Yahoo launches 'Shine' Web site for women
In its plan to concentrate more of its efforts on improving its status as a portal, Yahoo continues to roll out new properties and products, this week adding "Shine," a new Web site for women.
According to Brandon Holley, Shine's editor-in-chief, Shine will combine content from three main sources: the "best bloggers and writers" from women's magazines and online sites; other Yahoo vehicles, such as Yahoo Food and Yahoo Tech; and thirdly, Shine's readers themselves.
Sony BMG accused of using pirated software
Small French software developer PointDev is suing Sony BMG saying it uses pirated copies of PointDev's Ideal Migration software.
The application manages Windows domain consolidations and provides migration tools to move networks to Windows 2000 and 2003. Sony is being accused of using this software without a license.
Adobe releases alpha of AIR for Linux, joins Linux Foundation
Is Adobe playing catch-up in the open source development field? Or is the open source community not giving it enough of that valuable feedback it's so well-known for. This morning, Adobe's giving the community an extra chance.
The stated goal of Adobe since 2006 has been to build an operating environment using its Flash technologies, that is truly cross-platform and that can run offline. To accomplish that for real, Adobe needed to embrace more platforms outside the traditional box than just Macintosh; so today, even if the current build isn't ready for prime time, the company released what it's describing as a feature-incomplete version of the AIR platform for Linux.
Virgin Media to begin penalizing users for illegal downloads
The British ISP is set to throw down the gauntlet on those who download music by disconnecting those who fail to heed warnings.
Trade group British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is working with Virgin to implement a "three strikes" policy, which would initially deal with music downloads. However, film and television studios are also being invited to participate, meaning any illicit downloads could be penalized.
Dell's new approach to the Vista migration problem
According to at least one Dell official, despite recent debacles with SP1, the business client migration to Windows Vista continues undaunted. A new Dell Client Migration Solution, unveiled this week, includes services and tools designed to ease businesses' migration burden.
Although Windows Vista still isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea, Dell this week rolled out a new set of services and tools "optimized" for organizations moving to the OS that customers who've already made the shift either really like...or really don't.
Preview of new Windows Search adds cross-PC indexing
A typical lexical search engine creates a single, indexed repository of addressable content, which can get pretty cumbersome to search through unless your name is "Google." Now, Microsoft is shedding a little more light on an alternative.
One very seldom noted project at Microsoft is an offshoot of the old WinFS file system project, and which is slowly seeing the light of day, just through another route: It's the ability for one PC's local search engine database to access another PC's index. Imagine a kind of peer-to-peer distributed search environment rather than a centralized repository, a more "open" approach compared to the more organic, nuclear model that Microsoft attributes to Google.
Boom! 20th anniversary Madden NFL coming in August
Game maker Electronic Arts today publicly announced that Madden NFL 09 will be released in North America on Tuesday, August 12, with a 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition also in the mix.
The most important aspect of the Collector's Edition is that it will come bundled with NFL Head Coach 09, which was originally supposed to be a stand-alone title. In fact, the game also had a full-fledged development team working on it, but EA decided to bundle it in the Collector's Edition rather than market a two-title bundle with a $30 higher price tag. The 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition will include Madden NFL 09, additional Madden NFL gameplay, and access to additional bonus videos otherwise unavailable to gamers.
AT&T Mobile MediaFLO TV launches in May
Well over a year after it announced it had wrested a major digital TV platform announcement away from Sprint, AT&T finally said this morning it would be debuting MediaFLO service in the US next month.
More information about the upcoming service -- for instance, what it will be named, which exclusive channels it will supply -- will be announced at CTIA in Las Vegas. In the meantime, we do know AT&T's launch devices will include LG's Vu and Samsung's Access.
Eastern Europe: The next silicon valley?
One key to driving healthier economies in the countries of Eastern Europe, particularly in the former Soviet republics, could be significant investments in Web 2.0 development. Could Eastern Europe foster its own Silicon Valley?
UNITED NATIONS (BetaNews) - The Soviet Union had its own technology capital once, though you might be surprised to learn it wasn't located in the Russian Republic.
Verizon Wireless puts a social spin on maps
Technology from a company called Loopt will help Verizon Wireless create a new social network that allows friends to use GPS technology to locate other friends and share geo-tagged photos for a small fee per month.
Users of the Loopt service are able to create a network of mutual friends and relatives who can all be located via an on-screen map. They can then share their own location, along with geo-tagged photos, with people in their phone address book or AOL Instant Messenger buddy lists.
IBM debuts beta of Lotus Symphony 4.0 for Linux
The Armonk, N.Y. company's software is based on code from OpenOffice, and is being marketing as an alternative to Microsoft Office.
Symphony is based on the Open Document Format standard, and includes tools for users to import Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF files into the suite. IBM says this would make it easier to integrate the suite into current deployments.
Cat and mouse game continues for EA and Take-Two
EA's hostile takeover of Take-Two Interactive that began earlier this month has received an extension until the day before Grand Theft Auto IV is to be released.
This week, a defensive effort was adopted by Take-Two, which in the business vernacular is referred to as a "poison pill." Poison pills commonly take the form of stockholders' rights plans, which steer hostile takeover bids away from stockholders and back toward the board of directors.
Newest Safari browsers find themselves shooting gallery targets
Apple could soon find itself the #5 PC producer in the US. Part of the cost of success is prolonged exposure to a more intense spotlight, and when more people are looking at your close-ups, they tend to notice your wrinkles.
It's unusual for Apple to be the one fighting a two-front battle for browser security. But today it's the one that feels like it's being pummeled with tomatoes normally reserved for Microsoft. Yesterday, the latest Safari running on a MacBook Air actually went down first in a public contest for security engineers, just days after an Argentine researcher discovered that a very old JavaScript page spoofing routine could direct Safari for Windows to just about any address.
Dell releases first sub $1,000 Blu-ray laptop
Texas computer manufacturer Dell said Friday that it will start shipping its Inspiron 1525 notebooks with the build-to-order option for a Blu-ray drive.
Pricing with the Blu-ray drive added starts at $879. Users need to select the laptop with at least a 1.83GHz processor, and one of the 1525's non-Celeron processor models in order to add the drive.
New version of Aperture introduces plug-ins
Apple's latest release of Aperture adds functionality that allows third-parties to extend the photo editing suite's functionality.
The move could be seen as a warning to Adobe, whose Photoshop application has long supported third-party plug-ins. It also signals that Apple is serious about Aperture providing an alternative to the popular program.
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