Technology World

Main

Technology

Army Technology
Cyberwars
Military Technology
Newsfactor Technology
Technology World
Yahoo Technology
Random Feeds

Archives

| Feb 2012 | Jan 2012 | Dec 2011 | Nov 2011 | Oct 2011 | Sep 2011 | Aug 2011 | Jul 2011 | Jun 2011 | May 2011 | Apr 2011 | Mar 2011 | Feb 2011 | Jan 2011 | Dec 2010 | Nov 2010 | Oct 2010 | Sep 2010 | Aug 2010 | Jul 2010 | Jun 2010 | May 2010 | Apr 2010 | Mar 2010 | Feb 2010 | Jan 2010 | Dec 2009 | Nov 2009 | Oct 2009 | Sep 2009 | Aug 2009 | Jul 2009 | Jun 2009 | May 2009 | Apr 2009 | Mar 2009 | Feb 2009 | Jan 2009 | Dec 2008 | Nov 2008 | Oct 2008 | Sep 2008 | Aug 2008 | Jul 2008 | Jun 2008 | May 2008 | Apr 2008 | Mar 2008 | Feb 2008 | Jan 2008 | Dec 2007 | Nov 2007 |

Sun, 31 Aug 08
Computer Control on the Tip of Your Tongue
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64319.html
The tireless tongue already controls taste and speech, helps kiss and swallow and fights germs. Now scientists hope to add one more ability to the mouthy muscle, and turn it into a computer control pad. Georgia Tech researchers believe a magnetic, tongue-powered system could transform a disabled person's mouth into a virtual computer, teeth into a keyboard -- and tongue into the key that manipulates it all. "You could have full control over your environment by just being able to move your tongue," said Maysam Ghovanloo, a Georgia Tech assistant professor.

Sun, 31 Aug 08
A Handful of Free and Cheap PDF Workarounds
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64330.html
PDF files are a lot like democracy, to paraphrase Winston Churchill. PDFs are a lousy way to move documents around, but the alternatives are worse. I hate PDF files. Portable Document Format is a benevolent monopoly by Adobe, which created the format and sets the standards for its development. They distribute an Adobe Reader, free, but if you want to create and edit PDFs, you have to buy a version of its big brother, Adobe Acrobat, starting at $299. Acrobat is a wonderfully descriptive name for the entire PDF situation.

Sun, 31 Aug 08
Mobile Apps: Salvation for Internet Radio?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64284.html
Internet radio station operators are concerned that skyrocketing royalty fees could zap an industry that's still in its infancy. However, technology may be bringing some solutions to the vexing problem of paying artists a royalty fee each time a listener hears a song. It just may take some time -- and it may be a painful wait for the thousands of Internet radio stations that pipe their programming to global audiences via the Web.

Sat, 30 Aug 08
Amazon Closes Book on Rumors of New Kindle
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64357.html
Rumors of a second-generation Kindle from Amazon.com before 2009 have been greatly exaggerated, Amazon said Friday. Although many fans of the e-book reader have been abuzz this week with rumors that Amazon.com planned to release an updated version of its Kindle, the retail giant will not, in fact, have a new device out before the new year, according to Heather Huntoon, an Amazon.com spokesperson. "Don't believe everything you read," she told TechNewsWorld.

Sat, 30 Aug 08
Android Market Debuts - Now Let's See Some Phones
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64338.html
Google is gearing up to launch its Android Market -- the open source phone software's answer to Apple's iPhone App Store. Staying true to the open model, the platform will allow more instant developer access compared to Apple's approval-based system and will also offer a set of tools for developers to track their business progress. Perhaps most significant, though: The Android Market won't be the end-all for Android-based application distribution.

Sat, 30 Aug 08
Comcast Rations Broadband Use at 250 GB per Month
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64358.html
Comcast has announced that it will impose a monthly cap of 250 GB on customers' Internet usage. The company acknowledged it has been evaluating a specific monthly data usage or bandwidth threshold for its Comcast High-Speed Internet residential customers for some time. "Today, we're announcing that beginning on Oct.1, 2008, we will amend our Acceptable Use Policy ... and establish a specific monthly data usage threshold of 250 GB/month per account for all residential customers," reads a notice on the company's Web site.

Sat, 30 Aug 08
WAN Optimization: It's Not All About the Cost
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64326.html
Aberdeen's benchmark report, "Optimizing WAN for Application Acceleration," found that Best-in-Class organizations are 69 percent more likely to outsource optimization of their WANs to third parties as compared to Laggards. This research also reveals that these organizations realize that the effectiveness of different WAN optimization initiatives varies based on the types of applications being managed and the internal capabilities that organizations have in place.

Sat, 30 Aug 08
Wikis in Education: Teaching Students to Share Knowledge
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64335.html
Teaching and learning have always had a collaborative element, but wiki technology has in recent years made collaboration central to the method of many educators. Since they can be edited by anyone with access to them, education wikis are ever-changing and evolving documents that ideally represent the wisdom of the student crowd. Teachers are constantly finding new and creative ways to use wikis. One college new media class is writing its own textbook, for instance. Science classes are using wikis to develop research proposals.

Sat, 30 Aug 08
Drops, Crashes and Freezes: Is the iPhone Worth It?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64329.html
Given my reputation as a Mac "expert," I am often asked for advice about purchasing Apple products. In recent weeks, the question I have most often been asked is a disconcerting one: "I am thinking about buying an iPhone. But I have been hearing reports about its unreliability. Should I be worried? Should I wait for the problems to be fixed before I purchase an iPhone? Should I not get an iPhone at all?" My answer is no. That is, no, you don't have to wait. And no, you certainly don't have to abandon your plans to get an iPhone altogether.

Sat, 30 Aug 08
Tools for the Tech-Savvy Shopper
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64300.html
"Smart" shopping carts have been around for a while, but until recently, they haven't managed to gain much traction. Now, some momentum is building, according to proponents of the computer-rigged market baskets that -- with a swipe of a card -- can flash an alert that a customer's favorite brand of ice cream is on sale, display nutritional values of products, and even point out the aisles where items are located. Wireless touchscreens also can compile shopping lists based on a customer's own history or provide insight into an individual's caloric intake.

Sat, 30 Aug 08
Price Cuts Bite Dell in Bottom Line
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64342.html
Computer maker Dell said Thursday its fiscal second-quarter profit fell 17 percent, hurt in part by PC price cuts. Both earnings and margins fell short of Wall Street estimates, and Dell shares plunged. For the three-month period that ended Aug. 1, Dell's earnings dropped to $616 million, or 31 cents per share, from $746 million, or 32 cents per share in the same period last year. Excluding amortization and business realignment charges, Dell said it would have earned 33 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast a profit of 36 cents per share.

Fri, 29 Aug 08
Microsoft Shows Off IE8's Ad-Blocking, Page-Tabbing Chops
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64337.html
Microsoft rolled out the second beta of its upcoming Web browser, Internet Explorer 8, Wednesday. When finalized, IE8 will be the first new version of the browser the software maker has released since 2006. While the browser looks much the same, Microsoft has been tinkering under the hood to bring IE users new features and functionality. "It's great to see Microsoft moving forward with IE and trying to innovate in the browser," Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, told TechNewsWorld.

Fri, 29 Aug 08
One Giant Leap for Malware
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64333.html
Call it proof that no one's above the common malware attack: NASA's own International Space Station laptops fell victim to an infection attempt, the space agency has revealed. The bug was caught and stopped before any damage was done, but the incident is raising awareness of just how easily harmful code can reach any computer -- and how important is really is to take preventative precautions before your own system is hit. The virus detected at the Space Station is believed to be W32.Gammima.AG worm, a year-old bug designed to steal passwords from online gamers.

Fri, 29 Aug 08
Copyright Law and the Web, Part 2: Who Are the IP Police?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64298.html
The Internet has made it much simpler for companies to reach potential customers. However, this wide open channel has come at a cost. Companies now expose more of their assets to outsiders who can misuse them. While the law helps -- at least to a degree -- companies increasingly find they need to take steps to monitor and protect their digital assets. Daily, corporations put time, money, and effort into differentiating themselves from competitors. Once that work is done, they want to make sure that knock-off businesses do not arise and render all of their hard work meaningless.

Fri, 29 Aug 08
Cable Network, Meet Social Network: Match Made in News - or Marketing - Heaven?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64332.html
The moment may have passed way under your media radar, seeing as how it happened on a Sunday night in late August, when TV viewers were just coming down from a Beijing Olympics high. On CNN, anchor Rick Sanchez was previewing the Democratic National Convention about to get under way in Denver, grilling senior political analyst Bill Schneider about the latest poll numbers showing John McCain and Barack Obama in a tight race, when Sanchez turned to his audience for a question.

Fri, 29 Aug 08
Ruling Sinks Piracy Suit Against Veoh as YouTube Grins
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64334.html
A federal judge in San Jose, Calif., has thrown out a copyright infringement lawsuit launched by Io Group against Veoh Networks. Io Group, which also does business under the name Titan Media, produces adult video content. Veoh is a site similar to YouTube where users can upload and watch user-generated videos as well as television show and movie clips. Io Group filed its suit against Veoh in 2006, alleging that Veoh had not done enough to stop users from uploading copyrighted material to its site. The copyrighted material in question included clips from 10 of Io Group's adult films.

Fri, 29 Aug 08
Taking the Pulse of the Eclipse Ecosystem
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64320.html
Java training and education has never been easy. Not only are the language and its third-party and community offerings constantly moving targets, each developer has his or her own preferences, plug-ins inventory and habits. What's more, the "book knowledge" gained in many course settings can vary wildly from what happens in the "real world" of communities and teams. MyEclipse maker Genuitec developed Pulse last year to monitor and update the most popular Eclipse plug-ins.

Fri, 29 Aug 08
VoIP Goes Mobile
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64318.html
Scott Goldman uses his mobile phone to call friends and business contacts all over the world, from Britain to Australia. But the Southern California-based consultant doesn't pay a dime in international tolls to his mobile phone carrier, AT&T, the biggest in the U.S. Instead, Goldman places the international portion of the calls -- roughly 100 minutes a month -- through a service called "Gorilla Mobile" that relies on Internet-based technology to route wireless calls virtually toll-free. Goldman, a user of Apple's iPhone, estimates that he saves hundreds of dollars a year.

Fri, 29 Aug 08
Astaro: Tapping the Channel for Security Revenue
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64317.html
Why sell somebody else's product line when you can do a better job offering your own? That was the question that ultimately pushed Jan Hichert, CEO of Astaro, and two other cofounders to develop their own Internet security solutions for a market they viewed as needy of attention -- the small- to medium-sized business segment. Prior to deciding to go his own way, Hichert was a reseller, dealing in other vendors' security products. However, in his view, the products were too complex to use and were aimed at the enterprise market, leaving the SMB space untapped.

Fri, 29 Aug 08
New Firefox Plug-In Double-Checks So-Called Unsafe Sites
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64328.html
Intercepting Internet traffic and spying on the communication between two computers is a gold mine for hackers. Now Carnegie Mellon University researchers hope software they've built will make it harder for criminals to hit that jackpot. The software, a free download for use with latest version of the Firefox Web browser, creates an additional way for people to verify whether the site they're trying to visit is authentic. Most browsers already alert users when a site appears bogus.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
Dell Takes Aim at Emerging Markets With Simplified PCs
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64314.html
Dell is going after emerging markets with a new line of low-cost computers. The Vostro notebooks and desktops are the company's first models targeted specifically at China, India and a handful of other Asian, African and Latin American nations. The systems will sell for about the equivalent of $440 to $475. The move marks a distinct shift in strategy for Dell, which has previously focused on building standard products that stay constant from country to country. The change follows similar steps by competitors such as HP and IBM, which are pushing low-cost models of their own.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
UK Watchdog Nixes iPhone Ad Over 'All Parts of the Internet' Claim
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64323.html
Less than a week after a representative for Orange in Poland revealed that actors were paid to stand in line the night the iPhone launched there, another kerfuffle has arisen over Apple-related marketing, this time in the UK. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has pulled an iPhone commercial after it received complaints from two viewers that the ad was misleading. "[Apple is] having two issues -- one probably more important than the other," said Mary Beth Kemp, a Forrester Research analyst.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
New Version of Xen Hypervisor Hits the Streets
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64324.html
Xen.org, the developer of the open source Xen project, on Wednesday announced the release of the Xen 3.3 hypervisor engine. The product is the result of a distributed development effort by senior engineers from more than 50 leading hardware, software and security vendors. Xen 3.3 includes enhancements that further advance its position as a fast, scalable and secure virtualization engine for a broad range of server and PC chipsets from supercomputers to PDAs.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
Psystar Stares Down Apple With Antitrust Suit
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64325.html
Psystar has turned up the heat in its legal battle with Apple. The small computer vendor first burst on the scene several months ago by audaciously offering for sale a line of Mac computer clones called "OpenComputer." After a few weeks of silence, Apple unleashed its legal hounds on the startup, seeking to shut it down for good. Since then, Psystar has shown little sign of backing down from Apple -- a company that's seldom shy about using the legal system to protect its intellectual property.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
Mozilla Introduces New Ubiquity Mashup Machine
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64322.html
Mozilla Labs launched a new prototype Tuesday aimed at giving Internet users new ways to create mashups of online content. Dubbed "Ubiquity," the technology is Mozilla's solution what it sees as a common and time-consuming problem Web surfers face when they try to compile information from the Web. "Most people do not have an easy way to manage the vast resources of the Web to simplify their task at hand. For the most part they are left trundling between Web sites, performing common tasks resulting in frustration and wasted time," Aza Raskin, head of user experience at Mozilla, wrote on his blog.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
Web Entrepreneurs Offer Qik Some Wealth and Some Wisdom
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64321.html
Qik, a company that has developed live video streaming services for certain smartphones, has received a boost in its financial backing from Netscape veterans Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The duo, which have made a "significant investment" in the company, are also joining Qik's board of advisors. Bhaskar Roy, cofounder of Qik, declined to tell the E-Commerce Times how much Andreessen and Horowitz have invested in the company. Qik means to use the investment to expand its customer base to every mobile phone type.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
Fuel Cells, Part 1: Powering Up a Revolution
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64308.html
Over the last decade, mainstream automakers with the right foresight have put their money on technologies like gasoline-electric hybrids in order to offer consumers what they desire more and more with each visit to the gas pump: a more efficient personal vehicle. A little further out, plug-in hybrids that need even less gasoline will perhaps become a more common sight on the road, further reducing users' dependency on fossil fuels. Beyond that, fuel cell vehicles may be the next step.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
Will Consumers Swallow a Greener Apple?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64307.html
Greenpeace certainly ranks as the highest-profile environmental group to take on Apple, the hip kid on the computer block. The organization is not Apple's only environmental adversary, though, and certainly not it's only worry in a marketplace rife with green claims and green concerns. In fact, the company has moved its "Environment" page up to the top-level navigation of its Web site, right alongside its "Hot News" and "Job Opportunities" pages.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
One Less Windows User
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64306.html
As editor for LinuxInsider for more than a year now, I figured the time was right to start walking the walk with my personal machine. So I took my Dell Inspiron 1150 to this year's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo with the intention of switching my operating system to one of the many Linux distros. I visited the booths of several distros, Ubuntu, Suse, Red Hat and even BSD, grabbing disks along the way. The plan was to give each a test drive, then choose one based on my experience.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
Microsoft Receives $21M Feedback Payback
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64315.html
Microsoft will receive nearly $21 million from Immersion, a company that develops "tactile-feedback" technology, after the two companies agreed to settle a lawsuit. San Jose, Calif.-based Immersion has developed tactile feedback technology which makes video game controllers vibrate when there is an explosion or some other game action event on screen, Sid Parakh, an equity analyst with McAdams Wright Ragen, told the E-Commerce Times.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
The Bid for International Cyber Property Rights
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64299.html
Who would like to bid the highest amount for the exclusive global rights to the new domain suffix, .dubai, under ICANN's latest policy? Such a suffix will create a powerful domain root that will corner some 180 services underneath it, like go.dubai, hotel.dubai, job.dubai, cars.dubai or fly.dubai. Who would be the next global cyber-branding leader of this new millennium? Are auctions the right methods to sell such mega marketing channels? ICANN, the Internet authority, is looking into auctioning off such popular name identities.

