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You might remember this news from a while back. In order to improved the predictive ability of its movie recommendation system, Netflix cranked up a $1 million contest for research and business –build us a better mousetrap and the money is yours. Besides the money Netflix offered up its subscriber data, which included their viewing recommendations and choices, but didn’t include names. Netflix believed it had protected the identities of its subscribers this way.

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The ‘Interactive’ part of the annual South by South West conference in Austin, Texas kicks off this Friday. Known as SXSWi, and running through until Tuesday 16 March, the event brings together web designers, developers, content creators and more, to share ideas, network, announce new products and services, and then hang out in the evenings over barbeque and beer. The conference features around 200 panels and evening events covering subjects such as social media, interface design, real-time web and much more. The evenings see parties such as the Bigg Digg Shindigg, events hosted by Microsoft, Mozilla and Mashable, and a tonne of film showings, since the SXSW Film Conference and Festival runs at the same time

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Maybe it all started with the 1997 Atari 2600 title Combat , in which you were tasked with blowing up your best friend (or whoever you invited over) with a tank, bi-plane, or jet. Or maybe it was something else, but no matter what videogame first began shaping our feeble minds, one thing’s for sure – violent videogames increases our violent thinking, attitudes, and behaviors, says a new study. Oh, and those shoot-em-ups you’ve been playing do absolutely nothing to promote positive social behaviors. To come to the above conclusion, psychologist Craig Anderson of Iowa State University and his team combed through the results of existing studies of 130,000 people from the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Anderson says he found an association between exposure to violent games and aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive “affect.” “Videogames are neither inherently good nor inherently bad,” the study says.

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Smaller, faster, cheaper is a mantra for today’s mobile communications hardware. Texas Instruments (TI) has taken this to heart, and tossed in multi-tasking and lower power consumer as well. TI is announcing a new chip, the WiLink 7.0 , that rolls up Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and FM radio onto a chip that takes up less room, uses less power, and costs less than current multi-chip solutions. TI says the WiLink crams all of the above into a single 65-nanometer chip, that requires 30 percent less material to build, and takes up 50% less space than existing two-chip solutions. Furthermore, TI says the WiLink will extend talk time and battery life with “Sophisticated Enhanced Low Power (ELP) technology.” TI claims the WiLink offers best-in-class 3GPP test performance; supports both Bluetooth low-energy and Bluetooth 3.0; will support WiFi Direct and Soft AP as well as 802.11 a/b/g/n; and has improved FM transmit and receive capabilities with internal antenna support

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The mid-range SP-A600B DLP projector is Samsung’s first stab at the sector and it’s a generally impressive attempt if you can find it on sale at a decent price. Its appeal begins with its gloss black and unusually shapely appearance. The SP-A600B sports Samsung’s signature blue LED lights above the lens and a sleek design. You can place it in full view on a coffee table for high brightness content such as live TV or sports, despite its low sounding 1,000 ANSI Lumens brightness. It’s well connected, too

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Snapdragon mobile device chips have a competitive advantage because of their integrated 3G and wireless capabilities, believes Qualcomm. In a technology briefing with TechRadar, the company added it would be announcing a 1.5GHz dual-core version of the Snapdragon chip later this year. Luis Pineda, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, said that new Snapdragon chips are imminent. “The next Snapdragon is our 45nm version, starting this month [currently the 65 and 80nm parts are in circulation]. We’ll have the 45nm 8X50A at 1.3GHz and then the dual-core which will be available in the second half of this year, in products for 2011, at 1.5GHz, the 8X72.” The latter chip will have full 1080p capabilities

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The 1970s were a decade of impressive technological invention and development with the first microprocessors, calculators and video games strutting onto the scene oozing cool. Here are just seven of the best technologies to emerge in these years. 1. The first microprocessor When Intel brought out the first microprocessor in 1971, the Intel 4004, it started the evolution of the home computer. Up until this time most computers were in the hands of fans and scientists with few members of the public really paying attention

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In an extraordinary move, a court has banned Microsoft from selling Word due to the computer program violating a patent. The patent in question is owned by a Canadian company, called i4i Inc, and is to do with the way the software allows you to edit XML. This is all part of a on-going court battle which has been going on all year, and even though the company avoided a ban this October , it looks likely that Word will be taken off the shelves in January unless they tweak the problem.

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IBM on Wednesday said it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Lombardi, a privately held software company out of Austin, Texas which provides Business Process Management (BPM) software and services. “Any discussion on business improvement inevitably leads to improving the processes that are at the heart of every company,” said Craig Hayman, general manager, IBM Application and Integration Middleware. “Recognizing this, IBM has strengthened its presence and investments in business process and integration software to meet these growing client demands. Lombardi fills out our company’s portfolio in this key area.” According to market research firm IDC, the market for BPM software will scale to $3 billion by 2018, up from $1.7 billion this year and representing a compounded annual growth rate of almost 15 percent. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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Believe it or not, the Nokia 3210 is now over 10 years old. Selling over 150 million units, the 3210 was the first mobile to truly hit the big time and it was many people’s first time phone. Who doesn’t remember playing Snake and composing a personal ringtone on the 3210? Back then, phones were used for making phone calls, texting was a new phenomenon and WAP was so hi-tech it was scary

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