Slideshow: Best Books of 2007 (CIO Insight)

CIO Insight's editors picked the year's top works for IT executives.

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2007: What a year it was (NetworkWorld)

NetworkWorld takes a look back at the past year's top stories in the networking world.

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The top 10 underreported technology stories of 2007 (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld presents the 2007 trends and events you may have missed and their implications for the year ahead.
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Multiple: 2007 top ten lists (TG Daily)

NewScientist went all out in preparing some top ten lists for 2007. Well, not really, but it is a way to pass an hour of your time if you have nothing better to do. The Inquirer has a brief listing as well. Enjoy!

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Trojan capitalizes on Bhutto assassination in under 24 hours (Ars Technica)

We've already seen two Storm attacks this week aimed at capitalizing on the holiday season. Now, a new Javascript exploit is migrating partially by linking itself to information on Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

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Wal-Mart Closes Video Download Service (Digital Trends)

After a year, Wal-Mart has abruptly shut down its online video download service, claiming Hewlett-Packard discontinued the technology that powered it.

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Apple and Fox Plan Movie Rental Deal - Reports (Baseline)

Apple Inc and Twentieth Century Fox are set to announce a deal that will allow consumers to rent Fox movies through Apple's digital iTunes Store, according to media reports on Thursday.

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Google Aims to Be the Platform For Businesses (Baseline)

Google's Dave Girouard discusses the potential for businesses to build on top of Google's infrastructure.

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Popular Apple rumor Web site to shut down (Reuters)

Apple Inc and a popular Web site that published company secrets about the maker of the Mac computer, the iPhone and the iPod have reached a settlement that calls for the site to shut down.

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Future cars will help seniors drive (CNN.com)

For those feeling nervous behind the wheel as old age kicks in, savvy cars may be the answer. Prof. Ryuta Kawashima, who helped develop Nintendo's "Brain Age" games, is teaming with Toyota to develop cars that help seniors drive safely, the researcher said Tuesday.

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Start-up looks to one-up GPS for tracking (Network World)

As two ex-3Com engineers in Salt Lake City were working on a breakthrough in wireless location tracking, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her home nearby in June 2002. The event underlined for Sy Prestwich and Scott Bevan the practical implications of their work to create a wireless infrastructure that was at least as accurate as GPS.

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Facebook ban makes British MP doubt his existence (Reuters)

A British member of Parliament had his Facebook account suspended this week after the popular social networking site decided he wasn't real.

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Internet 'necessary' to Africa's growth (BBC NEWS)

A professor whose work in spreading information technology in Africa has been awarded by the Internet Society has hit out at critics who say the continent should focus first on basics like water and sanitation.

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E-voting activists praise Ohio plan to fix e-voting system (Computer World)

While lauding Ohio officials for a new report that calls for major security and election integrity-related changes in the state's e-voting systems, several e-voting activists today urged state officials to go slow when making wholesale changes ahead of next year's presidential primary and general election.

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Reality check: what we know (and don't) about Windows 7 (Ars Technica)

Only a year after Vista first shipped, anxious Windows fans are already speculating about Microsoft's next release of the dominant desktop operating system, Windows 7. However, not all predictions will come true.

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Save the Planet by Surfing the Web, 'Green' Websites Promise (Wired)

On the internet, anyone can be an environmentalist. All you have to do, is, well, nothing. A number of "green" internet businesses promise users they can help save the planet by doing little more than surfing the right websites.

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Are driverless pods the future? (BBC NEWS)

There are no drivers, no rails, no timetables and no emissions. But, most importantly for passengers, there are no queues.

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Lodestone exhibits electric phase-switching ability at -250F (TG Daily)

An ancient magnetic mineral called lodestone is proving somewhat baffling to modern scientists. By using a new generation of nano-tools, researchers have been able to un-earth a new ability that could have applications in mass storage or computer memory.

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Online office suites barely register with public, says study; that may change as they mature (Ars Technica)

A new study says web-based productivity software is going nowhere fast. Judging from the industry's infancy and successes so far, however, these suites may just need a little more time to take off.

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Software as a Service: Collaboration and Productivity Apps Rising in 2008 (CIO.com)

More than a third of small and large businesses will adopt software as a service (Saas) into their technology portfolio during the next year to help bolster activities such as project management and internal collaboration, according to report by THINKstrategies and the Cutter Consortium.

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Apple's Leopard Sales Roar (Red Herring)

The launch of Apple's latest operating system, Leopard, was its best ever, a research group said on Monday.

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Slide show: 10 crazy USB stocking stuffers (Network World)

Looking for a fun, last-minute little something for that special techie someone? Look no further.

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Is Your Web Site Handicap-Accessible? (BusinessWeek)

Making online access easy use for blind and other disabled users is gaining attention because of class actions against companies like Target.

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Intel pads MID launch with tiny solid state drives (TG Daily)

TG Daily has no doubt, the Mobile Internet Device will turn out to be what the UMPC was intended to become – a mass market pocket computing platform. And Intel finally develops the components such a platform needs to have, including a compact and economical mass storage device.

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Wii Still Dominated November Console Sales (Digital Trends)

The Nintendo Wii still dominated November video game sales, while Activision's Call of Duty 4 was the month's top-selling game, moving more than 2 million copies.

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Who wants to buy AMD? (TG Daily)

AMD's purchase price is decreasing rapidly. Another opportune time to buy up AMD for a song may be headed our way in the very near future. Can AMD's promise of a return to profitibility in the second half of 2008 stave off a buyout?

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FBI Arrests Penn Student in Global Botnet Crackdown (Campus Technology)

The FBI has charged a University of Pennsylvania student and a New Zealand hacker as part of an international probe into the spread of botnets, large replicating malicious software networks, the Associated Press reported.

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Google develops Wikipedia rival (Network World)

Google is developing an online publishing platform where people can write entries on subjects they know, an idea that's close to Wikipedia's user-contributed encyclopedia but with key differences.

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Nobel Winners Call for 'Science Debate', Candidates Spar Over Jesus-Lucifer Link (Wired)

A Who's Who of America's top scientists are launching a quixotic last-minute effort this week to force presidential candidates to detail the role science would play in their administrations -- a question they say is key to the future of the country, if not the world.

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Microsoft Unleashes VMware Killer (Red Herring)

Software beast begins public trials of new virtualization software that competes with programs from VMware. The EMC-owned virtualization company's shares skidded 6 percent lower while Microsoft gained 2.5 percent.

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Bamboo PC is eco-friendly and looks nice too (Reuters)

Back in 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the Apple I, an early personal computer that consisted of a circuit board in a simple wooden box. Apple Inc and other computer makers went on to make advanced PCs in metal and plastic casings, but now Taiwan's Asustek Computer Inc is finding potential beauty -- and sales -- in an eco-friendly notebook PC encased in another natural material: bamboo.

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A first look at KDE 4.0 release candidate 2 (Ars Technica)

The second release candidate of KDE 4 was issued earlier this week. Ars takes a look at the feature set and finds plenty to like along with some nasty, hair-sprouting warts. Is one month enough time for the devs to wield the scalpel?

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RIAA: Those CD rips of yours are still "unauthorized" (Ars Technica)

All of that music you've copied from your CDs to your PC and iPod are "unauthorized," according to a court brief filed by the RIAA. It's not surprising, given the testimony from one music industry executive that making copies of your own music is stealing.

