Bribery investigation sets back Nokia-Siemens deal ... Microsoft shuts out Vista pirates

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Bribery investigation sets back Nokia-Siemens deal
News: Google updates Apps for Domain suite
News: Boeing privacy breach puts U.S. total over 100 million
News: Microsoft updates Vista in latest piracy crackdown
Opinion: AJAX and the hidden cost of ease of use
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
Geek Comic of the Week: Kawaii Not


NEWS UPDATES

Bribery investigation sets back Nokia-Siemens deal
The planned merger of network infrastructure units at Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG won't close by the end of this year as expected because the companies will execute a compliance review of Siemens, spurred by the corruption investigation currently shaking the German technology company.

Google updates Apps for Domain suite
Google is extending its Google Apps for Your Domain hosted-applications suite with a service that walks companies through the selection and registration of a domain name. As part of the service, which costs $10 per year, Google will also link the components of the browser-based suite with the chosen domain.

Boeing privacy breach puts U.S. total over 100 million
A stolen laptop at The Boeing Co. has pushed a widely watched tally of U.S. data breach victims past the 100 million mark. On Tuesday, Boeing disclosed that files containing Social Security numbers, names and home addresses of 382,000 current and former employees were compromised in early December when an unencrypted laptop was stolen from an employee's car.

Microsoft updates Vista in latest piracy crackdown
Microsoft Corp. Thursday released an update to Windows Vista that will shut down unauthorized versions of the OS that allow users to skip the product's activation system.

YouTube yet to answer Japan concerns as deadline looms
The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) has yet to receive a response from YouTube to complaints raised earlier this month regarding copyright infringement on the popular online video site. In the letter they asked for a reply no later than Dec. 15.

Yahoo to buy Taiwan blog site Wretch
Yahoo Taiwan Inc. agreed to buy popular blog site Wretch.cc in a deal the companies expect to push them into the Web 2.0 era in Taiwan.

Wall Street Beat: IT heavyweights look ahead
Heading toward the end of a better-than-expected year for IT, the good news this week was that there were no big surprises when Hewlett-Packard Co., Cisco Systems Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. laid out strategies at investor and analyst conferences.

IE7's phishing filter gets speed boost
Microsoft Corp. has released a patch for Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that will boost the brand-new browser's performance on some Web sites.


OPINION

AJAX and the hidden cost of ease of use
By Sean McGrath

The IT industry - always a seething den of buzzword bingo - appears to
be in complete overdrive at the moment. Based on a back-of-an-envelope
calculation, I believe I have had to internalize an average of 1.5 new
buzzwords every working day this week.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft shuts out Vista pirates ... Skype to start charging for calls in the US ... Grameen outsources development of open-source software


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week: Kawaii Not
Kawaii Not bills itself as "the webcomic for cute gone bad," and that's a pretty accurate assessment. The comic is done in the style of the adorable Sanrio characters from Japan, but with a slightly twisted twist, whether it's mistletoe berries that announce their voyeuristic glee or an adorable hammer that declares that it's "coming for your toes."