Tim Conneally

Today, Google launched its SearchWiki feature, which adds an aspect of personalization and quasi-semantic enhancement.

Several weeks after search startup Semanti Corp launched its Google-centric search plug-in that allows users to tag and rank search results, Google has come out with its own version, SearchWiki. Google's new product is different from Semanti's in that it is primarily intended to be personal. A signed-in user's search results can be re-ranked, deleted, added, or commented upon.

Apple today released the iPhone's 2.2 firmware upgrade that includes Google Maps upgrades, and the ability to directly load podcasts to the device.

While today's update does improve issues with mail fetching, stability in Safari, and sound quality of Visual Voicemail, it is not a critical fix for problems like the 2.1 update was. Rather, it adds some welcome features to the device that have been floating around the blogosphere as rumors for a month or so.

Yesterday, Verizon Wireless issued a statement that "a number" of its employees accessed US President-Elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account without authorization.

"The account has been inactive for several months. The device on the account was a simple voice flip-phone, not a BlackBerry or other smartphone designed for e-mail or other data services," Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam said, "All employees who have accessed the account -- whether authorized or not -- have been put on immediate leave, with pay. As the circumstances of each individual employee's access to the account are determined, the company will take appropriate actions. Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action."

AOL has begun open beta testing of AOL Sync, a feature that allows Outlook contact and calendar updates to be synchronized wirelessly with a user's address book and calendar both in his AOL account and on his mobile device.

Powered by Funambol's open source SyncML push/sync software, AOL sync should be instantly compatible with more than 17 different brands of handset, including the iPhone, 27 different types of BlackBerry, and the multitude of Windows Mobile devices.

Not even five months into the project, Google's Lively Team announced that the gadget-based mini-metaverse will be discontinued at the end of December.

"Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it's the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people's lives. But we've also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off," the team's official announcement said, "It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business."

Microsoft announced today that its subscription music service for the Zune will now allow users to download 10 tracks per month to keep forever.

A Zune Pass subscription costs $14.99 a month, and like other services, offers unlimited music downloading for the duration of the subscription. Now, users can download 10 DRM-free tracks a month to keep irrespective of their subscription status.

An apparent licensing issue has rendered Columbia Pictures movies unwatchable through New Xbox Experience's Netflix instant queue, for reasons Netflix is describing as a "natural ebb and flow" of licensing.

AOL gaming blog Joystiq reported that Instant queues in their advance access to the New Xbox Experience had been updated with a "Notes" column, where many movies were listed as "Not available on Xbox."

Sony has informally announced its PlayStation Portable handheld console will be receiving another firmware upgrade, conspicuously, the announcement came on the same day as news that the "unhackable" PSP 3000 had been hacked.

October was a busy month for Sony's PlayStation Portable. In rapid succession, the US enjoyed the release of the PSP 3000, the latest chassis redesign of the handheld game system, a firmware upgrade that added wireless access to the PlayStation Store, and a slightly redesigned XrossMediaBar.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange commission yesterday, DVR pioneer TiVo showed that it is reducing the size of its work force to cope with the economic turmoil.

TiVo's plan to reduce operational expenses relies almost exclusively on layoffs, as the company said in its SEC filing yesterday. TiVo expects to incur around a million dollars in severance and outplacement costs. It says economic conditions, and a "rapidly evolving retail consumer market" have necessitated the reductions.

Microsoft's Zune 3.0 lineup, which was launched only two months ago, has received a price cut this week, knocking the 4 GB model below $100 for the holidays.

The still-new flash-based Zune 3.0 line was officially released on September 16, debuting the media player's fresh "Buy from FM" feature and wireless connectivity to Zune Marketplace. The launch was at about the same time the iPod refresh, which has become September protocol for Apple.

Yesterday, the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida placed a temporary restraining order on CyberSpy Software's RemoteSpy keylogger, acting on a complaint from the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC's complaint (PDF available here) says CyberSpy violated the Federal Trade Commission Act for improperly advertising a product that is both deployed and installed without consent from a computer's owner with the express purpose of collecting and disclosing the personal information of unsuspecting victims.

The newest MacBooks and MacBook Pros are Apple's first devices with the Mini DisplayPort as their standard video out. But owners are discovering that display port comes with an extra added bonus, which they may not have asked for.

High definition content protection (HDCP) is being used to protect iTunes video purchases from being played through anything but direct Mini DisplayPort connections.

While the official first day of the New Xbox Experience (NXE) is November 19, users who applied for the preview program are already seeing their updated Xbox interface, new sections, and the Netflix Instant queue with exclusive HD content.

Microsoft unveiled the changes to the Xbox this summer at E3, showing off the ability for users to create custom animated avatars through which to chat or host "Live Parties" where connected users can share games, movies, and photos with up to seven people simultaneously. It also announced that user-developed games would be available in addition to new casual MMOs in "Live Primetime," which was later delayed.

On-demand video service Vudu has released its second generation player, and this time it's not targeting the average set-top box consumer, it's targeting the high-end media consumer with its rackmount XL2 HD streamer.

Vudu debuted last year with a $399 set top box that allows its users to stream movies on demand for between 99¢ and $2.99 each, or to download them to the unit's hard drive for between $4.99 and $14.99. In competition mostly with AppleTV in the subscriptionless, on-demand streaming market, Vudu differentiated itself by focusing on HD content, and by being the only mainstream connected set-top-box to offer adult content.

As a way to aid applications in becoming more noticeable, Facebook is now offering an official "verification badge" for select developers. To become a "select developer," there's a fee attached.

Facebook's applications platform has over 20,000 apps listed, and for developers, getting your app noticed and picked up by users is a difficult task. Similar to the way music discovery site PureVolume lets artists buy premium listings, Facebook is now offering developers an official "verification badge," for a fee of $375 per submitted applications.