Archive for December, 2007
In yet another step away from the digital-rights-management ties that bind, Warner Music inked a deal with Amazon.com on Thursday to sell songs and albums without copyright protections.DRM-free music downloads from Warner Music Group are now available on Amazon MP3, Amazon’s digital music store.
Warner Music Group is home to a collection of some of the best-known record labels in the music industry, including Asylum, Atlantic, Bad Boy, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Lava, Nonesuch, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Rykodisc, Sire, and Warner Bros.
Click here to read the rest of this story on TopTechNews.
December 28th, 2007
NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile carrier, is partnering with Google to offer search and e-mail on its handsets, according to news reports.DoCoMo subscribers could have access to Google’s search tool, Gmail e-mail service, Picasa photo-sharing software, and Google Calendar application early next year via DoCoMo’s i-Mode network, according to Reuters.
The report cited unnamed sources, and Google and DoCoMo could not immediately be reached for comment. However, according to Japan’s main business daily, The Nikkei, DoCoMo is hoping to establish a closer relationship with Google than its growing competitors.
Last month, DoCoMo joined the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 companies that have pledged to work with Google and its Android platform.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
December 28th, 2007
According to a report in the Financial Times, Apple has inked a deal with News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox that will bring a new video-on-demand service to iTunes. The companies are expected to announce the deal on January 14 at MacWorld.The agreement reportedly will allow consumers to rent, for a limited time, just-released Fox movies via digital download from iTunes. Although Apple already peddles newly released movies through a deal with Disney, this is the first time iTunes will be renting rather than selling movies digitally.
MGM, Lionsgate, Viacom, and Paramount restrict their digital libraries to older titles. However, the Fox deal could open the floodgates for new release rentals. Apple is reportedly in talks with Paramount, Warner Bros., and Sony to make their new releases available on iTunes for rent or purchase.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
December 27th, 2007
Apple and Think Secret, a Mac rumor Web site published by Nicholas M. Ciarelli, have come to an agreement in a nearly three-year-old lawsuit. The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Ciarelli has agreed to shut down ThinkSecret.com.Ciarelli posted a press release on his Web site that said the agreement results in a “positive solution” for both sides. “I’m pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits,” Ciarelli said in a statement.
Apple was not immediately available for comment.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
December 21st, 2007
Microsoft 
’s recent set of security patches is causing problems, namely for Internet Explorer 6 users, who are watching their browsers crash midstream when visiting some sites. Redmond has offered a technical workaround to solve the problem until a more formal fix can be developed.”First, I want to note the security update does protect against the vulnerabilities noted in the bulletin,” Kieron Shorrock, Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) program manager responsible for Internet Explorer, wrote in the MSRC blog. The Internet Explorer patch fixes four critical vulnerabilities in the browser, making it the most important of December’s Patch Tuesday updates.
Shorrock said Microsoft has been working with a “small number” of customers who reported issues related to the browser resulting from the update described in security bulletin MS07-069. The problem generates a message that reads, “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and must close.” The bug is not widespread, according to Microsoft, and only affects certain installations of Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
December 21st, 2007
A new Trojan has been discovered in an unlikely place: Google ads. According to BitDefender, the Trojan is actively hijacking Google text ads and replacing them with ads from a different provider.BitDefender, which named the threat Trojan.Qhost.WU, said the Trojan modifies the infected computer’s hosts file, which controls domain mappings. The Trojan damages both users and webmasters because it takes away viewers and thus a possible money source from Web sites, BitDefender virus analyst Attila-Mihaly Balazs said in a statement.
These days, ads may not be such an unlikely place to find Trojans. In fact, according to the Q1 2007 Web Trends Security Report published by Finjan, a computer security company, some 80 percent of malicious code now comes from online ads.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
December 21st, 2007
Security researchers report that Google’s Orkut was the target of what appeared to be a relatively benign worm that experts say illustrates the ability of hackers to drop code into social-media sites.Orkut has millions of registered users, some 700,000 of which were affected by the worm over a period of 24 hours.
The exploit was contained in a JavaScript file, aptly named “virus.js.” When Orkut users received e-mail about a new scrapbook entry and clicked through to the site, the browser downloaded and executed the embedded virus.js file automatically — without the need for any user intervention.
Click here to read the rest of this story on NewsFactor.
December 21st, 2007
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