iCal, Apple’s calendar application, is probably one of the few Mac-only apps known to non-Mac users, as nearly all calendar/to-do applications can sync with it. If you wanted to sync your Google Calendar with iCal, you kinda sorta could, but now the support for the CalDAV standard - the one used by iCal - is official.

The easiest way to do this is to download the Calaboration tool from Google’s site, which automatically finds all of your calendars and allows you to choose which ones you’d like to add to iCal. Voila!

---
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British Airways announces that it is exploring a potential merger with the Australian flag-carrier Qantas Airways.

The most striking images from around the world

h4OLPC rival?/h4 pAsus is to take on the $199 OLPC XO laptop with a $200 Small, Cheap Computer for the developing world..../p

img class=face src=http://planet.ubuntu.com/heads/sh.png alt= pI know I know, how pathetic ;-)/p pBut it finally reached Ubuntu:/p pa href=http://framework.zend.com/ target=_blankZend Framework/a 1.7.1 reached Jaunty Jackalope./p p class=rteindent2From the debian/changelog:/p pre class=rteindent2 zend-framework (1.7.1-0ubuntu1) jaunty; urgency=low nbsp; * New Upstream version nbsp; * New features and components: nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Zend_Amf with support for AMF0 and AMF3 protocols nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Dojo Toolkit 1.2.1 (Not installed in Ubuntu Package) nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Support for dijit editor available in the Dojo Toolkit nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Zend_Service_Twitter nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + ZendX_JQuery in extras library nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Metadata API in Zend_Cache nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Google book search API in Zend_Gdata nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Preliminary support for GData Protocol v2 in Zend_Gdata nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Support for skip data processing in Zend_Search_Lucene nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Support for Open Office XML documents in Zend_Search_Lucene indexer nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Performance enhancements in Zend_Loader, Zend_Controller, and server components nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Zend_Mail_Storage_Writable_Maildir enhancements for mail delivery nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Zend_Tool in incubator nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Zend_Text_Table for formatting table using characters nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Zend_ProgressBar nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Zend_Config_Writer nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + ZendX_Console_Unix_Process in the extras library nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Zend_Db_Table_Select support for Zend_Paginator nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Global parameters for routes nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Using Chain-Routes for Hostname-Routes via Zend_Config nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + I18N improvements nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Application wide locale for all classes nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Data retrieving methods are now static nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Additional cache handling methods in all I18N classes nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Zend_Translate API simplified nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + File transfer enhancements nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Support for file elements in subforms nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Support for multifile elements nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Support for MAX_FILES_SIZE in form nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Support for breaking validation chain nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Support for translation of failure ,messages nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - New IsCompressed, IsImage, ExcludeMimeType, ExcludeExtension validators nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Support for FileInfo extension in MimeType validator nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Zend_Db_Table_Select adapater for Zend_Paginator nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + Support for custom adapters in Zend_Paginator nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + More flexible handling of complex types in Zend_Soap nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; + All bugs which are fixed you can find here: nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - a href=http://framework.zend.com/issues/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?requestId=10903 title=http://framework.zend.com/issues/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?requestId=10903http://framework.zend.com/issues/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?requestId=10903/a nbsp; * Do not install the dojo toolkit which is being shipped inside the original tarball of Zend nbsp; * Do not install the incubator which is being shipped inside the original tarball of Zend nbsp; * debian/control: remove quilt from build-depends, not needed anymore nbsp; * debian/rules: nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - remove all quilt relevant patch rules and includes nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - copy debian/zend-framework.ini to the right location (/etc/php5/conf.d/) nbsp; * added debian/zend-framework.ini (LP: #220719) nbsp; * debian/README.Debian: nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; - Updated to the new world order for enabling zend-framework /prep class=rteindent4nbsp;/p pnbsp;/p

Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Nokia N97: the ultimate Facebook device  —  UPDATE: here's a short video of the N97 in action last night at dinner.  —  I have a second video that shows the photo viewing, which looks a lot like how the iPhone does it.  —  Nokia just announced the N97.  I got a chance to play with it last night …

Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Nokia unveils flagship N97 phone [update: video!]  —  Details are in, Nokia has a new flagship phone.  The N97 packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that's a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback and QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator with an …

h4Un peu/h4 pA French court has ruled that foreign retailers must warn consumers to pay the country's so-called "iPod tax" copyright levy on MP3 players ordered online..../p

Far from the geriatric, overdesigned and unwieldy electric bikes available to date, the Optibike OB1 is built for proper biking enthusiasts. That is, proper biking enthusiasts with 13,000 spare...

