June, 2007 Issue

Three hours after getting my hands on one, I am ready to drop the thing from the 44th floor of the New York Hilton.

The Free Software Foundation is set to release the General Public License version 3 on Friday, more than three months after the initial 15 March deadline.

Many people who lined up to be the first buyers of Apple Inc.'s iPhone made good on promises to try to flip the gadgets online at inflated prices, but a quick buck appeared out of reach for many.

Malware installed by fake MySpace navigation bars has infected several thousand PCs, according to the SANS Institute.

If Microsoft's latest efforts are any indication, a web-based iteration of its desktop franchise won't be ready any time soon.

A Microsoft attorney says the company has learned how to deal with antitrust regulators and that Google could glean a thing or two from the experience.

Liquid cooling is all the rage again in servers, and Dell has jumped into the pool.

Five months after its introduction, Microsoft is discontinuing a program that offered some Windows Vista purchasers the ability to buy additional copies of the operating system at a substantial discount.

Microsoft has signed up a key beta tester for the next generation of its server operating system: itself.

Nokia is headed towards 40 percent global market share and Apple's iPhone won't make a dent in that, according to a US distributor of mobiles and other wireless devices.

Program offers mapping software, services free to nonprofit organizations for promotions.

Google was set to launch late on Wednesday a beta version of Google Desktop search for Linux, in a sign of encouragement by the search giant for Linux on the desktop.

Microsoft has launched another low-cost PC effort in India, this time partnering with chipmaker AMD in an effort to get more computers into the hands of students.

Security firm McAfee has said that cybercriminals are using increasingly sophisticated social-engineering techniques, and that IT managers need to make users aware of the psychological tricks that make the techniques work.

Microsoft is adding photo sharing and web-based hosted storage to Windows Live on Wednesday, though for now the services will be limited to a few thousand preselected testers.

Handsets that offer only Wi-Fi connectivity have been a failure, according to the director of home and office communications devices for Siemens.

Microsoft said on Monday that it expects rival Google to file a complaint with a federal judge arguing that changes Microsoft has agreed to make to its Windows Vista operating system fall short of addressing concerns that its computer search function puts Google and other potential competitors at a disadvantage.

BASF is working with IBM on the chemicals and materials needed for the next-generation 32-nanometer microprocessors.

Google plans to spend $600m (£300m) to build a data centre in western Iowa, the latest site in a massive network of server farms holding the hundreds of thousands of computers that run its web services. Construction on the new data centre in Council Bluffs — which Google called a busy crossroads of internet activity — has started and Google plans to start operations by spring of 2009.

By now, WiMax was supposed to be big, going on huge. As it is, it remains effectively stuck in trial phase and very far from revenue rich; with around 270,000 subscribers worldwide last year, the main beneficiaries have probably been the vendors of WiMax market reports at $3,000 (£1,502) a pop.

Nokia has access to a huge salesforce in emerging markets that no other operator can match, analyst says.

DRM restrictions may have caused Microsoft's Vista virtualization flip-flop.

Vodafone is deploying a WiMax-based network on the island of Malta, in what is seen as a testbed for wider deployment.

The European Union's data watchdog said on Thursday that it will expand its investigation of how search engines retain information on internet surfers to other companies beyond sector-leader Google.

Since Microsoft entered the security market last year with both enterprise and consumer products, Symantec has launched a number of scathing attacks on the Redmond giant. Speaking to ZDNet.co.uk at Symantec's Vision conference in Las Vegas last week, John Thompson, chief executive of Symantec, was critical of Microsoft's security management console, codenamed "Stirling", and its enterprise security product, Forefront.

Wireless internet services, currently available on Japan's Tsukuba Express, are slowly making their way onto other public train networks in Asia.

Microsoft files suit against a company and individuals accused of sending debt relief and porn spam to Hotmail accounts.

Ziff Davis Media announced Thursday plans to sell its enterprise group for approximately $150 million in cash to a New York-based private equity and venture capital firm.

Security researchers have found PHP exploit code embedded in a GIF on a major image-hosting site.

The company's free Web-based video editing and "remixing" technology is now being used on the YouTube and MTV.com Web sites.

A Microsoft executive says that--six months after shipping Windows Vista--it has left more publicly disclosed Vista bugs unpatched than it did with Windows XP.

The managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance has defended his organisation's decision to start certifying draft 802.11n equipment before the standard is finalised.

Google has acquired Zenter, a small company that makes software for creating online slideshows.

Samsung and Seagate have released a collection of hard drives that demonstrates the huge choice now available.

The world's number-one mobile-phone maker, Nokia, announced a reorganisation on Wednesday.

Google now has 56.3 percent of the share of Web searches in the United States, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Yahoo's share is 21.5 percent, followed by Microsoft at 8.4 percent, AOL at 5.3 percent and Ask.com at 2 percent. Google had nearly 45 percent growth year over year in the number of searches conducted on its site.

The battle between 3G and Wi-Fi for dominance of the wireless internet world will all come down to which offers the broadest benefits to individual users, analysts have predicted.

Squabbling within the international IT standards body IEEE looks set to derail efforts to clarify the next Ethernet standard.

Microsoft agreed Tuesday to make changes to the desktop search feature in Windows Vista in an effort to assuage Google and head off a further antitrust battle with U.S. regulators.

Microsoft planned this week to announce that it was broadening the virtualization rights for Windows Vista, but decided at the last minute to reverse course and stick with existing limits.

It's been an incredibly busy evening in Microsoft-land, with news Tuesday of the company's agreement to change desktop search in Vista and its flip-flop on virtualization licensing changes.

An update to Age of Empires from MacSoft smooths gameplay with improved networking support and other enhancements.

Microsoft today launched a redesigned MSN portal for mobile phones, with improved navigation and optimized display of Web pages.

SonicWall has announced a new version of its e-mail security software that runs on Windows servers or the company's own appliances.

Movie rental giant says it sees a clear enough trend among its customers to pinpoint Blu-ray as its format of choice, adding clarification to the DVD wars.

Google has committed to becoming more environmentally friendly and has enlisted the help of a green group to meet its target.

Google Inc. launched versions of its video sharing service Youtube in French and other languages on Tuesday. Localized versions now exist for Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.

Eric Jackson, a Yahoo shareholder, dreamed of influencing companies in the same way as billionaire financier Carl Icahn.

Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel stepped down on Monday and handed the reins of the struggling search company to co-founder Jerry Yang after six years on the job.

Microsoft has agreed to buy 0.8 percent of Sichuan Changhong Electric Co to help to develop technology that can connect computers and televisions to the internet, according to the Chinese company.

Verizon Communications said it plans to offer high-definition video on demand over its advanced internet and video service called FiOS, although it has not yet set a date.

European businesses are being held back from migrating to IP version 6 due to the way IP addresses are being allocated, according to the director of IT at the UK internet registrar, Nominet.

At first glance it is not immediately obvious why a sewing machine, handbag and pedometer would be useful to engineers at internet giant Yahoo, but organisers say anything goes at "Hack Day".

Samsung's $3.5 billion memory chip factory is the largest such plant in Texas.

Search giant tries to make more headway in China, where it faces a local rival.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Friday said a complaint lodged by Google was "baseless", as the software company was complying with a 2002 antitrust settlement.

Microsoft adds more cooling for the Xenos GPU in beleaguered Xboxes to restore consoles.

'Project Nextgen' integrates two compliance assessment products for easier management.

Rival's allegations of more antitrust activity is 'baseless,' Ballmer says.

YouTube has begun offering a Web-based editing tool that is apparently provided by Adobe Systems.

Adobe has seen a record surge in profits thanks to the upgrade to Acrobat in the second half of 2006. But it has yet to reap the benefits from the launch of Creative Suite 3 in March this year.

This week the FBI sent out a press release stating that 1 million homes may be infected with bots. Arbor Networks' chief research officer talks with CNET editor Robert Vamosi about "Operation Bot Roast."

Check Point has released an updated ZoneAlarm 7.1 that's designed to work with Windows Vista's architecture. This is the first true two-way firewall for the Windows Vista environment.

The number of wireless access points in London has increased by 160 percent in a year, according to a survey conducted by RSA Security.

Two leading academic journals have said they will not accept manuscripts written in Microsoft's Office 2007 suite.

The number of security flaws within financial institutions' IT systems is growing fast, due in part to customer demand for internet services.

