Microsoft Links Messenger, Cell Phones
Microsoft announced Wednesday a deal with France Telecom to place Windows Live Messenger onto the wireless carrier's handsets, enabling customers to instant message each other from their mobile phones. The service will also launch in the UK and Spain next year.
Although a version of MSN Messenger is already available for some phones, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the new software is different, and more feature-filled. It will eventually enable 135 million France Telecom customers to communicate with Microsoft's 240 million IM users around the world.
Symantec: MS Making Vista Insecure
Microsoft's partners are continuing to cry foul over the decision to lock down the Windows Vista kernel with a feature called PatchGuard, claiming an announcement about sharing security APIs is simply a "red herring" to fool the press.
The contentious issue revolves around the ability of security vendors to write applications that essentially "patch" the Windows kernel to protect it from viruses and other malware. With PatchGuard, Vista attempts to do this on its own, in turn thwarting both protectors and attackers.
Apple Ships iPods with Windows Virus
Apple apologized Tuesday for shipping video iPods containing the Windows virus RavMonE.exe, which apparently made its way onto a small number of the ubiquitous devices at a manufacturing plant. Around 1 percent of units shipped after September 12, 2006 are affected.
RavMonE.exe is a mass storage virus that only affects Windows computers. According to antivirus vendors, which dub the malware Win32.RJump.a and Troj/Bdoor-DIJ, the virus is a Trojan that opens links to Web sites and allows others access to a computer.
IFPI Sues 8,000 P2P File Swappers
The International Federation for the Phonograph Industry has issued a new round of lawsuits against peer-to-peer file sharers across the globe, suing 8,000 individuals in 17 countries. This includes the first cases filed in Brazil, Mexico and Poland.
According to the IFPI, over 1 billion songs were illegally downloaded in Brazil last year, and music sales have dropped in half since 2000, when P2P file trading began to take off. A combination of criminal and civil lawsuits are aimed at those "uploaders" who make available hundreds or thousands of songs for sharing.
AIM Architect Leaves AOL for Google
Justin Uberti, lead developer of AOL Instant Messenger who worked on the product for almost nine years, last week left the company and joined the ranks of Google. Uberti played an integral role in the launch of AIM Triton and the Open AIM initiative.
Google has long been hiring top talent from rivals such as Microsoft and Yahoo, and Uberti's departure from AOL may indicate the search giant wishes to grow its fledgling Google Talk client. As part of Google's $1 billion investment in AOL, the companies already plan to link up their IM networks and Uberti could play a role in making that a reality.
Images: Xbox 360 HD DVD Add-on
At DigitalLife in New York City over the weekend, Microsoft demonstrated its upcoming HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360. As previously reported, the device is priced at $199 USD and will ship with "King Kong" and a remote control. We snapped some pictures of the prototype on display, which was made by Mitsumi and Hynix.
FCC Delays Vote on AT&T-BellSouth
The Federal Communications Commission has delayed a vote to approve the merger between AT&T and BellSouth after commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein demanded public comment on the deal.
The FCC was scheduled to decide the matter Thursday, but pushed the vote to Friday. Now, agency Chairman Kevin Martin says he will delay the vote further until November 3 in order to accept 10 days of public comment. He also asked the commissioners to express their concerns about the merger as soon as possible.
Microsoft Plans Windows Live Agents
Microsoft is preparing to launch bots for Windows Live Messenger called Agents, with which users can interact and retrieve information. The service stems from an acquisition of Colloquis that the Redmond company announced Thursday.
Colloquis provides automated support to businesses that uses natural language processing to respond to customer requests. The company's Automated Service Agent service is currently employed by Cingular, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and a number of other companies.
Palm Unveils Treo 680 for Consumers
At DigitalLife 2006 in New York City Thursday, Palm introduced a new Treo smartphone aimed at average consumers rather than just business customers. The Treo 680 is a quad-band GSM handset that runs Palm OS and comes in a number of different colors.
Palm says it has designed the Treo 680 to reach a wide range of users around the world, and has simplified the device's software to make that goal a reality. "Really what we focused on in the past is the mobile professionals," Palm CEO Ed Colligan said in a press conference.
Sony Unveils New Walkman Lineup
In its continuing effort to win market share away from Apple's ubiquitous iPod, Sony on Thursday took the wraps off a new line of Walkman portable audio players, which the company says offers features not found in competing devices.
Five new Walkman models will debut before the end of the year, offering capacities up to 4GB. The players are shaped like a small perfume bottle, with the high-end model priced at 29,000 yen ($240) in Japan. But Sony acknowledges it has a long way to go if it wants to unseat Apple.
Qualcomm Hands Off Eudora to Mozilla
Qualcomm on Wednesday joined up with the Mozilla Foundation to announce it is transitioning Eudora into an open source e-mail client that will be based upon Thunderbird. In turn, all future versions of Eudora will be free and Qualcomm will discontinue the current paid client.
Although it may seem like Eudora is simply abandoning its e-mail software, which has a small but strong following of loyal users, the company claims the Thunderbird-based client will retain "Eudora's uniquely rich feature set and productivity enhancements."
Google Online Office Suite Gets Closer
Google took one step closer to launching an oft-rumored online Office suite Wednesday by combining its Writely word processor with Google Spreadhseets to form Google Docs & Spreadsheets - a new offering that analysts say is only a start.
In order to make the Web applications easier to use, Google has reworked both Writely and Spreadsheets to use a single login and a unified listing of documents. Docs & Spreadsheets requires no download and works within a Web browser, with the ability to export documents into a number of offline formats.
Carphone Warehouse Buys AOL UK
AOL shed yet another Internet access division Wednesday, announcing that Carphone Warehouse had agreed to purchase AOL UK for £370 million ($687 million). The provider of broadband and mobile phones will take over AOL's infrastructure in the country along with its two million subscribers.
The moves are part of an effort by AOL to distance itself from the ISP business as it attempts to rebuild as a free Web services provider like Google and Yahoo. AOL UK was the final international division that it put up for sale. Last month, AOL sold its French Internet access business to Neuf Cegetel, and its German unit to Telecom Italia.
Browser Usage Stats Show IE Up, Down
Two different browser statistics companies issued contradictory reports over the past week, highlighting the difficultly in obtaining accurate usage numbers of Internet Explorer and Firefox. But despite their differences, IE6 still holds a commanding share of the market in both surveys.
Net Applications, based in the United States and whose statistics are based on its HitsLink visitor tracking product for Web sites, said that usage of IE6 has fallen to its lowest levels yet: 82.1 percent. That number is down from 83 percent in August, the company reported, adding that Firefox picked up much of the difference.
Microsoft IPTV Software Gets Boost
Microsoft's Internet Protocol television (IPTV) efforts received a big boost from hardware vendors Tuesday, after Cisco, Motorola, Philips and Tatung all announced new set-top boxes that support Microsoft IPTV Edition software.
The units, which include system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology, can receive high-definition TV, digital video recording (DVR) and picture-in-picture functionalities over broadband connections to customers' homers. Microsoft heralded the arrival of SoC set-top boxes as a milestone for the fledgling IPTV industry.
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