News

Apple signals major MacBook Air-inspired 15-inch MacBook Pro design at Apple Town Hall

EMC to support emerging FCoE technology

EMC's certification of Emulex network adapters that use Fibre Channel over Ethernet is big boost for FCoE becoming the common transport across an entire datacenter

IT spending hit won’t rival dot-com bust, Gartner says

In the United States, Gartner expects existing 2008 budget plans to not change significantly and forecasts spending in 2009 to remain flat

Bush enacts PRO-IP anti-piracy law

Public advocacy groups protest that new IP bill only adds more imbalance to a copyright law that already favors large media companies

Microsoft to release OCS 2007 update in February

Next version of Microsoft's unified communications software will add VoIP, collaboration, and Web presence enhancements

Top security suites fail exploit tests

Security software suites — including popular programs from McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro — don't protect users from real-world exploits, Secunia warns

Gartner: Financial meltdown may mean hiring freezes

Analysts aren't ruling out the possibility of IT budget cuts as deep as 20 percent at some businesses

Top-choice scripting languages – and why

Groovy, Scala, and Clojure are top choices for efficiency

Mozilla Labs pursues Web dev tools

AJAX experts to lead Mozilla's effort to create development tools for the open Web

Microsoft set to release Silverlight 2

General availability to begin Tuesday as Microsoft pushes Silverlight 2's programming capabilities as well as a planned Eclipse linkage

Google, Microsoft spark interest in modular datacenters

Modular datacenters, built inside shipping containers with their own cooling systems, are drawing both high-profile endorsements and skepticism

OpenOffice.org 3.0 trips up community’s Web site

Higher-than-expected demand for free, open source productivity suite slows and, at times, halts downloads from OpenOffice.org Web site

Sun UltraSparc T2 Plus servers get double the processing power

The Sparc Enterprise T5440 utilizes the UltraSparc T2 Plus chip and is aimed at attracting bigger IT workloads

Treo Pro unlocked in bid to lower roaming costs

Two very different tales are circulating about Palm Inc. and its new Treo Pro smart phone these days.

Security software performs poorly in exploit test

Vendor Secunia tested how well a dozen Internet security suites could identify when a software vulnerability was being exploited — with disappointing results

AMD: DOJ won’t file charges over ATI’s strategies

Started in late 2006, antitrust investigation into the market for graphics processors and graphics cards is now closed

Hitachi Data Systems upgrades its midrange storage offering

Three new models join Hitachi's Adaptable Modular Storage range, adding support for SAS disks and a new dynamic load-balancing system with two active controllers

Mafiaboy grows up: A hacker seeks redemption

Now a security consultant, the hacker who knocked Yahoo offline has a book detailing his criminal career and offering advice on how to protect yourself on the Internet

Solaris exec touts Unix platform’s strengths

Company is undaunted by Linux momentum, claims many users switch back

Linux kernel developers, Wall Street to come together

The Linux Foundation is holding its End User Summit in New York City in hopes of enticing Wall Streeters to take a closer look at the open-source platform

Top 10: Economic woes, AMD splits, Microsoft developments

This week's roundup of the top tech news includes the IT economy, AMD splitting into two companies, Microsoft's announcements about UAC and Oslo, and more

Update: Forrester: Discontent persists over SAP maintenance hike

Customers lodge complaints about minimal utilization of Basic Support offering and the time it takes SAP to meet requests for new features

MSI launches Wind U120 mini laptop

MSI's Wind U120 continues company's assault on the Eee PC

Microsoft elaborates on Oslo

"M" language, "Quadrant" tool, Domain Specific Languages critical to model-based software development effort

U.S. gov’t proposes digital signing of DNS root zone file

Government outlines plan to make the Internet's addressing system less susceptible to tampering by hackers

Whoop de doop for de-dupe

Data de-duplication is spreading from backups to online storage. So when can we stop buying disks?

Amazon to offer volume discounts for S3

Amazon's S3 online storage service has reached a level of usage that allows the company to offer a tiered pricing structure

Apple slates laptop event for next Tuesday

After giving big pushes to the iPhone and iPod, Apple will refocus on laptops at a spotlight event next week

Microsoft to improve Vista’s problematic UAC in Windows 7

Microsoft has vowed to eliminate UAC's unnecessary problems in Windows 7, taking into account user feedback and the effect UAC has already had on third-party software

11 Microsoft security updates due next week

Patches will include fixes for critical security bugs in Windows Active Directory, Internet Explorer, Excel, and the Microsoft Host Integration Server

Startup to launch pro Web collaboration service

Yuuguu's service has a screen-sharing feature that lets a person interact with an application on someone else's computer, making it easier to work on projects and hold online meetings

Amid economic turmoil, IBM reports jump in net income

IBM says its profit outlook for the full year remains on track, which may help calm technology investors

Netbooks will boost adoption of Linux, says Novell CTO

Novell is in negotiations with Lenovo and HP to start offering its Linux distribution on their netbooks

Microsoft, other IT firms seek payment from failed bank WaMu

Economic meltdown is sure to slow IT spending overall, but many analysts still expect most of the big vendors to be able to weather the storm

Mozilla locks in Firefox 3.1 features list

Mozilla adds a private browsing mode and fast JavaScript execution, and beefs up Firefox's address bar; Beta 2 will likely be released in November

Intel launches probe into AMD’s spin-off plans

Intel says that AMD's move to spin off its chip manufacturing business may violate a licensing agreement between the two companies

Mozilla adds geographic tagging to Firefox

Geode provides "a set of verbs and commands that a Web site can use and a browser can understand" to exchange geographic information, says Mozilla

Sprint hopeful on WiMax funding despite economic crisis

Adoption of Sprint Nextel's Xohm WiMax service has been better than expected since its launch last month

Update: Tennessee man indicted for hacking Palin’s e-mail account

David Kernell's indictment for hacking into e-mail account of VP candidate Sarah Palin carries maximum sentence of five years in prison and $250,000 fine

Clickjackers could hijack Webcams, microphones, Adobe warns

Adobe Flash on all platforms is susceptible to clickjacking attacks

Facebook begins offering Live search

Deal with Facebook is a coup for Microsoft, which has been struggling to boost its search business

Yahoo revamps calendar service

New online calendar makes it easier to share items and has a more interactive interface

Firefox extension blocks dangerous Web attack

NoScript upgrade stops "clickjacking" attacks, where a person browsing the Web clicks on a malicious, invisible link without realizing it

MySQL co-founder David Axmark leaving Sun

Axmark's departure will be a setback for Sun, which hopes to attract new developers to the database

Red Hat boosts open source SOA

JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform 4.3 and the JBoss Operations Network 2.1 administration tool offered

Microsoft’s (un)secret weapon for winning the BI battle

With Project Gemini, Microsoft aims to bring an Excel-based user analytics-mashup tool into the core of its BI and data warehousing line

Wikia Search debuts app platform to automate user participation

Developers can use the Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions platform to create apps for the open-source search engine that sharpen its ability to answer queries

Tata to acquire Citigroup’s BPO arm in India for $505M

A Japanese financial services group, has entered into an agreement with ailing Lehman Brothers to acquire its back office and IT operations in India

Microsoft touts Touchless SDK

Multimedia apps that use webcam input can be built

IBM brings 5GHz chip to its top-selling Unix server

In a move aimed at customers eyeing virtualization and server consolidation, IBM is offering its Power 570 with a 5GHz Power6 processor