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LA DEFENSE, France--BitTorrent, a company that's enabled network-crushing levels of file sharing, can be seen as Internet service providers' natural opponent. But the company's chief executive today entered the lion's den with a surprising message:

"I'm actually here to help."

How? In a speech at the Broadband World Forum here, BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker tried to build enthusiasm for his company's Micro Transport Protocol, or μTP, an open-source technology that's built into the company's client software for sharing files over peer-to-peer connections. μTP increases network efficiency and addresses congestion--the biggest concern … Read more

LA DEFENSE, France--Governments are eager for the benefits of high-speed Internet access, but if they really want it, they need to reform regulations to help those who would build it, a Google executive argued today.

"Regulation can get in the way of innovation," said Kevin Lo, who as general manager of access oversees the Google Fiber project to bring extremely fast Net access to Kansas City in Missouri and Kansas. "Regulations tied to physical infrastructure sometimes defer the investment altogether," he said in a speech at Broadband World Forum here.

Tension between private-sector ambitions and public-sector … Read more

Intel will put its large spotlight on Ultrabook laptops and Windows 8, among other technologies, at its annual developer conference next week.

In a keynote on September 14, Mooly Eden, general manager of the PC client group at Intel, will describe the "transformation of the PC" being driven by Ultrabooks at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), according to an overview of the forum CNET received from Intel today. IDF begins next Tuesday.

Ultrabooks are very light, very thin Windows laptops that compete with the MacBook Air. The core hardware includes Intel second-generation "Sandy Bridge" processors and … Read more

Facebook products in the past have created controversy over privacy, but people get used to new features that initially scare them, founder Mark Zuckerberg has told the e-G8 Forum.

Facebook services that have increasingly allowed "friends" to keep track of each other have drawn criticism from users, who then begin to use them, Zuckerberg told the e-G8 Forum conference in Paris this week.

"We'll roll it out, and pretty often there'll be this backlash, and people will say, ok, we don't like this new thing," said Zuckerberg. "It's I think a … Read more

Government inquiries into what companies are doing with location information from mobile devices enter yet another round next month.

The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission are holding a public forum on June 28 to discuss the topic, the AP reports. On the invite list are both Apple and Google, companies that have been called to testify in front of Senate subcommittees on the issue twice this month.

Representatives from Apple and Google are slated to appear in Washington, D.C., this Thursday to answer questions about mobile privacy and protection from U.S. lawmakers in a hearing … Read more

Samsung and Visa are joining forces to offer smartphone users the ability to make mobile payments through NFC technology in London next year as part of the 2012 Olympic games.

Using special Samsung Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile phones, attendees in London before and during the games will be able to buy items on the go through near-field communications, an emerging technology that lets people send payments by phone directly from their bank accounts to special terminals.

Samsung and Visa join a growing number of companies hopping onto the NFC bandwagon. Dangling the lure of wallet-free purchases, an array of … Read more

The decision to hand Google's CEO reins from Eric Schmidt to Larry Page was born not out of internal dissent or competitive fears over Facebook but rather out of the need to tighten up management.

That's the message Schmidt himself has been trying to get across. Though he's spent the past week defending and explaining the impetus behind the executive shuffle, he once again tried to set the record straight yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Schmidt worked to quash rumors spread by those claiming to have the inside scoop.

"All of the … Read more

Cybercriminals buy and sell stolen information using a vast network of online stores, forums, and even social-networking accounts, according to a report released yesterday by PandaLabs.

Posing as a cybercriminal to gain access to this online black market, PandaLabs researchers uncovered a world where the bad guys work together to buy and sell stolen bank account information, credit card numbers, passwords, and other products. Much of this illegal enterprise is done through online stores and forums, but PandaLabs found criminals using Facebook and Twitter accounts to set up shop as well.

Though this black market is relatively open, the security … Read more

Google has spruced up Google Groups in a bid to make the service more user friendly.

Google Groups offers a wide variety of discussion forums where users can read and post messages on their favorite topics. But the current interface has been showing its age, so a revamp has been long overdue.

As one enhancement, Google has made it easier to search for and browse both groups and individual postings by entering a topic in a single search bar. Once users find a group they want to follow, they can now add it to a list of favorites easily accessible … Read more