eWeek articles from September 2006

eWeek archives from September 2006

Babblestick Delivers VOIP on the Go.
September 1, 2006... Babble.net, an Internet telephony provider, is challenging Skype for a larger share of subscribers by offering greater flexibility in making VOIP calls. The London-based company announced a new USB stick, dubbed the Babblestick, that can...

Mobile Companies Develop New, Faster 4G Technology.
September 1, 2006... CHEJU, South Korea (Reuters)--Global mobile operators and device makers are betting that the next level of transmission technology will ramp up mobile phone usage in a way that third-generation technology has so far failed to do. So-called...

EMC, HP Race for External Disk Storage Market Lead.(Hewlett-Packard Co.)
September 1, 2006... Data storage hardware and software maker EMC maintains a narrow overall lead in the worldwide external disk storage systems market, but Hewlett-Packard has caught up and the two are almost tied for No. 1 in market share, according to...

Gateway Rejects Bid for Retail Operations.
September 1, 2006... NEW YORK (Reuters)--Gateway Inc., the personal computer maker, Friday rejected a bid to take over its retail operations by Lap Shun Hui, a former executive at eMachines. In a statement, Gateway said its board "has determined that the...

Alcatel to Buy Nortel UMTS Unit for $320 Million.
September 1, 2006... PARIS (Reuters)--Alcatel has signed a preliminary agreement to buy Nortel's third-generation cell phone network unit for $320 million, aiming to achieve greater scale amid cut-throat price competition. The deal, unveiled on Friday, will...

Gadgets That Just Won't Break.
September 1, 2006... Were you the type of kid who broke toys pretty soon after they came out of the box? Or maybe you just go through eyeglasses, camera, phones, and music players with abandon. Even if you're not like this at all, you probably know someone who fits...

BEA Delivers Tuxedo SOA Technology.(BEA Systems Inc.)(service-oriented architectures)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... BEA Systems has completed development of BEA Services Architecture Leveraging Tuxedo 1.1, a solution for making applications that use BEA's Tuxedo run more efficiently on service-oriented architectures. Officials at BEA, in San Jose,...

Microsoft Hits Vista RC1.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Microsoft's Windows Vista RC (Release Candidate) 1 is done. Now it's up to the estimated 6 million testers to which the company is planning to release the code to determine if it really is ready for prime time. Microsoft has posted the RC...

California Passes Bill Easing Cable Rules.
September 1, 2006... SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)--California's legislature passed a bill on Thursday night aimed at increasing competition among cable television providers and easing the ability of telephone companies to enter the market. The state's Assembly by a...

Court Dismisses Broadcom Suit Against Qualcomm.
September 1, 2006... NEW YORK (Reuters)--A U.S. district court has dismissed an antitrust suit filed by microchip maker Broadcom Corp. against Qualcomm Inc., although Broadcom said it would continue to pursue the case. Broadcom alleged that Qualcomm violated...

Brazil Judge Orders Google to Disclose Users' Data.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters)--A Brazilian judge has ordered the local office of Web search company Google to disclose the data of users of Google's social networking site Orkut accused of crimes like racism or child pornography. Federal...

MS06-040 Botnet Attack Reloaded.
September 1, 2006... Botnet herders have reloaded and launched a new round of worm attacks against Windows users, exploiting multiple product flaws to hijack unpatched computers. In addition to the MS06-040 Windows Server Service flaw, attackers have added...

Survey Finds Restless Tech Workers.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Nearly 60 percent of tech workers are looking for new jobs, according a survey released by the Computing Technology Industry Association on Aug. 30. In surveying more than 1,000 IT workers, CompTIA found that they are restless and looking...

Spam Numbers Rise, Although Porn Is Down.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... A survey released on Friday shows that while emails pushing porn are down, overall spam emails--and phishing attempts--are growing significantly. The survey was conducted by Ipswitch, a vendor of SMB security software. It found that 70...

Layoffs Loom at Intel.
September 1, 2006... Intel is expected to announce internally the results of its efficiency review on Sept. 5, a move that could result in thousands of layoffs. The chip maker, which has already made a series of sweeping moves as part of the review, could cap...

