Nokia's online music store will open on 1 November, bringing the mobile phone giant toe-to-toe with market leader iTunes.

The company says over two million tracks will be available at launch, with artists such as The White Stripes, John Mayer and Moby available from labels including EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music.

In comparison iTunes currently sells around six million tracks. The store will be accessible through the desktop, or wirelessly through Nokia's new range of devices, including the N81 and N95, which will automatically sync tracks to the PC when hooked up.

Individual tracks will cost 80p, a penny more expensive than iTunes, and albums upwards from £8.00, all of which will be in the WMA format at 192kbps.

Read more at PC Pro

Google has confirmed that the recent update to its "visible PageRank" system is an effort to crackdown on sites trying to rig this closely-watched web popularity contest.

Over the weekend, Google search engine guru Matt Cutts told Search Engine Journal that the company is intent on punishing web publishers that attempt to sell their PageRank currency to other sites.

A site with a high PageRank can often boost the rank of a less-popular site simply by linking to it. As a result, popular sites will often provide such links in exchange for cash. And Google doesn't like that.

Here's the word from Cutts:

"The partial update to visible PageRank that went out a few days ago was primarily regarding PageRank selling and the forward links of sites. So paid links that pass PageRank would affect our opinion of a site. Going forward, I expect that Google will be looking at additional sites that appear to be buying or selling PageRank."

Read more at The Register

Nintendo has got Christmas firmly lined up in its sights as it finally unveils when its new zapper will hit the high street. Set your alarms - it's going to be 7th December. The Zapper will come bundled with a Zelda-themed game going by the name of Link's Crossbow Training and in this players can use the Zapper, along with your Wiimote and Nunchuk to aim at targets on the screen and, well, shoot them!

The Zapper can also relay info to the Wii allowing gamers to hide around corners and the Z button on the Nunchuk can act as a zoom aloow you to do those tricky sniper shots.

The Zapper promises to be compatible with games such as Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and others.

Read more at Absolute Gadget

An internet social networking site, in the style of Facebook and MySpace, has been launched aimed at people over 50.

The Saga Zone site was developed by the Saga Group, based in Folkestone, Kent, which specialises in products and services for the over-50s.

Some 13,000 people signed up to the site, which includes forums on subjects from gardening tips to relationship advice, in a trial four months ago.

Saga said the oldest person so far on the site was aged 87. Communications watchdog Ofcom said in August its data showed over-50s accounted for 30% of time spent online in the UK.

Read more at BBC

Surfers are warned to be wary this Halloween of malicious spam messages playing on Wednesday's horror-themed holiday.

A run of Halloween-themed spam invites would-be marks to visit a site and download a "dancing skeleton", a malicious package that falsely claims to create a novelty dancing skeleton on users' desktops.

In reality, the site (safe screen grab from F-secure here) is loaded with exploits designed to download a new variant of the Storm Worm (Trojan) onto vulnerable Windows PCs. Infected PCs become members of the zombie botnets of compromised PCs under the control of hackers.

The malicious messages arrive with subject lines such as "Halloween Fun", "You'll laugh your but (sic) off" and "The most amazing dancing skeleton".

Hackers often take advantage of holidays and items of topical interest to flavour their attacks. The Storm Worm gang are not the only group to take advantage of Halloween for questionable purposes. A spam email campaign identified by net security firm Sophos earlier this month attempted to coax recipients into handing over personal information on the dubious promise of a $250 gift card.

General security precautions apply in the case of these particular, or similar future, attacks. Consumers are advised to resist the temptation to open suspicious-looking emails from people they don't know. Running properly maintained security software and keeping PCs up-to-date with patches are also important precautions.

Read more at The Register

A potentially dangerous computer worm called Storm has been silently infecting computers in India, creating a pathway into the system which can be exploited, either to steal data or flood your e-mail account with spams. Having enticing subjects lines, the spam mails containing the worm baits people into opening them. Those who open the attachment then unknowingly become part of a Botnet (a collection of compromised computers running programmes having worms under a common command for nefarious purposes). Experts in India said that the virus till now, has been infecting computers without causing serious damage. However, because it's gathering strength, experts are considering it a serious threat.


They say the Botnet could, in the future, serve as an army of commandeered computers to be used by attackers without their owners' knowledge for a largescale global attack. Over 70% of all e-mail traffic at present in India are spams. Over 25% of these carry the Storm worm. The number of Bot infected systems in India is 4,000 per month.

An expert said Storm travelled through spam and was showing no signs of slowing down. "It hasn't attacked till now. Yet, it is a disturbing trend. It continues to propagate and therefore grow in strength. This poses a serious threat because it may be preparing for a big attack during the festive season. Hackers could wreak serious damage if they unleash a denial-of-service attack with it.

What's worse, you can't counter the attack by simply blocking a single server because its origin is distributed globally," the expert said.