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Tempe Wi-Fi Network on the Block (CIO.com)

Municipal Wi-Fi is faltering, but vendor Telscape says better marketing can draw subscribers.

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BSU Standardizes on Apple Hardware for Dual-Boot Initiative (Campus Technology)

In the mixed computing environments common on university campuses, supporting multiple operating systems and myriad hardware configurations can be a nightmare for IT. One solution has been to go with a single platform. Great for IT. Not so great for users. But at Bemidji State University in Minnesota, they've come up with another solution: to standardize the machines but to continue to offer choices in operating systems by providing faculty and students with dual- and triple-boot systems based on Apple hardware.

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'Cloudbook' UMPC to Run Googleish Linux (eWeek)

Everex has confirmed plans to ship a UMPC (ultra-mobile PC) with a 7-inch screen, similar to competitor Asus' EEE PC.

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Microsoft opens Office Live Workspace beta (Computerworld)

First group gets access to online file storage and sharing space, but full public beta is weeks, possibly months, away.

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EMC storage virtualization upgrades bring VMware interoperability (Network World)

EMC today unveiled the first major upgrade to its storage virtualization technology since releasing the product in mid-2005, adding full interoperability with VMware and new features designed to improve availability and scalability.

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Clash of the Titans II:Microsoft vs. Google (Baseline)

If Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer always sees Google in his rearview mirror, there's good reason: Google is beating the pants off the Windows folks in terms of perceived value to customers.

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Ultralight Mac notebook rumors gather steam (Computerworld)

Set to debut at January's Macworld, petite portable will cost $1,500, says CNBC.

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Japanese Schoolgirl Watch: OMG! MMORPG on My Cellphone! (Wired)

Second Life on the go? It's a reality for Japanese gals.Mobile tech company Media Groove just launched Chipuya Town, a virtual world accessible on any Flash-enabled keitai.

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AT&T: Our Network Is Already Open (Digital Trends)

In a move to capture some of the PR wave generated by Google and Verizon, AT&T says it already operates the "most open" wireless network. So what's changed?

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Universities bring video games into classrooms (Reuters)

Many parents wish their kids would spend less time at the computer playing games and messaging, and concentrate more on homework, sports or family activities. One university professor, however, has come up with a combined solution that would integrate educational role-playing video games into the classroom.

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Google Enlists iPhone in Mobile War (Red Herring)

The search king continues its assault on the closed mobile business by making its apps available on Apple's iPhone, sending out a battle cry against Microsoft's mobile efforts.

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Why Comcast's rough stretch may be good for its customers (Ars Technica)

Comcast warns investors that the company will fall short of its goals for 2007. That isn't so bad for the rest of us, though.

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Writer Site Red Room Flicks Switch (Red Herring)

Old tech meets new as a new site for book nerds that counts Pulitzer Prize-winning authors among its members unveils a test version.

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Microsoft pulls plug on potty-mouth Santa (Network World)

Turns out Santa himself is naughty and nice. An artificial-intelligence Santa bot operated by Microsoft to talk to children wavered off topic - and Microsoft Tuesday confirmed the bot's potty mouth and snipped Santa's Web connection.

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Windows Vista SP1 to Disable Activation Exploits (eWeek)

Users with counterfeit or nonvalidated software will no longer only get reduced access to features and functionality.

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What’s taking fixed-mobile convergence so long? (Network World)

Fixed-mobile convergence — the seamless switching between cellular and local networks for mobile users — has been hailed for more than three years as a potential boon for enterprise networks. So, where is FMC already?

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Wi-Fi reaches out to gadgets (Reuters)

Suited executives, grungy teens and even some savvy grannies are already using Wi-Fi to wirelessly link their laptops to the Internet. It may not be long before the short-range high-speed technology is just as popular for those looking to connect music players, phones, cameras, game consoles and more.

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Google Confirms Bid for Wireless Spectrum (PC Magazine)

Google announced today that the company will be trying to buy a national block of wireless spectrum from the U.S. government, opening up the possibility that Google will become some sort of cell-phone provider.

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Super Fast and Super Green (Baseline)

New ranking of supercomputers compares their performance against their energy consumption.

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3G iPhone on the Way? (Digital Trends)

AT&T's Chief Executive Officer says a 3G iPhone is coming - but when, and for how much, remain unknown.

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Windows XP outshines Vista in benchmarking test (CNET News.com)

New tests have revealed that Windows XP with the beta Service Pack 3 has twice the performance of Vista, even with its long-awaited Service Pack 1.

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Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1 Hits the Street (eWeek)

The update features support for Windows Server 2008 and better integration with Office Communications Server 2007.

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EFF study confirms Comcast's BitTorrent interference (Ars Technica)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released a study that contains evidence of Comcast's P2P blocking activities. The EFF also provides instructions that explain how users can test to see if their own ISP is interfering with traffic.

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Microsoft adds iPhone, iPod sync to Office 2008 (Computerworld)

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac will let users port PowerPoint presentations to iPhones and video-equipped iPods, Microsoft Corp. said yesterday as it unveiled the latest details of the suite scheduled to ship in January.

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Google My Location to ease mobile map use (Reuters)

Internet search leader Google Inc said on Wednesday it is introducing a novel mapping system that uses cell phone towers to let mobile phone users locate nearby services without typing in addresses.

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Zoho Adopts Offline Mode For Its Web-Based Applications (CIO.com )

Zoho, a web-based suite of productivity applications, announced yesterday that users of its word processor software can edit their documents in an offline mode. The announcement quells one of the primary criticisms mounted against the two-year-old start-up and its primary competitor, Google Apps, by businesses accustomed to traditional installed tools like Microsoft Office.

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Nigerian firm sues Negroponte, OLPC for patent infringement (Engadget)

Just months after a slew of OLPC XOs made their way into Nigeria, a Nigerian-owned company is filing suit against Nicholas Negroponte and the OLPC Association for patent infringement. Lagos Analysis and subsidiary LANCOR filed the lawsuit on November 22nd in Nigeria, claiming that the aforementioned parties willfully and illegally reverse engineered its keyboard driver source codes.

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Google GDrive preps for takeoff, but is late to the launch pad (Ars Technica)

Google's long-rumored online storage project, GDrive, is reportedly close to launch with free and paid options. This is one of the first times Google isn't in the lead, though, meaning that the competition has an opportunity to blow us out of the water before Google can.

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Verizon Wireless "Opens" Its Network (Red Herring)

In what might be seen as a concession to pressure applied by Google and others, No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier Verizon Wireless on Tuesday said it will open its network to independent application developers and device makers by the end of 2008.

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Google hopes to spawn world-wide renewable energy movement (TG Daily)

Google announced a new initiative yesterday called RE<C (Renewable Energy less than Coal), one designed to speed up the development pace on clean, renewable energy sources. They'd like to bring forth a 1 Gigawatt capacity clean, renewable energy generation system, one producing energy which costs less than coal, enough to power a city the size of San Francisco.

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Robot with soft hands chats, serves meal (Reuters)

A pearly white robot that looks a little like E.T. boosted a man out of bed, chatted and helped prepare his breakfast with its deft hands in Tokyo Tuesday, in a further sign robots are becoming more like their human inventors.

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Why the RIAA may be afraid of targeting Harvard students (Ars Technica)

The RIAA has targeted over 4,000 students at 160 colleges and universities with its prelitigation settlement letters. None of them attend Harvard. What gives?

