Ed Oswald

Research in Motion said Thursday that it had reached a deal with Google to bring the company's Google Talk and Google Local products to BlackBerry handhelds. The first devices with the capability built-in will appear in the spring.

Those who don't want to wait may download the applications as an upgrade to current BlackBerry models at no charge, the company said.

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Despite pledging its support for Apple's platform, Microsoft has backed out of future releases of Windows Media Player for Mac, and the company's Web site now directs visitors to download a third-party application from developer Flip4Mac.

Flip4Mac develops Windows Media Components for QuickTime, an add-in for Apple's multimedia player. According to press release on its Web site, it appears as if the Windows Media division at Microsoft has given the company its full blessing to become the standard-bearer for Mac-based Windows Media playback.

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Some enterprising techies from New Jersey have apparently decided that if Apple won't build their own Macintosh tablet, they will. Using parts from the latest iBook laptops from the Cupertino company, the group plans to build 100 "iTablets" and sell them through eBay.

The first of these devices went on sale Wednesday, with a starting bid price of $1,500 USD. As of Wednesday afternoon Eastern Time, the device had not received any bids.

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Web sites and Internet forums are abuzz with news that a new feature recently added in version 6.0.2 may be communicating information on the song you are listening to Apple, raising privacy concerns from some users.

A "Mini Store" pane has been added to the main iTunes window that provides more information on the song being played, as well as additional available tracks from the artist, and a list of other songs that users who own the track have bought.

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Microsoft has embarked on a yet another campaign aimed at getting users of competing platforms to switch to the Windows operating system. Called NXT, the program targets those ISVs, or independent software vendors, with more than $5 million in revenue who are ready to make the switch.

NXT promotes the adoption of Microsoft's line of server products, such as Windows Server 2003, BizTalk and SQL Server, and the .NET Framework. Additionally, Microsoft would provide assistance in the transition to the new technologies.

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iPod, meet Levi Strauss. The 133-year-old denim brand announced Tuesday at Macworld in San Francisco that it would be the first to offer consumers "iPod compatible" jeans.

The RedWire DLX line, due out in fall 2006, will be compatible with iPod's plug and play technology. The jeans will also have a joystick in the watch pocket that would allow the wearer to control the audio player without taking it out.

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The first draft of the General Public License version 3 will be released on January 16 at a conference organized to help develop the standard. The First International Conference on GPLv3 will take place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Free Software Foundation said Wednesday.

The current version of the GPL is 15 years old, and does not address many of the issues that play a role in modern computing. Richard Stallman, founder of the FSF, first announced that it would be working towards a new version of the GPL in November.

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Microsoft Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to the Mac platform, announcing an agreement with Apple to produce Office for Mac for a minimum of five years. The company also said it plans to make improvements to Entourage 2004 for Mac, as well as build converters to read Microsoft's Open XML format.

"The Mac platform has never been stronger, and we're pleased that Microsoft is committed to delivering great Mac products for many years to come," Apple's vice president of marketing Philip Schiller said in a statement.

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Microsoft issued two more critical patches as part of its regular Patch Tuesday security update, including a fix for a vulnerability when viewing embedded Web fonts and a flaw in the decoding of TNEF messages. The company included its WMF fix with the monthly security updates, although a patch for the issue has been available since January 5.

The first patch fixes a problem in how Windows displays embedded Web fonts. The flaw could enable malformed fonts to be used as a way to execute code on a remote system. The vulnerability could be exploited through either a malicious Web site or specially crafted e-mail message, Microsoft said.

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FROM MACWORLD Steve Jobs is fond of saving the best for last, and Macworld 2006 was no exception. In true Jobsonian fashion, he announced "One more thing:" an Intel based replacement for the PowerBook called the MacBook Pro, initially available in a 15.4-inch configuration.

Jobs explained that Apple did everything possible to cram a G5 processor into a PowerBook, but failed as heat dissipation issues have plagued the G5 chips and prevented their use in laptop systems. The broken promises to consumers of a G5 notebook have been cited as one of the primary reasons for the Intel switch.

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FROM MACWORLD As widely rumored, Steve Jobs announced at Macworld Tuesday that Apple's switch to Intel processors will occur about six months earlier than previously announced. The first Macs to make the transition will be the iMac line, with the rest of the company's products moving to Intel by the end of the year.

Previously, Apple had only publicly committed to releasing Intel Macs by the middle of 2006, around the time the company holds its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference.

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Verizon has confirmed reports that its new VCast Music application disables the ability to play MP3s on phones used with the service. The company said the change was done to simplify the use of VCast, and not to remove features from the device.

This is not the first time Verizon has been caught red-handed in attempting to remove advertised features from phones on its service. Unhappy customers have already sued the company for taking out Bluetooth features on the Motorola v710 handset.

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Thousands of Sprint Nextel wireless and landline customers across the country were without service for about three hours Monday as two fiber lines in the network were cut around 3:30pm ET. The problem occurred in Sprint's lines running between Phoenix and Palm Springs, Calif.

While most of the affected customers were in the Western U.S., the company received scattered reports of service issues across the rest of the country as well. According to a statement from Sprint, the cut occurred during emergency maintenance near Reno Junction, Calif.

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The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it would not overturn a lower court ruling that allowed the University of Texas to block thousands of e-mails from an online dating service. According to court documents, the college blocked over 59,000 e-mails in 2003.

White Buffalo Ventures, which owns LonghornSingles.com, claimed UT's actions violated its constitutional rights to free speech under the First Amendment. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the CAN-SPAM act does not pre-empt the university's anti-spam policies.

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The self-proclaimed King of All Media made his debut on Sirius Satellite Radio Monday, complete with the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey" performed to the tune of flatulence in different keys. However, some fans may have walked away disappointed; Stern says he will attempt to keep his language in check.

Both critics and fans had been anticipating a much raunchier show than what was offered Monday. While some sections of the show featured points where foul language was the rule of the day, Stern actually took one of his co-hosts to task over cursing too much.

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