Hollywood studios have enlisted one of the nation's largest Internet Service Providers to help fight illegal file sharing, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

TripAdvisor, that sea of au courant and sometimes complaint-driven posts about hotels, is making it easier to find like-minded travelers. The subsidiary of Expedia plans to roll out a social-networking component Friday that should help you avoid those less-than-helpful "no ice in the water" comments about foreign hotels.

In spite of a recent upswell in unconfirmed hearsay, a Sony representative has squashed the rumors where they stand.

Google and its allies may have lost key Capitol Hill votes on Net neutrality laws last year, but now they're mounting a counterattack: a lobbying effort to extend similar rules to forthcoming wireless broadband networks.

It was a pro-copyright ruling that stunned nearly everyone dealing with the issue of online piracy.

Virtualisation will be the key to the popularity of Microsoft's long-awaited server operating system, Windows Server 2008, analysts have predicted.

Yahoo shareholders criticised a defensive and slightly combative chief executive Terry Semel for the company's lagging performance after the annual stockholder meeting Tuesday.

Microsoft won a round in its battle with patent licensing company Timeline.

The PC power chain has to got to get in shape, according to a group of technology companies.

The new high-speed Wi-Fi standard, 802.11n, has been controversial to say the least. Although the standard is only due to be ratified in 2009, a plethora of 802.11n-based products is already on the market, leading the Wi-Fi Alliance to start "certifying" equipment that conforms to a draft version of the standard.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--In the inaugural draft of the Championship Gaming Series, a new professional video game league, the biggest surprise may have been first: a woman was the first player chosen.

Google's attitude towards privacy has been criticised by campaigners who are warning of a "race to the bottom" in corporate surveillance of customers.

More than one billion PCs will be in use worldwide by the end of 2008, fuelled by high growth rates in emerging markets such as the Bric bloc of countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Flickr officials have no doubt that China is blocking their photo sharing site's images.

Google's claims that Microsof's Vista desktop search violates its antitrust agreement could be difficult to prove.

Just hours after Apple released its first Windows beta of Safari researcher Aviv Raff said he'd found a bug.

Google is changing its Google Ads marketing services to allow advertisers to see on which Web sites their ads appear, something many of them have been clamoring for. Not only will advertisers be able to make sure their ads are appearing on sites that are appropriate, but they also will be to get performance metrics for each site. So a company that sells electronic test equipment can make sure its ads appear on sites targeted at manufacturers of electronics, potential customers, and not on sites that, for example, offer tests for electronics students, said Brian Axe, director of product management for Google Ads.

Several antispam organizations have been targeted by an attempt to knock them offline.

Microsoft has launched the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment public beta.

Yahoo fixes a serious vulnerability in its Messenger instant messaging client.

Several business groups oppose 'cyber trespass' legislation that passed the House this week.

Microsoft has released a new version of Windows Mobile Device Center, the programme used to synchronise Windows Mobile devices with PCs running Vista.

A court decision reached last month but under seal until Friday could force Web sites to track visitors if the sites become defendants in a lawsuit.

First, Yahoo was notified that its Messenger IM client was vulnerable to attack. Then, a researcher fingered two ActiveX controls as flawed and posted exploit code.

New security software supplements antivirus protection by scanning systems for 'bot' malware that can take over unprotected PCs.

Companies that deploy Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista in tandem could see more than a threefold increase in networking performance, according to a Microsoft-commissioned study.

A champion was crowned this week at the first ever Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championships.

China seeks to put technical Internet management issues on the agenda of a U.N.-run forum concerning the development of the Internet.

Want to bend Firefox to your will, keep yourself safer while you surf, and customize how Google works? These great Firefox extensions will let you do it.

Five of the largest ISPs in the US are to start charging businesses for guaranteed delivery of their emails, in a bid to combat spam.

Adobe Acrobat 8, which shipped two months before the January release of Windows Vista, can now run on Vista and Citrix 64-bit systems.

Microsoft and South Korea's LG Electronics said on Thursday they have agreed a patent cross-licensing deal, sending LG shares to their highest value in more than a year.

Although there have been a raft of deals of private equity firms buying out public tech companies, Palm's recent deal with Elevation Partners is breaking new ground.

BEIJING--Forget Silicon Valley--if you want to see a place enthralled with Web 2.0, come to China.

New Ignition feature will focus on promoting up-and-coming acts through free music and video downloads.

