Weekend takeaway: 10 tech stories you need to read right now


14 Nov 2014

Ten nuggets of knowledge for this weekend, including news from the Alcatel-Lucent Technology Symposium in New Jersey, and the Rosetta spacecraft’s Philae probe landing on comet 67P.

1. Get your Philae of the best Twitter handles covering comet 67P landing (live feed)

Microblogging site Twitter is proving to be the go-to source for all the latest news about the Philae probe landing on the surface of comet 67P in a first for science.

2. The next big thing is the network, says Alcatel-Lucent CTO

Alcatel-Lucent CTO Marcus Weldon has set his R&D researchers a challenge to boost network technologies by 10 times to cope with a world containing billions of connected things.

3. Alcatel-Lucent is back in the game after dramatic restructure, says CEO

Alcatel-Lucent is two-thirds of the way towards achieving its €1bn cost savings target by the end of 2015, giving it the firepower to keep investing in R&D, CEO Michel Combes said.

4. World’s digital leaders write e-book on thoughts of Europe’s digital future

Forty-four of the world’s leaders in technology, including Lord David Puttnam, Eric Schmidt and Neelie Kroes, have come together to write an e-book discussing what they see as Europe’s digital future.

5. The Interview: Mark Castleman, Bell Labs (video)

While over-the-top players such as Facebook and Snapchat appear to threaten the fabric of services such as voice and SMS, the pendulum will ultimately swing back in telecom operators’ favour, says Bell Labs’ Mark Castleman.

6. Ulster Bank slapped with €3.5m fine over 2012 IT collapse

The Central Bank has fined Ulster Bank €3.5m over the 2012 IT failure that left 600,000 people without banking services over 28 days. It is the largest fine imposed on a financial services provider in Ireland.

7. Irish Government setting up local division of international patent court

A local division of the Unified Patent Court will be established in Ireland, providing the judicial system for patent protection in up to 25 EU member states.

8. The sweeping changes planned for Twitter that are designed to make it even more useful

Twitter has revealed that new features and design changes are coming to the social network in the first half of next year.

9. Boston Dynamics has built a ‘Karate Kid’ robot named Ian

Engineering firm Boston Dynamics has built an anthropomorphic robot named Ian that mimics the iconic crane kick unleashed by Daniel LaRusso in 1983 movie The Karate Kid.

10. Six-year-old becomes world’s youngest-ever certified computer specialist

Six-year-old Ayan Qureshi has become the world’s youngest-ever certified computer specialist after passing a Microsoft exam.

Chinese takeaway image via Shutterstock