Report: ActiveX, QuickTime are buggiest browser plug-ins

ActiveX controls accounted for an overwhelming majority of all browser plug-in vulnerabilities in the second half of 2007, Symantec Corp. said this week in its semi-annual Web security report. ...continue reading 'Report: ActiveX, QuickTime are buggiest browser plug-ins'

Microsoft proposes tiered privacy in online advertising

Microsoft has proposed a tiered approach to protecting the privacy of people targeted by online advertising, saying advertisers should get permission before using sensitive, personally identifiable information to deliver ads. ...continue reading 'Microsoft proposes tiered privacy in online advertising'

AMD chief technology officer resigns

Advanced Micro Devices Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Phil Hester has resigned to search for new opportunities, AMD said Friday. ...continue reading 'AMD chief technology officer resigns'

A new kind of Web -- don't miss these 11 sites

Here are 11 Web 2.0 sites or mashups or whatever you want to call them that show what the new Web can do, from helping you organize your life to adding some personalized fun to it. ...continue reading 'A new kind of Web -- don't miss these 11 sites'

Centrino 2 processor details leaked by PC maker

Details of the first few processors belonging to Intel's latest Centrino 2 mobile platform have been leaked on a PC maker's Web site, preempting Intel's official launch of the platform at the middle of this year. ...continue reading 'Centrino 2 processor details leaked by PC maker'

Seven Free Geek Tools--and a Quick Tip

You like messing around with your PC, right? The deeper you can drill into its insides, the better. And the right tools can dig into the far reaches of the Registry or uncover obscure portions of the file system, improving performance and avoiding trouble. I can tell you all about some of those tools--and they're free. ...continue reading 'Seven Free Geek Tools--and a Quick Tip'

Price pressure prompts STMicroelectronics, NXP joint venture

Chip vendors NXP and STMicroelectronics have announced a joint venture to deliver cheaper chips for phones. ...continue reading 'Price pressure prompts STMicroelectronics, NXP joint venture'

Oracle to ship critical database fixes next week

Oracle will release patches for a slew of products next week, including fixes for two nasty vulnerabilities for its database software. ...continue reading 'Oracle to ship critical database fixes next week'

U.S. presidential election can be hacked

This year, the U.S. will pick a new president using electronic voting machines that can be hacked, security experts said Thursday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. ...continue reading 'U.S. presidential election can be hacked'

Retailers fined for breaking DTV transition rules

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has handed out more than US$6.6 million in fines to 11 retailers and television manufacturers, accusing the companies of violating its rules for the U.S. transition to all-digital broadcasts in early 2009. ...continue reading 'Retailers fined for breaking DTV transition rules'

After arrest, Roberto Preatoni to stay at WabiSabiLabi

Five months after being arrested by Italian authorities on hacking and wiretapping charges, the founder of a controversial company that sells unpatched computer vulnerabilities says he'll remain on board. ...continue reading 'After arrest, Roberto Preatoni to stay at WabiSabiLabi'

Opera previews mobile browser for Google Android

Opera on Thursday added Google's Android to the list of platforms that can run its mobile browser. ...continue reading 'Opera previews mobile browser for Google Android'

Symantec to buy AppStream

Symantec plans to buy AppStream, a seller of software that is used to deliver applications to the corporate desktop on demand. ...continue reading 'Symantec to buy AppStream'

Intel sheds optical communications assets, selling to Emcore

Intel shed more of its optical business assets on Thursday, selling the enterprise and storage assets of the unit to semiconductor company Emcore. ...continue reading 'Intel sheds optical communications assets, selling to Emcore'

IBM to buy FilesX for data protection software

IBM has signed an agreement to buy FilesX, a storage software company in Haifa, Israel, and Newton, Massachusetts, it announced Thursday. Terms of the deal, which IBM said will close shortly, were not disclosed. ...continue reading 'IBM to buy FilesX for data protection software'

IPhone has hurt Palm, BlackBerry

Palm is facing deep challenges to compete with Apple's iPhone, while Research In Motion's BlackBerry also seems set to lose market share to the device, at least in the consumer market, an analyst reports. ...continue reading 'IPhone has hurt Palm, BlackBerry'

