Google late Wednesday opened up its much-anticipated Calendar service to the public in beta form, complete with Gmail integration and SMS notifications. Code-named CL2, the free service enables users to quickly add events and reminders, send invitations and share their calendar with others.

Google Calendar can import events directly from Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo! Calendar, in addition to supporting calendar standards to view schedules on any device supporting iCal or XML files. Gmail will also recognize events mentioned in an e-mail to quickly add them to Google Calendar.

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AOL rolled out new features earlier this week to its AOL and AIM Mail, saying it plans to continue to improve the service through the upcoming months. Among the enhancements are "quick actions," which allow the user to perform common actions with one click, and new panels that allow for simultaneous access of Calendar, Address Book and Tasks while working within the AIM or AOL Mail client.

The new Web mail client also provides tighter integration with AOL Calendar, allowing for users to create and manage events or tasks within the service. Finally, AOL Mail will now allow for the linking of up to eight AOL or AIM email addresses to a single mail account, without having to log in separately to check each account. Each address would be displayed in a pull down menu with the number of e-mail messages, AOL said.

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Ahead of a June 29 wireless spectrum auction, the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday voted to allow anonymous bidding if the agency felt a certain level needed to be present. The move would be a change from past auctions, where bidder's identities and bids were revealed at the end of each round.

The FCC expects to raise some $8 to $15 billion from the auction, but the agency said it worried that some would use the openness of the process to communicate with each other. This could result in lower than market value prices, or companies intimidating others into withholding bids.

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Following in the footsteps of Google and Microsoft, Yahoo on Wednesday rolled out a new Yahoo! Maps beta complete with satellite and ariel imagery. The company says the service now offers the "best medium-resolution global map data" of any of its competitors.

Yahoo has attempted to improve on the standard satellite images by blending away seam lines and matching colors so the viewing experience is smooth. The leading Internet site has also attempted to one-up its rivals by providing complete coverage of the United States at a 1-meter per pixel solution.

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BMW said Wednesday that it will begin adding a new interface co-developed by the carmaker and Apple to allow for seamless integration of the iPod with a car's audio system. With the special adapter, control of the iPod would be available through the steering wheel and in-dash player.

New BMW 3, 5, 6, and 7 series vehicles, as well as the BMW M5 sedan and M6 coupe would be compatible with the adapter. The same interface is being used to connect Sirius Satellite and HD Radio with these vehicles. Pricing has not been announced, although the unit itself will become available in July. BMW intends to continue to support the older interface, which is compatible with certain vehicles beginning with the 2002 model year.

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System recovery software maker Winternals said Wednesday that it had been granted a temporary restraining order over alleged copyright infringement by Best Buy and its Geek Squad subsidiary. Winternals claims the retailer has been using pirated and unlicensed copies of its Windows recovery software following a breakdown in licensing talks.

The restraining order was part of a lawsuit filed by Winternals last Thursday in a U.S. District Court in Austin. The suit says Best Buy has been knowingly using the pirated software, including ERD Commander 2005.

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Microsoft has given its answer to Google Scholar with a beta version of Windows Live Academic Search designed for students and researchers. The service has indexed a spectrum of academic journals and peer-reviewed content, and is intended to aid with research.

While the beta release focuses on the topics of computer science, electrical engineering and physics, Microsoft plans to bring new subjects online in the near future. The company has partnered with the IEEE, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and publishers Elsevier and John Wiley & Sons, along with a number of other groups.

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Google said Wednesday it did the right thing in appeasing the Chinese government in order to offer service in the country. The comments were made by CEO Eric Schmidt during a press conference in China to announce a Chinese-language brand name and research center to be located in Beijing.

The search giant was heavily criticized in January following the launch of its Chinese language Web site. Searches on the topics of human rights, Tibet, the Dalai Lama, and democracy omitted certain Web sites and redirected to Chinese government URLs.

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Users of the TiVo service via DirecTV will be supported through 2010 thanks to an agreement finalized Wednesday. However, the deal does not mean that the satellite provider would begin selling the popular digital video recorders again.

DirecTV began selling its own DVR last year based on technology from NDS, a subsidiary of parent company News Corp. The company is also looking into ways of providing new services through that device, such as downloadable videos.

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Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser was the focus of a majority of the fixes in Tuesday's monthly security update from the Redmond company. Altogether, five updates were issued, including three "critical," one "moderate," and another rated "important."

The Internet Explorer update was issued as a cumulative fix addressing ten vulnerabilities within the browser. The patch includes a fix for the much-publicized "createTextRange()" flaw, as well as fixes for HTML parsing errors, script executions, and address bar spoofing issues among others. All the flaws could result in a remote code execution risk, Microsoft said.

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Since its launch late last year, Sling Media's Slingbox has become a cult favorite, selling nearly 100,000 units with little advertising other than word-of-mouth. Retailers have noticed its growing popularity, and have given it prominent placement in their stores.

The success has surprised the company, says Sling Media vice president of Market Development Jeremy Toeman. He says the reception has been more than they had expected -- especially considering the entire company employs less than 60 people.

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Microsoft has officially begun requesting that users running Windows 98, 98 SE and Millennium Edition (Me) upgrade their operating system as soon as possible. The Redmond company will cease all public and technical support for the products on July 11, 2006, including all security updates.

Customers are being notified of the impending deadline, which was moved from January 16, 2004 to provide extra time for those still running legacy systems. No-charge incident support and extended hotfix support for Windows 98 and Me previously ended on June 30, 2003 and December 31, 2003, respectively.

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Analytics firm comScore Networks announced Monday the results of its February measurement of instant messenger usage around the world, with Europe surpassing the United States in IM users for the first time. MSN Messenger was also ranked as the most used client, garnering 61 percent of the worldwide market.

According to the survey, 82 million people in Europe use instant messaging software, amounting to 49 percent of the online population. In the United States only 69 million of people use IM, or 37 percent of the online population. Latin America had the highest IM penetration covering 64 percent of Web users.

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As part of its Windows Live Shopping initiative, Microsoft is testing out Live Product Search, a service similar to Google's Froogle that offers price comparisons. According to LiveSide.net, users will be able to refine a search by category, brand, seller or specific keywords.

A slider will show and hide product metadata in real-time like Windows Live Search. Unlike Froogle, Windows Live Product Search will also link to external articles and reviews of products. Microsoft may include user-provided buying guides as well, sources tell LiveSide. However, the Redmond company has not yet said how it intends to roll out the service.

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Fujitsu will become the first computer manufacturer to ship computers with integrated Blu-ray drives when it releases desktops with the technology in Japan this June, the company said Tuesday. The news follows an announcement by Toshiba Monday that it would begin shipping HD DVD-enabled laptops by mid-May.

The company is covering all bases; Fujitsu will also release an HD DVD-capable laptop around the same time as the desktop. Either way, the new models will come with a steep price tag for the Japanese market.

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