The UK carrier said in statement to the stock exchange that it was exploring a potential merger with its Australian rival via a dual-listed company structure

Drug companies made multiple patent applications for the same medicine and started litigation to prevent or block rivals from entering the market for generic drugs, according to evidence presented as part of a European Commission inquiry.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/57980?ns=guardianpageName=Politics%3A+Gordon+Brown+to+crack+down+on+benefit+cheats+in+Queen%27s+speechch=Politicsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Queen%27s+speech%2CPolitics%2CUK+news%2CWelfare+%28Politics%29%2CSociety%2CSocial+exclusion+%28Society%29c5=Society+Weekly%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CSocial+Care+Societyc6=Patrick+Wintourc7=2008_12_02c8=1127455c9=articlec10=GUc11=Politicsc12=Queen%27s+speechc13=c14=h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FQueen%27s+speech" width="1" height="1" //divpGordon Brown has returned to New Labour's so-called "respect agenda" with proposals that all benefit cheats will lose access to benefits for a month, and also find themselves subject to lie detector tests. /ppThe "one strike and your out" proposals forms part of a tough commentary on the Queen's speech released today by the Cabinet Office./ppFresh proposals are also to be launched to give the public clearer information on how criminals were sentenced in local courts, while communities are to be given a bigger role in deciding what form of community punishment local criminals should be forced to undertake. /ppThe government also highlighted a pilot covering 25 local councils administering housing benefit to 500,000 claimants, saying "voice risk analysis technology" will be used to test whether a claimant is providing false information. The government first introduced the technology in Harrow in north London last year, but now says it plans to make the technology available nationwide. In the first three months Harrow council saved £300,000, suggesting levels of benefit fraud may be higher than government estimates. /ppMinisters are taking the action even though benefit fraud is now officially at the lowest level ever recorded, down 66% since 2001. /ppThe government currently withdraws benefit for at least 13 weeks to anyone found making a fraudulent benefit claim twice in five years, but said it intends to harden this process by punishing first-time benefit fraud with four weeks' withdrawal. The action will be taken against those that suffer an administrative penalty and those found guilty in court. /ppThe Department of Work and Pensions applies civil penalties where the fraud is worth less than £2,000./ppMinisters also announced plans to make claimants for employment support allowance (ESA), the new incapacity benefit, commit themselves to complete an action plan designed to make them "work ready" in return for benefit. /ppa href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/dec/02/welfare-trade-unions"Lone parents with children aged between one and seven are also to be required for the first time/a as a condition of benefit to make themselves work ready by attending regular interviews with employment staff, drawing up an action plan and making themselves available to take skills, health or drug courses. /pp The proposals in a new government report were put forward by Professor Paul Gregg, who said today he did not expect the proposals to come into force until the recession had ended. About 300,000 ESA claimants will be deemed to be too mentally or physical unfit to prepare for work. Gregg also proposed that a clearer sanctions regime is introduced since at present different sanctions apply according to the benefit claimed. /ppIn other proposals the Cabinet Office paper suggests the power of public servants to use force may be strengthened. It argues that "the public looks to healthcare professionals, neighbourhood wardens and teachers to deal with unacceptable behaviour in public places. If they are not able to fulfil that role because they are not sure the law is on their side, or because they do not see it as part of their job. that sends the wrong message about what we as a society are prepared to tolerate."/ppIt also suggests most family intervention projects will reach 20,000 families with the most severe difficulties./ppThe paper also proposes an alcohol code limiting "all you can drink" promotions, and setting conditions on premises in particular local trouble hotspots. Lap dancing clubs will be reclassified as sex establishments so local councils have greater scope to close them. Ministers are also to look at preventing the clustering of betting shops. /ppThe paper draws heavily on the work of Louise Casey, the former "respect tsar", now working in the Home Office, Liam Byrne, the former immigration minister now co-ordinating much government policy from the Cabinet Office, and Hazel Blears, the communities secretary and a strong advocate of community empowerment. /ppThe paper tries to put the emphasis on fair rules in the context of the credit crunch. It says: "As everyone enters difficult economic times, with families working harder, household budgets coming under pressure, and more demand being placed on public resources, fair rules will become more important. /pp"If people perceive that not everyone is treated equally, that some get preferential treatment, that people who break the rules get away with it, respect for rules is undermined."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/queensspeech"Queen's speech/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/welfare"Welfare/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/socialexclusion"Social exclusion/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/teiQ5qmkgdRPB1rEz6tU2ZcaO0Y/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/teiQ5qmkgdRPB1rEz6tU2ZcaO0Y/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Media critic Michael Wolff had some pretty blunt things to say about News Corp.s social network in a BusinessWeek interview about his new Rupert Murdoch bio.

