Opera Software has been known for using offbeat marketing tactics to promote its Web browser, including company CEO Jon von Tetzchner promising to swim from Norway to the United States. Now, Tetzchner is offering to plaster one Opera user's face up on the ABC SuperSign in New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve.

"Opera owes everything to you, the millions of devoted Opera users around the world, and we have rented advertising space at the most high-profile New Year's party in the world to thank you," Tetzchner says. The Opera spot will be shown nine times a day starting December 26. To enter, users must post a photo and the reason why they should be selected to the Opera forum.

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Yahoo and Web log software maker Six Apart announced Monday that they are joining forces to offer blogging solutions for Yahoo's small business customers. Six Apart has created a specialized version of Movable Type for Yahoo. Each account will offer up to 200GB of transfer per month with up to 5GB of space. Yahoo will also provide 24-hour customer support, as well as 200 e-mail addresses and spam protection.

Service options will begin at $11.95 USD per month and would be an extension to the hosting packages that Yahoo already offers. "Yahoo! has created a best-in-class hosting solution for bloggers, and by integrating it with Six Apart's leading Movable Type software, we offer users a flexible, easy-to-use blogging product with unparalleled scalability," Rich Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Small Business, said in a statement.

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The litigious music industry will have a new target in 2006: sites that provide lyrics and scores to popular songs. The Music Publishers' Association says fines and the removal of such Web sites is not enough -- it is even advocating jail time for those operating these sites.

MPA President Lauren Keiser told the BBC Monday that he thought if the MPA would be successful in "[throwing] in some jail time I think we'll be a little more effective". He says the guitar tabs that have been commonplace on music sites for years are "completely illegal."

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Microsoft this week is beginning wider beta testing of Windows Live Messenger, which will succeed MSN Messenger as the company's primary communications client for consumers. Microsoft is taking the Gmail approach for the beta: invitations were sent out to a handful of testers, who can later invite their friends.

Beta versions of Windows Live Messenger have already begun surfacing on the Web, but Microsoft has learned from past leaks and is restricting login access to those who are registered for the program. Later this month, the beta will expand as users are granted invites to send out.

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The beginning of an expected flurry of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices over the next several months began on Monday as Cingular released the 2125 Smartphone, an apparent update to the SMT 5600 that the carrier offered through Audiovox.

The 2125 is very similar to the 5600 -- in fact it is being marketing as the upgraded version of that phone -- although it offers quad-band GSM technology. Other features include a 1.3-megapixel camera, EDGE data, 64MB of SDRAM, Office Mobile, Pocket MSN, a stereo headphone jack, and Windows Media Player 10. The phone runs on a Texas Instruments OMAP 850 200MHz processor.

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In order to bring on-demand video and other Internet based services such as VoIP to households around the world, the network infrastructure must first be in place. On Monday, MCI announced it had successfully transmitted 40 Gigabit per second over 3,040 km of fiber, moving one step closer to high-capacity Internet.

The field trial took place in October and November around the Dallas metro area and follows a test in 2004 in which MCI transmitted the world's first 40 Gbps traffic in San Jose. That feat was surpassed weeks later by MCI sending 40 Gbps 1,200 km between Sacramento and Salt Lake City.

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Instant messaging security firm IMLogic warned of a new phishing attack making its way through the Yahoo! Messenger network on Monday. The attack, IM.Marphish2.Yahoo, attempts to steal personal information by duping a user into believing that they are in violation of Yahoo's Terms of Service. The user is instructed to contact the "abuse department" through a URL that points to the 2wahms.com domain.

When visited, the page looks similar to a Yahoo login page. However, once a user enters their personal information, the site steals the users username and password. IMLogic says that the effectiveness of such attacks is improving as they continue to build upon previous efforts and blend different methods together to further confound traditional antivirus programs.

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While some have questioned the viability of full-length video content on small screens, it appears that Sprint Nextel is concerned with none of that. The wireless provider on Monday launched a new service that will allow its cellular users to view full-length television shows, movies, concerts, and specials.

Sprint has called on MSpot, a California-based mobile entertainment company founded last year, to provide the service. Subscribers with compatible video cell phones will be able to add the feature to their wireless plans for an additional $6.95 uSD per month.

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In a move that could set a precedent for other peer-to-peer file traders resisting settlement with the music industry, a federal appeals court late Friday refused to overturn a $22,500 judgment against a Chicago woman who was caught downloading music illegally.

The court said that Ceclia Gonzalez's activities were not permitted under copyright law and compared her actions to shoplifting. She argued that she downloaded the songs to decide which she would buy later, and claimed she owned over 250 compact discs.

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The man responsible for writing a Wikipedia entry that linked John Seigenthaler, Sr. to the assassination of John F. Kennedy has come forward and apologized to the former presidential aide. Brian Chase, 38, has resigned from his job as operations manager at a Nashville delivery company over the flap and publicly apologized to Seigenthaler in the Sunday edition of the Tennessean newspaper.

Chase says he didn't know that Wikipedia was considered a serious research tool, and was playing a practical joke on a co-worker. "I knew from the news that Mr. Seigenthaler was looking for who did it, and I did it, so I needed to let him know in particular that it wasn't anyone out to get him, that it was done as a joke that went horribly, horribly wrong," Chase told the paper Sunday. Seigenthaler said he doesn't plan to press charges.

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The first new version of Konfabulator since its July 2005 acquisition by Yahoo was released on Monday. However, the application has a new name, Yahoo! Widget Engine 3.0, and now includes contributions from the Yahoo! Developer Network.

Nine new widgets were also released today, including five that take advantage of various Yahoo services.

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It's a well-known secret that the RIAA and MPAA contract third parties to employ a number of methods to inhibit illicit file sharing, including denial of service attacks and hiding spyware as music. But these tactics have become less effective, forcing one such company to cease operations.

Following the shutdown of Napster, Gnutella and other decentralized services sprang to life and peer-to-peer file trading became a seemingly unstoppable phenomenon. But even though legal action couldn't stop P2P, the record industry decided to do the next best thing: disrupt it.

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Prodigy, one of the oldest recognized brands on the Internet, is now up for sale, according to documents uncovered by CNET on Friday. Following the merger of SBC and AT&T, the combined company is looking for a suitor to purchase the Prodigy name and 66 registered trademarks across 52 countries.

According to the report, bids will be accepted starting later this month with the sale completing in March of next year. Ocean Tomo, an intellectual equity firm, will handle the bidding process for AT&T. The company expects strong interest in the name, especially from the Far East.

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Microsoft may have to try a little harder in marketing the Xbox 360 to Japanese consumers if initial reports coming out of the country Saturday are correct. According to several press outlets, reaction to the new console from Japanese customers appeared to be somewhat apathetic.

Checks at several major retailers indicated that sales were much slower than they had been in Europe or the United States. One retailer in Tokyo told the AFP that he had sold less than 50 consoles in the first two hours.

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Social bookmarking service del.icio.us announced on Friday that it had been acquired by Yahoo. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Joshua Schachter, creator of the site, said that the acquisition would allow it to work more closely with photo site Flickr, which was acquired by Yahoo in March.

Schachter created del.icio.us in 2003 as a way for himself and his friends to save and share Web pages that they visited. Earlier this year, del.icio.us, Inc. was formed to attract investment and help grow the service.

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