Ed Oswald

Microsoft said Tuesday it would set its sights on Lotus Notes and Domino customers, providing new tools to assist in the migration to Microsoft Office products. As a further incentive, these tools would be available on the company's Web site as a free download.

In addition to migration tools, Microsoft also announced the availability of Exchange connectors for Lotus and Domino. This would allow customers who wish to continue using IBM's suite employ Exchange Server on the backend.

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Public debate on the third revision of the General Public License began on Monday as the Free Software Foundation released the first draft of the popular open source license.

The new version of the license focuses on patents and digital rights management issues that have come to the forefront since the GPL was last updated nearly a decade and a half ago.

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As Apple's stratospheric rise continues, Apple CEO Steve Jobs shared a jab at Dell chairman Michael Dell with employees via e-mail on Friday. The comments are a response to a 1997 comment by Dell, who was asked what he'd do with Apple, then financially struggling and near collapse.

"What would I do?" Dell responded. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." A few weeks later at Apple's official announcement of Jobs' return, with a picture of Dell's face covered by a bull's-eye, Jobs said, "You're in our sights."

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Mozilla plans to have an early alpha version of Firefox 2.0 in users hands by February, with builds of Firefox, Camino and Thunderbird for Macs running on Intel processors available the following month, recent statements from company developers indicate.

Details of a release date for Firefox 2.0 Alpha 1 appeared in the January 4 mozilla.org staff meeting minutes released late last week. It also noted that a security and stability update would be coming to Firefox 1.5 by the end of this month.

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Microsoft has directly responded to accusations by security researcher Steve Gibson who claimed the company intentionally left the Windows Meta File vulnerability open as some kind of "backdoor." The company says the function in question exists due to legacy code, not some nefarious intent.

"This was not a mistake. This is not buggy code. This was put into Windows by someone," Gibson said on his podcast called Security Now. "I believe that some very clever and industrious hacker figured this out, started using it and Microsoft was caught off guard and thought: Whoops, we've got to close this backdoor down."

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Digital music industry officials are complaining that the record industry's alleged collusion extends into the subscription business as well, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. According to industry insiders, the record companies are using "most favored nation" clauses in contracts to keep prices artificially high.

The clauses would allow another label to benefit from better licensing terms if a competing label renegotiates with a digital music provider. However, since the terms appear in just about every contract these providers have negotiated, it has the net effect of increasing the cost to procure music for these services.

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Microsoft reiterated its commitment to the Macintosh platform on Friday, telling BetaNews that it was not exiting the consumer side of the Mac market. However, the company did acknowledge that corporate enhancements to its products were taking precedence at the current time.

Scott Erickson, director of product management and marketing for the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft, says that the division spends an equal amount of resources on both the business and consumer side.

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The United States government said Friday that would offer tax breaks in 2006 to taxpayers who opt to buy hybrid gasoline and electronic vehicles. Tax breaks of up to $3,400 would be awarded based on the fuel-efficiency of the vehicle purchased or leased.

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow made the announcement at Ford research center near Detroit. "I'm pleased to announce the issuance of IRS guidance for the hybrid vehicle tax credit because the development and use of hybrid vehicles is a key step toward reducing gasoline consumption, emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

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UPDATED Microsoft is currently testing a Slingbox-like add-on that would allow Windows Media Center users to watch programming on their PCs from anywhere using mobile devices and laptops, BetaNews has learned.

The feature uses a software application rather than a set-top box, as Slingbox utilizes to control a TiVo, cable or satellite box remotely. The resulting stream would play through Windows Media Player.

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Microsoft's new system for selling advertising within its search results will go live in June, the company announced Friday. MSN adCenter will compete with rival offerings from Google and Yahoo, as well as eventually become a one-stop-shop for advertising across any of Microsoft's online services.

Eventually, a user would be able to buy ad space on services like MSN Spaces or Office Live. The tools to make this happen are not yet complete, Microsoft says, but should be over the next year. The technology would alllow an advertiser to target their campaigns to specific demographics.

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The Department of Homeland Security said Friday it would begin testing "e-Passports" in the international terminal of San Francisco International Airport. The trial is a joint effort of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Citizens of Australia and New Zealand that have been issued the new passports, as well as Singapore Airlines crew and U.S. diplomats will participate in the test.

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A $1.1 billion settlement against Microsoft was allowed to proceed earlier this week after a California appeals court dismissed a challenge by a plaintiff in the case. Under the settlement, a third of the unclaimed vouchers would be returned to Microsoft, while the rest would be given to California schools.

The original ruling was handed down by a San Francisco Superior Court in July 2003, and found Microsoft guilty of overcharging California consumers for its Windows operating system. Vouchers ranging from $5 to $29 were to be distributed among those who made a claim.

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Mozilla on Thursday launched version 1.5 of its popular Thunderbird e-mail client. The release focuses on improving spam filtering technology, easing the software upgrade process, enhancing RSS and podcasting support, and improving overall productivity.

Since its inception in December of 2004, Thunderbird has been downloaded nearly 18 million times. The company says that this version is the result of feedback received from users over the past year.

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Three out of every four adults are now registered on the Federal Trade Commission's Do-Not-Call list, with a large majority saying they have seen a noticeable decrease in telemarketing calls. From January 2004 to the present, the number of adults registered climbed from 57 to 76 percent, a Harris Poll indicated.

18 percent of these registrants say they have received no calls since registration, with a majority, 61 percent, saying they receive far fewer calls. Only 7 percent say they either receive the same or more telemarketing calls since adding their names to the list.

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To celebrate the first birthday of the Google Mini, a search appliance designed for small to medium-sized businesses, Google on Thursday announced two larger capacity systems designed to meet the growing search needs of its customers.

"We've been delighted – even a bit overwhelmed – with its success," the company said in a statement announcing the new systems' availability. "Thousands of Google Minis now search websites and intranets all over the world. And they continue to find more and more content for customers everyday."

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