Motorola revives Razr

Motorola Mobility is reviving its once-popular Razr brand to tout its latest gadget, the Droid Razr, as the world's slimmest smartphone, writes The Times of India.

The company, which agreed to be bought by Google for $12.5 billion, hopes to compete with arch-rival Apple iPhone when it kicks off Droid Razr pre-orders at Verizon Wireless on 27 October, and hits store shelves in November.

But the device, which sports a more powerful chip than the iPhone and faster wireless Web speeds, costs $299 compared with the $199 price tag for the latest iPhone 4S.

Security researchers have analysed the online conversations of a quarter of a million hackers to uncover the lengths cyber crooks are going to train the next generation of black hats, reports Computing.co.uk.

Researchers at security firm Imperva tracked an explosion of activity on the forums, raising fears that swathes of new would-be hackers are being taught how to instigate business-crippling and illegal hacks.

The researchers identified the number of discussions about attacks growing on average 157% year-on-year from 2007 to the present, with the variety of attacks also rocketing.

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers saw his pay package fall by nearly a third in the company's fiscal year that ended in July, a period when the company's shares dropped by about the same amount, reveals AFP.

The company said in a regulatory filing yesterday that even though it achieved its operational performance goals for the year, shareholder value eroded in fiscal 2011.

“Consequently, the compensation committee exercised its negative discretion and determined that no named executive officer would receive a cash incentive award or a performance-based equity award for fiscal 2011,” it said.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has predicted the new line of Windows Phones coming out this Christmas can establish the company's operating system and beat Apple and Android devices, according to The Register.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit, in San Francisco, an ebullient Ballmer enthused about the forthcoming phones, saying the new handsets would be as well-designed and attractive to consumers as anything Apple could put out.

He also took time to take a swipe at the leading smartphone operating system Android. “The biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone,” he said.