Read More - Via[TOI]

Xenitis Infotech Pvt Ltd, the flagship company of Xenitis Group rolled out the lowest-ever laptop computer priced at Rs 19,900 on Tuesday in India. The newly launched Xuva T14WN laptop is a product extension of the existing brand Xuva, the company said in a statement. "Our product will cater to common people at large especially low end consumers like students and entry professionals.

The laptop is configured with Intel Celeron M 1.4Ghz (360), 256 MB RAM, 80 GB HD, Combo 3-in 1 Card Reader, Intel 945GM Chip Set & 14.1" WXGA LCD. This launch is set to storm the laptop market since a sizeable chunk of desktop PC buyers will go for it, Xenitis claimed.

Read More - Via[ET]

AOL, which is trying to grow its online advertising business worldwide, has localized its video search site for eight countries and added two languages for its India portal, the company said Wednesday.

AOL has extended the local versions of its Truveo video search site to France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan and the U.K. Within two months, versions will be launched for Australia, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia and Turkey, the company said.

Truveo came under AOL's wing in early 2006, and the company has sought grow the site as its traffic figures have risen with increased demand for online video.

Unlike Google's YouTube, Truveo doesn't store content but instead indexes it from sources around the Internet. Truveo can pull some videos into a window embedded in its Web site, or direct users to where the video is hosted. Truveo also groups videos by category, and AOL has created some localized popular categories, such as cricket-related clips for India.

Read More - Via[PC World]

Google Inc will offer Internet developers an open system to create applications across Web sites, a move that could challenge the features behind the explosive popularity of social network Facebook.

Google's OpenSocial system gives developers standardized tools to build applications and embed them in many sites, eliminating the need for small startups or even one-person shops to customize their programs for each site.

It also has the potential to lure developers mostly allied with Facebook by allowing their applications to find a home on many other Web sites.

"This is about making the Web more social, how do you have your friends go along with you to any site on the Web?" said Joe Kraus, Google director of product management, in an interview.

Google said it had initially signed on about a dozen partners, including social network LinkedIn for business professionals, its own Orkut network and Friendster.

Read More - Via[Reuters]

Google Inc, which is used to dominating the Web search advertising business, may find negotiating its way into the cell phone market a tougher task.

Dealing with America's largest mobile companies, which keep control of devices and features, could force the Web search leader to make concessions that cut into future revenue from wireless, an area Google has long said would be key to growth.

So far no U.S. carrier has confirmed working with Google on a new mobile platform. No. 2 U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless is in active talks about putting Google applications on phones it offers, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

"There are good useful talks going on and they could result in a deal," one of the sources said.

For months media and analyst reports have said Google might design an entire phone with partners, or offer software that would include its current services such as maps and e-mail.

Read More - Via[Reuters]

Malicious spyware creators have invented a program, called 'Melissa Strips', to help them break anti-spam security checks. When viewers correctly type scrambled text images, 'Melissa' loses some clothing.

According to Trend Micro, one of the two security firms which have detected the program, the responses typed are sent to a remote server to identify and match ambiguous scrambled images from legitimate site. The program so far has been targeting Yahoo accounts. Scrambled text images are used by sites to prevent computers automatically signing up for accounts that can be put to illegal use.

Known as Captchas or "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart", these typically feature hard-to-decipher numbers and letters making it difficult for anyone but humans to identify what the image say. Hackers have been trying to get past these checks to get into email accounts and blogging tools.

Read more at AHN

OpenSUSE 10.3 is the fourth stable release from the OpenSUSE project, the online community founded by Novell to further develop the SUSE Linux operating system.

It ships stuffed to the gills with the usual assortment of open-source applications, including the OpenOffice.org office suite, the GIMP image-manipulation software, and many multimedia bells and whistles.

In fact, OpenSUSE has more software and features crammed into it than you know what to do with, which proves a mixed blessing. The OpenSUSE distribution DVD disc boots to the familiar SUSE Linux installer.

A Live CD approach, like that found in Ubuntu 7.10, would have been more versatile; but even though OpenSUSE's method seems old-fashioned, it's at least effective. The SUSE installer is top-notch, and OpenSUSE 10.3 dresses it in attractive, professional-looking new graphics. It's not as effortless as it could be--the installation process gives you enough options to get you into trouble--but novices should have no problems if they play along with the default selections.

Read More - Via[PC World]

Geodesic Information Systems has announced the availability of its mobile instant messaging (IM) product, Mundu IM, on Windows Mobile based Pocket PC devices, as well as Sony Ericsson phones. Users of the Sony Ericsson Walkman-series, K-series, HTC Touch, IMATE K-JAM, O2 XDA Motorola Q, Palm Treo 750, Palm 700p and the iPhone, amongst others, can take advantage of Mundu IM.

Mundu IM gives users the exclusive ability to cross-conference friends, colleagues and family across AIM, MSN and Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber IM services through a single chat window on the popular phone platforms.

