TechTalk: Exploring the Latest Technology News, Updates, Reviews, and Gossip

Skyfire, the makers of the samename browser for mobile devices, has announced the launch of its 1.0 version now available for free download at get.skyfire.com. Skyfire allows uses to use their phones to watch web videos and live events, stay connected with friends, share web pages instantly, and use the full-featured PC versions of their favorite websites. It also supports popular web standards and plug-ins such as Flash 10, Silverlight 2, Ajax, Javascript and more. Skyfire users can customize the start page with RSS feeds from their favorite websites, integrate their Facebook and Twitter accounts to import status updates and tweets, and publish their status to these networks. Improvements specific to the Skyfire 1.0 release include enhanced navigation, zooming and interaction as well as faster launch, power optimization, and new search functionality. As the new version starts-up, users can type a search or URL in the Superbar even while Skyfire is connecting in the network. "We ...

The next wave of technology spending is expected to flow toward gadgets and software that help people access the Internet from any location, and interact online in more innovative ways. While the global economic downturn has forced companies to cut back on spending and favor technology like "cloud computing" that helps save costs, executives at the Reuters Global Technology Summit forecast growth in new wireless and online arenas. Ralph de la Vega, head of mobility and consumer business at AT&T Inc, said he expects a wider range of devices, from digital cameras to automobiles, to offer direct Internet access and smarter social networking capabilities. "Just about everything you touch will have the capability to be connected and to talk to other machines and other devices, in the next generation of wireless growth that is in front of us," he said. Well-known venture capitalist Tim Draper said he was enthusiastic about companies like ShareThis, which have develope...

Militants and hate groups increasingly use social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube as propaganda tools to recruit new members, according to a report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The report released on Wednesday noted a 25 percent rise in the past year in the number of "problematic" social networking groups on the Internet. The report was based on "over 10,000 problematic web sites, social networking groups, portals, blogs, chat rooms, videos and hate games on the Internet which promote racial violence, anti-semitism, homophobia, hate music and terrorism." "Every aspect of the Internet is being used by extremists of every ilk to repackage old hatred, demean the 'Enemy,' to raise funds and since 9/11, recruit and train Jihadist terrorists," the Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement. The Jewish human rights group named after the renowned Nazi hunter has been monitoring the use of the Internet by extremists for over a dec...