Archive for August 3rd, 2007
Google has developed a prototype cell phone that could be in the hands of consumers within a year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The Journal indicated that Google plans to offer free mobile subscriptions, subsidized by ads in search results and software applications.As the Journal story goes, Google is shopping the prototype with cell phone manufacturers and network operators while it fine-tunes the technical specs to offer a mobile Web browsing experience that outdoes current software.
The Google phone story sounds like the iPhone rumors all over again. Of course, the iPhone rumors turned out to be accurate. However, some analysts have expressed skepticism about a Google phone and its viability in a competitive mobile market.
Click here to read the rest of this story on TopTechNews.
August 3rd, 2007
As Democratic and Republican candidates debate issues of national security 
, there remains a security threat that could leave the next election hanging in the balance.This time it won’t be Florida’s hanging chads, the bits on the paper ballots that caused a scandal in the 2000 elections. Nevertheless, the Sunshine State could find itself in the midst of a new controversy if it relies on its brand new e-voting machines. California has a similar story to tell. These key voting states are both home to Diebold e-voting machines that are vulnerable to hacking.
A new report titled “Source Code Review of the Diebold Voting System” reveals an attack could be accomplished by a single skilled individual with temporary access to a single voting machine. The damage could be extensive — malicious code could spread to every voting machine in polling places and to county election servers.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
August 3rd, 2007
On Friday at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, Wikia, a Web 2.0 company cofounded by Jimmy Wales, gave the world an update on its progress toward building a new search platform based on open-source software and human collaboration.In a morning keynote address, Wales discussed his vision and business models for building search from a set of open-source software tools known collectively as LAMP. LAMP is an acronym for the Linux operating system, Apache Web server , MySQL database management system, and PHP programming language.
“We’ve had a tremendous response from very interesting commercial players in the search space,” Wales said in a statement. “The desire to collaborate and support a transparent and open platform for search is clearly deeply exciting to both open source and businesses.”
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
August 3rd, 2007
News outlets have been touting the rumored release of two big Windows Vista patches to beta testers, but the releases have been confirmed this week by a leak of those patches to various Web sites.The Vista performance and compatibility packs reportedly address issues that some Vista users have been complaining about. Among other things, the fixes are designed to improve Vista’s performance when copying or moving large files or large directories. Issues with Vista’s memory manager — which can cause the system to lose its default gateway address — are also reportedly addressed in the packs.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
August 3rd, 2007
Microsoft is giving Google the works — Microsoft Works, that is. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that a version of Works — the barebones alternative to Microsoft Office that offers a word processor, calendar, and spreadsheet — would be available as a free, ad-supported product. Microsoft Works SE 9 is expected to debut in a few months.Works currently retails for about $40, but often comes preinstalled on new PCs for free. The new program would also come preinstalled on PCs from yet-to-be-announced manufacturers, but would include ads.
That makes Works SE 9 different from Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which is delivered as an online solution through a browser. Microsoft will make use of the Internet, though, to refresh the cache of ads within Works when users are online.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
August 3rd, 2007
