Google is offering to host enterprise Web applications on its own infrastructure with a new tool for developers, App Engine.

It isn’t the first to do so — App Engine will compete with similar services such as Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Salesforce’s AppExchange — but it may be the cheapest, as Google’s basic services will be free.

Google’s goal is to make it easy to get started with a new Web application, and then make it easy to scale when that application reaches the point where it’s receiving significant traffic and has millions of users, Google said in its new App Engine blog.

App Engine will initially only support applications written in Python, but Google is looking to add support for other languages as well.

On the eve of the RSA security conference, there’s a showdown in the offing between “Old Europe” and U.S. search operators. Earlier Monday word leaked about a European regulatory plan to press search engine providers to dump personal search data after six months.

Barring the unforeseen, it’s likely the European Commission will look kindly upon the plan. This would be quite a big deal, setting the stage for a continent-wide challenge to the way big search engine companies set procedures handling log deletion and browser cookies.

Until now, privacy advocates haven’t gotten very far convincing search companies to drastically curtail the length of time they retain data. For instance, the argument made by Google is that keeping log data around can keep you safe, help prevent fraud, and improve search results (using the argument that “better data makes for better science”).

That all may be true–though I’ve known more than a few security experts who argue otherwise–but this is less a matter of computer science than of public policy. And it’s not a fight the search engine companies are going to win. Can you see some congressman campaigning back in the home district for reflection on the campaign plank, “What’s good for Google is good for all the rest of us?” I don’t think so.

Know how many bags get lost at airports? Last year, the number hit a staggering 34 million globally, according to numbers from international transport association IATA.

This cost the aviation industry $3.6 billion. One way to reduce the amount of mishandled luggage could be to switch from today’s widespread bar-code tagging system to more sensitive radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. The IATA estimates that $200 million could be saved each year by such a swap at the world’s top 80 airports.

That is exactly what RFID manufacturers like Alien Technology are dreaming about. With updated chip technology announced Monday, the Morgan Hill, Calif.-based company is targeting the aviation and pharmaceutical industries. But it will take a while before we see the tags in chewing gum packages and soda cans.
Alien logo (Credit: Alien Technology)

Alien says its new H3 integrated circuit (a more advanced version of its H2) boasts heightened reader sensitivity and improved security features, making it possible for third parties to read the tag’s data, but not to change it. This could prove a blow to the counterfeit drug industry if the technology gets widely adopted. Currently, counterfeit drugs trade to the tune of $75 billion per year, according to the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition, a nonprofit based in Washington D.C.

Alien, of course, hope its tags can prevent other types of counterfeit trade, as well. According to IACC estimates, 5 percent to 7 percent of the world trade is counterfeit, accounting to $600 billion.

The reader sensitivity of the H3 chip is up 25 percent from the H2, which is already 25 percent above other tags on the market, according to Alien. The H3 is expected to hit the market by July.

You can use your cell phone in the skies over Europe later this year under new rules that will allow air travelers to stay in touch - and raise the cringe-inducing prospect of sitting next to a chatterbox at 30,000 feet.

But don’t expect to use your phone on a U.S. flight anytime soon.

The decision Monday by the European Union makes the 27-nation bloc the first region in the world to scrap bans on the use of cell phones in the sky. The EU insists the change will not compromise safety.

Cell phone calls will be connected through an onboard base station - think of a miniature cell phone tower - linked to a satellite and then to ground networks. A flight’s captain will have the power to turn off service anytime.

Phone service will be blocked during takeoff and landing, EU spokesman Martin Selmayr said. That means using your cell phone will fall under roughly the same restrictions as using your laptop or iPod.