Thu, 28 Aug 08
FAA Software Slip-Up Delays Flights Nationwide
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64310.html
Numerous flight delays caused by an electronic communication failure at a Federal Aviation Administration facility drew new criticism for an agency that has been scrutinized over air traffic controller staffing levels and inspection standards for its ground-based equipment. The Northeast was hardest hit by the delays prompted Tuesday by a glitch at a Hampton, Ga., facility that processes flight plans for the eastern half of the U.S. As of Wednesday morning, the FAA said that the situation around the country had returned to normal.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
Photoshop Tries to Win Over the Web 2.0 Crowd
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64302.html
What should photo imaging software giant Adobe be focusing on in a Web 2.0 world? Judging from some new products, it's not just taking on the likes of Apple's iPhoto and Aperture; it's learning to work and play well with social networks like Facebook and digital media storage Web sites such as Flickr. Those could be the chief takeaways from Adobe's announcement this week that it will be releasing Photoshop Elements 7 in late September, along with the imminent launch of Photoshop.com, a photo upload/storage site, and a beta version of a mobile software product.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
Citrix Revs Up Virtual App Software
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64303.html
Citrix has announced the upcoming availability of XenApp 5, the latest version of its application virtualization software. The new release, formerly dubbed "Presentation Server," is part of the software maker's effort to consolidate its product line around XenServer, which it acquired with the purchase of XenSource in 2007. The software boasts improved application start times, the company said. "It really enhances the XenApp technology that has been in the hands of Fortune 500 companies for years," Natalie Lambert, a Forrester Research analyst, told TechNewsWorld.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
Firefox to Gulp JavaScript Faster With New TraceMonkey Feature
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64305.html
Mozilla has announced the launch of a new feature for its Firefox Web browser designed to make it perform faster. Called "TraceMonkey," the feature is an evolution of Firefox's SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine and will be built into Firefox 3.1, according to the company. To increase JavaScript speeds by an order of magnitude or more, Mozilla designed TraceMonkey with a new type of just-in-time compiler. The company has measured speeds up to 37.5 times faster for specific "micro-benchmarks," according to Brendan Eich, Mozilla's chief technology officer.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
Picking the Audience's Brain With ResponseCard Anywhere
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64286.html
Anyone looking to make a decent presentation, speech or lecture in front of an audience needs the ability to perceive, judge and play off viewers' reactions. Sometimes that can be done just by keeping one's ears open. In other circumstances, though, the presenter wants hard numbers. The audience must be polled to find out exactly how many people like or dislike a certain idea, what their top choice of a given set of options would be, or which of a given set of responses they most agree with.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
Internet Explorer 8's Privacy Controls Worry Advertisers
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64296.html
Microsoft's upcoming Internet Explorer 8 will offer a new set of privacy features designed to give users more control over personal information, the company has revealed. The "InPrivate" feature will build in options for turning off history and cookie collection and will also allow users to see what external sites could access that data -- and then disable them from doing so. The move is drawing mixed reactions: While privacy advocates are cheering the easily implemented controls, advertisers are expressing concern the feature could create a roadblock to effective online ads.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
Application Maintenance: Controlling Complexity Creep
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64288.html
Application portfolios automate the operations of every organization. Business processes from core banking to claims processing have become indistinguishable from the applications that execute them. As a result, it is essential that these applications align with the business strategies and goals of the organization. A bank may launch an exotic finance product. Its loan processing applications must be able to adapt quickly to support the new initiative. This could be by extending functionality, integrating with other systems or perhaps by adjusting the behavior of business processes.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
Thunderbird: Way Beyond E-Mail
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64285.html
While postal services want to promote letter writing, the trend is clearly working against them. With a push of the button, an e-mail lands in the inbox of its recipient before a letter writer can even moisten the stamp. The tools of the trade are e-mail programs known as "clients." They are used to manage correspondence on the computer, but nowadays they can often do far more. An estimated two-thirds of all computer users over the age of 14 have their own e-mail address. "Most people use standard e-mail programs from Microsoft or simply Thunderbird," says Holger Bleich of c't magazine.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
Professor iPod
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64278.html
A Chapel Hill, N.C., middle school could become the first in the country to give an iPod to every teacher and student, an experiment that would challenge teachers and administrators to ensure the hand-held devices are used as learning tools, not toys. It's still not clear how the iPod touches would be used at Culbreth Middle School. And school officials know that students may use the iPod touches more to download the new Jonas Brothers single than to tap the riches of human knowledge.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
RightNow Continues Move to Web 2.0
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64293.html
With the release of its August '08 version, RightNow Technologies continues to shift both its platform and its lineup of products and features to Web 2.0. This latest upgrade includes a customer portal that offers widgets, video, forums and blogs. Its studio development environment now allows users to integrate the application with Adobe Dreamweaver. August '08 also has more collaboration tools, such as co-browsing and chat. These features build upon developments RightNow introduced in May '08 -- specifically, the addition of chat functionality.

Wed, 27 Aug 08
Facebook Cutoff Leaves India Last Bastion of 'Scrabulous'
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64292.html
A highly popular "Scrabble" clone already pulled from Facebook in the United States and Canada continued its tumble over the weekend as the online hangout extended its block of the game throughout most of the world. Facebook said Monday it was forced to disable "Scrabulous" after one of "Scrabble's" rights owners, Mattel, made a formal removal request and the developers of "Scrabulous" took no action themselves. The "Scrabulous" application remains available in India, where its developers live and where Mattel has filed a lawsuit claiming violations of intellectual property.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
AMD Claims Gold in VMware's Virtualization Performance Event
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64287.html
AMD announced Monday it took the No. 1 spot on the VMware VMmark virtualization benchmark for x86 servers with its quad-core Opteron processor running HP ProLiant DL585 G5 servers. The hardware maker's 16-core chips now own the top three rankings for the VMmark benchmark, said AMD. The DL785, with 8 sockets and a total of 32 cores and 32 total threads running VMware ESX v3.5.0 Update, earned a score of 21.88 @16 tiles. VMware's Rapid Virtualization Indexing technology facilitates fast switching between virtual machines, according to AMD.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
Solar-Powered Plane Stays Airborne for Record 3 Days
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64279.html
A high-tech plane has reached new heights in the world of solar energy, flying a record-setting 82 hours and 37 minutes on the power of the sun. The QinetiQ Zephyr aircraft more than doubled the world record for an unmanned, solar-powered flight in its jaunt within the West Coast, the company announced over the weekend. While the flight isn't likely to snag the official world record spot, it does mark a new milestone in solar energy research that could have long-lasting effects.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
Analyst: Amazon to Kindle Market for E-Textbooks
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64281.html
In a move that could free up backpack space on college campuses nationwide, Amazon is reportedly looking to enter the school textbook market with the release of a new, student-friendly version of its Kindle electronic book reader. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer quotes a McAdams Wright Ragen analyst as saying that the company is already at work on new Kindles and sees an opportunity in the $5.5 billion textbook market. Amazon has previously confirmed that there will be Kindle updates but isn't commenting on targeting specific markets.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
Hackers Get Under Red Hat's Skin
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64282.html
Red Hat issued a security advisory Friday notifying customers that some of its servers were compromised last week due to a network attack. The company called the advisory critical and said it sent out the alert primarily for those who may obtain Red Hat binary packages via channels other than those of official Red Hat subscribers. The servers -- for both the company's commercial products and free versions of Linux -- were breached; however, immediate action on the part of Red Hat prevented the attacker from gaining access to Red Hat Network, according to the company.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
Hard Gadgets for a Hard World: What Makes Rugged Electronics So Tough?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64256.html
Portable electronics like smartphones and laptops aren't generally known for their ability to withstand drops, splashes and harsh conditions. Yet the portable nature of these devices means they're often in the line of fire -- swimming pools and toilets for cell phones, dusty places like construction sites for laptops, or even dairy farms with kicking cow hooves, milk and, well, greenish-brown pies. Some companies specialize in "ruggedizing" electronics to make them ready for harsh elements and the occasional accident.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
Intel Steers Aggressive Course While Apple Appears Rudderless
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64272.html
Last week was kind of amazing -- I knew a number of things that were going to be happening at IDF but was blindsided by an announcement Intel made that could change the world as we know it. Nikola Tesla turned over in his grave, and we are one step closer to his Tower of Power. Intel also fleshed out its Atom platform, which I think forms the basis of a new class of cloud computing-based client devices. Apple, on the other hand, appears rudderless all of a sudden. The new iPhone -- recall I suggested you avoid this product -- is having a massive number of problems.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
AMD Aims to Shape Up by Unloading Digital TV Biz to Broadcom
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64277.html
Chipmaker Broadcom has agreed to acquire Advanced Micro Devices' digital television chip business for $192.8 million. About 530 AMD employees will join Irvine, Calif.-based Broadcom after the transaction closes, which is expected to take place sometime during the fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31. AMD is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. "As we announced in our Q2 earnings call, we evaluated the strategic fit of our non-core businesses and determined to divest our consumer electronics group," said AMD spokesperson Jo Albers.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
Fliqz CEO Benjamin Wayne on the Allure of Online Video
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64264.html
In 2005, as Web content was beginning to grow more dynamic and audiences more sophisticated, Benjamin Wayne hatched the idea of offering video delivery services to companies for their Web sites. The result was Fliqz, which counts among its clients Monster.com, PBWiki and Friendster. The E-Commerce Times spoke with Wayne about how video can help drive traffic to your site, keep visitors there longer and enhance the overall user experience.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
Microsoft and Seinfeld: A Comedy of Errors?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64273.html
It's not often we here at LinuxInsider get to write about celebrities -- other than the Richard Stallman variety, of course -- and indeed, many of the geeks who grace our pages from time to time seem to shun the limelight rather than seek it out. So it was with great glee this week that we found cause to mention none other than Jerry Seinfeld. Indeed, as our sister publication reported on Thursday, the comedian famous for his stories about nothing will soon be a spokesman for much the same.

Tue, 26 Aug 08
The iPhone's Robust Body of Health Apps
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64269.html
Cell phones can't actually get hot enough to pop popcorn, regardless of what you may have seen on YouTube. But some do have other unexpected abilities that just might help improve your quality of life. Dozens of new health and fitness Web applications are now available for use with the Apple iPhone. The apps, which likely will eventually be available on other phones that will run on a Google-based operating system, enable third-party software developers to create a new breed of health services.

Mon, 25 Aug 08
Keeping the Landline Relevant
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64201.html
Remember the home phone? It's back. Cable companies and wireless carriers are trying to reinvent residential phone service, pumping fresh life and new features into those old-fashioned landlines that were once ubiquitous in U.S. households. By year-end, for example, Comcast is planning to launch an "enhanced cordless telephone" that assumes characteristics of a mobile phone, such as the ability to e-mail, instant message and access local weather and news.

Mon, 25 Aug 08
Online Sharing With Creative Commons
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64197.html
Not long after Joichi Ito uploaded a photo he had taken of Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia last year, he noticed something odd. Most of the Internet luminaries and technology gurus who had write-ups on Wikipedia had poor-quality photos or none at all. It wasn't just that. "I realized that some famous people have no free photos online," says Ito, a U.S.-educated Japanese venture capitalist and cofounder of Digital Garage, a Tokyo Net startup incubator.

Sun, 24 Aug 08
Readin', Writin' and Web 2.0
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64260.html
The enhanced degree of communication that Web 2.0 utilities enable is changing the corporate world, for good or for ill, as enterprises decide whether to reject or embrace concepts like wikis, blogs, social networks and video-sharing. The trend has touched the academic world in similar ways. Web 2.0 utilities have raised concerns about security in nearly all IT fields, and educational institutions are no exception. "The biggest worries schools have are hackers getting into the Web site," Steve Yin of Web security appliance firm St. Bernard told TechNewsWorld.

Sun, 24 Aug 08
30 Days and 30 Nights With the iPhone 3G
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64271.html
As I wrote in my July 15 review of the iPhone 3G, the latest version of Apple's handheld computer, the best way to judge a device like this is to use it for a while. It's been more than a month since I bought my iPhone 3G, switching from my trusty Samsung BlackJack. After more than 30 days of relying on it as a phone, e-mail reader, Web-surfing platform, information retriever and time-killer, I've found it to be both remarkable and maddening. It really is a breakthrough product.

