Google marked by Chinese company for trademark violation
A Beijing company has taken Google's Chinese division to court over the search company's Mandarin name.
Google's name translates to "Guge" (goo-guh) in Chinese, which loosely means "Valley's Song." It was decided upon by Google's CEO Eric Schmidt from a list of 1,800 alternate choices, and announced on April 12, 2006.
Microsoft acknowledges Vista kernel elevation vulnerability
What was not supposed to happen in Windows Vista apparently has: Despite a layer of protection that was supposed to prevent against processes elevating their own privileges, Microsoft now says someone found a way to do it.
A Microsoft security bulletin written earlier this week but publicized this morning cites security software engineers SkyRecon Systems as having discovered a way for processes in both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista to elevate their own privilege to administrator level.
Netherlands war against Microsoft advances on two fronts
A junior economics minister in the Dutch government has made significant inroads this week in his battle against Microsoft there, both in transitioning his government to ODF and in decoupling bundled software from PCs.
What Neelie Kroes is to the European Commission, Frank Heemskerk is fast becoming for the Netherlands Finance Ministry -- a rising star, especially for taking on popular causes. One such cause -- the battle against Microsoft's market dominance -- has won him support, and this week, the popular Economic Affairs State Secretary has cashed in some of his chips for political points.
Seductive Russian chat bot tries to steal your private data
From Russia, the land well-publicized for bringing the Internet questionable music service AllofMP3.com and mafia-related bank scams, comes a new kind of chat bot.
Called Cyberlover, the program is an application that claims to intelligently fabricate chat room dialogue that seduces its victims into sharing personal photos and phone numbers. In half an hour, the program can supposedly secure 4 to 6 "contacts."
How IBM could lead AMD to 32 nm
At this morning's analyst conference, AMD executives said they may scale back some on R&D. But earlier in the week, partner IBM unveiled a plan that could help fill the gap: a way to rework existing 45 nm parts designs for 32 nm.
Early this year, America's two leading semiconductor design firms, in fierce competition with one another to discover a material that could make smaller transistors possible, announced their accomplishments within mere hours of one another: Intel first, followed right behind by IBM.
The opportunities revealed by Sun's open-source CPU
By releasing the code for its new Niagara 2 processor into the open source community today, Sun is paving the way for its underlying architecture to eventually pop up in wireless and other embedded systems, and maybe even in future game consoles.
In announcing the open-sourcing of its multi-threaded Niagara 2 processor today, Sun Microsystems is looking at expanding the underlying computer architecture into new markets -- a strategy that earlier reaped successful results around both Sun's earlier Niagara 1 processor and IBM's open sourcing of its own Power processor architecture.
Mapping services find themselves today's hot commodity
Two major global information system (GIS) and satellite imagery acquisitions were announced on Wednesday, illustrating the continuing desirability of such services to both hardware and software manufacturers.
First, Nokia's acquisition of Navteq for a reported $8.1 billion dollars is nearing completion. The Finnish mobile phone company already uses Navteq as its mapping supplier, and considering Nokia's expectations of GPS phone ubiquity, the purchase was unanimously welcomed by Navteq shareholders.
Nokia wins one round in Qualcomm IP battle
Just when it appeared Qualcomm finally had a fight on its hands after winning one round last month against Nokia, a judge has invalidated a good chunk of Qualcomm's original injunction request against the handset maker.
In an initial determination handed down yesterday, a US International Trade Commission judge has denied Qualcomm's request for an injunction against the import of Nokia's GSM and EDGE handsets into the US, on the grounds that they infringed upon three of Qualcomm's patents. In so doing, Judge Paul J. Luckern declared one of the three patents in question invalid.
Most ReplayTV assets sold to DirecTV
The struggling DVR company has once again changed hands, this time to the nation's largest satellite provider.
"Although we valued this asset and the business was profitable, the sale of ReplayTV to DirecTV makes the most sense for this business, its employees and us," D&M Holdings CEO Eric Evans said in a statement.
Sprint customers get next-gen MySpace Mobile first
With its subscriber base declining, Sprint surely needs a lift in its heated competitive struggle with AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Could a newly unveiled deal with MySpace Mobile help do the job?
Sprint today announced that its wireless data customers will be able to link to MySpace and Fox Interactive Media (FIM) mobile Web sites free of charge, signifying the latest agreements in an ongoing duel of one-off deals between US wireless carriers and Web sites for Internet access from cell phones.
Apple iPhone and iPod Touch get their very own Picasa
Google brings its Picasa photo sharing application to Mobile OS X Safari, with an interface designed especially for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Google's photo sharing application Picasa has been redesigned to support Safari on OS X Mobile, allowing iPhone and iPod Touch users to see the albums they've uploaded to Picasa Web, watch slideshows, search for photos, and browse other users' albums through the tactile interface.
Bebo takes a page from Facebook with new API
By adopting its competitor's platform, the site will allow developers to port their applications to its network.
This newfound partnership probably will not be the last, either. Facebook is inviting others to join in and use its API, likely in a move to counter Google. It's OpenSocial platform is backed by MySpace, LinkedIn, and others.
Microsoft releases HD DVD emulator software
In an attempt to further spur development for its chosen next-generation DVD platform, Microsoft is making the tool available for $2,999.
The company says by offering an inexpensive way to test HD DVD videos for their playability before the movies are burned to disc, this should in turn reduce the number of problems with disc playback. All the testers need is a connection to Xbox Live and a console to use the emulator.
Another big beta: Microsoft releases Windows Server Virtualization test
After a major delay in the early spring which threw off the development cycle of Windows Server 2008, a public beta -- as opposed to a technology preview -- is being released by Microsoft this morning.
You might say the definition of "early" for Microsoft has changed to mean "on time." Last April, an embarrassed company announced a major delay in its roadmap for Windows Server Virtualization, code-named Viridian, one of the key built-in features of the Enterprise edition of its server operating system. Not long afterward, the Viridian team said it would have to cut key features from the product in order for it to make its dates.
Patent infringement decision against eBay upheld
MercExchange, a tiny Virginia-based company that has taken eBay to all levels of the US court system for patent infringement, has won at the District Court level in Virginia.
MercExchange holds patents for e-commerce solutions that involve internet auctions, what it calls "name a price" systems, dynamic pricing models, desktop messaging, as well as streaming and multicasting.
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