Ed Oswald

Once heralded by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates as the future of portable computing, Tablet PCs now appear to be a niche market that has slim prospects for significant growth even through the end of the decade.

Forecasts at the time of the Windows XP Tablet Edition launch expected sales to hit 5 million in 2005, 9 million in 2006, and 14 million by 2007. However, sales so far this year are not even in line to hit one million.

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Scientists in London on Tuesday said that ten years of mobile phone use showed no link to brain cancer. However, they could not rule out the possibility of higher risk of cancer over longer periods of time. The study will be published in the British Journal of Cancer.

The researchers focused on tumors that grow in the nerve connecting the ear to the brain, called acoustic neuroma. Previous studies showed some adverse affects from the radiation emitted from cellular phones, but no direct link had been established between cell phone use and cancer.

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One of the founders of popular online payment site PayPal has launched a new service that could prove useful to those computer users who have vast collections of digital photos on their hard drives.

Called Slide, the program will index photos and then group them into "channels" that are streamed in a ticker tape like interface that sits on the user's desktop. A user can share individual images as well as invite friends to subscribe to a channel to view those images.

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Google has petitioned a California federal court judge to rule that Kai-Fu Lee's contract with Microsoft is unenforceable so he can begin his employment with the search giant.

The legal battle between Google and Microsoft began on July 18 when the Redmond company announced that it would persue legal action against Google. Microsoft argued that Lee was breaking confidentiality and non-competition agreements he signed before working for Microsoft.

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Microsoft and Scientific Atlanta, one of the largest manufacturers of cable set-top boxes, announced on Monday that the companies would begin to work together on boxes for IPTV. The partnership would be key to the rollout of IPTV by SBC Communications.

Scientific Atlanta would manufacture the set top boxes, and Microsoft would supply the operating system to be used on the boxes. The box would allow a user to access programming, as well as multimedia content over a network connection.

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A Connecticut man who was caught selling portions of Microsoft's source code for its Windows operating system on his Web site has plead guilty to charges associated with the theft.

Known by the Internet handle "illwill," William Genovese Jr., 28 had obtained code from the Windows 2000 and NT 4.0 operating systems. He was charged in February 2004 after Microsoft discovered the code for sale on a Web site owned by Genovese.

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Microsoft launched its "Every 10 Minutes" campaign on Monday, promising to give away more than 9,000 Xbox 360s over a nine-week period. To play, codes found underneath the caps of Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Sierra Mist bottles are entered into a player's account on the contest Web site.

The consoles will be shipped overnight on the Saturday before the Xbox 360 launches. Winners of the promotion would also be able to select one of two games: "Madden NFL 06" or "Need for Speed Most Wanted." The contest will end on November 15, 2005, indicating the Xbox 360 will launch toward the end of the month.

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Apple began to send out invitations to the media on Monday for an event to take place on September 7 in San Francisco, hinting at a major product unveiling surrounding its iPod music player.

The announcement, which reads in part, "1000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again," had Apple enthusiast and technology news sites alike abuzz with guesses on what the announcement could entail.

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The second beta of OpenOffice.org 2.0 was released on Monday, available in 11 languages for Windows, Linux and Solaris platforms. The project says more languages and platforms will be made available shortly. The release comes ahead of the OpenOffice.org Conference, to be held in Slovenia at the end of next month.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 sports a redesigned interface and better interoperability with other file formats, including Microsoft Office. A new database module has been added, as has support for the OASIS OpenDocument XML file format. An initial beta of the productivity software debuted in March.

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Networking equipment manufacturer D-Link has released a router that allows users to share a 3G mobile wireless broadband connection at speeds of up to 2.4Mbps where service is available. The device supports EVDO, UMTS, Flash-OFDM and HSDPA technologies and includes a slot for a PC-card, as well as 2 USB ports to connect either a cell phone or print server to add functionality.

D-Link's router would, for example, enable home users to share a wireless broadband connection from Verizon or Sprint in lieu of cable or DSL. "Providing shared broadband network access to mobile subscribers from anywhere a cellular network reaches is a strong proposition for mobile operators," said Steven Joe, D-Link President and CEO.

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Apple has secured a deal with Freescale Semiconductor to provide it with PowerPC chips through 2008, a regulatory filing has revealed. The deal would help ensure that Apple's transition to Intel-based computers would occur as smoothly as possible.

The Cupertino company announced the switch to Intel processors at the its annual Worldwide Developer conference in San Francisco in June.

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Data released on Monday shows that while BitTorrent networks have seen a decrease in traffic, file sharers have simply moved to another network technology called eDonkey.

The study from British-based CacheLogic shows that traffic for the two networks is about the same in several countries, and eDonkey has surpassed BitTorrent in Italy, Spain, Germany and South Korea. eMule, a variant of the eDonkey client, is especially popular in western Europe.

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British broadcasting giant BBC announced on Monday that it would offer viewers the opportunity to download its programs up to seven days after they had aired on television. The new offering is part of a plan to modernize the network.

As well as offering recorded shows, the player would also include live feeds of both BBC 1 and BBC 2.

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In a move to spur the adoption of wireless broadband and fend off competition from Sprint, Verizon Wireless on Monday announced that it would cut the subscription cost of its high-speed service by a quarter from $79.99 to $59.99 USD. The price is being offered as a special promotion through the end of this year.

The move came Verizon announced the expansion of its high EV-DO wireless network to Baton Rouge, LA; Charlotte and Raleigh Durham, NC; Denver, CO; Louisville, KY; and San Francisco and Sacramento, CA. Verizon says it is ahead of schedule and expects to have its next-generation network available in most major markets by the end of the year.

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A visit to MSN's beta site indicates that the online service has recently begun work on a new version of its homepage. The new site appears to be taking cues from MSN's Start.com test bed, as well as moving some features from its My MSN customizable page to the front page.

From the current design, it appears that users will be able to collapse, add, move, and delete content modules.

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