TechBlog

Thousands of travelers are stranded throughout Europe as ash continues to rain down from an erupting volcano in Iceland this week. Among them is Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg who, according to his press secretary, is “running the Norwegian government from the United States via his new iPad.” CNN reports that the Norwegian prime minister was in New York this week for President Obama’s nuclear summit and has been left stranded on American soil thanks to the widespread closure of most of European airspace. The volcanic eruption sent a cloud of ash toward mainland Europe that could take up to 48 hours to dissipate, resulting in over 6,000 canceled flights across the E.U. ...

The lovable Evian Roller Babies, which broke the world record for the most viewed online advertisement in history last year, have made the leap from YouTube to your television. Evian’s wildly successful viral campaign has surpassed 100 million total views. It was one of the first YouTube-exclusive campaigns by a major brand. Now according to Social Times, the campaign has debuted on Los Angeles TV stations and will run in New York sometime this summer. The company will also air the commercials in other countries, including France and the UK. ...

This might not mean much if you’re not writing or editing a tech blog, but news that the AP – whose stylebook is still the standard for all things grammar and punctuation in the news world — is officially changing “Web site” to “website” was met with a warm reception in our newsroom (and likely quite a few others) this afternoon. We’d actually gone rogue on the issue ourselves several months ago, thinking that “Web site” was a rather antiquated way for describing “a computer connected to the internet that maintains a series of web pages on the World Wide Web.” ...

There has been widespread speculation about the release date of Apple’s next generation iPhone, including (yet another) report that the Verizon iPhone is finally coming this year. Now we have perhaps the most substantial evidence yet that a new version of the Apple smartphone is coming to AT&T in June. Boy Genius Report confirms from multiple sources that AT&T has blocked its employees from taking vacations during the month of June. The only time the carrier has done this previously was for earlier iPhone launches. We know that the iPhone is due for a refresh and that it usually happens during the summer, but this is the strongest evidence to date that the new iPhone will arrive in consumers’ hands this June. ...

Business employees are visiting Facebook from the workplace more than any other internet site, including Google, Managed Security Services company Network Box discovered in a recent study. The company looked at 13 billion URLs used by businesses in the first quarter of 2010 and found that 6.8% of all business Internet traffic goes to Facebook, which is double the amount of business traffic that goes to Google and nearly triple the amount that Yahoo gets. ...

A volcano in Iceland with probably the coolest and most formidable name ever, Eyjafjallajokull, erupted this Wednesday, April 14. As we wrote earlier, European travelers have since been stranded around the world — including the Norwegian prime minister, whose trusty iPad is thankfully keeping his country’s government afloat. NASA’s Terra satellite captured the above image depicting the enormous ash cloud migrating from the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano into Northern Europe yesterday. It’s unknown how long it will take the hazardous cloud to disperse, but estimates start at 48 hours — leaving much of Europe grounded in the volcano’s wake. ...

BusinessWeek and Fortune have both released their annual rankings — the 50 Most Innovative Companies and the Fortune 500, respectively — and Apple has strong showings in both publications. For the sixth consecutive year, Apple ranked number one in BusinessWeek’s 50 Most Innovative Companies report. When you consider that BusinessWeek only started this ranking system in 2005, that statistic becomes even more impressive. James Andrew, senior partner and head of global innovation at Boston Consulting Group (the company that provides the data to BusinessWeek) claims that every year Apple is the “hands down winner,” although Google remains a strong second. Furthermore, when those surveyed were asked what company would replace Apple as the most innovative over the next five years, the most common response was “no one.” ...

Loic Le Meur, Seesmic founder and tech scene leader, was clearly bullish on the Twitter platform in this interview conducted yesterday at Chirp, the Twitter developer conference. Le Meur, whose company is launching its own platform, is a big believer in the opportunities for those who develop Twitter apps. Innovative apps that add value and diversity will always find a place in the market, and Le Meur is confident about Seesmic’s current position. ...

Dr. Johannes Ullrich at SANS brought up a good point in his morning podcast (Stormcast 296 ) about widespread transportation shutdowns and disaster recovery planning. The Eyjafjallajokull glacier volcano in Iceland, which has stopped all air travel in the UK, Western Europe and Scandinavia, of course is the case in point. Those writing and updating disaster recovery plans should keep in mind the possibilities of just such widespread transportation shutdowns when they plan for personnel to operate remote (backup) network operations centers. If an enterprise’s plan calls for an IT crew to fly to a backup NOC and they can’t get there, what then? ...

It’s 4/16 and for fans of the social network application Foursquare, it’s cause for celebration. All across the world, Foursquare users are celebrating Foursquare Day by gathering in swarms and taking advantage of Foursquare deals offered by bars, restaurants and other venues. The big day could also potentially be the day Foursquare reaches one million members. According to Co-Founder Dennis Crowley, who joined me on NBC San Diego earlier this morning (see video below), the company had nothing to do with the day except the creation of a special badge — it was devised 100% by fans of the service. ...