Tim Conneally

Part of Adobe's beta of Acrobat.com, ConnectNow is a Web Conferencing tool, and Create PDF gives you a way to build PDF files from anyplace, whether or not you have access to Acrobat software.

Adobe's ConnectNow is a tool which allows an administrator to create a virtual meeting room where users log on and communicate with each other using a single URL.

Joining the ranks of heavyweights Google, Facebook, and MySpace, social widget startup Gigya has opened the beta of its social sharing platform Gigya Socialize.

Promptly following the $9.5 million investment the company received in March, Gigya Socialize falls in line with Google Friend Connect, Facebook Connect, and MySpace Data Availability.

RedOffice, the suite of Office products based upon OpenOffice.org and optimized for Chinese users has received a new UI in its 4.0 beta.

Harkening to the famed Office 2007 ribbon interface, RedOffice's new UI has been designed to, as the group says, "provide a work area with a simple graphic interface, so that use is more concise and efficient."

After US Sec. of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez returned from a visit to China in December, his department's IT infrastructure suffered a rash of attempted break-ins. A probe is now under way to find out if the two events are related.

The main questions seem to be whether data had been copied off of the laptop the former Kellogg's CEO took on his frequent trips to China. Sec. Gutierrez declined comment to the press, and declined to speculate how a compromise to his system could have happened.

auctionPAL.com, an online retail "middleman" , has set up a program where users auction off their goods with the proceeds going to relief efforts in Myanmar and China.

The site joins the efforts of Web giants like Google, which offers its eponymous checkouts linked to UNICEF and Direct Relief International aid programs for the Myanmar cyclone.

During Memorial Day weekend, Internet TV network Revision3 was brought down by a denial-of-service attack traced back to anti-P2P company MediaDefender.

Revision3 CEO and former PC Magazine editor-in-chief Jim Louderback provided a detailed report about the DoS attack on his P2P streaming program service, and the distinct trail of packets leading back to MediaDefender.

As the Beijing Olympics approach, the testing deadline draws nearer for a technology infrastructure which has been built exclusively for the games by Lenovo. So the company is staging a dress rehearsal.

Lenovo reports over 30,000 pieces of its equipment will be used (desktop and notebook systems, servers, monitors, etc.) during the 2008 Summer Olympics, with some 580 of its engineers working on site.

If sub-notebooks weren't so small, it would be getting very crowded in here. The second addition to the ultra-portable PC category in as many days comes from Acer and its "Aspire One."

Acer's low-cost sub-notebook lacks firm specifications thus far, but the screen looks to be 8.9" with 1024 x 768 resolution. Further information is expected to be revealed at the Computex trade show in Taipei next week. UMPC Portal suspects it is an Atom/Diamondville device like the 1.6 Ghz MSI Wind, and Digitimes expects it to carry a price tag under €200.

Firefox 3's upcoming release is quite literally being hyped up to record-setting levels, as Mozilla aims for the final release to set a Guinness World Record, as the most downloaded single product within a 24-hour span.

To coincide with the still-unspecified June release date of Firefox 3, Mozilla has launched its "World Download Day" campaign to get as many users as possible to download the browser on its first day available.

Blockbuster and Netflix have been battling for home video supremacy for long enough to almost declare a winner, and the dual investor meetings held by the companies shows where the real disadvantage lies.

Blockbuster's more than 7,800 retail stores in the US are beginning to appear more of an onus than an asset.

For several months, Indian security officials have wanted Research in Motion to decrypt BlackBerry-delivered e-mails so the government may have access to them, should the need arise. Both sides could reach a solution as soon as tomorrow.

In short, the Indian government believes BlackBerry communication is too secure, and could allow subversives a safe, untraceable method of communication unless something gets changed.

An Amazon spokesperson has confirmed to BetaNews that it will be premiering a streaming video service in the upcoming weeks.

At the D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, California, sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos mentioned that his company has been working on an a la carte, pay-per-view streaming service.

Announced last week, Samsung's L870 Symbian S60 3.2 Smartphone will be the first handset other than Apple's iconic iPhone to come equipped with Safari as its native mobile browser.

The S60 default browser is based upon the same WebKit browser engine as Safari, so having Safari on board instead may not necessarily be a great technological leap. Like Safari, the S60 browser currently boasts desktop-quality browsing, and has generally been viewed as an excellent application in its own right.

TiVo has announced that all broadband connected TiVo Series2 and Series3 users will gain Disney on-demand rentals later this year. This in the wake of a new partnership with online content distributorCinemaNow.

This partnership adds to TiVo's existing content deals with Amazon's Unbox, Music Choice, and Jaman, as well as upcoming support for YouTube and other popular Web video codecs. It looks to be part of a broader move to convert TiVo from a simple DVR into more of a media hub, offering an increased amount of on-demand content, along with access to user's personal media.

Yet another format is attempting to replace MP3 as the standard for digital music, but can MT9 really succeed where others have failed for a decade - even with its advanced features?

MT9 was developed by South Korean engineers at Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in association with venture company Audizen, and the format has been dubbed "Music 2.0." Its creators hope to see MT9 replace MP3, but that lofty goal will likely be replaced by one more attainable: becoming the standard for karaoke.