When Barack Obama's followers on Twitter.com, the short-form blogging service, received the president-elect's latest update, they were probably expecting more thanks for their support. Instead they were asked "What is your opinion on Barack Obama? Take the survey and possibly win $500 in free gas." Shortly afterwards, followers of pop starlet Britney Spears were given what purported to be details of the singer's most intimate measurements. The website, beloved by technophiles and celebrities, had clearly succumbed to a widespread phishing attack, and comedian Stephen Fry was also one of those who is believed to have been taken in . His account supposedly offered people free iPhones because the star had clicked on a link purporting to be from Twitter itself, and found himself conned into handing over his login details.

Technology expert Robert Scoble also had his account tampered with, and CNN journalist Rick Sanchez apparently tweeted: "I am high on crack right now might not be coming into work today". Social networking site Facebook, meanwhile, apparently advertised an adult site on its Twitter feed. All these posts have subsequently been deleted by Twitter. Scoble suggested in a subsequent tweet that the groundwork for today's malicious posts had been laid earlier in the week when there was a more concerted "phishing" attempt. Spammers sent out emails such as the one Fry clicked on,apparently pointing to a blog or picture of a user. The page that came up, however, asked for login details and then used the accounts to send out further spam messages.

( www.telegraph.co.uk )

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A high-tech invention heralds a new era of electronic messaging, allowing you to send digital files through the ether without using a scrap of paper. Oh, wait a second, that's e-mail. Panasonic's paperless fax machine finally brings fax into the 21st century, letting you type in fax messages directly on a cordless handset, SMS-style, or convert digital files directly into fax messages. The KX-PW608 has a Secure Digital card reader that, according to Tech Digest, can handle Word documents and files in 'other formats'. ( www.techradar.com )

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Nokia's previous stance of 'No touchscreens for us, thank you sir' has now been well and truly blown away after the announcement of another touchscreen device, the 6208c, which follows the 5800 XpressMusic and the N97 from the Finns. The 6208c has a stylus that is "inspired by bamboo slips and works perfectly with the large colour display which is reminiscent of an ink stone", according to Nokia. The screen is optimised for Chinese character recognition, allowing the user to construct messages in the 'most natural way'. ( www.techradar.com )

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Internet reports have sprung up stating that Microsoft is readying widespread layoffs of its 91,000-strong workforce. A report from technology blog site Fudzilla says that employees are being told the company is "readying major layoffs to its worldwide operations", meaning that a significant portion could be made redundant. Up to 15,000 staff members could lose their jobs, with most coming from Microsoft's online presence, MSN. ( www.techradar.com )

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Mobile phone operator Orange is believed to be considering the removal of the BlackBerry Bold smartphone from its range of handsets because of ongoing technical problems. Although the phone, made by Research in Motion (RIM), received impressive reviews when it launched in October last year, consumers have reported unexplained crashes, poor reception and irregular dropping of calls. Return rates are understood to be well above average for similar devices. Orange had previously suspended shipping of the Bold to allow RIM to sort out software problems, but faults have continued to be reported with the device. If the operator were to stop offering the Bold, it would be another blow for Canada-based RIM, whose flagship Storm handset, offered in the UK exclusively on Vodafone, has met with mixed reviews. Although initially heralded as the first serious rival to Apple's popular iPhone, the touchscreen Storm has since been criticised by influential gadget enthusiasts, including the comedian Stephen Fry. He has called it "embarrassingly awful" on the social networking service Twitter, and Vodafone sources privately concede that the Storm's software will improve as it is updated.

( www.telegraph.co.uk )

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Most people celebrating on 31 December 2008 didn't know that the new year doesn't only bring pledges to fight the flab and give up smoking, but also the chance to unlock the iPhone 3G too. Well, it didn't happen as Big Ben chimed the 12th hour, but still, the Dev-Team has released the 'yellowsn0w' unlock that will allow use of other carriers with the iPhone 3G. Although still dubbed a '0.9 beta release' (reports of handsets being unable to locate networks are starting to spill in) it seems that most users are reporting a successful unlock of their handset. And not only that, but the unlock has been confirmed to work with version 2.2 of the firmware update, so anyone worried about bricking their handset instantly can apparently rest easier.

( www.techradar.com )

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