Sony Ericsson’s following phones are compatible with Mundu IM V4: K310i, K510i, K610i, K750, K790i, W300i, W550i, W700i, W710i, W810i, W850i, Z530i and Z550i.

Read More - Via[efytimes]

The mobile malware threat is becoming stronger every day due to the increased sophistication of mobile phones. Yet, mobile anti-malware vendors have not seen a high return on investment, because of lack of awareness in the market. Despite this, it is important for vendors to set up technology and distribution partnerships with other members in the industry value chain, in order to be fully prepared when the market accelerates.

Frost & Sullivan finds that the World Mobile Anti-Malware Products Markets is expected to earn revenues of $61.4 million in 2007 and reach an estimated $2,171.3 million in 2014.

"Mobile phones are becoming ever more sophisticated; smartphone usage is rising, while advanced capabilities such as MMS, Bluetooth and Internet access are increasingly becoming standard features in phones," notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Katie Gotzen. "However, few people realise that it is these extra capabilities that make mobile malware attacks possible."

Read more at Frost

(Exclusive Beta18 images designed using latest data from Frost & Sullivan and simple CAGR calculations)

Yahoo! India Tuesday announced its free mail services are now available in Hindi. Users can read and write e-mails in Hindi without losing out on any of the features available in English.

'Yahoo! is the first Internet company to introduce Hindi language services in the country,' John Kremer, vice president, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Inc, told IANS.

'We have always been focussed on making it easy for people to connect to those who matter most to them. Now, with Yahoo! Mail Classic, we're creating a more local e-mail experience. Our product and engineering teams in India have played a crucial role in this localisation,' he added.

Read More - Via[M&C]

The first lawsuit between two Second Life users has been filed in New York, over the issue of someone stealing virtual items.

It's the case of Eros v. Simon. Linda Eros claims that Thomas Simon stole specific computer code to copy products she created and sells in the virtual Second Life world.

It is not as absurd as it may seem at first. In Second Life, some people literally earn a living by creating items like avatar clothing and accessories and selling them in their own shops. These items are paid for with real money, as in US dollars.

Eros apparently specializes in creating adult-themed items. According to her lawsuit, her virtual products "built a reputation within Second Life for performance, quality and value, and ... are among the best selling adult-themed virtual objects within Second Life."

The suit alleges that Simon stole Eros's designs and made knockoff products, causing her sales to fall. It is a tricky gray area because the wording in US fair trade laws say nothing about cases in which no physical product or service is provided.

Read more at TG Daily

Online messaging service Meebo has unveiled the Meebo Platform, a way for outside developers to build applications that integrate with the Meebo desktop. Like the Facebook Platform, Meebo's platform consists of a set of APIs that developers can leverage to create widgets which Meebo users can add to their pages, but as with Facebook, the platform isn't exactly open.

Meebo has decided to keep its platform somewhat sandboxed; for now the offerings are limited to communication applications from Pudding Media, TalkShoe, TokBox and Ustream.TV, which together add features like VoIP, video chat, conference calls and "lifecasting" tools to your Meebo account.

Take a look at it : Meebo Platform Read More - Via[Wired]

Microsoft Corp. on Monday said it has agreed to buy a Thai software vendor that specializes in hospital administration applications, and plans to sell the software in emerging markets.

Global Care Solutions (GCS) of Bangkok, Thailand, is Microsoft's third purchase of a health-care software vendor in the past 13 months, according to Peter Neupert, vice president for the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft. The group was formed two years ago and the purchase of GCS is one more step to building the Microsoft health-care business, he said.

GCS specializes in hospital software that takes care of patient scheduling, billing, clinical workflow, regulatory compliance and medical record-keeping. The privately held company has worked for years with Bumrungrad International Hospital, a facility made famous by its focus on catering to visiting tourists.

What makes GCS software special is the amount of specialized record keeping required by Bumrungrad. Doctors at the hospital see over 1.2 million patients each year, including 400,000 foreign patients from 190 countries, meaning varying language, insurance and billing data. Half of the 3,200 patients seen at Bumrungrad each day walk in without an appointment, yet GCS's scheduling software ensures patients wait an average of 17 minutes to see a doctor.

Read More - Via[PC World]

Wired Writes..

Based on our test drive, it seems like Hulu got most of the formula right.

The user interface is what we've come to expect from web video players -- slick and Flash-based. Viewing content works almost exactly as it does on YouTube.

The control panel is hidden; you roll the mouse over the player window to reveal options to share the video via e-mail, get its URL, embed it into your own site, or "pop out" the player into its own window. Our favorite (and the most superfluous) command was the option to "lower the lights." Once you toggle that option, the browser window surrounding the video goes from white to dark gray to add emphasis to the onscreen action.

Despite the familiar interface, the most glaring difference between Hulu and its would-be peers is the lack of an upload option. Since the site is a promotional tool for its owners, the focus is entirely on distributing premium content. There's no option for users to upload content, remix it or produce their own mashups. On Hulu, the networks are running the show.

