In spite of an armada of competitors sailing into the e-book reader waters, Amazon's Kindle has apparently had its best month ever in terms of sales, or so the company says.

With December not yet into its fourth week, Amazon announced that the Kindle was its most popular product across the entire range of its catalogue. Many attribute the sales surge to the company's offer of free shipping in the US.

Bigging it up

However, in the absence of hard numbers, cynics might suggest Amazon is talking the Kindle up in a bid to raise its profile as competitors like Barnes & Noble's Nook hove into view.

Nonetheless, that may not even be necessary, as it turns out B&N is in a spot of bother with its supply chain and has been offering $100 (£62) gift certificates to anyone whose Nook doesn't arrive in time for Christmas. Ho, ho, ho.

If the lax IT security situation in Whitehall, where data and computers go missing with alarming regularity, were not so serious it would be laughable; even more so than it is today after it emerged yet another laptop has gone AWOL.

The latest security breach involves the theft of an MoD laptop from inside the Ministry's Whitehall HQ in London. The numbers now add up to 658 such losses or thefts in the last four years.

Encryption key too

Moreover, along with the PC the thief took a USB drive that supposedly holds a key to decrypt the data on the laptop. We're assuming both were simply stored together – that wouldn't be a surprise, at least.

In a scene straight out of TV show The Thick of It, the theft happened in November but only came to light when it was leaked last week and subsequently confirmed by the MoD.

Reports of a Malcolm Tucker-type spin-doctor seen ripping new orifices for Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth remain unconfirmed.

With the amount of snow currently blanketing the UK, it might be unrealistic to expect public transport to run on time, but in some countries it's such a precise science there's even an iPhone app to help ease your journey.

It's called Wake Me Shake Me Train Alarm and it comes from Japan, where they say you can set your watch by the regularity of the trains.

Knowing where to get off

While that's not quite true, departures are so reliable many people happily sleep in their seats and are so accustomed to the exact duration of the ride they wake up and leap off at the right stop as if by magic.

For those unlucky enough not to be perfectly tuned in yet - or on those hush-hush lines in Tokyo where the dirty words 'running late' are whispered only in hushed tones – Wake Me Shake me combines the iPhone and GPS to avoid unexpected lie-ins.

Beautifully simple

The $2.99 (£1.85) WorLD Software app is beautiful in its simplicity – simply tell it the station where you want to get off, set the alarm radius and nod off.

When the app hits the radius – the default distance is 500m from the destination station – an alarm vibrates the iPhone in your pocket or hand and off you go. In theory, that is – it makes no claims to be able to rouse those who've had a little too much Christmas spirit.

Money saver

While Wake Me Shake Me may sound a little frivolous at first, the prospect of being late for work or having to grab an expensive taxi ride home after the last train has overshot your destination makes the price seem an absolute bargain.

So, with the fabled 'Google phone', AKA the Nexus One, seemingly real and heading for our pockets early next year, what's next for the software giant that's now apparently intent on dominating the hardware world too?

According to sources familiar to TechCrunch, it's a PC in the form of a Google netbook running the company's Chrome OS that's due about a year from now.

Intel not inside

If it were a simple matter of yet another netbook powered by an Intel Atom processor, it would be only moderately interesting – after all, when the OS becomes available anyone will be able to create just such a machine.

However, according to the aforementioned multiple sources, Google may go with a chipset from Nvidia's Tegra line, powered by an ARM CPU.

Apparently, we're told, that makes for a machine that performs considerably better than any Atom and at a lower power consumption.

Wireless package

Lastly, the Google computer seems a dead cert to arrive as part of a package with a wireless data provider, so it remains to be seen if Google will sell it directly, or if it will come through the mobile operators.

That's all assuming the machine is real, of course. Let's reconvene this time next year to check.

Microsoft has never been one for holding its collective hands up and admitting it made mistakes, but that's precisely what's happened, with one MS exec lamenting the failures of Windows Mobile to compete with the iPhone.

