P2P users have found a creative way to fill up the more than 2 gigabytes of e-mail storage offered by Google's Gmail: file sharing. A new service created by Dutch student Robbie Groenewoudt taps into Gmail and creates an index of files that can be accessed by other users.

Appropriately named G2G Exchange, the Web-based service does have some drawbacks. It requires users to hand over their Gmail account information, although it can be configured to index only e-mails with certain labels. G2G's FAQ page recommends that users create a new Gmail login specifically for sharing files.

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Networking manufacturer NetGear said on Monday that it would add a disclaimer to its packaging, offer a 15 percent discount on its online store, and pay $700,000 in legal fees in order to settle a class-action lawsuit over misrepresentation of the speed of its wireless products. Details of the settlement were made public in a Friday filing with the SEC.

Netgear was sued in California Superior Court in 2004 for allegations that wireless devices sold by the company did not perform as fast as advertised. A similar suit filed in February was later dismissed. While Netgear has admitted no liability, it will add a disclaimer to its boxes indicating that wireless speeds can vary due to a variety of factors.

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The Supreme Court on Monday granted eBay's request for a writ of certiorari in a 2003 case, which found the auction site violated patents surrounding its "Buy it Now" feature.

A federal appeals court at the time awarded patent owner MercExchange $25 million in damages and granted a permanent injunction against eBay that would bar the site from using the feature.

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Sony's PlayStation 3 will add parental controls to limit access to violent video games, according to statements made on Monday by the Entertainment Software Association.

The commitment by Sony means that all three next-generation consoles would offer some type of method to give parents greater control over what video games their children are playing. Sony had already offered some tools to limit access to movies viewed on the PlayStation 2, but the protections did not work on video games.

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Most TiVo customers use the devices to skip over commercials within recorded shows. However, the DVR maker on Monday announced that beginning in the spring of 2006, it would use the set-top box to deliver on-demand advertising to interested subscribers.

TiVo says this is the first time television would be used as a medium to deliver such targeted ads to potential customers. These commercials would be found based on keyword searches, similar to the way Internet advertising currently works.

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Microsoft's decision to submit its forthcoming Office Open XML format to European standards organization Ecma International seems to have done the trick: Massachusetts says it expects the new version of Microsoft Office to meet its "open format" requirement.

The Massachusetts plan, which was finalized in September, calls for all electronic documents created after January 1, 2007 to utilize only formats deemed "open," which include OpenDocument and Adobe's PDF. OpenDocument is the centerpiece in the new OpenOffice.org 2.0 release, but is not supported by Microsoft Office.

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Move over HD DVD and Blu-ray. Bell Labs spin-off InPhase Technologies and Hitachi Maxell are currently working on a computer disc about the size of a DVD that could hold up to sixty times the data. The companies hope to have the disc and compatible drives on the market by the end of next year.

The new discs will use a technology known as holographic memory. Data is stored on a crystal material that is sensitive to light. In order to read and write data, a light beam is split in two and one is passed through semi-transparent material. This material alters the beam to encode data.

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Kazaa worked feverishly Monday to comply with a court order that mandated the use of filters to prevent sharing of copyrighted material across its network. The company has until December 5 to install a system that uses keywords, such as the name of an artist, to filter out copyrighted music files.

Federal Judge Murray Wilcox mandated the changes as part of his decision against Sharman in September. At that time, the company was found guilty of copyright infringement because it Sharman did little, if anything, to stop the trade of copyrighted material over its network.

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European gamers should expect similar scenes in retail stores across the continent on Friday as seen in the United States the week before. That's because Microsoft plans to only have about 300,000 units of its new Xbox 360 console available at launch, according to a company executive. Chris Lewis, Xbox's European head, told a German weekly on Sunday that there was a good chance the console would sell out across Europe as well.

The console sold out in most places across the U.S. within hours, and eager gamers are paying up to several times the retail price of the system on Internet auction sites. Microsoft is the first to release its next-generation gaming consoles; Sony is expected to launch the PS3 in spring 2006, with the Nintendo Revolution following soon after.

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In order to be first, sometimes you have to pay the price. That's what Microsoft could be doing with its Xbox 360, according to analyst firm iSuppli.

While the firm's teardown of the unit gave a peek into the dominance that IBM will have in the next-generation of gaming consoles, it also showed that the bill-of-materials cost for the Xbox 360 Premium reaches $525 USD, 32 percent higher than the $399 USD retail price of the device.

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Aiming to take on the popular TiVo DVR, LG on Wednesday introduced its combination digital video recorder and DVD recorder based on Microsoft technology. The LRM-519 would be the first set-top device to use the Microsoft Program Guide, a TiVo-like service being offered by the Redmond company.

The device includes a 160GB hard drive and will run on Windows Media Center Technologies. The DVD recorder will support a range of recording formats, including DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD+R Dual Layer discs. Users will also be able to expand the storage space of the unit by connecting external hard drives to the DVR's 2 USB ports.

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With the release of a new user interface in Windows Vista and Office 12, Microsoft will also update the font that both products use for the first time in eight years. The company says the new font is designed to take advantage of ClearType, and is more modern than its predecessors.

Dubbed "Segoe UI," the font is more humanistic and less computer-like than it's predecessor, Tahoma. Microsoft also relied on a decade of research from its Typography unit on making fonts easier to read and scan on screen.

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South Korea's Fair Trade Commission said that it would delay its decision on antitrust allegations brought against Microsoft by Daum Communications. Although the two companies have since brokered a $30 million dollar settlement, the FTC said it would continue its investigation.

Filed in 2001, the complaint alleges that Microsoft broke antitrust laws in South Korea by bundling its instant messaging and media player applications with Windows. A deadline for a final ruling is now set for November 30, when the committee overseeing the case will meet again.

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BitTorrent and the MPAA struck a deal on Tuesday that may prevent future legal action against the file sharing network, and will make it tougher for users to find feature films through the service.

In May, Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent, introduced technology that allowed users to search the Internet for Torrent files. A good deal of the content found was legal, the company claims, but searches also found copyrighted material, such as movies and television shows.

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AOL's Desktop Search software debuted last year as a component of the company's new AOL Explorer Web browser. Now, version 2.0 of the utility has been spun off as a standalone download with a revamped interface and support for removable media. AOL Desktop Search 2.0 indexes a variety of document types, emails, and even audio and video.

Unlike homegrown desktop search solutions from Microsoft and Google, AOL utilizes technology developed by Copernic. Version 2.0 will feature a full preview window for viewing entire files without opening them, and integrates with the standard Windows Open dialog box. Beta 1 of AOL Desktop Search 2.0 is available for download now, but it's not yet feature complete, company officials say.

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