Review: Leopard roars ... Senate passes 7-year Net tax ban ... The Web's trippiest optical illusions

In this issue:
- Review: Leopard is an upgrade that roars
- Senate passes seven-year Internet tax moratorium
- BEA: We'll let Oracle deadline expire
- Acer eclipses Lenovo, takes aim at Dell
- Technology's 10 most mortifying moments
- Oracle calls BEA's price 'impossibly high'
- Apple's Leopard pounces on Tokyo
- Nissan adds a robot helper to its concept car (video)
- Gadget giveaway ends soon. Enter now!


IN THE NEWS

Senate passes seven-year Internet tax moratorium
The U.S. Senate has passed legislation that would extend a moratorium on Internet access taxes for seven years, giving supporters hope that an extension will be signed into law before the current moratorium expires Nov. 1

BEA: We'll let Oracle deadline expire
BEA Systems on Friday reiterated that it would not accept Oracle Corp.'s $17 per share acquisition bid, and also said it would allow a deadline Oracle had set for Sunday 5 p.m. PDT to expire.

Acer eclipses Lenovo, takes aim at Dell
Acer has passed Lenovo Group as the world's third largest PC vendor with its purchase of Gateway, and now it's gunning for U.S. giant Dell.

Enterprises tune into travel-tracking Web app
The Web 2.0-social networking phenomenon's seemingly irresistible force field has ensnared yet another niche: travel.

Apple's Leopard pounces on Tokyo
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service, Tokyo Bureau
The update to Apple's Mac OS X operating system, called Leopard, went on sale at the Apple Store in Tokyo on Friday evening, part of a global launch that will unfold around the world over the next 24 hours.

Oracle calls BEA's price 'impossibly high'
Oracle has rejected BEA Systems' proposed purchase price of US$21 per share, calling it "impossibly high" for Oracle or any other company to pay.

Sky's CRM plans were too vague to blame us, says EDS
Lawyers representing EDS said in court this week that a £48 million ($90 million) customer relationship management project for BSkyB was too poorly defined for the IT provider to have committed fraud when pitching for the contract.


REVIEW

Leopard is an upgrade that roars
Jason Snell, Macworld.com

As with every OS X update since version 10.1, there's no single feature in Leopard that will force Mac users to upgrade immediately. Instead, it's the sheer deluge of new features that's likely to persuade most active Mac users to upgrade, especially since this is the longest gap between OS X upgrades -- two and a half years -- since the product was introduced. Sure, some items on Apple's list of 300 features might seem inconsequential, but if even a handful of them hit you where you live, that will be more than enough motivation for you to upgrade.


FUTURE TECH

Nissan adds a robot helper to its concept car
With data showing that happy drivers are less accident-prone, Nissan has mounted a robot passenger in the dashboard of its Pivo2 concept car whose job is to keep the driver happy, give spot-on directions, and even check your e-mail.

Watch the video


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
BEA, Oracle haggle over acqusition price ... NEC pushes supercomputer speed limits ... Nissan testing robot for cars

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GADGET GIVEAWAY

Our gadget giveaway ends soon. Don't wait. Enter now!

What's the giveway? A Swiss Army knife that includes a USB flash
drive, LED light, and ballpoint pen -- in other words, the ultimate geek gadget.

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ITWHIRLED

She's a 10

- Technology's 10 most mortifying moments
- The trippiest optical illusions on the Web
- 10 videos to change how you view the world
- Top ten rules for a top ten list

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POLL

Techies who sit all day: What's your solution to back pain?

- Massage
- Chiropractors
- Yoga
- Ibuprofin
- Sitting up straight like my mother taught me, darn it

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WHAT YOU SAID

What's your favorite smell?

Cookies - 25.0%
Coffee - 22.7%
Flowers - 18.2%
Bacon - 18.2%
Cologne/perfume - 5.7%
Money - 10.2%

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