Latest Technology News

The developers of a Web services application environment that leverages the leased computing services of Amazon have reworked their Web functionality to incorporate Adobe's Web language for Flash applications.

In another challenge to the conventional application services model, a nearly five-year-old startup called Coghead, led by former Red Hat executive Paul McNamara, has updated its unique Web application development suite to incorporate Adobe's Flex Web development language.

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The company said at Macworld Monday that it will retool its all-in-one Google application for the iPhone, improving the UI and speeding up loading times.

The new UI is better suited for the touchscreen capabilities of the iPhone, Google claims, and applications such as Gmail and Calendar have been sped up.

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Microsoft on Friday made available to the public a pre-release version of Windows Vista SP1. We want to know what you think, assuming you're willing to install the beta.

Service Pack 1 -- due out this quarter -- is slated to bring a number of major improvements to Microsoft's flagship operating system, but mostly behind the scenes. Performance and reliability has been boosted, in addition to improved compatibility with applications and drivers. Vista users have been clamoring for SP1 since the OS debuted one year ago, so we want to know: does it live up to the hype? Leave a comment below with your experiences, both good and bad.

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What hopes to be the final form of an innovative new grocery shopping aid device using Windows CE will go into beta this spring, with a possible nationwide rollout by the end of the year.

NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - A pilot program in New Jersey testing the efficiency and viability of computers with scanners and touch-sensitive panels embedded in shopping carts, may finally draw to a close in 2008 after four years in the field. At the annual National Retail Federation conference here, the privately held MediaCart holdings unveiled what it hopes will be the final design of its in-cart computer, which features aisle-specific advertising, a wealth of convenience features for shoppers, and one more venue for Microsoft Windows.

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Possibly in response to the rapidly shrinking desktop PC market in the United States, Imation's Odyssey removable hard disk storage system line has expanded to include a portable USB interface.

Imation says its Odyssey line was designed for small and home offices for backup and data security, so it's no surprise that its peripherals should be pared down in size, if only to meet the shrinking footprint of the computer.

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After announcing a deal with Lexar last week to distribute its technology, Eye-Fi moved onto Macworld Monday, announcing support for Leopard and Safari.

Eye-Fi will now be able to upload photos directly into iPhoto, which eliminates the need for manual import as users must do now. It will also support uploading to any of the 19 providers that the Windows version supports.

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Long-running service MobiTV announced today that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Gemstar-TV Guide.

The agreement includes patent licensing for the interactive program guides (IPGs) similar to those TV Guide places on set top boxes found throughout the US. However, these particular guides will be optimized for the mobile video programming made available through MobiTV.

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A move by that country's Copyright Board to exact a toll from the sale of personal digital audio devices was soundly defeated last week. But now, the cost of CD-Rs there could rise even further.

A three-judge panel of the Canadian Court of Appeal in Ottawa has unanimously dismissed a decision that would have enabled the country's primary collector of royalties for sound recordings to apply a tariff to the sale of MP3 players there, including Apple's iPod.

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Today, Amazon.com announced an advertising partnership with Pepsi that coincides with the direction of the music industry as predicted by its leaders.

Numerous music industry heads at a panel discussion at CES last week displayed favor for the ad-supported, subscription-based models of music sales as we move away from DRM. Today, a major online music store that rejected DRM since it opened -- and was not represented on the panel -- is showing similar interest.

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Netflix subscribers who have unlimited rental plans will now be able to stream an unlimited number of movies or TV shows on their PCs at no additional cost. The change affects all subscribers with plans starting at $8.99 per month, according to a statement. About 6,000 movies and shows are currently available for streaming. Previously the company used a metered approach to offering streaming.

"Unlimited has always been a very powerful selling point with our subscribers and a large part of what set us apart in the marketplace," marketing chief Leslie Kilgore said. Only subscribers of the $4.99 per month plan will have limits on streaming. Two hours of time will be alloted to customers on that plan at no extra charge.

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Surprising perhaps no one, the European Commission stated this morning in Brussels it will proceed with a fresh round of investigations against Microsoft, on some very familiar sounding allegations.

A complaint raised by the makers of the Opera Web browser that Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer to Windows makes it harder for others to compete, is one of two almost nostalgic complaints which the European Commission agreed today that it will formally investigate.

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Although its not clear exactly what it may be, Apple looks set to launch a new model of its MacBook which could signal its entry into the UMPC space.

Speculators are pointing to an Adium usage log report from January 9, that shows an entry for a "MacBook Air" that was made before the first inklings of such a name came out. Additionally, Macworld posters have been spotted with the phrase "there's something in the air" on them.

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In a sign the high-definition format war is far from over, Toshiba on Monday dropped the suggested retail price of its entry-level HD DVD player to under $150. That puts the HD-A3 $250 cheaper than Sony's PlayStation 3.

The MSRP of the HD-A3 will now be $149.99 USD, while the HD-A30 with 1080p output is lowered to $199.99 USD. Toshiba's high-end HD-A35 will now be priced at $299.99 USD. Retailers are already undercutting these prices, with Amazon selling the A3 for just $134.99, while TigerDirect has it listed for $129.99.

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Scott Fulton, BetaNews: We really didn't have enough stories on the format war this week, only a few dozen. And I figured that perhaps to make it an even thirty (or was it forty?) we should close the gap with one more.

The huge trend we saw this week was the move away from the format war. Well prior to Warner Bros.' announcement, it appeared the major CE manufacturers were working to build the functionality some of them had once planned for their high-definition disc players, into their HDTV displays and set-top boxes instead. A great many of them -- with a few prominent exceptions, such as Sony -- were about ready to write off their losses and move on.

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Scott Fulton, BetaNews: Every year at CES time, we revisit the topic of when or whether the United States will finally catch up with the rest of the world in mobile wireless broadband. Why do we keep butting up against the same roadblocks year after year?

For our #2 trend on the countdown, we ask whether this time, the telcos and service providers at CES are finally getting the formula down for the next great evolution of services. To start, I'd like to bring in former Gartner analyst, and our CES analyst here all week, Sharon Fisher.

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