When roses won't do, e-mail a fragrance with NTT

After satisfying the senses of sight and sound through video streams and music downloads, NTT Communications aims to tap into the sense of smell with a new system that allows users to send fragrances from their cell phones. ...continue reading 'When roses won't do, e-mail a fragrance with NTT'

Yahoo, AOL may tie-up; News Corp. may make bid

Yahoo is in talks with Time Warner on a deal to combine Internet operations with AOL, while News Corp. is in talks with Microsoft to jointly bid for Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. ...continue reading 'Yahoo, AOL may tie-up; News Corp. may make bid'

Yahoo to test Google search ads

Yahoo will test displaying Google search ads in a small number of its search engine queries, a move likely to be interpreted as the latest in a series of Yahoo maneuvers to resist Microsoft's acquisition attempt. ...continue reading 'Yahoo to test Google search ads'

Fujitsu to monitor data center heat with optical fiber

Fujitsu is looking to optical fiber to help increase efficiency in the cooling of large data centers. The company has developed a prototype monitoring system that can measure the temperature in up to 10,000 points using a single optical fiber connected to a measuring device. ...continue reading 'Fujitsu to monitor data center heat with optical fiber'

Europe rejects plan to criminalize file-sharing

The European Parliament rejected attempts to criminalize the sharing of files by private individuals, and threw out the idea of banning copyright abusers from the Internet, in a plenary vote Thursday. ...continue reading 'Europe rejects plan to criminalize file-sharing'

Startup pushes virtual labs as a service

Seattle startup Skytap is set to debut virtual labs-as-a-service software that will let development teams create multiple test machines in various configurations without tying up much hardware. ...continue reading 'Startup pushes virtual labs as a service'

Symantec to buy AppStream

Symantec plans to buy AppStream, a seller of software that is used to deliver applications to the corporate desktop on demand. ...continue reading 'Symantec to buy AppStream'

Microsoft: Let's talk about trust

Microsoft can't build the next generation of trusted computer systems on its own, the company's chief research and strategy officer said Tuesday at the RSA Conference. ...continue reading 'Microsoft: Let's talk about trust'

Europe set to award contracts for Galileo system

The process of picking technology companies to build the satellites and ground stations for Europe's satellite navigation system will begin in the next two months, the European Commission said Tuesday. ...continue reading 'Europe set to award contracts for Galileo system'

HP ships ultraportable laptop with Via inside, not Intel

Hewlett-Packard unveiled its Compaq 2133 ultraportable laptop, which uses a C7-M microprocessor from Taiwan's Via Technologies instead of a chip from Intel. ...continue reading 'HP ships ultraportable laptop with Via inside, not Intel'

Microsoft releases some of promised Office documentation

Microsoft has released preliminary documentation for how several of its Office business products interact with each other, part of the company's plan to appease regulators by releasing proprietary protocols that help developers make its products more interoperable. ...continue reading 'Microsoft releases some of promised Office documentation'

AMD announces layoffs, drops revenue forecast

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday said it plans to lay off 10 percent of its work force by the third quarter of 2008 in an effort to cut costs. ...continue reading 'AMD announces layoffs, drops revenue forecast'

Europe mulls six-month limit for search engine data storage

Search engine companies may be set for a clash with European regulators over how long personal data related to searches should be retained. ...continue reading 'Europe mulls six-month limit for search engine data storage'

Google offers to host services on App Engine

Google is offering to host enterprise web applications on its own infrastructure with a new tool for developers, App Engine. ...continue reading 'Google offers to host services on App Engine'

Amazon Web Services has another outage

Amazon's cloud computing service was down on Monday morning for more than an hour, following an outage on its hosted storage service two months ago. ...continue reading 'Amazon Web Services has another outage'

Researcher: Web page can take over your router

Researcher Dan Kaminsky has spent the past year studying how design flaws in the way that browsers work with the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) can be abused in order to get attackers behind the firewall. But at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, he will demonstrate how this attack would work on widely used routers, including those made by Cisco's Linksys division and D-Link. ...continue reading 'Researcher: Web page can take over your router'

Microsoft to resume Vista 'endless reboot' update Tuesday

Microsoft Monday said it would resume automatic distribution of a Windows Vista update on Tuesday that two months ago sent some users' PCs into an endless wave of reboots. ...continue reading 'Microsoft to resume Vista 'endless reboot' update Tuesday'

