The University of Georgia acknowledged Wednesday that a hacker had breached the school's network and potentially accessed up to 2,429 Social Security numbers belonging to current and past faculty. Because of duplicate records, however, university officials believe the number of employees affected is smaller.

The intrusion took place on September 19 from a source outside the United States, which queried the exposed server for personal data. The university has launched an investigation and said no credit card information was contained in the database.

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BetaNews has learned that a quote widely attributed to Warner Music's digital music strategy chief Michael Nash, which received a lot of attention in the press, never actually occurred. Nash was quoted as saying they'd "cut him off," referring to Steve Jobs and iTunes if discussions were not favorable to Warner Music Group, and that "very few people buy music from digital downloads."

"He was misquoted in a lot of different sources," a Warner Music spokesperson told BetaNews. The comment first appeared on British technology site The Register, which had quietly removed the story by Thursday morning. The spokesperson would not comment on the status of any negotiations with Apple.

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Skype on Thursday released a refresh of its popular voice chat software, adding features that it hopes will solidify its position as the market leader. Improvements to sound quality, increased personalization, and new mobility options are just a few of the additions included in the release.

The company claims some 56 million registered users, with 170,000 new registrations per day. Skype was recently acquired by eBay in a $2.6 billion deal announced September 12.

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DivX is taking a page from Opera's playbook, celebrating its fifth anniversary by giving away its $19.99 DivX Create Bundle at no cost. The package features tools for the creation of DivX video files, including encoders and the ability to make interactive menus with the DivX Media Format.

The free Create Bundle offer is valid only for one day, and requires an e-mail address that will be sent the DivX registration code. The code is not a trial and will never expire, the company says. As DivX 6 is not yet available for Mac, only Windows 2000 and XP users can take advantage of the deal.

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Google announced late Wednesday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA that would allow it to collaborate on research projects with the space agency, as well as build a new one million square foot office complex at the NASA Ames Research Center.

The new complex would not be far from its current Mountain View, Calif. headquarters, dubbed the "Googleplex."

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Microsoft's yearly confab for its Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) has begun at the company's Redmond campus. The event will connect 1,500 MVPs with over 1,000 Microsoft employees representing 90 technologies and provide insight into the future directions of the company.

Among the topics of discussion this week will be Smart Personal Objects Technology, otherwise known as SPOT, which has struggled to take off in the marketplace. Microsoft executives will also sit down with MVPs today to discuss the company's reorganization and the next wave of products slated to arrive with Windows Vista.

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eDonkey has become the latest victim of the recording industry's wrath following the Supreme Court's ruling against Grokster. In testimony at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Hearing on the future of P2P Wednesday, MetaMachine president Sam Yagan said his company was throwing in the towel.

The announcement follows news of the shut down of WinMX and the disappearance its Web site. On September 15, the RIAA sent out sent out letters to seven popular file sharing networks demanding they block copyrighted content or face legal action. eDonkey -- owned by MetaMachine -- was one of those recipients.

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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says it is close to making available a laptop for developing markets that would cost around $100 USD. At a minimum the computer would feature a color screen, Wi-Fi, a 500MHz processor, and 1GB of flash memory.

The unit would even be able to generate power on it own through the use of a hand crank, making it useful even in areas where electricity is not readily available. Developing countries would be able to buy a laptop for every child, allowing new educational opportunities previously thought impossible.

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With all the recent negative press surrounding the apparent scratching issue with the iPod Nano, some people are finding their own ways to repair the diminutive player. Todd Dailey, an Apple aficionado, has discovered a way to solve the scratch problem - and it only costs $4 USD.

Dailey has used his Nano as a guinea pig for a multitude of tests, including homemade accessories and tests to see what works and what does not. "As you can see on previous posts on my blog, I've been having a lot of fun with DIY projects with the Nano. I'm quite proud of my DIY Nano lanyard," Dailey told BetaNews.

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Looking to expand from its low-cost roots, Dell is re-launching its XPS brand as a line of luxury PCs, which feature the latest hardware and a dedicated customer support representative. All XPS models include Windows XP Media Center Edition and 15-month subscription to McAfee Security Center.

The XPS 200 and XPS 400 desktops join Dell's current high-end XPS 600 gaming machine. Dell is also introducing the XPS M170 to its lineup of notebook systems. But the so-called "Lexus line" with the newest graphics cards and Intel processors won't come cheap. Desktop systems start at $1100 USD with the XPS laptop priced at $2,700 USD.

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A flaw in the Linux and Unix versions of RealPlayer and HelixPlayer could put users at risk of attack, according to at least two security firms. Making matters worse, exploit code is now publicly available on the Internet due to a leak in an Internet chat room.

The problem stems from a format string error that the programs run into when parsing a specially created RealPix or RealText document. An attacker could take complete control of a system by exploiting this vulnerability.

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It looks as if Mozilla developers are attempting to make their Thunderbird e-mail client more competitive with Microsoft's Outlook. A roadmap to integrate a calendar application with Thunderbird was posted recently, which details the project known as "Lightning."

The group hopes to have basic functionality ready for release in November. Better Thunderbird integration, e-mail and task linkage, as well as CalDAV support are goals of the second revision, for which no timetable was given. Successive releases of Lightning will add localization support, device synchronization and cached offline calendar support.

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Yahoo's Desktop Search software has officially left its beta confines, introducing a new feature called LiveWords that allows users to instantly perform a Web search on any topic, word or phrase found in a local file or document. The program indexes over 300 file types, including e-mails and Yahoo! Messenger chats.

Yahoo! Desktop Search first debuted in January and is based upon technology licensed from X1. Unlike similar search tools from rivals Google and Microsoft, Yahoo's program is not offered as a toolbar add-on for Windows. Instead, Yahoo has chosen to offers its users a full application with tabs for different file types and an automatic preview window.

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In a statement issued late Tuesday, Apple acknowledged that a manufacturing error led to a small percentage of iPod Nanos with weak screens, which could potentially crack in a tight pocket. Apple says it will replace any Nanos with broken displays, but not those with scratches.

Quality concerns surrounding the iPod Nano surfaced shortly after the product's debut earlier this month. Some users claimed the player scratches extremely easily, enough that it makes the screen difficult to read. Others reported cracks in the Nano's color LCD screen after standard use.

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RealNetworks on Wednesday unveiled Helix OnlineTV, an application designed to bring interactive television to mobile phones and PCs. Also, in a big win for the company over competitor Microsoft, Real announced Cingular would use the technology for an upcoming video service.

Cingular's choice of Real video indicates that the streaming media company is alive and well, and still looking to directly compete with the market-leading Microsoft -- a spot it once occupied. Verizon uses Windows Media technologies to serve video on its next-generation EV-DO network.

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