"The Army is angry, and we're coming for you," America's Army executive producer Phil DeLuca warned cheaters in a notice on the computer game's official forums. Seemingly enraged at some players taking advantage of problems in the game, DeLuca said that those not playing by the rules were "misusing Army property" and akin to the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor.

The announcement came as a shock to many America's Army players, and further enraged those who feel the free game is used as a recruiting tool for the United States Army. The forums posting has since been removed from the game's Web site, but not before news of its contents began to spread.

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Leading European antivirus vendor Panda Software has pledged its support behind the Anti-Phishing Working Group, which was established by industry leaders to stem the growing tide of phishing and email spoofing attacks. The group shares information about the problem and is promoting the development of industry standards to fight back.

"Phishing frauds are getting more and more common and it would not be an exaggeration to say that they are one of the main threats faced by users when they browse the Internet or use email," said Luis Corrons, Head of PandaLabs at Panda Software. "In fact, the consequences of falling victim to one of these scams are disastrous, as they affect both personal and corporate finances."

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Citing the need for secure browsing in educational institutions, Opera Software has announced that it will give away licenses for its flagship browser to universities. The effort is designed to help schools move away from Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which has been plagued with a constant stream of vulnerabilities.

Opera says it can fully customize its browser for a school's needs, including using the school colors and mascot in the interface. Schools can also insert news and other announcements in the browser's communication banner.

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Touting its continued support of Mac OS X, Microsoft is seeking beta testers for a new tool that allows users to migrate their e-mail from Outlook 2001 to Entourage 2004, Microsoft's latest mail client for Apple's operating system. The .PST Import Tool was unveiled yesterday at Macworld alongside a new version of MSN Messenger and new Office tools and templates.

The public beta program is targeted at IT managers, and is also available in Japan. Applications are being accepted via Beta Place, using the guest ID: Guest4PST. Microsoft will respond via e-mail to those who meet tester requirements and provide a unique ID to the .PST Import Tool Beta site, which hosts downloads and a bug reporting tool.

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Intel is preparing to unveil an update to its Centrino mobile PC platform later this month, with notebooks featuring the chipset set to ship on January 19. The new chip package, code-named "Sonoma," includes support for "advanced audio, video, 3D gaming and TV-out capabilities traditionally found in desktop PCs," according to Intel. The company will hold a launch event in San Francisco to herald Sonoma's arrival.

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With his usual panache, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage during his annual Macworld keynote and wooed the crowd with the latest in Mac wares. Among Jobs' many announcements were the oft-speculated $499 "Mac mini" and Flash memory based iPod shuffle.

For much of the presentation, Jobs kept attendees in suspense. During the first hour of the keynote, Jobs went through much of what Mac users already knew was coming - various demos of the new features of iPhoto, iMovie and other iLife products. Also demoed was iWork, which includes Apple's new word processing application, "Pages."

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As expected, Apple CEO Steve Jobs today unveiled a refreshed iLife software suite, along with a new productivity package called iWork. iLife features all new versions of Apple's flagship software, while iWork introduces a new word processing application.

iWork will replace the company's aging AppleWorks suite, which Jobs called "long in the tooth." It will include a new version of Keynote, Apple's presentation software, along with a new application dubbed Pages. Keynote 2 builds upon its predecessor with new themes and Flash output.

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Microsoft is laying the groundwork for a major expansion of its Redmond campus, with plans to add 2 million square feet of office space, which will house up to 12,000 new employees, as well as renovations to its existing 8 million square feet. Microsoft will also contribute $30 million USD local transportation and infrastructure.

Microsoft plans to make its campus more university-like, with outdoor common areas surrounded by buildings. "Today's filing reflects the spirit of collaboration between Microsoft and the city of Redmond and further underscores our commitment to the Puget Sound region and to Washington state," said Microsoft senior vice president Brad Smith. "Microsoft has been in the region for 25 years, and we are here to stay."

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One month after announcing its plans to test a desktop search application, Yahoo! has joined frontrunners Microsoft and Google in their efforts to index and search hard drives as efficiently as they do the Web. But unlike its rivals, Yahoo! has not developed its own desktop search, instead the licensing technology from X1.

The Yahoo! Desktop Search beta searches over 200 file types, the company says, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, text, HTML, and ZIP files. E-mails within Outlook or Outlook Express are also indexed, along with the contents of attachments.

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As the books close on its merger with PeopleSoft, Oracle may have another battle looming - this time with Redmond. Microsoft is hoping to benefit from PeopleSoft customers uneasy with their new parent company by offering a discounted migration path onto Microsoft Business Solutions.

The PeopleSoft migration program provides technology for moving data to Microsoft's platform, discounts on software and services, and what Redmond calls "strategic guidance." Migration customers will receive a 25 percent discount on software, as well as a 25 percent discount on the first year of support.

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Now that the exhibits have been packed up and hotels vacated, the time has come to reflect on last week's Consumer Electronics Show. CES offers a peek at the upcoming year in tech and although no one product stole the spotlight, Las Vegas was not without its usual dazzle. Read on as we highlight the important news from CES 2005.

Tuesday

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PERSPECTIVE Imagine the uproar if Symantec bought advertising banners at VX Heavens, an underground Web site for computer virus writers. Or if Verisign paid for ad space at Carders Portal, a favorite site of phishing scammers. Even worse, what if both security companies were promoting how-to books about writing viruses or conducting identity theft?

People would rightly be asking, whose side are these guys on, anyway? Why are they giving money and weapons to the enemy? (The paranoid have long suspected antivirus software companies of supporting virus-writers in order to keep business going strong.)

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The FreeBSD Foundation, funded largely by donations from the devoted community around its open source UNIX operating system, received some bad news shortly before Christmas. Sun Microsystems has announced it is revoking FreeBSD's SCSL license, which permits the project to ship Java support with the OS.

The SCSL, or Sun Community Source License, is a combination of proprietary and open source licenses. In order to distribute the Java runtime environment in FreeBSD, the project signed an initial agreement with Sun in August 2003.

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Apple has brought its iTunes Music Store to Ireland, further expanding its European reach to thirteen countries. Despite Apple's close ties with Irish band U2, iTunes downloads were previously only available across the water in the UK. Like its other European stores, iTunes for Ireland will showcase native artists and offer songs for 99 euro cents each.

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Microsoft plans to finally move its Smart Personal Objects Technology initiative beyond watches and bring its MSN Direct service to new devices, such as alarm and wall clocks. Although Redmond originally demoed SPOT in early 2003 within bedside alarms and kitchen appliances, the technology has thus far been limited to wrists.

To finally make headway in its original vision, Microsoft has tapped clock companies Oregon Scientific and MZ Berger. The SPOT group plans to develop a weather station alarm clock with Oregon Scientific, which shows the day's forecast and current temperatures so early risers can quickly don appropriate attire.

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