Ed Oswald

The number of households using broadband is expected to double within the next three years as DSL surges past cable Internet as the high-speed service of choice for consumers, analyst firm JupiterResearch said Monday.

By 2011, 79 million U.S. households and 110 million households in Western Europe will have broadband access. This would equal 65 percent of Internet-connected households in the United States, the report says. However, the US market would continue to trail some countries in Western Europe, where broadband access is cheaper.

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Nokia said Monday that it would open its first company-owned and operated retail location in Chicago's "Magnificent Mile" shopping district. Opening June 24, the store would be located on Michigan Avenue and would showcase some of the company's most upscale phones.

Nokia also has plans to open up stores in other shopping districts over the next two years, including a store on Fifth Avenue in Fall 2006. The modern stores include multimedia displays that walk users through the features of Nokia products, with salespersons available to answer users' questions.

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AT&T will begin its expansion into television, with the "Homezone" service expected to launch in July. The offering will combine EchoStar's DISH Network service with the capability to download movies and videos from the Internet, sources told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Initially, just content from partner Movielink would be made available through the download option. AT&T plans to eventually make thousands of TV shows and other video clips available through the service.

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Nokia and Siemens said Monday that they would form a joint venture called Nokia Siemens Networks, merging the communications services divisions of both companies. The new entity is expected to immediately become a leader in the industry with strong positions in both the network infrastructure and services businesses.

Current Nokia executive vice president and general manager of Networks Simon Beresford-Wylie would serve as the combined company's CEO. Peter Schonhofer, member of the Siemens AG Austria executive board, would become the chief financial officer.

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Microsoft this week provided greater detail on hardware requirements for its Windows Vista Basic and Premium logo programs. The Redmond company said that in order to be certified as "Vista Ready," a device must meet all of the requirements.

"To qualify for a basic system logo, the devices of a basic system that includes embedded or add-in devices must comply with the basic requirements (if a logo program exists for the device categories)," Microsoft explained.

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A security flaw within the PayPal Web site is posing a serious threat to its users, security firm Netcraft said Friday. The credit card numbers and personal information of those duped by attackers is at risk through a cross-site scripting attack.

A fraudster tricks the user into divulging information by asking them to visit an actual PayPal URL. Since this is hosted by the company, it would appear as if information is encrypted through the company's own SSL certificates. However, through cross-site scripting, some of the information on the accessed page has been modified.

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Google confirmed Thursday that it was working on and beginning to test an online payment system, but said it was nothing like PayPal and would not compete with the market-leading service. Instead, Google is looking to solve "new problems in the payments space," says CEO Eric Schmidt.

Analysts had long suspected that Google was developing a payment service, but most had seen it as a competitor to PayPal. Thursday's comments are the first public indication of the company's plans, although several questions still linger. Google still is staying mum on specifics.

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Six mobile companies said Thursday that they were joining together to work towards an open source Linux-based platform for mobile devices. The group said the effort would benefit the industry overall through lower development costs, increased flexibility, and a richer mobile ecosystem.

It will also push for the use of Linux as a platform on phones. Founding members include Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone. The new organization would be tasked with marketing and development of the product.

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Upset with the Federal Trade Commission's settlement with Take-Two Interactive over "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and took a tough stand against violent video games on Wednesday.

While this particular effort is coming from the right, regulation of violent video games is a bipartisan issue. Senator Hillary Clinton has led the charge on the Democratic side, introducing legislation in the Senate late last year.

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Exploit code has surfaced on the Web for some of the 21 issues fixed by Microsoft in its Tuesday update. But Microsoft said that so far it was unaware of any new attacks attempting to use the available code.

At least two of the flaws disclosed had not been made public before the Patch Tuesday announcement, and security firms found the code publicly available on Wednesday. Microsoft noted that this is why it does not detail information about its security updates before they are released.

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Amazon took baby steps into the realm of online groceries, offering only non-perishable goods and free shipping to anywhere in the United States. The company offers a total of about 10,000 items, and features such as a shopping list, product recommendations and savings opportunities for bulk buys.

Perishable goods are not offered through the service, as Amazon said it would not be able to ship those items for free. The company gave no possible time frame as to when -- and if -- it would offer those products.

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Confirming rumors first reported in March, AOL relaunched Netscape.com on Thursday as a user driven news site much like the popular Digg.com. Headed by Jason Calcanis, the new Netscape aims to build on social networking concepts first brought to bear by both Digg and Del.icio.us.

For the next two weeks, access to the beta site will be made available through a link from the current Netscape.com portal. Starting July 1, the beta site will replace it, an AOL spokesperson told BetaNews. While the site may look a lot like Digg, the company is quick to point out its differences.

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eBay unveiled several new methods of communication for U.S. users of its auction service at the eBay Live Conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. Among them is a plan to integrate the Skype VoIP service into its auctions, along with a new blog, wiki, and alerts service.

An option to add a "Skype Me" button will be available beginning June 19 in 14 categories across the service. Users in those categories would gain the extra option in the "Ask a seller a question" section of the auction. Through Skype, either voice or text chat would be possible.

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Microsoft made a greater commitment to making its products work better with those on differing platforms by creating the Interoperability Customer Executive Council on Wednesday. The group will be tasked with finding areas for improvement among Microsoft products, as well as the software industry in general.

Customers have been asking for more interoperability as IT environments become more heterogeneous, Microsoft said. As part of the Redmond company's Trustworthy Computing Initiative, products are designed to provide interoperability from the start.

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The U.S. International Trade Commission voted earlier this week to investigate Apple Computer and its iPod music player, affirming a complaint filed by Creative in May. While not a decision in the matter, it is the first step in deciding the merits of the case.

Creative alleges that Apple violated section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which forbids the importation into and sale of products in the United States that infringe on another's patents. The company has asked the ITC to bar Apple from importing its players into the country.

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