Verizon Wireless has obtained a permanent injunction blocking a Miami telemarketer from making automated calls to its customers, the cellular phone company said Thursday.

The injunction comes after Verizon Wireless reached an agreement with All Star Vacations and Marketing Group Inc., which Verizon sued in February, along with another Florida travel company, for illegally soliciting wireless phone customers.

Source: AP

It has been clear to investors for some time that eBay has been losing the luster that turned the online auctioneer into an e-commerce bellwether. Now, CEO Meg Whitman is finally acknowledging things have been off kilter and is hoping to set things right by raising fees on the online stores that had been diverting traffic from eBay’s auctions.

“We are trying to get back to the essence of eBay,” Whitman said Wednesday during an interview.

Wall Street embraced the message as eBay’s shares rose nearly 6 percent in extended trading Wednesday evening.

Source: Wired

Open wireless Internet hotspots will soon serve as virtual phone booths, as four manufacturers plan to introduce Wi-Fi handsets for Skype’s popular voice over Internet Protocol telephony service this quarter.

The phones can be used at open Wi-Fi access points that do not require browser authentication, and come preloaded with Skype software, Skype said today.

Source: Yahoo

Microsoft Corp. warned about a new computer virus that exploits a vulnerability in its PowerPoint presentation software to allow hackers to infiltrate computer systems.

Microsoft issued an advisory on the company’s security Web log on July 17 about the virus, which is carried out when a user launches a PowerPoint attachment to an e-mail or opens a file provided to them by the attacker.

Hackers could also lure users to a Web page that offers content or advertisements containing a file that exploits the PowerPoint software, Microsoft said. The vulnerability applies to PowerPoint 2000, 2002 and 2003.

Source: Reuters

Virus writers have developed a Trojan downloader attack that poses as an offer for the latest edition of Google’s Toolbar, the popular search tool. Spam messages that began circulating on Wednesday attempt to trick users into visiting a maliciously constructed website, disguised to resemble the genuine Google Toolbar site

Source: TheRegister

More than 6% of U. S adults, or about 9 million web users, have downloaded podcasts in the past 30 days, according to The Economics of Podcasting, a report released today by Nielsen Analytics, part of VNU’s Media Measurement & Information Group.

In a first quarter 2006 study, conducted by Nielsen Analytics at Nielsen Entertainment Television testing facilities in Las Vegas, more than 1700 participants were surveyed on their podcasting usage. About 6% of respondents described themselves as regular podcast downloaders — more than 75% of whom were male. The findings show that a significant percentage, approximately 38%, of active podcast downloaders say they are listening to radio less often.

“The incredible popularity of podcasting is the latest demonstration of consumers’ willingness to take control of their media experiences,” said Larry Gerbrandt, general manager and senior vice president of Nielsen Analytics. “While essentially still in nascent form, podcasts offer free audio and video content that is inexpensive to create, easy to access and on a portable platform that has already reached mass distribution. This exciting new medium has only just begun to stretch its legs.”

Amnesty International accused Yahoo, Microsoft and Google on Thursday of violating human rights principles by cooperating with China’s efforts to censor the Web and called on them to lobby for the release of jailed cyber-dissidents.

The London-based human rights group also called on the Internet companies to publicly oppose Chinese government requests that violate human rights standards.

“The Internet should promote free speech, not restrict it. We have to guard against the creation of two Internets — one for expression and one for repression,” said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty’s U.S. branch, in a statement.

Source: AP

Yahoo’s music blog announced Wednesday that it would be offering Jessica Simpson’s latest single for purchase on the Yahoo Music Store in MP3 format–in other words, with none of the usual copyright-protection coding.

Because the song, a party-pop track called “A Public Affair,” has no digital rights management (DRM) protection coded into it, it will be compatible with just about every type of digital music player, from the iPod to the iRiver, as well as with film and music editing programs that may not have been able to read DRM-encoded files.

Source: News.com

Dramatic revamp of upper management Intel’s upper management gets an overhaul following a large layoff of middle management and two rough quarters. The move comes after the chipmaker announced a 57 percent drop in net income and offered future revenue guidance lower than analyst expectations.

Source: techrepublic

More than 50% of online images of child abuse reported to an internet watchdog can be traced to the US, a report says.

Investigations by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found nearly 2,500 US sites containing illegal images.

The IWF study also said that some sites that contain the illegal content remain accessible for up to five years despite being reported to relevant authorities.

Source: BBC

CNET News.com’s Neha Tiwari spoke with Craig Raymond of Intel about his cross-country flight with an Intel Core 2 Duo laptop at the company’s launch event in Santa Clara, Calif., campus. The battery life of the notebook lasted the whole trip on a single charge, which is a considerable increase compared to previous models.

Source: News.com

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has donated $900,000 to set up a training facility for health professionals working with AIDS in Africa’s Great Lakes region.

On a low-profile visit to Rwanda on Sunday and Monday, Gates offered the funds to set up the Center for Training and Operation Research to serve five nations: Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Source: Yahoo