Microsoft on Wednesday released Windows Embedded CE 6.0, a new version of the operating system geared for computing devices such as mobile phones or consumer electronics. The new version supports voice and data networking using cell phone networks, something the company believes will be useful for building networking abilities into parking meters, vending machines or GPS navigation devices. The new version also is well suited to networked video projectors and set-top boxes, Microsoft said.

Source: News.com

An explosive device left at the eBay-owned PayPal headquarters in San Jose exploded Tuesday night, shattering a plate-glass window on the four-story building.

Some 26 employees were working inside the building at the time of the explosion. They reportedly called 911 after hearing the blast.

“Whatever caused this was pretty strong,’ said San Jose Fire Department Capt. Jose Guerrero. “It’s tough to break one of these windows.”

The bomb was placed outside an exit at the PayPal building that leads to the company’s conference center.

Source: cbs5.com

An “extremely critical” vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 could put users at risk of remote code execution attacks, the company confirmed Nov. 1.

The Redmond, Wash., software maker issued a security advisory with pre-patch workarounds and warned that the flaw is already being used in zero-day attacks.

“We are aware of proof of concept code published publicly and of the possibility of limited attacks that are attempting to use the reported vulnerability,” Microsoft said in the advisory.

Source: eWeek

Technologies used by Microsoft and other online advertising outfits to analyze user behavior threaten privacy and must be curbed, a pair of advocacy groups said Wednesday.

The Washington-based U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Center for Digital Democracy have asked the Federal Trade Commission to review–and ideally restrict–what they describe as a growing online business model dependent on technologies that “aggressively track us wherever we go, creating data profiles to be used in ever-more sophisticated and personalized ‘one-to-one’ targeting schemes.”

“Consumers entering this new online world are neither informed of nor prepared for these technologies and techniques–including data gathering and mining, audience targeting and tracking–that render users all but defenseless before the sophisticated assault of new-media marketing,” the groups charged in a 50-page complaint (click for PDF) filed with the FTC.

Source: News.com

The body that oversees global Internet functions warned Wednesday that a mistake in a creating multi-lingual address system could “permanently break the Internet.”

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or
ICANN, made the warning at a UN-organized conference on the future of the Internet being held in Greece.

More multi-lingual Internet is a key issue at the forum, with future web growth predicted in developing countries where the Latin alphabet is often unfamiliar.

“ICANN expects that these final tests and discussions will reach a resolution by the end of 2007,” CEO Paul Towney said in a statement. “But this is no simple task. If we get this wrong we could very easily and permanently break the Internet.”

Source: AP

Ask.com has reached an agreement to provide search and sponsored listings for Lycos, the fifth most popular U.S. Web portal, the companies said on Wednesday.

Under the terms of the deal, Ask.com will provide Web search, image search, and zoom search for the Lycos Network. As part of the deal, Lycos will also start using Ask.com’s advertising system, based on keyword-targeted, pay-per-click ads.

Source: Reuters

Blockbuster Inc. said on Wednesday it was changing its online movie rental policy to allow customers to return DVDs either through the mail or at its stores.

Under the new Total Access plan, which begins on Wednesday, customers can receive a free in-store movie rental if they return to stores those DVDs that are rented online.

Rival online DVD rental company Netflix Inc. only operates through the mail.

Blockbuster said it added about 150,000 net subscribers to its online program during the third quarter. At the end of September, it had about 1.5 million online subscribers.

Source: Reuters

Apple Computer Inc. said on Wednesday it launched a new store within iTunes featuring Latin music, music videos, television shows, audiobooks and podcasts.

Source: Reuters

Information Appliance Associates, the Calif.-based company that develops software solutions for the Macintosh platform, announced on Oct. 31 the new release of pearlTunes, a device that copies and converts unlicensed music from Apple iTunes on Windows to Research In Motion’s new BlackBerry Pearl model.

Users will be able to copy their favorite songs to the BlackBerry Pearl using pearlTunes, as the device takes the user’s MP3s and other unguarded digital music files from selected playlists on iTunes for Windows and copies them to a MicroSD memory card that is on the user’s BlackBerry Pearl.

Source: eWeek

Wired has bought Reddit, the news aggregation-by-committee website. Terms are undisclosed, but we can safely assume that the price is many heaps smaller than the $150m that Kevin Rose reportedly wants for Digg, Reddit’s much bigger rival. Reddit claims a million unique users a month.

Reddit’s four employees are upping sticks from Boston to hang out at Wired in San Francisco. Wired parent company CondeNet will use Reddit software in other websites - Lipstick.com is the first example.

Source: The Register

The U.S. intelligence community on Tuesday unveiled its own secretive version of Wikipedia, saying the popular online encyclopedia format known for its openness is key to the future of American espionage.

The office of U.S. intelligence czar John Negroponte announced Intellipedia, which allows intelligence analysts and other officials to collaboratively add and edit content on the government’s classified Intelink Web much like its more famous namesake on the World Wide Web.

A “top secret” Intellipedia system, currently available to the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, has grown to more than 28,000 pages and 3,600 registered users since its introduction on April 17. Less restrictive versions exist for “secret” and “sensitive but unclassified” material.

Source: Reuters