Microsoft is asking a handful of beta testers what they'd like to see in its next Web browser, Internet Explorer 8, which is due out in late 2008 or early 2009. The survey was posted to the company's Connect beta site and largely focuses on RSS feeds, reported Mary Jo Foley.

Microsoft included built-in RSS, or Web feed, support in IE7 for the first time. The company asked users how often they read feeds, and what other applications they use to do so. It also hinted at supporting blog comments in a feed, and better offline feed reading. Other questions centered around Favorites and navigation. What new features would you like to see in IE8?

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According to a report in USA Today, Verizon was offered exclusive access to Apple's recently unveiled iPhone almost two years ago, but rejected the deal due to its stringent terms. Apple ended up partnering with Cingular for the $499 iPhone, which debuts in June.

According to the paper, Apple insisted on limited distribution of the iPhone: CEO Steve Jobs wanted the device sold only in Verizon retail stores and Apple stores. All other distribution partners, including Wal-Mart, Best Buy and smaller resellers would have been left out.

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Security software vendor Symantec announced Monday it has agreed to acquire Altiris, a maker of asset management software, in a cash deal valued at about $830 million. Altiris counts Dell, IBM and Microsoft as partners who sell its products to businesses.

Altiris' software helps companies manage and service the desktops, laptops, and other devices used by employees. It also enables them to keep track of back-end infrastructure such as servers and storage hardware. Symantec says the acquisition fits into the company's vision of unified security, as Altiris software makes it easier to know when a system is vulnerable or needs upgrading.

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With the help of more than 500,000 beta testers, Adobe on Monday announced it had completed development of Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, the company's image processing application for professional photographers.

The software utilizes Adobe's Camera Raw technology to support over 150 native RAW file formats, in addition to JPEG and TIFF. Users can also import their photos to DNG, an industry-wide initiative to create a universal file format for solving workflow and archiving incompatibilities.

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Touting the effort as a way to "reward creativity," YouTube founder Chad Hurley confirmed to BBC News that the company plans to add commercials to the start of uploaded videos, and give users a cut of the profits. But details are still scarce at the moment.

The effort isn't surprising: Google has begun making a foray into video advertising, partnering with a number of Web sites to deliver Flash-based movies within ad boxes. When it purchased YouTube last year for an astounding $1.67 billion, Google was clear that it planned to recoup the investment through advertising.

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With Windows Vista set to become available nationwide at 12am this evening and already on store shelves across Asia, Microsoft is preparing a slew of events to kick off its next-generation operating system, including a celebration in New York City today with both Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

After an industry luncheon hosted by Steve Ballmer concludes, Microsoft will open the doors at 1515 Broadway in Times Square to a crowd of invitees who have come to hear Bill Gates herald the arrival of Windows Vista more than 5 years after Windows XP launched down the street.

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The security research firm known that first came to prominence in 2001 after having discovered the gaping security hole in Microsoft Internet Information Services exploited by the worm it dubbed "Code Red," has thrown its hat all the way into the security software ring. This morning, eEye becomes an anti-virus company, going to bat against Symantec and McAfee, and integrating Norman anti-virus technology into its Blink Professional security suite.

What will distinguish the new Blink from its competition is Norman's approach to evaluating executable program behavior before it runs. As eEye Chief Technology Officer Mark Maiffret explained to BetaNews, the new Blink system will actually run executable files in a protected virtual machine, which the company says will still be called the Norman SandBox.

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In a presentation to exclusively invited reporters Friday morning, Intel announced a breakthrough development in microprocessor manufacturing that may be given historical significance in decades to come: the discovery of a new molecular compound material that will replace silicon dioxide in microprocessors using 45-nm and smaller lithographies.

It is what both wide-eyed engineers and anxious executives have described as the "Holy Grail of semiconductor technology," and Friday morning Intel revealed it has developed working 45-nm processor samples running Microsoft Windows Vista, Mac OS X, Linux and other operating systems, where this material - a compound based on the element hafnium, atomic number 72, a frequently occurring impurity in zirconium typically found in fake diamonds - serves as the dielectric gate between the current source and the current drain.

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Google has made what it calls a "pretty small" change to the way it indexes Web sites in order to prevent a prank often called "Googlebombing" in which many people link the same word to specific Web site in order to raise it to the top of search results.

Notable Googlebombs, or linkbombs, include the word "failure" resulting in a link to U.S. President George W. Bush's Web site, as well as associating the word "talentless hack" with Adam Mathes. In turn, Google says it has improved the way it analyzes the link structure of the Web.

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As BetaNews first reported early yesterday evening, during its regular quarterly earnings call, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell stated he's cutting unit sales projections for Xbox 360 game consoles for the first calendar quarter of 2007, by as much as three million units.

While vigorous sales of about 10.4 million total units worldwide by the end of last year helped Microsoft recoup the enormous, though anticipated, costs of having built Xbox 360 in 2005 -- added to the costs of launching the Zune MP3 player in 2006 -- Liddell's warning seems to be a signal that the video game market may be in for a slowdown in general.

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When Vista launches on Tuesday, Microsoft will simultaneously release a version of the operating system aimed at developing markets. The operating system would be designed for lower-end processors and include tutorials for those who may be using their first computer.

Microsoft did something similar in June 2004 when it released Windows XP Starter Edition. That version was initially made available in Southeast Asia, Russia and India, although was eventually sold in 130 countries in 24 languages.

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Microsoft is investigating reports of a new zero-day attack on Microsoft Word, and is aware of "very limited attacks" exploiting the vulnerability. Worse yet, it is not related to three other flaws in Word unpatched by Microsoft, says Symantec.

The issue is known to affect Office XP, 2000 and Office 2003 on Windows 95, NT, 98, Me, 2000, Server 2003 and XP. It is known that the exploit involves the execution of arbitrary code, but specifics of the actual issue are not yet known.

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Hackers are finding ways to circumvent the copy protection used in next-generation DVD formats, and the organization that licenses the technology has confirmed the issue. Certain title keys have been stolen, and are being used to grab data off the discs, it said.

Existence of a crack for the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) has been on the Web for several months, however it has not been confirmed that it was an actual hack. But the AACS Licensing Authority is attempting to dismiss the issue as minor.

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Apple has fixed a vulnerability in its AirPort product that was disclosed late last year as part of the "Month of Kernel Bugs" program. An attacker would be able to compromise a Mac by sending specially crafted data to it over a wireless network, causing the system to crash, according to an Apple alert. The issue affected Intel Core Duo versions of its Mac Mini, MacBook and MacBook Pro lines.

"This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of wireless frames," the company said in the advisory. The update will be automatically delivered via the Software Update feature of Mac OS X, or can be downloaded through the Apple software download site.

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Movie studio Universal, which exclusively supports the HD DVD disc format, said late Thursday that it planned to release more than 100 titles in HD DVD during 2007. It also said that 90 percent of its titles released during the year would be in "combo disc" format, which contains the DVD version of the movie on one side and the HD DVD format on the other.

Among the titles to be released first are The Mummy Returns on January 18, followed by Brokeback Mountain on January 23. After that, Universal said it plans "dozens" of day-and-date releases of new release titles. Catalog titles to be offered this year include The Bourne Identity, Meet The Fockers, American Pie, Erin Brockovich, and Liar Liar, among others.

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