h4Who needs a mobile network anyway?/h4 pBT is trumpeting figures that show Wi-Fi usage has doubled since last year, with users clocking up more than a million minutes a day during September - but all is not quite what it seems..../p

British Airways (BA), the UK flag carrier, announced today that it is in merger talks with Qantas Airways, Australia's national airline.

h4Desperately seeking salesmen/h4 pRed Hat's CEO said the firm has put together a five-year strategic plan for the first time in its history, which will see it jack up its sales management as it looks to expand beyond its traditional markets..../p

Animoto, the impressive startup that automatically generates high quality music videos from a set of photos, has unveiled a new feature for the holiday season that will allow users to append any of their videos with a holiday intro/outro movie and a snow-themed backdrop, making for a perfect holiday eGreeting. To activate the special holiday look, just click on the ‘Santa’ button beneath any video. Of course, you’ll have to come up with photos suitable for the holiday season yourself - Animoto will just make them look festive.

We’re big fans of Animoto - the site may not offer an expansive list of products or features, but it does a great job of automatically spicing up photo albums, with little effort needed on the users’ part. For other holiday eGreeting options, check out MyPunchbowl’s eCards, which we covered last week.

To see a sample Animoto holiday video, click on the photo below.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Attacks in Mumbai highlight Indian security failings