Sun, 24 Aug 08
The Trouble With Twitter
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64258.html
Twitter's business model is starting to show. An early sign came in April, when the popular microblogging service launched in Japan and the home page for every Japanese user included a big banner ad in the top right corner. Then, on Aug. 7, Twitter made another change, this time in the U.S., by limiting the number of people a single user could connect with, or "follow," to about 2,000. Most recently, on Aug. 14, Twitter made the biggest move yet to slash costs. It killed outbound message delivery to mobile phones via short message, or SMS, in all countries except the U.S., Canada, and India.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
Intel Talks Up Our Wire-Free, Robot-Ruled Future
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64265.html
Intel outlined an ambitious vision of future technologies Thursday at this year's Intel Developer Forum held in San Francisco. In his keynote address Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, spoke about and demonstrated several technologies he said would be part of an evolution that closes the gap between humans and machines by 2050. Key concepts demoed during Rattner's talk included a wireless power source for recharging devices, shape-shifting devices made with so-called programmable matter, and personal robot prototypes.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
AT&T Enlists Army of Home Installation Pros
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64262.html
AT&T has launched a 50-state in-home technology services organization designed to help everyday consumers install or troubleshoot all of their connected home technology -- HDTVs, wall-mount speaker systems, new PC installation, PC repair, and home network installation. The new service, called "AT&T ConnecTech," will even trickle down into peripheral products like digital cameras and MP3 players. "AT&T has long been a familiar face in the homes of Americans -- first installing phone service, high speed Internet service and now AT&T U-verse TV," noted AT&T's Carmen Nava.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
iPhonies: Fake Customers Line Up for Poland's iPhone Debut
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64266.html
They are not iPhone enthusiasts. They just play them when paid by marketers. That's the case in Poland, at least, where wireless carrier Telekomunickacja Polska has reportedly confirmed it paid actors to stand in line in order to create buzz and interest in Apple's iPhone 3G mobile handset, which launched there on Friday. The actors filed in line at some 20 retailers around Poland as part of a marketing campaign launched by TP, which is owned by France Telecom and operates under the Orange brand.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
Vote-Dropping Software Bug Could Gum Up Elections
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64259.html
One of the nation's largest electronic voting systems has a software flaw that can cause it to drop ballots, its manufacturer has revealed. Premier Election Solutions -- a subsidiary of Diebold -- says its machines that operate in 34 states are affected by the glitch. The problem, it is believed, has been present in the program for the past decade. The company says it's "confident" election workers would have caught the mistakes during certifications over that time period and thereby prevented any votes from being excluded.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
IBM, HP, Dell See Boost in Server Sales While Sun Lags
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64270.html
Worldwide shipments of servers grew 12.2 percent while revenue grew 5.7 percent in the second quarter, according to new data released by Gartner. Server vendors including Dell, IBM, Sun Microsystems and HP shipped 2.3 million units during the quarter, generating sales of $13.8 billion. IBM held onto its position as the industry leader with a 31.2 percent share of the market and $4.3 billion in sales. Next was HP with 27.6 percent of the market and $3.8 billion in sales. Dell stood at third place with 13 percent of the market and $1.8 billion in sales, according to Gartner data.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
Google May Take Up Residence on All Verizon Cell Phones
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64261.html
Google and Verizon are nearing a deal that would make Google the default search engine on all Verizon mobile devices. The two companies would split advertising revenue from the new mobile search service. The tie-up is important for Verizon "because Google has 70 percent share of the search market on the PC," said Laura Martin, an analyst with Soleil Securities Group. "Signing an ad revenue deal early would give Verizon an advantage over its competitors."

Sat, 23 Aug 08
Dusting for Copyright Clues With Digital Fingerprinting Tech
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64249.html
Digital age, and the stealin' is easy. Regardless of the content type -- be it a text, audio or video file -- computer users can seemingly download and upload copyrighted content with near impunity. After all, it doesn't cost anything to share this material. It's there for the taking. Besides, what's the harm, and who cares anyway, right? That thinking represents the attitude of many computer users. Sure, in those long-ago days before the Internet, people made facsimile copies of published material and reproduced them in small quantities to share with associates.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
Who Deserves the Tech Vote?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64250.html
Nine months after Barack Obama, John McCain has unveiled his own technology plan for America. At last, both candidates can be graded for their long-term friendliness to the tech sector. Lost beneath the theatrics of Obama's pledge to announce his VP choice via text messaging and McCain's successful YouTube "fan club" videos are the real issues that matter most to the tech sector. One gets a clear sense of how the candidates think about technology from their opening sentences.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
Mobile Devices for Enterprise Apps, Part 2
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64255.html
Device makers are hard at it trying to crack the market for mobile enterprise software applications. While BlackBerry devices put Research in Motion in a front-running position, enterprise users have an increasingly wide range of choices when it comes to high-end smartphones and mobile devices. Recent enhancements and lower prices continue to fuel buzz about Apple's iPhone in the enterprise, but Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, as well as RIM, continue to develop closer ties with enterprise software vendors and telecom carriers.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
Print Media vs. E-Media: The Battle Is On
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64244.html
Most people are aware that print media is in trouble. Nationally, thousands of employees of print media companies, especially newspapers, have been laid off. How do print media stay vital? Alternatively, will print media even exist 20 years from now? Print media have some pretty obvious strengths, like brand recognition. For example, take publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek and Time. All of these are established brands with millions of loyal readers. As to readability, I usually enjoy picking up a newspaper rather than reading its contents online.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
Mac Bloggers Dis Dell, Mash on MobileMe, Probe Spontaneous Nano Combustion
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64251.html
Summer might be winding down, but the Apple-focused blogosphere is as hot as ever. Mac bloggers didn't seem too worried over rumors that Dell is cooking up a music alliance intended to topple Apple, and Apple's PC-topping customer satisfaction index seemed obvious enough. MobileMe, on the other hand, got hammered again this week, and Apple even acknowledged that some iPods could spontaneously combust. Meanwhile, for some iPhone 3G owners, the only solution to their connectivity problems appears to be a class action lawsuit.

Sat, 23 Aug 08
Open Source: The Key to a Software Meritocracy
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64247.html
Remember the good old days? Like back in 1999 when you could, as a friend of mine put it, "make a hundred thousand dollars a year for being able to spell Java." Those were the days, back when programmers driving Porsches had become a clichÃ©. Now, more than a decade after the dot-com boom began, tech people once again find themselves earning less money despite bringing significantly more value to their employers. Instead, as demands on technology workers increase each year, we see diminishing returns on our labor.

Fri, 22 Aug 08
New Microsoft Tech Converts Photo Soup Into 3-D Image
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64248.html
Microsoft on Wednesday launched a new technology and service called Photosynth. The system, currently available to users through a Web site, uses multiple snapshots of a scene to create a seemingly 3-D representation. Careful using it, though -- any image "synthed" by users on the site become viewable to anyone. In the works at Microsoft Live Labs since 2006, the technology makes it possible for anyone with a digital camera, PC and a broadband connection to create 3-D scenes from a collection of standard, one-dimensional photographs, according to Microsoft.

Fri, 22 Aug 08
Copyright Law and the Web, Part 1: A Hazy Intersection
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64238.html
Technology often evolves more rapidly than the laws needed to regulate it, especially in the realm of copyright law. The Associated Press, Viacom and YouTube are just some of the parties involved in a variety of lawsuits and accusations focused on Internet copyright issues. Guidelines are in place concerning the fair use of copyrighted materials, but their interpretations have often left lawyers, judges, corporations and everyday consumers wondering and arguing about what exactly is legal and what is not.

Fri, 22 Aug 08
Seinfeld Peddles Vista From Milan to Minsk
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64243.html
What's the deal with those new Windows ads? In what looks to be another shot at saving Vista's troubled reputation, Microsoft has brought comedian Jerry Seinfeld aboard as a spokesperson for the struggling software. Seinfeld will star in a series of ads launching early next month, the Wall Street Journal reports. He's rumored to be getting $10 million for his troubles. Research shows only about 39 percent of new computers shipping with Vista last year, compared to 67 percent with XP in 2002, its first year. So, can Seinfeld save the ship from sinking?

Fri, 22 Aug 08
Lawsuit Takes a Swing at Wii Motion Controller
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64245.html
Nintendo has been hit with a lawsuit alleging patent infringement. Hillcrest Labs has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission and a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Maryland against the video game giant. Hillcrest Labs makes and licenses many handheld interactive media devices for consumer electronics companies. The suit alleges that Nintendo infringed four patents owned by Hillcrest related to a handheld, motion-sensitive device similar to the Wii game controller.

Fri, 22 Aug 08
Top 10 Stupid iPhone Tricks
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64230.html
By just about any measure, the Apple iPhone App Store has been an astounding success. It reportedly did $30 million in business in its first 30 days, during which time users downloaded 60 million applications. For a store that didn't exist before the launch of the 3G iPhone in July, that's pretty damn impressive. Still, by lighting up the world with so many cool third-party iPhone applications, Apple has also opened the door to deeper, dumber issues -- like the $999 "I Am Rich" application that eight people managed to buy before Apple had the sense to yank it from the store altogether.

Fri, 22 Aug 08
DrumChannel: Finding the Rhythm of a Community
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64237.html
There's something both primal and communal about the beat of a drum, whether it's just one or 2,008 of them -- as the world experienced at Beijing's Opening Ceremony to kick off the Olympics -- which might be called the ultimate global social networking event. A drum's beat seems to capture people from the inside out, turning something as individual and personal as a heartbeat into a collective experience. And it strikes me as very similar to what many Web sites want to do -- take something as individual as an online browsing and shopping experience and make it communal, make it social.

Fri, 22 Aug 08
Data Portability: Carefully Chipping Away at the Garden Walls
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64231.html
A lot of effort in recent months has been expended toward something people are calling "data portability." Just about everywhere you look; you'll bump into people pontificating about it. In case you've been out of the loop -- perhaps hiking in the Himalayas -- you can run the term through your favorite search engine to pull back numerous articles and blog posts on the subject. You might even want to dip into the Twitter and FriendFeed streams to see the ebb and flow of the micro debate.

Fri, 22 Aug 08
Made-Over PSP to Get Brighter Screen, Built-In Mic
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64240.html
Consumer electronics giant Sony announced a new version of its PlayStation Portable handheld games console that can be used as a telephone, to go on sale in Europe and the United States in mid-October. The PlayStation Portable 3000, which has been the subject of speculation on technology Web sites, will have a built-in microphone and a new screen which has more colors and is better suited for use outdoors, Sony said at a video games convention in Leipzig, Germany, on Wednesday.

Thu, 21 Aug 08
With New Unlocked Treo, Palm Offers Freedom for a Price
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64236.html
Palm has debuted the latest addition to its Treo line of smartphones, the Treo Pro. The announcement comes less than a week after photos and details about the new handset were leaked on the Web. Aimed at business users, the mobile device will be available in Europe in September through carriers Vodafone and O2, as well as in an unlocked configuration. It will also be offered by Australian provider Telestra, which will offer the Treo Pro free with a contract. In the U.S., the smartphone, remains carrier-less and is available only in an unlocked, unsubsidized version.

Thu, 21 Aug 08
American Takes Lead in Sky-High WiFi Race
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64233.html
The race is over for domestic airlines looking to turn their planes into flying WiFi hotspots; American Airlines is first off the runway. But can offering onboard Internet access help smooth out passenger turbulence created by additional charges for carry-on bags, food, even blankets and pillows? American on Wednesday began looking for the answer to that question as it rolled out in-flight broadband access on 15 of its 767-200 jets now flying transcontinental routes. The carrier, using technology called "Gogo," developed by Colorado-based Aircell, will charge $12.95 for that access.

Thu, 21 Aug 08
Intel Lays Out Plans for TV, Smartphone Push
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64229.html
Intel is sharing its vision for the future of computing at its Intel Developer Forum, which is taking place in San Francisco. Put simply, the products under development have three major focuses: superfast, superportable and superconnected. Revelations include details about the much-hyped Nehalem high-speed processors, new uses for the efficient Atom microprocessor, and plans for a smartphone-style chip -- plus a cutting-edge multimedia concept kept under wraps until now. The newest announcement takes Intel into new territory: television.

Thu, 21 Aug 08
CSO: One Tough Job
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64214.html
Ever heard of Themistocles? In case you haven't, it's a tragic story. Themistocles was an Athenian statesman and general who lived around 500 B.C. He was one of the leading political minds of his time, and perhaps one of the most brilliant military strategists of his -- or any -- time as well. As a direct result of his actions, Athens became the largest center of commerce in Greece and it's arguable that his policy of naval superiority ultimately lead to the establishment of the Athenian Empire.

Thu, 21 Aug 08
Microsoft Pumps Another $100M Into Novell Deal
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64232.html
Microsoft is bumping up its monetary investment in its controversial partnership with Novell. Styling the deal as a so-called incremental investment increase, Microsoft will buy up to $100 million in Suse Linux Enterprise Server support certificates. The certificates are sold and exchanged for IT support from Novell for its Suse Linux Enterprise Server. Microsoft and Novell struck their deal in November 2006 in an effort to boost interoperability between Microsoft's applications and Novell's open source operating system.

Thu, 21 Aug 08
Virtualization Reality Spurs Microsoft to Change Licensing Rules
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64226.html
Microsoft announced Tuesday it is easing licensing restrictions for server applications. Companies will no longer be required to pay additional fees to move software within a server farm, the company said. The move is an attempt to remove barriers in order for its enterprise customers to develop more dynamic data centers and enterprise IT systems using virtualization software, according to the software maker. The revamped licensing is Microsoft's response to the growth of virtualization in enterprises, said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates.

Thu, 21 Aug 08
Medical Research and Open Source: Competition Trumps Collaboration
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64222.html
Proponents of open source software are trying to make a case for using the collaborative approach to conquer the world's most vexing medical problems. However, established practices of avoiding the spotlight and protecting vested interests in breakthrough results still hamper the collaborative process. This kind of proprietary work ethic leads to researchers arriving at similar discoveries independently. The possibility of pooling such research to go even further together is not a main priority among many researchers.

Thu, 21 Aug 08
Portable Power Packs Give Tired iPhone Batteries a Jolt
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64220.html
Because the iPhone 3G doesn't have a user-replaceable battery -- and because it's so easy to burn through a full charge before the end of a day -- some users may need a variety of power charging solutions. They need to keep the included universal serial bus cord or dock handy at home, and perhaps have one in the office. One also might need a car charger and might seriously consider an external portable battery. There are several external portable batteries on the market, and I chose two different types of portable battery power from reputable dealers to evaluate.