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Overly-broad copyright law has made USA a "nation of infringers" (Ars Technica)

Even without using P2P networks, a Utah law professor calculates that he racks up $4.5 billion in copyright liability in a single year. The time for reform, he says, has arrived.

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Amazon launches wireless book reader Kindle (Reuters)

Amazon.com, the world's largest Web retailer, said on Monday it will begin selling an electronic book reader with wireless access, the latest attempt to build consumer interest in portable reading devices.

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Philly’s Wi-Fi net said to run into snags, delays (Network World)

Philadelphia’s path-breaking citywide Wi-Fi network is running into snags and delays, according to a new Associated Press report.

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Vista Migration Scaring Off IT Pros (eWeek)

Now more than a year out of the business gate, Microsoft's Vista operating system is having trouble making friends in the exact place it needs them the most—the IT department.

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Windows Server 2008 approacheth: versions, pricing revealed (Ars Technica)

With Windows Server 2008 nearing a final release in the coming months, Microsoft has whetted our appetites by announcing details and pricing about each specific edition of the upcoming server OS.

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Top 5 security-menace predictions for 2008 (Network World)

Symantec’s picks include advanced botnets, cybercrime in 'virtual worlds' and cyberattacks on election campaigns.

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IBM Symphony to Challenge Google Apps (eWeek)

Big Blue's office productivity suite could eventually include live collaboration and shared storage online, making it a competitor to Google's Application combo.

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Music College's Conducting Class Goes High Tech (Campus Technology)

Varnished wood. Rosin and bow strings. Well cared for reeds. These are the images that spring to mind when one thinks of classical music--a realm seemingly rooted in tradition and antiquity--but that's not the case at the Berklee College of Music.

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Computerworld's 2007 Jobs Report: Back From the Brink (Computerworld)

After a big tumble in 2002, IT salaries have been climbing steadily. But for IT workers trying to regain their financial footing, a string of 3% increases makes the going tough.

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Video: Space Style 2007, the Zero-G fashion show (TG Daily)

Instead of fashionably pink space suits, the first-ever Space Style 2007 fashion show featured bikini-clad models sitting on exercise balls, zero g wedding dresses and space-inspired jumpsuits. The fashion show was part of a larger effort to promote space tourism, which has become a very real possibility in recent years.

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LTE 4G trials promising, but tech faces stiff challenge from WiMAX (Ars Technica)

A consortium of companies has announced a successful conclusion to tests of 3GPP LTE, a 4G wireless technology that could offer speeds of up to 100Mbps down and 50Mbps up. It's not expected to hit the market until 2010, however, giving competing technologies like WiMAX plenty of time to establish a beachhead.

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Stanford Offers Advanced Security Certification Online (Campus Technology)

Stanford University this fall began to offer its advanced computer security certificate program completely online in an effort to improve access to the program.

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Invention Of the Year: The iPhone (TIME)

Stop. I mean, don't stop reading this, but stop thinking what you're about to think. Or, O.K., I'll think it for you:

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First Look: The Curl Development Environment (Campus Technology)

Curl, which has recently been released in part to the open source community under the Apache 2.0 license, is an object-oriented hybrid markup language with similarities to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The Cambridge, MA-based company behind the Curl language, Curl Inc., describes it as an alternative to AJAX--one that allows the programmer to define the structure, style, and function of Web applications in one language instead of several.

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Whitaker votes for 'Dewmocracy' (Variety)

Forest Whitaker is doin' the Dew. As his first foray into branded entertainment, the thesp partnered with Pepsi-Cola North America to produce the web-based fantasy game "Dewmocracy," that culminates in consumers creating a flavor of Mountain Dew to appear on store shelves next year.

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Major League Baseball's DRM change strikes out with fans (Ars Technica)

Major League Baseball has apparently switched DRM clearinghouses. As a result, some fans are stuck with DRMed footage that they purchased, but are unable to watch because their licenses can't be verified.

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Photo Gallery: FogScreen features breakthrough projection technology (TechRepublic)

FogScreen is a fascinating projection technology that uses tap water and ultrasonic waves to create a thin curtain of "dry" fog that serves as a translucent or fully opaque projection screen. Find out more in this image gallery.

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Google at the gas pump (CNN.com)

Lost drivers in the United States soon will be able to Google for help at the pump.

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DARPA race pushes robotics forward (ZDNet)

The Urban Challenge's competitive drama seeds the idea in people's minds that self-driving cars are possible.

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It's official: Google announces open-source mobile phone OS, Android (Ars Technica)

Google's mobile play is centered on an open-source (Apache license), Linux-based mobile operating system that is open to all. The company announced an impressive cadre of carriers and handset vendors backing the OS.

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The Future of Solar-Powered Homes (New York Times Blog)

This year's Solar Decathlon illustrates that "solar" no longer means “hippy hangout,” “ugly box” or “Spartan shack.”

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New Apple Trojan Means Mac Hunting Season Is Open (Wired)

The Mac has officially gone mainstream.

The proof? On Halloween, professional online criminals were found using Trojan-horse software to target, for the first time, computers running Apple's OS X operating system -- just as they have been doing for years on the more ubiquitous flavors of Windows.

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A Computer That Works With Google, Not Microsoft (New York Times)

Advocates of Linux, the free open-source operating system, like to say that buying a standard-issue computer involves a Microsoft Tax, because you have no choice but to pay for Windows. New versions of Linux and inexpensive hardware like the new Everex gPC TC2502 make that tax avoidable.

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NBC axes DotComedy website (Variety)

NBC Universal is pulling the plug on its little-viewed DotComedy website, barely a year after the service first launched.

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Gallery: Wired Readers' Coolest Geek-o'-Lanterns (Wired)

Geeks really love their jack-o'-lanterns — that much is clear from the dozens of entries and thousands of votes racked up on Wired's Show Us Your Geeky Jack-o'-Lanterns blog post.

Gallery: Our Readers' Coolest Geek-o'-Lanterns

Sprint in talks with Google on mobile apps: source (Reuters)

Sprint Nextel Corp, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service, is in talks to put applications from Web search leader Google Inc on its cell phones, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

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NBC's Zucker: Apple used us! (Shh, we used Apple too) (Ars Technica)

NBC chief Jeff Zucker made a number of requests of Apple before walking away from the iTunes Store, including raising prices and a cut of iPod sales. When Apple said no, Zucker became bitter.

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BEA or Ellison: Who Will Prevail? (BusinessWeek)

The middleware provider is holding out for a sweeter deal, but Oracle hasn't made another offer and shareholder Carl Icahn is pushing hard for a sale

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EMC acquires network-configuration player (Network World)

The number of pure-play network change and configuration-management vendors decreased again Tuesday as EMC announced it had purchased Voyence for an undisclosed amount.

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Slideshow: 12 Things You Need to Know About Ruby on Rails (eWeek)

Why Ruby on Rails is to application development what Apple is to desktops.

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Web 2.0 Entails 'Sleeping Giant' Security Risk (Campus Technology)

As increasing numbers of enterprises climb aboard the Web 2.0 bandwagon, it's more important than ever for software developers to keep security in mind during the development process. So says Danny Allan, director of security research at Watchfire, the Waltham, MA-based Web-app security company acquired by IBM in July.

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Attack code out for critical Kodak bug in Windows (Network World)

A hacker has released attack code that could be used to exploit a critical bug in some versions of the Windows operating system.