pFiled under: a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/web-services/" rel="tag"Web services/a, a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/open-source/" rel="tag"Open Source/a, a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/social-software/" rel="tag"Social Software/a, a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/browser/" rel="tag"Browsers/a/pimg vspace="4" hspace="4" border="0" align="right" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.downloadsquad.com/media/2008/12/openidcew.png" alt="" /a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/tag/openid/"OpenID/a is a really great concept. The ability to use a single digital identity across the web and avoid having to sign up for yet another user account is a real productivity boon. More and more high profile sites and services are adopting a href="http://openid.net"OpenID/a, but the project still hasn't gained the traction that many of us think it deserves. This is partially because it still isn't easy to use OpenID -- or even find out if a site supports OpenID -- on all services. MySpace, Flock and Vidoop think they've come across a solution: let the browser handle it.br /br /Back in June, a href="http://myspace.com"MySpace/a a href="http://openid.net/2008/07/25/myspace-announces-support-for-openid/"announced support/a for OpenID and also became an OpenID provider. In order to help users more easily manage their online identity across other sites and services, MySpace teamed up with a href="http://vidoop.com/"Flock/a and a href="http://vidoop.com/"Vidoop/a to create OpenID for Flock, available today at a href="https://extensions.flock.com"https://extensions.flock.com/a. OpenID for Flock is an open source plugin, part of the larger Identity in the Browser (a href="http://code.google.com/p/idib/"IDIB/a) project which is focused on having the browser, not the user handle, authenticate and mange multiple user identities.br /br /I had the chance to demo the plugin yesterday and it is pretty cool. Essentially, once installed an OpenID icon appears on the right of Flock's chrome bar. The extension scans a page for OpenID compatibility, and if a site supports OpenID, the icon starts to glow. You can then automatically choose to populate the OpenID fields with your designated OpenID URL or associate that site with a specific OpenID account. You can manage all of your OpenIDs, choose what sites to associate certain profiles with and view the login history and OpenID-to-site-relationship with each site.br /br /br /pa href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/02/myspace-flock-and-vidoop-release-openid-for-flock-plugin/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emMySpace, Flock and Vidoop release OpenID for Flock plugin/em/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/02/myspace-flock-and-vidoop-release-openid-for-flock-plugin/"MySpace, Flock and Vidoop release OpenID for Flock plugin/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com"Download Squad/a on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:12:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=https://extensions.flock.com/Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/02/myspace-flock-and-vidoop-release-openid-for-flock-plugin/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/forward/1388421/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/02/myspace-flock-and-vidoop-release-openid-for-flock-plugin/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/J_vjH2BbC7GyfFNuec8jCqk2e1s/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/J_vjH2BbC7GyfFNuec8jCqk2e1s/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?a=1Gc5Ga2l"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?i=1Gc5Ga2l" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?a=QJkc5cfT"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?i=QJkc5cfT" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/downloadsquad/~4/bytnxcl9FbU" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/85378?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+Olympic+champion+DeGale+turns+professional+with+Frank+Warrench=Sportc3=guardian.co.ukc4=James+DeGale+%28boxer%29%2CBoxing%2COlympic+games+2012+%28News%29%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+useful%2COlympic+Gamesc6=Sean+Inglec7=2008_12_02c8=1127407c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=James+DeGalec13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FJames+DeGale" width="1" height="1" //divpOlympic gold medallist a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/jamesdegale" title=""James DeGale/a today became the third member of Great Britain's boxing squad from Beijing to turn professional with promoter Frank Warren./ppWarren has also signed Billy Joe Saunders, who lost meekly in the second round before complaining of homesickness, and Frankie Gavin, the 2007 world amateur champion, who was sent home before the Games when he failed to make his required weight. All three men will make their professional debuts early in 2009./pp"I'm delighted to have signed James, Frankie and Billy Joe, and I'm very excited about working with them in the future," said Warren./pp"I think they will all become world champions, and after their success as amateurs, the public is really going to get behind them and will want to watch their progress through the ranks."/ppWarren said there would be plenty of opportunity to see his stable of fighters action. "There will be six to eight shows a year," he said. "We will be taking them around the country so the British public can see a work in progress as they are built to be world champions. We had to beat off a lot of competition to make these signings. These lads will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Naseem Hamed, Joe Calzaghe and Ricky Hatton. We are building them to be world champions."/ppDeGale had insisted he would stay as an amateur for the London Olympics, provided his coach, Terry Edwards, remained in charge of the national team and he was given "sensible money" to train and provide for his family./pp"I want to win a gold medal in my home town of London," he told reporters following his 16-14 victory over Cuba's Emilio Correa in the Olympic final. "Obviously the money will have to be nice, and it will be hard to say no if they offer me £1m [to turn pro] but I want to sign a contract [to stay as an amateur] until 2012. If Terry stays, I stay."/ppHowever DeGale, a 22-year-old from Harlesden, has become increasingly disillusioned with the Amateur Boxing Association. Another of the British squad, light-heavyweight bronze-medallist Tony Jefferies, recently made public the squad's frustrations with the ABA saying: "The ABA haven't been in touch with me at all about staying amateur until 2012. They owe me a £5,000 medal bonus from the Olympics as well. James Degale hasn't got his either and he got a gold so his bonus was a lot bigger. I also got fined last month for not going to training camps before the European Championships."/pp"When we got off the plane we all thought we were going to have packages in place for us," added Jeffries, who has agreed a professional contract with promoter Dennis Hobson's Fight Academy added. "With the next Games being in London, it was tempting to see what they were prepared to offer us to stay amateur. But I can't wait forever."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/jamesdegale"James DeGale/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/boxing"Boxing/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/olympics2012"Olympic games 2012/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/3jIrvIYQR2Z6s6gcW0yxQkI2vPQ/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/3jIrvIYQR2Z6s6gcW0yxQkI2vPQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

http://www.last.fm/music/Army+Navy