Lenovo Undecided on TriGem Acquisition.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... SINGAPORE (Reuters)--Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's No. 3 personal computer maker, said on Friday it has not decided whether it would acquire failed South Korean PC maker TriGem Computer Inc. TriGem, up for auction after it filed for...

New AOL Software Dubbed 'OpenRide'.(America Online Inc.)
September 1, 2006... AOL on Wednesday made available the third beta release of its new software, which is now open to the general public. Formerly known by the code-name "Streamliner," the application has been officially dubbed: AOL OpenRide. As previously...

Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 Boasts Enhanced Look, Features.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Mozilla released Beta 2 of its upcoming Firefox 2 browser for developer review Aug. 31, emphasizing that it is being made available for testing purposes only. The release contains a number of new features, as well as some enhancements to look...

IBM Uses Virtualization for U.S. Open Site.(International Business Machines Corp.)
September 1, 2006... Using a combination of virtualization technology and management software, IBM was able to radically pare down the number of servers needed to host the Web site for this year's U.S. Open. The Armonk, N.Y., company is using its Virtualization...

Deutsche Telekom Rejigs Management Roles.
September 2, 2006... FRANKFURT (Reuters)--Deutsche Telekom is changing its management structure after poor quarterly results revealed that Europe's biggest telecoms group by sales was no longer growing in its German home market. Chief Executive Kai-Uwe Ricke...

Voice Recognition Goes Wireless.
September 2, 2006... BOSTON (Reuters)--Zee Tawasha is an unabashed Blackberry addict, constantly sending urgent e-mails to employees at 30 mobile phone stores he owns across California, Arizona and Nevada. Until recently, he used his fingers to painstakingly...

The Malware Testing Standards Problem.
September 3, 2006... The anti-spyware business has a chip on it's shoulder and it's hard to blame them, especially with people like me arguing that their whole category of product is, or should be, superfluous. Lately there has been some controversy over...

New Windows Mobile-Based Treo Makes Up for Lost RAM.(Palm has released smart phone Treo 700wx )
September 3, 2006... Palm has released the second iteration of its smart phone loaded with Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. The Treo 700wx is almost identical to its predecessor, with one major exception--a much needed boost in RAM. During eWEEK...

Vista RC1 Tests Show That the Migration Path May Be Rocky.(Microsoft Windows Vista)
September 3, 2006... We've seen a bevy of Vista builds lately, and each has made some improvement over the other. But, now that the day of reckoning for Vista is drawing near, eWEEK Labs wanted to put the operating system to a real-world test--that is, what will it...

Japan Ex-Internet Icon Horie Pleads Not Guilty.(Takafumi Horie)
September 4, 2006... TOKYO (Reuters)--Takafumi Horie, the former CEO of Internet firm Livedoor Co. who came to symbolize a freewheeling capitalism at odds with Japan's cozy corporate norms, pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of breaking securities law. ...

Eclipse RCP Adoption Nearly Triples.
September 5, 2006... The Eclipse Foundation announced the results of a recent survey on Sept. 5 that shows a dramatic increase in adoption of the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. On the eve of the EclipseWorld conference that runs Sept. 6-8 in Cambridge, Mass.,...

Fingerprint Compression to Speed up Search for Criminals.(Brief article)
September 5, 2006... NORWICH (Reuters)--Catching criminals could become quicker thanks to a new fingerprint technique developed by British scientists. Researchers at the University of Sheffield in England have developed a technique to compress fingerprints...

Matsushita Recalls 6,000 Notebook PC Batteries.(Brief article)
September 5, 2006... TOKYO, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said on Tuesday it had started recalling 6,000 PC batteries as they could overheat when subjected to a strong impact--the latest battery recall involving Japanese electronics...

Borland Gathers Together for Eclipse.
September 5, 2006... Borland Software is expected to announce an upgrade to its Together 2006 for Eclipse enterprise modeling product on Sept. 6. Borland, based in Cupertino, Calif., is scheduled to highlight the new version of its Together modeling tool at the...