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Comcast to employees: talking about blocking P2P can get you fired (Ars Technica)

As Comcast is peppered with questions from its customers over its practice of blocking some P2P traffic, the company is giving customer service reps a script to work from. Deviating from that script is grounds for termination, Comcast employees tell Ars.

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Virtualization: Agility More Significant Than Cost Cutting (Baseline)

Although much of the excitement about virtualization has focused on the cost-cutting it enables, the real value comes from business agility, according to participants at the Ziff Davis Enterprise 2007 Virtualization Summit.

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Creating power out of thin air (CNET News.com)

Imagine a material that can suck in heat from the environment and power a notebook. A New Jersey company is aiming to do just that.

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Photos: On board the Airbus A380 (ZDNet)

Singapore Airlines, the first carrier to take ownership of the world's largest passenger jet, the Airbus A380, has flown its inaugural commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney. A crew from ZDNet Australia visited Sydney Airport to see what customers can expect from what's been dubbed the "big fella" by air traffic controllers.

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GPS to go against radar in speeding ticket case (TG Daily)

The son of a former sheriff's deputy will fight against a speeding ticket he received, after noticing his GPS log disputed the alleged speeding offense.

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Bang & Olufsen Launch $600 MP3 Player (Digital Trends)

For folks who demand the high style and high quality, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound 6 offers 4 GB of storage, a 1.8-inch LCD screen, and a $600 price tag.

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Comcast's growth slows as pressure from FiOS, U-Verse ratchets up (Ars Technica)

Comcast met expectations for the third quarter and was taken out behind the woodshed for a sound beating. Investors are concerned about the company's future growth prospects in light of increased competition from the likes of AT&T and Verizon.

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In Foray Into TV, Google Is to Track Ad Audiences (New York Times)

Google plans to announce a partnership with Nielsen to give advertisers a better snapshot of how many people are viewing television commercials on a second-by-second basis.

In Foray Into TV, Google Is to Track Ad Audiences - New York Times

Activision poised to score with Guitar Hero 3 (Reuters)

Activision Inc is set to launch "Guitar Hero 3" amid expectations that the latest installment of its music-themed franchise will be a platinum hit for the second-biggest U.S. video game publisher.

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BEA Systems to Oracle: Let’s Make a Deal (Red Herring)

BEA Systems is willing to talk turkey, the board signaled Thursday.

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A First Tussle With Linux's iPhone Killer: The OpenMoko Neo1973 (Wired)

The Neo1973 is the first physical manifestation of a grand idea -- a new breed of wireless handheld built for the open-source age.

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Slideshow: 6 Key Skills CIOs Seek in Entry-Level Workers (CIO Insight)

Entry-level IT pros need more than tech savvy; they must possess soft skills to survive in today's business climate.

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VM Security Risks: Phantom or Menace? (eWeek)

Virtual machines are threatening to crack the walls of data centers with a host of potential security threats—nothing that's been publicly exploited yet but a fact that's borne out by a slew of vulnerabilities patched over the past seven months by major virtualization vendors VMware, Microsoft and XenSource.

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Gmail delivers a knockout punch: IMAP changes the "freemail" game (Ars Technica)

Google has sweetened its e-mail offerings by rolling out IMAP capabilities in all Gmail accounts, and for free. While casual users may not look twice, the addition makes Google's software-as-a-service much more attractive to businesses looking for easy e-mail solutions.

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Drexel Puts Course Capture To Work on Desktops (Campus Technology)

Audio and even video capture of lectures is becoming more common on college campuses, which post the material to their Web sites so that students can revisit a lecture after the fact. But Drexel University in Philadelphia, long known as a technology powerhouse, is using the university's academic capture product in another way. There, instructors are far more likely to produce recordings from their desktops, including individual commentaries to a student from a professor.

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EBay: The Place for Microfinance (BusinessWeek)

On the online auction giant's new MicroPlace site, investors can lend as little as $50 to would-be small business owners around the globe

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Cisco Nabs Navini for $330M (Red Herring)

Networking gear giant Cisco Systems on Tuesday said it plans to acquire WiMAX device maker Navini Networks for $330 million in cash and assumed options. The planned acquisition of the seven-year-old Richardson, Texas-based company is Cisco’s entrée into a technology field it has long eschewed in favor of Wi-Fi for wide-area wireless broadband communications.

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Q&A: Could Politics Threaten to Short Out the Power Grid? (eWeek)

Lobbyists have blocked meaningful reform and left the North American power grid vulnerable, Joe Weiss, a cyber-security expert, tells eWEEK's Lisa Vaas.

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T-Pain takes crown as king of ringtones (Reuters)

Enter most any dance club and odds are you'll soon hear "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" by R&B sensation T-Pain before the night is through.

But the hit single gets most of its spins as a 30-second clip.

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Apple Announces Record-Breaking Q4 Earnings (Wired Epicenter)

Apple watchers expected more good news out of Cupertino this afternoon, and they weren't disappointed when Apple released the best fourth quarter results it's ever posted.

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Nigerian Space Program Isn't a 419 Scam (Wired)

Nigeria, a country whose best-known technological export is probably the flowery e-mail output of its "419 scam" artists, is ramping up a scrappy space program that's working wonders with a relatively small investment.

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Evidence mounts that Comcast is targeting BitTorrent traffic (Ars Technica)

The Associated Press claims to have confirmed that Comcast is blocking—or at least seriously slowing down—BitTorrent transfers, regardless of whether the content is legal or not. If true, Comcast's actions have serious implications for sharing information online, and by proxy, Net Neutrality.

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Adobe To Move All Apps to the Web (Digital Trends)

Your office suite might not be the only software you'll eventually use from a browser window. Adobe has plans to move all of its editing software online in the distant future.

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Speed AJAX Development with ATF (Campus Technology)

The new AJAX Toolkit Framework promises a comprehensive open source solution for JavasScript-based development of data-intensive, Web-based business apps.

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Reviews: The Newspaper Killers (PC Magazine)

PC Magazine picked their favorite Web replacements for each newspaper section, from the front page to the funnies to the obituaries. Some come from newspapers themselves, and some aggregate newspaper content, but all add excellent features, broader scope, and more user interaction than their print counterparts.

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Google Health to Debut in 2008 (Digital Trends)

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Marissa Mayer, leader of Google's search operation, revealed that the long-gestating Google Health initiative will formally debut in early 2008.

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Navigating With Feedback From Fellow Drivers (New York Times)

Dash Navigation's Dash Express does something no other navigation device can currently do. It uses trip records and up-to-the-minute reports to estimate time of arrival, even if the motorist is caught in a traffic jam.

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Oracle ships critical update for database, applications (Computerworld)

Oracle Corp. released its latest critical patch update on Wednesday, fixing 51 vulnerabilities in its flagship database line and a range of other products.The vulnerabilities patched by this critical update have CVSS 2.0 ratings from 4.0 to 6.5.

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Apple to open iPhone, iPod touch to third-party developers in early 2008 (Ars Technica)

Answering the calls of iPhone users who crave more out of the device, Steve Jobs today announced that Apple is working on a software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone and iPod touch. The SDK is on track for a February 2008 release.

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Cisco offices raided, executives arrested in Brazil (Network World)

Senior executives of Cisco were reportedly arrested in Brazil this week in a tax fraud investigation of the company.

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Customized newscasts coming to your computer (CNN.com)

Northwestern University's Intelligent Information Lab will soon launch News At Seven, a system that creates a daily virtual news show based on topics users choose.

