New Mobile Phone Virus Found
Antivirus company F-Secure announced that it had found a new virus affecting Nokia Series 60 based smartphones late Monday. The virus spreads through MMS (Multimedia Message Service) when it is opened. Called CommWarrior, it searches the phone user's address book for numbers to replicate itself.
F-Secure believes that the virus has its origins in Russia as the text within the file, "OTMOP03KAM HET!" roughly means " No to braindeads" in Russian. Although the virus seems more of a nuisance than dangerous, it reflects an increased interest among virus makers to target smartphones. In late February, the mobile phone virus Cabir made its first appearance in the United States.
Napster Takes Service On the Road
Napster announced Tuesday that it will be taking its music subscription service on a four city tour to promote its advantages and to show off compatible players. At the four locations, in New York City, Austin, Nashville and Los Angeles, Napster will be giving away free music, as well as iRiver, Creative, and Dell MP3 players.
"Napster's portable subscription service is a revolutionary new way to enjoy digital music and gain access to well over a million songs," said Chris Gorog, Napster's chairman and CEO. "The Napster To Go tour allows us to connect directly with consumers and let them experience the future of digital music firsthand."
Apple to Cash In on Accessory Market
According to press reports, Apple is expected to cash in on the lucrative accessory market for its iPod players by asking for a royalty fee to use its "Made for iPod" logo on Apple-approved products.
According to sources, while Apple is looking to add to its bottom line, the company is also trying to protect consumers from "dangerous" accessories that have been known to damage the iPod hardware.
Windows XP, 2003 Vulnerable to Attack
A Serbian systems engineer alerted users of the Web site Security Focus over the weekend to a possible denial of service attack using MS-DOS. The problem affects those using Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP SP2 without a firewall activated.
Called a LAND attack, the 8 year-old denial of service involves a packet of information being sent to a computer where the source computer makes it look like the origin of the packet is the destination computer itself.
Intel Talks Up 'Humanized' Computing
While it may seem like something out of Star Trek, imagine being able to talk on the phone with someone who does not understand English - yet will hear it spoken in his or her native tongue because the phone automatically translates speech into the necessary language. Chipmaker Intel sees it happening within the next decade.
In a keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum, Justin Rattner, director of Intel's corporate technology group, told attendees that much of the company's recent moves are to prepare for these types of tasks, which will require much more computing power than is available today.
Nokia: No Fuel Cell Powered Phones Yet
Finnish phone maker Nokia scrapped plans for handsets to be powered by fuel cells, according to press reports Friday. The company originally had said it was expecting to bring fuel cell powered phones and accessories to the market within a year or two, but the technology is not "mature" enough, Nokia says.
Nokia's fuel cell technology uses methanol. However, the company was unable to find a consistent supplier of the gas, and current air traffic regulations prohibit methanol on board flights unless it is in protective packaging.
ChoicePoint to Sell Less Consumer Data
ChoicePoint's CEO Derek Smith said Friday that the company will no longer sell consumer data to a customer unless there is a direct benefit for the consumer whose information is being requested, or it supports a governmental or criminal justice purpose.
"These changes are a direct result of the recent fraud activity, our review over the past few weeks of our experience and products, and the response of consumers who have made it clear to us that they do not approve of sensitive personal data being used without a direct benefit to them," Smith said.
College Students to Preview New Games
Game Live Events, which bills itself as the largest touring videogame event in the US, announced a 25-stop college campus tour that starts March 5 at Washington State and ends April 28 in Arizona. The tour will feature unreleased beta titles from several game makers for the Microsoft Xbox, as well as several PC games.
Students at the 25 college campuses will be among the first to see and try these new games. Game Live said in a statement that it expects to preview more than 20 titles from Electronic Arts, U.S. Army, Midway LucasArts, Vivendi Universal, Majesco, Sammy Studios, and Ubisoft.
Dell CEO: Less Regulation on Digital Movies, Music
Dell CEO Kevin Rollins told the Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that he thinks the government and regulators should step back and resist any temptation to regulate the digital movie and music industry.
He also suggested that entertainment companies should try to be a little more cooperative with the technology industry in creating new ways to deliver digital movies and music to consumers.
Real Patches Security Flaws in Players
RealNetworks updated its media players on Wednesday in order to prevent malicious code from running on a victims' computer when an infected SMIL or WAV file is opened. The flaw, which affects all RealPlayer versions, can be fixed by downloading the latest update from Real's Web site.
The recent security problems follow a similar flaw with Real's movie files that was first discovered last October. But Real isn't the only one attempting to keep its media player secure. Microsoft recently issued an update to Windows Media Player that patches a potential vulnerability in its DRM licenses, which could cause a user to unknowingly download malware.
Lycos Asks Jeeves to Search Web
Lycos announced Wednesday that it had selected search provider Ask Jeeves to replace Yahoo's Inktomi search engine across its Web properties. Lycos had already been using Ask Jeeves on some of its sites, but Wednesday's deal means the search engine will now appear service-wide.
"The Lycos brand is known for search and we're committed to re-establishing Lycos.com as a leading search site." said Adam Soroca, general manager of search services at Lycos. "Ask Jeeves' Teoma search technology will deliver outstanding results to users of our new search-centric experience at Lycos.com."
New Sony MiniDisc Players Take on MP3
Sony has expanded its line of MiniDisc players in an effort to better compete with the Apple iPod and other digital music devices. Sony introduced a line of Hi-MD players, which are capable of holding up to 1GB of music on each disc, as well as being able to play MP3, WMA and WAV files.
Also released Wednesday was the MZ-DH10P, a new Hi-MD model that includes a color screen and a 1.3 megapixel digital camera with 4x digital zoom.
iTunes Sales Show No Signs of Slowing
Daily music sales from Apple's iTunes Music Store continue to accelerate as Apple announced Wednesday it had surpassed 300 million downloads. In late January, the service announced its 250 millionth download, which figures out to be about 1.5 million songs downloaded each day from iTunes.
Additionally, Apple announced Wednesday that its exclusive digital benefit single, "Across the Universe," debuted at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The song is the most successful digital track ever in its first week of release. "We're honored to offer 'Across the Universe' exclusively on the iTunes Music Store with all proceeds going to tsunami survivors and their families," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Applications.
Verizon Allows MCI to Talk With Qwest
Verizon said in a statement Wednesday that it would allow MCI to resume talks for two weeks with Qwest over its renewed bid, as per Verizon's February 14 agreement with the company.
"Verizon recognizes that it is in the best interests of the stakeholders of both Verizon and MCI to address recent market speculation regarding Qwest's claims that it can deliver greater value to MCI's shareholders," the statement said.
Creative Responds to iPod Price Drop
Electronics maker Creative announced Tuesday that it would drop prices on its Zen Micro, a move that could be seen as a direct response to Apple's recent changes to its iPod line.
The 4GB Zen Micro dropped to $199, the 5GB to $229, and a new 6GB version will be introduced at a price of $249. The new pricing structure puts Creative in line with Apple's latest offerings.
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.
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