Latest Technology News

Comcast's seemingly never-ending delays in getting TiVo service to its customers continued Tuesday, as the company admitted it was behind schedule in rolling out service to customers.

Since the announcement that the two companies had partnered to offer DVR software to Comcast subscribers in March 2005, the release date has been repeatedly delayed. Often, little if any reason was given for the delays, although TiVo assured investors the service was on its way.

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Today at 10:00 AM EST, Nullsoft and AOL released the latest version of Winamp. The timing of the 5.5 release was deliberately chosen (10/10, 10:00) to commemorate the software's tenth year as a leading media player.

Some more features have been added to the popular utility, including a GraceNote powered instant playlist generator called "More Like This," as well as a feature that allows users to access their Winamp content through their next-generation game consoles.

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Nintendo said Wednesday that it will begin selling its previously announced Wii balance board in Japan in time for the holiday shopping season. The device is bundled with a game called Wii Fit, which allows the user to perform a variety of fitness activities, including aerobics, yoga, skiing, and others which require a good sense of balance. The company is billing it as its most important product for the holiday season.

At a price of 8,800 yen, the device goes on sale December 1. Nintendo hopes that it will not only be a hit among current Wii owners, but also bring new customers to the console. The Wii has consistently outsold Sony's PS3 in the region, and Nintendo's success probably had a lot to do with Sony's announcement Tuesday that it was cutting prices in Japan on its PlayStation 3 console. The Wii Fit package is said to be on track for an international debut in early 2008.

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The principal reason given for the tremendous under-the-hood changes to Windows unveiled early this year in Vista was the need to overhaul the security model. Indeed, Vista has proven to be a generally more secure operating system, though some vulnerabilities that apply to ordinary software impact Vista users just as much as any other.

But now, software analysts testing the latest build 3205 of the beta for Windows XP Service Pack 3 are discovering a wealth of genuinely new features - not just patches and security updates (although there are literally over a thousand of those), but services that could substantially improve system security without overhauling the kernel like in Vista.

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eBay said Wednesday that it is joinging the social networking movement by launching 'Neighborhoods,' which help its users congregate around specific topics to discuss and find products on the site.

Initially some 600 groups are available, including topics such as the sci-fi hit Battlestar Galactica and R&B artist Beyonce. eBay will add additional groups based on community feedback.

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Apple is said to be close to finalizing the next version of Mac OS X, while at the same time preparing its final update for Mac OS X 10.4, AppleInsider reports.

According to the site's sources, Apple is in the process of sending training materials to its support staff on the various features of Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard," including installation and Boot Camp.

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Sometimes, it takes an esoteric name to open the floodgates of interest onto an idea that's existed for a long time.

"Clouds" is a term describing software designed to be rich internet applications that balance the computing between thousands of processors working lightly, rather than fully taxing a single one. Many current cloud apps were once remanded to the user's machine, but can now be accessed online and with minimal demand on the user end.

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A team of Microsoft spokespeople have been working throughout the day to devise a plausible explanation for a comment made by CEO Steve Ballmer during a company gathering in the UK, which on its face appears to say it is considering litigation against users of Red Hat Linux for patent infringement.

But one spokesperson acknowledged late this afternoon that multiple sources have yet to come to an agreement over what the company should say.

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The .asia domain, approved in December 2006, became available today to businesses and organizations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN,) controlled by the US Department of Commerce oversees about 20 generic domain suffixes, including the country-specific. Registration is being headed by the non-profit group DotAsia, which is based in Hong Kong.

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The next phase of BitTorrent's amazing transformation from the service whose name legislators made, by accident or design, synonymous with copyright infringement to the engine for a legitimately sanctioned commercial industry, began today.

Brightcove, which provides Internet streaming services to commercial broadcasters including CBS, Fox, and Discovery Communications, will incorporate the P2P streaming technology as "BitTorrent DNA" into its new IP video delivery platform, which it promises will bring broadcast-quality video to Flash-enabled players as soon as next year.

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AT&T has signed a deal with Aloha Partners to buy 12 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz frequency for $2.5 billion, which will enable the company to expand its wireless services across the United States. Broadband Internet coverage and broadcasting digital TV over the air are possible uses for AT&T.

Interest in the 700 MHz spectrum has soared recently due to an upcoming FCC auction in which the government will raise at least $10 billion. The auction is slated to begin January 8, 2008 and will include the likes of Verizon and Google. Many see the release of the spectrum as a way to boost competition in the wireless broadband Internet space.

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Following through with a partnership first announced last January, RealNetworks and MTV said Tuesday that their Rhapsody music service will soon be available through TiVo set-top boxes. TiVo subscribers will be able to browse and stream songs and movies on demand from Rhapsody.

The deal is part of a broader initiative by Real to expand Rhapsody's presence in the media industry in hopes of gaining some ground on market leader Apple's iTunes. The company recently sold a stake in Rhapsody to MTV, creating a new joint venture. Real previously also forged partnerships with Nokia and Reingcom, the maker of iRiver music players.

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Early this afternoon, the developers of an all-purpose, presence-providing application for instant messaging, IRC, and other communications services announced it has been acquired by Google.

Jaiku, a messaging application that lets communicators know who's available, what they're up to, and whether they'd really like to speak with you, will soon be part of Google's services, though the company today admitted it wasn't quite sure how it would bring that about.

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In a statement to BetaNews this afternoon, Novell public relations director Bruce Lowry said there may be more for a Utah court to determine than just the $800,000 in SVRX software licensing royalties that both sides agree SCO owes Novell, as part of their original asset purchase agreement.

"There is still a dispute over the SCOsource licenses SCO issues to Microsoft and Sun in 2003," Lowry told us, "which totaled some $26 million between them. The District Court judge [Dale Kimball] ruled earlier that a portion of that money belongs to Novell. What exactly that amount was something the District Court was going to consider in the trial that got postponed due to SCO's bankruptcy filing."

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Wal-Mart's presence in rural American life continues to grow. Today, the company announced it will begin selling HughesNet Broadband service at 2,800 stores across the nation, with a notable presence in rural areas where terrestrial broadband services are still largely unavailable.

HughesNet is a satellite-based Internet service, formerly known as DirecWAY, which relies on "a clear view of the southern sky" to deliver broadband speeds.

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