ICANN, VeriSign Agree on Domain Fees
VeriSign and ICANN have reached a tentative agreement that would limit the company from raising wholesale domain fees unless it meets certain conditions. The deal has already been criticized by some who claim that VeriSign would be free to up rates during periods not covered by the agreement.
Under the deal, which continues VeriSign's control of the .com domain, the company would be prohibited from passing on surcharges related to the funding of ICANN. Also, for any two out of the next six years, the company would only be able to raise rates by up to seven percent if the funds were being used to combat a security threat, or to comply with an ICANN mandate.
Microsoft Looks to Cell Phones for Poor
Possibly out of a sense of rebuke, Bill Gates talked about his own plan to bring computing to the poor this week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Instead of proposing a laptop like Nicholas Negroponte of MIT, Gates says the future of low-cost computing is cell phones.
The phone would use a television set, a keyboard and an adapter to turn a specially designed cell phone essentially into a computer. Microsoft says cell phones are a better route since they are already so ubiquitous.
Report: Google in Talks with Napster
Despite assurances from Napster that it is not for sale, the New York Post on Tuesday cited anonymous sources who said that the music service was in talks with Google for an "extensive alliance," which would possibly include an "outright acquisition."
Talk of a possible sale first surfaced mid-month when Web log Digital Music News reported that Napster layoffs were imminent and executives were looking at exit options. The company did layoff ten managers as part of restructuring last week, but it took time when making the announcement to refute the rumors.
Philly Wi-Fi Moves Closer to Reality
EarthLink has finalized a contact to blanket the city of Philadelphia with wireless Internet access, the city said on Monday. Pending approval by City Council in February, construction of the 135-square-mile wireless hot spot would start shortly after signing of the contract.
A test area would be built out over a 15-square-mile area of Northeast Philadelphia to prove the system's effectiveness. If the test is successful, the entire city could be wireless by the spring of next year.
Apple Takes iTunes, Podcasts to School
Having conquered the digital music and video industries, Apple has set its sights on a new market that should be familiar to the company: education. Apple has introduced "iTunes U," a new service that makes course lectures and materials available through the iTunes software.
Over the past year, Apple has run a pilot program with six universities across the United States. Last week, the company decided to open the program up to any university or college that wishes to sign up.
Skype to Add Warner Music Ringtones
Skype announced on Monday it had reached a deal with music label Warner to provide ringtones for its VoIP service. The sale of musical ringtones will add another revenue stream for Skype, which makes a large portion of its money from the fees it charges for premium services.
Warner is only the first of several expected deals with music labels that would put Skype's selection of ringtones on par with that of the major cellular carriers.
Verizon Wireless Launches GPS Service
Verizon Wireless introduced VZ Navigator on Monday, a service that will offer customers the ability to see their location on a map or find turn-by-turn directions. Navigator would be available on compatible phones thanks to GPS and Verizon's wireless network.
Rival Sprint Nextel has been offering a similar service for a year trough TeleNav on its Nextel service, and since September on Sprint for a cost of $9.99 a month. The company had extended the option to its prepay Boost Mobile customers late last year as well.
Security Vendors Team Up on Malware
Five security vendors said Monday they were joining forces to improve spyware detection software, as well as standardizing methods to create a single benchmark from which consumers and enterprise customers could judge the effectiveness of various software programs.
These standards would be the first collaboration between McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro, ICSA Labs, and Thompson Cyber Security Labs. Eventual plans call for cooperation in antivirus research, sharing of best practices, and working on guidelines for the dissemination of antivirus information.
UK Court Orders File Swappers to Pay
The British record industry said it had scored a major victory against two file swappers in the country who were caught downloading from file sharing services. Each will be forced to pay several thousand pounds in restitution to the British Phonographic Institute immediately.
The case is the first of its kind in British court, and sets precedence for other court cases in the country involving file sharing to be decided in a similar manner. Until this case, the BPI had reached out-of-court settlements with people it caught downloading from P2P networks.
Los Angeles Sues Over GTA Sex Mod
The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office said on Thursday that it had filed suit against both Rockstar Games and its parent company Take-Two Interactive. The suit accuses the companies of engaging in unfair business practices by hiding pornography in an "M" rated game, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."
The video game, which was released in October 2004, was discovered to have pornographic material hidden in it in July of last year. The finding resulted in GTA's rating being changed to "Adults Only" or "AO," and caused Rockstar to pull the game from store shelves later that month.
MSN Spaces Update a Little Bumpy
Microsoft's MSN division rolled out a new version of its Spaces blogging platform on Thursday afternoon, but it was not without hiccups that caused service to be spotty for over a day following its release.
Users reported issues with image loading, as well as some features not loading correctly or at all. Spaces also seemed much slower than normal for many. "The service may be a little slow for a little while it stabilizes," MSN Spaces product manager Mike Torres told users.
Microsoft Planning Own Music Player?
Microsoft confirmed on Thursday that it was looking into building its own competitor to Apple's iPod, which controls nearly 75 percent of the MP3 player market. For years, the company took a hands-off approach, allowing its partners to build the players and only offering the software.
That strategy backfired, however, causing a disjointed experience between the hardware and the Windows Media software. Synchronization was unreliable, and some players had problems with Microsoft's PlaysForSure technology. In contrast, issues between the iPod and iTunes are practically non-existent.
Report: Attackers Can Hide Behind VoIP
Security researchers with the Communications Research Network (CRN) said they have discovered loopholes within VoIP applications like Skype and Vonage that could allow hackers a way of covering their tracks. Attackers could hide behind VoIP because the data streams sent by these applications are continuous.
CRN is a joint venture between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge University. While the group said it had not heard of attackers using the technique as of yet, it would likely not be much longer before the situation occurs.
UN Throws Weight Behind $100 Laptop
The United Nations is preparing to officially support the MIT $100 laptop program by signing a agreement between its Development Programme arm and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The signing will take place in Davos, Switzerland on Saturday.
That event is part of the larger World Economic Forum being held in the popular ski resort town this week. The WEF brings together politicians, economists and business executives in a non-partisan format with a purpose is to discuss global economic issues.
Torvalds Says No GPLv3 For Linux
One of the General Public License's biggest supporters will not be converted to version 3 out of objections over its position on digital rights management. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux is the first to take issue with the first revision of the GPL in a decade and a half.
"I don't think the GPL v3 conversion is going to happen for the kernel, since I personally don't want to convert any of my code," he wrote on the Linux Kernel mailing list Wednesday evening.
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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