[Software News] Application builders in the sky
[Software News] Gogimon Launches Aggregated Web Search App
Israel-based Gogimon wants to change the way you search, with its new desktop app that combines results from all three major web-search engines—Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Live Search. Since it's a locally installed program, the tool can learn your search habits and personalize results without requiring you to send your search history to the company's servers, as is necessary with G...
[Software News] New Post Web section to send readers elsewhere
NEW YORK - The Washington Post is launching a new Web section linking readers to the best of political coverage — even scoops by rival newspapers. The idea behind the Political Browser, expected to start Monday, is to brief political junkies on the top "must reads" of the day, from an article on a scandal to a humorous video making the rounds on Google Inc.'s YouTube. Encouraging readers to lea...
[Software News] McAfee to pay $465 million for Secure Computing
BOSTON (Reuters) - Computer security company McAfee Inc (MFE.N) plans to buy Secure Computing Corp (SCUR.O) for $465 million, adding specialized equipment that keeps hackers from breaking into computer networks. The move, McAfee's biggest acquisition to date, helps the No. 2 computer security company expand the bundle of products it can sell to businesses. The deal also boosts the nu...
[Software News] SanDisk and Music Companies To Offer Digital Music
Owners of MP3 players and microSD-enabled phones will soon be able to listen to their favorite tunes without Digital Rights Management issues, passwords, or even an Internet connection. SanDisk, together with Sony, Universal and Warner Bros., has developed microSD cards called slotMusic cards with "more stuff in less space." The new cards will allow users to listen to preloaded music,...
[Software News] Why the Palin Hack Could Happen Again and Again
How can you prevent a Palin webmail hack from happening to you? The short answer: you can't. Yahoo has no immediate plans to overhaul its e-mail security procedures after a hacker last week gained access to Sarah Palin's private Yahoo Mail account, the company said Monday. Instead, it is reviewing security processes on an industry-wide basis. Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Hotma...
[Software News] Bank of America site goes down
The Web site for Bank of America was down on Monday for some customers, a spokeswoman for the bank said. Tara Burke cited "temporary systems issues" and declined to say what the cause was or whether it was related to Bank of America's proposed purchase of Merrill Lynch or other recent turmoil on Wall Street. "We've had sporadic interruption of online banking service. It d...
[Software News] Intel Ships Dual-Core Atom for Specialized Desktops
Intel has begun shipping a new dual-core Atom processor for use in "nettops" -- affordable desktop computers that are expected to be purpose-built primarily for Web surfing, e-mail and basic Internet usage. The Atom 330 is priced at $43 in 1,000-unit quantities. Overall, Intel expects its new Atom chips to fuel an increase in the number of PC deployments per household in the more affl...
[Software News] Comcast Submits Its Network-Management Plan to FCC
Comcast, which has been under scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission for how it allocates bandwidth for heavy users, submitted its formal broadband management plan on Friday. Without notification and without posting a policy, Comcast had targeted users who employed peer-to-peer file sharing. Under the new plan, the company will slow speeds for the heaviest users when traffic conges...
[Software News] T-Mobile set to launch first Google-powered phone
NEW YORK - Google Inc.'s announcement last year that it would give away software that could run cell phones was met by dizzy accolades from analysts who thought it would let the search engine company conquer the world of mobile advertising. On Tuesday, a fruit of that announcement is set to drop: T-Mobile USA will reveal the first phone to use Android, Google's software platform, at a New York news ...
[Software News] Yahoo begin biggest overhaul ever of its home page
SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc is moving ahead on Thursday with a radical redesign of its home page -- the most heavily trafficked site on the Web -- making changes that give users a personalized view of the wider Web. The Internet media giant is under the gun to deliver on year-old promises to transform Yahoo from a network of more or less insular properties into "starting point...
[Software News] First Google Android phone to cost $199: WSJ
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The first mobile phone to use Google Inc's Android mobile operating software will cost $199, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Wednesday. The phone, which features a slide-out keypad, is being manufactured by Taiwan's HTC Corp and will be sold by Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA unit, which plans to unveil the device at an event in New York on S...
[Software News] Google co-founder Sergey Brin begins blogging
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google co-founder Sergey Brin has started a blog, candidly telling of being at risk for Parkinson's Disease and plugging his wife's genetic testing start-up firm. While Brin is no stranger to news-making webcasts and online press announcements, he made a blogging debut Thursday by sharing personal musings in a post at the Blogger weblogging website Goog...
[Software News] Suspect Nabbed in Palin E-mail Hack
In the wake of hacking the Yahoo! e-mail account of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Web sleuths and the Feds may have nabbed the perpetrator. Meanwhile, Associated Press reporters were apparently in e-mail conversation with the suspect even as authorities were attempting to track him down. According to reports in Knoxville's Tennessean, Democrat State Representative Mike Kernell ad...
[Software News] Web problems hit release of al Qaeda 9/11 video
DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda video marking the anniversary of the September 11 attacks has appeared on the Internet more than a week late due to technical problems. The delay of the much-touted 87-minute video, caused in part by the main Islamist websites crashing, has thwarted al Qaeda's yearly celebration of its attacks on U.S. cities in 2001. Parts of the video -- a compilation of ...
[Software News] EFF sues U.S. over NSA surveillance program
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Bush administration on behalf of AT&T customers to halt what it called the "massively illegal" warrantless surveillance of Americans' Internet and telephone communications. In addition to suing the National Security Agency, the nonprofit Internet advocacy group also names President George Bush, Vice Presiden...
[Software News] Clip strategy links Lionsgate, YouTube
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Lionsgate has set up shop on YouTube. The studio quietly introduced a new branded channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/LionsgateShop) on the popular video site this week, with dozens of clips from its library linked to DVD and download-to-own film opportunities. The site is an outgrowth of an ad revenue deal signed by Lionsgate and YouTube's Google parent in July. ...
[Software News] Cisco to buy messaging software company Jabber
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc said on Friday it plans to buy privately held Jabber Inc, which specializes in instant messaging software, to bolster its own line of Internet-based communications products. The two companies did not disclose financial terms. Denver-based Jabber provides open instant messaging technology that supports different devices and applications, and allows use...
[Software News] eBay looking to unload StumbleUpon?
eBay's tie-up with StumbleUpon may be about to tumble. According to a report in TechCrunch, eBay has hired Deutsche Bank to handle a sale of its Web site discovery service StumbleUpon, which it acquired a little over a year ago for roughly $75 million. StumbleUpon takes a gander at the Web sites that people have visited and makes recommendations about other sites and videos that they may li...
[Software News] Democracy of language in new Internet dictionary
LONDON (Reuters) - Not satisfied with regular updates of printed dictionaries compiled by professionals, a new website has thrown open the definition of words to all comers. Wordia.com offers everyone the chance to record and upload a video of themselves defining their chosen word in a complete democratization of the language that will have Samuel Johnson, the compiler of the first dictionar...