Ian Paul

MSN (Microsoft Network) has launched a flashy celebrity gossip and news site called Wonderwall . Why, you ask? Well, as Microsoft sees it, web-based celebrity gossip is more popular than social networking, gaming or shopping. According to research ... by Microsoft's button down experts, 84% of American Internet users visit a celebrity gossip site at least once a month. So the MSN team got together with BermanBraun Interactive -- a growing powerhouse in online entertainment -- to create a new site that attempts to give users that flipping-through-a-magazine feel. (Source: microsoft.com ) To ... (view more)

Malware was on the rise last year, and 2009 doesn't look much better. Reports from two different security companies, AVG and F-secure, are painting an increasingly dangerous picture of our online world. F-secure, makers of real-time virus protection ... software, reports that detections of malware have tripled since 2007. Topping their list were botnets -- a network of infected computers, sometimes called zombies -- which can be remotely controlled by hackers without the knowledge of the computer's owner. There is no hard data on how many zombified computers are out there, but by F-secure's ... (view more)

Chip maker Intel wants to bring power to your mobile device. At a press event in San Francisco on December 5, Justin Rattner, the company's chief technical officer, unveiled Intel's vision for sensors that "scavenge" the environment for power ... sources. Called a Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) the technology could continually scan the environment for possible energy sources. The WISP then takes in power through a variety of means, including solar and other light sources, body heat, radiation from cell phone towers, WiFi and television signals -- even the energy ... (view more)

iPhone developers are rejoicing after Apple recently lifted its Non-Disclosure Agreement for iPhone software. In a statement on the company's website, Apple said, "We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone ... software. We put the NDA in place because the iPhone operating system (OS) includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect... However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone's success, so we are dropping it for released software." (Source: apple.com ... (view more)

Norway's leading consumer advocate wants to bring down Apple's "walled garden" between the iPod music player and the iTunes online retail store. Bjorn Erik Thon, Norway's consumer ombudsman, says he is going to ask the country's Market Council -- a ... court that has legal authority to make companies change their business practices -- to force Apple to allow competition within the iTunes-iPod ecosphere. (Source: guardian.co.uk ) Currently, Apple's iPod is the only portable device that can sync with iTunes and the iTunes store. Since its launch in 2003, The iTunes Store, Apple's online retail arm ... (view more)

A consortium of Hollywood studios, retailers, service providers and other tech companies are banding together to liberalize digital media while still retaining property rights. Called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), the group's ... basic premise is to give users the ability to store digital content remotely and access it anywhere across multiple platforms including home-based and portable players. DECE members are hoping their plan will replace the "ease and comfort" that users now experience with DVDs. (Source: reuters.com ) Of course, in a digital world the rules are a ... (view more)

Google recently unveiled a brand new web browser that may very well revolutionize your Internet experience. Called 'Chrome', Google claims it presents a fresh approach to web browsing: "In the early days of the Internet, web pages were frequently ... little more than text...But today the web has evolved into a powerful platform that enables users to collaborate with friends and colleagues through email and other web applications, edit documents, watch videos, listen to music, manage finances and much more. Google Chrome was built for today's web and for the applications of tomorrow." (Source: ... (view more)

The social music discovery service iLike has unveiled a new deal with Real Networks' Rhapsody digital music service. iLike users will now be able to listen to full-length song playbacks on their profiles, and on iLike's Facebook application. There ... are limitations, however: iLike users will only be able to access unlimited playbacks if they are also a Rhapsody Unlimited member, otherwise users are limited to 25 playbacks per month (Rhapsody also offers a free account on its own site with the same limitations). After the limit is reached you can choose between signing up for your own Rhapsody ... (view more)

After months of speculation and board room wrangling, the fate of Yahoo! is officially decided. Earlier in the week, Carl Icahn and the Yahoo! board came to an agreement over the future of the beleaguered Internet portal. Under the terms of the ... deal, eight members of the board will stay on including Chairman Roy Bostock, Ronald Burkle, Eric Hippeau, Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur Kern, Mary Agnes Wilderotter, Gary Wilson and CEO Jerry Yang. Robert Kotick will step down from the board and be replaced by Icahn. The board will also enlarge to include two more members for a total of 11, and both spots ... (view more)

They're at it again. Earlier this week, Microsoft, Icahn and Yahoo! all released competing statements about recent talks between the three parties. Another endless discussion in an endless fight for corporate control wouldn't rate coverage at this ... point, but in this case it's interesting to note that Microsoft and Icahn felt they needed to 'set the record straight. ' Did Yahoo! lie or just misinterpret the most recent events? You be the judge. On July 14, Yahoo released a statement rejecting the most recent offer from Microsoft to obtain the search component of Yahoo's business. According to ... (view more)