Thu, 21 Aug 08
Google to Dig Up $10M for Geothermal Energy
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64228.html
Representatives from Google and General Electric said Tuesday that widespread use of renewable energy in the United States would be possible -- if it were cheaper. Renewable energy options will remain "boutique" industries unless their costs are cut to make them competitive with coal and other widely used power sources, said Dan Reicher, director for climate change and energy initiatives at Google.org, the company's philanthropic arm. Reicher spoke to a group of politicians and energy experts at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Metrics Mavens: Vista Gets Dumped From One-Third of New Enterprise PCs
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64218.html
An independent software development company claims to have statistics showing that one out of three new enterprise PCs purchased are running Windows XP, not Windows Vista. The numbers from Devil Mountain Software, based on a study of more than 3,000 machines, found that enterprises are purchasing new machines with Vista pre-installed and downgrading them to Windows XP. The data, compiled by Craig Barth, chief technology officer at Devil Mountain, was culled from information provided by the company's exo.performance.network project.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Japan Demands Probe Into Cause of Nano Flameouts
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64224.html
There have been at least two recent incidents in Japan in which iPod nanos overheated and caused minor fires, prompting the country's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to issue a warning about the popular portable music player. In all, there have been 14 such incidents in the country, according to news accounts, including one that occurred in March. The latest meltdowns prompted the Ministry to order Apple to investigate the device's safety and report its findings within a week.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
The Growing Trend Toward Shrinking Devices
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64207.html
It's not every day you hear scores of men arguing over whose is the smallest. But in the modern world of mobile computing, it's a conversation that's becoming increasingly common. The nature of today's business environment means needing to stay connected wherever you are. From ultraslim notebooks to ultramobile PCs and smartphones, the options to have high-tech tools in the pocket of your pants are growing by the month. And one thing's for sure: In this field, size definitely matters.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Google Goes Grassroots in FCC Lobbying Push
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64221.html
Call it a digital land rush -- a stampede along the broadcast spectrum, the invisible areas of the air where TV signals, phone calls, wireless Web access and emergency alert frequencies roam. Google has its sights on some potentially lucrative tracts of the spectrum, so it's asking YouTube users to help sway the Federal Communications Commission. On Monday, Google launched FreetheAirWaves.com, a lobbying Web site detailing its position on "white spaces," the areas on the broadcast spectrum between television channels that could provide ground for a superfast wireless Internet.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Did Software Update Cure iPhone's 3G Sniffles?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64223.html
After weeks of criticism lodged by a small but vocal group of users who claim the iPhone 3G drops calls and picks up weak signals when trying to connect to 3G networks, a software update recently issued by Apple may help nurse some devices back to health. The computer maker said its latest update improves the device's 3G abilities. Not everyone, however, is convinced the fresh software has sufficiently done the trick. It's also unclear what exactly is causing the supposed 3G problems in the first place.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Do Second-Hand Apples Taste as Sweet?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64198.html
Just because the iPhone 3G is storming the marketplace, don't expect the first-generation iPhone to disappear. Quite the contrary. Used iPhones, and iPods as well, are finding a ready market for refurbished Apple products. But it really is an Apple marketplace. "I don't see any other brand being able to build that kind of market in refurbished products," In-Stat analyst Stephanie Ethier told MacNewsWorld. "Apple is the only brand I see being able to pull off something like that. I don't see any other brand being able to have that kind of following for refurbished products."

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Google Gives Android Devs a Kit to Tinker With
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64215.html
Google is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with its long-awaited and much-hyped Android phone platform. This week has seen two significant developments: the first Android-powered device officially being approved by the FCC, and the beta version of the Android software development kit being released by Google. Both moves mark the end of months of speculation. Rumors have popped up every few weeks suggesting problems and potential delays with the first Android phone's shipment.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Patent Office Casts Shadow on Dell's Claim to 'Cloud Computing'
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64211.html
To the surprise of few, Dell is losing its preliminary approval to trademark the phrase "cloud computing." The Patent and Trademark Office has sent the company a "non-final" refusal of its application to own the term. Dell has six months to submit counter-arguments or the PTO will abandon the application. The office's grounds for refusal is that the term is too generic. Generally speaking, commonly used words cannot be trademarked unless they are being used in an unexpected way.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Google Tries Milking Mobile YouTube for Ad Money
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64217.html
Search engine giant Google has begun testing video ads on its mobile version of YouTube in the U.S. and Japan. The move is an attempt by the Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine to monetize YouTube's video ad potential. Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in October 2006. The move is typical for Google, reflecting its penchant for experimentation, said Laura Martin, an analyst with Soleil Media Metrics. "They're being aggressive because they're looking for the killer app for video ads. They're just trying a lot of different things."

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Ubuntu Sponsor Canonical Falls In With Linux Foundation Crowd
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64216.html
Canonical, the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, is now a member of the Linux Foundation. The foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting the accelerated growth of Linux, announced Canonical's membership on Tuesday. Ubuntu community members have been active participants in a variety of workgroups at LF, including the Linux Standard Base, Desktop Architects and Driver Backporting groups. In addition, Canonical supports a range of other open source projects including Bazaar, Storm and Upstart.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Obama Shifts Gears, Endorses $2B NASA Funding Boost
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64212.html
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's position on space exploration continued to evolve Sunday as the Illinois Democrat endorsed a congressional plan to add $2 billion to NASA's budget and agreed to back at least one more space shuttle mission. In a policy paper released Sunday, the presumptive Democratic nominee said his goal was to "minimize the gap" between the end of the shuttle program and the beginning of future manned missions. He also hopes "to ensure retention of" thousands of NASA workers in Texas and Florida whose jobs are threatened.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
US Consumers Buying Fewer but Fancier Phones
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64209.html
U.S. consumers have been buying significantly fewer cell phones but paying higher prices for them, according to a research firm. The NPD Group said in a report Tuesday that 28 million cell phones were sold in the United States in the second quarter, a decline of 13 percent from the same period a year ago. It was the third quarter in a row with a year-over-year decline, and the lowest number of phones sold since NPD began tracking the category in 2005, said Ross Rubin, the firm's director of industry analysis.

Wed, 20 Aug 08
Apple Gives MobileMe Users 60 More Days, Pleads for Patience
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64210.html
Apple took another step to acknowledge the issues surrounding MobileMe reliability by extending current subscriber memberships an additional 60 days. The company previously extended memberships 30 days, which means qualifying subscriber renewal dates have been extended 90 days. The MobileMe team sent current subscribers an e-mail on Monday that stated, in part: "We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe's launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around."

Tue, 19 Aug 08
Plan B for Toshiba: The Low-Cost Road to High Definition
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64203.html
After losing the high-definition DVD format war to Sony's Blu-ray, Toshiba is digging in around the standard definition DVD market. The company has launched a new upscaling DVD player, the XD-E500, which promises to bring standard DVD quality closer to high-definition than ever before. The company has even launched a new Web site to help show consumers about the new player and a new upscaling technology that runs on it. Toshiba's new $150 XD-E500 features Toshiba's new eXtended Detail Enhancement technology.

Tue, 19 Aug 08
If Users Are 'Integrating' TV, Web News, Why Can't Journalists?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64204.html
When I covered the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show for CNN, I wasn't just peeking into the future of technology. I was getting a very personal look at how technology is changing journalism and the consumption of news. For the four days I was in Las Vegas, I was a true multi-platform journalist. Not only was I providing traditional live reports for CNN, Headline News and CNN International, I was also blogging for CNN.com, uploading digital photos and, thanks to a flash memory-based microphone, I was providing audio podcast interviews that ended up on Apple's iTunes.

Tue, 19 Aug 08
Microsoft Ratchets Up Enterprise Support With High-End Service Plan
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64199.html
Microsoft announced its new Microsoft Services Premier Ultimate support service Monday. The new plan joins the Microsoft Services Premiere Support line of offerings with an enterprise-class support system. The Premier Ultimate service bundle is aimed at enterprise customers willing to dig deep to pursue a proactive support strategy concentrated on attaining and maintaining IT health, according to Microsoft. The new service level combines unlimited problem resolution support with other bundled Premier features.

Tue, 19 Aug 08
Picking Up the Pieces in the Fragmented Universe of Online Video
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64176.html
Online video is currently the buzz topic dominating news cycles -- technology, content, search, distribution, syndication, aggregation, advertising, widgets ... OK, I think you get it. The migration of content delivery has done just that: migrated. Consumption of online video has shifted from cable TV, to satellite and digital video recorder, and now to the Internet. Because of this, individuals are taking the term "on-demand" much more seriously. People have less time and don't want to be limited in what they are able to view.

Tue, 19 Aug 08
Technology's New Olympic Record
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64175.html
These were great games, and I particularly got a kick out of the initial U.S. swimming team win, which came in the face of the French team, who said they would "smash" us. I couldn't help but draw a parallel from that to the Apple reaction I got from suggesting that Dell might be able to address a market need that Apple didn't on a project that I'd helped with. But we've talked enough about that, and this week let's look at some of the technologies that have helped make this Olympics unique from vendors like Cisco, AMD, Microsoft and Lenovo.

Tue, 19 Aug 08
Money Talks: Wikis for Investment and Finance
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64192.html
Wikis are sprouting up everywhere, so it's not surprising that the world of investing, finance, business and money management is getting in on the act. If you're looking for stock tips, industry analysis, information about how to start a home business, or advice about paying off credit card debt, you might turn to one of these money-related wikis to benefit from the wisdom of the digital crowd. One of these sites, Wikinvest, was founded in 2006 and launched in 2007 as a one-stop shop for all things related to stocks, bonds and other investments.

Tue, 19 Aug 08
Customer Data and Wireless Payments: Does Convenience Trump Security?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64187.html
Warning: Your personal data may be at risk. As RFID devices work their way into consumers' everyday lives, the potential for data breaches grows rapidly. RFID technology used to be used primarily to track warehouse operations and perform inventory control through. Now, this same technology is finding its way into smart keys -- keys that merely need to come close to a lock in order to unlock it. RFID transponders now speed travelers through toll booths and gas stations without requiring users to whip out credit cards or old-fashioned cash.

Tue, 19 Aug 08
Kensington Charger Makes iPhone One With Car
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64179.html
With the iPhone 3G's lackluster battery performance, a car charger is no longer an optional accessory -- it's a requirement. There are two basic types. There are those that go into the lighter socket and are composed of basically a wire with a plug on either end. Then there's the Kensington Car Charger Deluxe for iPhone and iPod. The Kensington charger is both a battery charger and a dock that cradles your iPhone or iPod, holding it in position in your vehicle for easy access.

Tue, 19 Aug 08
Microsoft Format Plows Ahead as XML Protests Lose Steam
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64195.html
Microsoft's Open XML format overcame its final stumbling block and is moving forward as an official ISO standard. The file format had been held back earlier this year by claims that the voting process was rushed and that Microsoft's specification information was incomplete. Open XML got the green light to move forward after appeals from Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela failed to gain enough support from the other national standards bodies. Microsoft's file format will now also be known as ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology -- Office Open XML formats.

Mon, 18 Aug 08
How Not to Handle Yourself Online
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64191.html
The new Consumer Reports serves up what it labels, in big letters on the magazine's cover, the "7 biggest online blunders." They're mostly about compromising the security of your identity, things that can lead to your bank account being emptied, your credit card being enjoyed "offsite," your computer being debilitated. The list itself wasn't online at consumerreports.org, but it boils down to notions that are common sense and ought to be second nature by now: Employ and update security software, don't use the same password for all accounts, etc.

Mon, 18 Aug 08
The Case Against Case-Mate Clear Armor for iPhone
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64152.html
Case-mate Clear Armor for iPhone is yet another product in the increasingly crowded clear-film-covering-for-your-iPhone category. I've reviewed two similar products in the past year -- InvisibleSHIELD and BodyGuardz -- and know of several others that appear to be pretty much the same. All three products offer pretty much the same pitch -- their product is fabricated from high-grade protective film originally designed to protect Apache helicopter blades from sand damage in Desert Storm and/or to protect the fronts of cars from stones and other abrasive elements.

