The Norwegian Nobel Committee has today awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 to the European Union, noting that the Union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.
“It is a tremendous honor for the European Union to be awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize,” said President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso in a …

New Spanish and Simplified Chinese language interface options are now available on usps.com at customer registration (sign-in), and when shopping for stamps, supplies and more at usps.com/shop.
The Spanish and Simplified Chinese enhancements announced today build on the current multilingual platform that customers use to locate Post Offices, place their mail on hold, schedule a package pickup or redelivery, look up a ZIP Code and use the popular track and confirm tool.
Starting today, …

Promises made by Valve, to expand the Steam offer beyond gaming,  became reality. In the Steam store there already are six utility applications, with a price reduction by the end of the week.
New programs available on Steam are largely compatible with Steamworks features. Resulting files can be saved on Steam Cloud and the programs also benefit from an automatically update, according to TheVerge.

The 6 new programs from Steam are:
ArtRage Studio Pro
CameraBag 2
GameMaker: …

Google is about to open its YouTube videos collection to a wider audience, allowing the actors to translate their spoken phrases in any of over 60 international languages, or up to 300 languages lesser known if we use Google Translator Toolkit .
YouTube provides two types of services for translating video clips.
The first is an automatic system that works with Google Translate, inserting text as subtitles over the video that is playbacked.

The second type of service makes use of Google …

Valve’s promise saying that Steam will soon come on Linux – Steam for Linux enters phase “private beta”, allowing a total of one thousand lucky gamers to begin testing.
Steam’s program starts running in October and will include Steam for Linux (compatibility with Ubuntu 12.04 and later) with one game chose by Valve, Valve said on its official blog.
The public beta Steam for Linux will include Big Picture Mode, but the game chose for its debut will probably be Left …

Even if Bada is considered by many a failed experiment by Samsung, Lowell McAdam entered into details during a meeting with the investors held few days ago. Verizon CEO explained the benefits that Samsung would enjoy if it would make the effort to create its own operating system.
McAdam used words like “strong third mobile platform” in order to define a potential platform to be developed “in house” by the people at Samsung. If this would not be done wisely, this inspired move by the …

Java has become one of the most anachronistic technologies and no longer includes any benefits, but it can create big problems for its users. Find out why it’s time to finally give up the Java software platform before causing damage to the PC, according to ReadWriteWeb.
As Adobe Flash, which is about to disappear in favor of HTML5, Java includes numerous vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and malware, and it doesn’t really offer any benefits to justify its use. Even …

The man who was responsible for the development of the Mac OS X is reportedly building a new cloud OS startup called Upthere, a new report reveals.
According to a Business Insider report, evidence points to Bertrand Serlet, former Apple vice president of Mac Software Engineering, is building a cloud OS startup in Palo Alto, California with fellow former Apple employees.
A series of tweets, job postings, trademark filings and tips paint a picture that Serlet is building the startup, which could …

Air France and KLM Aircrafts Will Offer Internet Connection in 2013. (Image via Air France)

More and more airline companies, who are aware of the need of their customers to remain permanently in touch with the online environment, began offering Internet access aboard. The latest announcement comes from Air France and KLM, which, in partnership with Panasonic Avionics, are launching a joint Internet connection program on board their intercontinental aircrafts, whose testing will begin in …

There haven't been any apps that effectively keep drivers from texting while driving. (Image: interactive_devices02 (CC) via Flickr)

Using a smartphone is a distraction during driving, and while mobile software developers are trying to create apps to address this problem, distracted driving is still a huge concern across the United States.
According to a survey by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, around 43 percent of high school juniors and 58 percent of seniors admitted …