Nate Mook

Google Disarms 'Googlebombs'

Google has made what it calls a "pretty small" change to the way it indexes Web sites in order to prevent a prank often called "Googlebombing" in which many people link the same word to specific Web site in order to raise it to the top of search results.

Notable Googlebombs, or linkbombs, include the word "failure" resulting in a link to U.S. President George W. Bush's Web site, as well as associating the word "talentless hack" with Adam Mathes. In turn, Google says it has improved the way it analyzes the link structure of the Web.

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Boeing Scraps In-Flight Wireless Plans

Following news Monday that its new 787 "Dreamliner," the fastest-selling new plane in the company's history, would be delayed three months, Boeing said it was scrapping plans to deliver in-flight entertainment over a high-speed wireless network.

Boeing had planned to utilize wireless connectivity to stream movies and other programming to each site, thereby reducing the amount of wiring needing to be run during the aircraft's assembly. Airbus, Boeing's European rival, encountered numerous wiring issues that delayed its A380 super-jumbo jet by more than two years.

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Access Renames Palm OS to Garnet OS

Access, the company behind the former PalmSource, announced Thursday it is renaming the Palm OS operating system to "Garnet OS," rolling out a new "Access Powered" logo that replaces the "Palm Powered" branding used on a wide range of handheld devices.

In September 2005, Access purchased Palm OS and its owner PalmSource, which was spun out of Palm, Inc. following that company's separation from former parent 3Com. PalmSource changed its name to Access Systems America in October, selling the rights to the "Palm" brand name back to Palm, Inc.

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MS Extends XP Home, MCE Support

Microsoft said Wednesday it has added an Extended Support phase to the consumer versions of Windows XP: Home Edition and Media Center Edition. The five-year Extended Support normally applies only to the business versions of Windows.

With the change, Mainstream Support for Windows XP Home and Media Center will last through April 2009, while Extended Support runs through April 2014 - just like it does for Windows XP Professional. During the Mainstream Support phase, Microsoft provides non-security fixes to customers free of charge. During the Extended phase, those customers must sign an agreement with Microsoft and pay a fee for any updates.

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Microsoft Photosynth Now for Firefox

Microsoft on Wednesday added Firefox support to its Photosynth technology preview, which is capable of taking hundreds of photographs and building a three-dimensional model in which users can "fly" through like a virtual world. Support for user-created models is still in the works, however.

Photosynth was first announced at SIGGRAPH 2006. Microsoft describes it as "a hybrid of a slide show and a gaming experience that lets the viewer zoom in to see greater detail or zoom out for a more expansive view."

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ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Released to Web

Microsoft on Tuesday released the final version of ASP.NET AJAX 1.0, the company's Web development toolkit for Asynchronous JavaScript. The software integrates with the .NET Framework 3.0 and the resulting code is browser independent.

The company's goal was to develop a series of small libraries that a browser can load into memory as necessary -- rather than loading one huge library -- that will give Web developers the framework for implementing on-page controls. These controls provide animated functionality, and more importantly, can be loaded with variable amounts of new content as necessary by resuming HTTP contact with the Web server; thus, the "asynchronous" aspect of the language.

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22% of Windows Installs Non-Genuine

Microsoft disclosed Monday that over one in five Windows installations were deemed non-genuine through the company's Windows Genuine Advantage program, which requires users to validate their operating system before downloading updates from the company.

Since WGA launched in July 2005, over 512 million users have attempted to validate their copy of Windows, Microsoft said. Of those, the non-genuine rate was 22.3 percent. 56,000 reports have been made by customers of counterfeit software, which grants that user a free replacement copy of Windows.

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BitTorrent Pirates Want Own Country

In what could be seen as both marketing stunt and ploy for donations, popular Swedish BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay has announced intentions to raise money to purchase Sealand, a claimed "sovereign Principality" founded in international waters, six miles off the eastern shores of Britain.