Hulu hosts an impressive list of shows (and even a few movies), but there are quite a few shortcomings. For instance, only the current seasons of popular shows like Heroes and House are available. And Hulu does not allow you to download video to your computer for later viewing. If you want to delve into previous seasons or download content for keeps, you're better off purchasing the DVD or trying your luck with iTunes.

From NBC and News Corp.'s perspective, of course, Hulu's killer feature is advertising. Previously, when NBC's Saturday Night Live short "Lazy Sunday" saw viral success, NBC lost ad revenue. As users bootlegged clips and uploaded them to YouTube, NBC was left out of the clickthrough loop.

Read More

IBM says it's found an earth-friendly way to recycle the silicon wafers used in its computer chip manufacturing operations -- it's helping to turn them into solar panels.

To recycle the wafers, IBM is using a process that removes transistor patterns embedded in them. The patterns usually prevent silicon wafers from being reused along with other silicon products because they represent closely guarded intellectual property.

As a result, the tech industry discards about three million silicon wafers per year, IBM estimated.

With the patterns removed, IBM can safely sell its used silicon wafers from its Burlington, Vt., plant to manufacturers that can turn them into solar cells or panels. IBM said it's also implementing the process at a plant in East Fishkill, N.Y.

The company said it plans to share details of the pattern removal process with other chip makers. The process was recently awarded the "Most Valuable Pollution Prevention Award" for 2007 from the environmental group The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable.

The program benefits the environment in two ways -- less waste is ending up in landfills, and the redirected silicon is helping to alleviate a materials shortage that is constraining the use of energy-saving solar cells.

Read More - Via[IW]

Indie rock, gaming and sketch comedy — genres known for going against the grain — are once again at the forefront of a paradigmatic shift in popular culture. Furthering the commitment to delivering rich content across the three screens at the center of customers’ lives — the TV, PC and wireless devices — US telecom major AT&T has announced the launch of four video series focussed on today’s pop culture.

From indie rock performances to an in-depth look at the video gaming industry, the four original series from High Definition (HD) content provider ON Networks,offer viewers a diverse array of shows that they can watch on any device. Today, this also includes AT&T television (AT&T U-verseSM TV and AT&T HomezoneSM); wireless (MobiTV); and broadband (AT&T blue room, AT&T U-verseSM OnTheGo and AT&T Broadband TV) services.

Read More - Via[IndianTelevision]

Nvidia has announced its GeForce 8800 GT graphics card, the latest entry in the company's high-performance GeForce 8 series of desktop graphics systems. The 8800 Gt is designed to give gamers high-end processing power and performance at a friendly price.

The PCI-E 2.0 GeForce 8800 GT card sports 512 MB of video memory, a core clock speed of 600 MHz, a shader clock running at 1.5GHz, and a 256-bit memory interface running at 900 MHz. In addition, the card features 112 stream processors individually clocked at 1.5 GHz, full support for Microsoft's DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 for compatibility with the most demanding games, Nvidia PureVideo HD² technology for quality high-definition video performance.

Read More - Via[DT]

There's a new high-end desktop chip in town--namely, Intel's Penryn family of CPUs, which are the first built on a 45nm manufacturing process developed by the chip giant. Our first WorldBench 6 tests with the new chip showed only a minor performance gain for the 45nm, 3-GHz QX9650 Core 2 Extreme versus the 65nm, 3-Ghz QX6850 Core 2 Extreme chip that it is supplanting.However, none of the applications in our test suite utilize the QX9650's new SSE4 instructions, which can greatly speed up tasks such as some key operations in video encoding in apps that use SSE4. (Intel's in-house benchmarks, and the demonstrations we saw at this fall's Intel Developer Forum, back up that claim.)

Read More - Via[PC World]

More dirt has emerged regarding the Apple/Universal deal that turned rotten. According to an article in Variety, the deal went south when NBC Universal wanted to raise the price of hot properties like "Heroes" by a dollar, to $2.99, in addition to requesting a cut of Apple's hardware profits. On both counts, Apple refused. And the head honcho of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker, was none too happy: "Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money."

Read More - Via[PC World]

The cat and mouse game between hackers and Apple takes another move, with news that Apple's new Leopard operating system has already been successfully installed on Windows PCs.

The OSx86 Scene forum has released details of how Windows users can migrate to Apple's new OS, without investing in new hardware -- even though installing Leopard on an PC may be counter to Apple's terms and conditions.

The forum is offering full instructions on how to install the system, including screenshots of the installation process.

Not all the features of Leopard function with the patch -- Wi-Fi, support, for example, is reportedly inoperable. Historically, Apple's likely next move will be to track down and act against those behind the hack.

The move to make Leopard work on a PC is just the latest in Apple's continual struggle with the hacker community.

