Microsoft's Vista AV Fails Certification

An anonymous reader writes

"Microsoft's much-hyped anti-virus solution, Live OneCare and three other Vista AV products failed to achieve the Virus Bulletin's VB100 certification. The other products are McAfee's VirusScan Enterprise, G DATA's AntiVirusKit 2007, and Norman's VirusControl. All failed to pass a series of tests that are required to display the VB100 badge. 'With the number of delays that we've seen in Vista's release, there's no excuse for security vendors not to have got their products right by now,' said John Hawes, technical consultant at Virus Bulletin."

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Google Docs to support Powerpoint

KindredHyperion writes

"Garett Rogers at ZDNet has an article on the prospect of a Powerpoint-esque addition to Google Docs and Spreadsheets. From the article: "If you dig around the language files in Google Docs, you will find what appears to be traces of a new service preparing for launch soon. Meet Google Presently — an online presentation creator that will likely read and write the most common formats like Microsoft PowerPoint and Open Office Impress.""

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Amazon & Tivo Take on Netflix

RadioTV writes

"Amazon is in Beta testing with select Tivo users to allow Unbox videos to be downloaded to Series 2 and 3 set-top boxes. The FAQ for the service is available."

The price point for movies is fairly reasonable. No HD and won't work with DirecTV's obsoleted HD tivo, but this is a step in the right direction.

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Dell Laptops Have Shocking New Problem

dapsychous writes

"A friend of one of my coworkers has noticed a problem in Dell notebook computers (also covered in this engadget article) about a problem that has been popping up lately in Dell 17" notebook computers. It seems that these computers are putting out between 19 and 139 (65 according to article, 139 according to him) volts of AC power as measured from any chassis screw vs. earth ground. This has led to several problems including fried ram, blown video circuits, and a stout zap on his left hand. According to him, Dell has tried to keep him quiet about the problem and has even gone so far as to have him banned from a few websites, and threatened him with legal action if he tells people about the problem."

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Facebook ready to make TV debut

Facebook.com, the social-networking Web site, said Tuesday it is moving into television by teaming up with cable operator Comcast's online video site Ziddio to produce a new series from users' clips called Facebook Diaries.

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Sony Ericsson to launch eight new phones

Sony Ericsson, the world's No. 4 mobile-phone maker, aggressively expanded its lineup of low-cost phones Tuesday, joining bigger rivals in the fight for customers in emerging markets.

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LG wins contest for low-cost 3G phone contract

LG Electronics has won a contest organized by the GSM Association to produce a low-cost handset for third generation mobile phone networks, a source close to the contest told Reuters on Tuesday.

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Kodak's consumer printers aim to chop ink costs

Eastman Kodak announced a new line of inkjet printers on Tuesday that are geared toward everyday consumers and designed to cut down on ink costs.

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What rising sea levels could mean for coastal areas

If sea levels rise a meter, the streets of Miami could end up underwater while New Orleans could become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But those aren't the only areas that will be in trouble, if two researchers from the University of Arizona are correct.

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Jailed blogger hits record as supporters rally

SAN FRANCISCO--Dozens of supporters of jailed freelance video blogger Josh Wolf gathered at City Hall here Tuesday to rally for Wolf's release.

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Solar 'Heliotube' company partners with installers

Solar power start-up Practical Instruments has signed on three installers of its "Heliotube," a solar panel equipped with tubes that follow the sun's direction.

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Internet backbone at center of suspected attack

There are signs that hackers attacked key parts of the backbone of the Internet on Tuesday, but no damage seems to have been done, experts said.

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Kyoto Protocol successor on British agenda

Britain wants to launch a major international clean-energy project with other European countries, Japan and the United States in a drive to combat climate change, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday.

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If catastrophe strikes tomorrow, are we ready?

If a major catastrophe struck the United States today our first responders would not have the communications capabilities they need to save lives. Our federal, state and local public safety officers lack "interoperability," the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently across jurisdictions. Currently, in most places in the United States, a state police unit cannot directly communicate with a local sheriff. Nor can a county fire chief talk directly to a local firefighting unit or to federal officials.

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Outsourcing your 'Warcraft' skills

According to an estimate from a company called Power-levels.com, it would take someone starting from scratch 768 hours to reach the highest level you can hit in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

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Video stars in Cisco's earnings boost

Demand from cable operators and phone companies upgrading and building new networks to carry video is fueling growth for Cisco Systems, the world's largest supplier of equipment that shuttles bits around the Internet.

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Warner Music enters social-networking content deal

Warner Music Group has signed a deal to allow its entire catalog to be played over the fast-growing social-networking music service LastFM, the innovative site that links music fans to new and old hits.

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IBM tunes up for Jazz open-source project

IBM is working on an open-source project called Jazz to promote programming tools for globally distributed teams.

Set to launch in June at Jazz.net, the project will be based on work from IBM Research and its Rational tools division around geographically distributed collaborative software development.

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Raining on Microsoft's parade

On the eve of the Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 launch, Thomas Vinje describes himself as a "native son gone bad."

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Intel ups server share, but AMD wins in PCs

Intel continued to reclaim server chip market share from Advanced Micro Devices in the fourth quarter of 2006, but the smaller rival's strength with consumers helped it gain in desktops and notebooks.

