Ed Oswald

Apple issued a recall of more PowerBook and iBook batteries after receiving reports of overheating problems from end users. The new recall covers batteries in laptops shipped between October 2004 and May 2005 in 128,000 12 and 15-inch PowerBook G4s and 12-inch iBook laptops.

An internal short within the battery can cause it to overheat and possibly catch fire, according to the company's submission to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

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Goldman Sachs warned that the Xbox 360's price may be higher than initially expected due to the added cost of the hard drive and limited supply as Microsoft is aiming for a worldwide release. However, being first to market may carry an advantage.

"Microsoft observed that the upcoming Sony PS3 appears to be a powerful box similar to Xbox 360, but believes that [it] will have an important time-to-market advantage with a head start on next-generation content, which takes time to fully leverage the capabilities of the console," Goldman said. Goldman expects Microsoft to sell 3 million units of the new console in the December quarter.

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Time Warner said that it had recently considered spinning off its America Online unit, but decided that it would be unnecessary to do so at this time, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

The online division would have been spun off to create some cash revenue to allow for other acquisitions, the company said.

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Apple gave details on Friday of what security flaws were fixed within the Mac OS X 10.4.1 update released earlier this week. The update patched four security holes, most notably fixing a problem within Dashboard that would make it possible for a malicious widget to gain control of a user's system.

Also fixed was a hole within Bluetooth file transfer that could allow access to a file outside of a user's shared directory, a problem with locked screensavers that allowed anyone with access to a machine to open the Web browser without entering a password, and a security problem within the kernel itself that allowed access to hidden files.

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Online movie rental store Netflix and Wal-Mart announced on Thursday a partnership to replace the brick-and-mortar store's online DVD rental service with a co-branded rental site from Netflix. In return, Netflix will feature Wal-Mart's online DVD store as its recommended site for movie purchases both on its site and through e-mails.

Exisiting rental customers of Wal-Mart's Rental Service will be offered a deal where they can sign up to Netflix at their previous monthly rate for a period of one year.

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According to a recent survey, more than one-third of all software installed on personal computers is pirated. 35 percent of installed software was pirated in 2004, down one percent from last year. However, the survey found that losses from software increased, from $29 to $33 billion.

The survey was released by the Business Software Alliance, a group of leading software developers. However, the research was completed by independent firm IDC.

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Vonage on Thursday announced that it had signed deals with SBC and BellSouth to provide enhanced 911 services to its customers in three out of four major service areas of the two companies. The talks had been ongoing since April. This comes before an expected ruling on Thursday by the FCC to force traditional and VoIP phone companies to work together within a certain period of time or face possible sanctions.

Vonage penned a deal with Verizon on May 4 that will give it access to enhanced 911 services across the phone providers coverage area.

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Industry analysts are expecting a ruling on Thursday from the Federal Communications Commission which could set firm rules on how VoIP phone services access the 911 system.

Several cases have already occurred where emergency assistance was delayed due to the system not routing calls correctly, or failing to work at all.

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Jamdat Mobile announced at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles that it has acquired the rights to a wireless version of the popular videogame Doom from game maker id Software. The company will develop and release the game to coincide with the release of a motion picture version of Doom.

The original version of the game was launched back in 1994, and quickly became a cult favorite among early PC gamers. At the time, the game was considered revolutionary as it was the first game to use advanced graphics and started the genre of first-person shooting games.

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As expected, palmOne on Wednesday launched its LifeDrive, the first hard-drive based PDA from the company. The LifeDrive sports 4GB of internal storage, a 320x480 high-resolution color screen, and includes built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.

"LifeDrive mobile manager comes at an inflection point in the market, when people are ready for more advanced devices that meet their growing mobile-computing needs," said Ken Wirt, senior vice president at palmOne. "LifeDrive is versatile. For the business executive, it's a personal mobile briefcase; for the photo enthusiast, it's a camera companion."

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Apple released its first update to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger earlier this week. Version 10.4.1 addresses various issues within the new operating system, including a problem where Apple's Safari Web browser quit when right clicking on certain types of graphics or PDF files.

Noticeably missing from the update, however, is a fix for a security hole within Dashboard. Users of Safari can automatically install Dashboard widgets straight from the browser, which some have criticized as a way for malicious code to make its way onto the Mac. A full list of the changes included in 10.4.1 can be found on Apple's support site.

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Nintendo debuted a new portable gaming system at its pre-E3 press conference on Tuesday, dubbed the Game Boy Micro. About the size of the iPod Mini, the Micro measures four inches wide by two inches tall, and features a two-inch LCD screen.

The Micro comes with a built in rechargeable lithium-ion battery and headphones. Nintendo will also give consumers a choice of colors and designs much like the iPod Mini.

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Spam detection software company Mail-Filters.com reported that last week its servers had detected an average of 103,967 sources of spam or malware per hour being sent to its customers. The company warned, however, that this was only "the tip of the iceberg" and the number of pieces of spam and malware sent were likely much larger.

"Given that the typical number of spammers in any given hour is in the hundreds, we can say that the vast majority of these machines are hijacked. Not only that, this is a one hour snapshot of spammers sending messages to our partners' customers," Ben Westbrook, CEO of Mail-Filters said.

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With high-definition television becoming more pervasive in American households, it was only a matter of time before affordable consumer high-definition camcorders appeared on the market. Sony announced late Monday a consumer HDTV camera for under $2,000.

"It is a natural progression to want to create personal content in high definition," said Linda Vuolo, director for camcorder products at Sony Electronics. "This introduction is a key step in bringing high-definition video recording to a broad cross-section of consumers. For about $2,000, there is now an easy-to-use solution."

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Microsoft announced at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles on Tuesday that users of its Xbox 360 gaming console and Windows XP Media Center Edition would work together through a free update from the company. Called the Media Center Extender, it will allow users to pull content off their Media Center PCs and play them on the screen where the Xbox is attached.

"Microsoft continues to advance its vision of digital entertainment anywhere," said Will Poole, senior vice president at Microsoft. "By seamlessly integrating Microsoft's premium entertainment devices, we are greatly enhancing the ways in which our customers will experience entertainment in and around their homes."

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