Pre-loaded with MP3 tunes from the "big four" labels, SanDisk's DRM-free, microSD-based, USB-enabled slotMusic cards will be sold during the upcoming holiday season in Best Buys and Wal-Marts.

SanDisk today anounced "slotMusic" -- a new service to sell memory cards pre-loaded with DRM-free music from major record labels -- just three years after trying to launch a similar service dubbed "gruvi." Revolving around microSD, a flash memory format created by SanDisk, slotMusic will be supported by "big four" record labels EMI, Sony BMG (soon to become SMEI), Warner, and Universal.

"Cloud computing" is so attractive: it enables enterprises to outsource their IT by offloading their logic onto third parties' bigger hosts and save costs. But if businesses could own their logic and still cut costs, would they do it instead?

There's already a cottage industry whose foundation is the presumption that corporate data centers will be so inclined to outsource their data processing to so-called "cloud computing" services, such as the one developed by Amazon, that expenditures for high performance servers could go down in coming years. CIOs are already estimating they can save their enterprises as much as $300,000 per year annually, on average, in hiring expenses for IT personnel, if they're able to shift their resources to low-cost hosting services who'll maintain their infrastructure and their applications for them.

In taking its first step into the global server market, Lenovo's strategy is to focus exclusively on "relieving the pain points" of SMBs with hardware for Windows, Linux, and VMware's new Virtual Data Center OS (VDC-OS).

NEW YORK, NY (BetaNews) - In contrast to Lenovo's ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkVision monitors, the new ThinkServers rolled out at Interop this week are geared totally to SMBs. "They're SMB all the way," noted Tom Tobul, executive director of Lenovo's Enteprise Business Unit.

At this week's Interop show in New York, speakers argued that Microsoft's recent moves could give cloud computing a substantial lift. But they also cited needs for Microsoft to streamline its virtualization products and pricing.

NEW YORK, NY (BetaNews) - Microsoft's recent entrance into data center virtualization could bring big benefits to the cloud computing industry as a whole, especially if Microsoft starts to offer a simple enough product line-up and pricing model, said observers at this week's Interop show.

There's been no dispute that the National Security Agency cooperated with AT&T in a surveillance operation from its West Coast office. But its legal basis has been a Presidential order, and a new lawsuit questions whether that is enough.

In a lawsuit that would most likely convene after President Bush has left office next year, a number of AT&T phone and Internet customers have sued the President personally, along with the National Security Agency and members of the President's intelligence community since 2001. Citing evidence brought to light last year by former AT&T network technician Mark Klein, the suit alleges that AT&T was ordered by the President to cooperate with the NSA in illegal warrantless surveillance operations, in what has often been described as "the secret room on Folsom Street" in San Francisco.

After a premature rollout by Asus earlier this week, Skype gave the first glimpses of Asus' first phone -- a videophone with a built-in webcam -- at events yesterday on both sides of the Atlantic.

NEW YORK, NY (BetaNews) -- Skype celebrated its fifth birthday yesterday by announcing in both New York and London that Asus, maker of the pioneering Eee ultramobile (PC), will produce the first Skype-certified videophone.

Due to inherent risk of electrical shock, Apple has instituted an exchange program for iPhone 3G ultracompact USB power adapters. According to the company, the adapter's metal prongs can break off and remain lodged in power outlets.

After receiving reports of detached prongs, but no injuries, Apple has set up an exchange program where the faulty adapters can be replaced with newer, redesigned ones. Exchanges can be initiated in Apple's retail stores beginning on October 10, or immediately on Apple's support site.

Graphics company Nvidia is making a swift cut to its workforce, laying off 6.5% of its international staff starting immediately, and ending with the closeout of 2009's third fiscal quarter.

It's been a rough summer for Nvidia. While engaged in a price war with rival AMD, the news came out that several previous generation GPUs were failing at abnormally high rates in the field due to a weak die and material set. The cost of replacement and repairs set the company back at least $200 million and its stock value took a sharp 22% drop.

The Treo Pro is Palm's "Hail Mary" play in slow motion. The smartphone company has limped through another quarter on the brave little legs of the Centro, and is positioned for what could be its last, best hope.

In the fourth fiscal quarter of 2008, Palm's record breaking sales of the $99 Centro were bittersweet, and the taste is lingering. Now, the latest numbers show it's sold more than a million units -- more than any other of Palm's products, fully bucking expectations. But although Centro has proven to be a formidable introductory smartphone that has grown Palm's customer base tremendously, its margins are so low that it can't pull in enough profit to keep the company moving.

At Open Source in Mobile (OSIM) in Berlin this week, Nokia announced that future iterations of its Internet Tablet OS will support 3G HSPA. Are Nokia tablets becoming better PCs than 'tablet PCs?'

Worldwide mobile device leader Nokia predicted earlier this month that its dominant position in the market would soften as consumer confidence weakens. Meanwhile, the company presses ever harder into the software sector.

Imation's upcoming high capacity Apollo Pro WX external hard drive will exchange files wirelessly with devices that include a four-port docking station from Kensington and XPS and Latitude laptop models from Dell.

NEW YORK, NY (BetaNews) -- At a holiday preview press event in New York City last night, Imation rolled out the Apollo Pro WX, the first external hard drive to be certified by USB Implementors' Forum (USB-IF) for wireless USB.

The tell-all autobiography of the person who broke into Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo address may not have much to say. Assuming his story checks out -- and it's looking likely that it will -- the method he used was all too easy.

Of the four technical possibilities that BetaNews speculated yesterday could be linked to the means by which someone hijacked the Yahoo e-mail account of Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin this week, the actual method may have ended up being far simpler than we surmised.

The third installment of Microsoft's $300 million ad campaign finally grabbed the "I'm a PC" invective and wore it like a crown. Yes, I am a dork, I wear glasses, but I am also an athlete, scientist, teacher, artist, and everything in-between.

Tim Conneally: I'm a PC indeed.

Despite what has become international opposition to the deal, Eric Schmidt yesterday expressed his belief that Google doesn't have to receive special governmental approval to proceed with its ad-sharing arrangement with Yahoo.

In a press conference at Google's headquarters yesterday, CEO Eric Schmidt said the deal is scheduled to be completed in October, but he can't seem to get a bead on where regulators stand.

It's the latest test of the one component in Microsoft's online applications arsenal whose code could be leveraged for a more general purpose than blog publishing. Our tests show it lacks a few things Microsoft users would expect.

One of the revised components in Microsoft's latest "Wave 3" test for its Windows Live services is something we've mentioned before here in BetaNews: Windows Live Writer. Its name sounds deceptively like a general purpose word processor -- like the Write utility that comes with Windows -- and you might think that with a little tweaking, it could be.