Latest Technology News

Oakland-based search engine Ask.com debuted "AskEraser" today, a feature which can mark all of a user's queries in the company's servers for deletion.

Ask.com, the fifth largest US search engine according to Nielsen Online in October, announced earlier this year that it would be making this feature available. Developed in conjunction with the Center for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group working toward enhancing privacy and free expression, Ask.com claims it's the only search engine that affords users such control over their personal data.

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Microsoft announced the filing of 52 lawsuits against sellers of pirated and fraudulent copies of its software, as well as referring another 22 cases to law enforcement.

Fifteen of the lawsuits stemmed from activity surrounding a Chinese piracy syndicate that Microsoft was successful in breaking up back in July of this year. That ring spanned five continents and 26 countries.

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The entertainment group continues to move on from its breakup with Apple and iTunes, this time signing a deal with SanDisk to provide content for "Fanfare."

Fanfare is intended to complement the company's new TakeTV video player, which allows consumers to play downloaded content on their television sets, much like how AppleTV currently works.

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Rogers Yahoo, which has repeatedly come under fire for traffic shaping, has now ventured even further away from neutral ground, by inserting usage messages into its users' unencrypted data streams.

Made public over the weekend through Internet activist and co-founder of nonprofit People for Internet Responsibility Lauren Weinstein, someone going by the tag of "A Concerned Reader" captured an image of a Rogers Yahoo message being displayed over a Google Canada page.

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The company's FolderShare application is intended to allow customers to synchronize files across multiple machines, but a bug has ended up deleting them.

According to a statement from Microsoft sent to users of the service, an issue with FolderShare deleted files that contained special characters, such as trademark signs, accents and tildas, and the like.

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Emphasizing the declining role of the desktop PC form factor in worldwide sales, the analysts of IDC's Quarterly PC Tracker now predict portable PCs will constitute 65% of US PC sales by 2011.

The time of the desktop-bound computer has peaked in the United States, concludes Loren Loverde, Richard Shim, and the analysts of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker report this morning. In figures the team released this morning, they predict 38.2 million desktop-based PCs and x86-based servers will have been sold in the US in 2007, a decline of just over 3% from 2006.

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While Blu-ray has certainly won the opening salvos, new data suggests those new to HD seemed to have a preference for HD DVD.

Much of this switch could have to do with the changing demographic of the HD owner: whereas current owners are generally white and have higher incomes, newer owners will be younger, more ethnically diverse, and less affluent.

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Buoyed by Black Friday sales plus an investment in Sony last month, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer said this morning he believes a financially stressed-out US population will stay at home this winter and use CE products...like Sony's own.

After successful Black Friday sales for Sony's PlayStation 3 and high definition Blu-ray products, along with a recent investment by a Middle East investment firm, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer has now replaced earlier projections of doom and gloom with predictions of a rosier future for Sony.

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As anticipated and without much fanfare, Microsoft this morning made active links for downloads of Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 1, as well as the complete Office 2007 Service Pack 1.

A Knowledgebase article detailing the contents of O2K7 SP1 had also been made available this morning, though BetaNews noticed that just before noon today, Microsoft removed that article, perhaps for editing purposes. The link to the download itself however remained active. The Office service pack is not a beta; it is a complete release.

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Developers are claiming that they are close to allowing users to place VoIP calls over the iPod Touch, with initial tests proving successful.

The primary work is quite simple, with basically only communication with the SIP server possible. However, this step is important and lays the foundation for an actual VoIP call.

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IPTV service Vudu has announced that The Bourne Ultimatum will be available as a 1080i high-def download today -- the same day as it is released on DVD.

Many studios currently providing content to Vudu also offer support for sites like Movielink, CinemaNow and even Xbox Live HD downloads. But today's announcement marks the first instance of a studio simultaneously releasing a DVD and an HD download.

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Setting up a fiery public showdown between the justice and intelligence communities and the Congress, the country's highest-ranking intelligence official argued publicly in favor of immunity for telcos that turned over private data.

In an op-ed piece published in The New York Times yesterday, US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell asked readers to support an extension of the terms of the Protect America Act (PAA), a temporary measure for authorizing electronic surveillance on persons outside the United States, due to expire next February 1. One of three key reasons for extending its provisions, the Director argues, is to continue to provide immunity for telecommunications companies that have cooperated with the US Government in surveillance operations.

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In South Korea, Samsung Electronics' politically powerful parent company stands accused by a whistleblower of creating a $220 million slush fund for paying off government officials. The investigation keeps intensifying.

While Samsung Electronics this week launched a new solid state disk (SSD) Web site, and T-Mobile released Samsung's WiFi-enabled Katalyst phone, the South Korean government banned more officals of parent firm the Samsung Group from leaving the country and hunted around for documents to support allegations of bribery and corruption at the conglomerate.

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Verizon gave some hints late last week that it may be willing to do more than just welcome Google's Android handset environment into its foray of "open access" devices, but conceivably embrace it outright.

NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - While Verizon hasn't officially announced support for Google's Android, Verizon President Denny Strigl has acknowledged that he sees the emerging Linux-based development environment as meshing well with Verizon's recently unveiled plans to provide open access on its current third generation (3G) and emerging fourth-generation (4G) networks.

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Toshiba made available today its 9th generation M700 tablet PC, the current highest-end tablet PC offered by the company, and the first to offer multi-touch capability.

Besides being the first convertible laptop from Toshiba to feature a multi-touch backlit LED display, it is also the only tablet currently available in retail to incorporate a swappable Ultra SlimBay for an internal optical drive, second hard drive, or just to lighten the overall package.

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