Skype for iPad debuts

Skype has released its official iPad app to the iOS App Store, bringing its live video service to both 3G and WiFi data connections, reveals Mashable.

Skype for iPad, which has begun rolling out in app stores across the world, expands upon the iPhone app's features, thanks to the iPad's larger screen real estate.

The iPad app includes video chat, instant messaging, phone calls and quick access to contacts. Unlike the iPhone app, instant messaging can be used during video calls.

Ahead of a full release later this year, Apple has pushed the Web front-end to iCloud live for developers to kick the tires on, reports Cnet.

The new site, which resides at iCloud.com, features a similar front-end to Me.com, which will be shuttered next year with Apple's MobileMe service. Visitors can view Web e-mail, manage contacts, view and edit calendar events, and access the Find My iPhone tool.

A new entrant to the bunch is a Web app for iWork, which outlines iCloud's file storage for documents created in Apple's Keynote, Pages and Numbers iOS applications.

Nokia has added an entry-level smartphone to its handset line-up, featuring an updated version of the Symbian platform with a 1GHz processor and an estimated street price of EUR150, states V3.co.uk.

Due to go on sale sometime in the third quarter of 2011, the Nokia 500 is an entry-level touch-screen smartphone that does not compromise on quality or performance, according to the firm.

The device is based on Symbian Anna, an updated version of Nokia's venerable mobile OS, and looks fairly impressive for an entry-level handset with its 1GHz processor, GPS, WiFi support, 5MP camera, 2GB memory, plus a micro SD card slot for extra storage.

Data centres are using less energy than predicted, partly due to 2008's financial crisis, according to a new report, writes Computing.co.uk.

The report, by Jonathan G Koomey, a consulting professor at Stanford University, found the US Environmental Protection Agency's prediction that data centre power consumption would double between 2005 and 2010 was wide of the mark and consumption actually grew by only 56% during that period.

The report also credits modern power-saving technologies for the lower energy consumption. Virtualisation, where multiple virtual servers exist on one physical server, was cited as one of the technologies responsible.