Sun, 17 Aug 08
The Olympics, Part 2: Gold-Medal Network Performance
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64180.html
Online media coverage of this year's Summer Olympic Games on MSN is shaping up to be a breakout event for Internet TV, as well as quite a big hit for NBC and its tech partners. The network reported 12 million hits and 70 million page views on its Olympics Web site -- and that was before the opening ceremony. Things got even better from there: 62.7 million page views were recorded on the auspicious Chinese date 08-08-08, the Games' opening day. NBC on Tuesday reported 132.6 million page views through the Games' first two days.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Microsoft Talks Up Windows 7 - But Only a Little
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64193.html
Although it is not officially scheduled to be released until 2010, Microsoft is starting to talk up Windows 7, its next OS. To that end, it has started a blog hosted by the two senior engineering managers for the Windows 7 product, Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky, and is promising to release in-depth technical specs in October, first at the Professional Developers Conference and then at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. DeVaan and Sinofsky demonstrate that Microsoft has learned from the Vista experience.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Intel Draws Outline for Speedy Next-Gen USB
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64184.html
Intel has announced revised details for next-generation USB 3.0 technology, dubbed "SuperSpeed." The updated draft specifications for USB 3.0 software and hardware interface provide a standardized method for USB 3.0 controllers to communicate with SuperSpeed USB software. The specifications give manufacturers and software developers something to work with as they prep for the transition. The specs also aid in establishing interoperability between devices from multiple manufacturers, an important step in terms of consumer adoption of USB 3.0.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Wrangling and Roping Network Traffic With App Delivery Controllers
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64163.html
Information technology plays a vital role in today's business environment. Well-designed and developed applications are a key element for success -- particularly for organizations that rely on the Web and intranet for conducting business with customers and communicating with partners and employees. The process for launching new applications begins with software developers' handing off their applications to network professionals for deployment over IP networks. However, in most cases the applications have not been optimized to run on a network.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Beacon Blunder Returns to Haunt Facebook as Users Sue
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64190.html
Facebook continues to feel the ramifications of its controversial Beacon advertising platform, which for a short while last year broadcast information about the social networking site's users' activities without their express permission. A class action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook as well as several partners that participated in the program, including Fandango, Blockbuster, Overstock.com and Hotwire. After a significant user backlash, Facebook put in place more stringent controls for users to keep certain activities private.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Will HTC and T-Mobile Get Android's Gears Spinning?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64182.html
T-Mobile may be partnering with cell phone handset manufacturer HTC to deliver the first smartphone running Google's Android platform, according to reports. Unnamed sources briefed on T-Mobile's plans have said the carrier could announce the phone as early as September -- and would almost certainly have an offering out in the wild as early as October, in time for the holiday selling season. Another report goes a few steps further: It cites an unofficial T-Mobile blog that claimed the new phone, to be called the "G1," would launch Sept. 17 to T-Mobile customers only.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Universal Remotes: Do Brand Names Turn Consumers On?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64145.html
Brand is always among the top factors for consumers when they purchase a product. However, rankings between the top factor categories change by specific product. Brand has power for gaming and laptops but lower importance for digital photo frames and NAS. Where brand power is high, price sensitivity drops, and strong awareness of available brands exists. Where it is low, the reverse is true. Universal remote controls are at the weak side of the middle. The weaker the importance of brand to a buying consumer, the less likely that consumer is to remain loyal to a specific brand.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Mac Bloggers Get Dropped, Get Apps, Get 48 Hours
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64173.html
The Apple-focused blogosphere has been dominated this week by iPhone 3G reception and connectivity issues. Speculation as to the cause has been rampant, Apple's not talking, and most -- but not all -- carriers are keeping their lips zipped, too. Meanwhile, the iPhone money train keeps picking up steam, ringing up $30 million in App Store sales in its first 30 days. So somebody, apparently, is getting enough connectivity to download and install a lot of iPhone apps.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Sun Gives Mobile Devs Shiny New Toolkit
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64178.html
Sun has released a new development kit aimed at mobile software developers. The toolkit will allow developers to create user interfaces for Java-based mobile phone applications. The package is being made available for download by the company under the title "Light-Weight UI Toolkit" or LWUIT. The company hopes that the open-source LWUIT will make it easier for Java developers to create applications for the Java ME mobile phone platform, further developing the growth of Java on mobile phones and smartphone handsets.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
The Legal Perils of Social Networking
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64171.html
Every blogger should know the story of Heather B. Armstrong, nee Hamilton. In February 2002 she was fired from her job for blogging about her job. Blogs were relatively new at that time, and they were on few employers' radars. Hamilton, though, crossed an invisible line -- one not explicitly defined by her employer -- and paid for it. She coined the term "dooce" as a label for anyone fired for blogging. Five years later, most people online know the drill: Don't blog about work, unless your employer approves.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Mobile Devices for Enterprise Apps, Part 1
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64169.html
The emergence of smaller, more powerful handheld devices and the spread of high-speed mobile networks have enterprise software developers scrambling to meet demand for portable versions of their flagship applications. Research In Motion got a jump on the market with the BlackBerry's secure and reliable e-mail delivery capabilities. Competitors, including Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson, are all vying for a share of the market. Given recent enhancements made to the iPhone, Apple has to be added to the list of contenders.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Italy Bans Access to Popular Pirate Hangout
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64177.html
An Italian judge has ordered the country's Internet service providers to block access to The Pirate Bay, a Swedish file-sharing Web site, as part of a probe into copyright law violation, officials said Thursday. Since last week, Italy's anti-fraud police have been informing providers they must heed the order of a judge in the northern city of Bergamo, police Col. Alessandro Nencini said. Nencini said the judge had granted a request by Italian prosecutors, who have placed four Swedes under investigation for organizing the Web site. The ruling can be appealed.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
Technical Glitch Chokes Off Flow of Netflix DVDs
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64174.html
Netflix said Thursday that major technical problems over the past three days have severely limited the number of DVDs it could send out. The unspecified problems affected all of the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company's 55 shipping centers and marked the biggest disruption in service since Netflix launched its DVD-by-mail subscription business nine years ago. Normal shipments from the online DVD rental leader were expected to resume on Friday, according to Netflix spokesperson Steve Swasey.

Sat, 16 Aug 08
'Tabula Rasa': A New Frontier for Virtual Worlds
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64162.html
The real and virtual worlds mingle in fascinating ways, but it's rare and remarkable when they leave planet Earth. And that is exactly what will happen when Richard Garriott, one of the most high-profile and storied computer game designers around, blasts off into space this fall, packing the digitized DNA of online gamers as well as their computerized characters with him. "Most children in some point in their lives fantasize about travel into space or becoming an astronaut," Garriott said. "Most people, I think, grow out of it."

Fri, 15 Aug 08
US Air Force Grounds Cyber Defense Unit
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64170.html
Top United States Air Force officials announced Thursday they are considering putting the military branch's Cyber Command program on hold. The Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force have considered delaying current activity and development for the Air Force Cyber Command in order to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the AFCC's mission and to synchronize that mission with other key Air Force initiatives, they said. News of the program's possible suspension has arisen at the same time as high-profile cyber attacks have been leveled against the nation of Georgia.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
Intel Shows Way to Nudge a Napping PC
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64168.html
Intel will begin rolling out motherboards next month that support Remote Wake technology -- the ability for a computer to be turned on from sleep mode remotely. Applications that have already been designed around this technology include PC-based phone service and content delivery. Users of computers with Remote Wake will not have to keep their computers on 24/7 to use a particular service or product. In short, it gives Intel and its partners a powerful sales pitch: You can save money by leaving your computer in sleep mode until needed.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
Virtual 'Time Bomb' Blasts VMware Systems
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64166.html
A glitch in VMware's most recent update had customers scrambling this week. A problem caused by a bug from the beta version of the software that engineers failed to remove or deactivate left VMware users unable to power on virtual machines running the hypervisor software. The bug, also known as a "time bomb," is code that developers insert in beta software to push users to upgrade to an application's final version. It's a commonly used tool for developers; however, it must be removed from anything into which it has been inserted prior to final release.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
The Lifecycle Approach to Shaping Up Flabby Mission-Critical Apps
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64148.html
"The 2008 Aberdeen Report: The State of the Market" reveals that investments in new enterprise applications are the top IT initiative for 2008. Aberdeen's research also shows that, on average, organizations are using six business-critical applications and are planning to roll out four new applications over the next two years. The research also shows that 58 percent of organizations surveyed are unsatisfied with the performance of their current applications.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
Hardware, Software or Network: What's Eating iPhone 3G?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64167.html
While the iPhone 3G has been selling millions of units around the world, a small but vocal percentage of customers have been having irritating -- if not debilitating -- experiences with their shiny new phones. Their issues reportedly include dropped calls when using 3G networks and weak or flaky 3G reception. Reports of the cause are wide-ranging and rife with speculation, if not outright rumor. Apple, for its part, isn't talking to anyone, it seems.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
Open Source Wins Landmark Legal Validation
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64164.html
Open source developers now have newly clarified protection, thanks to an appeals court ruling over the validity of their licenses. A judge with U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Wednesday that programmers who "engage in open source licensing" and copyright their work do "have the right to control the modification and distribution" of their products. The case draws clear lines around what had until now been uncertain territory.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
Looking for the Human Element in Enterprise Search
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64147.html
George Orwell didn't specifically mention enterprise search in his visionary book 1984, but he made a statement that still resonates today. When it comes to relevant search query results, "it's not about the statistics." Sanity comes from the human element. Until recently, this concept was mostly ignored by enterprise search solutions. Instead, search was based on text-matching algorithms and models that methodically sifted through link structures or categorization schemes.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
If You Love Your Data, Set It Free
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64142.html
In the past, data was structured, secure and tightly controlled. The bad news is that the data was limited by the firewall of personnel, technologies and process rigidity. Today, however, the demand is for just-in-time and inclusive data, moving away from a monolithic data system mentality to multiple sources of data that provide real-time inferences on consumers, activities, events and transactions. The move is in the ownership of data value to the very people who really need it, who help define its analysis, and who can best use it for business and consumption advantage.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
Researchers Step Way Back From Earlier Online Video Ad Estimate
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64165.html
Internet market researcher eMarketer has drastically lowered its estimates on how much businesses will spend on online video advertising in the near future. The New York City-based firm expects spending on online video ads to reach $505 million by the end of this year, down from the $1.35 billion eMarketer predicted earlier this year. eMarketer also sharply reduced projections for future spending on online video ads from earlier estimates of $4.3 billion by 2011 to $1.9 billion by 2011.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
NBC Online Olympic Coverage Pumps Up TV Audience
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64159.html
Live sports coverage on the Internet, far from threatening TV networks, might let some lucky networks become sports giants bestriding the earth. Amid unprecedented live online Olympic coverage in the U.S., we have the umpteenth example -- following the proliferation of sports radio and TV highlight shows and events appearing live online. When it comes to sports coverage, enough is never enough. First, some basics. Monday, NBC produced its highest-rated prime-time coverage from Beijing -- drawing 19.9 percent of U.S. households.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
Nvidia Shares Rise on Bright Future Despite Dim Q2
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64160.html
Nvidia this week released second-quarter earnings that its CEO deemed "disappointing." However, future projections of growth, as well as an increase to its stock buyback program, boosted its stock price by about 10 percent on Wednesday as Wall Street decided to focus on the firm's future prospects. In Q2, which ended July 27, revenue sank to $892.7 million, compared to $935.3 million for the second quarter of the previous year, a decrease of 5 percent. The company realized a net loss of $120.9 million, or a loss of 22 cents per share.

Fri, 15 Aug 08
Stix Game Controller Takes Wii-Style Play to the PC
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64161.html
Looking at its size, shape, white wrist strap and B-button on the bottom, it's easy to compare the Stix with the Wiimote, the wireless controller for the popular Nintendo gaming console. Except the Stix is for your PC. The Stix comes from Playhut, a toy company that also makes cute little indoor tents for kids. The Stix 200 remote, which began selling for $49.99 at Target, Costco and other retailers this week, promises to "redefine the PC and online gaming experience" with the motion-sensing controller.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
Facebook Stands Atop Social Networking World
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64154.html
Facebook has overtaken MySpace as the top global social network with 132 million unique visitors for a staggering 153 percent growth rate, according to comScore. MySpace is second at 113 million visitors, and Hi5 grew its global audience 100 percent to land at 56 million unique visitors. A new report from the online tracking company shows global usage of social networking sites growing 25 percent since June 2007. The U.S., however, saw the phenomenon cool off somewhat to 9 percent growth year-over-year.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
You Call That Broadband? Group Decries Plodding Pace of US Net Speed
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64157.html
A nationwide study released Tuesday by the Communications Workers of America labor union found that Internet connection speeds in the United States have increased little over the past year. The nation's median data download speed gained just 0.4 megabits per second, it reported. At that rate, it will take more than 100 years before the U.S. attains speeds currently found in Japan, according to the CWA. The CWA's findings are based on aggregated data culled from some 230,000 Internet users who participated in the organization's Speed Matters Speed Test.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
Patch Tuesday Fixfest Plugs 6 Critical Windows Weak Spots
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64153.html
Microsoft's August Patch Tuesday security update was a whopper. The software maker released 11 fixes for 26 vulnerabilities, six of which are critical. The remainder were classified as important. The batch of patches was the largest security update from the software company in two years. While 26 vulnerabilities may seem like a large number, it is not atypical, said Richard Wang, U.S. manager at SophosLabs. "It is higher than the last couple of months but by no means unprecedented. February this year also saw six critical and five important updates," he told TechNewsWorld.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
Yahoo's Fire Eagle Soars Out of Beta
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64150.html
Yahoo is helping make location more global with the launch of its new Fire Eagle platform. Fire Eagle lets users update their location in one centralized place, then have that data broadcast to a number of services. The launch opens up new possibilities for developers. Because the platform is open, any service can put the data to use -- and plenty already are. Fire Eagle offers users the ability to provide physical location information either manually or automatically, using a GPS-enabled device or other mobile system.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
A Voice for Tech: Carly Fiorina's Political Ambitions
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64139.html
If John McCain wanted a strong woman on his side, he couldn't have done much better than Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of HP who has recently been making a name for herself on the political scene. Fiorina has been serving as an economic adviser and advocate for the McCain campaign, and there have been rumors that she is a vice-presidential hopeful. In March of this year she was appointed to serve as the Victory Chairman for the Republican National Committee.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
Study: Mature-Rated Games Worry Parents More Than Beer, Porn
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64144.html
Studies announced this week by What They Play, a parents' guide to the video games their kids play, suggest that many parents are more concerned about kids being exposed to adult-themed video games than they are about kids viewing pornography or experimenting with alcohol. Anxiety about video games superseded parental concerns about their children drinking beer or viewing pornography. As for the content of video games, sex appears to be more distasteful to parents than violence.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
Where There's a Web, There's a Way: A Business Guide to Getting Social
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64141.html
Kathleen Gilroy, cofounder of Swift Media Networks in Boston, eats, lives and breathes Web 2.0. Not only is her latest business venture focused on Web 2.0 services for conferences, but she's also used just about every Web-based tool there is to run her own various startups. With five full-time staff members, she has become a well-seasoned user of blogs, wikis, collaboration tools and just about any other free or low-cost service she can leverage. "What's interesting about Web 2.0 is that it gives you access to markets [a small-business owner] couldn't normally reach," Gilroy said.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
Tourism Wikis: The World According to the Crowd
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64138.html
It used to be that travelers looking for the hippest getaway, the coziest hotel, or the best restaurant had to rely solely on travel guidebooks, which were often out of date by the time they were published. The Web, however, has spawned a new destination for those seeking travel information: travel wikis and online communities. Created by travelers, for travelers, these sites offer travel stories, tips, observations and reviews, as well as networking opportunities for those who share a love of the open road.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
How to Make Money Off Free iPhone Games
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64132.html
Can developing free software for mobile phones be a business? It can if you're Illusion Labs, a fledgling company in the Swedish port city of Malm. Illusion Labs was started a year ago by Carl Loodberg and Andreas Alptun, who had worked together at another Swedish company called "TAT," designing software for companies including Samsung and Nvidia. They set up their own company so they could concentrate on developing applications specifically for Apple's iPhone.

