Two of the single most begged for features for PowerShell, the devastatingly useful scripting tool now made an integral part of Windows Server 2008 and Exchange Server 2007, are being addressed in the Community Technology Preview for version 2.0.

As Microsoft now confirms, there will be a unique graphical front end for editing scripts and running commands and cmdlets (compiled PowerShell keywords). And yes, Virginia, there will be a newly supported remote link to servers running Server Core, the new minimal Windows installation introduced in WS2K8.

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As companies continue to look for more ways to monetize their video content, video search engine Blinkx has launched a new system to help companies manage their videos before and after they are published online.

The Blinkx Advanced Media Platform (AMP) is a technology that was developed over twelve years' time specifically to deal with video -- specifically utilizing what the company calls Conceptual Recognition Engine (CoRE) technology. With the ability to identify and extract video assets either online or offline, CoRE makes it efficient for video sharers to search and organize the videos for online sharing, while users are able to search for the content on different platforms' languages.

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From today until May 20, anyone with a trademark is eligible to apply for a name with the suffix .me, the assigned top-level domain for the Southern European nation Montenegro.

The country has made the .me domain available to interested parties worldwide, hoping to capitalize upon the myriad of uses the extension holds in the English language while keeping its own "visit.me," "explore.me," and "invest.me."

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Nokia used the JavaOne Conference as the launch pad for the SDK 2.0 of its Scalable Network Application Package (SNAP) Mobile end-to-end Java gaming SDK, which offers development tools, support, service hosting, and community management.

SNAP Mobile SDK 2.0 (available through registration from Nokia) lets developers build mobile Java-based games on the Java Micro Edition (ME) platform, using technologies such as the SNAP Mobile Client API libraries, Emulation Environment software, and sample applications and various documentation.

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The new flagship phone takes some design cues from the Apple iPhone while at the same time beating the Cupertino company to the punch on high speed data.

HTC's newest phone was shown off at a press event in London on Tuesday, where the company also displayed its new TouchFLO 3D interface. Like Apple, the company is also focusing on making the mobile Internet more useful.

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After delaying the availability of Windows XP Service Pack 3 through its Download Center for one week after an incompatibility problem was discovered, Microsoft has now opened it up to automatic distribution.

Download Windows XP Service Pack 3 from FileForum now (316 MB).

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Incensed shareholders used Motorola's annual meeting yesterday to blast the company's board and management with complaints, with some questioning whether it should proceed with splitting off consumer products as a separate division.

"You're not doing the job that you're paid for. Either put up or get out," growled one disgruntled Motorola shareholder, venting his wrath over Motorola's financial losses and sliding stock prices.

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Yahoo has launched the beta of its McAfee SiteAdvisor-powered search security feature called SearchScan. Users can now opt to have potentially malicious results marked as such or omitted entirely.

Users in the US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Spain now have the SearchScan tool turned on by default.

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Qwest previously had a deal with Sprint, however it had indicated that it was looking for a new wireless partnership.

Qwest announced the Verizon deal, which has a term of five years, on Monday without disclosure of financial terms. While it is a regional carrier, it is the only one not to own its own wireless business.

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The Windows Live Mail team recently announced the phase-out of the legacy DAV protocol would draw to a close on June 30. That date, however, has now been postponed.

Like the extension of XP's lifespan, Microsoft says the extended date to the Outlook Express DAV Deprecation has been the result of customer feedback. The transition away from the protocol would end Outlook Express' access to a user's Hotmail inbox, and customers were originally encouraged to switch to Windows Live Mail. Instead of using the Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol, Live Mail uses Deltasynch, which is ultimately more efficient.

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Prior to the start of the biggest wireless spectrum auction in US history, Google took credit for convincing the FCC to impose an open access rule for the winning bidder. Now the company is urging the Commission to enforce that rule.

A petition filed by Google last Friday with the US Federal Communications Commission (PDF available here) urges the agency to write a specific order requiring Verizon Wireless, as the runaway victor in its 700 MHz C block auction, to comply with FCC guidelines mandating that it provide customers with unlocked and open equipment for use with services in that spectrum.

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Maybe it's the time of year, but computer companies suddenly seem to be growing greener -- including IBM, which has just unveiled a trio of initiatives centered around energy efficiency.

This week's "wearing of the green" from IBM includes a major update to its power management software, a new partner program around energy efficiency, and globalization of an existing program that rewards users for energy reduction with cash redeemable certificates.

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Elliot Schrage, Google's former vice president of global communications and public affairs will take a comparable position at Facebook.

Schrage will report to Sheryl Sandberg, who also recently migrated to the social networking site from Google to serve as its chief operating officer.

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Idée inc. has launched the private beta of TinEye, an Image identification search engine built upon Amazon's AWS platform.

Rather than relying on tags and keywords, TinEye search takes a user-supplied image and searches for all the places where that same image has been used, regardless of changes made to the actual file. If the photo has been cropped, resized, re-colored, or altered, TinEye still discovers it.

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During the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco this week, Sprint relaunched its Professional Developer Program while also introducing its latest version of an SDK based upon the Sun Microsystems Java Wireless Toolkit.

The Sprint Wireless Toolkit 3.3 update offers the first SDK for a new touch phone slated for launch for Sprint users only, later this summer. The update aims to enable developers to create content through a more automated process for compiling and debugging code.

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