Mozilla Corp. is considering adding a tool to Firefox 3.0 that would automatically block Web sites thought to harbor malicious downloads, but the company's security chief refused to spell out details, saying Mozilla is "not ready to talk about the feature."

Google has acquired PeakStream, a start-up that sells tools for writing software that can take advantage of multicore processors as well as graphics and gaming chips.

France's top soccer league and its national tennis organization are the latest to join legal action against video-sharing site YouTube.

BERKELEY, Calif.-- Michael Jones, chief technology officer of Google's geography software, on Tuesday counted Google Earth as fifth among the most populous nations, by a measure of how many people have installed the mapping application that lets people see their house from space.

Deal with Hearst-Argyle Television will bring local news, weather and entertainment videos as well as original Hearst television programming in five local markets to YouTube.

Responding to recent launch of Mahalo.com, Google clarifies that its search engine also uses human interaction.

In the wrong hands, could Google Earth become a weapon of mass destruction?

IT managers in search of software for managing their computer systems, especially those from Lenovo Group Ltd., might want to check out a trial version of LANDesk Management Suite for ThinkVantage.

Palm is selling a 25 percent stake to private-equity firm Elevation Partners for $325 million and is bringing in Jon Rubinstein, who formerly ran the iPod division at Apple, as executive chairman of the board.

Adobe Systems on Monday released an early version of LiveCycle Enterprise Suite, a revamped version of its document management and work-flow server.

Spammers are increasingly targeting individual companies' domains with large volumes of concentrated spam.

Yahoo announced Monday that its Panama search advertising platform is now open to third parties.

Hackers trying to host malicious code on otherwise innocent websites are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to avoid detection.

A porn director has been indicted on obscenity charges for distributing films over the Internet.

Internet services are expected to team up against Microsoft in a Tuesday announcement.

Adobe has teamed with Google on a plug-in that interacts with Google 3D Warehouse.

Microsoft's antivirus program fares better in a security firm's latest round of tests.

Controversial book search engine can be co-branded and embedded on publishers' sites.

Ambitious municipal wireless project may include eight technologies and take longer than expected.

Faster ADSL2+ service promises 8M to 15Mbps of dedicated Internet access in 11 markets.

"Developers! Developers! Developers!" Steve Ballmer's sweat-soaked mantra, delivered in a terrifying interpretive dance of almost shamanistic intensity, is unforgettable. Indeed, Microsoft has long had a legendary devotion to the army of third-party programmers who support the Windows platform — a devotion that has been one of the wisest and most effective investments the company has ever made.

Just one day after discovering Google's Firefox toolbar could be exploited in an attack, a similar flaw has been discovered in Google Desktop.

Google acquires FeedBurner, a provider of publishing and advertising services for blogs and content syndication feed.

Alleged spam mogul Robert Alan Soloway was arrested on Wednesday after being indicted by a US federal grand jury.

Millions of people use Google's web services every day. Now the search giant wants to actively recruit the geek elite of software programmers.

A top official from the banking industry has said the public sector is a major target for online fraud.

Microsoft has demanded that a London-based Windows developer withdraws a version of his free debugging tool from distribution, and is claiming that the tool breaches its licensing conditions.

Dell is to upgrade its wireless cards to support an unratified standard.

Google just accelerated its rivalry with Microsoft, although Google executives still deny there is a competition over who will dominate in an increasingly web-based computing world.

IBM's Internet Security Systems division has warned that there is a "colossal difference" between the number of publicly disclosed security vulnerabilities and the number of vulnerabilities that are discovered but not publicly disclosed.

At the D5 conference, YouTube founders (and now Google employees) Chad Hurley and Steve Chen were just interviewed by Walt Mossberg. In a wide-ranging interview, Hurley and Chen discussed today's EMI deal, copyright issues, and advertising.

BEIJING--Every American company wants to expand into China, but so far none that has is doing that well. Baidu, the Chinese search engine, has a huge lead over Google. Amazon bought a growing local online bookseller to get its business going, but customer service and other issues caused sales to slow.

Millions of people use Google's Web services every day. Now the search giant wants to actively recruit the geek elite of software programmers.

ARLSBAD, Calif.--In Bill Gates' mind, Microsoft's tabletop computer is just the beginning of where the touch-based technology can go.