Thu, 14 Aug 08
Product Development: Getting Customers In on the Act
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64129.html
This week, Sage Software is bringing out version 11 of ACT, its high-flying contact management software. ACT has been around since the mid-1980s and has been through multiple incarnations and owners in that time. ACT was what you used back then if you were tired of keeping notes on paper and wanted to improve the way you sell. I can remember a DOS version of the product that would look almost alien in comparison to today's slick GUI version.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Security Experts: No Smoking Gun in Georgian Cyber Attacks
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64136.html
The timing is suspicious: Just as Russian tanks began their physical assaults on Georgia's armies, that country's civilian communications infrastructure started coming under attack in cyberspace. Yet there is no direct evidence that ties this Internet warfare to the Russian government, and it may stay that way even as Georgia's president shifts his Web site to a hosting company in another Georgia -- the one with the U.S. city of Atlanta as its capital.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Dell Chases Rough-and-Tumble Road Warriors With New Laptops
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64140.html
Dell announced on Tuesday seven new laptop models aimed at what it termed today's "digital nomads." The new laptops are the fourth generation of the Dell Latitude line and are designed with light weight and durability in mind. The Latitude laptops use new proprietary Dell technology that extends battery life up to 19 hours on a single charge, the company said. The express charge feature recharges the battery to 80 percent of full capacity in one hour.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
AMD Whips Up Meaty GPU Sandwich
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64135.html
Advanced Micro Devices announced the upcoming availability of what it says is the world's fastest graphics card, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2. The card is part of AMD's ATI Radeon 4800 X2 series. It's the most powerful graphics technology to come out of AMD, delivering a 2.4 teraFLOPS of processing power -- that's 2.4 trillion floating point operations per second. AMD was able to achieve that amount of computation power not by developing a new, more powerful chip, but by combining two ATI Radeon 4800 series graphics processing units.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Lenovo Bulks Up With Latest Laptop Release
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64130.html
Lenovo's going big with its latest laptop offering, the 17-inch W700 ThinkPad Workstation. The 8.3-lb. machine boasts a high-resolution WUXGA display and a host of powerful features to boot. The W700 -- starting at $3,500 -- is without doubt targeted at engineers and other users who need high-performance hardware and displays. It opens up a new kind of market for Lenovo and a handful of new ideas for the laptop industry on the whole. The new ThinkPad is one of the first portable computers to be built with the Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Extreme processor.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Gmail Spaces Out, Users Flip
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64133.html
Many Google Gmail users who tried to access their accounts Monday found the service dark. For a period of roughly two hours, users would log on to be greeted with an error message. The outage was caused by a temporary glitch in Google's contacts system, which was preventing Gmail from loading properly, according to the company. Google did not return a call to TechNewsWorld in time for deadline. Google, for its part, has been profuse with its apologies.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Piecing Together Mobile Video Tech
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64125.html
In July, Nielsen Media Research reported "watching video on the Internet is no longer a novelty; 119 million unique viewers viewed 7.5 billion video streams in May 2008. In addition, as of Q1 2008, 91 million Americans owned a video-capable phone." As content owners look to mobilize their video content to reach these mobile users, they'll need to consider more than simply how many users are on 3G networks. The mobile device market is still very fragmented, with spotty 3G coverage and hundreds of different types of video-enabled phones in the market.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Citrix Systems' Simon Crosby: Xen and the Art of Cloud Computing
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64122.html
In his keynote speech at LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco, Simon Crosby, Chief Technology Officer for Citrix Systems, announced the company's plan to open source Project Kensho, a set of tools that will help migrate virtual machines between different hypervisors and virtualization platforms. I sat down with Crosby, who joined Citrix from XenSource, where he had been chief technology officer prior to its acquisition by Citrix. We discussed the role of open source software in virtualization and how virtualization contributes to cloud computing.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
HP Draws Up New Imaging Systems, Inks Deals With Smaller Vendors
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64127.html
HP on Tuesday announced partnerships with five printing vendors to grow its portfolio of security and manageability enterprise printer and imaging offerings. The new solutions range from check printing security to document capture. The new additions to the HP Solution Business Partner program is aimed at managing and securing workflow in imaging and printing environments. "This is the next step in the evolution of our partners program. Our big focus now is on enterprise printing," David Laing, technology solutions and partner program manager for HP, told TechNewsWorld.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Blackjack Whiz Antes Up on Fantasy Football for Facebook
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64128.html
By the time he graduated from MIT, Jeff Ma already had led a life many guys dream about. His card-counting prowess at blackjack tables during wild weekends in Las Vegas and Atlantic City won him and his college buddies millions of dollars, inspiring a best-selling book and the recent movie "21." Now 35 years old, Ma thinks he can hit his next jackpot in a different fantasy land -- the fanciful football leagues that will preoccupy millions of people during the next four months as they accumulate points based on the statistics of NFL players picked for their imaginary teams.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
What to Do With That Old iPhone?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64117.html
First-generation iPhone owners who've upgraded to the new iPhone 3G have a problem on their hands -- what will they do with their old iPhones? The issues surrounding that question involve practicality, friendship, insurance and cold, hard cash. Basically, it comes down to several options, each of which has its own little quirks, pitfalls and opportunities. You can give it away, sell it, jailbreak it or turn it into an iPod touch. The first option is to give your first-generation iPhone away to a friend or family member, and from what I hear, this is one of the more popular solutions.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Beijing Olympics' Gold-Medal Effort at Manipulating Reality
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64120.html
I certainly don't want to give the impression that I'm too old-school for this new-media, all-digital, high-definition world. Like every other red-blooded American male, I loves me some special effects; the more explosions, computer-generated graphics and visual fireworks the better, as long as they don't completely obliterate character and story. But I'm talking about my summer movie viewing habits. When it comes to watching news events, such as last Friday's opening ceremonies at the Beijing Summer Olympics, I generally like my reality unmanipulated by microprocessors and software.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Subway Hack Gets 'A' From Professor, TRO From Judge
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64118.html
An attempt to stop a group of MIT computer engineers from exposing a security flaw in Boston's transportation system may be backfiring. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority filed a suit to prevent the students from discussing their findings at Defcon 16, an annual hackers' conference taking place in Las Vegas over the weekend. A judge ended up issuing a temporary restraining order that forced the students to cancel their presentation.

Wed, 13 Aug 08
Jobs Trumpets App Store's Bursting Till, Confirms Kill Switch
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64124.html
iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded over 60 million applications from Apple's App Store in the 30 days since it opened, according to CEO Steve Jobs. Although a great deal of the applications in the App Store are free, users have purchased $30 million in software since the store's opening, Jobs said. "I don't think those numbers are shocking," Joshua Martin, a Yankee Group analyst, told MacNewsWorld. "It's a good sign for Apple, especially with [somewhere between] 6 and 8 million iPhones out there at this point, it's about 10 apps per phone."

Mon, 11 Aug 08
The Incredible Shrinking Desktop
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64049.html
Budget laptops and the iPhone have been getting most of the attention in gadget circles lately, but there's another intriguing trend under way. Believe it or not, the old desktop PC is going through a mini-renaissance. This summer, top-tier PC makers are rolling out an array of wild new machines that could have computer shoppers wondering if they've stumbled into the wrong aisle at Best Buy. You could call these new systems "crossovers." They use the small-scale hardware developed for laptops in compact and colorful new desktop packages.

Mon, 11 Aug 08
Disaster Training: Software That Virtualizes Calamities
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64111.html
Garage-door-sized television monitors showed a sexy, virtual cable-news anchor reading a breaking news alert about the effects of Hurricane Nerissa that had crashed ashore east of Norfolk about 10 hours earlier. "Removal of traffic congestion is especially challenging," the news anchor said. As the computerized voice spoke, people sitting behind monitors had to react to that data as well as the constantly updating information about the storm. Some of it was good news, some of it bad.

Mon, 11 Aug 08
Olympics Marketing Battle Cry: Viral, Social, Digital
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64108.html
Marketing around the Olympics used to be like a 100-meter cakewalk. You'd pay a gazillion dollars to the International Olympic Committee, then pay a gazillion more to brag like heck about it on TV and in print ads. That was then. This is now: Add on a multi-pronged digital ad strategy that feeds on megabuzz. It must touch all the hot buttons from the hippest social-networking sites to the coolest blogs to the cell phones of those most coveted by marketers -- trendsetters ages 18 to 26.

Mon, 11 Aug 08
CSI, Mac Style
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64095.html
When Macintosh laptops began showing up more often at crime scenes in Pittsburgh this year, police Sgt. Michael Delcimmuto knew he had to do something. Delcimmuto, who oversees the city police unit that investigates computer crimes, said 95 percent of the computers most police agencies forensically analyze contain Windows-based operating systems. But Mac computers, made by Apple, are increasing in popularity, particularly among users in their teens and early 20s.

Sun, 10 Aug 08
The Olympics, Part 1: A Test of IT Strength, Endurance and Discipline
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64099.html
The 2008 Summer Olympics kicked off in Beijing Friday, and this year's Summer Games will serve up highlights outside of athletic prowess and national pride. China's hosting of this year's Games has made them a flash point for a wide range of issues having to do with China and international relations, from freedom of the press, human rights, Tibet and terrorism to pollution and climate change. Internet security vendors have detected and warned Netizens about malware threats related to the Olympics.

Sun, 10 Aug 08
Motorola: The New CEO's Real Challenge
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64110.html
There's no question what Wall Street thinks about Motorola's new co-chief executive, Sanjay Jha. The communications conglomerate's shares jumped 11 percent to nearly $10 on Aug. 4 after announcing the former Qualcomm chief operating officer would take the reins of Motorola's mobile-phone business. Jha brings loads of industry experience and extensive familiarity with wireless investors, ending the Schaumburg, Ill., company's five-month search for an executive to head the troubled cell-phone unit.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
Journalists Hack Journalists at Black Hat
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64101.html
A trio of French journalists from Global Security Magazine were reportedly kicked out of the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas for targeting fellow reporters in the press room with a WiFi hack. The offending journalists/hackers may have used a network-sniffing tool called "Cain" to capture username and password information sent out in the clear over the WiFi network in the press room, according to reports from two journalists who were targeted, eWeek's Brian Prince and Cnet's Elinor Mills.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
I Spy With My Bionic Eye: New Imaging Development
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64100.html
Researchers have announced a technological development they say will improve the functionality of digital cameras and other imaging products. Yonggang Huang, a professor at Northwestern University, and John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created a lens they said was inspired by the human eye. In addition to enhancing digital camera technology, the eye-shaped lens could have an impact on many devices, Huang said. "Camera technologies can benefit directly from these advances," he told TechNewsWorld.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
The Secret Lives of Supercomputers, Part 2
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64082.html
Despite the declining cost of supercomputing, the technology still remains out of reach for many businesses and universities, some of which have found alternative solutions. Bringing supercomputing to industry is just what the Blue Collar Computing program at the Ohio Supercomputer Center was designed to do. Launched in 2004 with the support of the Ohio Board of Regents, the collaborative program seeks to provide easy and affordable access to advanced computing technology.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
City-Sized Collider Set for Smashing Debut
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64096.html
A machine poised to make science history is now ready to launch. The Large Hadron Collider -- a giant machine built 330 feet below the France-Switzerland border -- is scheduled to fire up for the first time next month, on Sept. 10. The LHC, as its name suggests, works by smashing tiny particles called "hadrons" together at extremely high energies -- higher than has ever been possible before. That, in effect, is what makes it unique and gives it the potential to uncover never-before-found answers.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
Who's Minding the App Store?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64094.html
Over the course of its existence -- and particularly since the successful launches of the Macbook, the iPod and the iPhone -- Apple has developed a reputation for its streamlined design ethos and user-friendly interfaces. A stylish product that's easy to use is just part of the equation, however. A problem-free launch of a product is perhaps almost as important to a its success as its actual quality. This is why companies spend months planning every detail of a product launch.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
Political Gain and Net Neutrality
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64084.html
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission came under fire for making a ruling that many consider outside its authority. Without levying a fine, it charged that Comcast violated federal policy when it interfered with a file-sharing application used by consumers. This new plot twist in the Net neutrality story should remind everyone that when it comes to new technologies, government failure is a bigger menace than market failure.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
Fitness Tips for Chair-Bound Computer Users
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64087.html
When Jeffrey Spencer prepared for his college exams, he would tape his notes to the handlebars of his bike and ride to school, studying all the while. To him, it made perfect sense. "I am a kinetic learner, which means I learn and mentally perform best when I am moving," he says. To visual or auditory learners, Spencer's study habits may only make sense in context: He was a competing member of the United States Olympic cycling team in the 1972 Games in Munich. He later turned pro. Recently, he published a book that he wrote while riding a stationary bike.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
Apple Bloggers Pay Pretty Penny for Macs, Ponder Porcine iPhone Update, Pray for Perfect Products
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64088.html
There's been lots of activity in the Apple-focused blogosphere this week -- and that's no surprise, what with the screaming success Apple's been having with its Mac and iPhone sales. For example, TechCrunch reported that Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer that produces the iPhone for Apple, has ramped up production to 800,000 units a week. With that kind of production, Apple is on a lot of people's brains these days. A few of the more interesting stories this week include the high price of the Mac and the iPhone 3G's bug-fixing update.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
In-Flight Cell Phone Use: New Fear of Flying?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64093.html
The friendly skies are not so affable when it comes to using cell phones on commercial airliners. Nearly half of U.S. residents say they would oppose allowing cell phone use aboard flights even if there were no issues with the phones interfering with aircraft communications systems, a Department of Transportation survey finds. About four out of 10 residents said cell phone use should definitely or probably be permitted. However, as any parent of a teenager could have predicted, there is a cell phone generation gap.

Sat, 9 Aug 08
New Fingerprint Tech Tells Cops What You've Had Your Hands In
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64091.html
Scientists have found ways to tease even more clues out of fingerprints' telltale marks -- one in a string of developments that gives modern forensics even better ways to solve mysteries like the anthrax attacks or JonBenet Ramsey's murder. For example, if a person handled cocaine, explosives or other materials, there could be enough left in a fingerprint to identify them, says chemist R. Graham Cooks of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Progress in forensics comes from a combination of new and existing techniques.

Fri, 8 Aug 08
Microsoft Squeaks Out SQL Server 2008 Not a Moment Too Soon
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64086.html
Following a nearly six-month delay from its original target release date, Microsoft announced the release to manufacturing of its SQL Server 2008 Wednesday. The software maker had initially planned to launch the database application in February, but in January said it would have to move the date back to the third quarter. With the software's code finalized and on its way to production, Microsoft is emphasizing that SQL Server 2008 will still arrive within three years of the release of the previous version, SQL Server 2005.

