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Picture Leak: O2's Security Through Obscurity Can't Stop Google
Some O2 customers' private photos taken with their mobile phones are publicly accessible online.
Businesses Fail To Harness Full Potential Of Online Communities
The Deloitte survey found that businesses use online communities to generate ideas, discover products, and discuss brands, but many fail to draw a critical mass.
Google Reinforces Its Russian Front With Ad Company Acquisition
The deal to buy ZAO Begun, a Russian contextual advertising service, marks Google's first publicly disclosed acquisition since last October.
Reports Of A Google gPhone Surface Again
Google executives reportedly said the company was making its own branded mobile phone to compete with Apple's iPhone.
Verizon Wins Approval For FiOS TV Service In New York
The FiOS service, a bundle of TV, broadband, and telephone service, will place Verizon in competition with Time Warner and Cablevision.
U.S. Lawmaker Wants Consent Required For Web Tracking
Internet providers should be required to get their customers' permission before the companies are allowed to track their online visits, a key House lawmaker said Thursday.
Video-Game Industry Headed For Record Year, Despite Troubled Economy
Store sales of video games and consoles in June soared 53% and 54%, while revenues from software and accessories rose 61% and 25%, the NPD Group said.
Google Revenue Growth Slows
Net income for the second quarter of 2008 was $1.25 billion, down from $1.31 billion in the first quarter of 2008.
SnagFilms Puts Documentaries On The Web
Backed by former AOL executives, SnagFilms currently has 250 films available on its site and is in the process of adding another 200.
Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Available
The latest version aimed at Windows Mobile touchscreen phones offers a redesigned user interface, integrated debugging tool, and improved standards support.
Google De-Automates Addition of Gmail Contacts
Google's decision to change the way Gmail gathers contacts is an acknowledgment that automation must be balanced by human oversight.
Cuba To Get High-Speed Internet In 2010
The undersea fiber optic cable being built from Venezuela to Cuba represents a departure from prior Cuban policy impeding Internet access.
Pressed By Rivals, Google Accelerates Enterprise Search Efforts
By combining its Web search technologies with enterprise-specific products, Google hopes to keep up with Microsoft, IBM, and a clutch of innovative startups in the enterprise search arena.
MySpace Launches Pan-Asian Game Application Contest
The social networking site will pick winners who will get cash and prizes, media attention, and a trip to the 2008 Tokyo Game Show.
Yahoo Says Icahn 'Will Destroy Stockholder Value'
The company told shareholders that Icahn and Microsoft want to serve their own "narrow special interests, clearly not your interests."
eBay Shares Drop Despite Positive Earnings Report
The average selling price for auctioned goods fell 6% in the second quarter, and that news sent shares down by 6.6% in after-hours trading Wednesday.
Android Developers Upset With Google
After an updated software development kit meant for a select few is discovered, some developers say Android is not as "open" as Google claims.
Firefox 2 And 3 Get Security Fixes
One vulnerability could be used to execute remote code on a Firefox 2 user's machine and is considered critical.
Time Warner, Yahoo Up On Report Of AOL Talks
Shares in Time Warner rose 4.7% Wednesday after Reuters reported that talks to sell its AOL Internet unit to Yahoo or Microsoft have heated up ahead of Yahoo's Aug. 1 shareholders meeting.
Nokia Completes Plazes Acquisition
The deal will help Nokia beef up its location-based mobile social networking offerings.
Gmail Privacy Hole Shows User Names
Sharing a Google Calendar with another Gmail user can expose the first name and last name that the recipient of the shared calendar supplied to set up a Gmail account.
Wireless Social Networking To Transform Tech, Media, Telecom
Researchers say companies must shift strategies to remain relevant as worldwide adoption of mobile Internet devices escalates.
GAO Bashes Fed's Sloppy E-mail Management
The agency has criticized the digital-records and cyber-security policies at five government agencies including the National Archives and Record Administration and the Dept. of Homeland Security.
Leading Travel Publisher Adopts Web 2.0 For Travel Guides
MairDumont, Europe's largest travel guide publisher, has put information on more than 200,000 destinations and points of interest online for free.
Microsoft Opens Live Mesh To More Users
Live Mesh currently is a synchronization and remote access tool for Windows customers with Live IDs, but Microsoft says it will evolve to become much more than that.
Baseball Goes High Tech To Fight Piracy
Major League Baseball unveiled a high-tech system for tracking baseballs that batters have slugged out of the field in a bid to crack down on piracy in sports memorabilia.