The idea is to establish The Pirate Bay in a location where international copyright laws do not apply. The service, easily the most popular site hosting torrent files for downloading illicit content such as movies and television shows, has faced increasing pressure since being raided and forced to relocate from Sweden last May.

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Skype Founders Name TV Startup Joost

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have given a name to their new Internet television startup, which formerly went by the code-name The Venice Project. Now officially dubbed Joost, the company intends to combine a TV-like experience with the flexibility of the Web.

Boasting itself as a "secure, efficient, piracy-proof Internet platform," Joost hopes to lure television networks and content providers to distribute their videos online, although specifics of the technology are still under wraps. What is known is that Joost will make use of peer-to-peer streaming.

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Microsoft Hits 100 Million IE7 Installs

Microsoft announced Friday it has hit the 100 million installation milestone for Internet Explorer 7, a figure that makes the new browser the second most used behind IE6. Web analytics firm WebSideStory reports that 25 percent of all Web surfers in the United States are now running IE7.

"We expect these numbers to continue to rise as we complete our final localized versions, scale up AU distribution, and with the consumer availability of Windows Vista on January 30, 2007," wrote IE group program manager Tony Chor on the IEBlog. Because IE7 is built into Windows Vista, Microsoft expects adoption rates to jump further as consumers upgrade. Already, Microsoft is preparing to discuss the next version of Internet Explorer at the company's MIX conference that begins April 30.

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Beta Test a Mobile Phone with TV

Centercode is seeking testers for a beta program involving a mobile phone that has the capability of receiving and displaying television through a special broadcast feed. Participants must be located in New York City and be a subscriber in good standing with Cingular and T-Mobile.

The phone enables users to watch their favorite sports, news and other programs. Applications for the beta program will be accepted until 25 January 2007. After that time, the application process will be closed. This is a legitimate beta test opportunity and has no cost associated with participation. For more information and to apply, visit the Centercode Web site.

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Happy Holidays 2006 from BetaNews

As we prepare to bid adieu to 2006, we at BetaNews would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude for all of the support we have received from our software authors, downloaders and devoted readers over the past twelve months.

This has been a momentous -- and contentious -- year for the world, which has also brought great change to BetaNews. Most importantly, we have expanded our team with some fresh faces, recently welcoming Executive Producer Scott M. Fulton, III and Associate Editor Timothy Conneally. More additions are coming, as we strive to deliver a new level of content and services on BetaNews.

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AOL Settles with Florida Over Billing

AOL has settled with the state of Florida after an investigation regarding over 1,000 customer complaints related to the Internet service provider's billing and subscriber practices. AOL previously settled with New York after AOL employees refused customer requests to cancel their accounts.

The problem shot into the public spotlight earlier this year after a customer recorded a call in which the AOL employee said he could not cancel the AOL service. Florida consumers who filed a complaint about AOL are eligible to be part of the settlement, in which AOL will pay restitution or forgive outstanding balances.

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Adobe Preps Response to Microsoft XPS

Adobe may already own the market for electronic documents thanks to PDF, but the company knows that Microsoft has a habit of showing up late to the party and stealing the crown. In turn, Adobe is beta testing a new project it calls "Mars," which is an answer to Microsoft's new XPS format.

XPS, formerly known as Metro, is an XML-based "electronic paper" format that will allow documents to be displayed as they were saved on any platform. Many of the features of XPS mirror those in PDF, and Microsoft is working with printer manufacturers to include native support for the format - much like Adobe PostScript.

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Microsoft Beta Testing New VoIP Server

The successor to Live Communications Server 2005, the component of Microsoft's Office System that handles communication between office workers, has entered private beta testing. Now simply called Office Communications Server 2007, the software integrates voice over IP calling with traditional phone setups.

While VoIP telephony has started to gain traction in the enterprise, the largest barrier to entry has remained the initial cost of migrating current systems. In addition, while businesses may save on calls themselves, the associated hardware costs are still sky high.

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