News

Desktop virtualization field welcomes two new players

MokaFive and Stoneware are joining the fray with, respectively, technology that puts your desktop on a USB Flash drive and that delivers a desktop through a Web browser

DHS extends time foreign students can stay in U.S.

The length of time a graduating student in science or technology can stay in the U.S. without a worker visa has been extended from 12 to 29 months

Update: AMD announces layoffs, drops revenue forecast

The company plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce by the third quarter of 2008

iPhone is already the top mobile browser

Nokia's Symbian clocks in at No. 2, while Windows Mobile languishes

JRuby upgraded to version 1.1

Java-based version of popular programming language gets performance improvements

Cloud computing, Web 2.0 trends emphasized

At the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference, Salesforce.com and Cisco officials stressed the importance of game-changing new technology trends

Is Microsoft preparing us to move beyond Vista?

News reports suggest that Microsoft will ship its successor to the unloved Windows Vista "sometime" in 2009.

New attack kit targets bag of ActiveX bugs

The latest attack package uses seven ActiveX exploits, some of which have not been seen in the wild before

Hitachi buys majority stake in ID management vendor

Hitachi has bought a majority ownership interest in M-Tech Information Technology, a password management vendor, in order to expand its ID management portfolio

Motorola, Icahn reach agreement on board

Two people Carl Icahn has backed for Motorola's board will be nominated to it, and all litigation will be dropped

SonicWall smashes speed records

SonicWall's Network Security Appliance E7500 UTM firewall offers 1.3Gbps of UTM performance, which is nearly triple the speed of other products

IBM, others bring event-driven tools to SOA

SOA platforms gain the ability to work in transaction-oriented environments

Seagate unveils self-encrypting disk drive

Self-encrypting functionality will be added to the Seagate Cheetah 15K drives by this summer

You don’t know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz

Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master

WOA or SOA?

In-flight mobile phone use approved across Europe

EC measures open the door to offering in-flight mobile phone services, but passenger reactions to the idea are mixed

Daily news beat for April 7, 2008

App-sharing exchange takes cue from Salesforce

Archer Exchange is an online marketplace and community site for apps built with Archer Technologies' SmartSuite development framework

Here’s the proof: Strategic IT enables business success

Four methods applied to a small set of IT processes have a huge effect on the bottom line

Review: Curl 6.0

Forrester: IBM, Microsoft to dominate ‘information workplace’

New Forrester report envisions a 21st century platform that manages content, messaging, team collaboration, real-time collaboration, and communication among employees

Judge puts stop to more ‘Vista Capable’ insider e-mails

Federal judge grants Microsoft's request to suspend the 'Vista Capable' lawsuit, blocking the release of internal messages from companies and people who were subpoenaed

Gartner: Chips down but not out in Q1

Seasonal decline in semiconductor sales in early 2008 is likely to be within the normal range and should not be a cause for major alarm, Gartner says

Microsoft must pay Alcatel-Lucent $367 million

Jury finds that Microsoft infringed on two Alcatel-Lucent patents involving user interface technology, but did not infringe on another patent related to video decoding

The 7 faces of cloud computing

Samsung committed to Olympic torch relay despite protests

Progress of the Olympic torch is disrupted in London and Paris by protests against China's treatment of people in Tibet

Spectrum auction unlikely to shift carrier balance

Consumers won't really benefit from the auctioned spectrum for some time, and it will be up to carriers to determine the best tradeoff between speed and subscriber base

Update: Yahoo again rebuffs Microsoft in letter

Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang calls Microsoft's threat to begin a proxy battle 'counterproductive' and says Microsoft's falling stock price has devalued the value of its takeover bid

Yahoo previews online ad management platform

Yahoo's early preview of AMP may be designed to show the company's strength in online advertising in order to force Microsoft to raise its takeover bid

Asustek sues IBM in patent row

Asustek alleges its patents have been infringed by IBM in components, software, and hardware related to storage area networking equipment and servers

Microsoft to Yahoo: Make deal or face proxy fight

CEO Steve Ballmer calls Microsoft's takeover bid 'generous' and threatens to lower the price if it is forced to mount a proxy battle

Borland touts Web 2.0 for lifecycle management

Silk 2008 is intended to break down barriers among business, development, and quality assurance

Sun refashions Java support options

Fee-based program extends support to 15 years while free program is reduced from six years to three years for support

SpikeSource offers automated software platform

Solutions Factory aids ISVs by reducing the time and cost required to build software solutions, enabling offerings to be sold at a lower price

Companies struggle as Safari pops up on networks

Apple's decision to push its Safari browser to users via its Software Update has complicated matters for IT adminstrators who are now seeing Safari on their networks

Good aims to manage all enterprise mobile devices

Good Technology is working on technology to let an enterprise manage devices from the 'shop floor to the corner office' using the same systems

Will Microsoft deliver Windows 7 next year?

Microsoft may look to cut its losses with Vista and release Windows 7 sooner than previously indicated

HP unveils encryption add-ons for storage products

The company is adding encryption support for its MDS 9000 family to enable automated encryption of data stored on tape drives and virtual tape libraries

Top 10: OOXML, MIDs, Google’s moves, Eclipse’s crossroads

This week's roundup of the top 10 IT stories includes OOXML passing muster with the ISO, Intel's MIDs, Google's business and IT moves, the Eclipse IDE's future, and more

Wireless carriers crow about openness

At this year's CTIA Wireless conference, the major carriers all talked about the importance of opening their networks — but at their own pace

700MHz spectrum winners detail plans

Verizon and AT&T plan to use their spectrum for high-speed 4G networks, while Qualcomm will use its winnings to expand its FLO TV service

SAP and Salesforce executive spar in software debate

The two executives argued the merits of Salesforce.com's on-demand platform and SAP's traditional on-premise model, trading barbs along the way

A new day for Macs in the enterprise?

iPhone-loving workers disenchanted with corporate IT might love to ditch their PCs for Macs, but are we really on the cusp of greater enterprise adoption of Apple?

Report: Microsoft, Yahoo execs meet again on takeover talks

Microsoft and Yahoo reportedly could not reach agreement on the acquisition deal

Symantec confirms ActiveX bugs in its own consumer software

Flaws in several of Symantec's Norton security products could give attackers the means to hijack the PCs the programs are supposed to protect

Why Google wanted to lose wireless spectrum auction

Adobe AIR: Nice, but not the next big thing

Geek week in review: XP not sacked, iPhone SDK hacked

Autodesk promises remedy for file transfer woes

Autodesk will debut a new version of its DWG drawing file format that will fix the problems experienced by AutoCAD users who also use Riverbed's Steelhead WAN accelerators

Daily news beat for April 4, 2008