A federal judge on Monday gave final approval to a settlement in a class action suit against Sony BMG Music Entertainment over anticopying software the company had embedded in some music CDs

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On May 17 MTV launched its long-anticipated digital music subscription service, Urge. MTV is betting consumers will pay for music in much the same way they pay for their cable bill: monthly fees for all the content they want reports Reuters. The catch is that the music disappears when the subscription ends. MTV is using microsoft's new Windows Media Player 11, released in test form last week. Windows Media Player 11looks and works little like older versions of the company's music and video organizer -- starting with its front-and-center placement for Urge, a new music store from MTV writes WashingtonPost

Even though Microsoft;s next operating system has been delayed, the software giant already has a code name for the next system. MARY JO Foley at Microsoft Watch said that planners at the firm are calling the next system Fiji

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Microsoft this week released a December Community Technology Preview of Windows Vista, Build 5270. The new version includes a variety of improvements to security, performance, and the user interface. It also includes updated versions of some of the applications that will ship with the operating system reports PC Magazine

The Community Technology Preview features.

Windows Defender- an update to Windows AntiSpyware.
BitLocker – protects data that are at risk from being stolen or lost.
Device Driver Locking – System administrators will be able to block installation of external hard drives, USB flash drives and removable storage devices.
Parental controls – a more effective way to control usage of computers and the Internet by children.
Improved Firewall – includes both inbound and outbound firewall filtering
Internet Explorer 7 – this feature was included in the previous CTP version but this time round it provides added security for international domain names.
Additional features include an updated Windows Media Playe (Windows Media Player 11)r, a Windows Media Center and a caching algorithm called Superfetch.

Read More at Earth Times - Images at Impress.co.Jp

German Computer magazine C'T (Heise) describes how to change Windows XP Home to a Windows XP Professional version before install in their latest print issue.

C'T magazine has apparently found out that by changing 2 bytes in the installation file of Windows XP Home, it will install a Windows Professional. Some functions are missing, but Remote Desktop and User management and enhanced security features are present reports i4u.

A forthcoming Microsoft service, Virtual Earth, will compete directly against a service called Google Earth, which will feature high-resolution imagery, three-dimensional buildings in some cities and driving directions, among other features.

Mr. Bill Gates Microsoft's co-founder and chief software architect, showed the Microsoft service offering mapping data overlaid on the satellite imagery, all of it combined with directory listings and a clipboard feature that lets users make note of places they find. He said the new product had its roots in work done at Microsoft Research, which during the last decade has developed a global mapping database known as TerraServer reports New York Times.Read More

Gaviri PocketSearch is a portable search engine designed to work where you work rather than just on the desktop. PocketSearch installs on any USB or Firewire removable drive so you can take your search engine with you, just as you do your data.

Internet Search Giant, Google Inc is launching a personalized home page tonightInternet Search Giant, Google Inc is launching a personalized home page tonight. The feature, available at http://labs.google.com, allows Google users worldwide to select components tools located underneath the search engine's bar and display them on the main page.

The latest version of Macromedia 's online video conferencing application, Breeze 5 , now touts capabilities including Voice over IP (VoIP), on-demand video and realtime multipoint video conferencing. Designed to work hand in hand with Macromedia's Flash technology, Breeze 5 enables companies to provide Web-based teleconferences to remote users. It's available both as a pay-to-play service and as a package that companies can install on their own hardware. Breeze is suitable for use as an online training management system, for video teleconferencing, online demonstrations and other purposes.

April 12, Microsoft will discontinue a feature that allows users to block the downloading of its Service Pack 2 (SP2) security update for Windows XP. Microsoft's Service Pack 2 released last September to bolster Windows XP security features will be considered a critical upgrade by the company. In its April 4 report on business adoption of Windows XP SP2, AssetMetrix warned that a surge of SP2 downloads on April 12 could stress IT help desks and cause "productivity brownouts" among employees. But a Microsoft spokesman downplayed that scenario, saying fewer than 1% of Microsoft's enterprise customers ever used the blocking tool anyway reports Information Week. Small businesses and consumers will be unaffected by the change, he says, because the blocking tool was not available to them.

