Nate Mook

Ending months of speculation, Apple has announced a final launch date for the next release of Mac OS X. Version 10.4, known as Tiger, will go on sale beginning at 6pm on Friday, April 29. Tiger promises to bring Mac users over 200 new features, including Apple's Spotlight search technology and Dashboard desktop widgets.

Mac OS X version 10.4 reportedly reached "gold master" status at the end of March in preparation for April's launch. Amazon.com recently began taking pre-orders for the new release, which has shot to #1 on the online store's best seller list.

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In the race to bring dual-core processors to the market, Intel may have a leg up on rival AMD. The company announced at the Intel Developer Forum in Taiwan that dual-core "Extreme Edition" chips have begun shipping to customers and could reach consumers before the end of the month.

"We just passed an important milestone," Abhi Talwalkar, general manager of Intel's digital enterprise group, said in a statement. "Intel is shipping the Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 running at 3.2 GHz and Intel 955X Express Chipsets, Intel's first dual-core processor-based platform, to our customers."

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PERSPECTIVE If the tough prison sentence against criminal spammer Jeremy Jaynes holds up through appeals, I imagine his first day in the slammer will go something like this:

Bubba: Hey new guy. Whatcha in for?

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Microsoft said on Monday it has signed intellectual property licensing agreements with a number of companies that will use technology developed by Microsoft Research, as well as Windows fonts and Windows Connect Now.

Inrix, a Seattle-area company, will build its business around real-time traffic prediction software from Microsoft Research. Inrix will be the exclusive third-party licensee of technologies code-named "SmartPhlow," "JamBayes" and "ZoneZoom."

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Microsoft and Gateway have finally agreed to settle all outstanding claims that arose in the mid-1990s during the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust suit against Redmond. Microsoft continues to deny liability, but will pay Gateway $150 million to put the claims behind it.

During the United States v. Microsoft case, District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson specifically identified Gateway as being harmed from Microsoft's business tactics. Although the statute of limitations regarding the claims expired in late 2003, the two companies signed an extension while a compromise could be worked out.

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IBM and Sanyo have unveiled a prototype methanol-powered fuel cell system for ThinkPad notebooks, which claims to provide up to 8 hours of additional battery life per cartridge. Unlike other fuel cell designs for laptops, Sanyo's prototype requires no hardware modification and works with existing ThinkPad batteries.

Sanyo's fuel cell will supplementing current functionality, rather than radically changing power design in portable computers. It connects to a ThinkPad like a docking station and includes an auxiliary bay for charging an additional battery.

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America Online and XM Satellite Radio have forged a partnership to create a new Web-based radio service that will replace both companies' current online offerings. The co-branded service will be free to all Web users, with a premium counterpart that includes more stations for a small monthly fee.

Following its new open portal strategy of exposing its content and services to consumers outside its "walled garden" of subscribers, AOL will make 130 of its radio stations and 20 XM stations available for unlimited listening at no cost.

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A Virginia judge has sentenced spammer Jeremy Jaynes to nine years in prison for sending over 10 million e-mails a day with the aid of 16 broadband lines. Because the case marks the first felony prosecution for spam, however, Judge Thomas Horne postponed the sentence while the ruling is appealed.

Jeremy Jaynes, who was considered one of the top ten spammers in the world by Spamhaus, was found guilty last November and the jury recommended a nine-year prison term. Jaynes' lawyers contended that the Virginia law under which he was prosecuted violated free speech rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

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April 12 is slated to bring more than just a forced download of Windows XP Service Pack 2: Microsoft is preparing eight security updates for its next monthly "Patch Tuesday." 5 of the fixes involved Windows and some are deemed "critical." Critical patches will also be issued for MSN Messenger, Microsoft Office and Exchange.

In order to protect customers, Microsoft does not release specific details of security updates before their release. It's not clear whether the MSN Messenger hole affects version 7.0, which launched early Thursday.

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For once, the roles have reversed and Google is taking a page from Microsoft's playbook. The search giant on Thursday added a feature called Google Q&A to search queries, which provides facts and answers to questions above results. Microsoft added a similar feature to its new MSN Search using Encarta.

Those who have dreamed of the portable Google machine to check facts during long-winded arguments can rest easy - answers can also be pulled up from a mobile phone using SMS text messages. Google has long offered the ability to pull up local and address information via phone.

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One month before Microsoft's next-generation Xbox makes its much-anticipated debut at E3 in Los Angeles, Microsoft has announced a lineup of over 25 game publishers that will develop titles for the new platform. The company says its revamped Xbox will usher in a new era of high-definition gaming.

A console is only as good as its games, so Microsoft has assembled the industry's top publishers, including 2KGames, Atari, Electronic Arts, Sega, Konami, Midway, Rockstar and more. The publishers will be backed by Microsoft's own Game Studios, which is comprised of ten different game developers.

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Despite a report stating that videogame outlets had not sold out of Sony's new PlayStation Portable as expected, Sony says it has generated $150 million during the PSP's first week of sales in the United States. The Japanese company says 500,000 PSP Value Packs were sold in the first two days.

In a survey conducted at the end of March across 150 retail locations, American Technology Research found that only one-third of the locations had sold out. Of the remaining stores, 15 had less than three units in stock.

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TiVo announced late Wednesday it had purchased six patents covering interactive television from IBM, giving the digital video recorder maker a total of 76 United States patents. The new additions specifically cover audience measurement, integration of Internet with TV, and content searching, TiVo said.

The patents were originally filed for an IBM digital video group that no longer exists, and also include information searches and enhancements to the electronic program guide. Patents have become a critical asset in the technology industry these days, and TiVo has previously sued satellite TV provider Echostar for infringement.

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Microsoft has pushed back its version of Windows for supercomputers, acknowledging Wednesday that it was six months behind on the operating system. The high-end Windows Server 2003, dubbed Corporate Cluster Edition, is being crafted to tackle intensive parallel computing workloads, and to deploy and manage clusters.

The product, formerly known as Windows Server High Performance Computing Edition, was announced last June with a final ship date slated for the end of 2005. Last week, Microsoft officials said a beta release would be made in the first half of this year.

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Linux vendor Mandrakesoft has announced it will change its company name to Mandriva following its merger with Conectiva and a legal battle over using the name Mandrake. The company's popular Linux distribution will now be called Mandriva Linux, and officials ask users to begin promoting the new name.

"The long-winding trademark lawsuit with Hearst Corporation has reached a point where we decided it is more reasonable for us to move forward," Mandriva said in a statement. "By adopting a new name, we eliminate the liability attached to the Mandrakesoft name and we can focus on what is important to us: developing and delivering great technology and solutions to both our customers and our user community."

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