Archive for August, 2006
“AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. telephone-service provider, said a hacker broke into its computer system and accessed personal information on “fewer than 19,000 customers” who made online purchases. The company’s Web store was shut within hours of the incident, which occurred over the weekend, San Antonio-based AT&T said Tuesday. AT&T is trying to contact the customers, spokesman Walt Sharp said. Only those who bought DSL equipment from the online store were affected, he said…” (Read full article here)
August 29th, 2006
“Corel said Monday that it will acquire multimedia software provider InterVideo for about $196 million. The deal will also include InterVideo’s majority interest in Ulead, tying the WinDVD, Ulead Photo Impact, Ulead VideoStudio, Ulead DVD Movie Factory, and Corel Paint Shop Pro brands together under one owner…” (Read full article here)
August 28th, 2006
“A Canadian noticed that his local Microsoft website allowed for the viewing of Vista pricing details.Accordingly, Windows Vista Ultimate was listed at $499 Canadian dollars which is about into $449 US greenbacks or £237 of our Great British pounds. Home Premium is listed at $299/$267USD/£142. Vista Ultimate Upgrade is also priced at $299/$269 USD/£142, while Home Premium Upgrade is $199/$179 USD/£94…” (Read full article here)
August 28th, 2006
“Google and eBay have announced an advertising partnership that aims to put buyers in touch with a wider variety of sellers, such as the neighbourhood exterminator, maths tutor or roofer. Under the arrangement, Google would provide search results whenever an eBay member typed in a search term that failed to find any matches on eBay’s vast auction site…” (Read full article here)
August 28th, 2006
“Today hundreds of PSP’s will say hello to the world as they run their first piece of homebrew - the “Hello World” application. This will be made possible by a new exploit found that does not require one to own a copy of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, but rather load a simple image off of your memory stick. This remarkable demonstration can be executed on 2.0, 2.50, 2.60, 2.70, 2.71, and 2.80 firmwares!…” (Read full article here)
August 28th, 2006
“Who will stand up to eulogize the fat tome of learning, the college textbook? A $4 billion-a-year business cannot change fundamentally overnight; the shift from printed to electronic textbook will take years. In the meantime, a small publisher of college textbooks, Freeload Press of St. Paul, seeks to take advantage of this flux with a new concept: providing free e-textbooks to students. The catch? Ads are inserted within the text…” (Read full article here)
August 27th, 2006
“Security researchers at Symantec have discovered a new proof of concept virus that targets processors AMD rather than operating systems. The worm comes in two versions, targeting 32-bit and 64-bit processors from AMD. Symantec refers to the online pests as w32.bounds and w64.bounds. Because it involves proof of concept code, both viruses are rated as low level threats…” (Read full article here)
August 27th, 2006
“It looks like the day we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. A freeware GUI application built on top of drmdbg called FairUse4WM is now available for download. Ryan Block at Engadget confirms that it works with subscription and pay-for-download music services that support PlaysForSure devices but not with video services like Vongo (at least not yet). Additionally, Ryan states the removal of the DRM key does not affect quality since it’s not transcoding the file in the process…” (Read full article here)
August 26th, 2006
“In the case of Arista Records v. Tschirhart, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas has shown little mercy on a defendant accused by record companies of illegal file-sharing. Knowing that a court order was in place requiring her to turn over her hard drive to be copied, the defendant allegedly used “wiping” software in an attempt to destroy all evidence of her illegal P2P file sharing. In response, the plaintiff record companies moved, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(b), for the most severe form of sanctions against the defendant – entry of default against her. The court granted the plaintiffs’ motion, and provided them with 30 days to submit a proposed order spelling out their damages…” (Read full article here)
August 26th, 2006
“Here we go again…another online giant getting into the movie download biz. This time it’s AOL, who apparently have learned nothing from the gents that have been in the game awhile, namely Movielink and CinemaNow. AOL has signed deals with most of the major studios to start providing their movies and TV shows via their new-ish video portal, creatively dubbed “AOL Video.” Prices range from $9.99 to $19.99, and your purchases are only viewable on your PC or a Windows Media portable device (sorry iPod owners!)…” (Read full article here)
August 26th, 2006
“According to Ryan Schneider, spokesman for Insomniac Games, “Resistance: Fall of Man” Blu-ray PS3 game is making good use of the new format, using up a massive 22 gigabytes for music, level data, textures and code. These discs can only hold 25 gigabytes in total per layer. Pointing to the fact that HD-DVD cannot store this much information on a single layer disc, he kind of threw some sand in Microsoft and Toshiba’s eyes. He said for this reason of extra storage capacity, this game will be PS3/Blu-ray only…” (Read full article here)
August 26th, 2006
“Realty Income Corporation (Realty Income), today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a portfolio of 89 Pizza Hut properties for $59 million from NPC International, Inc. The Company will acquire 89 existing stores subject to long-term, triple-net lease agreements. The restaurants have, on average, approximately 3,000 leasable square feet situated on an average lot size of approximately 37,000 square feet with an average purchase price for each property of approximately $663,000…” (Read full article here)
August 26th, 2006
“Microsoft Corp. said on Friday that Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. will manufacture its upcoming “Zune” portable media player, the software giant’s answer to Apple Computer Inc.’s market-leading iPod. A company spokeswoman confirmed that a filing made by Toshiba for a portable audio player to the Federal Communications Commission is for Zune, due out later this year. The filing reveals that the device will come with a 3-inch liquid crystal display screen and a 30-gigabyte hard-disk drive and have wireless connectivity…” (Read full article here)
August 25th, 2006
“The world is coming to grips with the news that Pluto is a planet no more. Thursday’s decision by the International Astronomical Union to strip Pluto of its planetary status, held since its discovery in 1930, has saddened those with a sentimental attachment to it. But most astronomers applaud the decision…” (Read full article here)
August 25th, 2006
“Dell is pulling out of the digital music player business, apparently conceding that it cannot compete with Apple a year after introducing the DJ Ditty MP3 device as an affordable alternative to the iPod Shuffle. Last September Dell launched the $99 flash-memory based Ditty, which is about the size of a pack of gum, weighs 1.29 ounces and can hold some 200 songs with 512 MB of storage. It has a display and an FM tuner, which the Shuffle, at the same price, lacks…” (Read full article here)
August 24th, 2006
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