A new viral Web site at notfornoobs.com has launched that appears to tease an upcoming game-related device by Microsoft and hardware manufacturer Razer. While few specifics are offered by the site, it hints that more details are coming next Friday.

Source: BetaNews

Microsoft Office isn’t the only word-processing software at risk of zero-day hacker attacks.

According to a warning from anti-virus vendor Symantec, attackers are exploiting a previously undocumented vulnerability in Ichitaro, a word processor produced by Justsystems, a Japanese software company.

Ichitaro, which is widely used by central and local governments as well as educational institutions in Japan, is the main product sold by Justsystems.

Source: eWeek

A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked a trial judge’s order that EchoStar Communications Corp., parent of the Dish satellite-TV service, disable more than 3 million digital video recorders.

Related: EchoStar must disable DVRs, judge rules

Source: AP

Starting today, Google Desktop 4 is coming out of beta in 26 languages.

In version 4, Google engineers improved Desktop’s performance and have added a few features:

Easier to add international gadgets; Configurable Taskbar “gadgets” button and Change the Sidebar font size

A judge has ordered EchoStar to disable the digital video recorders used by several million subscribers to its Dish satellite TV service because they infringe on patents held by TiVo.

Thursday’s ruling from U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Marshall, Texas, demands that within 30 days EchoStar must basically render useless all but 192,708 of the DVR units it has deployed.

The decision comes four months after a jury ruled that EchoStar should pay TiVo $74.9 million because it willfully infringed TiVo patents that allow for the digital storage of TV programming.

Source: Yahoo

Handheld computer and phone maker Palm Inc. is to unveil the latest version of its Treo smart phone next month as it attempts to revive sales hit by tough competition and problems with previous models.

“The announcement is going to be made in the UK on September 12, and we will give all the details then but at the moment all we are saying is that it will be out before the end of the year,” said a Palm spokeswoman.

Source: Reuters

Dell said Thursday it plans to expand its relationship with Advanced Micro Devices to offer AMD-based desktop PCs starting next month, and two-socket Opteron servers by year-end.

Dell previously said it will begin offering a four-socket Opteron server by year end.

AMD disclosed the plans as part of its second-quarter financial announcement.

Related: Dell orders about 2 million AMD PCs

Source: InformationWeek

A Florida man has been charged with setting up a phishing website that sought to cash-in on the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Instead of collecting money for victims, Jovany Desir, 20, of Miami, Florida, allegedly tried to trick sympathetic marks into handing over banking details through a bogus American Red Cross website.
Click here to find out more!

Desir is further charged with selling phishing tackle that allowed other ID crooks to establish bogus websites more easily for approximately $150 each.

Desir was indicted over these alleged offences, as well as establishing phoney banking and online payment sites between July and October 2005, by a federal grand jury in Western Pennsylvania

Source: The Register

Gadget blog Gizmodo claims to have scored an exclusive photograph of Microsoft’s yet-to-be released digital music player, Zune.

The black-and-white photograph shows a device that looks remarkably like Apple’s iPod.

The reason for the black-and-white photo, according to Gizmodo, is that Microsoft has assigned a unique color to each of the 150 prototype devices. Gizmodo says the thinking here is that if any pictures were leaked, the company would know who was responsible.

Source: News.com

Apple Computer Inc. said on Friday that its main supplier of iPod music players let employees in a China plant work longer hours than allowed by Apple’s code of conduct, and that it had taken steps to address the issue.

Apple had launched an investigation after international media reports on work practices at the supplier Foxconn, a unit of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

In a statement, Apple said its code been violated in some cases, but insisted the overtime was voluntary.

Foxconn had now acted to enforce work weeks of 60 hours and measures had been put in place to track compliance, the statement said.

Source: Reuters

EMI Group Plc, the world’s third-largest music company, said on Thursday it had signed a deal to provide preloaded music videos on Microsoft Corp.’s soon-to-launch Zune digital media player.

The London-based company said the deal would see artists, including American actor Jared Leto’s alternative rock band 30 Seconds To Mars and English electro-pop band Hot Chip, featured on the player when it goes to market later this year.

Source: Reuters