Samsung Ships Samples of New NAND Flash.
September 5, 2006... Samsung's semiconductor division announced Sept. 5 that it is shipping 1GB and 2GB samples of MoviNAND--an embedded combination of NAND flash memory, a multimedia card controller and onboard firmware--to some of its mobile-product OEMs. ...

Microsoft Sees Room to Challenge Apple's iPod.
September 5, 2006... BOSTON (Reuters)--Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it sees plenty of room for growth in the digital music player market as the company tries to dislodge Apple Computer Inc.'s dominant iPod with a device of its own. The digital music player...

Microsoft Sets Pricing for Windows Vista.
September 5, 2006... SEATTLE (Reuters)--Microsoft Corp. announced on Tuesday U.S. prices for Windows Vista, the long-awaited new version of the operating system that sits on more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers. Microsoft, the world's biggest...

Microsoft Adds Anti-phishing Tools to IE 7.(Digital Resolve )
September 5, 2006... Microsoft inked an agreement with whitelist specialist Digital Resolve on Sept. 5 to help its next-generation Internet Explorer 7 Web browsing software and Windows Live Toolbar application protect users against fraudulent Web sites. Under...

Intel to Lay Off 10% of Work Force.
September 5, 2006... Intel on Sept. 5 announced that it will lay off about 10 percent of its work force, following the conclusion of a sweeping internal review. The chip maker, which has already made several moves as part of the review, will cut 10,500 jobs by...

PowerFile Ships New 'Active' Optical Drive Appliance.
September 5, 2006... PowerFile, which makes optical drive archive appliances for digital storage, introduced on Sept. 5 its Active Archive Appliance, which uses an "active" mode method for keeping frequently accessed data such as documents, images and media files...

Microsoft Confirms New Word Zero-Day Attack.
September 5, 2006... There's another Microsoft Word zero-day attack under way. Microsoft on Sept. 5 confirmed that malicious attackers are exploiting a new, undocumented flaw in Word 2000 to load back-door Trojans on Windows machines. The acknowledgment...

Television: The New Nurse's Little Helper.
September 5, 2006... When patients can make requests for room servicing and health education through their televisions, they report greater satisfaction, and nurses say they have more time to devote to clinical work. That's according hospital surveys provided by...

IBM Opens 'HiPODS' Software Lab in Brazil.(International Business Machines Corp.)
September 5, 2006... IBM has opened a multimillion-dollar high-performance software and services laboratory in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The new HiPODS (High Performance On Demand Solutions) Lab joins a grid of specialized IBM facilities in six countries: China,...

City of Bergen Postpones Linux Desktop Evaluation.
September 5, 2006... The Norwegian city of Bergen has postponed its evaluation of Linux on the desktop for the time being, but that does not mean it has changed its focus on using Linux and other open-source technologies to consolidate IT resources, said Lars...

A 21st Century Code Adam.
September 6, 2006... Networked closed-circuit television cameras are doing a lot more in retail than catching shoplifters. The latest cameras can track how consumers react to specials and even digitally find abducted children. With a system being piloted today...

Cisco and SAP Team on Governance, Risk and Compliance.(Cisco Systems)(Brief article)
September 6, 2006... SAP and Cisco Systems on Sept. 6 teamed up to help enterprises more holistically manage governance, risk and compliance. The two companies announced a joint marketing agreement to help enterprises implement IT controls that span the network...

Microsoft Ships IronPython 1.0.
September 6, 2006... Microsoft has announced the release of IronPython 1.0, its implementation of the Python dynamic programming language on the .Net platform. The Redmond, Wash., software giant released IronPython 1.0 on the company's CodePlex community...

HP Business Desktops Get Makeover.(Hewlett-Packard Co.)
September 6, 2006... Hewlett-Packard wants to take the hassle out of managing fleets of desktops with a new lineup of business PCs. The Palo Alto, Calif., computer giant on Sept. 6 rolled out four new desktop models in its HP Compaq Business PC and HP desktop...

