European Parliament bucks patent agreement ... U.S. military to test IBM's translation in Iraq

HIGHLIGHTS

News: European Parliament wants changes to patent agreement
News: Siemens to keep but overhaul IT service unit
News: U.S. military to test IBM's translation in Iraq
News: Sony's new Walkman players pack noise cancelling
Opinion: Open Source Enterprise IM
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: When cell phone video messaging goes horribly awry


NEWS UPDATES

European Parliament wants changes to patent agreement
The European Parliament demanded several improvements to a proposal by the European Commission to sign up to an agreement on patent litigation in Europe, a spokesman said Thursday.

Siemens to keep but overhaul IT service unit
Although on a spree to unload unprofitable units, including its traditional telecommunications manufacturing business, Siemens AG has decided to keep -- but completely overhaul -- its money-losing IT services and software operations.

U.S. military to test IBM's translation in Iraq
The U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) will deploy IBM Corp.'s speech-to-speech translation software to help U.S. forces serving in Iraq better communicate with local security forces and Iraqi citizens.

Sony's new Walkman players pack noise cancelling
Sony Corp. is packing its new Walkman digital music players with noise cancelling and other audio enhancing technology in its latest attempt to challenge the dominance of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod.

Microsoft: Vista-ready products to ship by holidays
At the Digital Life 2006 Conference in New York today, Microsoft announced that more than 250 hardware and software products have received either the "Certified for Windows Vista" or "Works with Windows Vista" logos, and will be available in time for the holiday shopping season in November and December.

IBM pitches System i for small business SAP
IBM Corp. raised the stakes in its competition with Dell Inc. for small-business users on Thursday by launching a System i server configured for customers with 100 seats or fewer of SAP AG's business management software.

Some integration issues linger at Sun StorageTek
Sun Microsystems Inc.'s acquisition of StorageTek will be finalized Oct. 17 when the price lists of the two technology companies become one. But some observers say integration issues remain for Sun StorageTek.

Nokia completes navigation software company buy
Nokia Corp. completed its acquisition of navigation software company Gate5 AG on Thursday, just a week after licensing hundreds of navigation patents from Trimble Navigation Ltd.

Exploit code hiding in cache servers
Malicious code is living on weeks after it has been removed from websites thanks to an unexpected culprit: cache servers.


OPINION

Open Source Enterprise IM
By James Gaskin

Corporate policies notwithstanding, some users in over 90 percent of all large companies still use public Instant Message clients when they shouldn't. AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and the new GoogleTalk tempt users to ignore corporate security rules, as if they needed more encouragement. Jive Software (.com) approached this problem from an interesting angle: free Open Source software for corporate IM use.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
McAfee fires president, CEO resigns over backdating scandal ... Ericsson to test biofuel-powered mobile network in Nigeria ... ICANN refuses to shut down Spamhaus.org

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ITWHIRLED

Cell phone video messaging goes horribly awry
Kim Admire sent pictures of her daughter's new braces from her camera cell phone to a number of her friends and family members, and they all got them without incident -- except her brother, who got hardcore pornography instead. Cingular, her mobile phone service provider, called the incident "bizarre and isolated."