News

AOL buys search company Sphere

ISP Sphere's contextual search helps publishers aggregate content in order to increase advertising exposure by driving page views

Curl moves to take on Adobe Air in offline RIA business

Curl's Nitro runtime tool, coming as a beta next week, will bring Internet applications to the desktop, helping Curl stake a claim in the burgeoning offline RIA business

Cisco opens ISR routers to software developers

The company is opening up its ISR branch-office routers in order to reduce the amount of equipment businesses need

IBM boosts performance, cuts power intake on chips

New high-k/metal gate technology boosts performance by up to 30 percent, reduces power consumption by up to 50 percent on chips manufactured using 32-nm process

Groups push for FCC to act on text-message blocking

Public Knowledge, Free Press, and others urge FCC to establish rules preventing mobile carriers from blocking text messages from competitors and political groups

Microsoft hints at Live Mesh launch

Microsoft is expected to announce its mysterious Live Mesh offering during the Web 2.0 Expo next week, finally providing details about the concept

Symantec chief talks acquisitions, Cisco’s snub

In an interview, Symatec's John Thompson discusses vendor alliances, data-loss prevention technology, and more

Nevis adds application intelligence to NAC

Version 4.0 of the software for Nevis' NAC appliances will bring more application intelligence to the security devices

When lazy IT is the best IT

Microsoft reveals new content partners, DRM for Silverlight

MSG Interactive, Tencent, Abertis Telecom, Terra Networks Operations, SBSi, MNet, and Yahoo Japan are among Microsoft's new Silverlight content partners

Qualcomm missing in industry pact on LTE patent costs

Qualcomm stays on the sidelines as seven industry heavyweights join forces to set up rules for licensing LTE technology and increase confidence in the 4G standard

Handling illegal questions in a job interview

Daily news beat for April 14, 2008

Microsoft patched critical Windows bug in XP SP3 early

Microsoft fixed a critical 'endless reboot' vulnerability in XP's still-unfinished SP3 weeks before it fixed any other version of Windows

Oracle announces content, e-mail archiving products

Oracle E-Mail Archive Service stores content from Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes, and SMTP-based mail systems

Stop employees from leaking your corporate data

Experts say a well-constructed security plan involves customized training by job function

Colombian man sentenced for computer fraud

Man who used keylogging software in an identity theft scheme has been sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to pay $347,000 in restitution

Measuring real-world Wintel requirements isn’t pretty

Fujitsu to show laptop with wooden case

Fujitsu's environmentally friendly laptop prototype uses cedar wood for the case and bio-plastics produced from renewable sources for parts

5 tips for harnessing your superusers

Blockbuster offers up to $1.33B for Circuit City

Deal would allow Blockbuster to open up new avenues of distribution to better compete with rival Netflix

Citrix sets price and release date for XenDesktop

Citrix claims its XenDesktop desktop delivery solution will lower complexity and management costs by as much as by 40 percent compared to a traditional desktop

Update: First Centrino Atom computer coming in June

The first portable computer based on Intel's Centrino Atom chip will be bigger and more expensive than expected

You don’t know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz

Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master

Google, Salesforce.com join forces for business apps

Google Apps are integrated with sales-force automation tools, promising an enterprise app cloud

CodeGear upgrades PHP IDE

Performance, database support boosted in an effort to make PHP development similar to working with Microsoft's ASP .Net platform

RIA platform links to Google App Engine

Appcelerator backs hosting initiative that will allow developers to have their rich Web apps built using Appcelerator hosted on Google's infrastructure

Google aims to penetrate Deep Web with HTML forms crawling

Google has starting experimenting with technologies that will allow its search engine to index HTML forms like drop-down boxes and selecte menus

Sun claims big leap with MySQL upgrade next week

At its first MySQL conference next week, Sun will release MySQL 5.1, which will feature partitioning, events scheduling, row-based replication, and disk-based clustering

Millions promised for community-based ‘universal access’

The Knight Center of Digital Excellence will invest millions of dollars in universal Internet access and also act as a clearinghouse for determinig best practices

Top 10 stories of the week: Windows worries, visa caps, malware spreads

This week's news roundups includes rumors of Windows' demise, malware outpacing nonmalicious code, H-1B visa extensions, the ongoing Yahoo-MS saga, and more

Yahoo weighs options as Microsoft drama continues

As Microsoft's attempt to buy Yahoo carries on and draws in other players like Google and AOL, Yahoo may be left with no other option but to accept Microsoft's offer

Sun ponders video codec technology

Web needs open alternative, company argues

Microsoft proposes tiered privacy in online advertising

In response to an FTC request for comments on privacy principles, Microsoft stated that the greater the risk to privacy, the greater the protection data should receive

ActiveX, QuickTime are buggiest browser plug-ins

A recent study by Symantec found that ActiveX accounted for 79 percent of all plug-in flaws found between July and December of 2007; QuickTime was second with 8 percent

Vendors hype new Fibre Channel over Ethernet tech

The new technology will allow the Fibre Channel storage protocol to take advantage of 10Gigabit Ethernet networks, simplifying cabling and reducing server heat

AMD CTO resigns

Phil Hester has resigned to 'search for new opportunities'

Getting Creative with Crippleware

Daily news beat for April 11, 2008

Text messages from Uncle Sam

STMicroelectronics, NXP team up to deliver cheaper chips for phones

Price pressures are forcing chipset vendors to partner to keep up with the huge investments required for future wireless technologies

InfoWorld News Quiz

Don’t disable ActiveX, after all

New systems help drivers avoid traffic jams

Microsoft's ClearFlow system includes data regarding side streets to supply better information to customers on Live Search Maps

Microsoft, HCL team on training and software development

Microsoft partners with Indian IT company HCL to develop system integration frameworks for vertical industries in India

IBM lays claim to cheaper, faster memory

IBM is developing 'racetrack' memory that stores information in atoms in magnetic nanowires and can read and write information 100,000 times faster than flash memory

U.S. presidential election can be hacked

Audit of e-voting systems revealed it was possible to introduce a virus which would then spread and ultimately skew the vote count

Oracle to ship critical database fixes next week

Oracle plans to release 41 bug fixes next Tuesday, including patches for two bugs in its database that can be exploited over a network without a username and password

Centrino 2 processor details leaked by PC maker

Australian PC maker reveals details of Intel's latest Centrino 2 mobile platform, which will include five Core 2 processors running at clock speeds between 2.26GHz and 3.06GHz

FCoE catches fire at SNW