Intel Corp. launched its biggest product revamp in six years Thursday, unveiling 10 microprocessors that are expected to help the world’s largest chip maker retake ground lost to smaller competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

The Core 2 Duo microprocessors, which are being rolled out gradually over the next month, are Intel’s first desktop and mobile chips to feature a blueprint designed to deliver significantly better performance while requiring less power and kicking off less heat.

Also Thursday, Intel slashed prices as much as 61 percent on some of its older chips — a move likely to put more pressure on AMD and result in lower prices for consumers.

Source: AP

Virus writers have created a spyware package that poses as an extension to the Firefox web browser.

FormSpy, which poses as the legitimate NumberedLinks 0.9 extension, is programmed to steal confidential information from compromised machines including passwords, credit card numbers, and ebanking login details. The malware is also capable of sniffing passwords from ICQ, FTP, and email traffic before sending this data to a hacker-controlled website.

Source: The Register

Microsoft Corp. has acquired a patient information system that the world’s largest software maker plans to sell to health care providers worldwide.

The software, called Azyxxi, gives physicians real-time access to patient data including X-rays, electrocardiograms, prescriptions, patient allergies and other routine clinical information. It was built by doctors at the Washington Hospital Center using Microsoft development tools.

Source: AP

Google-powered ads, which have become a mainstay on Web sites, are now being played on at least one radio station in Detroit. And like so many other Motor City radio products, it won’t be long before they go global. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a conference call with analysts last week that the search giant plans to make its radio-ad business generally available within three months.

“We are in the process of introducing AdSense for radio, which is essentially the integration of the dMarc console and management tools into our advertising system. There are a number of very interesting deals being negotiated,” Schmidt said. It’s a typically ambitious effort for Google, which got into the radio business in January with its $102 million acquisition of dMarc Broadcasting, a company that had an automated radio advertising system.

Source: News.com

California consumers and businesses will soon receive $1.1 billion in delayed payouts from Microsoft Corp. to settle antitrust claims against the world’s biggest software maker, lawyers in the case said on Wednesday.

Beginning in August, Californians who have filed claims will receive vouchers that can be redeemed for cash during the next four years, said Richard Grossman, whose law firm represented plaintiffs in the class-action case.

Source: Reuters

Responding to concerns about click fraud in the online-ad industry, Google will be revealing to advertisers the number of invalid clicks on their ads.

With changes the company is set to make to its AdWords system late Tuesday, advertisers will be able to see the number of invalid clicks Google found, as well as what percentage that represents of total clicks registered, said Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager for trust and safety at Google.

Source: News.com

Mozilla.ord releases Firefox 1.5.0.5. The new version is mainly a security update.

Firefox 1.5.0.5 includes:

• Improvements to product stability
• Added changes for Frisian locale (fy-NL)
• Several security fixes

Download Firefox 1.5.0.5

A new cancer project underway using the World Community Grid can reduce to only one day the analysis of cancer specimens that would’ve taken 130 years with traditional computers. Yes, that’s 130 years, not days.

The new Help Defeat Cancer initiative, announced on Thursday by IBM, will provide researchers and scientists with the ability to harness supercomputer power, allowing them to simultaneously analyze in one day a volume of cancer biopsy specimens, or tissue microarrays, that would take 13 decades to do with standard PCs.

Source: InformationWeek

The company that produced software called “Kazaa,” which made it simple for millions of computer users to download music and movies over the Internet, has agreed to pay more than $115 million to the entertainment industry to settle global piracy lawsuits, the industry said Thursday.

Source: AP