Ed Oswald

Skype on Thursday released a refresh of its popular voice chat software, adding features that it hopes will solidify its position as the market leader. Improvements to sound quality, increased personalization, and new mobility options are just a few of the additions included in the release.

The company claims some 56 million registered users, with 170,000 new registrations per day. Skype was recently acquired by eBay in a $2.6 billion deal announced September 12.

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Google announced late Wednesday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA that would allow it to collaborate on research projects with the space agency, as well as build a new one million square foot office complex at the NASA Ames Research Center.

The new complex would not be far from its current Mountain View, Calif. headquarters, dubbed the "Googleplex."

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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says it is close to making available a laptop for developing markets that would cost around $100 USD. At a minimum the computer would feature a color screen, Wi-Fi, a 500MHz processor, and 1GB of flash memory.

The unit would even be able to generate power on it own through the use of a hand crank, making it useful even in areas where electricity is not readily available. Developing countries would be able to buy a laptop for every child, allowing new educational opportunities previously thought impossible.

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With all the recent negative press surrounding the apparent scratching issue with the iPod Nano, some people are finding their own ways to repair the diminutive player. Todd Dailey, an Apple aficionado, has discovered a way to solve the scratch problem - and it only costs $4 USD.

Dailey has used his Nano as a guinea pig for a multitude of tests, including homemade accessories and tests to see what works and what does not. "As you can see on previous posts on my blog, I've been having a lot of fun with DIY projects with the Nano. I'm quite proud of my DIY Nano lanyard," Dailey told BetaNews.

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A flaw in the Linux and Unix versions of RealPlayer and HelixPlayer could put users at risk of attack, according to at least two security firms. Making matters worse, exploit code is now publicly available on the Internet due to a leak in an Internet chat room.

The problem stems from a format string error that the programs run into when parsing a specially created RealPix or RealText document. An attacker could take complete control of a system by exploiting this vulnerability.

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It looks as if Mozilla developers are attempting to make their Thunderbird e-mail client more competitive with Microsoft's Outlook. A roadmap to integrate a calendar application with Thunderbird was posted recently, which details the project known as "Lightning."

The group hopes to have basic functionality ready for release in November. Better Thunderbird integration, e-mail and task linkage, as well as CalDAV support are goals of the second revision, for which no timetable was given. Successive releases of Lightning will add localization support, device synchronization and cached offline calendar support.

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Yahoo's Desktop Search software has officially left its beta confines, introducing a new feature called LiveWords that allows users to instantly perform a Web search on any topic, word or phrase found in a local file or document. The program indexes over 300 file types, including e-mails and Yahoo! Messenger chats.

Yahoo! Desktop Search first debuted in January and is based upon technology licensed from X1. Unlike similar search tools from rivals Google and Microsoft, Yahoo's program is not offered as a toolbar add-on for Windows. Instead, Yahoo has chosen to offers its users a full application with tabs for different file types and an automatic preview window.

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RealNetworks on Wednesday unveiled Helix OnlineTV, an application designed to bring interactive television to mobile phones and PCs. Also, in a big win for the company over competitor Microsoft, Real announced Cingular would use the technology for an upcoming video service.

Cingular's choice of Real video indicates that the streaming media company is alive and well, and still looking to directly compete with the market-leading Microsoft -- a spot it once occupied. Verizon uses Windows Media technologies to serve video on its next-generation EV-DO network.

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The FCC late Tuesday agreed to extend the deadline for VoIP providers by another month, acknowledging the work many of the providers had already done to inform their customers of the limitations of 911 over VoIP.

In a public notice, the FCC said that 21 companies had received notices of 100 percent compliance, and at least 32 others had heard back from more than 90 percent of their customers.

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In an interview with the German daily Berliner Zeitung on Monday, Apple vice president and iPod division head Jon Rubenstein expressed his feelings on the convergence of music devices and cell phones, saying the devices are best left separate.

The remarks were published the same day Motorola CEO Ed Zander was criticized in the media over his "Screw the nano" statement made at a leadership conference in California on Friday. The recent comments made by either side -- whether a joke or not -- emphasize just how tenuous the Apple-Motorola relationship may be.

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Ending a summer of speculation, Research in Motion on Tuesday announced that it would use Intel XScale processors in its next-generation devices. The two companies will also work together on new technologies and features for BlackBerry handhelds.

The new devices would be for use on the Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) network, a GSM-based standard that acts as a stepping-stone to 3G wireless technologies such as UMTS and W-CDMA.

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Research firm In-Stat said Tuesday that the market for mobile music in the United States could be larger than the mobile gaming market, but both manufacturers and carriers need to act fast in order to cash in on what could be a very profitable business.

The news is nothing but good for carriers like Cingular who plans to attempt a mobile music service next year, possibly with Apple. Motorola, meanwhile, recently introduced the ROKR iTunes phone capable of holding 100 songs.

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Microsoft announced that it had officially launched its solution for disk-based backup called Data Protection Manager (DPM) on Tuesday.

The company claims that it would cost a user about $5,000 per terabyte of data versus ten times that in competing services. DPM also offers a speed advantage, working much faster than tape-based solutions.

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Billed as the smallest personal computer available, OQO launched the second version of its pocketable pen-based computer system on Tuesday.

Measuring in at 4.9 inches long and 3.4 inches high by just under an inch thick and weighing 14 ounces, the OQO Model 01+ is the tiniest commercially available system to be running a full version of Windows XP. The first version, the model 01, was introduced at CES 2004.

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Iyer Ventkesan has no easy task. As senior product manager for StarOffice, his chief responsibility is creating a suite of productivity software that gives users a compelling reason to make the switch from Microsoft Office, the market leader.

Thus, Ventkesan asked his developers to ensure the compatibility with Microsoft's product, as well as making a transition to StarOffice easier on the end user. "We have made it real easy for the Microsoft Office user to use StarOffice right away," he told BetaNews.

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