IT News Digest

Archive: 08-2007

• Microsoft may be setting its eyes on the BlackBerry

  The rumor mill is in full swing this week leading up into Labor Day. Hot on the heels of rumors of the impending arrival of the gPhone are unverified reports that Microsoft might be gunning for...

  Posted by Paul Mah | August 31, 2007, 10:35 PM PDT

• In South Korea, antispyware makers create better spyware

  According to Dark Reading, it appears that the Korean government has officially requested police to investigate seven makers of antivirus and antispyware programs. The charge? That they are...

  Posted by Paul Mah | August 31, 2007, 9:56 PM PDT

• IBM makes nanotechnology breakthrough

  Researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center at San Jose, California, used a process called Magnetic Anisotropy and were able to measure the magnetic orientation of a single atom. A possible...

  Posted by Arun Radhakrishnan | August 31, 2007, 2:39 PM PDT

• Hulu.com vs. YouTube: The clash of content

  The News Corp-NBC backed professional video site with $100 million in private equity and valuation of over $1 billion is finally making its debut. The invitation-only beta testing for Hulu.com...

  Posted by Arun Radhakrishnan | August 31, 2007, 12:29 PM PDT

• IT News Digest Week in Review, August 31, 2007

  The stories that are covered this week include Microsoft’s WGA validation failure, the successful unlocking of Apple’s iPhone, and how to bridge the digital divide in rural America.

  Posted by Sonja Thompson | August 31, 2007, 6:59 AM PDT

• Earthlink's municipal Wi-Fi plans may be sinking

  Earthlink has been forced to scale back its plans for municipal Wi-Fi in at least two cities, San Francisco and Houston. After forging a deal with Philadelphia in which the city became...

  Posted by Andy Moon | August 31, 2007, 6:11 AM PDT

• Yahoo! to 'Kickstart' job oriented social network

  Yahoo! appears to be focusing on a social networking approach to link prospective candidates to employers. In an online venture titled Kickstart, users get to maintain online profiles (more like...

  Posted by Arun Radhakrishnan | August 31, 2007, 3:03 AM PDT

• Human error the cause of WGA meltdown

  The facts are in. The weekend snafus involving WGA that resulted in validation and activation problems for some 12,000 Windows Vista systems was caused by human error. According to Microsoft, the...

  Posted by Paul Mah | August 30, 2007, 11:59 PM PDT

• Nokia brands itself as an Internet company with Ovi brand Internet services

  Nokia, the Finnish mobile giant, has made significant announcements that are directly targeted at Apple’s iPhone and music service iTunes. Under the “Ovi” brand, a range of...

  Posted by Arun Radhakrishnan | August 30, 2007, 8:36 AM PDT

• Electronic gadgets induce junk sleep

  A recent survey by The Sleep Council concludes that “British teenagers are damaging their health by not getting enough sleep, because they are distracted by electronic gadgets in their...

  Posted by Sonja Thompson | August 30, 2007, 8:00 AM PDT

• Microsoft officially confirms Vista SP1 -- finally

  Finally, after months of silence, Microsoft has finally came up with details about its plans for the first update to Windows Vista. According to Microsoft, the service pack will arrive in the...

  Posted by Paul Mah | August 29, 2007, 11:54 PM PDT

• Microsoft developing new double-sided handheld

  The folks at InformationWeek have a report about Microsoft researchers developing a new mobile platform called LucidTouch; if that is true, it would be revolutionary. According to the report:...

  Posted by Paul Mah | August 29, 2007, 11:34 PM PDT

• War of the phones

  Well, the topic spells it out. There’s a war going on out there. It’s a war for the de-facto mobile communication start-point to end-point for all users. First, we had the momentous...

  Posted by Arun Radhakrishnan | August 29, 2007, 11:58 AM PDT

• Would you sell your soul for an unlocked iPhone?

  Now that the unlocked iPhone is hot in the news, what would you give to get your hands on one? Well, CertiCell founder Terry Daidone upped the ante when he gave George Hotz three locked 8 GB...

  Posted by Sonja Thompson | August 29, 2007, 10:50 AM PDT

• Targeting 'bad' apps on Facebook platform

  Wired reports that the Facebook team is taking steps to ensure that the F8 platform is secured from being a source of spam. A quote from the blog of Dave Morin at Facebook developer site:...

  Posted by Arun Radhakrishnan | August 29, 2007, 3:55 AM PDT

• Video on iPhone unlocking released amid fear of legal reprecussions

  Hot on the heels of our report on iPhoneSimFree.com’s software unlocking of the iPhone — and witnessed by an editor of Engadget — comes the news of another successful software...

  Posted by Paul Mah | August 28, 2007, 11:59 PM PDT

• Symantec launches NIS and NAV 2008

  In case you missed it, Symantec Corporation has just announced today the launch of Norton Internet Security 2008 as well as the Norton AntiVirus. Says Janice Chaffin, Group President, Consumer...

  Posted by Paul Mah | August 28, 2007, 11:59 PM PDT

• Digital divide separates urban and rural Americans

  For many years, the term digital divide has been used to describe the gulf between high- and low-income Americans’ ability and willingness to subscribe to high-speed broadband services like...

  Posted by Andy Moon | August 28, 2007, 9:34 AM PDT

• Microsoft's WGA locks out valid users

  If you’re a Mac loyalist, here’s some juicy news for you: A recent server problem at Microsoft ticked off some legitimate users of Windows Vista and Windows XP. Check out the news...

  Posted by Sonja Thompson | August 28, 2007, 4:35 AM PDT

• Studying fear with video games

  Studying fear with the aid of a video game is what Dean Mobbs, a PhD candidate in University College London’s imaging neuroscience department, and his colleagues have reported in Science....

  Posted by Arun Radhakrishnan | August 28, 2007, 3:03 AM PDT