Over one million videos have been downloaded through the iTunes Music Store since October 12, Apple said on Monday. Currently, only about 2,000 videos exist on the service, including music videos, short films from Pixar, and episodes of five television shows including Lost and Desperate Housewives.

As of Monday morning, the top five videos on the service were Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (appropriate considering Monday is Halloween in the United States), the first and most recent episodes of the television show Lost, Pixar's "For the Birds," and Fatboy Slim's video for "Weapon of Choice" with a dancing Christopher Walken.

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A Web security firm that specializes in IM and P2P security said on Friday that a new worm spreading through the AOL Instant Messenger network might cause more problems than the average IM worm.

According to FaceTime Communications, the W32/Sdbot-ADD worm includes an executable called a rootkit that would allow an attacker to monitor a computer, as well as upload and download files from it.

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Samsung will reportedly open a music store similar to Apple's iTunes in the coming months, according to an Associated Press. Choi Gee-sung, the company's digital media chief had said previously that Samsung's standing in the industry was hurt by the lack of a complementary music store like the iPod-iTunes marriage.

No announcement has been made as to an official launch date, however Samsung would call on its partners worldwide to help promote the service. Samsung said it expects to sell about 3.7 million players this year, but thinks it can do better. Despite potentially becoming a rival to Apple, Samsung's memory division has close ties to the Cupertino company and supplies the flash chips used in the iPod Nano.

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Not only software is going beta these days it seems -- but this beta is one you don't want to test. The Atlantic Ocean's 23rd named tropical system, Beta, headed toward the Nicaraguan coast Friday afternoon, and was expected to make landfall over the weekend as a Category 2 hurricane.

Portions of Nicaragua could receive up to 20 inches of rain, possibly causing life-threatening floods and mudslides, the hurricane center said. Beta is the latest storm in a season that broke a 72-year-old record for most recorded tropical storms and hurricanes. In 1933, 21 storms formed. Records have been kept continuously since 1851.

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Handheld devices continued to fall out of favor with consumers, according to a report released by market research firm IDC. In the third quarter of 2005, handheld sales fell 8.8 percent compared with last quarter, and 16.9 percent year over year.

Even with the declines, device manufacturers are continuing to release new products, many featuring some type of wireless connectivity. While IDC expects an uptick in sales sequentially from quarter to quarter, sales will likely miss last year's numbers.

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Nokia will open a research center near the MIT campus in January to study new areas for mobile technology, the company said on Thursday. The center would be a partnership with the university's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

"For Nokia, this is a fresh approach to our research collaboration with universities," said Dr. Bob Iannucci, head of Nokia Research Center. "Bringing together the collective expertise of MIT and Nokia in mobile computing and communications provides a vehicle for rapidly generating new concepts and bringing innovations to the marketplace on a large scale."

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IBM released new commercial applications for its Blue Gene supercomputer on Friday, which it says will put supercomputing power in the hands of those who may have not been able to afford it previously.

"Clients who need the analytic capability of super-high performance computers can now simply rent time on Blue Gene to run these specialized applications and achieve results never before attainable," said David Gelardi, vice president of deep computing at IBM.

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Google's attempts at getting Kai-Fu Lee's Microsoft contract voided through California laws prohibiting noncompete clauses has hit another roadblock. A U.S. District Judge in San Jose on Thursday ordered the trial postponed until the outcome of Microsoft's case in a Washington state court is known.

Judge Ronald Whyte said that "Google and Lee fail to explain why they cannot ask the Washington state court to apply California law," making it increasingly likely that Microsoft might prevail in its fight against the search giant. Although a Washington state court did rule in September that Kai-Fu Lee could work for Google, it severely restricted what job functions he could perform.

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Level 3 and Cogent announced on Friday that they had agreed to terms that will keep Internet traffic flowing smoothly between customers of the two companies. Earlier this month, Level 3 cut off Cogent, creating headaches for thousands of Internet users and prompting Congress to threaten to enter the dispute.

The new deal puts caps on the volume of traffic each company can send, a sticking point for Level 3; the company had accused Cogent of overloading its servers. Other portions of the "confidential" agreement were not disclosed. "As a result of the agreement, Level 3 will not proceed with disconnection on November 9, as previously announced," Level 3 said in a statement.

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In an effort to keep people subscribed to its MSN Direct service, Microsoft is offering owners of a first-generation SPOT watch a free upgrade if they renew their contract. The offer applies to owners of a Abacus, Fossil or Suunto n3 SPOT watch and will last only as long as supplies last.

According to SpotStop.com, Microsoft wants to reward those who signed up to the service during its early stages. Those eligible will receive a same-brand upgrade, meaning Suunto n3 owners can obtain a second-generation Suunto n3i. To apply for the free upgrade, customers must call 866-676-8487 with their MSN Direct and watch model information handy.

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In its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft made an interesting disclosure about an ongoing investigation by the Korean antitrust agency: it may delay future versions of Windows in South Korea or pull the operating system from the country altogether.

The Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) is looking into allegations that Microsoft violated antitrust laws by bundling services such as streaming media and instant messaging. The complaints first came from Korea's Internet portal Daum Communications and later by RealNetworks.

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In preparation for the launch of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 on November 7, the final release of the .NET Framework 2.0 is now available for download. Version 2.0 serves at the underpinnings for next-generation Windows applications and will be integrated into Windows Vista.

According to Microsoft, the new release "improves scalability and performance of applications with improved caching, application deployment and updating with ClickOnce, support for the broadest array of browsers and devices with ASP.NET 2.0 controls and services." Download the .NET Framework 2.0 from FileForum.

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At a court hearing to discuss Microsoft's progress in meeting the sanctions imposed in a 2002 antitrust settlement, a U.S. District Judge reprimanded the company over its recent music software flap. Microsoft was also scolded for not moving fast enough in opening its Windows internals to third parties.

Last week, the government disclosed that Microsoft had considered forcing its partners to stop bundling rival music software with their portable players. The plan was apparently proposed in a draft of marketing strategies, but was dropped after a manufacturer complained.

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Microsoft on Thursday released to manufacturing Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005, just over a week before the products make their official debut at a gala event in San Francisco. Downloads of the next-generation development products will be available for MSDN subscribers later today.

"Microsoft has noted since it began development of these products that it will ship when customers have indicated the products are ready," a company spokesperson told BetaNews, hinting at the numerous delays. "Today's RTM milestone is evidence that Microsoft's customers have given the company the 'OK' to sign, seal and deliver the latest evolution of its application platform."

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