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Vista's actual launch? Think whisper, not bang

NEW YORK--The actual New York City release of Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, at midnight on Tuesday, couldn't have been more different from the prelaunch events that filled up many a reporter's business and social calendars on Monday.

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Vista steals the show

NEW YORK--Now that Steve Ballmer has launched Windows Vista and Office 2007, he has his sights set on getting a key user to upgrade: his wife.

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Sony profit down on PS3, outlook raised

Sony posted a 15 percent fall in quarterly operating profit on Tuesday after massive losses at its game unit offset robust sales of flat-panel TVs, but it raised its annual outlook closer to market expectations.

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Sony profit down on PS3, outlook raised

Sony posted a 15 percent fall in quarterly operating profit on Tuesday after massive losses at its game unit offset robust sales of flat-panel TVs, but it raised its annual outlook closer to market expectations.

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Web giants ask for feds' help on censorship

WASHINGTON--Google, Yahoo and Microsoft representatives on Tuesday implored the U.S. government to help set ground rules for complying with demands by foreign law enforcement agencies for user records or censorship.

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Apple's 802.11n software now available

Apple on Tuesday released the software needed to unlock the fast Wi-Fi chips inside almost every one of its new Macs.

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Bill Gates' to-do list

NEW YORK--It's still a year before Bill Gates shifts from a full-time Microsoft worker to a part-timer. Which is good, because there's plenty he still wants to achieve.

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Fighting to protect 'orphans'

An effort among Internet activists to halt the extension of copyright protections for orphan works--out-of-print books and media--was dealt a setback last week by a U.S. appeals court decision.

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Sony settles with FTC in rootkit case

Sony BMG Music Entertainment announced on Tuesday that it has reached a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over the controversial embedding of antipiracy software its CDs without users' knowledge.

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At AlwaysOn, talking 'bout the IM generation

NEW YORK--It's not uncommon these days to hear debate about how advertisers and media insiders can successfully get through to the age demographic known as "Generation Y," the "MySpace generation," or the "IM (instant message) generation."

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Sweden to open 'Second Life' embassy

Sweden plans to be the first country to open an embassy in the popular virtual world Second Life. "It will have answers to questions on all aspects of Sweden," Olle Wastberg, general director of the Swedish Institute, an organization that promotes the country's image abroad, said Tuesday.Read more...

Prices to plunge with demand for plasma TVs?

It looks as if plasma is losing ground in the high end of the TV market.

Shipments of plasma panels--sheets of glass placed inside plasma televisions--rose only 3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 over the same period the year before and actually declined 4 percent from the third quarter of 2006, according to research firm DisplaySearch.

It was the first quarter that plasma panel shipments grew less than 47 percent on a year-to-year basis and only the second time since the first quarter of 2003 that there has been a sequential decline.

Plasma panel shipments were 15 percent lower than the suppliers' aggregate forecast and 9 percent below DisplaySearch's forecast.

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Alleged porn spammer settles with FTC

An alleged marketer of online porn has agreed to pay a $465,000 penalty to settle spam charges, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday.

Under a proposed settlement, TJ Web Productions has also agreed to adhere to federal spam laws, the FTC said in a statement. This means the company has promised to use the phrase "sexually explicit" in message subject lines and ensure that the initially viewable area of the message does not display explicit images.

Additionally, TJ Web Productions has promised that any unsolicited commercial e-mail will include an opportunity for recipients to opt out of receiving future e-mail and provide a postal address, the FTC said. The promises are all required by the FTC's Adult Labeling Rule and the Can-Spam Act.

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Hubble humbled by power failure

The main camera aboard the Hubble Space Telescope has stopped functioning due to a short circuit, NASA announced Monday.

The Advanced Camera for Surveys, installed on the Hubble in March 2002, is considered the Hubble's "workhorse," according to Dave Leckrone, the senior project scientist on the Hubble Space Telescope.

About the size of a public phone booth, the scientific instrument consists of filters and dispersers that can sense wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared on the light spectrum, and three electronic cameras.

The Hubble will still be able to function, but until a new camera is installed in 2008, the images will not be as far reaching.

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Symantec unveils Vault for enterprise storage

Symantec has launched Enterprise Vault 7.0, which the company says will enable IT managers to prioritize how they store messages.

As well as handling e-mail storage, IT managers can use the product to archive business-critical instant messages, the company said.

"We had a long, hard look at what's happening in the market," said Fredrik Sjostedt, European senior manager for product marketing at Symantec. "E-mail is a mission-critical function, but we needed a wider look to include instant messaging and Microsoft Sharepoint, as people are using the Web as a group interaction tool," he said.

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SanDisk to make USB security push

Flash memory maker SanDisk next week plans to announce a product designed to help businesses manage and control the use of USB drives.

The Milpitas, Calif., company has scheduled the announcement for the RSA Conference in San Francisco, the annual bonanza of security products for businesses. "SanDisk will unveil a comprehensive solution for the enterprise security market, providing protection and control for USB flash drives," the company said in a statement.

USB drives and other gadgets carried around by workers pose a real security risk, security experts have said. Connecting the devices to work PCs could be a vehicle for malicious code to enter a corporate network, or a tool for disgruntled employees to smuggle confidential information out of the office, for example.

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