A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to BetaNews this afternoon that it has learned its Windows Live OneCare anti-virus package has failed a test conducted by the respected British laboratory Virus Bulletin using Windows Vista Business Edition, disqualifying it from carrying the "VB100" logo denoting 100% detection of a selected battery of common "in the wild" viruses.

However, the information Microsoft gave us indicates the company is not yet certain - at least officially - why it failed the VB100 test, nor has it apparently tested to verify Virus Bulletin's results.

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Microsoft announced at the RSA security conference this week that it has expanded the number of data providers for the phishing filter built into Internet Explorer 7, which warns users when they are about to visit a potentially risky Web site.

Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT), BrandProtect and MySpace.com are joining current partners Cyveillance, Digital Resolve, Internet Identity, Mark Monitor, and RSA. Netcraft has also agreed to provide Microsoft with data it obtains through its own anti-phishing toolbar for both IE and Firefox.

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Among a plethora of revamped handsets announced by Sony Ericsson this morning is one very thin Walkman phone that peeked out from behind the curtains at CES last month, and whose official announcement enthusiasts weren’t expecting for maybe another three months. The handsome W880 is expected to replace the already successful W850 and W810, while reducing its profile to a mere 9.4 mm.

As a Sony Ericsson spokesperson confirmed to BetaNews this afternoon, the Java Platform 7 platform on which the W880 and seven other models released today are based, includes support for a game rendering engine called MascotCapsule Micro3D, a compatible version of the Mobile 3D Graphics API for Java.

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs has made a surprise call for the end of digital rights management technology, which is designed to stop copyrighted music from being shared illicitly. Jobs says Apple would sell only DRM-free music on iTunes if it could.

The revelation came in an open letter published on Apple's Web site, which largely responds to concerns over DRM that have come from European countries such as Norway and France. Jobs offers three possible outcomes for the future, but highlights the abandonment of DRM by record companies as the best possible solution for consumers.

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The company that at the start of this decade appeared poised to beat Intel and upset AMD in the race to produce a low-power notebook processor for the masses, announced yesterday it is exiting the engineering business altogether. Transmeta will be laying off up to 68% of its current workforce by the end of the third calendar quarter, concentrating the remainder of its resources on the licensing of its existing designs to AMD and others, as well as to pursue the final resolution of its courtroom battle against Intel.

Since last June, Transmeta has been licensing its low-power CPU design to AMD for use in its Efficeon processor line, which is marketed exclusively to emerging markets. Efficeon-based systems utilize a Microsoft technology called FlexGo, which lets lower-income families purchase PCs on an enforced version of the installment plan.

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Apple said Tuesday that it had set a date for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, a gathering where the company shows off development techniques and technologies to Macintosh developers. This year's conference will take place in San Francisco, Calif. from June 11-15.

It is possible that Mac OS X 10.5, code-named Leopard, may make its first appearance at the conference, as WWDC has sometimes been used as a launch pad for new software and hardware products. For example, at last year's event, Apple completed its transition to the Intel platform with the Mac Pro, as well as offering a sneak peek at Leopard.

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While cable thefts and vandalism are a problem for telecommunications companies nationwide, Verizon said Tuesday the problem is especially bad in West Virginia, where over 17,000 customers have experienced service interruptions as a result of the issue.

Across the state, 45 occurrences of either vandalism or theft have occurred. In one recent case, a 20-foot section of cable was stolen and caused both fire and police departments to lose telephone service, posing a threat to public safety.

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A barrier to 3G adoption has long been the price of the phone itself. However, LG has been selected as a winner of a contest to produce a low-cost handset that would retail for about $100 and operate on GSM Networks.

The contest, sponsored by the GSM Association, was judged by some of the worlds biggest operators using the technology, including AT&T, Globe Telecom, Hutchison 3G, KTF, MTN, Orange, Smart, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

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This morning, the US' leading retailer is rolling out what it calls a "beta" of its pay-per-download video service, though the "pay" part is clearly turned on. What immediately differentiates Wal-Mart's Video Downloads Store from its competition -- other than undercutting their prices by about 11 cents -- is that it features new and recent releases from every major Hollywood studio, including Sony (Columbia, Screen Gems, MGM), Warner Bros., 20th Century-Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Lionsgate.

So while studios continue their long bargaining process with technology brands such as Netflix, Amazon's Unbox, and Apple's iTunes, holding firm on their retail price "suggestions," it behooves them to not risk alienating themselves from their principal retail outlet, which analysts estimate is responsible for at least 40% of all DVD sales to US customers.

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Kodak is entering the home printing market with a line of printers that use better quality ink developed by the company, saving consumers up to 50 percent on ink costs while allowing them to print the same number of pages.

The printers used pigment-based ink, and would retail for $9.99 for black ink, and $14.99 for the five-ink color cartridge. The consumer says home printing of 4x6 photos could be as little as ten cents per print with their system.

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Nintendo's Wii console continues to be the surprise success in the next-generation console race, outselling the Sony PlayStation 3 by a two-to-one margin in Japan during the month of January.

Only 148,000 PS3s sold during the month, compared with 405,000 Wii consoles, Japanese gaming magazine Enterbrain said Tuesday. Sony's lackluster success in a region normally considered its strongest again brings up questions of the console's overall success.

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The joint mobile venture between EarthLink and SK Telecom finished 2006 with 70,000 subscribers, and expects to hit the milestone in April. Additionally, it is making money at a rate that would allow it to surpass $100 million in revenue per year.

Helio's disclosure of its user base came as part of a larger announcement where it announced its own music store. The company also said it was encouraged by the rate of subscriber growth, which is increasing month after month.

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Just days after Broadcom demoed a chip with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM reception, competitor Texas Instruments answered back with a better integrated chip that adds Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11n.

Like its Broadcom counterpart, the TI chip is built using 65-nanometer processes. It would also be the first mobile-based 802.11n solution. For voice over WLAN functionality, call quality and reliability would increase, the company says.

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In an interview with Reuters this morning, AMD's new senior vice president for technology development, Douglas Grose said that the new high-k-plus-metal-gate (HK+MG) transistor technology IBM unveiled two weeks ago might not be integrated with AMD's manufacturing process in time for its first 45-nm CPUs to be produced in 2008.

Saying the decision on when AMD will use its partner's technology depends on his assessment of AMD's roadmap, Grose explained that for now, that time appears to be "in the 45-nanometer timeframe or the 32 node application."

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A plea to prevent a Russian teacher from being sentenced to detention in Siberian prison camps is coming from an unlikely source: former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The leader wrote an open letter to Microsoft founder Bill Gates asking him to show mercy and intercede on behalf of the accused man.

Gobachev claimed in the letter posted to the Web site of The Gorbachev Foundation Monday that Alexander Ponosov did not know he was committing a crime. Ponosov lives in a small village in the Ural Mountains, located in the western part of Russia.

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