Latest Technology News

Apple's former general counsel will pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission some $2.2 million in fines to settle charges related to the Cupertino company's stock options scandal.

SEC officials said Nancy Heinen's fine was comprised of $1.6 million in what it called "ill-gotten" gains, plus interest, and a $200,000 penalty. The former executive is one of two from the company to agree to pay fines. Like former Apple CFO Fred Anderson -- who was fined $3.5 million -- Heinen is neither admitting nor denying guilt.

Apple may attempt to alleviate what iPhone 3G users have perceived to be connectivity problems by way of a software update instead of a recall, which would take a significant chunk from its profits.

Earlier in the week, Swedish engineering magazine Ny Teknik reported on tests from unnamed iPhone 3G users showing its signal sensitivity was well below levels specified in 3G standards. That report indicated that there may be a hardware issue somewhere between the antenna and the amplifier. If either or both parts aren't operating properly, it could lead to poor connectivity and slower speeds.

A construction equipment company in Mumbai, India, has asked that country's high court to order Google India to disclose the identity of "Toxic Writer," a blogger who made defamatory remarks about its mining project in Mozambique.

According to the original complaint filed by Gremach Infrastructure Equipments and Projects Ltd., the ninth paragraph of a blog entry entitled "toxic fumes" contained defamatory material that amounted to a smear campaign against it. However, because the blog post was taken down on an interim order from the Bombay High Court, the actual text is unavailable and even some cached copies cannot be retrieved.

Though redolent of dogs barking jingle bells, the "Condom a Capella" ringtone -- sponsored by the BBC World Service and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation -- seeks to break social taboos regarding the prophylactic.

The ringtone (available here) is part of an ongoing campaign to prevent the transmission of HIV in India by making the discussion of condoms more socially acceptable.

No longer will bragging rights be claimed by T-Mobile, which held the top spot in the J. D. Power & Associates survey since 2004. Meanwhile, across the entire industry, time spent by wireless customers on hold continues to rise.

In the latest J. D. Power & Associates Customer Care Performance Study released yesterday, Verizon scored a 103, followed by Alltel with a 102 and T-Mobile with a score of 100. The industry average was said to be 96.

While not yet formally announced by either Google or the North American arm of Deutsche Telekom, widespread reports from "briefed" sources assert that T-Mobile will be the first company offering handsets utilizing the open OS.

T-Mobile has long been rallying to be the first carrier with an Android phone, and has actually spoken on Google's behalf, saying there would be no delays in the release of such a device.

In a move which could end up meaning either everything or nothing, the developers of a "lifestreaming" application have agreed to be acquired by a company whose track record with acquisitions hasn't always been pretty.

Confirming news that had first been leaked to TechCrunch two weeks ago, the CEO of a startup social network service called SocialThing -- which has yet to emerge from private beta -- blogged yesterday that his company is a few days away from being fully acquired by AOL.

New Yahoo board member Frank Biondi has a knack for being at the center of a firestorm. So the fact that Carl Icahn successfully got Biondi on board this morning, probably means a new storm is on the horizon.

There are now three of Icahn Partners' ranks serving as members of the Board of Directors of Yahoo. Carl Icahn himself will assume the seat vacated by outgoing member Robert Kotick, and former Viacom and Universal chief Frank Biondi and former Nextel founder John Chapple will add to the board's membership. Yahoo made the news official this morning.

11:00 am EDT August 15, 2008 - In what many are calling Netflix's biggest service disruption yet, the movie rental-by-mail company's shipping system has still not returned to full functionality, with at least 2.5 million subscribers affected.

As of Thursday evening, Netflix still had not returned to fully functional distribution after almost four days of intermittent service. The company's representatives have disclosed neither the scope of the disruption nor the precise cause, saying only that it is of "significant" size and that technicians are working to have operations fully restored as soon as possible.

10:30 am EDT August 15, 2008 - A federal judge has sided with the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, ordering the students to continue to stay quiet beyond the original Tuesday expiration of their restraining order.

Presiding Judge George O'Toole, Jr. scheduled a hearing for that same Tuesday to debate the order's merits, and will decide then whether it should be modified or lifted altogether. As was reported initially early Thursday, copies of the presentation continued to be available on the Internet.

The maker of a popular pre-paid cell phone today announced a program that will give low income Tennessee residents free cell phones and mobile service on a year-to-year basis.

Called SafeLink Wireless, the project is being led by the Tennessee Department of Safety, TracFone Wireless, and local nonprofit organizations. Eligible households will receive a free cellular handset with 60 or more minutes of airtime a month plus unlimited access to emergency services (911). Handsets will support standard cellular features such as voice mail, SMS, call waiting, as well as international calling.

The biggest and most significant legal action against now-leading social network Facebook was filed on Tuesday, and will actually test the theory of whether its Beacon behavior sharing program constituted a criminal conspiracy.

On Tuesday, a group of 18 California residents including some who publicly complained last year that Facebook's controversial Beacon feature was sharing too much of their personal online habits with the rest of the world, sued Facebook and many of its more prominent Beacon partners, including Blockbuster and Overstock.com. They're not only claiming Facebook and its partners conspired to invade their privacy, but they're citing a California penal code that may have been originally intended to outlaw information-gathering Trojan horse programs, in a move which could leave Beacon's participants criminally liable.

The Russia-Georgia conflict has US senators worrying about NASA's future in the International Space Station project. As it is now, US law may eventually prohibit NASA from enlisting the help of its only way into space after 2011.

Senators Bill Nelson (D - Fla.) and Barbara Mikulski (D - Md.) -- who is incidentally the chair of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee that funds NASA -- expressed concerns that if the conflict erodes US-Russian relations, NASA may have no way to reach the International Space Station.

New independent data shows Facebook enjoyed 153 percent growth year over year, while MySpace remains essentially flat. The site's growth is biggest overall outside of the US.

Overall, Facebook attracted 132.1 million unique users in June, compared to 117.6 million for MySpace, according to data from comScore released this week. Another site that saw impressive growth was Hi5, which doubled its unique userbase to 56.4 million.

The official marketing channel for the next edition of Windows was opened this afternoon, as Microsoft quietly raised the curtains on what it's positioning as an open channel for ideas regarding what the company should add to its next OS.

In their initial post to the "Engineering Windows 7" blog this afternoon, its two hosts -- Windows senior vice presidents Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky -- acknowledged that their company will indeed divulge the first engineering details about Windows 7, as it's still being called, on October 27 at the Professional Developers' Conference in Los Angeles.