Microsoft UK's Head of Mobility, Phil Moore, told attendees at a recent conference in London: "It's true, Apple caught us all napping. It launched something that was very iconic, new and unseen with a very good user interface."

Playing catch-up

Going even further and comparing the iPhone directly with Windows, Moore said: "We're still playing catch-up. When Apple came on to the scene a couple of years ago, it threw away the rulebook and reinvented it. We unfortunately don't have that luxury."

So, considering that Apple's share of the smartphone market is already about twice that of Microsoft's, one might expect that means the next-generation of Windows for phones is a priority.

Too little, too late

Expectations, however, seem made to be dashed – Moore also admitted that Windows Mobile 7 won't be ready until the end of next year, more than three years after Apple's first iPhone shook up the smartphone market for good.

If current URL shorteners for cutting Twitter posts and the like down to size aren't aggressive enough for you, then check out Bit.ly's new service, which saves a precious two characters per link.

Bit.ly, a long-standing favourite that's currently handling over two billion clicks a month, says its new j.mp service – four characters, as opposed to the previous monstrous six – is part of a suite of offerings that should appeal to microbloggers and businesses alike.

Making money

That includes Bit.ly Pro, which allows publishers such as the New York Times to create their own URL shorteners, and Bitly.tv, a video aggregation site that highlights the most popular YouTube videos shared using Bit.ly links.

If it all seems rather esoteric to make much sense, then perhaps the fact that a core part of Bit.ly's offerings involves tracking those shortened URLs to allow analysis and potential revenue generation will add up more easily. Money talks, after all.

The Japanese mobile phone market - frequently cited as among the world's most sophisticated – has finally fallen victim to the march of Apple after a study revealed the iPhone dominating there.

Research by Japanese publisher Impress shows the iPhone claiming close to half the entire market there for smartphones in 2009 to date.

Windows on the slide

The 3G and 3GS models combined to take 46.1 per cent of handset sales at the high end of the market. That has had the effect of knocking previously popular Windows Mobile models down the list.

However, the fact that the list of trailing devices includes just a handful of Windows handsets, one Android phone and one BlackBerry emphasises that the smartphone market in Japan is not a deep one.

Traditional models

In spite of the iPhone's success, it still remains true that most Japanese consumers are using locally produced 3G phones that adhere to the traditional menu-driven (as opposed to app-driven) model.

Of course, that could change if leading manufacturers like Sharp and Panasonic change their approach significantly, or if the Google Nexus One makes any impact in 2010.

If the release of the Android phone operating system didn't quite live up to the hype of being the inaugural Google phone then keep your eyes peeled for the Nexus One in early 2010 – that really will be the first handset from the search giant.

Reports from the Wall Street Journal say Google has already distributed the phone to some of its US employees and that it will market the device itself, not in partnership with any mobile operator.

iPhone threat

The Nexus One will by made by HTC and will run a heavily customised version of Android. The report also says customers will have to provide their own SIM cards, as the phone won't come with a service.

With Android already accounting for over five per cent of western European phone sales, the arrival of a new phone so heavily backed by Google will clearly have a significant impact on the smartphone market currently dominated by Apple and Nokia.

The new slimline PlayStation 3 may be simpler and cheaper to make than the original PS3, but a new report shows that it still loses Sony money on each console sold.

According to iSuppli, the US model of the PS3 contains parts valued at $336.27 (£207) at today's prices. Given that it sells for $299 (£184), that's still a sizeable loss for Sony to swallow each time it shifts a box.

Blu-ray is costly

The iSuppli analysis shows that the single most expensive of the 2,568 components in the new PS3 is the Blu-ray drive, which it says costs Sony $66 (£41).

However, the red ink is likely to dry up soon, as the report concludes: "Ongoing reductions in component pricing will cause the materials cost to decline significantly in 2010... the PlayStation 3 probably is already at or near the tipping point for profitability."

