Google Inc. will begin selling corporate America an online suite of software that includes e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets and calendar management, escalating the Internet search leader’s invasion on technological turf traditionally dominated by Microsoft and IBM.

The expansion, scheduled to be unveiled Thursday, threatens to bog down Microsoft Corp.’s efforts to persuade businesses to buy the latest version of its market-leading Office suite that was developed along with its new Vista operating system.

Google’s software bundle, to be sold for a $50 annual fee per user, also poses a challenge to International Business Machines Corp. and its Lotus suite.

View: Full Story @ newsday.com

News that iTunes for Windows isn’t yet ready for Microsoft’s new operating system emerged earlier this week, with Apple warning PC folk to hold off on a Vista upgrade pending the release of updates.

Today’s tech support document names a range of additional Windows applications from Apple that don’t support that new operating system.

These include: QuickTime, the iPod shuffle reset utility, Bonjour for Windows, AirPort for Windows, the iDisk utility, AppleWorks for Windows, and Apple Software Update for Windows. The stand-alone iPod updater for iTunes 6 for Windows also isn’t ready for Vista.

View: Full Story @ ITWorld.com

A quiet change Microsoft has made in the rendering engine used by Outlook 2007 is beginning to sink in among individuals who have gotten accustomed to having the Internet Explorer (IE) engine render HTML e-mail messages. And the reaction of many is one of anger and disbelief.

“While the IE team was soothing the tortured souls of web developers everywhere with the new, more compliant Internet Explorer 7, the Office team pulled a fast one, ripping out the IE-based rendering engine that Outlook has always used for email, and replacing it with … drum roll please … Microsoft Word,” according to a post by Kevin Yank on SitePoint blogs.

Yank continued: “Not only that, but this new rendering engine isn’t any better than that which Outlook previously used—indeed, it’s far worse. With this release, Outlook drops from being one of the best clients for HTML email support to the level of Lotus Notes and Eudora.”

View: Full Story Via: All About Microsoft

Google revealed a glitch in what may be its second-most successful service, ranking only behind search.

The company confirmed Friday that some users of Gmail, its popular email service, had their email accounts wiped out, with messages and contact information being permanently deleted.

The glitch affected about 60 users, who “lost some or all of their email received prior to Dec. 18,” Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne wrote in a prepared statement. “We have extensive safeguards in place to protect email stored with Gmail and we are confident that this is a small and isolated incident.”

View: Full Story Via: TheStreet.com

Criminal gangs using hijacked computers are behind a surge in unwanted e-mails peddling sex, drugs and stock tips.

The number of “spam” messages has tripled since June and now accounts for as many as nine out of 10 e-mails sent worldwide, according to U.S. email security company Postini.

As Christmas approaches, the daily trawl through in-boxes clogged with offers of fake Viagra, loans and sex aids is tipped to take even longer.

“E-mail systems are overloaded or melting down trying to keep up with all the spam,” said Dan Druker, a vice president at Postini.

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News source: CNN

As malware is increasingly written with a specific target in mind, antivirus firms are deploying more intelligent detection tools and creating unique signatures for individual clients.

Over the past few years, malware attacks have evolved from a sawn-off shotgun approach, where a virus is released into the wild with the objective of infecting as many computers as possible, to a sniper approach, where Trojans are specifically crafted to spy on a particular company or even an individual.

Eric Ouellet, a research vice president in Gartner’s security, risk and privacy group, said that targeted attacks are among the most difficult to defend against.vSpeaking at the Gartner Symposium in Sydney last week, Ouellet said: “They are not indiscriminately firing a bullet and hoping it will hit somebody. They are aiming it at a computer or person.

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News source: ZDNet

Here’s something abandonware enthusiasts can be thankful for: the Library of Congress yesterday approved six exemptions to US copyright. The one most pertinent to gamers is that, for archival purposes, copy protection on software no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder can be cracked.

What does this mean? Well, those retro games — classic or otherwise — that you can’t seem to find anywhere can now be preserved without fear of ramifications. Although it is still unlawful to distribute the old games, free or otherwise, rarely do any abandonware cases go to court. The ruling is more symbolic than anything, but a step in the right direction.

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News source: Joystiq.com

When asked last month whether Microsoft was planning to punish alleged Office 2007 pirates by crippling the functionality of their software in the same way that Microsoft is doing with Vista via reduced-functionality mode, Microsoft officials were noncommittal.

But now Microsoft’s intentions are clear: Just as it is doing with Vista, Microsoft plans to incorporate what basically amounts to a “kill switch” into Office 2007. Office 2007 users who can’t or won’t pass activation muster within a set time period will be moved into “reduced-functionality mode,” according to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article.

“When a program runs in reduced-functionality mode, many commands are unavailable (dimmed). Therefore, you cannot access those functionalities,” the article explains. “Some of the limitations of reduced-functionality mode include the following:

• You cannot create new documents.

• You can view existing documents. However, you cannot edit them.

• You can print documents. However you cannot save them.”

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News source: All About Microsoft

Webroot Software Inc., known for its anti-spyware program Spy Sweeper, is bringing back a product to help parents limit where and how long their children go online.

Child Safe joins Web filtering programs like Net Nanny, CYBERsitter and ContentProtect in the parental-control arena. The program is listed for $39.95 for a one-year subscription for use on up to three computers.

One of Webroot’s early products was a similar program, but it was discontinued because demand at the time wasn’t heavy. Amid concerns of online predators finding teens through social networking sites or chat rooms, the time is right to bring it out again, CEO David Moll said.

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News source: Forbes