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Yahoo: Bringing Geeky Back (BusinessWeek)

Under CEO Jerry Yang's direction, the Web portal is trying to return to its tech roots and shift away from being a media catch-all

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Cisco re-targets wireless for municipal enterprise networks (Network World)

Cisco has bundled together its wireless product offerings with new software partners in a bid to refocus its strategy for municipal wireless networks.

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Apple to release Leopard Oct. 26 (Computerworld)

Apple Inc. confirmed today what rumor sites have been speculating on for days: Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" will hit store shelves at 6 p.m. on Oct. 26. The Leopard Server operating system will be released at the same time.

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IT a Culprit, Savior in Climate Change (CIO.com)

Climate change is both a large-scale crisis and a huge opportunity, and IT has a role in both, industry executives said at a panel discussion Thursday.

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U.S. broadcasters to use prime time for DTV campaign (Reuters)

U.S. broadcasters promised on Monday to air more than $327 million worth of television spots as part of a broad campaign to alert consumers about the approaching switch-over to digital television.

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Verizon Wireless: If you don’t opt out, we get to share your CPNI call data (Ars Technica)

Over the weekend, a small storm erupted over new legal language that Verizon Wireless is passing quietly on to its subscribers. It appears as though the cellular provider is changing its terms of service to give the company the right to share sensitive calling data with third parties.
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Windows Home Server in depth (Ars Technica Operating System Reviews)

When Microsoft announced Windows Home Server earlier this year, it was greeted with a mixture of curious disdain and eagerness. Some questioned what the product offered over existing solutions, while others welcomed it with open arms. It's at once hard to explain and easy to understand what Windows Home Server is, but it's worth getting to know the newest addition to the Windows family.

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2008 IT Outlook: 'Less than Comforting' (BusinessWeek)

As the tech industry girds for third-quarter earnings, analysts are turning their attention to next year. Many don't like what they see.

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Broadcom Rolls Out 3G Phone on a Chip (eWeek)

Claiming a major competitive advantage over rival chip makers, Broadcom said Oct. 15 it has developed a low-power, single-chip processor that integrates all major features of 3G technology.

The BCM21551—code-named Zeus—combines a high-speed third-generation baseband, a multiband radio frequency transceiver, Bluetooth, and an FM radio receiver and transmitter.

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Google, Random House Move Closer to Book Search (CIO Insight)

Random House has held out and not joined the Google-backed publisher partner program, which can help boost book sales, especially of publishers' so-called backlists of older titles.

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WiFi detector t-shirt shows signal strength, locks in your virginity (Ars Technica)

It's 2007 folks, so there's no need to whip out a WiFi detector or boot your laptop just to figure out if there's a WiFi signal in range. These days, you can just look down at your shirt.

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Opinion: How to lose your digital life in 20 minutes (TG Daily)

Even if you diligently backup your precious data, disaster can strike any moment and it doesn’t hurt to have a recovery strategy in place, even if you are not the CIO of a billion dollar corporation.

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Phishing for Mules (Campus Technology)

We all know, or should know, about phishing, a fraudulent attempt, frequently through legitimate looking email requests, to obtain personal information such as a credit card number, a social security number, or a bank account number and PIN. But to take full advantage of stolen information, the crook needs "mules."

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Phantom vibrations shake 'crackberry' addicts (CNN.com)

If your hipbone is connected to your BlackBerry or your thighbone is connected to your cell phone, those vibrations you're feeling in the car, in your pajamas, in the shower, may be coming from your headbone.

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Comcast Starts Rolling Out TiVo Boxes (Digital Trends)

It's been more than two years' coming, but Comcast is finally beginning to deploy set-top cable boxes employing TiVo DVR technology.

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Universal Music Takes on iTunes (BusinessWeek)

Universal chief Doug Morris is enlisting other big music players for a service to challenge the Jobs juggernaut.

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Internet growing at record pace, Apache losing ground quickly (TG Daily)

The Internet is growing on a faster rate than ever before and is quickly approaching a size of 150 million websites, according to survey results released by Netcraft. Apache remains the most popular software running web servers, but it is surrendering market shares to Microsoft and Google at a dramatic rate.

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Technologies We're Glad Are Dead (CIO.com)

It's easy to cry over the products we loved and lost. But let's take time to appreciate the many ways in which technology really has improved, and the many geeky things we no longer need to worry about.

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Open borders sought for virtual worlds (Reuters)

Interoperability is emerging as a key goal of the nascent virtual world industry, which attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investment on the hopes that video-game graphics and rich 3-D environments will supplant flat Web pages.

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Adobe Acrobat, Reader vulnerable to hacks (CNET News.com)

Adobe Systems, whose software is used by millions of people to read documents sent over the Internet, said some of its programs contain a flaw that makes personal computers vulnerable to attack.

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AT&T Gobbles Up Spectrum in Preparation for 3-G IPhones and Other Devices (Wired)

Paving the way for the U.S. release of a 3-G iPhone and other next-generation devices, AT&T said on Tuesday it will purchase a substantial chunk of 700-MHz licenses.

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Satire: NASA Announces Plan To Bring Wi-Fi To Its Headquarters By 2017 (The Onion)

NASA administrator Michael Griffin announced during a press conference Tuesday that the space agency is launching an ambitious mission to make Houston's Johnson Space Center wireless-Internet capable within one decade.

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Hi, Jaiku: Google expands communications reach with microblogging service purchase (Ars Technica)

Google has acquired microblogging underdog Jaiku in an attempt to round out its messaging services. It may also result in bringing order to the world of microblogging, including protocol standardization

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100 Gb/s Internet2 completed (TG Daily)

At its Fall 2007 member meeting, the Internet 2 consortium announced that its updated infrastructure is ready to go online and provide an initial capacity of 100 Gb/s to researchers and educators.

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Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies for 2008 (Network World)

Which technologies must any good IT executive examine in 2008? The list includes green power, unified communications, virtualization, mashups and social software, Gartner says.

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Fewer CIOs Are Reporting to CEOs, Survey Finds (Baseline)

Far fewer chief information officers are reporting to their chief executives, according to a survey.

Last year, 45% of those responding to a survey by the Society of Information Management said the CIO in their organization reported to their CEO. This year, that number is 31%.

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Social Networks at Work Promise Bottom-Line Results (CIO Insight)

Some companies discourage their employees from using social networks at work, fearing lost productivity and wasted time. But the nation's fourth largest bank is getting ready to roll out one of its own. Wachovia plans to introduce its social networking service to its 110,000 workers by early 2008.

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RIAA Juror: 'We Wanted to Send a Message' (Wired Threat Level)

It took the jury in Capitol Records v. Thomas only five minutes to find that 30-year-old Jammie Thomas had infringed recording industry copyrights on 24 music tracks, according to the first juror to speak out on the verdict.

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Web 2.0 Tops 'Emerging Cyber Threats' (Campus Technology)

The ever-nebulous "Web 2.0" is emerging as one of the five top security risks to watch for both consumers and the enterprise--this according to the inaugural edition of the "GTISC Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2008" out of Georgia Tech's Information Security Center. The report, released at the GTISC Security Summit on Emerging Cyber Security Threats and Countermeasures, identifies the key data security threats that are likely to expand and evolve in the coming year.

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Physics of the iPod awarded Nobel Prize (International Herald Tribune)

Two European scientists were awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for a discovery that lets computers, iPods and other digital devices store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks.