Gear Up with High-End Vista-Ready Desktops.(Brief article)
September 6, 2006... For those currently on the hunt for a new desktop PC, here's one more thing to consider when shopping: the 800-pound gorilla that is Microsoft Windows Vista. For the consumer with a high-end desktop PC in mind, that means looking for a...

Ex-Microsoft Security Strategist Joins Mozilla.(Window Snyder)(Mozilla Foundation)
September 6, 2006... Former Microsoft security strategist Window Snyder is joining Mozilla to lead the company's effort to protect its range of desktop applications from malicious hacker attacks. Snyder, who was responsible for security sign-off for...

RFID Consortium One Step Closer to Patent Pool Goal.(Brief article)
September 6, 2006... A little more than a year after it formed in August 2005, the RFID Consortium is one step closer to its goal of developing a patent pool for RFID-based technology. The RFID Consortium announced Sept. 5 that it has hired Via Licensing to...

Microsoft, Nokia Have Work Cut Out to Rival iPod.
September 6, 2006... BERLIN (Reuters)--Almost any iPod owner will tell the same story: they wouldn't swap the iconic device for any alternative. But the battle is wide open for the hearts--and pockets--of the vast majority who still have no MP3 player. The...

Apple Updates iMac with Core 2 Duo.
September 6, 2006... Apple Computer's iMac has taken to the big screen. The Cupertino, Calif., computer maker on Sept. 6 unveiled a 24-inch iMac model powered by Intel's new dual-core Core 2 Duo processor. The company also updated its 17-inch and 20-inch screen...

HP Says Keyworth Should Leave Board.(Brief article)
September 6, 2006... NEW YORK (Reuters)--Hewlett-Packard Co. on Wednesday said George Keyworth should not be nominated for another term on the board after an internal investigation found that he disclosed board deliberations without authorization. The company...

Microsoft Applies for Language Technology Patent.
September 6, 2006... Microsoft is asking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a patent that will cover its system for selecting and conjugating verbs. The Redmond, Wash., software firm filed a patent application on Aug. 31 for a computer-based verb...

Salesforce Provides Peek at Winter '07 Release.
September 6, 2006... Salesforce.com, the poster child for the software as a service movement, previewed Sept. 9 new across-the-board customization capabilities in its upcoming Winter '07 release, and also launched a new commentary-based Web site. The new site,...

New IBM Supercomputer Aiming for Petaflop.(International Business Machines Corp.)(United States. Department of Energy)(Brief article)
September 6, 2006... WASHINGTON (Reuters)--IBM will build a next-generation supercomputer for the U.S. Energy Department with the potential to achieve a sustained speed of 1,000 trillion calculations per second, or one petaflop, the department said on Wednesday....

Management by Snooping Around?
September 6, 2006... Is using phone records garnered by contractors through false representation unethical? Yes. Is it illegal? Maybe. Will it result in a large black mark for a company that champions privacy and consumer protection? It sure looks that way. ...

Upgrade Price Wars: Vista vs. Linux.(Brief article)
September 6, 2006... It's 2007, and you want to upgrade all your PCs' operating systems after the infamous March 2007 XP Meltdown. You know, the virus attack that actually melted computers running XP, but couldn't touch machines running any other OS? Never...

Cisco/SAP Compliance Partnership: 'Match Made in Heaven'.
September 6, 2006... When it comes to governance, risk and compliance management, Cisco Systems and SAP see themselves in a symbiotic relationship, the companies said. The two vendors on Sept. 6 announced a joint marketing and sales relationship centered...

Cisco, Microsoft Detail NAC-NAP Interoperability.(Network Admission Control)(Network Access Protection)
September 6, 2006... BOSTON--IT giants Cisco Systems and Microsoft revealed specific results Sept. 6 of the companies' work to lend interoperability to their individual network security technologies, moving forward their effort to align products that was announced...

Can Cisco Be Cool Again?
September 6, 2006... NEW YORK--Cisco CEO John Chambers worked the crowd at the company's financial analyst meeting here, outlining a vision where the network--run by Cisco gear, of course--serves as a platform that follows you around as you flip between work and...