According to the latest Internet Security Threat Report from security vendor Symantec Corp., security threats that try to steal confidential information or compromise IT systems continued to increase during the last six months of 2004. On average Businesses suffered 13.6 attacks per day in the second half of last year, up from 10.6 daily attacks in the first six months of the year, the report says. There were 1,403 new vulnerabilities discovered during that period, a 13% increase from the previous six months reports informationweek.com. Phishing, the report says, continues to be a major problem, and the threat is growing. Symantec last July blocked around 9 million phishing incidents per week. By December, the amount grew to around 33 million per week. Symantec says its Brightmail AntiSpam software blocked most of those attempts. Symantec says malicious code designed to expose confidential information made up more than half all code samples picked up by the vendor. And Trojan horses by themselves made up a third of all the malicious code.

Symantec warns that malicious code will begin targeting mobile devices -- especially Bluetooth-enabled devices -- more frequently; 'bot' networks associated with criminal activity will expand; client-side attacks using viruses and worms to propagate will become more common; attacks will be embedded in audio and video images; and spyware and adware will continue to rise despite new laws seeking to curb the practice.

MapIt! is a mozilla Firefox extension that allows you to find directions from Google Maps based on publicly listed phone numbers.

My question, "What could have taken someone so long to come up with such a simple concept. I mean, how many times have you tried to find directions by using any Map application and you don't have the correct address." MapIt! makes it so much easier, by remembering a phone number, you can get the same driving or map directions a whole lot faster. Plus who doesn't already have phone numbers on their cell phones anyway.

via Transport Trends

Google's Desktop Search program finally came out of beta-testing this week and is available as a free download - http://desktop.google.com/ . The product is available for Windows XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and above, the company said. The free desktop tool, which has been in beta testing since October, allows users to search computer files, e-mail, America Online instant messages, the full text of Web page history and PDF files, as well as information stored with music, image and video files. The company said the product also includes support for the Firefox and Netscape browsers, Thunderbird and Netscape e-mail, and Chinese and Korean interfaces. Users also can use the search function to recover accidentally deleted or misplaced information. Google also added a plug-ins Feature so that developers can integrate their software into the Google Desktop Search

The Mozilla Foundation has released a security update for the uber Firefox browser. The Firefox 1.0.1 update addresses a number of vulnerabilities including a flaw in the Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), as well as some issues with arbitrary code execution and cross-site scripting. The IDN vulnerability could allow an attacker to create a fraudulent Web site in order to carry out a phishing attack. Using IDN, phishers could register domain names with characters that resemble letters to trick users.

Mozilla has rated the flaws as "moderately critical" to "not critical." In addition to addressing security issues, the foundation also has tweaked browser performance based on user feedback reports newsfactor.com

Yahoo Japan Corp announced Monday, plans to start offering an Internet-based music download service on a fee basis. The service, known as "Yahoo! Music Download," will allow subscribers of the "Yahoo! Wallet" service to download songs from 73,000 songs offered by 39 record firms. The service will be provided in cooperation with Label Gate Co, a joint venture of 18 firms, mainly music labels, which offers its own Net-based download service under the Mora brand. Users will be allowed to listen to songs before placing a download order. Fees will range from 158 yen to 368 yen per song. Japan Today

Hollywood folk have a new reason to rejoice today, no Brad is not getting back with Jenn (not today anyway), something even better has happened, news of over 1 billion dollars possibly be saved by curbing online piracy using New technology developed by Macrovision has reached the set.

Called "RipGuard DVD," the product can plug both analog and digital holes, if combined with the company's analog copy protection, according to the firm.