Fri, 8 Aug 08
Where Are All the Dangerous DNS Exploits? Nowhere and Everywhere
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64085.html
Dan Kaminsky, the security researcher who first sounded the alarm that the entire Internet was in grave danger due to a widespread vulnerability, has revealed in front of a packed audience at the Black Hat security conference the details behind the initial subterfuge -- and potential problems that could still pick apart the Web world as we know it. At the heart of the matter is the Domain Name System, which handles Internet addresses and routes traffic accordingly.

Fri, 8 Aug 08
The Secret Lives of Supercomputers, Part 1
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64076.html
Since the first supercomputers came online in the 1960s and '70s, they have earned a reputation as high-powered workhorses helping researchers conduct complex calculations. Typically found at major universities and research facilities, the massive machines -- which at one time could occupy more than an acre of space in a data center -- were often used in science: quantum mechanical physics, molecular modeling or mapping the human genome. Some jobs were less esoteric: IBM's Deep Blue earned fame in the chess world as an opponent of grand master Garry Kasparov.

Fri, 8 Aug 08
Google Aims to Make It Big in China With Music Giveaway
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64081.html
Search engine giant Google has launched a new music search service in China that enables users to legally download online music. Music OneBox, which is backed by some of the major global music labels, as well as Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, is available at Chinese music site Top100.cn. Google launched it with the intent of giving users an easy and legal way to obtain music -- and to give music labels and publishers a new channel for distributing, promoting and monetizing their content.

Fri, 8 Aug 08
An Old Dog Learns Some New Tricks With Puppy Linux 4
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64074.html
The latest release of Barry Kauler's Puppy Linux version 4.0has a lot to bark about. Installed directly on a hard drive, it lacks some of the bells and whistles found in more popular Linux desktop versions. But run it from a USB drive in RAM, and Puppy growls impressively. The ability to carry an entire operating system on a flash drive and run it with all my files and settings intact is a powerful lure. Running Puppy Linux in RAM from any computer is one of this distro's best features. And because the entire OS lives in at least 128 MB of RAM once booted, Puppy Linux is lightning fast.

Fri, 8 Aug 08
What Does Apple Have Up Its Sleeve?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64068.html
When Apple announced last month that it anticipated higher development costs in coming months, analysts cringed and the stock dropped. But tech heads rejoiced. Such a message often means new products are coming from the company. Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer told analysts that a "future product transition" will lower gross margins from nearly 35 percent during the quarter that ended in June to about 30 percent in 2009. While that news cast a shadow over Apple's stock, it generated excitement in the blogosphere.

Fri, 8 Aug 08
Researchers: Online Geegaws Can Open Door to Flimflammery
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64078.html
One of the biggest problems with the so-called Web 2.0 movement has been its encouragement of oversharing -- which often means underestimating security risks. Adding doodads of varying quality to a home page can add a lot of pizazz, but can also be fraught with danger, since they can open a door for hackers. It's a threat even for the biggest Web companies, including Google, whose "gadgets" are increasingly juicy targets for hackers, two security researchers said Wednesday.

Thu, 7 Aug 08
'GTA IV' to Move In on PC's Turf
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64075.html
PC gamers will see the release of "Grand Theft Auto IV" for their platform of choice this fall. Game developer Rockstar and parent company Take-Two announced Wednesday that the popular title will hit store shelves on Nov. 18. "[That] is the perfect time to release this game -- well, next to perfect. I think perfect would have been day-and-date with the console releases. But November 18 is shortly before Thanksgiving this year, which is the busiest season for video game sales," Mark DeLoura, a video game technology consultant, told TechNewsWorld.

Thu, 7 Aug 08
New Google Appliance Stuffs 10 Million Docs Into Pizza Box
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64069.html
Google is amping up its corporate search tool by more than tripling its capacity compared to previous models. The newly launched Google Search Appliance boasts the ability to index up to 10 million documents with a single, bright yellow server. The development -- Google's fifth offering in the Search Appliance family -- is also said to deliver results as much as five times faster than its predecessor. It offers a handful of other updated features for end users at corporate clients.

Thu, 7 Aug 08
Mozilla Looks to Grass Roots for Next Wave of Browser Innovation
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64073.html
Mozilla has announced its new Mozilla Labs Concept Series and issued a call for participation from anyone interested in submitting a concept, idea or mock-up. The new initiative, Mozilla said, is intended to makes it easy for anyone interested to contribute to the development of the online experience -- no programming experience necessary. However, the software maker said it is particularly interested in connecting with thinkers from outside of the open source field.

Thu, 7 Aug 08
Tech Heavies Team on China Policy to Address Simmering Human Rights Debate
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64071.html
With the Olympic torch now in Beijing, residents there are wondering: Who will carry it those final few steps to light the cauldron in China's Olympic Stadium? Meanwhile, Yahoo, Google and Microsoft face their own burning question regarding China: Can an agreement on a code of conduct for business dealings with the country's Communist government dial down the heat the companies are feeling from Congress and human rights groups? Sen. Dick Durbin released a statement Tuesday commending the three companies for accepting basic human rights principles for doing business in China.

Thu, 7 Aug 08
Feds Throw Book at 11 Customer Data Theft Suspects
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64072.html
The Department of Justice has charged 11 people with the theft of millions of account numbers from a long list of U.S. big box retailers including TJ Maxx, OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble, Boston Market, BJ's Wholesale Club, Forever 21, DSW, Dave & Buster's and Sports Authority. Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez was the ringleader, according to the indictments, which were unsealed in San Diego and Boston. He is being held in New York on charges of computer fraud, wire fraud, access-device fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy.

Thu, 7 Aug 08
To Your Health: The Serious Side of Social Networking
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64065.html
A Type 2 diabetic for more than 14 years, Sherman, N.Y.-resident John Morris thought he had everything he needed to manage and treat his disease. He was wrong. It wasn't until he became a member of the recently launched social networking Web site Diabetic Connect that he realized how essential the support of like-minded people was in dealing with diabetes. "The support on the site is fantastic -- it is hard to describe how much love and support and concern there is among the members," Morris told TechNewsWorld.

Thu, 7 Aug 08
Warning: The App Store Is Dangerous
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64061.html
Recently, Apple's App Store -- the iTunes area designed to showcase and sell independent, third-party programs for the iPhone and the iPod touch -- hit an inventory of 1,001 applications. The store launched with a little more than half that number, and in the first weekend it served up 10 million downloads. Some reporters have likened the App Store to a candy shop, but I think it's more addictive than that. Every time I swing through to check it out, I find myself struggling to exercise self-restraint, lest I burn through a hundred bucks without even thinking about it.

Thu, 7 Aug 08
The Online Social 'Shop Till You Drop' Party
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64059.html
It's no fun shopping alone. That's the theory behind social shopping, a trend that combines social networking with e-commerce. It's a trend that's coming into its own as increasing numbers of online shoppers turn to the sites for fun, companionship, and camaraderie with other shoppers. "Shopping is a very social, interactive experience," Manish Chandra, the CEO and cofounder of social shopping site Kaboodle, told the E-Commerce Times. "Shopping is not just a transactional experience."

Thu, 7 Aug 08
Prize Power: How Competition Inspires Tech Innovation
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64056.html
Bob Weiss knows a thing or two about dreams. "I grew up with the promise that if one wanted to go to space, they would get the chance," said Weiss, president of the X Prize Foundation. The trouble was that nobody kept the promise. "It became obvious that the only people that were going to space were government-trained employees called 'astronauts.' Other folks were not getting to go," Weiss said. Four years ago, the childhood vision started popping up again for Weiss. He knew there had to be a way to make it real. Finally, he found it.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
Microsoft to Give White Hats a Head Start on Patch Tuesdays
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64058.html
Microsoft will begin sharing technical details with security partners about vulnerabilities addressed in its monthly security updates, known as "Patch Tuesdays," the company announced Tuesday. The move, according to the company, was prompted by a growing but undesirable trend associated with Patch Tuesdays that has malicious code writers releasing exploits related to the updates sometimes within hours of the release. Releasing patches always indicates to hackers the location of vulnerable code.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
IBM's Homeward Bound Linux PC Push
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64063.html
IBM fired the opening salvo at this year's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, and to the surprise of no one, it was aimed squarely at Microsoft. Sure, it was the low-hanging fruit -- Microsoft's an easy target. It's kind of like taking pot shots at John McCain at an Obama fund-raiser. But here, the ammunition was more notable than the target. IBM's initiative hits at Microsoft -- and proprietary software in general -- on five fronts, from supercomputers to middleware to the average personal computer.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
AT&T Joins the Cloud Crowd
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64060.html
AT&T announced its new cloud computing service on Tuesday, dubbed "AT&T Synaptic Hosting." With the new offering, the telecommunications company joins Amazon, Google and IBM as a service provider in the nascent application hosting market. The service is aimed at providing companies with greater flexibility, improved performance and cost savings by eliminating the need to maintain their own data centers, according to AT&T. It is part of the company's $1 billion planned global network investment for 2008.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
Cablevision Ruling Propels On-Demand TV Juggernaut
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64062.html
U.S. television programming is moving toward on-demand status, judging from a federal appeals court ruling Monday in favor of Cablevision's proposed network-centric digital video recorder. Concluding a two-year legal battle, U.S. Circuit Court Judge John M. Walker Jr. found that Cablevision's plans to store recorded programs on a central server instead of a set-top box's hard drive do not violate copyright protections for media companies.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
PC Upkeep for Average Joes
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64046.html
Firing up a brand-new PC is a magic moment that can never be recaptured. The flawless performance, the lightning-fast speeds, the uncluttered desktop -- they're a thing of beauty. In time, though, just about all PC users will have to cope with their share of problems, from sluggish download speeds to out-and-out system failures. For anyone with the time and the inclination to do their homework, there are a number of ways to keep panicked calls to a high-priced technician to a minimum. Here are some of the more common PC problems that might come your way.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
Brackish Soil Sample Suggests Martian Dirt Is Toxic
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64055.html
A new discovery made on Mars throws a curve ball at the question of whether life ever existed on the Red Planet. NASA's Phoenix Lander has uncovered a harshly reactive salt called "perchlorate" in soil samples taken from the ground. The finding stands in stark contrast to the original belief that Mars's soil was in many ways similar to Earth's and could support a variety of life. NASA's principal investigator for Phoenix calls the find "surprising" but emphasizes that the analysis is not yet complete.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
HP Expands App Bodyguard Service
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64040.html
HP announced Monday a new round of open source utilities for data center operators. The expanded portfolio increases support for HP Serviceguard for Linux, HP's clustering and disaster tolerance products, to include Novell Suse and Red Hat Xen virtual machines. HP also introduced its HP Strategy Workshop and Migration Assessment Services. These offerings help to deploy and support OpenLDAP, an open source directory. "We are trying to make Linux more suitable and productive for the enterprise market," Doug Small, worldwide director of open source and Linux marketing for HP, told LinuxInsider.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
Foraging in the iPhone App Store
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64038.html
The outstanding new feature on Apple's iPhone -- both the new 3G and original versions -- is that it allows users to download and install applications. I've tested out only a small fraction of the 900 now available. But here are some games, music and other programs that have caught my eye so far. As might be expected, most games for the iPhone are fairly simple. But with more than 200 games -- and nearly 100 more "entertainment" applications, you're likely to find something fun to play.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
The EPOC Game Controller: It's All in Your Head
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64052.html
Luke Skywalker, eat your heart out. Emotiv's elegant, lightweight EPOC headset is a piece of cutting-edge technology that grants Yoda-like telepathic powers, allowing players of computer games to move items on screen with merely their thoughts. Due for release by year's end, the $299 device will come bundled with an adventure game in which players complete tasks for an Asian sensei. "We're hoping to help evolve the way humans interact with machines," says Tan Le, CEO of Emotiv, an Australian company with researchers in Sydney and an engineering lab here in San Francisco.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
Delta to Take WiFi Sky-High
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64051.html
Delta Air Lines said Tuesday it will offer broadband wireless Internet access on its entire domestic mainline fleet by the middle of next year. The Atlanta-based company said WiFi service will be offered for a fee to customers traveling throughout the continental U.S. The nation's No. 3 carrier is partnering with Aircell, an airborne communications provider, to install the network on Delta's domestic fleet of more than 330 aircraft. The system will allow Delta customers traveling with WiFi enabled devices -- such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs -- to access the Internet while in flight.

Wed, 6 Aug 08
Making Mobile Networks Cheap and Green
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64054.html
It has taken 21 years to get mobile phones into the hands of 3 billion people around the world. Reaching the next 1.5 billion, who live in the world's poorest and most remote corners, is expected to take a lot less time but will pose much tougher challenges. There is, for instance, the thorny question of how to justify the expense of installing transmission towers in areas where people can only afford to pay as little as $2 per month for phone service -- not to mention the cost of running and servicing equipment where electricity and engineers are in short supply.

Tue, 5 Aug 08
Intel's Larrabee Line: Many Cores in Store
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64045.html
Intel on Monday released technical details about its upcoming line of microprocessors, codenamed "Larrabee" in advance of the company's presentation at the SIGGRAPH conference, to be held in Los Angeles next week. The family of chips will be the springboard for a many-core -- as few as eight and up to 48 initially -- x86 chip architecture. Intel expects the processors to hit the market in 2009 or 2010. Larrabee will launch an industry-wide effort to design and optimize software for future computers, according to the chipmaker.

Tue, 5 Aug 08
Prime for the Unpredictable With Network Management Tools
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64031.html
When it comes to the preferred avenue for information access, the Internet continues to be the medium of choice. From news to commerce to entertainment, our always-on culture is constantly finding new ways to satisfy its digital fix, placing unknown and sometimes intensive demands on enterprise networks. Although you may be blind to the next performance-impacting service capitalizing on the pervasive connectivity of the Internet, there are top-down and bottom-up approaches to ensure "the next big digital thing" doesn't cripple your business' productivity along with your network.

Tue, 5 Aug 08
Firefox Wraps Tail Around Ogg Video Format
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64039.html
Mozilla is making a move toward open Web standards with its upcoming Firefox 3.1 release. The software -- now available in test builds -- will support the Ogg Theora video codec, the company revealed at its summit in British Columbia last week. The inclusion of the Ogg Theora codec means users will no longer have to download plug-ins or use JavaScript to play Theora video content. The platform, though, is far from ubiquitous: While it is used on sites such as Wikimedia Commons, other sites utilizing more popular video solutions such as Adobe's Flash still require proprietary software.

