u.k

Huawei has offered to give the Australian government "unrestricted" access to the firm's software source code and hardware equipment in an effort to dispel security fears, months after the Chinese telecoms giant was barred from supplying infrastructure equipment for the country's national broadband network.

The Australian government barred Huawei from bidding on contracts for the network earlier this year, saying it had a "a responsibility to do our utmost to protect [the network's] integrity and that of the information carried on it".

John Lord, Huawei's Australian chairman, said on Thursday that the … Read more

A right-wing political figure in Great Britain has stirred up trouble for tweeting the address of a gay couple denied a single room in a bed and breakfast.

The Twitter account belongs to the controversial Nick Griffin, Chairman for the British National Party Chairman and Member of the European Parliament for the North West region. Griffin and other members of the extreme right-wing British National Party have ruffled feathers in the past with their open hostility toward gays, Muslims, and immigrants.

This time around, Griffin expressed his outrage over a case in which two men requested a single room with … Read more

The U.K. is accusing Facebook of dodging taxes in 2011. According to the Guardian, tax experts said that the tech company reported lower sales figures than estimated and explicitly set up its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, to reap the benefits of lowered tax incentives for corporations.

"The U.K. is being taken for a ride," Tax Research U.K. director Richard Murphy told the Guardian. "Facebook is taking standard practice for these IT companies to a new high, or low, depending on how you look at it."

Facebook paid $313,345 to the U.K. … Read more

U.K. network operator Everything Everywhere, which runs the Orange and T-Mobile brands in the UK, has announced the first commercial 4G LTE network across the country.

The company, which will now be known as EE, will launch the service in 16 U.K. cities -- including London, Manchester, and Glasgow -- by the end of the year and will push for 98 percent U.K. coverage by 2014.

While Orange and T-Mobile will remain as two separate operating companies, EE will be reserved for 4G brands and connectivity.

Along with the announcement, the mobile phone giant -- with more … Read more

Hewlett-Packard lost ground to Acer, Asus, Apple, and others in key markets in Europe, according to market researcher Gartner.

The Western Europe PC market recorded weak overall PC shipments across all countries, according to Meike Escherich, principal analyst at Gartner.

But some are doing better than others. Acer is gaining on HP in Europe and increased its market share by 2.7 percentage points. Asus was the top performer among the top five vendors and moved up to the No. 3 slot, according to Gartner.

In the U.K., which is one of the worst markets, "the real worry...… Read more

Downing Street, the office and home of the British Prime Minister, has cleared the way for Google to map the famous road at street level. Users of Google Maps can now see the powerhouse of British politics on Street View.

With the Olympics in full swing and as an already packed London continues to swell, the Downing Street gates will remain tightly shut, barring anyone from entering the historic roadway. But anyone with a mobile phone, laptop, tablet or otherwise can check out David Cameron's front door. You don't even need a security pass; you can virtually just … Read more

Apple lawyers walked away from a U.K. court and breathed a sigh of relief following a judge's decision to grant a stay on an earlier ruling forcing the Cupertino, Calif.-based company to publicly state Samsung had not copied the iPad's design.

A London court said today that Apple will not have to immediately place the notice on its Web site, reports Bloomberg, giving the iPad maker enough time to lodge an appeal in October.

U.K. High Court Judge Colin Birss ruled in an earlier case on July 18 that Samsung did not infringe the iPad's design patents … Read more

Kickstarter announced today that millions more people will soon be allowed to launch projects through its crowd-source funding platform.

The company broadcast the news via Twitter saying, "People in the UK will be able to launch projects on Kickstarter starting this autumn! More info soon!"

So far, only people in the U.S. can create projects and solicit funding on Kickstarter. The reason for this, according to The Verge, which first reported this news, is that the U.S. was the only place where Amazon Payments was offered -- the platform Kickstarter uses. However, as of March 2011, … Read more

HTC won a U.K. High Court case after a judge today ruled the Taiwanese smartphone maker has not infringed four of Apple's European-held patents.

Judge Christopher Floyd also said that three of the four patents were invalid, according to Bloomberg. 

The only patent that was ruled to be valid relates to Apple's photo-management software, but HTC did not infringe on it, according to the court.

The other three invalid patents relate to Apple's multitouch software, alphabet-changing software, and the iPhone and iPad's slide-to-unlock feature.

The same four patents are to be tested in … Read more