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Data-recovery service providers are tasked with saving important data for you when something goes wrong — a drive crashes or storage device is dropped, and no backup is available. But do you trust them with the important data you let them recover or could they actually be a source for a data breach? A survey of 769 IT professionals published this week finds those surveyed need to find out more about the third-party data-recovery services their organizations use. For example, according to... 

As wireless access is added to new types of devices, Ericsson is reorganizing its licensing department in an attempt to generate more revenue from its patents, the company said on Thursday. The Swedish telecommunication vendor’s CEO Hans Vestberg wants to keep close tabs on the latest developments, and as part of its reorganization Ericsson’s chief intellectual property officer Kasim Alfalahi will now report directly to Vestberg. The company’s IPR portfolio includes 27,000 granted patents.... 

Research In Motion is highlighting the native and Android apps available on its struggling PlayBook at the Consumer Electronics Show as it gets ready to launch the first major overhaul of the tablet’s software in February. The company is showing the PlayBook OS 2.0 in its booth, demonstrating the Android apps that will finally be available to users of the tablet. RIM said in March last year that it would release a player that would let users of the tablets run apps designed for Android, and... 

Intel announced multi-year deals with Motorola Mobility and Lenovo to create smartphones and tablets, and said the first Google Android phones using the top chipmaker’s processors would go on sale this year. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said Lenovo would launch a smartphone for the Chinese market using Intel’s newest chip in the second quarter of the year, while Motorola will release its phone in the second half. The... 

Kodak has sued Apple and HTC for allegedly infringing patents related to camera imaging. According to the Wall Street Journal, the camera firm is alleging infringement of four patents by both companies as well as a fifth by HTC. It also filed a related complaint against both companies with the US International Trade Commission (ITC). Kodak said it obtained its patents because it decided that people would like to easily share pictures from their digital cameras before putting them on their PCs. It... 

Symantec is looking into an Indian hacking group’s claims that it accessed source code used in the company’s flagship Norton Antivirus program. A spokesman for the company on Thursday said that one claim by the group was false, while another is still being investigated. Meanwhile, the Indian group, which calls itself Lords of Dharmaraja, has threatened to publicly disclose the source code very soon. On Wednesday, the group posted on Pastebin what it claimed was confidential documentation... 

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) has announced Hadoop 1.0. The open source software project has reached the milestone of its first full release after six years of development. Hadoop is a software framework for reliable, scalable and distributed computing under a free licence. Apache describes it as “a foundation of cloud computing”. “This release is the culmination of a lot of hard work and cooperation from a vibrant Apache community group of dedicated software developers and committers... 

Microsoft has detailed the options that will be available to recover a crashed PC running Windows 8. Users will be offered two alternatives when presented with a Windows crash, with options to either refresh or reset their lost machine. The changes are detailed in a blog post from the firm where the refresh option was described as a way of retaining some work while restoring core OS functions. The other is a full face wipe. “We’ve built two new features in Windows 8 that can help you get... 

Apple has lost a move in US District Court in San Francisco to keep some of its software ‘secrets’ out of view of the public. It had asked Judge William Alsup to keep documents sealed that had surfaced in its lawsuit against Psystar, Bloomberg reports. The information about Apple’s Mac OS X operating system covers topics such as technological protection measures, system integrity checks and thermal management techniques. The court turned down Apple’s request, however, noting that the... 

Google has launched a political hub site to help the voting public get information, discuss issues and track candidates’ popularity. On Monday, Google launched an election site designed to not only offer users information but also to give them a chance to provide feedback on the candidates and the issues. “From the nineteenth century’s pamphlets to the twentieth century’s TV ad revolution, our elections have always been shaped by how we communicate and consume information,” wrote...