Latest Technology News

It's clearly not a button-down, businesslike IM client: Having experimented with a special Vista version that apparently didn't go over well, Yahoo now is adding personalized polish to its latest free personal messenger, still in beta.

Download Yahoo Messenger for Windows beta build 9.0.0.1389 from FileForum now

Microsoft today released Dynamics AX 2009, a major update that adds Role Centers, increased business intelligence, and myriad other new features to what many consider to be the best of Microsoft's four products in the ERP space.

AX 2009, also known to some as Axapta 5.0, represents the latest edition of enterprise resource planning software originally acquired by Microsoft through its Axapta acquisition.

While many have said Apple's iPhone would immediately spell trouble for RIM's BlackBerry, it's not happening yet according to the latest research.

First quarter sales data compiled by research firm IDC indicate that sales of the BlackBerry increased during the first three months of 2008, while sales of the iPhone decreased.

In the latest example of "opt-out" in action, an entire Minnesota town demanded that Google take down Street View imagery of its municipality, and the search giant duly complied.

The City Council for the 4,500-resident town of North Oaks, Minnesota sent a letter to Google in January giving the company the option to either remove the imagery or be cited for trespassing. Rather than risk a legal battle, North Oaks no longer has Street View capability.

The viability of AIR as an application platform is only becoming more clear with today's revamp of Buzzword, Adobe's online word processor, now part of Acrobat.com. BetaNews spent some more time with Buzzword this morning and afternoon.

Buzzword does not feel like an online app. Typically, when one thinks of running applications in his Web browser, a decade of experience has already taught him to expect to type his data into postage stamp-sized controls, click on Submit, and wait a few hours. Buzzword flies in the face of that expectation by delivering a snappy, well-presented, original front end that doesn't take a month to learn.

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.

The Federal Trade Commission has given activist investor Carl Icahn approval to purchase a large chunk of Yahoo stock, it said on Friday.

The FTC is required under current rules to give its approval to large purchases of stock, and for Carl Icahn, that approval came Friday (PDF available here). Icahn currently owns a little over four percent of Yahoo, valued at around $1 billion USD.

5:00 pm EDT June 2, 2008 - BetaNews has learned further details concerning the extent of the partnership between HP and Microsoft. In addition to the Live Search agreement, the computer maker would also install Silverlight, meaning that Microsoft's answer to Flash could potentially now reach millions of new computer buyers.

The plug-in is necessary to run the newest version of the Live Search toolbar, so there would really be no way for the application to not be installed.

The federal privacy commissioner in Canada is now investigating allegations that Facebook may be illegally collecting personal information such as telephone numbers, birthdays, and instant messaging addresses without authorization.

Entered by law students at the University of Ottawa, the complaint charges that Facebook is committing a total of 22 infractions of Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

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.

Time Warner Cable -- an entity now being completely spun off from Time Warner Inc. -- is readying a new wireless cable modem aimed at offering Internet-based video as one of its "channels."

"Right now, it's pretty hard to get Internet stuff on your TV," said Time Warner Cable President and CEO Glenn Britt, during the Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York on Friday.

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."

Dish Network says their new software no longer infringes on TiVo's patents, but the DVR maker disagrees.

Last week, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers said his company believes Dish Network's new software still infringes on its patents, and was asking for an injunction to block DISH from using it immediately. On Friday, EchoStar responded by launching a new suit, essentially asking the court to validate its software as legal and non-infringing.

For years, Microsoft hasn't really had serious competition in the general-purpose applications space. But if Adobe succeeds in transplanting its Acrobat brand into word processing and online services, Microsoft could have a fight on its hands.

Originally, "Adobe Acrobat" described its reader for Portable Document Format files, and the software used to create them. As "PDF" evolved to become a brand in its own right, Adobe shifted the "Acrobat" moniker to refer more exclusively to the software used to generate PDF files.

Are you in the market for a really good deal on a computer cart, a wooden office desk, or a living room couch? How about a 30-foot patrol boat, or your very own weather station? Nassau County, New York may have a deal for you.

Even if you're on a very low budget, you might find something to your liking in an online auction now being held by New York State's Nassau County. As of Friday afternoon, $1,700 was the top bid for a patrol boat once used by police officers to chase criminals in the waterways in and around Nassau County's Long Island turf.