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Hundreds respond to Interpol online appeal for pedophile (Reuters)

Interpol said on Monday it was hopeful of identifying a serial pedophile after posting his picture on the Internet in an unprecedented public appeal that drew hundreds of responses from around the world.

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Microsoft disables Internet Explorer 7 validation process (CNET News.com)

Microsoft will now allow users of Windows XP to download Internet Explorer 7 without having to gain Windows Genuine Advantage authentication.

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5 IT projects that need your attention right now (Network World)

There's always too much to do. If you had an infinite budget and project schedule, or at least more resources than you have now, you could accomplish impressive things for your company. Performing triage means you need to pick IT projects that can deliver the most bang for the buck. Accordingly, we discuss five projects that deserve a CIO's immediate attention. We chose these projects because they have a measurable impact, contain elements with a relatively fast ROI, and enhance both network security and manageability.

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SAP Touts Synergies in Business Objects Deal (eWeek)

CEO Henning Kagermann says the $6.78 billion acquisition of Business Objects will bolster SAP's BI efforts, and denies the deal is a reaction to Oracle.

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Fall Reading for I.T. Managers (Baseline)

New books on strategy, leadership and practical expertise for the CIO's bookshelf.

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A day on the Surface: a hands-on look at Microsoft's new computing platform (Ars Technica)

Ars Technica staff spent some quality time with Microsoft's new multitouch computer to get below the "Surface" and find out if there's more to this beast than sexy animations. They shot some impromptu video, too.

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Halo 3 rakes in more than $300 million (TG Daily)

Halo 3 proves to be the cash cow Microsoft has claimed it to be. The game brought in $300 million in game sales within one week, and apparently contributed to doubling Xbox 360 console sales.

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Science stumbles on with Ig Nobel awards (Network World)

Research into the mystery of wrinkles on bed sheets, the bottomless bowl of soup and the effect of Viagra on hamster jet lag dominated the awards Thursday night at the annual Ig Nobel awards at Harvard University. [How this wound up in NW's "Security" section is a bit baffling--Ed.]

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The AudioFile: Understanding MP3 compression (Ars Technica)

It's one of the most popular and controversial file types in the world, but most explanations of its workings are either blindingly simplistic or overwhelmingly technical. Learn about the workings of MP3 without a second Ph.D. in this guide.

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Opinion: Waste Paper: Communications and the Decline of Print (Campus Technology)

For years universities have been reducing their print output in an effort to reach the elusive paperless ideal. But they aren't there yet. Maybe it's time to go and do the equivalent of dumpster-diving: Spend an hour or two on your campus looking into the content of the paper recycling baskets that are all over the place. It's almost certain that an analysis of what you find in there will give your some ideas about where your institution is spending money printing stuff that needn't be.

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UC Berkeley Puts Free Lectures on YouTube (Digital Trends)

A new alternative to paying $28,000 per year for an education: going to class online for free. Just don't expect to print out a degree when you're done.

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Microsoft revamps Zune in time for holidays (CNNMoney)

Microsoft took the wraps off its second-generation Zune digital media players late Tuesday, showing three models that bring the software maker's offerings more in line with Apple's market-leading iPod.

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Judge allows class action against Target Web site (Reuters)

A federal judge in California certified a class action lawsuit against Target Corp brought by plaintiffs claiming the discount retailer's Web site is inaccessible to the blind, according to court documents.

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This year's '25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries' (NetworkWorld Buzzblog)

Paul McNamara compiles a ist of 2007's geekiest silver anniversaries. Which ones would you add?

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Q&A: Herbie Hancock Talks Math, Music and Mastering the Tech Toolbox (Wired)

Musician and composer Herbie Hancock's career has careened from straight jazz to experimental electronic music over the decades, with his surprise 1983 break-dancing hit, "Rockit," helping set the stage for hip-hop.

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America's techiest cities: Silicon Valley No. 1, but who's No. 2? (Computerworld)

The highest concentration of IT professionals in the U.S. is -- you guessed it -- in Silicon Valley. But naming the No 2 spot isn't as easy, and the answer might surprise you.

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AT&T clarifies vague service-termination rule (Network World)

Relax, AT&T subscribers: The company says it won’t cut off your Internet service if you criticize it.

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Sony to launch world's first OLED ultra-thin TV (Reuters)

Sony Corp said it will launch an ultra-thin flat TV in December, the world's first television based on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology into an $82 billion market dominated by LCD and plasma models.

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New RFID Technologies Announced at RFID World Boston (Design News)

RFID technologists, distributors and thinkers from around the world joined together last week at RFID World in Boston, MA. Sessions and the show floor focused on the real-world relevance of RFID and how to safely, securely and successfully apply the technology.

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AT&T threatens to disconnect subscribers who criticize the company (ars technica)

AT&T has rolled out new Terms of Service for its DSL service that leave plenty of room for interpretation. From our reading of it, in concert with several others, what we see is a ToS that attempts to give AT&T the right to disconnect its own customers who criticize the company on blogs or in other online settings.

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Microsoft Office heads to the Web (CNET News.com)

In another clear sign that Microsoft sees the threat posed by its traditional business moving online, the company is readying a rival to Google Docs. The software maker is announcing Office Live Workspace, a free online tool for viewing, sharing and storing--but not editing--Office documents online.

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Windows XP Refuses to Die (Digital Trends)

Despite earlier promises from Microsoft that XP would stop selling in January, consumer demand has forced the company to extend its life five months.

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iRobot newcomers tackle gutters and personal relationships (TG Daily)

iRobot this week announced two new consumer robot devices, each one taking a big leap from the company's existing product line.

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20 Years of IT History: Connecting Devices, Data and People (CIO.com)

IT's history from Bill Gates to Linus Torvalds. IT's future by the likes of Grady Booch and Larry Niven. On its 20th anniversary, CIO reviews two decades of IT innovation and disruption.

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AOL's Mobile Ambitions (BusinessWeek)

The company once known for bringing the Internet home wants to make its software available on cell phones worldwide.

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Apple 2.0: Amazon vs. Apple: Why Are the Songs So Cheap? (Business 2.0 Beta)

On hearing the news that Amazon (AMZN) had put 2 million songs, free of copy-protection, for sale on its new MP3 music store, I -- like nearly everyone else who writes about Apple (AAPL) -- went straight to the site to do a cost-comparison with the iTunes Music Store. My choice: KT Kunstall's new album, Drastic Fantastic, $9.99 or $14.99 (for the Deluxe Edition) on iTunes, $8.99 on Amazon. Savings: from 10% to 40%.

Which raises an immediate question: why are they doing this?

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Providers Ogle Google Wireless Possibilities (eWeek)

The way the Federal Communications Commission is conducting its upcoming auction of portions of the 700MHz radio spectrum is not unlike the Wild West: It's wide open and anything could happen.

With talk of Google entering the bidding, wireless network equipment providers are salivating at the prospect of a potential nationwide buildout of a brand-new network. But what form that network would take, how widespread it would be and which company Google would choose to partner with to build it are far from clear.

Providers Ogle Google Wireless Possibilities

Nerds To Auction Themselves To Women (AP - kyw.com)

Looking to recruit more women into computer science programs, the largest computer club at Washington State University hopes to hold a "nerd auction."

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Video Game Teaches Kids About Diet - Then Turns Off (Reuters)

Kaiser Permanente, the U.S.'s biggest health maintenance organization, on Tuesday launched "The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective," an online video game designed to teach 9- and 10-year-olds about healthy eating and exercise.

