Amazon.com spills beans on Office 2007 ship date ... Sony launches official PlayStation 3 site in Japan...Nokia muscles up N80 series Internet features

Today's IT news audio update
The contract manufacturer of the iPod has filed lawsuits against two Chinese journalists... , A French investor-advisory firm has urged Alcatel’s shareholders to reject its merger with Lucent...


HIGHLIGHTS

News: Nokia muscles up N80 series Internet features
News: EU/US discord could ground passengers, air chief says
News: Biggest contract electronics maker posts strong Q2
News: Sony launches official PlayStation 3 site in Japan
News: IPod maker cuts damage claim to 1 renminbi
News: Micron Technology unveils 16G-byte memory chip
News: Intel to launch vPro desktop bundle Sept. 7
News: Web browser focuses on not leaving user footprints
News: Novell initiates internal stock option investigation
News: Amazon.com spills beans on Office 2007 ship date
ITwhirled: The war on CAPS LOCK
Opinion: If 80 gigs is enough, then...
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update


NEWS UPDATES

Nokia muscles up N80 series Internet features
Nokia Corp. will release a new version of its N80 multimedia phone next month with beefed-up Internet capabilities.

EU/US discord could ground passengers, air chief says
A failure by the U.S. and European Union to reach a new agreement next month on the provision of passenger data for transatlantic flights could ground up to 105,000 people each week, the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) director general said Thursday.

Biggest contract electronics maker posts strong Q2
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, continued to increase its lead over rivals in the second quarter, posting a 30 percent rise in sales

Sony launches official PlayStation 3 site in Japan
Three weeks ahead of the first public unveiling of its PlayStation 3 console, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has launched an official Web site for the new console.

IPod maker cuts damage claim to 1 renminbi
The iPod manufacturer at the heart of a furor over the treatment of workers in China has reduced the damages it is seeking from a pair of journalists accused of defaming the company.

Micron Technology unveils 16G-byte memory chip
Micron Technology Inc. is offering a new 16G-byte DRAM memory chip it's billing as the densest server-memory module on the market.

Intel to launch vPro desktop bundle Sept. 7
Intel Corp. is set to announce next week that Hewlett-Packard Co. and other vendors are ready to ship the chip company's vPro technology bundle in business desktops, according to sources.

Web browser focuses on not leaving user footprints
The latest entrant to the crowded Internet browser market is the appropriately named Browzar, a tool specifically designed to protect users' privacy by not retaining details of the Web sites they've searched.

Novell initiates internal stock option investigation
Novell Inc. has begun an internal review to investigate how the company granted stock options to employees in recent years and to assess whether, in the light of the findings, Novell will need to restate any earnings.

Amazon.com spills beans on Office 2007 ship date
Windows Vista isn't the only forthcoming Microsoft Corp. software for which Amazon.com Inc. has apparently pre-announced availability. The online retailer also is taking pre-orders for Microsoft Office 2007, and has listed that the day that product will be available is the same as Windows Vista: Jan. 30, 2007.



ITWHIRLED

The war on CAPS LOCK
Tired of your grandmother sending you e-mails in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS? One brave band of visionaries, organized on a Google Groups site, is daring to dream of the impossible: a day when the caps lock key is no longer a standard feature on computer keyboards.



OPINION

If 80 gigs is enough, then...
By Sean McGrath

I have an 80 gigabyte hard disk in my laptop and, for the first time in my career in computing, I am having difficulty filling it up with stuff that I need to do my job. Sure I can fill it with lots of audio and lots of video (given enough bandwidth and patience) but to be honest, the amount of multimedia stuff I need for my day job is limited to some podcasts and the occasional product demo video.