Sony Beefs Up PS3 Media Ability With Films Over Web
Sony said it would rent and sell movies and TV shows over the Internet for its PlayStation 3 video game console and double the hard drive capacity of its main PS3 model in a bid to better compete with Microsoft and Nintendo.
Blizzard Wins Big Legal Victory Upholding Software License Rules
The Blizzard decision, if allowed to stand, could diminish consumers' already limited ownership rights over the software they buy.
Google Gadget Tries To Transcribe What Politicians Say
The Google Elections Video Search gadget uses speech recognition to transcribed and index speeches by politicians and others.
Microsoft Says Yahoo-Google Deal Threatens Internet Privacy
The company's complaints may have as much to do with privacy and competition as they do with its own strategic interests in Yahoo's search business.
EU Wants Ceiling On Text Messaging Roaming Charges
The EU will present a plan to cut the cost of mobile phone text messages in the fall, with implementation to take place in the summer of 2009.
Google Sued For Selling Ads On Parked Domains
A class-action lawsuit alleges that Google committed fraud, business code violations, and unjust enrichment by selling ads that were unlikely to generate conversions.
San Francisco Testing Smartphone Parking Program
Wireless sensors may soon let the city's drivers check their mobile devices to find open parking spots nearby.
Netflix To Stream Movies Over Microsoft's Xbox Live Service
The service will feature more than 10,000 movies and TV shows available for immediate viewing.
Yahoo Says Microsoft Seeks 'Fire Sale' Price
A Yahoo executive accused Microsoft of teaming up with activist investor Carl Icahn to force a "fire sale" price for Yahoo's search business.
Lawyers In YouTube Lawsuit Reach User Privacy Deal
Defendants and plaintiffs in two related copyright infringement lawsuits against YouTube have reached a deal to protect the privacy of millions of YouTube watchers during evidence discovery.
Stolen Bank Data Gets Cheaper On Web
Prices charged by cybercriminals selling hacked bank and credit card details have fallen sharply as the volume of data on offer has soared, forcing them to look elsewhere to boost profit margins, a new report says.
Zimbra Collaboration Suite Adds Link To iPhones
The Zimbra Mobile for iPhone 2.0 service allows two-way synchronization of e-mail, calendars, and address books.
Google And Microsoft Spar Over Yahoo Ad Deal
The two tech giants trade statements ahead of today's Congressional hearing on the Google's advertising pact with Yahoo.
Google Search Security Mistaken For Censorship
By warning users of a hack on a net neutrality opponent's Web site, Google was accused of trying to silence critics of a policy it supports.
Icahn Would Sell Yahoo's Search Business To Microsoft For $1 Billion
Under Icahn's plan, Microsoft also would pay billions of dollars to become the exclusive search provider on all Yahoo sites for a term of five years.
Software Tool Helps Visually Impaired See Web Pages
Lighthouse International says its program is the first to allow people with moderate to severe vision problems to view Web pages as the site creators intended.
Buzzwire Expands Mobile Content Offerings
The company has added 22 new content partners to offer more original Web content and Internet TV.
Microsoft Software Update Service More Reliable Than Apple, Ubuntu
Web monitoring firm Pingdom says Windows Update was up 100% of the time in the second quarter, Apple's Software Update was up 99.9% of the time, and Ubuntu was up 98.64% of the time.
iPhone 3G's Outlook Compatibility A Boon For Road Warriors
Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, which produces applications for the Mac platform, currently isn't planning to release any iPhone-specific applications.
iPhone 3G Launch Fails To Rally Tech Sector As Dow Slips Below 11,000
In midday trading, Apple shares were off 1.3% to $174.74 on relatively light action, well off its 52-week high of $202.96.
Apple's New iPhone Snapped Up In Asia And Europe
Apple's new iPhone made its hotly awaited debut on Friday, with buyers storming stores in Asia and queues forming in European cities.
New Zealand Student Buys First New iPhone As Sales Kick Off
First sales of Apple's new iPhone kicked off in New Zealand on Friday, with buyers crowding outlets to buy the latest high-tech gadget to hit store shelves.
Facebook Translator Available As Open Source Code
Thrift helps keep Facebook's many moving parts working together and keeps outside developers producing new applications in the language that is best for the task.
Google Is Watching, Perhaps Soon In Your Home
Researchers propose gathering personal data by tracking people's activities at home through home network interactions.
