Ed Oswald

Nokia's Internet Tablet has been delayed due to software issues, the mobile phone maker told the Reuters on Wednesday. The Nokia 770 had originally been scheduled for a late summer launch. The tablet runs on the Linux operating system, and would allow users to check e-mail, browse the Web and view multimedia files.

According to Nokia, the finalization of the tablet's operating system took longer than anticipated, causing a delay in shipment. The device is expected to retail for $350 USD and will first be available in the United States and Europe. Initial versions will not have phone capabilities, but Nokia plans to add those features in future updates.

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The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday said that it was asking a U.S. District Court to shut down a spyware operation that was secretly installing malware on computers by luring them to download software that would allegedly make their P2P transfers anonymous. The programs then could not be uninstalled.

The software did not perform the advertised function at all, according to the FTC. It only acted as a vehicle to download and install dozens of spyware applications onto victims' computers.

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AOL tweaked its search engine on Wednesday in an effort to make results more relevant, as well as allow for the search of Web sites and multimedia from a single page. Users will also be able to save results in a search, which can be "clipped" to the top of the page for future searches on that term.

In addition, searches can now be made by asking natural-language questions, called "Quick Answers." AOL intends to have the new feature complement its "Snapshots" technology in which results are pre-programmed by editors for common search terms. Answers to these natural-language questions would be placed at the top of the result pages.

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Sprint Nextel late Tuesday announced that it had filed suit against two Internet telephone providers -- Vonage and Voiceglo -- accusing the companies of violating patents surrounding the processing and delivery of packets in a voice over IP (VoIP) connection.

Altogether Sprint claims seven patents were violated: four having to do with the "method, system and apparatus for telecommunications control," and three surrounding the "broadband telecommunications system."

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Microsoft began a full-court press to promote its upcoming Xbox 360 game console by making several major announcements at a press event in Amsterdam Tuesday. Also confirmed were several titles that will be made available when the new Xbox becomes available next month.

The company expects some 20 titles to be ready when the console launches, with up to 200 more currently in development. In comparison, the original Xbox only had about a half-dozen titles available at launch.

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Comcast has struck a deal with the National Hockey League to stream NHL games live to its nearly 8 million high-speed Internet subscribers. Comcast will stream up to two matches per day, including the Stanley Cup playoffs. All broadcasts will be available in archived format up to two days after the game ends.

Local blackout restrictions will still apply, however a Comcast subscriber will be able to view a game from anywhere with a broadband connection, the company said. The news follows an August 18 announcement that made Comcast subsidiary Outdoor Life Network the new cable home of the NHL. The station will broadcast 58 games during the regular season.

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Motorola announced Tuesday that it had signed a deal with Universal to make the label's music available on the electronics maker's upcoming iRadio service.

iRadio will allow users to download content from their computers to their mobile phones, home stereos or car radio. The service is expected to cost about $7 USD a month. The deal will bring music from popular artists such as U2, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, Eminem, and Sheryl Crow to the service.

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IBM on Tuesday unveiled the first servers to be based on the Power 5+ processor, squarely aimed at solidifying the company's dominance in the UNIX server market over rivals Sun, HP and Dell. The new processors will be offered in IBM's low-end models first, gradually being introduced to the company's mid- and higher-end servers during 2006.

The purpose of the "bottom to top" rollout is to give small and medium sized businesses a chance at the computing power that had previously only been available to larger corporations that have bigger IT budgets, according to Jeff Howard, program director for P5 product marketing at IBM.

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Microsoft and Motorola announced on Tuesday an agreement to work together on technology aimed at emergency services and criminal justice customers. As a part of the deal, Motorola would develop new applications built on the Microsoft platform.

The Redmond company sees its alliance with Motorola as a way for it to further expand its business into the public sector, where contracts for services can prove quite lucrative and beneficial to those involved.

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Sirius announced Tuesday that it had nearly doubled its third quarter subscriber numbers, adding 359,000 new customers during the quarter. Sirius ended the quarter with 2.17 million subscribers. In comparison, XM said on Monday it had added 617,000 subscribers during the quarter for a total of 5.03 million.

XM's growing lead doesn't seem to bother Mel Karmazin, Sirius' CEO. "We continued to experience strong subscriber growth during the third quarter, which was the best third quarter in our history, and increased our market share from the year-ago quarter by more than 20%," Karmazin said. Sirius said it expects to have three million subscribers by the end of the year.

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Philadelphia announced on Tuesday that it had selected Earthlink as the provider to build out the network that will offer the city's one million residents high-speed wireless Internet access.

The service would be free in public places such as parks, but in order for a resident to receive Wi-Fi in their homes, they will be charged $20 USD per month. A special $10 USD per month rate will be available for low-income families.

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Microsoft's possible future plans for a subscription based music service may now be in jeopardy after talks broke down late last week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday. At issue was what the company saw as unjustifiably high royalty fees being demanded by the record labels.

Microsoft had been in talks with EMI, Warner Music, Universal, Sony BMG, and Bertelsmann. However, according to the reports, Microsoft could not get a favorable rate that would allow it to compete with Yahoo, which is the cheapest subscription service currently offered.

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Instant messaging security firm IMLogic said on Monday that attacks on IM networks increased to record levels, multiplying by fourteen times through the first three quarters of this year.

"Over the past three months the nature of the IM threat has continued to evolve with increasing levels of sophistication and rates of infection demonstrated by IM worms and viruses," IMlogic CTO Jon Sakoda said.

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XM on Monday said it had further solidified its lead over competitor Sirius, announcing it had added another 617,000 subscribers during the quarter for a total of 5.03 million. The company bested its year-ago new subscribers by 48 percent, and said it expects the holiday quarter to be the best in the company's history.

"This continues to be a phenomenal year for XM Satellite Radio," Hugh Panero, President and CEO of XM said. The company has added 1.8 million new subscribers during the year, and expects to surpass the 6 million mark by the end of the year. Rival Sirius had not reported third quarter subscriber numbers as of press time.

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Digital music continues to become a bigger force in the broader music industry, contributing six percent of total revenues during the first six months of 2005. However, even with the increased revenues, the broader music market fell 1.9 percent.

The report, released Monday by the trade group International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), said globally recorded music sales fell to $13.2 billion from $13.4 billion during the same period in 2004.

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