Microsoft Reports Strong Quarter
Microsoft late Thursday announced that revenue in the fourth fiscal quarter ending June 30 increased 9 percent year over year on strong demand across all of the company's segments.
Net profit rose to $3.7 billion or 34 cents a share from $2.69 billion or 25 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue stood at $10.16 billion, up from $9.29 billion a year earlier.
RadioShack to Offer iPods, Macs Next?
Apple enthusiast site AppleInsider reported Thursday that RadioShack has entered into a deal with Apple Computer to offer the full line of iPods by the holiday shopping season. Also, sources said that if the program does well, it could lead to a pilot program where Macintosh computers would be sold in some of the company's stores.
RadioShack currently sells the HP co-branded 1GB Shuffle, 6GB sliver Mini, and 60GB iPod. However, HP does not offer price protection, forcing the retailer to sell the 60GB at the old price of $449 USD to avoid selling it at a loss. This is reported to be one of the reasons for RadioShack approaching Apple directly.
New AIM Worm Dupes iTunes Fans
A new worm has been discovered on the AOL Instant Messenger service that dupes users into thinking it is a file for the popular iTunes music player software. The worm appears in an IM with the message "this picture never gets old" and a link to what appears to be an image URL. However, it is not an image and is rather an executable file called "iTunes.exe" which will install several spyware applications including "Internet Optimizer," "Media Ticket," and "180 Search Assistant."
Trend Micro, which discovered the worm and issued a warning about it, said that the file also opens a "backdoor" allowing hackers to send commands to the computer from an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) chat room. The hackers could download or execute files on the machine as well as send AIM messages to other users on the infected user's buddy list. The worm affects all versions of Microsoft Windows.
Tech Buzzwords Foreign to Americans
The average American does not know what the terms "phishing," "podcasting," or "RSS feed" mean according to the results of a study recently released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. While some terms were familiar to users, it showed that American consumers are slow to grasp the significance of new technologies.
Out of the seven terms read to respondents, the most well known term was "spam," with 88 percent of respondents having a good idea of what the term meant. The least known term was "RSS feeds," with only nine percent of respondents knowing what the term meant.
Microsoft to Acquire Frontbridge
Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it would acquire e-mail security firm Frontbridge to strengthen its Exchange server product by integrating the company's technology into the popular corporate communications tool. Frontbridge's technology would bring enhancements to the archiving of company e-mail and instant messaging, as well as offer increased spam and virus protection.
"Our commitment to listening and responding to customers really drove the union with FrontBridge, because both companies are focused on solving the same difficult messaging challenge -- ensuring customers' e-mail is compliant, better protected from spam and virus threats, and always available, even in the case of unforeseeable disaster," said Dave Thompson, corporate vice president of the Exchange Server Group at Microsoft.
Legal Music Downloads Catching On
A recording industry interest group said that downloads of legal digital music tripled during the first six months of 2005, while illegal file sharing only saw a small increase, raising industry hopes that consumers are turning away from P2P file-sharing services.
180 million songs were downloaded in the first half of 2005 versus 57 million during the same period in 2004, a 316 percent increase. The International Federation of Phonographic Industries credited the increase to the work of member companies to campaign against illegally downloaded music through education and prosecution as well as a 13 percent increase in broadband lines.
Web Browsing, Video Coming to PSP
Sony said Thursday that a software update for the PlayStation Portable next week would add the capability to surf the Web and watch video clips. The Web browser will be HTML 4.01-compatible and will be able to display most Websites.
Capabilities for Web browsing were already available to players who had the game "Wipeout Pure" -- instructions to exploit a Web browser to view Web sites could be found on the Internet.
RockStar Confirms Sex Mod Not a Hack
UPDATED The fight over Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came to a climax on Wednesday as the Parents Television Council called for a recall of the video game, and a statement from the game maker Rockstar seemed to confirm the Hot Coffee modification was indeed not a hack and was present within the game.
RockStar issued a statement late Monday saying it was providing a patch to prevent the modification in already purchased titles, and would stop selling the game while it works on a non-modifiable version. Wednesday's developments ostensibly confirmed that the scenes depicted within the game were created by the game manufacturer.
GTA Battle Goes to the Courts
The battle over Grand Theft Auto has now reached the courts, BetaNews has learned. A Florida attorney who has been involved in several high profile obscenity cases has turned his sights on the controversial game.
John Thompson has petitioned the Eleventh Circuit Court in Miami, Florida for a temporary injunction against Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Wal-Mart, and GameStop to stop sales of the game to minors in Miami-Dade County.
Microsoft, FTC Bust Porn Spammers
The Federal Trade Commission announced on Wednesday that it had charged seven companies with violating various laws related to the labeling of sexual content. Three of the suits seek civil penalties and to stop the organizations from sending out further spam. Four have already been settled, amounting to $1.2 million in penalties.
Microsoft provided assistance to the FTC in tracking down the defendants. "In particular, the FTC supplied Microsoft with a list of domains that were associated with thousands of pornographic spam messages and Microsoft analyzed these domain names against the millions of spam that Microsoft collects in its open 'trap accounts,'" a spokesperson told BetaNews.
Xbox Live Passes 2 Million Subscribers
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that its online gaming community Xbox Live had reached 2 million subscribers, doubling its size in just one year. According to the company, the service was signing up customers at the rate of about one every 30 seconds.
"Reaching the 2 million member milestone in such a short time speaks volumes about the depth and vibrancy of the Xbox Live community," said Robbie Bach, senior vice president of the Home and Entertainment Division and chief Xbox officer at Microsoft.
Cell Phone Sales to Hit 1 Billion by 2009
Research firm Gartner says that sales of mobile phones will reach 1 billion by 2009, as the global market expands to 2.6 billion customers. 674 million phones were sold in 2004 and 779 million phones are expected to be sold this year. Southeast Asia will become the biggest market, with one out of every three phones in the world being sold in that area by 2009.
The firm also says the average price of the mobile phone will drop to $161 USD from $174 USD, even as phones become increasingly more complex and feature-laden. Smartphones are expected to account for 20 percent of all phone sales by 2008.
A Half-Million Mac Converts in 2005
In a note to clients, Needham & Co. analyst Charles Wolf wrote that the "halo effect" surrounding Apple's iPod is indeed real, and his firm is estimating as many as 400,000 Windows users have already made the switch from a Windows-based PC to the Macintosh platform.
Mac shipments have jumped 43 and then 35 percent in the past two quarters, which Wolf says was likely "driven chiefly by Windows users buying Macs." He says that assuming Mac sales would have been pretty much flat without the iPod's help, about 200,000 switchers bought a Mac in each of the past two quarters.
100Mbps Cable Internet by 2006
A Finnish firm says that 100Mbps cable Internet will be possible as early as next year, thanks to its new Ethernet-to-the-home technology. Also, the cost to companies to connect customers using this ultra-fast connection is expected to be relatively cheap, meaning customers may not need to worry about rising broadband costs for more speed.
Teleste, a small company that produces broadband equipment, would have to compete with much larger firms Scientific Atlanta and Cisco. However, the company says the earliest it expects its rivals to have similar technology would be early 2007.
Microsoft Wants Google Hiring Stopped
Microsoft announced late Tuesday that it would be pursuing legal action against Google as well as a former executive that jumped ship to the search giant in an effort to prevent his hiring. The executive, Kai-Fu Lee, was a vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Services division.
Lee's new role with Google will be as head of the company's new Chinese research and development center. Google announced Lee's hiring on Tuesday as part of a press release regarding the center's opening - a rare occurrence as the company normally does not publicize the hiring of new executives.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
Ethics Statement© 1998-2024 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.