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News

• New virus targets industrial secrets

  Siemens is warning customers of a new and highly sophisticated virus that targets the computers used to manage large-scale industrial control systems used by manufacturing and utility companies.

• IBM invests in medical technology

  IBM sees a profitable future in IT-driven health care.

• AT&T offers businesses a smartphone credit-card payment service

  AT&T on Wednesday announced a service for small- and medium-size businesses that want to use smartphones to accept credit and debit card transactions from customers. The service is based on technology from payment device manufacturer Apriva of Scottsdale, Ariz.

• IBM to commercialise genome reading

  IBM has partnered with Roche, a manufacturer of medical devices, to build a low-cost device that can read human genomes, the company announced Thursday.

• MIT app uses mobile phone to determine eyeglass prescription

  MIT Media Lab researchers have developed a mobile-phone application that, coupled with a small plastic device held over the screen, can determine users' eyeglass prescriptions. Called NETRA or near-eye tool for refractive assessment, the system asks users to align lines on the phone's screen while looking through a small plastic cube.

• NFC sees light at end of the tunnel with transit projects

  Short range communication using NFC (Near Field Communication) circuitry embedded in mobile phones has had a difficult journey to market, but it may soon see light at the end of the tunnel with increasing adoption for city transit projects, according to analysts.

• Business school swaps Google Apps for Microsoft Live@edu

  A French business school plans to trade Google Apps, used by around half its staff and students, for Microsoft's rival Live@edu service.

• Bailout won't keep Wall Street from sending jobs offshore

  The collapse of Wall Street may prompt financial services firms to increase their use of offshore outsourcing and cut more jobs in the US on top of the layoffs they have already announced.