Macrovision reports that its technologies are embedded in over nine billion DVD, VHS and CD units representing over $130 billion of protected entertainment content.

The true danger to copyright holders, of course, are the loopholes in the digital format. People are able to exploit a hole created by PC-based DECSS ripper software, according to Macrovision, thus allowing them to make unauthorized digital copies of DVDs -- many of which subsequently are traded on peer-to-peer Web sites. via CIO Today

Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed plans for Anti-virus and anti-spyware products for enterprise customers, the company stopped short of giving details on pricing and release dates. It's on the way. At the RSA Security conference, Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates discussed Redmond's aggressive push deliver the first version of "the ultimate mail virus protection" by the end of this year. He also announced that a consumer version of Microsoft's anti-spyware software will be free for genuine Windows users reports PCMAG.com
"We've looked hard at the nature of this problem, and made a decision that this anti-spyware capability will become something that's available at no additional charge for Windows users-both the blocking capability, and the scanning and removal capabilities. Those are features we think should be available to protect every system," Gates said.

Macrovision Corp, yesterday unveiled a new technology touted to block 97 percent of the DVD-copying software used by Internet pirates, without interfering with a DVD's play ability or picture quality. Going by the name RipGuard, the system can be included in personal computers, DVD players and DVD recorders, to plug the digital hole through which unauthorized versions of DVD films can be easily copied on a computer and then "burned" to other discs or put online for downloading reports xinhuanet.com. "Macrovision RipGuard DVD is designed to dramatically reduce DVD ripping," Steve Weinstein, head of the company's entertainment technologies unit, said in a statement Tuesday. It is estimated that unauthorized DVD copying cost Hollywood studios about 1 billion out of the 27.5 billion dollars they collected from worldwide DVD sales and rentals in 2004.

Internet search-engine company Google Inc. has announced the second edition of Picasa, the photo organizing software acquired last summer by Google when it purchased the tiny firm Picasa for an undisclosed sum. Pre-Google, Picasa charged $29.99 for its software now it is totally free and offers features that others charge as much as $100 dollars for. Picasa 2.0 takes photo organizing up a notch offering more advanced editing tools while simplifying overall photo management for users of all skill levels. Picasa 2 automatically recognizes digital cameras when plugged into their PCs in addition to offering access to 12 photographic filter effects, color adjustments, cropping and redeye removal features. Labels and stars can be added to photos for faster ordering and searching. Captions are automatically attached to the photo file so that they go with the photo to Web sites and CDs. Picasa 2.0 also enables users to e-mail Photos through Google's Gmail service.

Picasa is offered as a free download.

Some folks who spend time looking for problems in software like Microsoft IE are warning of an unpatched hole affecting Internet Explorer (IE) version 6.0.0, (including the version released with Windows XP Service Pack 2 cSP2)) that could allow a remote attacker to bypass security warnings designed to inform users when a file is being passed to their computer using a specially-crafted HTML web document. In response Microsoft said Bugtraq (security discussion list) is like totally lying and everything is working as it should ie the download blocking feature in that version of the browser is working as designed.

iStumbler is a free, open source tool for finding wireless networks and devices with your AirPort or Bluetooth equipped Macintosh. iStumbler combines a compact user interface with a real time display of signal strength and complete debugging information. - MORE via Version Tracker

C-Tools 2.0 is an innovative Personal Digital Assistant software package
that is being developed to help doctors and their staff prevent, diagnose
and treat cancer. The program will equip you with the information you need
when you need it, and by doing such, C-Tools 2.0 will help you save time
so that you can invest it in the things that matter most—your patients
and their care



C-Tools 2.0 will be available in both a Palm OS and a Microsoft Pocket PC
version. All clinical content for the software has been developed and reviewed
by physicians, the American Cancer Society National Health Promotions Review
Board and additional cancer education professionals. The software program
will be a complete collection of the most recent cancer facts, findings
and information, all available at no charge .

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more - C-TOOLS 2.0