Activision Blizzard Mulls iTunes-Like Store
The company, whose $10 billion merger closed Wednesday, expects stiffer competition from traditional media companies like Time Warner and Walt Disney.
Comcast Again Chided For Allegedly Blocking Internet Traffic
The company's agreement to smoothly deliver Vonage's VoIP services raises critics' questions about the ISP's network management practices.
Medialets Introduces iPhone Ad Platform
The company has created an ad platform for the iPhone that will let software developers offer rich media ads that are built into their applications.
Apple Launches iPhone App Store
The App Store opened its virtual doors with about 500 applications for Apple's iPhone, ranging from games to business tools.
Yahoo Wants You To Build Your Own Search Service
BOSS removes many of the usage restrictions on Yahoo's search APIs, encouraging developers to create "credible alternatives to Yahoo and Google."
Apple Fan Hires iPhone 3G Line Stand-In For $1,200
Adding in the iPhone 3G's $199 price tag, the Apple smartphone will end up costing its owner $1,399.
YouTube Rolls Out Red Carpet Video Contest
YouTube and People.com are offering contestants the chance to be a red carpet reporter as part of their effort to launch a new video channel.
Samsung Unveils YouTube-Optimized Camcorder
The SC-MX20 compact camcorder, the successor to the SC-MX10, features a 680,000-pixel image sensor that delivers a maximum resolution of 720 x 480 pixels.
Security Community Cooperates To Fix 'DNS Poisoning'
Armed with knowledge of DNS transaction IDs, an attacker could reroute requests for certain Web sites to Web sites of his or her choosing or hijack e-mail.
Google, Microsoft Testify About Privacy, Behavioral Advertising
A Senate committee wants to know if current practices jeopardize Internet users' privacy, and if older communications and privacy laws make some behavioral advertising practices illegal.
Prescription Drugs Easily Purchased Online
Despite new efforts to regulate Internet pharmacies, 85 percent of sites selling controlled drugs do not require a prescription, researchers reported Wednesday.
Google Claims Progress In Selling YouTube Ads
Google says it is testing new ideas on YouTube and still learning what what works and what work when it comes to ads.
Google Launches Virtual World Called 'Lively'
Lively feels more like a Google Talk-powered chat room with 3-D camera controls than an immersive environment like Second Life.
Mobile E-Mail For Cost-Conscious Enterprises
No high-end smartphone? No problem. Standard consumer-grade mobile phones from Nokia, Motorola, LG, Samsung, and other vendors are capable of syncing with Exchange servers, empowering mobile e-mail for nearly anyone who needs it.
Verizon Drops 1938 Media After Charges Of Racism
Blogger Loren Feldman's disputed video was never shown on Verizon's V Cast services and it was never intended to be available, according to a Verizon spokesperson.
Microsoft Adds Online Services For Partners
Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration and Connected Services Framework will be offered to private label software distributors.
Apple's MobileMe To Go Live Wednesday
Apple's wireless syncing service will debut Wednesday night ahead of Friday's iPhone 3G launch.
Google's Gmail Blocks Phishers Sending Forged eBay, PayPal E-Mail
The free e-mail service says Gmail users who receive mail from the two heavily phished domains can feel confident that the messages are authentic.
Viacom Vows To Protect YouTube Users' Anonymity
Viacom is negotiating with Google to come up with a way to distinguish most users from each other without using IP addresses or usernames.
Pretexting, Subprime, Netroots Accepted Into Merriam-Webster Lexicon
"Malware," "dwarf planet," "fanboy," and "webinar" are also words and phrases now judged mainstream because of their prolonged and widespread use in a variety of publications.
Google Offers Tool To Monitor Gmail Activity
The information Google provides includes the Gmail user's type of access (browser, mobile, POP3), IP address, date, and time.
Google Makes Application Security Tool Available As Open Source
Ratproxy was developed by Google security expert Michl Zalewski, who will continue to help maintain it.
YouTube Users Vent Anger In Anti-Viacom Videos
The video-sharing site's users are calling for a boycott of the media giant following reports that it will view log data to prove its copyright case against Google.
Google Releases 'Protocol Buffers' Data Language
Google's documentation claims that Protocol Buffers are 3 to 10 times smaller than comparable XML files and can be parsed 20 to 100 times faster.
Microsoft To Provide Ads For Rodale Health, Fitness Sites
Microsoft will provide ads through its adCenter platform, initially matching placements of text-based ads with Rodale's editorial content.