Tue, 5 Aug 08
The Steve Jobs Leak: Another Stroke of Brilliance?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64024.html
It's been an interesting week. As if to prove the point of last week's column, Steve Jobs used his impressive skills to trick a New York Times reporter he didn't like into giving him a clean bill of health. This was brilliantly done, and there are some real lessons here that dovetail with last week's piece. The Wall Street Journal got wind of a secret project at Dell to possibly take the music lead away from Apple, but not necessarily the device lead, making it kind of interesting. Finally, Microsoft made public its secret Mojave experiment.

Tue, 5 Aug 08
New Virtualization Tool Plows Field for Big Server Farms
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64037.html
Enterprise virtualization provider 3Leaf Systems announced Monday the release of its V-8000 Virtual I/O Server version 2.0. This software release, part of the 3Leaf Virtual Compute Environment, is designed for disaster recovery, streamlined management and enhanced availability for large x86 server deployments. The V-8000 version 2.0 software is the first I/O virtualization solution to run on standard, off-the-shelf commodity and commercial x86 servers.

Tue, 5 Aug 08
FCC Gives Comcast a Good Scolding
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64032.html
By a vote of 3-2, the Federal Communications Commission has sharply rebuked Comcast for its network management practices. It found not only that Comcast's practices were invasive, but also that the company was likely motivated by anticompetitive issues. "The Commission found that Comcast monitors its customers' connections using deep packet inspection and then determines how it will route some connections based not on their destinations but on their contents," said the FCC in a statement.

Tue, 5 Aug 08
Better Than Beach Reading: A Linux Starter Kit
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64029.html
Ah, August. It's the beginning of the end of summer, and the time when we must all start shaking the sand out of our ears once more. The real world wants us back! This week, we here at LinuxInsider felt it our duty to help those who are fed up with Redmond to find their way to Linux. This is August -- a month of transition and new beginnings, after all -- so what better time for geeks who have been lost on the dark side to come over to the Light that is Linux? Read on, then, for a starter kit, of sorts, that will show the way to Linuxy salvation ...

Tue, 5 Aug 08
Beyond 3G, Part 2: What the iPhone Still Needs
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64028.html
Early reports indicate that the new iPhone 3G is selling faster than the first iPhone, and with all the extra hype, it's easy to think the iPhone 3G is the most complete device ever created. While customer satisfaction seems to remain high, there's definitely room in Apple's new cell phone for improvement. And if there's one thing the company's aficionados love to do, it's to imagine the next generation of their current product. Now that the iPhone plays well with 3G data networks around the world, what's next for Apple's iconic iPhone?

Tue, 5 Aug 08
The Billion-Dollar Domain Babies
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64042.html
The latest ICANN plan to allow the global populace to assemble an entire domain name like www.yourname.yourname as their free choice is a revolutionary and timely decision. This now opens doors to cyber-brands like "my.ibm," "hotel.chicago," "it.jobs," "play.poker," "fly.usa" or "go.dell." Applicants will submit a non-refundable fee of $100,000 to $500,000 for each name idea, and businesses are already jumping to get started. A new study estimates that this new registration process would create $33 billion in fees in the first three years.

Mon, 4 Aug 08
Television's Future Could Be 'Horrible'
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64023.html
Granted, most of the recent TV buzz has been about, rightly, "Mad Men": Who wouldn't want to spend summer Sunday nights delving into the deeply misogynistic psychosexual underbelly of a Kennedy-era advertising agency? But in the big picture, the more interesting effort of the season is an Internet-only offering. "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon, is not only hugely entertaining, but it's another big nudge toward that future where users won't worry whether it's called "Internet" or "TV."

Mon, 4 Aug 08
A Tech Lover Owns Up, Signs Off
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64036.html
After writing close to a thousand of these weekly essays, I won't bury the lead on this one: It's my last column for The Sun. There. It was hard to say that out loud, and I spent two nights on a half-dozen elegant openings before I decided to get right to the point. Now I can talk about how much fun it's been, and how much I'll miss all of you. But first, I'll let you in on a secret: I've been faking it all these years. I am not a computer expert, or a nerd, or a techie by training or aptitude.

Mon, 4 Aug 08
Global Expansion With a Twist of Local Flavor
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/63971.html
AOL splashes images of Bollywood celebrities on its new home page for India. MySpace accepts sign-ups from mobile phones in Japan. Google departs from its customarily spartan home page and peppers its Korean site with colorful, animated icons. As major U.S. Internet companies stake their ground abroad in anticipation of the next billion people coming online -- and the advertising revenue they might generate -- the flags they are planting aren't the Stars and Stripes.

Sun, 3 Aug 08
The Web's Perspective Diversity Paradox
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64030.html
For all the potential of the Internet, there are times when I consider it a cesspool of misinformation, ignorant opinion and faked imagery. I also find it confusing and untrustworthy. Then someone reminds me how valuable it is to have checks and balances, not only on the government but also on the media. They remind me how glorious it is to enjoy another worldview and to examine what we think through others' eyes. A group of college students from the Middle East and North Africa visited the editorial board this week.

Sun, 3 Aug 08
Tech Spying Tools: Feeding the Cancer Within
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64026.html
I was once in the middle of an anchor dispute. Consultant-led mediation helped, but the best advice came from an older, wiser anchor who told me to keep smiling, be patient and wait for my coanchor to implode. Of course, all this was before the rise of computer hacking, spyware and keylogging devices. Who knows what kind of damage we could have done to each other -- and our station -- had we had access to a relatively cheap gadget that makes it easy to snoop through private e-mails? That's what Larry Mendte is alleged to have done to his coanchor in Philadelphia.

Sun, 3 Aug 08
Rivals Go Mano-a-Mano Against the iPod Nano
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64019.html
It's easy to understand the appeal of Apple's iPod nano music and video player: It's slim and simple to use, and it has a crisp 2-inch LCD screen. Its brand name is considered synonymous with hip tech gear. But what if you want a player that looks different from those wielded by the nano army, costs less, includes features like an FM radio or voice recorder, and lets you drag and drop songs from your computer desktop instead of going through Apple's iTunes software?

Sat, 2 Aug 08
Doctors Sound Alarm Over Reckless Texting
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64025.html
For people who may not be clear about the dangers of texting while walking, exercising or driving, the American College of Emergency Physicians issued a warning this week advising avid texters to resist the urge to read or send messages when engaged in another activity. Emergency room physicians are seeing an increasing number of injuries -- both minor and serious -- that patients attributed to texting while they did something else, according to the ACEP. The dangerous trend has even led to several fatalities.

Sat, 2 Aug 08
IBM Unveils Hogwarts-Inspired Personal Memory Vault
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64020.html
Forget about forgetfulness: IBM scientists have come up with a high-tech way to help you remember every name, face and phone number you encounter. The technology -- named "Pensieve," in a nod to the magical memory machine from the "Harry Potter" series -- uses data from your mobile devices to build and store connections from your day-to-day experiences. Pensieve, its creators claim, can actually recognize not just information but also the context in which it occurred -- conceptually mimicking the human mind's association-based memory system.

Sat, 2 Aug 08
iPhone Web Tethering Tool Gets Short Shelf Life at App Store
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64021.html
An iPhone application that would let the iPhone act as a computer modem was shot down by Apple shortly after its launch. It was only available for a few minutes on the Apple App Store before it disappeared, but it was there was long enough to be noticed. The application, NetShare by Nullriver Software, went on sale on iTunes Thursday night for $9.99. Traces of the application lingered after it was taken down, and users searching frantically for it saw this cryptic message: "The item you tried to buy is no longer available."

Sat, 2 Aug 08
Cuil Techies Scramble to Recover From Too Much Love
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64017.html
Cuil, the new search engine created by a team that included a couple of former Google execs, launched this week. However, just a few hours after it went live, it seemed as though Cuil's dive into the search engine pool was more like a belly flop, judging by a sizable number of reports and reviews. Cuil says it's capable of providing more relevant results due to technology that examines the contents of a Web page rather than its popularity, and it boasted a page index of 120 billion.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Expanding Consumers' Digital Closet Space
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64006.html
Consumers have embraced digital media, primarily content such as music, photos and video. They generate their own content, transfer their analog data to digital formats, and download media from the Internet. The percentage of U.S. households with platforms for image and video capture, as well as music playback, has grown significantly in the past three years. At the same time, the number of "media hubs" -- consumer electronics devices that connect to premium content services and can receive and/or store it -- has grown tremendously.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Medical Wikis: The Doctor Is Online
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64015.html
So you're looking for medical advice. Would you: a) call your doctor, b) consult a medical journal or c) go to a wiki? Perhaps surprisingly, many people are beginning to go the wiki route. At least, they're starting with wikis, and maybe after that they're calling their doctors, reading journals, or otherwise getting second and third opinions. And for those who aren't queasy about turning to medical wikis, there are plenty out there from which to choose. If you're interested in finding out more about the flu, for instance, a good place to turn is Flu Wiki.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Mac Bloggers Chatter Over Chipsets, Bemoan MobileMe, Jerk Geniuses' Chains
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64014.html
Two major stories have been unfolding throughout the Apple blogosphere this week -- the service outages surrounding the launch of Apple's .Mac replacement, MobileMe, and the rumor that Apple could be ready to cut up Intel's chipsets in favor of something else entirely when it releases its next generation of MacBooks. Plus, not everyone is happy with the iPhone's proprietary nature. E-mail was up in the air for weeks for 20,000 of Apple's .Mac-to-MobileMe subscribers.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Freedom of Speech Advocates Torch China, IOC Over Web Censorship
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64013.html
If the Chinese government isn't careful, its forthcoming Beijing Olympics could rival the 1936 and 1968 Summer Games for infamy and a message that ultimately backfires on the host country. That warning comes from human rights groups and Internet free speech advocacy organizations following news this week that Beijing would restrict Internet use for international journalists covering the games, despite what the media was previously told by the International Olympic Committee.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Netflix Digs Another Trench for Movie Streaming With New LG Player
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64009.html
Movie fans will soon have yet another way to get online content through their televisions. Netflix has signed a deal to offer video streaming through a new LG Blu-ray DVD player. The device marks Netflix' third online-to-TV partnership and will be the industry's first Blu-ray system to offer instant streaming. The set-top box -- named the "LG BD300 Network Blu-ray disc player" -- is set to go on sale this fall for less than $500, the company said. Unlimited streaming will be offered at no additional cost to anyone with a regular Netflix membership.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Will the Next MacBook Touchpad Look Like an iPhone?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64012.html
On the heels of Apple's third quarter financial report, in which Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer hinted at new products that would put pressure on Apple's relatively high margins, the Apple rumor mill is running rampant with speculation. Further teasing along the guessing game, Apple CEO Steve Jobs opaquely noted, "We're busy finishing several more wonderful new products to launch in the coming months." So what are these products? Most certainly we're looking at some sort of new innovation, perhaps combined with a price decrease.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Quick Change Artists Resurrect Facebook's 'Scrabulous' as 'Wordscraper'
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64011.html
Hope springs anew for the more than 500,000 "Scrabulous" fans mourning the demise of their beloved Facebook game. Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla have launched a "new" word game, "Wordscraper." The new game, which bears a striking resemblance to its banned predecessor, made its Facebook debut as early as Tuesday -- the same day "Scrabulous" was removed in the wake of a legal tussle with the makers of Scrabble. Thus far, however, only 3,569 users, a fraction of the half million daily players "Scrabulous" once drew, are playing the game.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Network and App Management: Going Wide vs. Drilling Down
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/63990.html
End-user organizations are looking to leverage enterprise applications to achieve competitive advantages and operational efficiencies, and to improve information flow in their value chains. In order to maximize the return on investment from these deployments, organizations are optimizing their networks and ensuring a high level of performance. Two recent benchmark reports show that organizations are deploying various tools for prioritization of network traffic and traffic compression.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
NFL Finally Gets Into the Digital Game
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64005.html
For the last few years, it's been easier to sack New England quarterback Tom Brady than to get the National Football League thinking about a more progressive Internet strategy. "They've been very dictatorial about the amount of [video highlight] content you can put on your Web site," Gartner Digital Media Analyst Allen Weiner told the E-Commerce Times. Other sports leagues have run laps around the NFL with their digital offerings. Then again, the New York Giants found a way to introduce Brady to the turf during the Super Bowl.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
With New Alfresco App, Enterprise Content Management Takes the OSS Road
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64007.html
Alfresco Software announced Thursday the availability of Alfresco Labs version 3, an open source alternative to Microsoft's enterprise content management software SharePoint. Formerly called "Alfresco Community," Alfresco Labs 3 offers users the first open source fully compatible SharePoint repository. With Alfresco Labs 3, companies can leverage existing investments in Linux, Java as well as .NET to significantly reduce their SharePoint total cost of ownership and maximize their hardware and software investments, according to Alfresco.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Green-Tech Movement Spawns Eco-Friendly Hard Drive
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/64008.html
Storage vendor Fabrik has introduced an external hard drive with a manufacturing process focused on reducing its impact on the environment. Fabrik claims its SimpleTech [re]drive is the world's most eco-friendly hard drive. "We spent a lot of time making sure this is an authentic and genuine green product," VP of Marketing Matt McRae told TechNewsWorld. For starters, the SimpleTech [re]drive's enclosure is made out of bamboo and 100 percent recyclable aluminum.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
10 Reasons to Elbow Into New Web Directories
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/63959.html
New directories are a valuable tool for Web sites that need that extra boost in search engine ranking or in their number of visitors. They make for a great way to increase Web exposure and expand your Web site's advertising. Since many of the top Web directories are quite expensive and take time to be edited, I have made a list of the benefits that can be acquired through new directories. Listed below are some of the many of the benefits that can be achieved by using new, unestablished Web directories.

Fri, 1 Aug 08
Tarot Cards, Palm Reading and Apple Patents
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/63994.html
Apple's success in products like the iPhone and iPod has industry analysts and competitors, as well as faithful followers, speculating on what's to come in future product introductions. It also has them wondering and guessing about where the company is headed from a broader perspective. Public patent filings are one source of information that happens to gather a lot of attention in this regard. Their value as indicators of imminent product introductions is often dubious.