Ed Oswald

UPDATE Google has squashed a bug discovered by UNIX developers HBX Networks within Gmail that allows access to other users' personal e-mails. By altering the "From" address field of an e-mail sent to the service, hackers could potentially find out a user's personal information, including passwords.

Quick to respond, Google acknowledged the problem late Wednesday and has since corrected the problem for all users, a company source said.

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Californians who have not filed claims for a $1.1 billion settlement now have until January 22 to submit the necessary paperwork. The deadline had previously been January 8, however it was extended after several people reported problems in filling out the paperwork.

The settlement stems from a lawsuit against Microsoft that claimed the company overcharged for its products. Californians will be eligible for vouchers worth $5 to $29 USD per copy of Microsoft Windows, Word or Excel that they own, and could be used towards future purchases of Microsoft software.

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PERSPECTIVE After beginning the year with a little over 1.6 million listeners, satellite radio saw explosive growth in 2004 ending the year with over 4 million subscribers. Thanks to the signing of shock jock Howard Stern, satellite radio will come into the mainstream during 2005.

At CES 2005, I found the differences among providers SIRIUS and XM to be somewhat stunning.

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Microsoft announced at Macworld 2004 that it has listened to feedback from users of its Office 2004 for Mac suite and will be implementing those suggestions into the new enhancements unveiled Tuesday at the show.

The enhancements include an import tool to migrate data from Outlook 2001 for Mac to Entourage 2004, software updates to Entourage, a new version of MSN Messenger and new Office tools and templates. Microsoft also said it was working with Apple to ensure that Office integrates nicely with the new version of OS X dubbed "Tiger."

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PCMCIA Cards, the credit-card sized cards used in a variety of applications for notebook computers, will soon be getting smaller and faster. A new technology called ExpressCard claims to be twice as fast as the current iteration and about half the size.

Several laptop models with the new technology are expected to be announced this month, with at least half having the ExpressCard slot by years end. About a dozen cards are expected to be released shortly, mostly for standard memory and communications uses.

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In what Big Blue believes is the largest pledge of patents in history, IBM has offered up 500 patents to the open source initiative. The patents will be open for use by any individual, company or community to use in software that will be open source by the standards of the Open Source Initiative (OSI).

IBM hopes that this initial pledge of patents will help to form a "patent commons," where technology companies would release some of their privately held patents in order to foster innovation that would benefit everyone.

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On2 Technologies, fresh off news that it will team up with XM Satellite Radio to provide in-car video via satellite, announced a new version of its video codec Monday, dubbed VP7. The company says that VP7 is able to deliver high-quality video over a dial-up connection, while competitors are held up by standards adherence.

"VP7 marks some major advances in compression technology," said Jim Bankoski, Senior Vice President of Engineering at On2. "We're particularly excited about the improvements we've achieved in animated material. The quality VP7 provides on animated material is truly astounding. We can now deliver high-quality animated material at dial-up data rates."

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Creative's Zen Micro Photo took honors for "Best of CES" in the audio-to-go category, making it the third year in a row that Creative has won an award from the annual electronics show. The Zen Micro Photo is meant to compete with Apple's market leading iPod Photo, which was released in the fall of last year.

Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative took the opportunity in a statement to boast over Zen Micro Photo's buzz at CES 2005. "The success of the original Zen Micro has been so great that it was tough to deliver an encore in such a short period of time. Yet we blew everyone away when we unveiled the Zen Micro Photo and won the 'Best of CES' award for the third time in a row," he said. "The judges for 'Best of CES' had never seen anything like it."

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Regional provider ALLTEL will merge with Western Wireless in a $6 billion transaction that would make ALLTEL the fifth-largest wireless company in the United States, representatives of the two companies announced Monday. After completion of the merger, the company will have 10 million customers in 33 states, plus 1.6 million international customers.

CEO Scott Ford said Western Wireless was a logical acquisition partner for ALLTEL, telling reporters that the "transaction strengthens ALLTEL's position as the nation's top regional communications company and makes sense financially and strategically."

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After what many have considered a rough outing for the smaller of the two satellite radio providers at CES 2005, some good news for SIRIUS came from partner XACT Communications as it unveiled the ReGo.

Billed as the services' first truly portable unit, the ReGo will have similar features as the recently released MyFi for rival service XM. However, with the addition of an optional CompactFlash card, the ReGo will also be able to play MP3 files as well.

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Verizon announced "VCast," a new high-speed wireless multimedia and video service, at CES on Friday. For $15.00 USD per month, customers will be able to access over 300 videos optimized for the company's new CDMA EV-DO network. The new service distances Verizon from its rivals in terms of "next generation" wireless services.

The company says that its EV-DO network will support speeds of between 300 and 500kbps, roughly as fast as a low-grade DSL connection. However, trials have shown that real world speeds are less than what Verizon claims, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. analyst Brian Modoff said in a report last September.

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Schools in the United States are falling behind society in the use of technology according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Education. However, the report did find that virtually every school is connected to the Internet, and there is an average of one computer for every five students.

Education Secretary Rod Paige blames the resistance to technology by educators on lack of training and understanding.

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DirecTV demonstrated its own DVR based on internal technology Thursday, fueling speculation that its partnership with TiVo may have soured further than previously thought. The new DirecTV DVR uses technology from NDS, a subsidiary of parent company News Corp.

"We'll support our existing TiVo customers," a spokesperson said. "But our core initiatives and new customer acquisition will focus on our new DVR."

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Advanced Micro Devices is hoping to break into Intel's lock on the mobile computer chip market with its new line of processors, called "Turion".

While the dictionary may define Turion as the "young shoot of a plant," officials at AMD thought the word invoked a sense of the "open road" or a "tour." Either way, the announcement is a direct response to the success of Intel's Centrino processor, which will be updated later this month.

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Paramount Pictures will be the first movie studio to offer movie titles in HD-DVD, a next-generation DVD format created by Toshiba and NEC. Paramount took the opportunity at a HD-DVD press conference at CES late Wednesday to announce that more than 20 titles are expected to be available by the fourth quarter of 2005.

"Paramount's depth of content, combined with the innovative technology of HD DVD, will introduce consumers to exciting, new ways of enjoying the action, drama, sounds and excitement of their favorite films in the comfort of their living room," said Rob Friedman, COO of Paramount Pictures. "We're pleased to be at the forefront of next generation of DVD and these titles are just the beginning."

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