Microsoft Releases New Beta of IE7
Microsoft said Thursday morning that it had made available the third beta of Internet Explorer 7, the final beta before the browser ships later this year ahead of Windows Vista. Microsoft said that while the second beta was "feature complete," Beta 3 does include some enhancements.
"Throughout the development of Internet Explorer 7 Microsoft has encouraged and listened to customer feedback," a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews. "As a result of customer feedback, IE7 Beta 3 contains some feature changes in addition to the planned reliability, compatibility and security improvements."
Net Neutrality Suffers Narrow Defeat
Net neutrality was dealt a bitter defeat late Wednesday, after a Senate committee rejected a Democratic amendment to add statutes to communications legislation by a 11-to-11 tie. The effort would have ensured that all traffic would be handled equally, say supporters.
It is now unclear if net neutrality will be able to recover, as efforts have suffered defeats in both houses of Congress. While Democrats and Internet companies say not including the rules could create a "two-tier Internet," Republicans have sided with the telecommunications industry saying the laws are needless regulation.
Microsoft Shuffles Executives
Microsoft announced more changes to its business structure late Wednesday, moving around several executives. The most significant move is Orlando Ayala, who will move from senior vice president of small and medium business sales to a position overseeing the company's effort in emerging markets. Eduardo Rosini will assume Alaya's old position, moving from the company's Asia-Pacific division.
Marketing for the company's new communications initiative would be headed by Chris Capossela, who already leads the marketing unit for Office. In product line changes, the Microsoft Dynamics product will be moved from Microsoft Business Solutions group to Kurt DelBene's Office Business platform unit.
Google Launches Payment Service
Google on Thursday launched its highly-anticipated payments service, dubbing it Google Checkout. While at first glance, the Mountain View, Calif. company's new offering may look to compete with PayPal directly, it differs from the popular payment services in a few key ways.
Instead of acting as a depository for funds, Google Checkout aims to speed the checkout process by acting as a method to send personal and financial information to participating merchants. The customer does not need to enter any information in order to make purchases.
MTV Expands iTunes Video Programming
MTV said that it will bring content from six of its networks to the iTunes Music Store Thursday. The company had made content from its Comedy Central network available earlier this year, and said "South Park" had sold over one million videos alone.
With the addition of the new networks from MTV, iTunes would now give access to over 150 shows. 35 million videos have been sold since the company began offering the service late last year. In addition, Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store now offers over 9,000 music videos and three million songs from major and independent labels.
New Group Joins to Stop ID Theft
Hoping to stem the growing tide of identity theft, a wide-ranging coalition that includes corporations, government agencies, and academia came together Wednesday to form the Center for Identity Management and Information Protection.
According to the mission of the coalition, the CIMIP hopes to "facilitate a national research agenda on identity fraud and theft, information sharing policy, and data protection."
Vonage Puts Phone on USB Stick
Vonage is expected to unveil a new device as early as Wednesday that would allow the user to turn any computer into a phone by attaching a USB memory drive preloaded with voice over IP software. The company today held an event for press in New York City.
When the device, called the V-Phone, is plugged in to the computer, the software would automatically launch. Vonage isn't the first to offer such capabilities, as several companies are already marketing similar products.
Web Porn Labeling Proposal Approved
The Senate approved an amendment to a bill late Tuesday that would require Web site owners who include sexual content to place warning labels alerting vistors to the material. Failure to do so could result in a felony conviction with possible jail terms of up to five years.
A rating system would also be created by the Federal Trade Commission that would also be placed on sites with sexual content. Supporters of the bill say that such a procedure would prevent children from seeing indecent material inadvertently.
Microsoft's Domain Service Goes 'Live'
Microsoft said late Tuesday that its Custom Domains service had officially launched, making it the third Windows Live project to come out of beta. The service allows a customer to use a custom domain name with Windows Live Mail and Hotmail.
Windows Live Custom Domains is a free service, just like other Live offerings from the company. Additionally, with the final debut, Microsoft has launched a new feature called "open membership."
AMD Moves Up Supercomputer List
IBM said Wednesday that the company built 243 computers on the list of the world's top 500 supercomputers in the world. However, the bigger story may be AMD's continued rise in the rankings. While AMD processors are only in 81 supercomputers, that 's up dramatically from 25 last year.
Intel processor-based systems are down over the same period, from 333 to 301. Similarly, the Itanium processor has continued to become less relevant, falling from 79 last year to 37 systems as of the current report. Intel has been locked in a tight battle with AMD over the past year, and has seen its market share fall in desktops, laptops and now servers.
YouTube, NBC Reach Promotional Pact
Social video site YouTube said it had signed a deal with NBC Tuesday that will bring promos of the networks prime time lineup to the site this fall. Also expected to debut on YouTube are Internet exclusives, as well as behind-the-scenes content.
An official NBC channel would be created on YouTube that will house all NBC-related programming. Exclusive content from "The Office" will be the first to appear, followed by content from "Saturday Night Live," "The Office," and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
Microsoft Warns Over New Exploit
Microsoft disclosed over the weekend that exploit code for a recently patched flaw in Routing and Remote Access had been published to the Internet. The vulnerability had been patched in June's Patch Tuesday release, and the company was not aware of any attacks using the exploit.
Those who have applied the MS06-025 patch are immune to the exploit, according to a Microsoft investigation. Additionally, the flaw is easiest to exploit in Windows 2000; on Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 the attacker would need logon credentials.
W3C Agrees on Mobile Web Practices
The W3C said Tuesday that it had released a set of best practices for mobile Web pages, based on a broad consensus from all parties involved. Representatives from 30 companies joined to create the standards, including AOL, Google, Nokia, Opera, Vodafone and others.
The group says the document took into account the experience in the field of those firms. It includes what to avoid, such as page scrolling and pop ups, and provides guidance on how to build effective mobile Web sites.
Warner Offers TV, Films Through Guba
Warner Bros. said Tuesday that it had struck a deal with Guba, a YouTube competior, to distribute feature films and TV shows over the Internet. Films could be rented for $1.79 per day, or purchased for $9.99 for older titles, and $19.99 for newer releases.
Guba is betting that its new deal with a major studio would help raise its profile in an increasingly crowded social video space. It also shows a willingness on the part of movie studios to work with technologies they once eschewed.
Report: EU Close to Fining Microsoft
The European Union is close to imposing a 2 million euro per day fine on Microsoft for non-compliance with its March 2004 antitrust ruling. According to a Tuesday report in the Financial Times, a draft of a decision is to be presented Monday to the proper authorities.
From there, Neellie Kroes, the EU's competition commissioner, would deliver the ruling on July 12. Kroes will likely not see any resistance in implementing the decision from other members of the regulating body, as rulings are rarely overturned at this stage.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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