A new survey of the world's leading industrialised nations show's that the UK's internet connections are among the slowest around.

The OECD study of net connections in 30 countries pegs the UK as the 21st fastest, behind France, Spain and Portugal.

Penetration better

It also assesses broadband penetration, showing some improvement there, although 13th place out of the 30 still puts the UK firmly in mid-table.

Government plans to improve both speed and penetration currently rely on the recently announced £6 a year tax on domestic phone lines that aims to raise £170 million annually to pay for faster broadband connections.

If you thought your 5Mbps home broadband connection was fast, then think again and take a look at a new Google-backed 17Tbps fat pipe destined for southeast Asia.

Admittedly, the undersea Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC) is intended to be shared by more than a few people when it hooks up Singapore, Japan and points in between in 2012, but it's still an impressive feat.

Upgrade on the cards

The $400m (£245m) is being funded by Google and various Asian partners in an effort to improve internet connections in countries including Thailand and the Philippines.

With a capacity equivalent to a quarter of a billion normal phone lines, the 17Tbps SJC connection will span more than 5,000 miles of cable and could be upgraded to run as fast as 23Tbps should there be a need in future.

If anywhere could be expected to be in the vanguard of the imminent Augmented Reality (AR) revolution then it would have to be Japan and where else but in the nation's myriad department stores?

AR machines are already on the streets of Japan, being used to help lazy shoppers try on clothes virtually and find out more about products from a range of shops under the same roof.

Sign me up

Printing and display specialist Toppan is using an AR machine to encourage shoppers at one chain of stores to virtually browse products and sign up for reward points programmes.

Meanwhile, trading firm Furutani Sangyou has installed its 'Magical Mirror' in a department store in Tokyo.

The machine superimposes clothes from various retailers in the store on a live video image of anyone standing in front of the onboard camera.

While the idea is to save time trying clothes on, it's really more of a proof-of-concept for now, although big business will doubtless be interested in seeing how AR fares in the eyes of consumers before pressing on with more ambitious schemes.

The founders of Twitter may not be making much money from the microblogging platform, but savvy marketeers like Dell are already way ahead of the curve in online sales.

The US PC maker has revealed that its Twitter followers have spent over $6.5 million (£4 million) on products specifically promoted through tweets alone.

Discounts worldwide

By offering Twitter-only discounts and special products in 12 different countries, Dell has proved the power of building a strong online brand and communicating it directly to potential customers.

The company's 35 Twitter identities, including the central @DellOutlet, are followed by over 1.5 million people and managed by more than 100 staff.

Sales have been significant in countries as diverse as the US, Japan, China and Mexico.

The hitherto unglamorous battery market received something of a shakeup this week when Panasonic completed the acquisition of Sanyo it embarked on a full year ago.

By spending around £2.8 billion on 50.2 per cent of Sanyo's stock, Panasonic has positioned itself to become the major player in the lithium-ion battery market that is expected to boom as electric cars become more common.

High cost of oil

Analysts predict that the combination of environmental awareness and the continuing high price of oil will drive buyers into greener electric cars and the market for the batteries to power them to an annual value of around £22 billion by 2018.

With the purchase of Sanyo, Panasonic now has access to key car-making clients in the form of Honda, Volkswagen and Ford.

Collaboration the key

Speaking to Bloomberg, one Honda spokesperson even went so far as to underline the importance of batteries: "Collaboration between a battery maker and a carmaker is an efficient way to develop car batteries."

Anyone who's a regular Google search user will know that the only way to avoid the company tracking your online activities is to log out of Gmail or whatever Google account you use. Not any more.

As of last Friday, even searchers who aren't logged into Google in any way have their data tracked in the name of providing a 'better service'.

Anonymous cookie

The company explained: "What we're doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customise search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser."

However, if you've previously been a fan of the log-out method to avoid being tracked, there's still the option to disable the cookie by clicking a link at the top right of a search results page.

