Ed Oswald

Aiming to become 'the Switzerland of personal information,' Plaxo has debuted the newest version of its syncing application. It allows a user to federate their information across a variety of services, although not everybody's having a good experience.

For example, a user could ensure their Apple Mail address book is the same as what is on their Windows-based Microsoft Outlook contacts list, and so forth. The same can be done for calendar information as well.

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A group of Windows enthusiasts that wanted to attempt to bring back features cut out of Vista through a modified version of Longhorn code circa 2004 found out Microsoft didn't take too kindly to it.

Developers from Joejoe.org, the group that started the "Longhorn Reloaded" project, said the Redmond company had sent them a cease and desist letter demanding they kill the project.

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Cablevision stepped up the battle to attract high-definition customers on Friday, saying it would have the capability to carry more than 500 channels of HD programming by the end of this year.

In a surprising move, Voom's 15 HD channels would become Part of Cablevision's offering next Wednesday, making 40 networks available to the company's customers. Voom is owned by DISH Network.

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The future of Take-Two's Manhunt 2 came into some doubt Thursday after the game developer decided to hold off on releasing the game.

Originally scheduled for July 10, it is now unclear when the game will be released. Both the US and British game ratings boards have given it an 'Adults Only' rating, which severely limits its potential distribution.

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Hoping to one-up Apple with its recent move away from digital rights management, high-quality music site MusicGiants began offering DRM-free music recently with the release of Paul McCartney's newest album, Memory Almost Full. In a recent interview with audio magazine Stereophile, MusicGiants CEO Scott Bahneman said the service plans to release more DRM-free albums later this year. Partners in the offering have not been announced.

MusicGiants specializes in offering high quality “lossless” tracks in Windows Media format, and launched last year. It bills itself as the only service to offer such high-quality tracks, which are the same quality as one would receive from a physical CD. McCartney’s album sells for $15.29 USD on the site, although consumers can purchase a version with a 26-minute interview with the singer on recording the album for $21.93 USD.

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CENSORING THE NET Sri Lanka is being criticized for apparently ordering the nation's ISPs to block a Web site that supports the Tamil Tiger rebels, a militant group that supports secession of the north and east portion of the country into a separate state.

The Web site at issue is Tamilnet.com, which is characterized as one of the most influential in reporting news from the group's perspective in the three-and-a-half decade long conflict.

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Facing shareholder pressure to show performance, Sony executives are becoming increasingly vocal in public about their plans to correct the listing PlayStation division.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal and at a meeting of shareholders, new PlayStation head Kazuo Hirai and CEO Howard Stringer both said changes were already underway to improve the unit's performance.

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AT&T is taking extra steps to prepare for an expected onslaught of business due to the iPhone, including the hiring of about 2,000 temporary employees and enhancing security.

The buzz around the phone is still growing, and people close to AT&T say that even celebrities are being turned away from getting a phone early. There are special lists, but all on it must still pay full price.

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With Leopard pushed off until October, Apple is continuing to update Mac OS 10.4, with its tenth update to the operating system being released Thursday, including fixes for Bluetooth and USB issues, among others.

The patch is generally smaller than previous ones, with only 13 issues fixed. It also follows an unusual naming convention -- 10.4.10: typically the 10.x.9 upgrade heralded the imminent release of the next version of the OS, which would be 10.5 in this case.

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Verizon Wireless has partnered with mobile payment service Obopay to give its customers the option of using their phones as payment devices.

The service runs as an application on phones that support BREW. After downloading, customers register for an account through the phone or via Verizon Wireless' Web site, and can invite their friends to join as well.

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Although it stops short of the coveted "exclusive" contract, Microsoft said Wednesday that it had paid $50 million for exclusive content for Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto IV.

The next sequel in the wildly popular game series will launch in October on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, however downloadable add-ons will only be available for Microsoft's version.

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Thought all the laptop battery problems were over? Think again. Gateway recalled Samsung-made batteries due to a fire risk, while Toshiba reports a defective Sony-made battery sparked a laptop fire last month.

Gateway said it will recall about 14,000 lithium batteries shipped with Gateway 400VTX and 450ROG sold between May and August 2003. Samsung produced the battery cells, however Taiwan-based Simplo Technology was the manufacturer.

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Apple said Wednesday that its update to Apple TV to allow viewing of YouTube videos was available, along with announcing similar functionality for iPhone. But the lack of 3G connectivity will limit the feature's usefulness.

iPhone users will likely not be able to stream their videos across the mobile network as EDGE is often too slow to support higher-quality full motion video. Thus, the functionality would only be usable via Wi-Fi.

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News Corp. may be ready to sell off MySpace in an effort to gain a stake in search engine company Yahoo, British daily The Times reported Wednesday.

According to the paper, talks have already occurred with Yahoo, and Rupert Murdoch's conglomerate is looking for a 30 percent stake in the company. News Corp. also owns The Times, which initially reported the story.

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AT&T said Tuesday that it had launched a service in three markets that allows its subscribers to share video during a voice call, and plans to expand it across its 3G footprint in July.

Video Share allows the user to send video during a voice call between two compatible handsets. While users are able to access the service on a pay-as-you-go basis for 35 cents per minutes, plans with 25 minutes of usage for $4.99 and 60 minutes of usage for $9.99 are also in place.

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