AOL on Wednesday released its annual top ten most commonly sent junk e-mails, revealing that spammers are becoming increasingly more sophisticated to dupe users into falling for their schemes. It also included an increase in SOS, or special order spam.

Special order spam differs from traditional unsolicited e-mail in the way that it attempts to trick a user by pretending to be from a friend, or as part of a legitimate transaction. In fact, six of the top 10 spam messages fall into this category. This compares to two last year, and none in 2003.

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A new virus is taking advantage of the fervor surrounding the Windows Live Messenger Beta by disguising itself as a copy of the beta. Called Virkel.F by security firm F-Secure, once executed it will connect the PC to a botnet server and send a link to contacts on your buddy list.

An infected computer can then be used to attack other systems or send out spam e-mails. The file BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE will be downloaded off a site that claims the client was "leaked." However, there is no MSN Messenger 8 Beta -- the name has been changed to Windows Live Messenger. F-Secure says to watch for the download link, as it will always contain the recipient's e-mail address.

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If 2006 is to be the most important year of product launches for Microsoft, 2005 will be remembered as the year that Redmond took charge of its future and finally mapped out where it was headed after years of indecision.

2005 kicked off with a focus on security around the Microsoft campus. Rumors of a new suite of PC protection tools that eventually became known as Windows OneCare were followed by an inital beta release of Windows AntiSpyware, based on technology Microsoft acquired from Giant Software. A malware removal tool -- to be updated monthly -- was issued shortly thereafter.

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Peter Quinn, the man responsible for bringing OpenDocument to the state of Massachusetts as CIO will resign on January 9, citing the controversy around the decision as well as personal attacks aimed at him as reasons for his departue.

No announcement has been made as to a replacement. However, Quinn did stress to employees of the state's Information Technology Division (ITD) that just because he was leaving, it did not mean that Massachusetts' progress towards ODF was ending.

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Sirius said on Tuesday that it had recently passed 3 million subscribers, and expected to finish the year on a positive note. The company, which is attempting to make up lost ground to XM, is banking on the addition of Howard Stern to place itself on a more even footing with its competitor. Stern moves to Sirius on January 9.

The service has added almost 2 million subscribers during the year, more in line with the number of subscribers XM has signed up during the same period -- approximately 2.5 to 3 million. Rival XM had 5 million subscribers as of the end of the third quarter, with expectations to surpass 6 million by year's end.

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Firefox developer Blake Ross has confirmed that Dell Computer's UK division is bundling the Firefox Web browser with new PCs. The news follows an October deal in which Hewlett-Packard agreed to offer Netscape as an option for the default browser on its computers.

Mozilla and Dell have not yet officially announced an agreement, and it's not clear whether Firefox will replace Internet Explorer or simply be offered in addition to Microsoft's browser. Dell's Asia Pacific group, meanwhile, says it has no plans to follow suit in offering Firefox to customers.

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Microsoft has a new option for people tired of seeing the advertisement in their MSN Messenger window: watch video clips instead. With the introduction of Windows Live Messenger, the Redmond company is testing a feature it calls the Video Carousel that replaces the graphic ad with interactive video content from MSN.

Windows Live Messenger is the successor to MSN Messenger and entered beta testing earlier this month. The new client includes features such as offline messages and PC-to-phone calls. File transfers are beefed up through online drop boxes called "Sharing Folders" that actually store the data on a Microsoft server.

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HD DVD's latest delay in reching the market may prove costly, as Pioneer announced Tuesday that it planned to unveil a Blu-ray enabled optical disc drive for PCs at CES 2006 in early January, with a launch in Japan scheduled for later in the month.

In order for the company to make its late January launch target, issues related to the AACS content management system -- the same feature delaying HD DVD drives -- as well as a completion of the Blu-ray logo need to occur, Pioneer says.

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Yahoo and CBS said Tuesday that the companies were joining forces to offer free streaming of the network's comedies "Two and a Half Men" and "How I Met Your Mother" through Yahoo TV. The promotion extends from Tuesday through January 2.

A total of four episodes, two from each series, would be available through the service. CBS had previously tried streaming of a primetime television series on its own. Three episodes of the network's new series "Threshold" were made available through its Web site earlier this season.

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The RIAA last week applauded the U.S. Senate's passage of legislation that would put more pressure on the Russian government to curb widespread piracy within the country. A similar measure passed the U.S. House in mid-November.

Furthermore, Russia risks losing acceptance into the World Trade Organization and to receive trade benefits from the United States if it does not comply, the legislation reads.

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Antivirus firm Panda Software warned Tuesday of a new trojan that has begun to spread worldwide through MSN Messenger and attempts to obtain passwords of Spanish-speaking online banking users. Called Nabload.U, the trojan actually downloads another, Banker.bsx, which is currently the most detected piece of malware by Panda's ActiveScan service.

Nabload is different, however, in how it obtains the information. No keylogger is used, which means banks that have attempted to thwart trojans by using virtual keyboards are not protected from this attack, Panda says.

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In a move that would further secure Samsung's hold on the NAND flash memory market, the company said it was in talks with Sony and others to provide chips on a long-term basis. Samsung controls over half the NAND market and recently signed a $500 million contract with Apple to supply memory for its iPod players.

According to the Korea Economic Daily, Sony is looking for 8GB NAND chips and bigger, and the order would account for one-fifth of Samsung's total output for 2006. NAND flash memory is used in MP3 players, cell phones and digital cameras, which has led to a huge increase in demand. Intel and Micron recently forged a $2.4 billion partnership to begin manufacturing flash and combat Samsung.

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And so draws near a close to yet another year. As we say goodbye to 2005, we at BetaNews would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for all of the support we have received from our software authors, downloaders and devoted readers. This has been a momentous year for BetaNews, including the addition of new faces to the team, and it wouldn't have happened without you.

While the outside hasn't changed much, beneath the hood we've been making some big modifications to BetaNews and have much in store as the new year gets underway. We also plan to expand our staff in order to bring you even more news about the software and technology that interests you. In January we'll kick off our live coverage of CES 2006 in Las Vegas.

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The National Security Agency has been spying on Internet and telephone communications in and out of the United States in an immense program implemented in cooperation with major telecommunications companies, the New York Times reported late Friday.

The news comes just a week after the Bush administration acknowledged the existence of a domestic spying program, while claiming the executive order was limited to those individuals with known terrorist ties. But the Times cites sources who say the surveillance was much broader than admitted.

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The music industry has made no secret of its desire to raise prices of legal music downloads, but the record labels have instead raised the ire of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer has subpoenaed the four major music companies as part of an investigation into collusion on the pricing of digital music.

Although Spitzer's office has made no public comments on the specific nature of its investigation, Warner Music Group revealed it had received a subpoena in a SEC filing on Friday. Sony BMG and Universal Music Group have also confirmed receiving the subpoenas, and sources say EMI has as well.

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