News

Daily News beat for May 7, 2008

May’s coolest gadgets

The first Centrino Atom-based computer and a smartphone from Sharp are harbingers of a great year gadget-wise

A timely proposal for IT energy conservation

SAP exec: No plans for additional on-demand ERP

CEO Kagermann says SAP may make incremental moves in the SaaS direction with other SME products

‘Fat’ Vista has beefy client hardware needs

Java platform to get modularity, OSGi support

Sun details upcoming versions of Java at its JavaOne conference

Report says enterprise mashups on the rise

New Forrester report predicts the enterprise mashup market will reach $700 million by 2013

Microsoft to help disabled access Office documents

Software add-in helps those who have difficulty reading printed documents to turn Word documents into audio files

WabiSabiLabi gets into the hardware business

Hacker marketplace WabiSabiLabi will help build a UTM appliance to protect against zero-day attacks

In-flight broadband set to return in 2009

Panasonic's ExConnect will offer speeds comparable to public Internet hotspots and also allow airlines to feed live television into the aircraft's in-flight entertainment system

Microsoft won’t pursue other partnerships, says Gates

Gates says Microsoft will focus on its independent strategy, not tie-ups or takeovers, to replace its failed Yahoo bid

Missing the iPhone’s point

Trojan adware hiding in MP3s, McAfee says

Once downloaded, these Trojan horse programs disguised as fake MP3 files try to install a shoddy media player and adware on user's computer

SAP sheds light on new BPM tools

SAP's new BPM tools, codenamed Galaxy, will be aligned with the NetWeaver Composition Environment toolset and debut in the third quarter or this year

Discovery may lead to faster, more powerful processors

Princeton University researchers have dicovered a technique for melting away flaws in computer chips, a process that could be of great assistance to chipmakers

Microsoft revamps Download Center using Silverlight

Microsoft is beta testing a new version of its Download Center site that makes use of its Silverlight browser plug-in technology

Sun offers JavaFX road map

Company also touts cloud effort Project Hydrazine; Neil Young appears at JavaOne conference

Microsoft releases XP SP3 after delay

Windows XP SP3 now available through Windows Update and on Microsoft Download Center; automatic distribution of Windows Vista, Service Pack 1 also resumes

OLPC tries to bridge gap with developer community

Director of OLPC's technical team attempts to quell doubts about group's commitment to open source following chairman's critique of Sugar interface

HP brings storage, servers into one rack

HP ExDS9100 designed for enterprises facing challenges in storage, include Web 2.0 companies such as photo-sharing and social-networking sites

Broadband group: Some p-to-p blocking reasonable

CEO of trade group representing cable TV and broadband providers defends actions of its members, including Comcast, in slowing customer access to p-to-p networks

SAP, IBM still chummy after BI acquisitions

SAP is tied so closely with IBM's Global Busines Services that the two companies are unlikely to face off even though they are head-to-head competitors in the BI market

Google puts open-source project back up

The CoreAVC-for-Linux project is back up days after it was pulled due to a DCMA complaint, which turned out to be erroneous

Microsoft GM to Yahoo: Good-bye to you

Now that its bid for Yahoo has failed, Microsoft must explain how it plans to accomplish all the goals it had been saying Yahoo would help it with

Under pressure, Yang still open to higher Microsoft bid

The Yahoo CEO says that while Microsoft walked away from the deal, he is still open to a buyout but would need a higher price

Yahoo’s Open Strategy could be its salvation

If Yahoo can move ahead with its Open Strategy, it could pose a major threat to MySpace, Facebook, and other social networks, and give Yahoo the boost it needs

ISPs, Web sites must tackle piracy, says CBS, Viacom chief

Content providers like Sumner Redstone's CBS and Viacom have been battling online piracy of movies and TV shows for several years

Apple tops tech support survey

Consumer Reports says 80 percent of the users who relied on Apple's tech support had their computer problem solved, while the industry average was 60 percent

Riding the autorenewal express

Blinkx launches video search platform

Blinkx addresses Web publishers' need to categorize, organize, and index their video clips and make them easily searchable by site visitors

VMware regroups after Determina buy

VMware has restructured its bug response team, revamped its security portal, and reached out to independent security consultants

InfoWorld News beat for May 6, 2008

Microsoft breaks ground on $280M Beijing R&D center

Microsoft China R&D Campus, scheduled for completion in 2010, will be equipped with environmentally friendly features

Ruckus sues Netgear over Wi-Fi

Ruckus says Netgear infringed its patents on technology for improving Wi-Fi performance and reliability

Nokia, Ikivo partner on Java for mobile devices

Caucho and JNBridge are among the host of companies making JavaOne announcements

Google backs open-source CERT group

Google throws its support behind the fledgling oCERT security reporting group for the open-source community

Industry ready for 450mm wafers, exec says

IMSI exec says the chip industry must invest billions of dollars to make up lost ground on productivity and profitability

HTC beats Apple to 3G

HTC announces the Touch Diamond Microsoft-based smartphone, which beats rival Apple's iPhone to the punch with 3G

Unix servers made simple and affordable

Yahoo uses McAfee SiteAdvisor to filter evil Web sites

Yahoo searches will turn up fewer sites because the company plans to start filtering out malicious Web sites that have been linked to spam, phishing, or malicious software

Chip makers team up on shift to larger silicon wafers

Intel, Samsung, and TSMC will collaborate on 450mm silicon wafers; once chip companies have made the move, users should start to see higher-performing chips at lower prices

NBC shows up on Zune after abandoning iTunes

NBC strikes deal to sell television programs on Microsoft's Zune online store after a pricing spat with Apple led it to pull its content from iTunes

AMD must double processor market share to survive

AMD had 13 percent of the processor market in 2007 — less than half of what it needs to operate long-term as a sustainable business

Yahoo faces shareholder ire over failed Microsoft bid

General class-action lawsuit accuses Yahoo of failing to act in the best interest of shareholders in rejecting Microsoft's bid

Stupid hacker tricks part 2: Youth and consequences

Tech-savvy delinquents set the Net aflame with boneheaded exploits that earn them the wrong kind of fame

Update: Qwest drops Sprint for Verizon

Qwest's decision to start reselling Verizon Wireless's mobile service comes at a bad time for Sprint, which has been shedding subscribers

Ruby faces off against PHP, Java

CommunityOne conference panelists focus on scripting language attributes

Yahoo shares take a hit on Monday

On the first day of trading after Microsoft abandoned its efforts to acquire the company, Yahoo shares closed down 15 percent

Microsoft should sideline search, focus on strengths

Now that it has abandoned its attempt to buy Yahoo, Microsoft's best means of competing with Google lie with its developer community and in non-search advertising

Intel, OLPC affordable laptop bout only hurts users

Instead of maintaining antagonism, Intel and One Laptop Per Child could be focusing on delivering a low-cost laptop