Open APIs may help Microsoft repair reputation

If Microsoft executes effectively on its new interoperability promises, it could repair its tarnished reputation in the technology industry and help the company get out of its own way to compete more effectively with Google. ...continue reading 'Open APIs may help Microsoft repair reputation'

Hard drive encryption has Achilles heel

If you think that encrypting your laptop's hard drive will keep your data safe from prying eyes, you may want to think again, according to researchers at Princeton University. ...continue reading 'Hard drive encryption has Achilles heel'

Europe makes moves towards Internet censorship

A debate over the use of internet filtering is heating up in Europe, with privacy advocates and carriers going head to head with authorities. ...continue reading 'Europe makes moves towards Internet censorship'

EMC buys Pi to round out cloud computing unit

Storage giant EMC continues to push into the consumer territory: Its latest move is to acquire Pi, a company whose software and services will help users keep track of their personal data. ...continue reading 'EMC buys Pi to round out cloud computing unit'

17 arrested in Canadian hacking bust

Quebec provincial police conducted raids on Wednesday, breaking up a hacking ring that police say is responsible for an estimated CDN$45 million (US$44.3 million) in damage to computer systems. ...continue reading '17 arrested in Canadian hacking bust'

White spaces group: Device testing on track

A wireless broadband device tested by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for interference with television and wireless microphone signals has not failed, as a broadcasting group claimed last week, members of the White Spaces Coalition said Thursday. ...continue reading 'White spaces group: Device testing on track'

Microsoft gives open source a big hug

In a major turnaround for Microsoft, the company Thursday promised 'greater transparency' in its development and business practices, outlining a new strategy to provide more access to APIs and previously proprietary protocols for some of its major software products, including Windows and Office. ...continue reading 'Microsoft gives open source a big hug'

Document format battle takes shape ahead of meeting

Microsoft faces a tough battle starting Monday at a meeting in Geneva that will influence how widely the company's latest document format will be used in the future. ...continue reading 'Document format battle takes shape ahead of meeting'

MacBook Air: More tests

It's been three weeks since I reviewed the MacBook Air, and in the intervening time we've gathered a whole lot more information about Apple's latest, and lightest, laptop. With a month of use under our belts and solid lab testing of three different MacBook Air configurations, it's time for a follow-up look at the MacBook Air. ...continue reading 'MacBook Air: More tests'

EU drafts guidelines for RFID technologies

The European Commission has sketched out guidelines designed to help get RFID (radio frequency identification) technologies up and running in the European Union, but stopped short of proposing formal legislation in the area. ...continue reading 'EU drafts guidelines for RFID technologies'

RIM gains despite outages

Consumers and enterprise workers are flocking to the BlackBerry despite recent embarrassing glitches that have shut down service for hours on a few occasions. ...continue reading 'RIM gains despite outages'

Welcome to the age of localized malware

Over the past two years virus writers have increasingly targeted their malicious programs to users in different regions of the globe, creating programs that are specially designed to infect users in countries like Japan, Brazil, China or Germany. ...continue reading 'Welcome to the age of localized malware'

Brain-controlled gaming system falls into 'demo hell'

Emotiv Systems threw a press conference in San Francisco this week to show the latest enhancements to its futuristic gaming system, which lets players control objects on the screen using only their thoughts. When it works it can be impressive. Unfortunately, the demo wasn't one of those times. ...continue reading 'Brain-controlled gaming system falls into 'demo hell''

Roy Fielding quits OpenSolaris project

Roy Fielding, co-founder of the Apache HTTP Server Project and a key contributor to the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), has quit Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris community, accusing Sun of retaining too much control over the open-source counterpart to its Solaris operating system. ...continue reading 'Roy Fielding quits OpenSolaris project'

Flash memory prices may plummet, analysts say

Prices of NAND flash memory could plummet this year because of weak demand and an oversupply in the market, analysts said on Wednesday. ...continue reading 'Flash memory prices may plummet, analysts say'

Despite Yahoo drama, Microsoft forges ahead with search

Microsoft is pushing ahead with plans to expand its enterprise and Internet search offerings even as its quest to purchase Yahoo remains uncertain and could get uglier. ...continue reading 'Despite Yahoo drama, Microsoft forges ahead with search'

Google will test a new online medical record service with a hospital group in Cleveland, Ohio, allowing patients to control who gets to see their health information. The two organizations hope the trial will lead to the creation of a national system for sharing electronic medical records. ...continue reading 'Google to manage health records for Cleveland Clinic'

Cisco tries to turn cities green

Saying his views had changed from just five or six years ago, Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John Chambers cozied up to officials from municipalities around the world at the Connected Urban Development Global Conference in San Francisco. ...continue reading 'Cisco tries to turn cities green'

Security issues scuttle Bain/Huawei bid for 3Com

A deal for Bain Capital Partners and China's Huawei Technologies to buy 3Com is on hold because the companies were unable to come to agreement with the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) about security concerns. ...continue reading 'Security issues scuttle Bain/Huawei bid for 3Com'

