Once its $16 billion merger with AT&T closes next month, SBC says it will adopt the AT&T, Inc. name and introduce a new logo for the company. SBC has always said it planned to use the AT&T brand, but the announcement confirms the end of the SBC name for the company's products and services.

"The AT&T name has a proud and storied heritage, as well as unparalleled recognition around the globe among both businesses and consumers," SBC CEO Edward Whitacre said in a statement. "No name is better-suited than AT&T to represent the new company's passion to deliver innovation, reliability, quality, integrity and unsurpassed customer care."

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The Anti-Spyware Coalition published new guidelines on Thursday designed to help consumers assess whether or not a software product is considered spyware. The group also revised an earlier draft of definitions that differentiate between acceptable and invasive advertising.

With 43 percent of Internet users reporting they have been infected with spyware, tools to detect and remove the malicious applications have become a prerequisite for PC users. But much confusion still exists on what constitutes spyware and adware, which has led to improper classification and even lawsuits.

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Motorola has become the latest company joining Intel in order to push adoption of wireless broadband through WiMax. The two tech industry heavyweights will collaborate on the 802.16e specification within the WiMax Forum to ensure interoperability between devices.

Sprint and Nokia previously announced collaborative efforts with Intel, which makes the chips to be used in upcoming WiMax products. Motorola currently offers the MOTOwi4 line of devices for WiMax that include access points, PC cards and even in-vehicle safety devices and services. "We believe 802.16e is going to be the way to go for both fixed and nomadic applications," said Motorola Networks CTO Dan Coombes.

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According to reports, Time Warner's board of directors is hunkering down Thursday for discussions on the future of AOL, and is expected to choose between partnering with Microsoft's MSN division or Google. However, a final decision is not expected for a few weeks, says the Financial Times.

AOL currently utilizes Google for its Web search service, bringing a moderate percentage of revenue to the world's biggest search engine. But MSN has reportedly come to the table trying to unseat Google in order to grow its own share of the search market, which it has struggled to do organically.

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Microsoft on Thursday announced a new release of its Works Suite, which doesn't include any new core features, but instead bundles a number of consumer-oriented software titles. Microsoft Works is intended to offer a low-cost alternative to Office, while focusing more on home environments.

Works 2006, priced $50 more than the standalone $49.99 Works 8, includes the latest editions of Microsoft Money, Streets and Trips Essential, Digital Image Standard and Encarta. The idea, says Microsoft, is to help families be more productive with better organization and easy to use tools.

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Google's Video search is slowly building up its repertoire of content, and on Wednesday the company announced the addition of over 450

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The new AIM Triton may still be in beta, but AOL is already preparing a wide-ranging campaign to promote the service among younger computer users in an effort to regain some ground it has lost to more-gimmicky rivals such as MSN.

"I AM" advertisements will showcase Triton with a new logo that encloses AIM text within an orange speech balloon. AOL hopes to show that online communication can go farther than just the standard instant message.

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Beginning in December, United States passports will be issued with an embedded electronic RFID chip that stores personal information and is intended to make the document harder to copy.

But when first announced last February, the passport plan was met with concern from privacy advocates who said not enough was done to ensure the information is kept safe from prying eyes. 2,335 comments, or almost 95 percent of those received from the public, were opposed to the idea.

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In what appears to be a preemptive measure, especially considering a recent lawsuit surrounding the iPod Nano's alleged scratching problem, Apple has alerted its partners to accept returns for any video iPod that is experiencing hardware failure.

According to information obtained by Apple enthusiast site AppleInsider, this could even include failures that may have previously been attributed to customer abuse.

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Microsoft's MSN division is following in Google's footsteps with plans to roll out a book search next year. But to avoid the same legal troubles that have plagued its rival, MSN will adopt an opt-in policy while focusing on books in the public domain and other print material not under copyrights.

MSN has also joined the Open Content Alliance (OCA), which was founded by Yahoo and the Internet Archive earlier this year. The OCA is a collaborative effort to digitize information so it can be globally shared. In addition to a number of libraries worldwide, Adobe and HP are contributors as well.

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Internet service provider EarthLink scored another big win in the large area Wi-Fi industry on Wednesday, announcing it was selected by the city of Anaheim to build out its wireless network. Upon approval of the contract, the 50-square mile network would be completed by the end of 2006.

The contract will run for a period of 20 years, and EarthLink would receive exclusive rights to install, operate and maintain the Wi-Fi network during that period. Unlike other deals, the Anaheim network would be privately owned and operated.

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In an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said that his company sees Google as a threat, but is by no means scared of the growing search giant.

Gates, however, did agree with the assessment that Google is Microsoft's primary competitor. But he said company has plans that will take effect over the next six months, which it hopes will cut into the Google's dominance in the Web search market.

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Google's controversial Web Accelerator application that is designed to lessen the time it takes to load Web pages has returned after a four-month hiatus. But the second revision of the application, which is still in beta, does not address concerns with the first release, webmasters say.

In order to speed up Web surfing, the tool automatically downloads URLs linked from the page a user is visiting. The concept is called "pre-fetching," and was also added as an optional feature in recent builds of Mozilla Firefox.

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Taking advantage of its new Flickr acquisition, Yahoo is rolling out a beta test for its Trip Planner service that will be offered through Yahoo! Travel. Visitors will be able to tag, share and print personalized trip itineraries, which can be joined by photos, maps and driving directions.

Pictures from a trip can be shared via Flickr, and users can submit reviews and ratings of destinations, hotels and restaurants. In addition, Yahoo will make available classified listings for vacaiton rentals and other travel-related content from partners such as Fodors, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler.

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After twelve years of development, the Wine Project announced Tuesday night that its software to run Windows applications within Unix is entering the beta phase. The group acknowledged the program still has bugs, but asked those interested to download and test out the application.

"Wine is available thanks to the work of many people," lead coordinator for the Wine Project Alexandre Julliard wrote to the wine-announce mailing list Tuesday.

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