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Microsoft Issues Three Critical Patches
 July 12 ,2005

As part of its July security bulletin, Microsoft has issued three critical patches for Windows and Office. Each fix covers a vulnerability that could enable remote code execution on an affected machine, and possibly enable an attacker to take complete control over the system.

MS Unveils New Media Center Hardware
July 12, 2005

Microsoft on Tuesday debuted two new wireless hardware products aimed at the entertainment functions of Windows PCs, including a control center for Media Center PCs and a keyboard that is aimed at digital photographers.

"We create hardware for how and where people use their PC," Tom Gibbons, general manager of the Hardware Group at Microsoft said. "With this in mind, we designed two new devices to enhance the digital entertainment activities people are now enjoying, such as playing movies on their Media Center and editing digital photos."

DOJ Reviewing Adobe-Macromedia Deal
July 11, 2005, 2:03 PM

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked for more information regarding the proposed $3.4 billion merger of Adobe and Macromedia, the two companies announced on Monday. The information requested by the DOJ centers around the companies' products in authoring and design, as well as vector graphics illustration.

Company officials said they are in the process of gathering the necessary information and will cooperate fully with the DOJ's investigation. "[Adobe and Macromedia] expect to hold meetings of their respective stockholders to approve the acquisition in September 2005 and still anticipate that the transaction will close in Fall 2005," the two companies said in a statement.

Invites Sent as Longhorn Beta 1 Nears
July 11, 2005

Microsoft sent invites to a small number of testers over the weekend, announcing the imminent arrival of the much-anticipated first beta release of Longhorn. Beta 1 will be available for download in the coming weeks, giving users the first real look at the next-generation Windows release.

The release of Beta 1 is arguably the first major milestone in Microsoft's Longhorn vision, which also entails upcoming releases of its server products and Office System. Longhorn Server is expected to reach beta alongside the client release - a first for Microsoft. Screenshots of Longhorn build 5203 were already circling the Internet Monday, although it's not clear if the images were in fact from Beta 1.

"The real beta -- the one revealing broadest feature changes -- likely won't come until, at best, end of this year. That means Microsoft customers, partners and competitors won't yet be able to judge Longhorn progress or what the new Windows version will mean to them."

Along with Longhorn Beta 1, Microsoft is launching a new portal for beta testers called "Connect." Connect is expected to serve as Microsoft's central clearinghouse for its beta programs, enabling users to view available betas and apply directly to join a test.

Arizona Among Targets in FBI Crackdown

Federal agents have raided an Arizona computer command center as part of a nationwide crackdown on pirated music CDs and movies. Wednesday's raids came on the same day that Justice Department officials in Washington announced the creation of a new Intellectual Property Task Force to step up copyright enforcement.

Some of the stolen copyrighted material being sought in the raids is suspected as having been distributed from overseas sources. The raids are reflective of a new effort by the Justice Department to treat copyright enforcement as a higher priority, something that motion-picture and music-industry officials have been urging.

FBI agents raided the Deer Valley School District's Administration Services Center in Glendale at 6 a.m. Wednesday and stayed most of the day. The site houses the district's information services and technology offices, essentially the "brains" of the district's computer system, said Timothy Tait, district spokesman. School officials were not warned and even the district's top officials, including Superintendent Virginia McElyea, learned of the search warrant only when computers went down. Classes were not disrupted, but computer use in the district office was limited with no Internet access or e-mail.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson would not comment on why the federal government was searching a school district's system and he would not identify the other sites in Arizona or elsewhere that were served with warrants. Bresson also refused to say how targets were identified, noting the search warrants were under court-ordered seal.

In the past year, the recording industry has gone after people for illegally downloading music from the Internet. Earlier this month, the Recording Industry Association of America subpoenaed the University of Arizona to provide the personal information of four students accused of illegally downloading music from university computers.

News source: KVOA

Posted on April 23, 2004.

Super-size the Hard Drive!

Toshiba on Thursday (April 22, 2004) unveiled a super-size hard drive for notebooks. The 100GB storage vault, the MK1031GAS, will pack 20GB more capacity than Toshiba’s current biggest drives for notebooks. Hitachi Global Storage recently added a 400GB desktop hard drive to its product line.

Posted on April 23, 2004.

Are You A Moblogger??

Moblogs -- mobile Web logs of cell-phone photos snapped on the go -- are the next step in the evolution toward ever-more personalized Web sites, and cell phone makers and carriers are looking for ways to capitalize on the trend. Last month, Nokia announced it would launch a site called Lifeblog that will allow subscribers to archive their cell phone photos in chronological order, augmented text, video and audio, if desired.

Posted on April 1, 2004.

Google To Offer Email Service

Google is launching a new e-mail service dubbed Gmail, which it says will offer users better access to searching their e-mail as well as a large amount of free storage capacity. The move raises the stakes with competitors Yahoo and MSN, which have long provided e-mail services but as a tiered product that provided only minimal storage at the free level while charging fees to users who wanted more capacity. Google plans to support Gmail through advertising rather than fees.

Posted on April 1, 2004.

New Cellphones Due Out: (prices not yet announced)

  • The Motorola V710 is a CDMA phone that includes Bluetooth capabilities, a 1-megapixel camera with 4X zoom and flash, and video capture and playback. The phone is the first to include TransFlash—small removable memory from SanDisk that lets you store from 16MB to 128MB of data. You can also listen to MP3s with the quality speaker. WAP 2.0, Brew, SMS, MMS, and e-mail are all supported as well. And you won't have to wait long: the phone will be available at the end of the first half of this year.
  • The Nokia 7610 candy bar-style phone boast a new, sleek design. It includes a 1-megapixel camera, with flash and 4X zoom, and has the ability to take up to 10 minutes of video, which you can edit and add music to with the included Movie Director application. The phone comes with 8MB internal storage, as well as the included 64MB small removable MMC. The phone is triband (GSM 900/1800/1900 or GSM 850/1800/1900) and comes with Bluetooth technology. Due out the second half of 2004.
  • Kyocera's Koi phone 1.3-megapixel camera phone has a unique pinwheel design, so you can use it in landscape and portrait modes. The camera will have a 5X zoom and built-in flash, as well as a cover that protects the lens. The phone features 16MB of memory and video capture capabilities—and, of course, all the functions of a top-selling mobile phone. Due out the second half of 2004.
  • The Audiovox CDM-8930 is a swivel clamshell-style phone, with a 1.3-megapixel camera with flash and a camcorder capability that can store up to 10 minutes of video. The handset has a 262K, 2-inch display, which is a very good quality screen. It also has stereo sound and a two-way speakerphone. The phone is tri-mode, Brew capable, and data capable with a USB interface. This unique phone has much promise. Available date not announced yet.

    Posted on March 29, 2004.

    • Battling Cyberterrorism

    At the University of Tulsa, a program called Cyber Corps has become one of the nation's largest institutions specifically created to combat cyberterrorism. Since September 2001 the corps has grown from six universities to twenty universities. The Tulsa program and similar programs at Carnegie Mellon University, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook have received large new grants from the National Science Foundation.

    (AP/San Jose Mercury News 12 Jul 2004)

    Radio Kids in Japan

    School officials in the Japanese city of Osaka will soon be using RFID technology to monitor the movements of their pupils. (The acronym stands for radio frequency identification.) The tags, which will be read by readers installed at various key locations throughout a school, will be placed on the children's schoolbags, name tags, or clothing. (CNET 12 Jul 2004)

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