Read more at PCWorld

Huchison 3G UK on Monday rolled out the Skypephone, a handset designed to simplify use of the Skype VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) application.

Huchison 3G, branded as "3" in the U.K., is offering free calls between Skype users through the 3G mobile phone, which goes on sale Friday in the U.K. The Skypephone will be released by the end of the year in Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden. Some mobile phones already support Skype, but volume-based data usage charges typically make the service expensive to use. Skype recommends using its mobile application with unlimited Huchison 3 data plans or Wi-Fi.

Huchison 3 has been offering unlimited Skype calls on its pricier X-Series phones, but the Skypephone is simpler and aimed at the mass market, according to a company spokesman. The phone has a large button with Skype's logo that's used to launch calls and IMs.

Huchison 3 is not charging for the cost of Skype calls on its network, although it does limit the service to about 4,000 minutes per month. Huchison 3 will then suspend outgoing Skype calls but allow incoming ones.

Read more at PCWorld

T-Mobile USA announces the upcoming availability of the T-Mobile Shadow – the first phone in a planned franchise of phones under the Shadow brand. Available beginning October 31, the T-Mobile Shadow is designed to significantly reduce the complexity often associated with many feature-rich devices, while maintaining all the powerful calling, messaging and picture sharing capabilities people crave to keep them connected.

Highlighting the phone's distinct features and its complete ease of use, the T-Mobile Shadow offers:

• An enhanced myFaves functionality that allows even more flexibility and ways to communicate and connect. Through this experience customers can now call, send an e-mail, text or instant message, and share a picture, video or voice note, all with a push of the button right from the myFaves home screen.
• An enhanced user-interface integrated with the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 platform.
• A sleek, slider design, and a spin navigation wheel that make it a breeze to scroll through the polished user interface, myFaves icons, and other core phone features.
• One of the largest, most-radiant screens on any T-Mobile phone. When combined with its high-quality, 2.0-megapixel digital camera with video capture, it enables customers to record and share those special moments in vibrant ways. Plus, a multimedia player provides a convenient way to listen to and share favorite music and video.
• An array of lights and sounds that differentiate one function from another, whether you're receiving an e-mail, picture message or calendar appointment notification.
• Wi-Fi and EDGE-enabled high-speed Internet access to power Web surfing so that connecting to your favorite social networking site is quick and easy.
• A reminder feature, so customers need never forget another friend's or family member's birthday or anniversary with the ability to set reminders for these important days in the lives of their 'fave five.'
• T-Mobile Address Book that lets customers easily import contact information from Yahoo!, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and other e-mail services onto their phone using my.t-mobile.com, and automatically back up their phone's address book online.

Read more at Computing News

NBC Universal and News Corp. launched their joint-venture Web site Hulu on Monday for private beta testing.

The site will feature video clips, including programming from NBC and Fox, along with television shows and films from Sony and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. The Sony and MGM deals were reached late Friday.

The programming will also be available through parter Web portals, such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo and MySpace. The actual Hulu.com site itself is still under private beta, with potential users signing up for invitations.

All content on the site will be free and supported by advertising. The movies will be shown in edited-for-television formats, with ads being shown in the places where ads would be in a normal television broadcast.

Read more at Bizjournals

Children who played an educational computer game at the start of every school day have shown a dramatic improvement in maths, concentration and even how they get on with other pupils, a Scottish study has shown.

A pilot project at a primary school in Dundee found that a group of 30 pupils who played a selection of games including number challenges, reading tests and memory puzzles, showed a marked improvement in maths tests over a 10-week period. The P5 and P6 children from St Columba's Primary, who played the games on a handheld console for 20 minutes every day, improved their maths scores by an average of 10 percentage points.

Children who had low scores in the first place did particularly well and one learning support pupil jumped from a score of 25% to 68%. The average time for completion of the test by the group using the games, called More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima for the Nintendo DS console, dropped from 17 minutes to 13 minutes and 19 seconds. Some of the children halved the time it took to complete the test while maintaining or improving their score.

Read more at The Herald Scotland

Mobile telephony users across the country will be able to enjoy third generation (3G) cell phone technology by the middle of next year, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja said Thursday.

Raja said it was crucial for telecom operators to have spectrum or radio waves available to roll out 3G services.

"The government is cognizant of the fact that a key hurdle to the rollout of 3G services is availability of spectrum," Raja said at a telecom summit here.

"We are hopeful that some spectrum for both 2G (second generation) and 3G services will be vacated by the end of this year. I hope that would pave the way for a rollout of 3G services by mid next year," the minister added.

Asked how much spectrum would be vacated, the minister replied on the sidelines: "That is up to the defence ministry to decide."

Read More - Via[mangalorean]

Intel Corp. has agreed to pay $250 million over five years to Transmeta Corp., also based in Santa Clara, to settle a patent-infringement lawsuit over chip designs and power management technology, the two companies said this week.

