Technology

Free public wireless firm, FON, has received a further 10 million euro ($13.1 million) in funding from investors, the company announced today. The company did not disclose the names of new investors, but noted that existing investors include Google and Skype.

Rumors circulating in Europe's telecom industry have suggested that British Telecom (BT) may be one of the new investors.

Apple's quest to reduce product costs has been bad news for memory manufacturer, Micron Technology, industry sources say. “We're hearing that Apple has significantly reduced its NAND flash purchasing at Micron,” report analysts at WR Hambrecht and Co in a briefing released this week.

While the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project has taken on the aura of a charity – if you believe what you read in the mainstream media – the hard numbers tell a different story. Analysts say the component suppliers that have taken a gamble on the project stand a fair chance of coming out winners.

A system that can guess a person's age just by looking at their face could be used to keep underage kids and teenagers out of video game arcades and liquor stores, its inventors believe. It could also help detect unwanted adults entering schools.

The Japanese-developed technology takes only 0.2 seconds to put an approximate age to any face picked up by its cameras.

Despite being four months away from release, Apple's iPhone is already among the four biggest brands in the high-end cell phone market, according to a new US consumer survey sponsored by Goldman Sachs.

Potential mobile phone buyers ranked Apple almost equal with Nokia, even though they gave their opinions before Apple had even formally announced the iPhone. Nokia is the world's largest mobile phone maker.