But rather than keep children in front of the computer for hours, the title aims to get kids moving. It has a function that locks players out after 20 minutes -- and another that won't let them back in until for another 60 minutes.

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Folding@home Passes Petaflop Mark (Campus Technology)

The distributed computing project known as Folding@home (FAH) last week passed one of its long-anticipated milestones: more than a petaflop of computational power, reached Sept. 16. The group, run out of Stanford University's Department of Chemistry, placed credit for the surge beyond its 1 Pflops goal on the Playstation 3 and the latest PS3 client app, which is designed to take greater advantage of the floating point power of the PS3's Cell B.E. processor.

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Officials say PR campaign may boost Real ID popularity (CNET News.com)

As controversy rages over forthcoming federal Real ID requirements, state officials should be plotting public relations strategies to counteract the well-publicized rebellion, past and present state motor vehicle administrators advised their colleagues Monday.

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Salary survey: IT pay falls short (Network World)

Typical raises beat national rate of inflation, bringing average base pay to $86,700. Yet network professionals aren’t happy with their salary packages, our annual survey finds.

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Minority Report: Women of Color Are Starting Businesses in Record Numbers (WomensWallStreet)

Minority Report: Women of Color Are Starting Businesses in Record Numbers

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Daylight-saving time issue reappears on IT radar (Network World)

Applications, servers, desktops added after March 11 need check before Nov. 4 to ensure they have daylight-saving time patches

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'Digital Natives' are Driving Web 2.0 Adoption into Your Business (eWeek)

Digital natives — people who grew up using interactive Internet tools — will push the enterprise social software market to grow at a compound annual revenue growth of 41.7 percent through 2011, said Gartner analysts at Web Innovations in Las Vegas Sept. 19.

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The exoskeleton in MIT's closet (Crave)

The 21st-century beast of burden could be you--if the exoskeleton fits.

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Intel Shows Off Next-Gen Mobile Platforms (PC Magazine)

Intel unveiled the Menlow and Moorestown mobile platforms, which the company hopes will replace the iPhone as the cool pocket device.

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Opinion: Why reports of muni Wi-Fi's death are greatly exaggerated (Computerworld)

Municipal Wi-Fi has entered a new and unpleasant phase. Despite reports to the contrary, however, metro-scale Wi-Fi is not dead. True, it's a little shaken and wounded, but it will come back stronger than ever.

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Election '08: Seeking a 'Tech President' (BusinessWeek)

Technology companies have much at stake in 2008. Here's where the candidates stand on the issues of crucial importance to Silicon Valley

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:-) turns 25 (CNN.com)

It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon.

:-)

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Expert Voices: Convergence, Yes; Alignment, No (CIO Insight)

Aligning IT with business is a fundamentally flawed and limiting concept, says Faisal Hoque, chairman of the Business Technology Management Institute. Instead, companies should achieve a true melding of IT and business minds–what he calls convergence.

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Jobs says Apple will fight iPhone unlocking hacks (Network World)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Tuesday that it's his company's job to stymie hackers who try to unlock the iPhone -- the first time the company has officially said it would fight attempts to use the popular device on unauthorized networks.

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I.B.M. to Offer Office Software Free in Challenge to Microsoft’s Line (New York Times)

I.B.M. plans to mount its most ambitious challenge in years to Microsoft’s dominance of personal computer software, by offering free programs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.

The company is announcing the desktop software, called I.B.M. Lotus Symphony, at an event today in New York. The programs will be available as free downloads from the I.B.M. Web site.

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Google Adds Presentations App to Hosted Suite (CIO.com)

Google plans to add a presentations application to its Web applications suite on Tuesday, delivering on a promise made in April. The suite, until now known as Docs & Spreadsheets, will also be renamed Google Docs on Monday.

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Princeton DoIT Digit-Heads Take Hoi Polloi to Lunch (Campus Technology)

Princeton University's Office of Information Technology has invited the public to lunch to meet some of its premier technology researchers and experts. The idea is to teach them tricks of the trade--"instruction ... on complex ways technology has helped scientists make discoveries"--over sandwiches.

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An Application That's Buggy by Design (Baseline)

Dow Chemical isn't putting tiny RFID chips on the backs of termites and zapping them with radio frequencies, but its use of the technology does demonstrate that companies may find uses for RFID that were never conceived.

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SpiralFrog debuts with free, ad-supported music downloads (ars technica)

Digital music service SpiralFrog has officially launched and brags that it has almost a million tracks available for download. What's unique about the service is that it offers legal downloads, but for free. There are, however, a few catches.

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Cirque technology brings imagination to life (CNN.com)

Cirque du Soleil has been amazing audiences for more than 20 years with its fantastical human circus shows. Las Vegas has become synonymous with Cirque, boasting five shows -- "O," "Mystere," "Zumanity," "Love," and "KA," one of Cirque's most expensive and technological shows to date.

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New Google Earth Satellite to Launch (PC World)

DigitalGlobe, provider of imagery for Google's interactive mapping program Google Earth, said a new high-resolution satellite will boost the accuracy of its satellite images and flesh out its archive.

The new spacecraft, dubbed WorldView I, is to be launched on Tuesday.

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Virtualization homes in on desktops (CNET News.com)

When Parallels Desktop was released in June 2006, it opened the door for hundreds of thousands of Apple users to run Windows at the same time as they ran the Mac operating system.

It also introduced the masses to the notion of desktop virtualization.

Read the full story...

EU Courts Strikes Down Microsoft Appeal of Antitrust Ruling (eWEEK)

The European Court of First Instance upheld on Sept. 17 the findings of the European Commission that Microsoft abused its dominant position by refusing to make its products interoperable with those of its rivals and by tying Windows Media Player to the Windows operating system.

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Clothing Shop Tweaks RFID Tech for Hip Shoppers (TechNewsWorld)

There's no quick phrase that can describe Industry Standard, a business that opened this month near Ohio State University in Columbus. It's part urban clothing store, part recording studio, part skateboard shop, part art gallery. It's a pioneer for the in-store application of radio-frequency identification, or RFID, technology that allows customers to communicate with store employees as they shop.

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Navigation devices set to take mass market route (Reuters)

Portable navigation devices are poised to take off this holiday shopping season as market leaders Garmin and TomTom race each other to make deeper inroads into the mass market by pushing out cheaper models.

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Full-On Rock Band Makes Jamming Follow-Up to Guitar Hero (Wired)

Night has fallen in West Hollywood, and it's the rocking hour at the Troubadour, the legendary club that helped launch the careers of Pearl Jam and Guns N' Roses. A band on the tiny stage is crunching out a surprisingly faithful rendition of the Hives' "Main Offender." It's the first night of E3, the yearly trade show for the videogame industry, and this concert is crawling with game developers, executives, journalists, and retailers.

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Say cheese: Sony technology focuses on smiles (Reuters)

If a picture's worth a thousand words, then how much is a smiling photo worth? About 40,000 yen ($350), based on Sony's new "smile shutter" cameras.

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Prince to "reclaim the Internet" by suing YouTube, eBay, Pirate Bay (ars technica)

Prince is planning to make some doves cry over at YouTube headquarters. The symbol-loving singer has announced that he wants to go after the video-sharing site, along with eBay and the Pirate Bay, for hosting unauthorized versions of his music and merchandise.

