Facebook to launch Web-based instant messaging service
Sources have confirmed to BetaNews that Facebook will be launching a multi-platform instant messaging service built into a user's profile page.
Based upon the open source Jabber platform, the IM service will be Web-based only, as Facebook doesn't currently have any software client developers, one source said. Blog TechCrunch, which first reported the news, says the IM service could be rolled out to the public next week, but our source wasn't given a specific date.
House passes revised FISA reform bill minus telco immunity
Despite whatever took place behind closed doors in an unusual secret session of the US House yesterday, in open session today, the House passed its completely new version of the FISA Amendments bill this afternoon, by a vote of 213-197.
Speaking on behalf of the bill just prior to its passage, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D - Calif.) took issue with President Bush's comments on the White House South Lawn yesterday, stating the Democrats' new version of the bill would, by eliminating legal protections for telecom companies, endanger the ongoing fight against terrorism.
Google's Miner: We will outsell the iPhone
Search giant Google is certainly full of confidence when it comes to Android, arguing that it will have a much larger market than Apple's device.
Apple's small and tightly controlled market has often come up in criticism of that company's overall strategy. By locking itself to a small list of approved carriers, Apple may be hamstringing itself in sales.
$20 million dollar suit against OLPC unresolved
After the One Laptop Per Child project was sued by Nigerian keyboard manufacturer LANCOR in January for $20 million and an injunction on the OLPC XO was imposed in Nigeria, the case has taken root in US federal court.
The suit claims that OLPC used the Lagos Analysis Corp's (LANCOR) multilingual keyboard design in its low-cost XO laptop without permission. Through litigation in Nigerian court, the company has effectively crippled the OLPC project in that country.
Adobe's PDF chief leaves for venture firm
John Brennan, the executive in charge of PDF, Flash, and other platform technologies at Adobe, has resigned to join Silver Lake, a private equirty firm that has previously hired away the likes of Michael Capellas from HP and Ed Zander from Sun.
Brennan, who was previously senior VP of Adobe's Platform Division, is now a managing director at Silver Lake Sumeru, a new business which will invest in medium-sized technology companies.
Linden Lab founder set to step down as CEO
Second Life is looking for a second wind after a period of rapid growth. Is a new CEO the answer?
Philip Rosedale says that the reasons behind his resignation from the CEO position are due to the company needing a leader with more operational experience. He is not leaving the company altogether -- rather he will serve as chairman of the company after a successor is named.
Security vendor hacked in attack on gamers
A SQL injection hack this week has affected 20,000 Web sites, according to tracking reports by McAfee. Among those hit with the malicious code is international security firm Trend Micro.
Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun says the company's site was hacked at around 9:00 pm Sunday, local time and identified the malicious file as JS_DLOADER.TZE. It affected an approximated 32 Trend Micro pages, most of which were in the site's malware encyclopedia. Users who accessed any of the hacked pages would have been at risk of infection.
A new way to make cash off your Facebook friends
A new Facebook application created by bSocial Networks could make Facebook members into surrogate salespeople, giving them a 10 percent commission each time one of their friends purchases a product or service they recommend.
The Market Lodge so far has a catalog of more than 1,200 products available from 50 different merchants, from companies including Aurora Nova Skin Care, Inner Waves Organics, Oona Sara Designs, White Swan and Holistic Pet. At least 100 people are now testing the service that quietly launched last week.
EA takes it to the streets with Take-Two's shareholders
EA has gone over the resistant heads of Grand Theft Auto franchise leader Take-Two, making an appeal directly to the shareholders and offering approximately $2 billion in cash to buy out its common shares.
The move is a smart one from EA, as Take-Two has been at the mercy of the shareholders in the past. Almost one year ago, the company's CEO and entire board of directors were ousted in a shareholder uprising from investors ZelnickMedia, allegedly spurred by the company's worsening financial situation.
'Windows 7' product deadline may or may not be 2010
Reports yesterday and today stating Microsoft confirmed its Windows 7 release date for 2010 appear to be very premature, as the statement those reports were based on is the same boilerplate language the company has produced for months.
An oft-repeated statement from Microsoft's spokespersons on the release timeframe for the next version of the Windows client, currently code-named "Windows 7," continues to make the case that the product remains slated for a development phase extending some three years after Windows Vista's general availability (GA) release, which was in January 2007.
Defendant in RIAA suit files amended complaint
Tanya Andersen refiled her lawsuit against the record industry body on Friday, which could open up RIAA's investigation techniques for all to see.
She filed the original lawsuit in August 2007, although a judge dismissed the case at a hearing on February 13 on a motion by the RIAA. Andersen was given 30 days to refile.
iPhone now available in Austria, Ireland
Apple is using its pre-existing partnerships to expand the reach of the phone to other markets.
T-Mobile will be the device's carrier in Austria, where the German telecommunications company also has a network and provides service. Phones will be sold for 399 euros for the 8 GB model, and 499 euros for the 16 GB.
House holds secret session to debate FISA telco immunity
The US House of Representatives passed its new version, largely sponsored by majority Democrats, of the FISA Amendments bill. For more on this afternoon's passage, click here.
11:42 am EDT March 14, 2008 - In an extremely rare closed-door session last night, the US House of Representatives debated whether to go ahead and approve a foreign intelligence bill that would grant prosecutorial immunity to telecom companies, or to advance another version without it.
Sun joins IBM, HP in standards advocacy group
The newest member of the Open Group today is Sun Microsystems today, in its latest effort to become recognized as the pinnacle of the open source community.
The Open Group is an organization aimed at the "creation of Boundaryless Information Flow," which is the stated ideal of being able to serve information throughout an enterprise in the context that each user specifically requires, without running into incompatibilities or interoperability problems.
Congress asks FCC for records on 'a la carte' debate
It was an ambitious idea: the possible invocation of a clause in the law that might have given the FCC the authority to make cable TV providers offer individual channels to their customers. Now, the US House is wondering whether it was too ambitious.
Last November, US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin surprised most everyone by making preparations to invoke a legal clause that would give the Commission authority it hadn't exercised before. Under a clause of telecom law, the FCC could direct cable TV operators to carry certain classes of programming, ostensibly as a way of ensuring diversity.
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