Forty years after the internet first took shape in the form of the ARPANet in the US, an unusual challenge seeking to test the power of online communication has been won by a university team.

A group from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, managed to solve a geographical puzzle set by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

Secret locations

To take home the DARPA Network Challenge's $40,000 (£24,000) first prize, the team had to use online social networking to find ten red weather balloons that DARPA had moored in secret locations across the US.

By successfully doing so and completing the task in under nine hours, the MIT winners beat off the challenges of more than 4,000 rivals across the US.

We've seen light used as a way to transfer information in public settings before, but very little of such technology has made it off the drawing board recently. Nevertheless, there are high hopes for a new method using LEDs to speak to mobile phones.

The technique comes from NEC and Toshiba, whose researchers are suggesting that flashing LEDs embedded in advertising hoardings could easily transmit binary data containing relevant information to phone cameras.

No limits

While there are already any number of ways of transferring information to phones, the LED method would have an advantage in that it could stream a limitless amount of data.

Conversely, barcodes – whether one- or two-dimensional – are restricted in how much they can hold by their size. Light strobing on and off up to four million times a second could clearly convey considerably more.

The companies say they hope to commercialise some version of the LED system by 2013, almost certainly in Japan at first.

In an attention-seeking move that's already brought a hail of scorn down on Twitter users, a US man has microblogged about his wedding not just at the reception or church, but actually from the altar.

Dana Hanna from Maryland stopped what he was doing as he and his wife were about to be pronounced and posted to both Twitter and Facebook: "Standing at the altar with @TracyPage where just a second ago, she became my wife! Gotta go, time to kiss my bride."

Pinhead backlash

The minister, who was in on the stunt, then concluded with the words: "As I was saying, I now pronounce you husband and wife. It's now official on Facebook. It's official in my book. Dana you may kiss your bride."

As might be expected, the SNS-centric wedding and an accompanying video soon became an object of ridicule for talkshow hosts across the US, with Jay Leno, Regis and Kelly and even Bill O'Reilly denouncing Hanna as a "pinhead" among other epithets.

Answering back

Hanna's response? Naturally, he posted it on Twitter: "To all the criticizers of my video out there questioning my sanity: You don't get it. I was having fun at MY wedding! Loosen up, have fun!"

Lastly, in case you're curious, Hanna's wife @TraceyPage is no more – naturally, even her Twitter handle has changed, making her @TracyMarieHanna instead.

If seemingly imminent plans by Apple to buy a small online music specialist from California go ahead, it could signal the end of music downloading as we know it.

The apparently solid rumours that Jobs and co. are set to snap up Lala, a cloud-storage music website, suggests that Apple is either looking to add streaming music to iTunes or build something even more innovative.

No offline tracks

Lala's ability to make entire music collections available from the cloud obviates the need for users to keep downloaded copies offline on any of their own media, whether that's a portable player or a computer hard drive.

Should iTunes eventually morph into a music library in the sky, as many observers are speculating, then both downloads and music copying could disappear.

What's left?

After all, when companies like Apple are merely selling the right to listen to music stored remotely on hardware with permission to access it, then there won't be a lot left to copy.

If you were wondering if the long-running European 'browser ballot' issue that has Microsoft pitted against other browser makers could get any more ridiculous, then rest assured that it just has.

The latest development saw Opera complaining to the European Commission that the idea of presenting Windows users with an alphabetical list of browsers available for download would unfairly favour Apple's Safari, as it features first on the so-called ballot screen.

Random list

As a result, Microsoft has agreed to present the browser list in a random order, meaning everyone has a theoretically equal chance of being picked for the playground rounders team, sorry... picked as the default internet browser within Windows, we mean.

The browser ballot, which is likely to come into effect next year, is an attempt to avoid antitrust action against Microsoft if it doesn't offer Windows users something other than Internet Explorer.

The facts that Firefox is already fast catching up on I.E.'s market share in Europe and that it's a simple matter of going to a website to get any other browser is, it seems, neither here nor there for the Commission.