AMD appears to be making serious progress at chipping away Intel's dominance of the PC industry, as the company was able to narrowly beat out its larger rival in terms of systems sold at retail during the month of October, according to data from research firm Current Analysis.

The chipmaker had a slight lead in the desktop space in September, but was able to increase its strength this past month and overtake Intel overall. In total, 49.8 percent of retail systems included an AMD processor versus 48.5 percent running an Intel chip.

Continue reading →

As part of its monthly Patch Tuesday security bulletin, Microsoft has released one fix covering two critical vulnerabilities in Windows. The flaw affects the operating system's graphics rendering engine, and could lead to a remote attacker taking control of a system through the use of malformed WMF and EMF images.

Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003 -- including 64-bit versions -- are at risk. Microsoft recommends that users download the patch immediately. "Any program that renders WMF or EMF images on the affected systems could be vulnerable to this attack," the company said in an advisory. Microsoft has also updated its Malicious Software Removal Tool Tuesday.

Continue reading →

Apple's headaches over early issues with its popular iPod Nano player went international last week after lawsuits were filed on behalf of owners in the United Kingdom and Mexico, according to court documents made public on Monday.

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, LLP, of Seattle, will represent the plantiffs in both cases. This same law firm is also pursuing a class action lawsuit against Intel, claiming the processor maker has coerced customers into not dealing with competitor AMD, and is involved in assembling a class action suit against DRAM manufacturers over artificially inflated memory prices.

Continue reading →

In an interview with NPR late last week, Sony BMG's Global Digital Business President Thomas Hesse downplayed the recent DRM fiasco saying he objected to terms such as malware, spyware and rootkit. "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" he said.

Hesse acknowledged that the controversial First 4 Internet technology that installs and "cloaks" the DRM software without a user's permission shipped on about 20 CDs. But "no information ever gets gathered about the user behavior," he claimed. "This is purely about restricting the ability to burn MP3 files in an unprotected manner."

Continue reading →

In two separate deals announced late Monday, both CBS and NBC plan to offer on-demand versions of their hit shows through cable provider Comcast, and satellite provider DirecTV, respectively. Both will charge 99 cents per episode to access the recorded versions of programs.

In the CBS deal, commercials will remain intact, however NBC's offering will cut out the commercials much like the agreement ABC has with Apple's iTunes for its programming.

Continue reading →

McAfee and Symantec warned on Monday of a new worm that is targeting PHP and CGI scripts stored at certain locations on vulnerable Web servers. Called "Lupper," the worm will install and execute itself, allowing a hacker to gain access to the system.

From there, an attacker could potentially link the server with other infected machine to launch attacks elsewhere, according to an advisory issued by the antivirus maker on Sunday. The recommended fix is a complete OS reinstall.

Continue reading →

Although a warning in October that initial Xbox 360 sales may not meet industry expectations sparked outlandish rumors claiming Microsoft would purposely stifle supplies to ensure inventory sold out, the Redmond company now says it expects to sell up to 3 million new consoles in the first three months.

Bryan Lee, Xbox Chief Financial Officer, disclosed the estimate at the Harris Nesbitt Media & Entertainment Conference in New York this week. Within 90 days, Microsoft has a target to sell between 2.75 million to 3 million Xbox 360s.

Continue reading →

Motorola announced that it plans to add four new RAZR phones to its lineup, including versions available in pink and blue, the first RAZR for CDMA networks, and an update to the original V3 phone that will include iTunes in some markets.

The RAZR has proven to be a huge success story for the company, with sales expected to top 10 million units worldwide before the end of this year. Motorola has also regained a lot of lost market share; in the third quarter, it led all GSM phone manufacturers with a 39 percent share, ahead of former first place Nokia with 22 percent.

Continue reading →

UPDATED Grokster has become the latest casualty of the United States Supreme Court ruling that file sharing services can be held liable for actions of their users. The company reached a settlement with the recording and entertainment industries and shut down its P2P service on Monday.

As part of the agreement, Grokster will pay $50 million to settle music and movie piracy claims. Although Grokster has lost much of its user base to P2P newcomers following the backlash its bundled spyware, the RIAA trumpted the victory in a statement.

Continue reading →

The FCC on Monday changed its stance on VoIP E911 service, saying companies did not have to disconnect existing users even if they do not provide the feature. However, in areas where E911 is not available, VoIP providers are no longer permitted to market service or accept new customers.

Several providers, most notably Nuvio, had filed suits in federal court to nullify the November 28 cutoff date. The Kansas-based company had been the most vocally opposed to the ruling since it was introduced in May of this year.

Continue reading →

As the default start page and built-in search utility, it's no surprise that Google wants Firefox to succeed in a market dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. But the company has recently pulled closer to the open source Web browser, funding usability testing and launching a Firefox affiliate program.

In a post to his Web log late last week, lead Firefox engineer Ben Goodger -- who began working at Google in January -- reported on efforts to improve the browser's tabs. Tabbed browsing makes it possible to open multiple Web sites in the same window, but the concept is still fairly young.

Continue reading →

Macromedia has finally warned of a serious security flaw that was a patch as soon as possible. The flaw has been rated as "critical" by Macromedia and "high" by eEye Digital Security, which discovered the problem earlier this year.

Continue reading →

As many as one million Windows users may have switched to Mac OS X, according to a note released on Monday to clients of financial firm Needham & Co. Analyst Charles Wolf disclosed the estimate and said Apple's current stock price of $61 has met the company's price target.

Due to this, the company is downgrading the stock to "hold," although with reservation.

Continue reading →

With musical support from Cheap Trick, Microsoft heralded the arrival of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 at a special "Rock" event in San Francisco Monday. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage looking uncharacteristic in a suit, and even apologized for his formal attire.

Both SQL Server, which was last updated five years ago, and Visual Studio 2005 are critical releases for Microsoft as it gears up for the debut of Windows Vista next year. The development tools, combined with .NET Framework 2.0, will usher in the next-generation of applications that focus on connectivity and streamlining business processes.

Continue reading →

Public's Choice voting has begun for Microsoft's next-generation PC design contest hosted on StartSomethingPC.com, with the winner being awarded $25,000. The idea was to move beyond the beige box and rethink how people are using their computers - while keeping Windows Vista in mind.

The PC designs fit into four segments: Entertainment, Productivity, Living/Lifestyle and Communication/Mobility. Submissions were accepted from professionals, amateur designers and even students from May 18 to October 3. Votes will be counted until December 16 and winners in three categories will be announced at CES 2006 in Las Vegas. A panel of judges and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will select the other two winners.

Continue reading →