Google is aiming to help stop the spread of malware, saying Thursday it plans to add a malware alert feature to prevent the download of malicious applications. The feature is an offshoot of its already popular Safe Browsing feature, which is a Google-maintained list of malicious sites.

Such functionality has been available as an API for developers for about two years now, and Chrome's anti-malware alert system also leans on this code. There are no restrictions on how this API could be used, so Chrome's competitors could just as easily add a similar feature using the same database. Currently Google is the only one using it, however.

AVG has released a "Summer Update" for its security portfolio. AVG Internet Security 2011, AVG Anti-Virus 2011 and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011 all benefit from higher malware detection rates, faster scan times, a lighter user interface and user experience improvements.

At the same time, AVG has also rolled out two new standalone services, both of which will also be accessible through the main AVG interface. AVG LiveKive is an online backup service offering free (5GB) and paid (25GB and "unlimited", or 500GB in reality) subscriptions, while AVG Family Safety offers online protection for children from unsuitable social networking sites as well as the wider web.

Market research company Strategy Analytics issued a report on Thursday which predicted that sales of mobile phones equipped with cameras will exceed one billion per year for the first time in 2011.

This milestone would represent a 21% growth over the 918 million sold worldwide in 2010, and would solidify the mobile phone image sensor as the most successful mobile peripheral ever developed.

Gartner and IDC agree on something: Microsoft's mobile operating system will rank second to Google's by 2015. Both analyst firms largely, and possibly wrongly, assume that Windows Phone 7 will take over share given up by Symbian -- as Nokia swaps its mobile OS for Microsoft's. Meanwhile, Windows Phone would have little, perhaps no, organic sales growth. I don't believe it, and neither should you. The smartphone market is too volatile to predict that far ahead. The problem isn't specific to Gartner; every analyst firm is in the same boat trying to find land in stormy seas.

Gartner released its smartphone OS forecast today, and it is more bullish about the Symbian-Windows Phone switcheroo than IDC. Gartner predicts that Symbian will go from 19.3 percent market share this year to 0.1 percent in 2015. Windows Mobile will have 19.5 percent share, Gartner claims. IDC sees Symbian with 20.9 percent share this year and Microsoft's smartphone OS with the same percentage in 2015.

YouTube is set to overhaul its service in an effort to prepare itself for the rise of connected devices, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Similar content would be grouped into "channels," including fee-based ones that would feature up to 10 hours of original content a week.

Sources told the paper that this would be a significant investment, to the tune of at least $100 million. However with content increasingly being viewed off-website, the move seems aimed to protect YouTube's strong position in the streaming media sector. It could also offer the site a new revenue stream outside of the sale of advertising.

In the "Back to the Future" movie series, cars can fly in 2015. Flying cars aren't likely in the immediate future, but they will go to the cloud. Today, Microsoft and Toyota announced a telematics deal connecting electric and hybrid vehicles to Azure services.

The first vehicles with the joint telematics solution will go on sale next year, with a global platform being available by 2015. During a joint presentation with Toyota, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described the solution as "telematics in the cloud" and a "backend platform for a wide range of applications" delivered to Toyota vehicles.

Six U.S. states are responsible for nearly half of all the suspected cases of corporate software piracy, the Business Software Alliance reported on Wednesday.

The BSA, which collects piracy tips from its online reporting forum nopiracy.org, and its 1-888-NO-PIRACY hotline, said 49.3% of the piracy reports it received in 2010 were about companies in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois and Michigan.

The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday launched a new initiative called the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP,) which seeks to guarantee these disabled individuals have access to advanced communications technology, including interexchange services and advanced telecommunications and data services.

The commission and the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) have allocated $10 million for the project annually, and NDBEDP will establish an entity in each state that will distribute the communications equipment to low income deaf-blind individuals. The pilot program will last for two years, and will have the option to extend into a third year if it has not been suitably rooted for permanent establishment.

Attempting to put more competitive pressure on Apple's iPad, both Sprint and Verizon Wireless dropped the price of the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet to $199.99 when signing a two-year contract. The price cut is the third this year, after the Tab debuted in October of last year.

Verizon initially offered the device unsubsidized at a cost of $599.99, while Sprint decided to subsidize the cost at $399.99. In January, Verizon dropped the cost by $100 as did Sprint, although Verizon would later decide to subsidize the cost and offer it for the same price as its competitor.

I'm puzzled by reaction to estimates of Motorola XOOM tablet sales. Deutsche Bank estimates 100,000 units over the first two months, which is much better than I would have expected. Of course, those people pooping all over XOOM are comparing to iPad 2, and that quite literally is Apple to oranges.

Deutsche Bank cleverly got the number by looking at the percentage of Android devices running v3, or Honeycomb, and slicing against other analyst firm's unit shipments. According to official Android Developers stats, 0.2 percent of Android devices ran Honeycomb as of April 1.

Apple has been awarded a patent for a new hybrid connector that combines several high-speed data technologies onto a single 30-pin connector. Uncovered by Patently Apple, the connector would support USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and Dual-lane DisplayPort -- now being referred to as "Thunderbolt."

Thunderbolt is an effort between Intel and Apple, and is said to deliver transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps. USB 3.0 could be seen as a competing technology, but the Cupertino company seems to be preparing itself by developing a connector that could support both.

In the web browser wars, it has long been the case that two names crop up again and again -- Internet Explorer and Firefox. In more recent years, alternatives such as Opera and Chrome have entered the fray, but it is still these two names that get mentioned most frequently. Where Firefox differs from Microsoft's web browser is in the fact that it is open source, which means that anyone is free to work with the code behind the app. This is precisely how Pale Moon came into being, offering a stripped down version of Firefox that is optimized for speed and efficiency.

As Pale Moon is based on the latest Firefox 4 code, it is possible to take advantage of all of the latest features and enhancements that have been included, while eliminating superfluous features that, for most people, serve little purpose other than using up value system resources. The idea behind Pale Moon stemmed from the fact that Firefox has been designed for maximum compatibility with as wide a range of computers, and this includes very old systems.

If you're looking to maintain your browsing privacy then there are plenty of tools that can offer at least some help, by deleting your Internet history, cookies and cached files on demand.

This is a surprisingly difficult task to do well, though, and many of these utilities fall short of what most people really need. Browser support can be poor, for instance; the tool may not be as thorough as it claims; and typically you'll get little control over the cleanup process.

I sure hope so. Mozilla has posted what Stan Schroeder, writing for Mashable, calls a "Wall of Shame." Firefox users, is this new? I'm just getting back to using Firefox after more than a year -- part of my experiment to purge all Google products and services; I haven't followed Firefox enough recently to answer. New or not, it's a simply brilliant idea. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Opera any other browser developers should copycat this one.

Praise is the carrot. Shame is the stick. Browser makers should use both -- or at least look to see how the stick works for Firefox. Mozilla's main list is 10 "Slow Performing Add-ons," but there are another 40 available to view. The poster-application for good behavior is add-on Firefox Sync, which doesn't slow performance at all. Linkular's FoxLingo - Translator / Dictionary tops the list, slowing the browser's performance by 74 percent. Firebug ranks second, also saps by 74 percent.

Dish Network has won the auction to acquire nearly all of the assets of bankrupt national video store chain Blockbuster Inc., the satellite television company announced on Wednesday.

Dish Network expects to pay a mere $228 million in cash to acquire Blockbuster's 1,700 retail store locations, its brand and trademarks, and its alternative video delivery methods, such as its DVD-by-mail business, retail kiosk, and streaming video on demand services. The deal will close in the second quarter of this year.