Technology News

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and newly minted running mate Joseph Biden made their debut on Saturday, with Biden declaring "it's our time" and quickly going on the attack against Republican John McCain.

For those of you who can't seem to digest enough political news, Tom Merritt offers up an "Insider Secrets" video that you'll want to gobble up with a fork and knife. (Check it out below.) Whether you're curious about how the candidates are polling or how much money they've raised, Merritt has dug deep to provide a handful of off-the-beaten-path election Web sites to round out your political diet.

A security researcher has been in discussions with Google on an exploit he plans to release that would allow a hacker to easily intercept someone's communications with supposedly secure Web sites over an unsecured Wi-Fi network, but other sites, like Facebook, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail, remain vulnerable.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - As the world's best athletes compete in Beijing, the summer Olympic games are setting the stage for a battle between Microsoft Corp and Adobe Systems Inc over the Internet's next big competition.

PHILADELPHIA - The road to advanced video, Internet and phone services is bumpy — and the bumps can be almost as big as refrigerators.

Apple continued its worldwide drive to dominate the 3G cell-phone market with iPhone 3G rollouts this week in parts of Europe, South America, the Far East, and India. Demand in all locales, however, wasn't nearly as high as in the U.S.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Apple expects to sell 3.5 million iPhones in Russia in the next two years, according to market sources familiar with new deals being struck by Russian carriers.

According to a report in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Verizon is on the verge of a deal with Google to provide Web-search services on its wireless network. The ubiquitous Google search bar is already on the iPhone and on a number of Sprint PCS phones.

Rock the Vote has partnered with Microsoft in a move to help achieve its goal of registering two million under-30 voters in time for this fall's election.

Mariner Software on Thursday announced that it is shipping MacJournal 5.1, a new version of it journal and blogging software for Mac OS X. A free update for registered users, MacJournal costs $39.95.

Rock the Vote has partnered with Microsoft in a move to help achieve its goal of registering two million under-30 voters in time for this fall's election.

TOKYO (AFP) - Sony will launch a new PlayStation Portable in October with a high-resolution screen and a built-in microphone that enables it to be used as a telephone, the company said Thursday.

TOKYO - Nintendo's hit Wii console with its wandlike remote controller has been targeted in patent infringement complaints by a U.S. technology company.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillcrest Laboratories asked a trade panel to determine if Nintendo Co (7974.OS) and its U.S. subsidiary have infringed four patents to make its top-selling Wii game, according to a filing on Wednesday and a Hillcrest statement.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US firm said Wednesday it had filed legal actions against Japanese-based Nintendo claiming patent infringement by the wildly popular Wii game console.

BEIJING - Customers in China of Apple Inc.'s iTunes online music store were unable to download songs this week, and an activist group said Beijing was trying to block access to a new Tibet-themed album.

Yahoo's new widget platform for HDTVs running the Intel Menlow platform is rather robust and definitely functional, although the number of widgets was limited. More to the point, it's pretty.

BEIJING (AFP) - Apple said Friday they were investigating why access to iTunes appeared to be blocked for users in China after a pro-Tibet album became a hit on the online music store.

Road warriors may be a step closer to dumping the rat's nest of recharging wires in their laptop bags. According to reports, Intel was to demonstrate Thursday at the Intel Developers Forum a major breakthrough in charging devices such as laptops, cell phones, and MP3 players without wires.

LOS ANGELES - Sheryl Crow wants your vote — and figures she can get it for a song.

By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET's Technology Voters' Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.

A Brazilian man has been charged in connection with operating a botnet composed of more than 100,000 computers infected with malicious software allegedly designed to send spam, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON - A hacker broke into a Homeland Security Department telephone system over the weekend and racked up about $12,000 in calls to the Middle East and Asia.

Most people know Websense as the forbidding white page that pops up when you try to visit a Web site your employer doesn't care for. But that business isn't enough in the ever more complex world of Internet security.

LOS ANGELES - A defense attorney for the Missouri woman charged in a MySpace hoax that allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide argued in court papers that prosecutors are bending a cyber crime statute to prosecute his client.

Nvidia on Friday announced the release of CUDA 2.0, a new version of its C language development environment for its graphics processing units (GPUs).

Apple continued its worldwide drive to dominate the 3G cell-phone market with iPhone 3G rollouts this week in parts of Europe, South America, the Far East, and India. Demand in all locales, however, wasn't nearly as high as in the U.S.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Apple expects to sell 3.5 million iPhones in Russia in the next two years, according to market sources familiar with new deals being struck by Russian carriers.

According to a report in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Verizon is on the verge of a deal with Google to provide Web-search services on its wireless network. The ubiquitous Google search bar is already on the iPhone and on a number of Sprint PCS phones.

Mariner Software on Thursday announced that it is shipping MacJournal 5.1, a new version of it journal and blogging software for Mac OS X. A free update for registered users, MacJournal costs $39.95.

San Francisco - Mozilla this week is touting technology to boost performance of its JavaScript engine and Web applications.

On Friday, Mozilla announced a new component in Firefox that will significantly speed up the browser's JavaScript performance.

WALTHAM, Mass. - Microsoft Corp., expanding on an alliance with Novell Inc., has agreed to buy as much as $100 million more for subscription certificates for Novell's Linux products, Novell said Wednesday.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp plans to pay software maker Novell Inc up to $100 million in additional subscription fees due to strong demand for Novell's open-source Linux software that partners with Microsoft's proprietary Windows software.

San Francisco - Microsoft on Wednesday is expanding its agreement to supply Linux support certificates from Novell, which originally was part of a controversial arrangement set in late 2006.

An Alabama woman has filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the iPhone 3G's network is slower than advertised.

PHILADELPHIA - The road to advanced video, Internet and phone services is bumpy — and the bumps can be almost as big as refrigerators.

NEW YORK - Three months ago, Guy Distaffen switched Internet providers, lured from his cable company to his phone company by a year of free service on a two-year contract. But soon the company quietly updated its policies to say it would limit his Internet activity each month.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - As the world's best athletes compete in Beijing, the summer Olympic games are setting the stage for a battle between Microsoft Corp and Adobe Systems Inc over the Internet's next big competition.

QUERETARO, Mexico (Reuters) - Affluent Mexicans, terrified of soaring kidnapping rates, are spending thousands of dollars to implant tiny transmitters under their skin so satellites can help find them tied up in a safe house or stuffed in the trunk of a car.