ODF standard editor calls for cooperation with OOXML

The teams developing the OpenDocument Format (ODF) and Office Open XML (OOXML) standards should work together, evolving the two in parallel, the editor of the ODF standard said Tuesday in an open letter to the standards-setting community. ...continue reading 'ODF standard editor calls for cooperation with OOXML'

BlackBerry network down again on Wednesday

BlackBerry users in North America were complaining of service problems again on Wednesday morning. ...continue reading 'BlackBerry network down again on Wednesday'

Lessig considers running for Congress

Lawrence Lessig, the cyberlaw author and advocate for free software and online civil liberties, is considering a run for the U.S. Congress, he announced on his blog Wednesday. ...continue reading 'Lessig considers running for Congress'

Microsoft reveals details of new small-business OS

Microsoft on Wednesday revealed details of the next version of its Windows OS for small businesses and formally introduced a new product line aimed at small and mid-size businesses. ...continue reading 'Microsoft reveals details of new small-business OS'

Microsoft yanks Vista SP1 update causing endless reboots

Responding to reports of endlessly rebooting PCs that flooded support newsgroups last week, Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it had pulled an update designed to prep Windows Vista for Service Pack 1. ...continue reading 'Microsoft yanks Vista SP1 update causing endless reboots'

How to retrieve misplaced email in Outlook 2007

By Mitch Tulloch, MVP

I dragged an important folder into the RSS Feeds folder, one of the default folders in Outlook 2007. No problem, I'll just drag the message from there into the folder it was intended for, right? Not so simple - when you select the RSS Feeds folder in the Folder List pane, Outlook displays a page showing various RSS feeds you can subscribe to and not the messages in the folder. Yikes, how do I retrieve my misplaced message? ...continue reading 'How to retrieve misplaced email in Outlook 2007'

Microsoft: HD DVD demise won't hurt Xbox 360

Toshiba's announcement to end production of HD DVD players and recorders will not affect the Xbox 360, even though Microsoft offers an optional stand-alone HD DVD drive for the game console, Microsoft said in a statement Tuesday. ...continue reading 'Microsoft: HD DVD demise won't hurt Xbox 360'

HP reports strong results on PC, enterprise sales

Hewlett-Packard reported solid financial results for its fiscal first quarter, driven by growth in PCs and enterprise hardware. The results prompted HP to raise its forecast for the year ahead. ...continue reading 'HP reports strong results on PC, enterprise sales'

Yahoo protects employees in case of Microsoft takeover

Yahoo has introduced two new severance plans that will protect its employees if Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid is successful, it said in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday. ...continue reading 'Yahoo protects employees in case of Microsoft takeover'

Microsoft looking for ways to converge Windows Mobile, Zune

Microsoft appears to be looking for new ways to tie Windows Mobile phones and Zune media players together, although a Zune phone remains unlikely. ...continue reading 'Microsoft looking for ways to converge Windows Mobile, Zune'

DoS attack prevents access to WordPress.com blogs

The WordPress.com blog-hosting service suffered a denial-of-service (DoS) attack that began Saturday and was still preventing users from logging in or posting to their blogs on Tuesday. ...continue reading 'DoS attack prevents access to WordPress.com blogs'

Top technology companies form gaming alliance

Some of the top technology companies, including Intel, Microsoft, Dell and Advanced Micro Devices joined forces Tuesday to form the PC Gaming Alliance, which will try to promote the PC as a gaming platform. ...continue reading 'Top technology companies form gaming alliance'

Toshiba abandons HD DVD

Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD products, it said Tuesday, handing victory to rival high definition disc format Blu-ray Disc. ...continue reading 'Toshiba abandons HD DVD'

Timeline: HD DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc

The high-definition movie disc battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc can be traced all the way back to 2000, when companies began experimenting with using new blue lasers in optical disc systems. ...continue reading 'Timeline: HD DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc'

Sun ships management piece of xVM strategy

Sun is expected Tuesday to ship xVM Ops Center, a data center automation console compatible with Linux- and Solaris-based x86 and SPARC environments. ...continue reading 'Sun ships management piece of xVM strategy'

Mozilla opens e-mail subsidiary

The Mozilla Foundation Tuesday opened Mozilla Messaging, a new subsidiary focused on developing its free, open-source Thunderbird e-mail software. ...continue reading 'Mozilla opens e-mail subsidiary'

Unisys lays out services-led plan for datacenters

Unisys announced new servers and a suite of infrastructure management software Tuesday that are aimed at giving it a bigger role to play in customers' datacenters, where it will compete more directly with Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. ...continue reading 'Unisys lays out services-led plan for datacenters'

Sonic devices chase kids away

Tired of teens loitering around your store? Just buy the "mosquito" -- a gadget that emits a noise at the upper edge of human hearing, in a range audible (and annoying) to those under 20 but generally harmless to old fogeys. Then watch your next generation of customers leave the premises, never to return with their money! Unsurprisingly, the gadget has caused a bit of controversy. ...read more