Microsoft Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie said this week that his company is working on a new extension to RSS that would help users with different contact and calendar software and services synchronize each other's information.

Called Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE), the specification is currently at version 0.9 because Microsoft believes that it has a high degree of usefulness in its current state. Howver, Ozzie cautioned anyone from building production applications on top of it just yet.

Continue reading →

Perhaps taking a play from Apple's wildly popular "Switcher" ads, Mozilla is looking to take Firefox marketing to the next level with user-created videos. The campaign will have two components: testimonials about using the alternative Web browser and a 30-second video advertisement.

"Previous text-based efforts have been quite effective but we know they can't convey the real joy and excitement that people get from using Firefox. Only video can really get that across so we're going to be asking you all to bring Firefox to life with an exciting video campaign," wrote Mozilla developer Asa Dotzler on the Spread Firefox site.

Continue reading →

Not long after Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced he had sued Sony BMG over its invasive copy-protection scheme, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said it filed a class action lawsuit against the record label in Los Angeles. The EFF's suit goes beyond the rootkit and includes SunnComm DRM used by Sony as well.

While acknowledging that Sony has taken steps to recall CDs affected by First 4 Internet's rootkit DRM, known as XCP, the EFF says "these measures still fall short of what the company needs to do to fix the problems caused to customers."

Continue reading →

Google on Tuesday announced that it would be making a $3 million donation to the Library of Congress to begin an effort to create digital copies of rare documents from around the globe, called the "World Digital Library."

The project would be similar to the Library's American Memory project, which it first started work on in 1994. The site now includes more than 10 million items on various topics, including the nation's founding, baseball cards and documents from World War I and II.

Continue reading →

AOL's next-generation AIM release, known as Triton, is officially out the door and replaces AIM 5.9 as the company's default instant messaging client. Triton aims to bring together text, voice and video chat and has become the veritable front door to AOL's services.

The new release features one-click access to AOL Explorer, Search, AOL and AIM Mail, AIM Talk and the new TotalTalk VoIP calling service. Triton additionally bundles a new AIM Address Book that syncs with Plaxo, and offers built-in access to AOL Radio featuring 20 XM music stations.

Continue reading →

Microsoft said late Monday that it intends to submit its new Office Open XML file format to the European standards organization ECMA International. The move, which is backed by Apple, Intel and Toshiba, would create a technical committee that will ratify the format as an open standard.

Any member of ECMA could join the process, Microsoft says, and help to fully document the formats that will be used in the next releases of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Initial versions of the Office Open XML formats have been included in Office 12 Beta 1, but changes will likely be made.

Continue reading →

Google has plans to tie Google Base into its Froogle shopping search, which would allow users to scour a third-party database of product inventory. Such a service would take the guesswork out of finding what stores have the products a consumer wants, Google said.

The offering, for example, would allow a user to type a search term into Froogle such as "Xbox 360 Philadelphia" or "PSP New York," and receive a map showing retail locations with the product in stock.

Continue reading →

Research firm NPD Group said Monday that Apple's iTunes Music Store broke into the top ten list of music retailers, marking the first time a digital music store has done so.

With the iPod still selling briskly and the holiday season now upon us, it is likely that Apple will increase its share of music sales even further and possibly rise higher in the rankings next quarter.

Continue reading →

Last month, SBC said it would adopt the AT&T brand name following the completion of its $16 billion merger with the company. But SBC did not say what would happen to Cingular, in which it controls a 60 percent stake. On Monday, however, the company confirmed plans to phase out the Cingular name and replace it with AT&T.

Although Cingular owners SBC and Bell South have made big efforts to promote the brand, SBC CEO Ed Whitacre says the company wants to use AT&T to market all of its products. Cingular had already acquired AT&T Wireless last year, and the SBC merger will bring with it a revamped image for the former Ma Bell. No date for the change was announced.

Continue reading →

Movielink announced on Monday that it had signed a deal with Twentieth Century Fox to offer the company's movies for download. The agreement means Movielink -- a joint venture between five Hollywood studios -- can now offer movies from all the major studios.

"Robots" and other Fox flicks will be available this week, with more titles added over the coming months. Fox previously offered content on CinemaNow.com, but said it waited on movies until broadband adoption was higher. The "Star Wars" saga will not be available online, however, as Fox only owns the theater and home video distribution rights to the films.

Continue reading →

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced Monday that he has filed suit against Sony BMG over the use of illegal spyware in its copy-protection mechanism that gained national attention earlier this month.

Abbott also disputed Sony's claims that it had recalled all affected CDs, saying investigators were able to purchase "numerous titles at Austin retail stores as recently as Sunday evening."

Continue reading →

The company that was made famous with its annoying yet popular Crazy Frog ringtone is trying to make peace with angry parents. Under investigation in the UK and sued in California for its business practices, Jamster rolled out a brand new ad campaign along with parental controls over downloading.

Parents are now able to enter phone numbers into Jamster's new Guardian service that would block those phones from downloading content. Critics of the service say the company misleads customers by advertising free ring tones that actually cost SMS charges in addition to a $1.99 fee. VeriSign, the company that now owns Jamster, believes these new features will help to allay such concern.

Continue reading →

Intel and Micron Technology said on Monday they have agreed to form a new company to produce NAND flash memory chips for use in consumer electronics. Called IM Flash Technologies, the company would combine Micron's strengths in the NAND market with Intel's experience in multi-level cell technology.

One of the company's first customers will be Apple, who plans to pay $250 million to both Intel and Micron to secure a supply of flash chips for its popular iPod music players through the year 2010.

Continue reading →

Internet telephony provider Skype has inked its first retail distribution deal in the United States, with RadioShack agreeing to sell a Skype starter kit and accessories across 3,500 stores. The deal gives Skype much-needed access to consumers and could help the service go mainstream.

RadioShack will setup a special Skype kiosk that showcases wireless headsets from Motorola and Logitech, along with a $129 cordless phone from Linksys. The $5 starter kits will come with an earpiece microphone and 30 minutes of Skype calling to any number in the world.

Continue reading →

Sony Pictures has completed the first full-length Blu-ray disc and will be shipping it to hardware manufacturers for player testing. The movie, "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," was recorded in MPEG-2 high definition, which offers a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels.

The move by Sony follows recent criticism by Blu-ray detractors over a vague launch date for the next-generation DVD technology. Sony has still not committed to a time frame for public availability, only stating that mass production of Blu-ray movies would begin in the "near future."

Continue reading →