The truce means Intel will be allowed to incorporate patented Transmeta technologies in its chips for 10 years under a non-exclusive license and the two sides will abandon their lawsuits against each other.

Read More - Via[mercury news]

A bouncing YouTube baby has be-bopped his way right into the legal cross-hairs of the pop star Prince, sparking a lawsuit that could test the boundaries of U.S. copyright law.

Holden Lenz, 18 months old, is the pajama-clad star of a 29-second home movie shot by his mother in the family's rural Pennsylvania kitchen and posted last February on the popular video site YouTube.

In the video, the child is seen bouncing and swaying for the camera, as, faintly, the Prince hit "Let's Go Crazy" plays on a CD player in the background. Twenty eight people, mostly friends and family, had viewed the YouTube video by June, when mom Stephanie Lenz said she received an e-mail from YouTube informing her that her video had been removed from the site at the request of Universal Music Publishing Group, the recording industry's largest label, and warning her that future copyright infringements on her part could force the Web site to cancel her account.

Read more at ABC News

Cellphone giant Sprint Nextel has agreed to "unlock" phones purchased by Californians who wish to use their purchased handsets on competitors' networks, it was reported today.

Flexibility has long been a vexing issue for cellphone customers, with nearly all unable to switch to new carriers without buying new handsets. The move by Sprint Nextel to change its usually-rigid cell usage rules is part of the proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought last year by a group of California consumers against the Virginia-based company, The New York Times reported today.

The settlement must receive final approval by a Superior Court judge in Alameda County. If approved, the new rules would obligate Sprint to unlock all handsets once their owners' service plans expire. That would mean Sprint handsets could be used on any North America cellphone network that uses the same technology, called code division multiple process technology, or CDMA.

The other major cellular carrier that uses CDMA in California is Verizon. The Sprint handsets will not work in most overseas nations, because they use different radio frequency bands.

Read more at North County Times

Apple Inc. said it will restrict iPhone sales to two phones a customer and require credit or debit card payment on those phones to discourage unauthorized resellers and maintain enough stock for the holidays.

"Customer response has been off the charts,'' Alan Hely, an Apple spokesman in the U.K., said in an e-mail. "Limiting iPhone sales helps us ensure that there are enough iPhones for people who are shopping for themselves or buying a gift.''

Apple plans to start selling iPhones in the U.K. next month. People could buy as many as five iPhones a person and pay in cash before the policy was implemented Oct. 25. The limit and payment requirements will help discourage resales, Hely said.

Read more at Bloomberg

Within 18 days of its launch, www.beta18.com has completed 1000 visits. This is quite an unbelievable response, as we were not hoping for more than 20 visits a day initially. But with support of our Readers and Friends, we are now getting 56 hits per day on our new venture. We ensure our readers that we will keep the good work going and will give our hundred percent to make this website better and more interesting. Please continue to give your feedback and suggestions for us to provide you with the best we can offer.

Thanks

Microsoft's new Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 is a well-designed, full-featured, and--at $100--expensive input device. This wireless mouse worked great on all desktop surfaces; it even worked on rough or unusual surfaces such as glass and the keys of a keyboard.

Powered by a rechargeable nickel-metal hydride battery, it can charge through a small cable that latches magnetically from the mouse to a 2.4-GHz USB receiver that also doubles as a 1GB flash drive. (You can connect the mouse via Bluetooth, too.)

+ Includes 1GB of storage
+ Great optics
- Expensive

Read more at PCWorld

The Internet's key oversight agency is investigating suspicions that insider information is being used to snatch desired domain names before an individual or business can register them.

The Security and Stability Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers termed the practice "domain name front running" and likened it to a stock broker buying or selling shares ahead of a client's trade, in anticipation of a movement in price.

In the case of Internet addresses, many people who see a domain name available the first time they check find it already taken by the time they return to buy it.

That has led to suspicions that someone with access to search requests has been using the information to gauge interest in a domain name.

By buying the domain first, that person can then try to sell it to the interested party for a profit. This is different from traditional domain name speculation because the buyer knows for sure that the address is of interest.

Although the practice has never been proven, the ICANN committee said the perception that it is happening "portrays an unfavourable image of the parties associated with the domain name registration process in specific, and of the domain name community in general."

Read more at Canadian Press

The Apple iPhone has been named the coolest gadget of the year by Britons, despite the fact that it is yet to be launched in the UK. The revolutionary phone is expected to be launched in the market with a price tag of about 330 pounds next month.

"It's the coolest gadget of the year by a country mile," the Scotsman quoted the judges from the technology magazine Stuff, who compiled the top ten must-have list, as saying.

According to them, the gesture-sensitive touch screen of this phone is a big step forward in technology.

Tom Dunsmore, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, has revealed that the gadgets have been chosen on the basis of their "stand-out" quality rather than sales success, functionality or value for money.

