Jobs WWDC keynote to showcase OS X, iPhone
Apple detailed Tuesday the content of Jobs' keynote at WWDC, in a sort of confirmation that announcements there will involve the iPhone..
As expected, the keynote will take place on the first day of the conference, June 9, at 10am. According to a statement from the company, Jobs will be joined by "a team of Apple executives" to show off the company's current operating system.
Government data breach affects six million Chileans
A hacker broke into a Chilean government server on Friday, and then posted personal information from over six million of the country's citizens.
The government appointed a special prosecutor on Monday, and said the data included names, identity card numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mails, and academic records. It was taken from Education Ministry, military, and Electoral Service servers.
'Orphaned Works' legislation faces pushback from artists
While two bills introduced in Congress last week have support from several groups representing the recording and Internet broadcasting industries, artists themselves are among its most vocal critics.
Two bills now making their way through the Senate and House, proposed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D - Vt.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D - Calif.) aim to change copyright law to address the issue of whether individuals or companies have the right to use unclaimed art -- including musical backgrounds and visual or graphic art -- after a reasonable search for their originators turns up nothing.
MIT students show off array of Android apps
Professor Hal Abelson gave his students one assignment in his class this past semester: design an application for Google's new mobile platform.
The students came up with a broad range of ideas, all of which show the overwhelming power the operating system has to change the way mobile phone applications are regarded.
Google debuts new Reader for iPhone
The search company released a new version of its mobile Google Reader product, aiming to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the iPhone.
Google Reader has been available to mobile surfers for quite a while: the first release debuted in May of 2006, but was written in XHTML -- the language of choice for mobile Web development.
Broad opposition meeting Yahoo-Google ad deal
While the company may be free of Microsoft, Yahoo is now facing pushback over its planned advertising deal with Google.
Even though no deal has been officially reached, the mention of discussions has some calling for government intervention over antitrust issues. Several interest groups across a wide variety of industries are asking the Justice Department to step in.
Microsoft launches video sharing on Messenger
Microsoft will now allow for a group of Live Messenger chat participants to watch a video at the same time.
Social video sharing is nothing new, but through a messenger client it is. While users won't be able to stream their own videos yet -- likely due to bandwidth issues as well as copyright concerns -- it certainly is a start.
Philadelphia's Wi-Fi network threatened with shutdown
EarthLink attempted to give Philadelphia a deadline of last Thursday to hand over control of its municipal wireless network in order to shut it down gracefully, however the city has so far pushed back the effort.
Wireless Philadelphia, the non-profit group tasked with management of the network, said that the service continues to operate across the city. It argues that EarthLink has no right to set any type of deadline for a handover, or shut the network off.
Windows XP SP3 update causing endless reboots in AMD machines
An issue with how the Service Pack 3 update handles AMD chips will cause some Windows XP computers to continuously reboot. Microsoft says it is investigating, and provided removal instructions for those having problems.
The issues come in two forms: The first affects some systems with AMD chips and OEM XP images, while the other seems to affect certain AMD motherboards. Microsoft is looking into the problem and said it will advise when it has a solution.
FBI bought $3.5 million in counterfeit networking parts
The FBI recently discovered it had been duped into buying about 3,500 parts that were not genuine Cisco products.
Among the fake parts purchased were routers, switches, interface converters, and WAN cards. There was some concern initially that these parts could pose a potential security risk, allowing hackers access to sensitive data.
Apple has Wii-like Apple TV controller under development
A patent filed in 2006 and published this week indicates that Apple is developing a game controller that would allow for control much like Nintendo's popular console.
The controller will be able to detect which way it is being turned on the first and second orthogonal axes -- in other words, left and right, and up and down respectively -- and the position in the third orthogonal axis -- which is "in" and "out" from the screen.
Circuit City to open its books to Blockbuster, Icahn
Retailer Circuit City has secured Goldman Sachs to advise it on its future moves and confirmed it had received information on how a buyout by Blockbuster would be financed.
Circuit City said it will consider all proposals, although it stressed it had not come to a decision on any single alternative. Furthermore, the company will no longer comment on any future moves until the board approves a particular plan.
Microsoft: Don't expect a Yahoo deal, at least for now
A Microsoft executive has thrown cold water on hopes that the company would try again with Yahoo, and sources indicate the company has released its proxy slate of would-be Yahoo directors.
During a tour of company executives in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday, Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie told Reuters that Microsoft considers its efforts to acquire Yahoo over, and that the company had moved on to what he termed as "Plan B."
Canadian iPod settlement resolves battery life claims
Canadian owners of first, second and third generation iPods will be eligible for a $45 credit as part of a settlement over battery life claims.
Two lawsuits have been filed in the country. While one in Quebec was denied class-action status, the other in Ontario had been accepted by the courts. This agreement would settle both cases.
State Dept. loses, then recovers, anti-terrorism computers worth $30 M
For several months, according to an Inspector General's report discovered by a group of former State Department employees, the Dept. did not know the whereabouts of some 400 laptops. And now, somehow, they've all been found.
A blog maintained by some former US Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) who found their security credentials inexplicably suspended in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, is being credited for having shed light on a serious State Dept. problem: A February audit by the Inspector General's office determined that as many as 400 laptop computers belonging to a key anti-terrorism training task force were unaccounted for, among other possibly lost State Dept. assets.
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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