Consultancy to Microsoft Lines up EU Trust-Buster.
September 6, 2006... BRUSSELS (Reuters)--A European Commission official chosen to lead Microsoft's antitrust case has asked to work instead for a consultancy that has the software firm as a client, the company and Commission confirmed on Wednesday. The...

Few IT Pros Prepared for a Pandemic.
September 6, 2006... Though 69 percent of senior IT and business professionals believe that there is a likelihood that a disaster or crisis will interrupt their business workflow over the next two years, 60 percent have not increased their budgets in preparation,...

HP's Inquiry Into Boardroom Leaks Under Scrutiny.(Hewlett-Packard Co.)
September 6, 2006... NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters)--California's attorney general has launched an inquiry into methods used by Hewlett-Packard Co. to investigate boardroom leaks dating back to 2005, the computer maker said on Wednesday. HP said it would cooperate...

Microsoft's Fathi: Vista Security Is Becoming Reality.(Ben Fathi)(Interview)
September 6, 2006... BOSTON--After taking on the responsibility of leading Microsoft's efforts to secure its much-awaited Vista operating system, Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of the Redmond, Wash., company's Security Technology Unit, is in town at the...

Online Sites Hustling to Handle Fantasy Sports Traffic.(Fantasy Sports Trade Association)
September 7, 2006... MENLO PARK, Calif.--It wasn't exactly like watching Chris Berman, Chris Mortensen and Mel Kiper Jr.'s hair helmet on ESPN during NFL Draft Day, waiting to see which lucky college players will be drafted in the first round. But, to a...

Report: Health IT Market to Double by 2011.(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... The health care IT market is in for annual double-digit increases, and by 2011 is expected to reach almost twice the size it was in 2005, according to a new report from market analyst firm BCC Research. Hospital information systems have...

Ultimate Point-and-Shoot Cameras.(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... This past summer a slew of companies launched more than three dozen new digital cameras, all in anticipation of the coming holiday season. And although high-priced D-SLRs (digital single-lens reflex cameras) certainly made news, most of the...

MS-Cisco Security Road Map Could Spur Investments.
September 7, 2006... BOSTON--Interest in network access management technologies from Cisco Systems and Microsoft has been growing over the last several years, and the two companies' delivery on their longstanding promise to make their respective platforms...

Amazon.com Launches Digital Download Service.(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... LOS ANGELES (Reuters)--Amazon.com on Sept. 7 unveiled a widely anticipated Internet service offering movies and television shows that can be downloaded onto consumers' personal computers. The service, called Amazon Unbox, will offer content...

Windows Vista May Be Delayed in Europe.(Interview)
September 7, 2006... Windows Vista may not ship in the European Union at the same time that it is released in the United States as a result of possible issues with European competition law, Microsoft acknowledged on Sept. 7. The problem from Microsoft's...

RIM BlackBerry Pearl.(Research in Motion Ltd.)(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... Research In Motion throws away its suits and ties with the Pearl, a delicious little multimedia smart phone that--surprise!--just happens to be a BlackBerry. Slimmer than a closed RAZR, it is the first BlackBerry to ship with a camera and...

Stallman Details Kerela's Desktop Linux Adoption.(Richard M. Stallman)(Interview)(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... To learn more about the recently reported migration of computers in 12,500 high schools in the southern Indian state of Kerela from Windows to GNU/Linux, prompted largely by the recent visit to India of free software guru Richard M. Stallman,...

SCO's Q3 Revenue Down, Net Loss Up.(The SCO Group Inc.)(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... The SCO Group on Sept. 6 reported its financial results for its third quarter ended July 31. It wasn't pretty. Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal year 2006 was $7.42 million, compared with $9.353 million for the comparable quarter of...

ATI Tech Cuts Fourth-Quarter Revenue Outlook.(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... TORONTO (Reuters)--Graphics chip-maker ATI Technologies Inc. said Wednesday that its fourth quarter revenue is expected to be about $520 million, which is below the low end of the $620 million-$660 million revenue outlook it provided in late...

