Opera Software is making plans to steal market share from Microsoft.

Though a launch date for Opera 10 hasn’t yet been set, Opera is hoping the updated application will lure users away from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 by building on Opera 9’s use of small Web applications called widgets.

Source: News.com

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday failed to quash fears that a new version of its Windows software system would be further delayed, stirring concerns that a new technology cycle tied to the upgrade could be put on hold.

This uncertainty over when Microsoft and the rest of hi-tech would benefit from the surge in revenue growth that typically accompanies a major Windows upgrade led Microsoft’s shares to close down 2 percent at $23.87 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

Source: Reuters

The rivalry between Digg and AOL’s Netscape got dirty on Wednesday. Apparent Digg fans used a flaw in Netscape.com to send an expletive flying over the AOL social media site.

Other messages that popped up in text boxes on the Netscape Web site included pro-Digg messages and, in some cases, users were redirected to the Digg Web site.

Source: News.com

In its latest effort to further the open-source programming movement, Google opened a site Thursday where programmers can host their software projects.

As expected, Google engineering manager Greg Stein announced the project hosting site during a talk at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention in Portland, Ore.

“One of our goals is to encourage healthy, productive open-source communities. Developers can always benefit from more choices in project hosting,” Google said on a frequently-asked-questions site.

Source: News.com

Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone maker, has started its first tests of a technology that allows users to roam seamlessly between phone networks and local wireless hotspots such as Wi-Fi.

Fifty families in Oulu near the polar circle in northern Finland will test the technology over the next two months, Nokia said on Thursday.

Source: Reuters

New ballistics-imaging technology, developed by Intelligent Automation, a Rockville, Maryland, engineering firm with funding from the Justice Department, lets forensic scientists capture a fired bullet’s distinctive markings in 3-D for the first time.

The technology, which was featured at the 2006 National Institute of Justice conference here Tuesday, works by projecting white light through a special microscope onto a bullet or its casing. The depth of the marks determines the intensity of the reflected light, which is recorded by a camera.

A computer then generates a 3-D image of, say, a Remington 9-mm slug or a Winchester .44-caliber Magnum round for researchers to pore over. Previously, forensic examiners were limited to flat photos of bullets and casings taken from different angles. But the wrong orientation of the photos can throw off the analysis: An examiner may end up comparing striations from different sides of the bullets. Not with the new technology.

Source: Wired

Yahoo announced on Thursday the general availability of its latest chat application, which enables users to do a lot more than just chat.

The new Yahoo Instant Messenger with Voice, which offers telephony functions, features more than 180 plug-ins created by developers from inside and outside Yahoo.

Source: News.com