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Test drive: ajaxWindows leaves nasty streaks (ars technica)

Former Linspire CEO Michael Robertson has released a new web-based "operating system" that attempts to simulate the entire desktop computing experience in a web browser. ars technica reviews the application and sees if it foretells a shift in how people interact with computers.

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Desktop Factory begins taking orders for 3D printer (TG Daily)

It kind of sounds like something from a Ray Bradbury novel. Create a three-dimensional figure in the form of a specific image format, and the 125ci printer will create a physical representation of the model before your eyes.

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Running the numbers on Vista (CNET News.com)

Sales of boxed copies of Windows Vista continue to significantly trail those of Windows XP during its early days, according to a soon-to-be-released report.

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Discovering the Power of Social Networking Sites (CIO.com)

You’ve probably received an invite to LinkedIn, a popular corporate social networking site. Or maybe you’ve heard your teenage son or daughter talk about the coolness of Facebook or MySpace. Social networking—interactive, collaborative online communities created by technology—has certainly gone mainstream. And now it’s becoming a value-added feature of the corporate landscape.

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Does 802.11n spell the 'end of Ethernet'? (Network World)

Is the advent of the 802.11n wireless standard the “end of Ethernet” - at least in terms of client access to the LAN?
more...

What Do Women Want? Less Pink, More Tech, "Lady Geek" Survey Says (Wired)

Bring on the tech gear, but don't make it girly: That's what women want, according to a recently released "lady geek" survey.
more...

100 Fastest Growing Tech Companies 2007 (Business 2.0 Magazine)

Despite talk of froth and bubbles, the tech sector continues to surge. The 100 companies on our annual list are all posting impressive results.
more...

FAQ: Inside the FCC's High-Stakes 700-MHz-Spectrum Auction (Wired)

The FCC's 700-MHz-spectrum auction, now set for January 16, 2008, has the potential to affect everything from the cost of your wireless service to the competitive landscape among U.S. mobile providers for years to come.
more...

Going Topless at 170 MPH in the Porsche Turbo Cabriolet (Wired)

The Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet is certainly not just the 911 coupe with the roof sawed off. Plenty has been added: The model drives like a hard top, except you can blast up to 192 mph in open air.
more...

Windows Worm Targets Skype Users (Wired Compiler)

The VoIP service, Skype, is warning users about a new Windows worm spreading through the company's chat message service. A post on Skype's Heartbeat Blog says that computers already infected by the worm will send a chat message to other users, which, according to Skype, is "cleverly written and may appear to be a legitimate chat message."
more...

Drexel Hosts 'PodCamp Philly' on New Media Apps (Campus Technology)

Drexel University hosted a conference last week on new media applications, a "PodCamp" to "promote the use of new media to television, newspapers, radio, businesses, educators, and individuals." The conference was free to "podcasters and listeners, bloggers and readers, and anyone interested in new media."
more...

Apple iPhone Sales Hit 1M (eWEEK)

The milestone comes just 74 days after its launch and three weeks ahead of schedule.
more...

Engineering a new curriculum (CNET News.com)

Engineering and social sciences--it sounds like a bad mix for a dinner party. But S. Shankar Sastry, the dean of the college of engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, says it's the wave of the future.
more...

Prototyping for a Web 2.0 Target.com: A Mini-Case Study (Baseline)

'Wireframes' become a thing of the past, replaced by interactive mockups that give planners a richer preview of new features.
more...

Google boosts enterprise Apps with IT support from Capgemini (Computerworld)

The search company teams with Capgemini to provide big companies with service, support for the Web-based office suite
more...

Eudora e-mail program reborn as open source (Reuters)

Eudora, a pioneering e-mail program named after author Eudora Welty, is rising from a technical grave as an open source program after owner Qualcomm Inc quit selling the product in May.
more...

Apple, partners announce iTunes Tagging for HD radios (ars technica)

If you keep forgetting that one song by that one artist while on the road, a new iTunes Tagging feature coming to HD Radios will make it even easier for you to remember and buy tracks once you get home.
more...

Talks under way to put Intel inside OLPC's $100 notebook (Network World)

Discussions are under way to put an Intel microprocessor inside a version of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project's "$100 laptop" for children in developing countries, according to representatives from both parties.
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Opinion: The Fox and the Hedgehog (Campus Technology)

There's a business management principle known as the "hedgehog concept." The whole thing apparently comes from a Greek poet, Archilochus, who wrote: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Okay, so right away I think, "I want to be a fox!" But, no. Apparently, in the business world, the thing to be is a hedgehog.
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Microsoft opening up on the Web (CNET News.com)

On the PC, Microsoft may not be writing every program that people use, but by controlling the operating system, the company has maintained a dominant position. The company is in the early stages of trying to carve out a similar role on the Internet.
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Microsoft whips up virtualization spin ahead of VMWorld (Network World)

Microsoft Thursday went on the offensive saying its first virtual machine management tool would ship next month and spinning its virtualization wares and strategy days ahead of rival VMware’s annual conference scheduled for next week.
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iPod gets touchy, with price cut (CNET News.com)

Apple announced on Wednesday a complete overhaul of its line of iPod portable music players and a significant cut in the price of its recently released iPhone.
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Editorial: Ethnic Diversity in IT Presents CIOs With Challenges (CIO Insight)

Ethnic and sexual diversity are good for IT, and CIOs must demonstrate leadership in managing cultural differences to create an inviting workplace for all.
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Berkeley Warns Freshman To 'Learn Before You Burn' (Campus Technology)

University of California, Berkeley has mounted a publicity campaign to warn its incoming freshman class of the consequences of downloading copyrighted music.
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iPhone unlockers lining up (Network World)

Two claims of unlocking Apple's iPhone have surfaced in recent days and a third is set to be announced Saturday.
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'Second Life': The promise and paradox (CNET News.com)

In Second Life, avatars can fly with the push of a button. Maybe that's why it seems like the virtual world's enthusiasts sometimes have trouble staying grounded.
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Report: Google Mobile Phone launch imminent (Network World)

A Google mobile phone, which many have dubbed a gPhone (similar to iPhone), is set to be launched in two weeks, according to Rediff News. According to the India-based news source Google is in talks with several Indian developers to create a mobile platform supporting instant messaging, search functions, and data and content delivery.
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Taiwan's Acer to buy Gateway (Reuters)

Taiwan's Acer Inc will buy Gateway Inc for $710 million to double its U.S. presence and unseat China's Lenovo as the world's No. 3 PC maker, while dealing a blow to its efforts to grow in Europe.
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iPhone set free from AT&T with first full software unlock (ars technica)

The iPhone is free ... from AT&T, that is. A full software unlock has been developed by a team of hackers that allows users to use the device with any GSM network anywhere in the world.
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CIOs Want Their Web 2.0 Applications (CIO Insight)

CIO Insight asked CIOs who participated in this month's Emerging Technologies Survey to tell them which Web 2.0 applications they use personally. It turns out they're avid consumers of many of these technologies.
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10 virtualization companies to watch - Network World

These technology innovators promise products that boost performance, make management easier or otherwise enhance your virtualization experience
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Linux felon forced to install Windows (ZDNet)

A Linux user who was jailed for uploading a film onto a peer-to-peer service has been told he will have to switch to Windows if he wants to use a computer again.

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21 Bullish Predictions For Tech (Minyanville)

If close to half of this list is fulfilled over the next 6-12 months, then the market outlook should prove quite correct. If more than half hits, then the tech sector should produce returns well above positive expectations:

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