MySpace Joins Google to Take On Facebook and Microsoft
BetaNews has learned that amidst MySpace's move to join Google's OpenSocial community, Microsoft is now in talks with Facebook to integrate Windows Live ID into the quickly growing social network.
Reliable sources tell BetaNews that the two companies have begun talks on integrating login systems following an advertising agreement that gives Microsoft a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook in exchange for $240 million.
Sprint Continues to Bleed Customers, Profit Plummets
Sprint Nextel's third quarter profit plummeted 77 percent as the wireless provider continued to lose customers amid concerns over the carrier's future.
Much of the losses come from the company's Nextel division, which has seen its share of troubles after the merger. Some believe that Sprint has turned its back on the division -- which uses Motorola's iDEN technology -- choosing to focus solely on its CDMA wireless business.
SharePoint Services Role Removed from Final Windows Server 2008
As Microsoft sources first quietly noted on its product teams' blogs on Monday, and as the company is making clear today, one of the roles that had been planned to ship as part of Windows Server 2008, and that was being tested with the current Release Candidate 0, now will not be shipped with the final product. Instead, admins will be able to download the SharePoint Services 3.0 directly from Microsoft for no additional charge.
"As we're getting closer to release, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is returning to how it was previously available to Windows Server 2008 customers," wrote senior product manager Julius Sinkevicius on Monday. "Specifically, we are going back to making it available as a separate download that is available to customers at no additional charge."
China's Olympics Ticket Sales Crash
First-come, first-served ticket sales for the 2008 Beijing Olympics began and ended in one hour on Tuesday when the overwhelming demand crashed the server's database.
Ticket sales for the Games were halted after demand proved to be far too much for the database to handle. The ticketing database could supposedly process 150,000 transactions an hour, but in just the first hour, the Games' site had 8 million hits, its hotline had 3.8 million calls, and 200,000 orders were taken from customers.
Canadian Firm Sues 22, Claims it Owns Wi-Fi Tech
A Canadian technology licensing company called Wi-Lan Inc. launched an assault today on no fewer than 22 companies, including both equipment vendors and consumer electronics retailers. The claim isn't new - patent infringement - but the strategy is certainly unique.
Each of the company's three infringement suits deal with individual patents, two of which were actually invented by the co-founders of the company, dealing with Wi-Fi/OFDM and multicode applications.
Mac Porn Surfers Subject to QT Flaw
Attackers are going after Macintosh computer users who are visiting pornographic web sites, claiming to offer a plug-in that installs a video codec necessary to play the movie files within QuickTime.
On certain profiles, the links to the Trojan download appear as stills to a supposed porn clip. When a Mac user clicks on the link, they are taken to a page with the message "Quicktime Player is unable to play movie file. Please click here to download new version of codec." From there, the install would proceed like a normal program install.
Mandriva Accuses Microsoft of Dirty Tactics
Mandriva Linux cried foul Wednesday, saying in an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that his company spoiled a deal between Mandriva and the government of Nigeria over Intel's Classmate PC.
Mandriva had agreed to supply the central African nation with an initial order of 17,000 Classmate PCs -- of which it is a partner in with both Microsoft and Intel -- and had apparently signed an agreement with the country that would have meant additional orders in the future.
New Qimonda GDDR5 Memory Promises 3x Performance of GDDR3
In advance of its likely acceptance by JEDEC as an international standard for memory implementations, Qimonda said today it is now sampling the first Graphics Double Data Rate 5 memory in 512 Mb modules.
It is graphics memory that analysts attribute to the stellar rise of Qimonda, the Infineon division yet to be spun off, into the global #3 supplier position on iSuppli's list, behind Samsung and Hynix Semiconductor. Having been on the crest of the GDDR3 wave put Qimonda there, and now the company and its parent are taking a gamble on hopping directly over one generation of memory and riding the GDDR5 wave at its outset.
Steve Case Launches New Music Service
Steve Case is at work once again, this time on a music service that is built on top of the Facebook platform and connects to a user's iTunes playlist to stream it to others.
Backed by case's Revolution LLC, Qloud (pronounced "cloud") also has the backing of several labels and music industry luminaries. It intends to help the user share his or her iTunes library with friends through the social network Facebook.
MacBooks Get a Slight Speed Bump
Apple on Thursday quietly pushed updates to its MacBook line of laptops, giving them integrated video, a faster front side bus, and slightly faster processors. The white models will be bumped to 2.0 and 2.2GHz, while the black model gets the 2.2GHz processor. All the chips now are based on the Santa Rosa architecture, Macrumors reported. In addition, all models come with an 800Mhz front side bus, and GMA X3100 integrated video.
Customers may also choose to upgrade their MacBooks to 2.6GHz processor for $250 extra, according to the product pages. Overall, the bumps provide only marginal speed enhancements, a less than 10 percent increase from their predecessors. Silent upgrades to its products are common Apple practice: the company often upgrades the internals with little, if any notice to the press.
Gateway Acquisition Gives Acer More to Fight HP With
Setting up more guns on its side in its all out brawl against global #1 PC seller Hewlett-Packard, global #3 Acer - now with Gateway under its belt - filed amendments to its countersuit on Tuesday, alleging HP infringed on patents held by Acer. It's a serious battle, as Acer fights to prevent a federal judge from imposing an injunction against the importation of Acer PCs from Taiwan into the US.
Acer completed the transition of Gateway into its portfolio on October 17, so the timing of this countersuit is probably not coincidental. A check of the US Patent and Trademark Office database this morning revealed no fewer than 323 patents were assigned to Gateway, Inc. of Irvine, California. Though the amended lawsuit filing has not yet been made public, so the new patents in question have not been revealed outside of court, Gateway's patent portfolio included chip designs such as digital audio controllers, and practical designs such as a slot for holding a stylus on a portable PC.
Wal-Mart, Buy Price HD DVD Player at $100
Not to be outdone by rival retailers that have dropped the price of Toshiba's A2 HD DVD player to just under $200, Wal-Mart is knocking another $100 off the price this Friday, but only for one day. Wal-Mart shoppers can pick up the Toshiba A2 in stores for $98.87 from 8am to midnight. Best Buy is now offering the A2 for $99.99, although it appears to be out of stock at most stores.
While it has been replaced by the Toshiba A3, the A2 is fully capable thanks to firmware upgrades that keep older HD DVD players current. Although it's only a temporary sale, such low prices for HD DVD players will surely drive sales from those on the fence about whether to invest in high-definition movies. Blu-ray has yet to respond to the price drops, which could hurt the format's adoption this holiday season.
AOL Pushes Truveo Video Search Platform Globally
Stymie Over Whois Changes Leaves ICANN With Bad Options
At a meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in Los Angeles, another discussion about possible changes to a fundamental Internet process has been tabled. The implications of those changes would be substantial, and the implications of declining to make those changes may also be substantial.
It involves the Whois database - the registration of responsible authorities for the maintenance of services at designated IP addresses. Currently, the names of those authorities are typically available in the clear, and are publicly searchable. While online scam artists easily work the system to obfuscate their true identities, legitimate Web site proprietors would like some legitimate means for them to keep their public information - including their telephone numbers - out of the public view.
Intel Ships 150,000 Classmate PCs to Libya
Intel and Microsoft have shipped out 150,000 low-cost computers to the Libyan government, the companies confirmed on Tuesday.
While it is also said the Libyan government is set to receive a shipment of some 1.2 million of the OLPC's version of the laptop, so far shipments have not started. Thus Intel and Microsoft have beaten their competitor to the punch, so to speak.
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