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Microsoft and News Corp in discussions over Bing News

Tom Warren — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:13:24 +0000

The Financial Times is reporting that Microsoft and News Corp has held discussions over a plan that would see Rupert Murdoch "de-index" his websites from Google. Murdoch originally hinted at plans to charge for online content at sites such as The Sun, The Times or the Wall Street Journal. Earlier this month the media giant said he may block his sites from Google's index entirely.

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Smoking near Mac voids warranty

Elliot Harrison — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:59:33 +0000

In a rather bizarre situation reported on The Consumerist website, it turns out that smoking near your Apple computer is a bio hazard and voids the warranty. There is very little doubt as to the repurcussions of smoking a pack of ten per day, however one would never think it would affect a laptop's warranty. If you have a Mac, it does. Two readers in different parts of the country claim that their Applecare warranties were voided due to secondhand smoke. Both readers appealed their cases up to the office of Steve Jobs himself, both lost.

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Spotify launched for Nokia phones

Tom Warren — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:58:01 +0000

Spotify, the popular music streaming service, has announced an application for Nokia Symbian devices. The software not only runs on a host of different Nokia Symbian devices but also on the Samsung GT-I7110 , Samsung i8910 Omnia HD and Sony Ericsson Satio. Spotify is a multi-platform application which provides access to a free and legal barrage of online music. It's a streaming music player which has a similar feel to iTunes. Through it a user can get links to a large number of albums and tracks. Spotify use a peer-to-peer network along with streaming servers to provide their music. Spotify Mobile is also available on the iPhone and Android devices.

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Death and Social Networking

Mitchell LeBlanc — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:48:59 +0000

Ever wondered what happens to Facebook profiles when their owner dies? As we previously reported, the social networking giant implements memorial pages. It can be quite depressing for family and friends to login to their Facebook profiles and see it suggested that they poke the deceased. The Globe and Mail recently reported about Amelia Shaw, who sees it suggested that she connect with her deceased friend every time she logs in. Simply closing the accounts of the deceased seems to be more difficult than it seems. Facebook commented that with over 300 million users, they cannot possibly know who has passed away. As such, they've implemented a system wherein family can notify the company of a user's death.

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Ballmer: Windows 7 sales are "fantastic"

Andrew Lyle — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:16:09 +0000

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has a lot to be excited about, with the great success that is Windows 7. Steve Ballmer announced at the shareholders meeting that Windows 7 has sold more than double of any previous version of Windows ever sold, in a comparable time. Even though Ballmer never officially announced how many units of Windows 7 were sold in the first month of release, The Wall Street Journal released an estimated number of 40 million units, comparing that Windows Vista sold 20 million in the first month. "Since launch, we've already sold twice as many units of Windows 7 than any other operating system we've ever launched in a comparable time," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said.

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Google to shut down GrandCentral website

Joshua Seed — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:38:03 +0000

As stated in an email to GrandCentral users, Google will shut down the website to their earlier telephone service prior to Google Voice, on December 31, 2009. Users were upgraded to Google Voice earlier this year, but old GrandCentral messages are still stored on the old website. Google suggests that those who wish to keep their messages, download them before the December deadline. The email reads as follows: From: voice-noreply@grandcentral.com Date: November 20, 2009 11:55:25 PM PST To: Subject: The GrandCentral website is shutting down – GrandCentral is now Google Voice. Dear GrandCentral User: We're writing to let you know that we will be closing down the GrandCentral website as of December 31, 2009.

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Twitter use declines further

Elliot Harrison — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:03:51 +0000

After a huge rush of success at its birth, the social networking website Twitter is seeing substantially less tweets as time goes on for US users. According to an article at eMarketer following spectacular initial growth, fall 2009 is proving to be a difficult time for Twitter. Although it has not been unusual to see changes in the amount of traffic Twitter gains, one thing remains plain to see: traffic to the Twitter.com website is declining month over month after a period of huge gains. According to data provided to eMarketer by Nielsen, traffic to Twitter.com was down a substantial 27.8% between September and October 2009, falling to 18.9 million unique visitors.

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Record company executive arrested for not posting on Twitter

Sam Symons — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:19:16 +0000

Twitter has grown exponentially in the last few years, with it now being a highly used way for news and announcements to spread. However, this got a bit out of hand when a record company executive for Justin Bieber was arrested, after not telling fans at a mall to leave. According to News Day, there was an album signing event scheduled for Friday, with Justin Bieber to attend, which caused a vast amount of fans to show up.

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Internet Explorer exploit published online

Andrew Lyle — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:18:49 +0000

An exploit for Internet Explorer was published online yesterday, showing signs of poor reliability. Symantec confirmed that the exploit affects Internet Explorer 6 and 7. Experts believe a fully functional version of the exploit will be made available in the coming weeks. The exploit requires the hacker to lure the victim onto a malicious website or a compromised webpage. Whatever method is used, the attack requires javascript on Internet Explorer. Symantec found the vulnerability in Microsoft Data Access Components, which could allow a Remote Code Execution on a user's system. Users are cautioned to disable javascript on Internet Explorer, avoid websites they do not trust, and update their anti-virus definitions immediately.

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Paint.NET 3.5.1

Marcel Klum — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:05:22 +0000

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

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