News

EU commissioner slams DOJ reaction to Microsoft antitrust ruling

Commissioner calls 'totally unacceptable' the DOJ's warning that the EU ruling could harm consumers by discouraging innovation and competition

Possible open source solutions for spam

HP plans solid-state drives in future business laptops

SSDs operate faster, conserve battery life, are more durable, and make a laptop about 25 percent lighter than one with a hard disk drive

Google tests interactive Gadget ads service

Google's new advertising format lets companies build online ads that include audio, video, games, and live data feeds

Acer, Gateway deal gains U.S. antitrust approval

Once the $710 million acquisition closes, Acer will become the world's third largest PC vendor

Update: Time Warner to hold onto AOL

Time Warner's CEO says the company has no plans to sell or spin off AOL despite the online subsidiary's poor recent performance

Coverity adds Boolean concept to software analysis

Technique helps eliminate potentially costly defects in source code

Hacker finally publishes notorious Apple Wi-Fi attack

David Maynor, who claimed to have found a way to take over Apple computers using a flaw in the wireless card, has published the technical details of his exploit

Mozilla fixes QuickTime flaw in Firefox

The flaw was first patched in July, but a hacker showed that it could still be exploited, and Mozilla says it cannot be fully patched until Apple fixes QuickTime

Oracle links business process analysis, SOA

Closed-loop support allows for analyst and IT collaboration as Oracle pledges tighter alignment between development stages

Apple may be next in EU antitrust sights

With the Microsoft antitrust appeal ruling giving the European Commission legal precedent, it could pursue antitrust investigations against Apple for its iTunes service

Facebook opens new storage service to testing

Users speculate on the company’s intentions and how much storage space will be made available

Intel chips to shrink to 32-nanometer process

Audience at Intel Developer Forum gets first look at new Nehalem processor, which boasts better performance and efficiency than its predecessors, company claims

Group says e-voting paper trail wouldn’t improve security

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation says that paper trails will add cost but not security, though many analysts disagree with the assertion

Greenspan and IT: Are we facing another recession?

Tech industry remains optimistic, but mindful of former Federal Reserve chairman's comments on direction of U.S. economy

SCO says there is ‘substantial doubt’ it will survive

SCO's recent legal defeat in its Unix case versus Novell as well as its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection show a company on the verge of collapse

Google rep glib on enterprise play

IBM’s free Symphony targets Microsoft Office

Symphony Documents, Spreadsheet, and Presentations are being offered for free, and IBM hopes to build a community around the Microsoft Office alternatives

Can AOL keep Netscape.com from fading away?

The once-popular site has undergone several ill-fated transformations and lost a lot of traffic in the process, leading analysts to wonder if it can be salvaged

How to start ‘thinking SOA’

Fear of insider threats hits home

IT security technology soaks up a lot of the security budget, but companies are starting to see that the insider threat posed by employees is just as important

BSA collects record $3.5 million from media firm for copyright infringement

Unnamed company says 'having software management processes and tools in place could have avoided' situation of unlicensed software use

Nokia targets businesses with dual-mode E51 mobile phone

Nokia hopes to attract business users by convincing IT managers they'll save money using its E-series phones in combination with VoIP software

E-card industry gets the message from fraudsters

Scammers flood e-mail in-boxes with fake greeting cards to lure users to malicious Web sites and hijack their PCs to use as botnets

Powerset seeks help online for natural-language search engine

Startup is building a search engine that understands ideas rather than just words

Baidu stretches lead over Google in Chinese search market

On the bright side: 65.3 percent of users surveyed said Google's Chinese search engine had improved

LSI: Refocused and ready to roll in the chip sector

Reorganized, streamlined LSI is ready to do battle in the competitive markets for storage and networking chips

Thunderbird flies: Mozilla spins off its e-mail client

Mozilla hints that $3 million in seed money for its new 'MailCo' subsidiary may be spent replacing Thunderbird developers unhappy with decision to ditch the e-mail program

Sprint launches Airave home cellular base station to boost signals

Sprint rolls out emerging femtocell technology that gives customers a strong cellular signal and flat-rate calling at home, inducing them to give up their landlines

New York Times to stop charging for online content

Removing the subscription barrier to online content will result in a boost in traffic and advertising revenue, NYTimes says

Sprint, Microsoft team up on location-based mobile search

Automatic location detection means users won't have to input zip codes in Sprint phones before getting local mobile search results

7 causes of slow software

Google adds presentations app to Google Docs hosted suite

Google delivers challenge to Microsoft's PowerPoint; Google Docs & Spreadsheets is renamed Google Docs

AMD tries to upstage Intel with triple-core Phenom processor

Ahead of IDF, AMD announces triple-core version of Phenom that aims to reach a broader audience of PC users than quad-core chips

Infrastructure threats: Botnets show DoS who’s boss

Malware-infected botnet PCs have overtaken denial-of-service attacks as the top security issue facing ISPs and other Web hosting companies

Sun upgrades GlassFish, slashes Java support price

Java upgrade improves features while support price cut targets rival JBoss

BEA for sale? Not likely

Carl Icahn wants to sell the company, but the investor lacks enough shares and not enough board members are up for election for such a sale to happen, an insider says

TechCrunch40: Learning from legends

Mobile virtualization gets smart

Zimbra succumbs to acquisition fever

With Microsoft ruling, a precedent for IT in Europe

The ruling has major implications for Microsoft's strategy of bundling apps with the Windows OS and sets an important precedent for future IT antitrust suits

Salesforce expands product categories for on-demand

Pioneer SaaS company will offer content management and collaborative services

Microsoft to integrate Windows Live tools into Visual Studio

The move is part of Microsoft's attempt to leveraging its large developer base to help the company compete in the online services sector

PHP developers get Eclipse boost

Eclipse PHP Development Tools 1.0 provides editing and debugging tools and can also work with a variety of plug-ins

Update: Yahoo to buy Zimbra for $350 million

Acquisition instantly makes search company a major provider of Web-hosted collaboration and communications

Privacy groups: Google’s call for standard insufficient

In response, Google defends itself against accusations that its acquisition of DoubleClick would compromise consumer privacy and competition in the market

EU antitrust ruling renews hope for developers

Open-source developers hope that the ruling will make it easier for them to compete with — and interoperate with — Microsoft's products

Clearwire trials portable wireless service in Seattle

Clearwire has started selling PC cards that provide wireless connectivity, eliminating the need for bulky modems that most WiMax networks require

AOL unveils unified ad platform, heads for NYC

Platform A collects all of AOL's ad networks into a single platform, which the company hopes will boost its flagging online advertising business

Competitive carrier Paetec buys McLeodUSA

The buyout still needs shareholder and regulatory approval, but if it proceeds as planned, Paetec will add 18 states to its coverage area