China's GPS Handset Market Growing Rapidly
The nascent market will explode as customers demand more location-based services and manufacturers improve GPS chipsets.
Google's Turn As 'Privacy Defender' In Viacom Suit Only Partly Credible
The tension in Google's simultaneous desire to collect the world's data while protecting the world's privacy can be seen in YouTube's user fight.
Microsoft Reopens Door To Yahoo Acquisition
The offer may be back on the table if billionaire investor Carl Icahn is successful in his bid to overhaul Yahoo's board of directors at its August 1 shareholder meeting.
Microsoft To Take Control Of MSN Israel
Internet Gold said it was ceding control of MSN Israel to Microsoft due to a change in business strategy; MSN Israel accounted for less than 3% of Internet Gold's revenues in 2007.
Cost Of Day-Care Sparks Discontent At Google HQ
Google is under fire from a handful of parents who work at the company's Silicon Valley offices for price hikes in the cost of on-site day care services, the New York Times reported.
Google Talk Revamped For Apple's iPhone
In order to accommodate the restrictions that Apple placed on iPhone apps to conserve system resources, this version of Google Talk shuts down if you launch another application.
Google Ordered To Release Data On YouTube Users
The owner of YouTube has to turn over user login IDs, records showing when users watched videos, their IP addresses, and numbers that identify the videos.
Home Broadband Adoption Stalls Among Some Americans
A recent Pew Internet report finds just 25% of American households with annual incomes of $20,000 or less had broadband connections in their homes.
Hands-Free Driving Likely To Spur More Voice Recognition
New rules in California and Washington make the market ripe for improved speech-enabled cell phone applications, a Nuance study suggests.
Firefox 3 Boosts Browser's Market Share Over 19%
Gains came mostly from users upgrading from Firefox 2, while only a small portion came at the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Sony Confirms Pulling PS3 Firmware Update
The company released firmware 2.40 Tuesday, and reports of problems started flowing in soon after on the official PlayStation 3 message board.
Google-Yahoo Deal Faces Justice Department Review
When the deal was announced, Google and Yahoo said they had agreed to delay it for three months to allow the Department of Justice time to review the arrangement.
L.A. Drivers To Get Real-Time Info From Traffic Cams
TrafficLand will use up to 190 traffic cameras to show drivers the status of major highways.
Microsoft Unveils New Internet Explorer Security Features
Coming to IE8 is a set of cross-site scripting defenses to defeat hackers looking to steal cookies and browser history, logging keystrokes, stealing credentials, or just evading phishing filters.
Blockbuster Busts Its Offer To Buy Circuit City
Both companies have been facing increasing competition from online marketers in their respective markets in recent years.
Free, Bollore In Talks With Google Over WiMax
French Internet service provider Free and Bollore Telecom are in talks with Web search giant Google over the funding of their WiMax wireless broadband network in France, French daily Les Echos reports.
Orbitz Travel Sites Replace Expedia At MSN
The change, which Orbitz said could bring about 3.5 million visitors per month to Orbitz via MSN Travel, represents a blow to Expedia, which began life in 1995.
Microsoft Buys Search Start-Up Powerset
Under Powerset's hood is decades-in-the-making natural-language processing technology the company licensed from the Palo Alto Research Center, formerly of Xerox.
Hollywood Faces Strike Over New Media Fees
The Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are fighting over new media residuals and other contract terms.
AOL Increasing Dial-Up Fees
Subscribers who are willing to give up phone support can keep the lower rate, but they must notify the company to opt out of a $2 monthly increase.
Older Versions Of Firefox, IE Put 45% Of All Internet Users At Risk
Firefox 2 is considered to be the most secure Web browser because 83.3% of its users worldwide are running the most current version.
Google Boosts Mobile Search With Tele Atlas Agreement
The deal could place Google and its Android Open Handset Alliance in competition with Nokia and its Navteq navigation technology.
SureScripts, RxHub Merge To Expand E-Prescribing Network
The combination will form a single secure national network for the exchange of prescription related data between physicians, pharmacies, and prescription benefit management organizations.
Adobe Makes Flash Files More Searchable In Google, Yahoo
Adobe has unveiled Searchable SWF technology and is distributing a "search-engine optimized" version of Flash Player to Google and Yahoo.
Nokia Signs Warner To Music Deal
The world's top cellphone maker Nokia signed a deal with Warner Music Group to make Warner titles available through its "Comes With Music" service and Nokia music store.
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