Ed Oswald

Press reports indicate that Microsoft recently asked the U.S. government and other tech companies for assistance in its antitrust case with the European Union.

The request centers on the divulging of certain trade secrets, which has been a sticking point in the settlement negotiations between the EU and Microsoft. The company argues that the EU's decision could have a detrimental effect on other U.S. companies regarding how trade secrets are handled.

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Microsoft said on Tuesday that it was making available over 400 pieces of downloadable content through the Xbox Live Marketplace, including interactive demos of games, as well as free and premium add-ons for games, movie trailers and music videos.

To serve the younger gamer, credit cards will not be required to purchase goods. Premium content will be paid through a new stored-value system called Microsoft Points. These points are available for purchase at retail locations and online through the Xbox Live Dashboard.

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The U.S. government on Tuesday launched an initiative aimed at urging citizens to pay their taxes to the IRS over the Internet. Last year, nearly 78 million electronic payments were received from taxpayers, but most were from large businesses. Called "Simplify", the effort aims to encourage the 42 million others to use the e-file system.

Not only will taxpayers receive their refunds faster, it also costs the federal government 53 cents less per return to process them. "The Simplify campaign exemplifies a wider effort by the Treasury to serve an increasingly wired public through a variety of electronic filing and payment processes, including IRS e-file, e-pay and e-services," IRS commissioner Kevin Brown said in a statement.

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Just when you thought the Sony BMG copy-protection debacle couldn't get any worse, two Princeton researchers have discovered a security flaw in the software provided by the company to uninstall its controversial DRM.

The flaw was initially suggested over the weekend by a Finnish researcher, and verified Monday by a computer science team at Princeton University.

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Yahoo on Tuesday launched a beta of a social commerce site dubbed the Shoposphere. The site will allow users to browse listings of products, called "Pick Lists," that other users have created, as well as integrate the service with Yahoo's other social software offerings.

The search engine in recent months has branched out into social networking, with the purchase of Flickr in March and its Yahoo 360 Web log service.

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A working prototype of the much anticipated MIT $100 laptop will be shown off at a U.N. technology conference on Wednesday. While there is still much development to be done, production could begin in late 2006 or early 2007, according to the Wall Street Journal.

At least two dozen countries have expressed a desire to purchase the laptop, with Brazil and Thailand the most interested. Although the device is aimed at children in developing countries, the state of Massachusetts is considering spending $54 million to give a laptop to every middle and high school student in the state.

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A peer-to-peer network that took advantage of the super-fast speeds of the Internet2 research network closed it doors late Monday. Founder of the i2Hub network Wayne Chang has declined comment citing legal reasons, and the blank front page of the network's Web site now carries the message "R.I.P. 11.14.2005."

The service was one of several networks to receive a cease and desist letter from the RIAA in September. Lawsuits have already been filed against several file swappers on the network. The shuttering of i2Hub follows a Supreme Court ruling that made P2P networks liable for the actions of their users, and the closing of Grokster last week.

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On the heels of the Sony BMG DRM rootkit fiasco, security software firm McAfee announced on Tuesday that it was beginning a new initiative to raise awareness of malware and its potential threat to consumers and businesses.

According to studies, as many as one-third of those infected by spyware do not know it, and 42 percent have no idea how they were infected.

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Sun on Monday unveiled a new processor, its fastest yet while requiring about the same electricity it takes to power a standard household light bulb. At 70 watts of consumption, the chip uses less than half the power of most server CPUs. Competing chips from Intel or IBM require anywhere from 150 to 200 watts.

The UltraSparc T1 "Niagara" will be an eight-core processor, with each core capable of handling up to four processes. The chips are expected to make their debut in new Sun Fire servers that Sun will release before the end of the year.

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INTERVIEW Municipalities are increasingly looking for new ways to bridge the digital divide, bring their towns into the 21st century and offer residents a more cost-effective high-speed Internet alternative. Cole Reinwand, Director of Next Generation Broadband at EarthLink, recently sat down with BetaNews to discuss the technology behind making the wireless dreams of city planners a reality.

BetaNews: Thanks for joining us. Could you give us an update on what EarthLink is doing in the municipal wireless space? We know you have been selected in Philadelphia and Anaheim, and are a finalist in Minneapolis. We'd like to know where you guys are looking at, what you've been doing and how these networks are going to work.

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Toshiba on Monday announced its latest additions to its gigabeat music player line with two devices that will appeal to the more fashion-conscious music lover. The new gigabeats will come with capacities of 512MB and 1GB, and sport either a multi-color or black design.

Also included is a 1.1-inch OLED color display that will give the player the capability to display JPEG photos in addition to music.

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Search giant Google is reportedly investigating methods where its users could rent online copies of books for one week, indicating that the company is continuing to flesh out ways to make its Google Print service more attractive to publishers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a publisher contacted by Google has said users would not be able to download or print the books, although those features may be added later. Google has proposed that the fee be ten percent of the book's list price, although the publisher indicated that pricing was too low.

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Research firm Gartner made waves Friday by telling clients in a note that there was no compelling reason for most businesses to upgrade to Windows Vista until 2008 -- or even later. However, Microsoft's response to the scathing analysis may shock many: it called the report "balanced."

The research note, entitled "Ten reasons you should and shouldn't care about Microsoft's Windows Vista client," highlighted the problems with Microsoft's strategy for the next-generation operating system.

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IBM continues to dominate the supercomputing industry, according to the Top500 Organization's latest list of the most powerful computers in the world. Altogether, Big Blue's systems comprise 219 of the 500 systems included in the bi-annual survey.

IBM manufactured the top three systems on the list, with two falling under the company's Blue Gene supercomputer brand.

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Leading personal computer manufacturer Dell saw its profit slump by 28 percent in the third quarter of 2005, however it remains optimistic in the face of what looks to be an increasingly tough market for PC makers. Computer users are increasingly turning to lower-end systems that are powerful enough for basic tasks.

The problem with this trend is that manufacturers make less profit on each system they sell. Dell actually shipped a record number of PCs in the third quarter, but it did so at a lower profit margin due to the shift in the market.

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