"Gadgets are getting more stylish and more desirable every year. This year's list is packed with must-have Christmas gifts so beautifully designed and such a joy to use that they'll appeal to technophobes as well as gadget- lovers," he said.

The Leica M8 camera was second on the list, and was described by the judging panel as "a 20th-century classic with a 21st-century makeover".

IPod-style gadget Tonium Pacemaker, which enables DJs to mix music without turntables, was named the third coolest
gadget, and tiny Sony Vaio UX1 PC came in fourth.

Read More - Via[TOI]

Despite its struggles with the PlayStation 3, Sony's PlayStation 2 business continues to press forward, with the company celebrating its seven anniversary Friday by announcing that more than 120 million consoles have been sold worldwide.

This is combined with sales of over two billion software titles, which makes the PS2 the most popular gaming platform ever released. Despite claims that it is cannibalizing PS3 sales, Sony plans to continue development for the PS2 into the next decade.

About 160 new games are expected through March 2008, including Guitar Hero III, Madden NFL 08, and Manhunt 2. Additionally, the company plans to release a new model of the PS2 in ceramic white, which will be bundled with Singstar Pop and two microphones and retail for $149.99.

"We look forward to the platform's continued growth and expect to sell approximately 12 million units worldwide by the end of March, leading us to anticipate that PlayStation 2's life cycle will exceed that of the original PlayStation," SCEA president and CEO Jack Tretton said in the announcement.

PS2's wide success comes in stark contrast to the struggles of Sony's next-generation platform, the PlayStation 3. In nearly every major market, the new console trails both the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 by substantial margins.

Read more at BetaNews

It's well established in the rock canon that Saturday night's all right for fighting, but Activision thinks it's pretty ideal for waiting as well. Activision announced today that 3,000 stores in the US will be hosting midnight-launch events for the game, which will let Guitar Hero groupies get their hands on the latest installment at 12:01 a.m. Sunday--in other words, late Saturday evening.

As the subtitle implies, Legends of Rock will be the first Guitar Hero game to feature actual musicians in-game, with Guns N' Roses' Slash and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello appearing in boss battles, and Poison lead singer Bret Michaels also making an appearance. The game also adds a multiplayer battle mode, online play, and more to the established series formula.

An Activision rep was unable to say which chains would be hosting the events, but he did say that at least one Best Buy and several GameStops were among the 3,000 locations in question. Those interested in picking up the game at a witching-hour event should call their local retailers.

Read more at Gamespot

NEC has showcased what they claim is currently the world’s most powerful supercomputer available in the market.

This is the latest attempt from a tech giant to showcase their superiority over the other. Companies involved in constructing these kind of supercomputers include Fujitsu and Hitachi along with IBM, Intel and SGI.

NEC has named this new machine SX-9 and they claim that the machine is capable of calculating 839 teraflops.

Read More - Via[Techwhack]

Kodak India Private Limited has launched the Kodak EasyShare M-Series range of new sleek line of zoom digital cameras. The M-Series consists of M753, M853, M873 and M883. From high ISO settings to Digital Image Stabilization and Kodak Perfect Touch technology, the features onboard the Kodak EasyShare M-Series cameras help consumers take consistently better shots. All Kodak EasyShare products being introduced include the latest version 6.2 of Kodak EasyShare Software. The new Kodak EasyShare Software Version 6.2 now includes direct access to KODAK Gallery making it simple to find albums stored online and can be downloaded for free.

Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif unveiled the Kodak EasyShare M-Series in Mumbai yesterday. The Kodak EasyShare M753, M853, M873 and M883 are available for Rs 10,999, Rs 11,999, Rs 12,999 and Rs 13,999, respectively. Read More - Via[Efytimes]

Apple is preparing to air a new TV commercial on Sunday, October 28th featuring its recently introduced iPod touch. The commercial features a fast-paced overview of the portable player atop a song titled "Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex," according to the New York Times. Interestingly the spot's creator, Nick Haley, is an 18-year-old student and Apple fan in the UK who created the content and uploaded his video to YouTube. There the ad received four out of five stars as well as numerous positive comments, and YouTube revealed more than 2,100 views of the home-brewed advertisement as of Thursday, October 25th.

Read More - Via[macnn]

Apple has released, as promised, its Mac OS X Leopard operating system, which is the 10.5 version of its successful OS. It appears that most people think that its new feature, Time Machine, is the most useful improvement over 10.4 Tiger.

Some have blasted Apple for asking for quite a lot of personal information in the registration screen, and argued that probably Microsoft couldn’t have gotten away with it. Surprisingly, Apple did, so far.

"Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we’ve ever released," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, earlier this month. "And everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129."

In addition to the $129 single license, Apple offers a very affordable Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack, which is a license for five users from a single household, which will retail at $199. Apple also announced that Mac OS X Server Leopard will also go on sale on Friday, October 26. It will reportedly be going for $499 for a 10-client edition and $999 for an unlimited client edition.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard requires a minimum of 512MB of RAM and is designed to run on any Macintosh computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 (867 MHz or faster) processor.