Sept. 11: What 3 NYC Tech Leaders Learned.(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... How has Sept. 11, 2001, changed the way we live and work? Baseline asked three information-technology managers whose organizations were affected by the attacks in New York City to share their personal and professional experiences from that day...

RIM to Launch Multimedia Device for Consumers.(Research in Motion Ltd.)
September 7, 2006... NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters)--Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of Blackberry e-mail devices popular among executives, said on Thursday it is pushing into a wider consumer market with the Pearl, its first phone with a camera and music player. ...

Online Gaming Stocks Dive as U.S. Holds Second Man.
September 7, 2006... LONDON (Reuters)--U.S. authorities detained a second Internet gaming executive on Thursday, adding to fears it is cracking down on the lucrative industry and sparking share price falls that wiped over $1.5 billion off its market value. ...

Web Social Site Facebook Hit by Privacy Protests.
September 7, 2006... SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)--Facebook.com, the No. 2 U.S. social network site that is quickly expanding beyond its college student base, has been met with a sudden privacy backlash by users after it made design changes this week. By late on...

IBM Offers New Eclipse-Based Tools and Support.(International Business Machines Corp.)
September 7, 2006... CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--In a move to reinforce its strategy around open-source business models, IBM announced Sept. 7 new software and resources to help customers leverage their investments in open-source development tools and resources. ...

Iomega Unveils Twin-Drive External Storage for Macs.
September 7, 2006... Data storage device maker Iomega introduced on Sept. 7 a high-capacity external drive preformatted for Apple's Power Mac and new Mac Pro computers and featuring twin 7,200-rpm SATA hard drives. The UltraMax 640GB Desktop Hard Drive is...

Itanium Gets Back on the Horse.(Intel Itanium 2)
September 7, 2006... The beleaguered Itanium platform is getting yet another chance to prove its stuff. eWEEK Labs' tests of a server based on the newest Itanium 2 platform show promise but also limitations. Five years ago, when Intel and Hewlett-Packard...

Intel Says vPro Tames Business PC Management.
September 7, 2006... Intel is promising to smooth PC management with the introduction of vPro, a new chip platform for business desktops. Intel unveiled the collection of chips in a news release Sept. 7. The lineup, as expected, includes its recently introduced...

Another 'Critical' MS Office Patch on Tap.(Microsoft Office)(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... Microsoft is on the verge of shipping another "critical" bulletin to cover holes in its Microsoft Office productivity suite. The world's largest software maker plans to include the Office bulletin in a batch of three updates in this month's...

NYBOT Gets Back on Track.(New York Board of Trade)
September 7, 2006... After being destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, the trading floor of New York Board of Trade, at 4 World Trade Center, is capping five years of solid growth with plans to implement electronic trading for the first time. The current prosperity of...

Six Good Reasons to Jump Ship.
September 7, 2006... A few years ago, when tech jobs were sparse, nobody had the balderdash to speak of leaving their current jobs to pursue brighter opportunities. To have an IT job at all seemed like a gift, one not to be treated carelessly. Yet, by...

Silicon Valley to Get Free Broadband.(Brief article)
September 7, 2006... The entire Silicon Valley is finally going to have free wireless broadband throughout 42 cities, provided by a group called Silicon Valley Metro Connect. The group, composed of IBM, Cisco Systems, SeaKay and Azulstar, announced on Sept. 5...

Wireless Wire: News from T-Mobile, Good Technology, Alcatel, MegaPixi, Equal, Sprint, Altai, FCC.(T-Mobile to Launch New BlackBerry)(Alcatel to Acquire Nortel Network 3G business)(Good Technology announced support for the new Palm Treo 700wx smart phone)
September 7, 2006... T-Mobile to Launch New BlackBerry T-Mobile USA will be the first wireless carrier to release the new BlackBerry Pearl. According to the announcement on Sept. 7 from T-Mobile, the new BlackBerry is "Ultra-Sleek." Take a look at the photo we...