Samsung committed to torch relay despite protests

Samsung Electronics says it remains committed to its sponsorship of the Olympic torch relay despite large protests in London on Sunday that dogged the progress of the torch through the city. ...continue reading 'Samsung committed to torch relay despite protests'

Orange launches TV service for PC, TV and mobiles

Mobile operator Orange will roll out a 'cinema series' service where customers will be able to watch six TV channels and video-on-demand on their TV, PC and mobile device. ...continue reading 'Orange launches TV service for PC, TV and mobiles'

New attack targets ActiveX bugs

Hackers are using a new multiple-attack package composed of seven ActiveX exploits, many of them never seen in the wild before, said a security company on Friday. ...continue reading 'New attack targets ActiveX bugs'

In-flight mobile phone use approved across Europe

The European Commision has opened the door for mobile phones on planes, introducing measures to harmonize the technical and licensing requirements for mobiles services in the sky. ...continue reading 'In-flight mobile phone use approved across Europe'

Motorola, Icahn reach agreement on board

Motorola and Carl Icahn have reached an agreement that ends the activist investor's long battle to install members on Motorola's board and break up the company. ...continue reading 'Motorola, Icahn reach agreement on board'

Application-sharing exchange takes cue from Salesforce

Following a path laid out by companies such as Salesforce.com, risk-compliance software vendor Archer Technologies is opening up the Archer Exchange, an online marketplace and community site for applications built with its development framework, SmartSuite. ...continue reading 'Application-sharing exchange takes cue from Salesforce'

Not Just an Experiment: Guy Kawasaki's Alltop.com

Dan Blacharski, ITworld.com

It's not an experiment, it's not a demonstration site, it's just a commercial web property designed to provide something useful, gain readership and make some money. Guy Kawasaki's two new Web companies, Truemors.com and Alltop.com, represent a new direction not just for Guy Kawasaki, but for the entire community of Web entrepreneurs. Guy talks about how the Web has changed, and how it's a lot cheaper today to start a Web company than it used to be. ...continue reading 'Not Just an Experiment: Guy Kawasaki's Alltop.com'

Yahoo again rebuffs Microsoft in letter

Yahoo called Microsoft's threat of a hostile takeover 'counterproductive' on Monday, while also saying it is open to a deal but only at a higher price. ...continue reading 'Yahoo again rebuffs Microsoft in letter'

Yahoo previews online ad management platform

Yahoo said Monday it will have a Web-based system in place to buy online ad space across some 600 newspapers and other online sites as soon as July. ...continue reading 'Yahoo previews online ad management platform'

Microsoft to Yahoo: Make deal or face proxy fight

Microsoft Saturday threatened Yahoo's board of directors with a proxy battle if it won't agree to a buy-out in the next three weeks. ...continue reading 'Microsoft to Yahoo: Make deal or face proxy fight'

Jury: Microsoft must pay Alcatel-Lucent $367 million

A jury in San Diego ordered Microsoft to pay Alcatel-Lucent US$367.4 million for infringing on two patents, adding a new chapter to a long-running dispute between the companies. ...continue reading 'Jury: Microsoft must pay Alcatel-Lucent $367 million'

Spectrum auction unlikely to shift carrier balance

Both Verizon Wireless and AT&T won enough spectrum licenses in the U.S. government's 700MHz auction concluded last month to roll out services a cut above what they offer today, though how fast they are for subscribers will be up to the carriers. ...continue reading 'Spectrum auction unlikely to shift carrier balance'

Companies struggle as Safari pops up on networks

Network administrators are complaining that Apple's recent decision to offer users its Safari Web browser as part of an iTunes and QuickTime update has made their lives harder, as they struggle to remove the software from PCs on their networks. ...continue reading 'Companies struggle as Safari pops up on networks'

Good aims to manage all enterprise mobile devices

Enterprises don't want to have to use two different management systems to support mobile devices in the warehouse and smartphones for executives, and so Good Technology, with sister company Symbol, plans to offer products that can support all types of mobile devices. ...continue reading 'Good aims to manage all enterprise mobile devices'

Hero computer devours school grades

Students at four Indiana schools got a report card reprieve when a computer crash erased all grading records for a month's worth of work. An IBM engineer says the data loss resulted from "an unfortunate and very rare combination of hardware problems and backup configuration settings." We dare you IT pros to run that one through your BS-o-meter. ...read more