Ed Oswald

Search giant Google has announced a contest that is intended to introduce aspiring developers to open source software. To sweeten the pot, Google will give $4,500 to each student who completes an open source project. Several groups are participating, including Gnome, Apache and The Wine Project, among others.

Google made several of its open source projects available to give students an idea of what the company is looking for. "By pairing applicants up with the proven wisdom and experience of established prominent open source organizations, we hope to make great software happen," Google wrote on Summer of Code Web site. The deadline for application is June 14.

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The next major version of Windows, code-named "Longhorn," will include native support for RAW files, or uncompressed images created by digital cameras. Microsoft worked with several industry heavyweights to make this a reality, including Adobe, Canon, Fuji and Nikon. Windows XP will also receive the feature in a future upgrade.

Photographers prefer working with RAW files because they are uncompressed, meaning they offer the sharpest and the best quality. Essentially, these files are a digital negative of the image taken, because they are produced before the image is converted into JPG, GIF, TIFF, or other formats.

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It gets hot in southern Spain. So, thanks to a new text messaging service, when the temperature passes 41 degrees Celsius (105.9 F), the Andalucia government will send out an SMS warning of high temperatures. The Spanish government says the new service is aimed at families with young children and the elderly, as well as those living alone.

The Spanish government says it is forecasting a hotter summer than last year, when 39 deaths were blamed on the heat. Europe as a whole saw an extremely hot summer in 2003, when 141 in Spain alone were killed by heat-related illnesses. It was much worse in France, where thousands died due to a lack of proper air conditioning across the country.

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Realizing that its public image is not where it needs to be, Sun on Wednesday will start a $50 million ad campaign to rework its corporate brand. In comparison, the company only spent $14 million for advertising during 2004. The campaign will contain outdoor, print and online ads that highlight the concept of "sharing."

The sharing concept refers to using computer networks to do tasks such as buying a car, shopping online or keeping up with the latest sports scores. In order to drive the point home, Sun will use advertising themed on its partnerships with companies such as General Motors, eBay and Major League Baseball.

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Selling or renting Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 3 to minors is now illegal in the Kanagawa state of Japan after the government deemed that it was too violent and harmful to younger gamers. Since being introduced in Japan in September of 2003, nearly 350,000 copies of the game have been sold.

Restrictions were placed on GTA 3 after officials expressed concern that children would mimic the game's actions. As part of the restrictions, the game must be separated from other "safer" titles, and will now have a "Harmful" sticker on the front of the box, similar to the Parental Advisory stickers on U.S. music titles. In order to purchase GTA 3, a person must be 18 years of age or older.

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Although the European Union's imposed deadline for Microsoft to comply with its antitrust sanctions has arrived, a decision on fines will not come until the end of July at the earliest. Spokesperson Jonathan Todd says that it may take several weeks to decide whether or not fines are necessary.

Under EU law, the European Commission has the authority to fine a company up to five percent of its daily global revenue if it feels its sanctions are not being followed appropriately. In March of 2004, the Commission fined Microsoft 497 billion euro for anti-competitive practices.

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Good Technology on Tuesday finalized a deal with Cingular to directly offer customers of the wireless provider Good's wireless e-mail services. The move puts pressure on rival Research in Motion's BlackBerry that offers similar functionality. But Good's service works pre-existing Palm and Windows-based personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Previously, in order to sign up for Good's wireless e-mail, Cingular customers had to sign to separate contracts with each provider. Under the new agreement, a customer will only have to sign the Cingular contract in order to receive the Good service.

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According to the Offical UK Charts Co., a cell phone ring tone is set to make history as the first song for mobile phones to crossover into the mainstream charts. "Crazy Frog Axel F", which is based on the sound of a revving Swedish moped, looks as if it will replace the new Oasis track "Lyla" as the new number one song in the UK.

Crazy Frog beat out Coldplay, who had hoped to go straight to number one with their new song "Speed of Sound." It was widely expected that, based on sales alone, the ring tone would edge out the popular British band. Crazy Frog, which is based on a decade-old song by 17 year-old Daniel Malmedahl, has received massive exposure and sold well in 5,600 retail locations from where the chart bases its figures.

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In an industry where consolidation appears to be more of the norm these days, don't expect T-Mobile USA to join the fray any time soon. That's according to company head Robert Dotson, who also told journalists that 3G network capabilities will come to the wireless carrier in 2007.

The service, which has been left in fourth place by a wide margin following a rash of mergers, says it doesn't mind trailing its competitors. T-Mobile International's CEO Rene Obermann told Reuters that he thought "the fourth rank is a good position," and reminded that out of all the carriers, T-Mobile still has the largest purchasing power due to the fact it is part of the biggest mobile carrier in the world.

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Apple is planning to release 2GB and 4GB versions of the iPod Shuffle this summer, according to a report on Friday by Asian technology site DigiTimes. According to the article, sources said that Toshiba and Samsung have "aggressively" ramped up production of Flash memory chips in preparation for the release of the new models.

The new iPod Shuffles will come in June and August according to reports. 8Gbit NAND Flash chips will be used in the higher capacity models, and currently only Toshiba and Samsung have the ability to produce them. Apple and Toshiba declined to comment on the report, and Samsung did not respond to a request for comment on the story.

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Scientists this week say the Voyager 1 space probe, launched in 1977, has reached the end of our solar system after going through an area known as "termination shock" and is entering the heliosheath.

The termination shock is a region where the solar winds from the sun slow abruptly from a speed of up to 1.5 million miles per hour due to pressure from gas between the stars. The exact location of this region is unknown since it can expand or contract based on the pressure of the solar wind.

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Via Technologies, a Taiwanese chipmaker, announced on Friday a new line of processors that it claims are as fast as current Intel and AMD mobile chips. However, Via's C7 processors come at a fraction of the price, clearing the way for sub-$800 thin profile laptops.

The C7 processor will initially come at speeds of up to 2.0 GHz, with up to a 800 MHz serial bus. Via says its top-of-the-line processor runs at about 20 watts of peak power - 40 percent cooler than Intel or AMD.

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It seems as if the promise of a unified next-generation DVD format may be dead for the near future. This comes after comments from Toshiba president Tadashi Okamura to a group of Japanese business leaders that seemed to indicate that the two sides were far from any kind of agreement.

Sony, however, seemed to hold out hope while at the same time stipulating that any agreement must be in its format's favor. The inability to compromise is the key reason why the two sides cannot seem to work out their differences.

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Microsoft on Thursday announced two new services aimed at curbing the ever-increasing amounts of spam making its way into MSN Hotmail customers' inboxes. Called MSN Postmaster and Smart Network Data Services, together the services will both ensure legitimate bulk e-mail makes it to Hotmail customers, as well as add an extra line of defense against unwanted spam.

Available in 10 languages, the MSN Postmaster web site will act as a virtual clearinghouse for information on issues and solutions regarding sending e-mail to subscribers of Hotmail. It will also help users to report cases of abuse and aid to troubleshoot issues with sending mail to the service.

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Yahoo on Thursday rolled out a beta version of a new service called PhotoMail, which will allow users to put up to 300 pictures in a single e-mail and provides unlimited storage space for users.

The company says that the new application will simplify the process of adding photos to messages. Since there is a higher limit to the amount of photos that can be attached to e-mail versus rivals Hotmail or AOL Mail, Yahoo says it is providing more freedom in mailing photos.

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