The research found that 63 per cent of small firms are not happy with their broadband service due to speed and reliability issues, and 13 per cent would move to get a faster connection.

The FSB wants the Government to ensure that business premises receive a minimum broadband speed of 8Mb.

The study questioned 1,300 small businesses about their broadband service.

By the close of 2010, the computing arena will have more tablets than an old person’s home, thanks to the rush of devices the Apple iPad has prompted.

These include the HP Slate, Microsoft Courier, models from Acer, Dell and many more, plus of course Samsung is now entering the ultra-mobile computing fray.

According to Engadget, an executive at Samsung’s Australian offices has confirmed that the company will be producing a slate PC, and it will be out in the second half of this year.

Details are otherwise very sketchy, although the rumour is that it will employ an Intel Atom processor.

One has to wonder how many potential iPad buyers are going to wait until later in 2010, to see what else might be available in the tablet world.

The idea being that you can see if anyone is regularly snooping around your page, hence the name “stalker app”.

However, Facebook has come forward with a statement saying that these apps do not in fact work, and are simply scam pieces of software.

According to the website, there is no way an app can retrieve data on who has visited your page.

What these apps actually do is aim to build up a substantial user base, and then attempt to spread adverts or get up to other spam or malware related activity.

Facebook is in the process of disabling the most well-known of these applications, such as Stalker Check, and urges users to report any similar efforts they encounter.

Meanwhile, you have to wonder how many poor so-and-so’s out there have been mis-labelled as stalkers.

The study, conducted by GetJar (which says it is the world’s second largest app store), revealed that in 2009 over 7 billion apps were downloaded across the globe.

By 2012, this number will grow to 50 billion, so the research claims. A leap and a half.

Revenue is expected to more than quadruple, too, growing from $4.1 billion to $17.5 billion. This includes income from paid downloads, and from advertising supported apps.

While this is of course guesswork, and GetJar has something of a vested interest in the success of apps, it’s certainly a fair call that the mobile apps market is going nowhere but upwards.

Particularly if the avalanche of tablets this year, including the fabled iPad, realise their potential.

“Overall, by enhancing discovery, improving user experience, dropping price barriers, and increasing developer revenue share, the apps ecosystem can continue to prosper,” GetJar commented.

The platform offers an email security solution for small businesses, eliminating the need to invest in dedicated IT resources to manage spam and other security threats.

“Email security is mission critical for our customers,” said James Walker, SMB product marketing manager, Trend Micro, EMEA.

“Trend Micro’s new Hosted Email Security ensures customers receive 100 percent service uptime, effective spam blocking and zero email-based viruses.

“In addition, we’re including our leading anti-malware technology stopping malicious URLs embedded in emails.”

Trend Micro also warned that Facebook apps which promise to reveal who views your profile are usually fraudulent, and are designed to generate advertising revenue for scammers.

The organisation believes that economic incentives could help the industry to grow, helping to offset the decline of traditional industries such as manufacturing and engineering.

Small businesses with less than 500 employees and annual sales of less than €100 million receive tax cuts of up to 175 per cent on their R&D activities.

There are now calls to make these benefits available to larger IT companies.

Intellect also wants the government to review its procedures for awarding IT contracts.

With 1.5 million people in the UK working in IT, Intellect believes that the Tech industry will be a key growth sector that could help rebalance the country’s economy.

According to security firm BitDefender, the phish involves an email which states that the bank has been taken over due to the financial crisis (pretty old bait, really).

It tells the user that access to their online account has been temporarily suspended, and that they need to enter their identification details to avoid “further actions”.

Of course the link to the banking site is a fake page which steals the customer’s details.

As the MD of BitDefender, Nick Billington, quite rightly says, “Banks do not send out this type of message, under any circumstances. Users should approach any unsolicited message seeking personal data with extreme scepticism. If in doubt simply delete the email.”

As always, this sort of thing can be avoided anyway by typing in email addresses yourself rather than clicking the link. That way, you’ll go to the proper Barclays site, and not the spoof one the phisher-men have constructed.

@anywhere is a set of frameworks which will allow other websites to integrate Twitter content directly from their page.

In other words, say you’re watching a clip on YouTube, when the video service has @anywhere integration, you’ll be able to click a link and tweet about the film without going anywhere near Twitter.com.

When the platform is ready to go, the initial participating sites will include Amazon, Bing, Digg, eBay, The New York Times, Yahoo and YouTube amongst others.

Perhaps key to the success of this initiative is that the @anywhere frameworks will be easy to work with and get on board.

The Twitter blog commented: “Rather than implementing APIs, site owners need only drop in a few lines of javascript.”

“With @anywhere, website owners and operators will be able to offer visitors more value with less heavy lifting.”

A target launch date isn’t specified, but this functionality should be arriving soon, so we’re told.

The anti-malware program covers anti-virus and anti-spyware bases, and also comes with some handy system utilities.

These include a secure file wiper, an Internet cleaner, and a startup manager.

A new interface has been designed with user-friendliness in mind, and support has been added for the Windows Security Centre in Vista and Windows 7.

A few bugs have also been fixed up, and scanning performance with certain file formats has been improved.

A trial version of the software is available, which is valid for 10 days (or 40 days if you sign up and register on the Ashampoo website). Find the details over at www.ashampoo.com.

It was only last September that Ofcom removed restrictions which banned BT from operating such a triple-play policy.

The company is also doing some spring deals on the three triple-play packages it has announced, so if you sign up now, you’ll get some money off.

The basic BT Talk, Surf & Watch offers unlimited phone calls at weekends, Vision TV and TV Replay, and up to 20Mbps broadband.

It’s offered on an 18 month contract, with a £90 fee for the Vision box, and then a monthly fee of £33.53 (including line rental). However, the first three months has the discount offer applied, meaning you’ll pay less at £21.53 per month.

Talk, Surf & Watch More is the intermediate package, which adds Anytime calls, wireless broadband with 10GB of monthly data allowance, and the Vision Bronze Value pack.

This charges £45 for the Vision box and £40.53 per month, although if you order before March 26th, the box is free, and the monthly fee reduced to £25.03 per month.

Talk, Surf & Watch Unlimited ups the data allowance to an unlimited level, and adds the Vision Gold Value pack. Again, it’s £45 for the Vision box, and £60.53 per month. Order before March 26th and the box is free, and for the first three months you’ll pay £47.53.

John Petter, Managing Director of BT’s Consumer division, commented: “We wanted to give our customers a great seasonal sale and to promote our all-in calls package.”

“Offering a bundle of broadband and Anytime calls for this knockdown price will launch us into the bundles market as an unrestricted competitor for the first time. There will be many more bundled offers to come and customers can only benefit.”