Second look: Weekly tech round-up

Making sense of the technology news that matters

mobile world

Sick to death of hearing the phrase “does anyone have a charger for a Nokia?” If so, news coming out of the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona should be right up your street. The GSMA, the trade organisation that represents the mobile phone industry, has announced that all the major players have agreed to produce phones by 2012 that use a universal charger rather than the present proprietary ones. The new charger will use a micro-USB connection, like those currently used by some TomTom sat-navs, Blackberry phones and digital cameras. Not only will it make life easier, but it will be better for the planet too, as the new juicers will consume 50 per cent less energy than current chargers.

Microsoft bounty

Microsoft has put a bounty of $250,000 dollars on the head of the creator of the Conficker worm, which has infected millions of PCs across the world since it was first spotted in the wild last October. The company is offering to pay the reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of those behind the virus, which digs deep into the system files and registry, enabling the author to install more malware. It’s not the first time Microsoft has gone all Mafioso – in 2004 it paid the same amount to a group of people who squealed on the author of the Sasser virus.

mobile world

Flash in the RAM

It wouldn’t be a week in tech without rumours of a new iPhone hitting the market, though this time they appear to be carrying even more weight than usual. Apple has reportedly purchased Samsung’s entire supply of flash memory, causing a shortage in the wider world market. The Apple rumour industry is already suggesting that the only reason the company is stockpiling memory in such a fashion is to cope with demand for production of a new model in the summer, though Apple, as ever, are keeping schtum.

Pocket projector

Samsung have released details of the Show i7410, its new mobile packing a DLP Pico pocket projector under the hood. While pocket projectors have been around for a little while now, this is the first time one of the major manufacturers have crammed one into a mobilr phone, which will also sport Windows Mobile, and a 5.0MP camera. It will be capable of images up to 50in, which, while not strong enough to project images of half-naked ladies on the side of the Houses of Parliament, will certainly pack enough for that last minute presentation where you’ve forgotten to book the A/V room.