Read More - Via[eFM]

A new variant of the Gozi Trojan has been discovered, raising the specter of a comeback for the infamous malware, which excels at pilfering financial information even when it's protected using supposedly secure mechanisms.

The new strain was first detected on Tuesday when Russian miscreants unleashed a small avalanche of malware-tainted PDF files that tried to remotely hijack vulnerable computers. Don Jackson, a researcher with security provider SecureWorks, said the exploit turned Adobe's PDF Reader program into a malware installer that loaded the new Gozi Trojan onto victims' machines. document.

Jackson's discovery is yet another powerful reason for users to update Reader and Acrobat immediately. Otherwise, he says, users are wide open to a Trojan that thieves have used to steal more than $2m worth of financial and personal data already.

"People aren't going to block PDFs," he told El Reg. "There's just too much business done to block it all. And what happens when you start using PDF-type books?" Only 26 per cent of the major antivirus providers protect against the new variant, he said. It is detected under names including OrderGun, Orderjack, Germ, Small.BS, Pinch, Snifula, Ursnif and CWS.

Read more at Channel Register

The exact details of AT&T's revenue-sharing agreement with Apple have not been disclosed, but one analyst thinks that over the two-year life of a user contract, the amount exceeds the actual price of the iPhone.

Silicon Alley Insider spotted a research note from Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster estimating that Apple is receiving $18 per month for each iPhone subscriber, under the revenue-sharing agreement between the two companies. Apple has confirmed that such an agreement exists, but has not shared the details about exactly how much cash it's getting from the revenue AT&T makes on iPhone customers using the carrier's data network.

In July, Munster estimated Apple was receiving just $3 per iPhone subscriber and $11 per iPhone customers new to AT&T, but he's rethought the numbers after Apple's latest earnings release.

Munster takes the 1.4 million iPhones that Apple has sold since the device made its debut, and subtracts the 250,000 iPhones that Apple said it believes were bought to unlock from AT&T's network, to calculate that there were 1.15 million revenue-generating iPhones in play during Apple's fourth quarter. He then uses the $118 million that Apple recorded in iPhone-related revenue during the quarter to estimate out how much service revenue Apple took in from its share of AT&T's data charges by subtracting his estimate of hardware revenue generated by the sale of each iPhone, based on the average selling price.

Read more at CNet

Nintendo Co Ltd said it aims to launch its Wii game console in China and South Korea next year, helping accelerate its break-neck growth and cement its recent lead over Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp.

One day after the three game makers' earnings announcements, Japan-based analysts said Nintendo looks well positioned to win the race for top spot in the current-generation videogame console market due to a strong software line-up and low hardware price.

"New game hardware comes around once in every five, six years. So, making a good start is crucial," Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Koki Shiraishi said. "Since the Xbox 360 was launched one year ahead, it is roughly on par with the Wii in total sales. But if you take a look at current momentum in net growth, the Wii is well ahead."

Read more at Reuters

Microsoft Corp has made progress in getting its Windows software to work on a low-cost laptop computer for poor children that currently runs on rival Linux software, an executive said on Thursday.

The world's largest software company is now working to adapt a basic version of Windows XP so it is compatible with the nonprofit One Laptop per Child Foundation's small green-and-white XO laptop.

"We're spending a nontrivial amount of money on it," Microsoft Corporate Vice President Will Poole said in an interview on Thursday. "We remain hopeful with our progress to date, we still have significant work ahead to finalize our analysis and testing processes," he said. "At the end of the day, there's no guarantees."

The One Laptop per Child Foundation, a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plans to start producing the $188 machines in China next month and eventually manufacture millions a year for elementary school children in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Read more at Reuters

The U.S. Senate has approved legislation extending a moratorium on state Internet access taxes for seven years.

With only days left before the Internet tax ban was set to expire, the Senate reached a compromise between lawmakers who proposed a shorter extension and those who insisted it should be made permanent.

"By keeping the Internet tax-free and affordable, Congress can encourage Internet use for distance learning, telemedicine, commerce and other important services," Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, of Alaska, said in a statement on Thursday night.

The vote came about two weeks after the House of Representatives approved a four-year extension of the Internet tax ban.

The two chambers must work out their differences on the bill before a final version can be approved and signed by President George W. Bush.

Read More - Via[Reuters]

Production of the XO, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project's computer for children, has been delayed again. The Chinese factory that's producing the laptops was originally supposed to begin production this month, but last minute bugs have delayed the production launch until November 12 according to a Reuters report.

The delay means that the OLPC project may have trouble filling orders placed as part of its Give 1 Get 1 program in which buyers in the West could buy two XOs for $400, with one for themselves and the second machine going to a poor child overseas. The program is set to launch November 12 and will be available through the 26th, but the new production woes may delay the arrival date for both recipients.

Read more at Wired