Wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. said on Wednesday it will place Microsoft Corp’s search engine on its mobile phones, marking the software maker’s most significant step to gain a U.S. foothold in the budding mobile Internet search market.

Starting on Thursday, customers of the third-largest U.S. carrier will find Microsoft’s Windows Live search bar at the top of Sprint’s menu page when they access the Web.

The search engine can look for news, sports scores and ringtones within the carrier’s own mobile portal or search outside of Sprint’s network for local information such as nearby restaurants or movie theaters.

Source: Reuters

The tangle of cables and plugs needed to recharge today’s electronic gadgets could soon be a thing of the past. Researchers at MIT have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power wirelessly to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players. In a nutshell, their solution entails installing special ‘non-radiative’ antennae with identical resonant frequencies on both the power transmitter and the receiving device. Any energy not diverted into a gadget or appliance is simply reabsorbed. The system currently under development is designed to operate at distances of 3 to 5 meters, but the researchers claim that it could be adapted to factory-scale applications, or miniaturized for use in the ‘microscopic world

Source: Slashdot

Apple Computer on Monday posted firmware updates for all Intel-based Mac computers, but as usual was mum about exactly what the patches fixed.

The updates for the Mac mini, iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro lines of desktop and notebook systems can be downloaded directly from the Apple support site, or users can launch the update process from their machine’s desktop.

Source: informationweek

People pining for the sleek PlayStation 3 gaming console might find shortages on eBay as well.

The unfettered online marketplace for such items as Elvis memorabilia and Ferraris is imposing restrictions on the PS3, which is expected to become one of the hottest holiday gifts when it hits stores Friday.

Only established eBay Inc. vendors — those who have racked up comments from at least 50 previous customers and have positive ratings of at least 98 out of 100 points — can list PS3s before Friday. Each vendor can only list only one PS3 per eBay account.

The listing must include a photo of the pre-order receipt, and the seller must guarantee shipment within 30 days from the date of purchase. Before Friday, PS3s can be listed on eBay only in auction formats — not as “buy it now” items.

Source: AP

Apparently, Microsoft has been so focused on getting Zune out the door in time for the mad holiday rush that it hasn’t gotten around to supporting the player under its next-generation operating system.

“This operating system is currently not supported by Zune,” reads an error message when trying to install Zune software on the latest versions of Microsoft’s own Windows Vista operating system.

In an official Zune support document, Microsoft, which will begin selling Vista to business customers in two weeks, confirms that the system “is not supported at this time.”

Source: AppleInsider

Sony Corp. said on Wednesday that online software upgrades to its new video game console, the PlayStation 3, will fix glitches that make some older PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games not run properly on the PS3.

Source: Yahoo

Microsoft on Wednesday said that pirated copies of Windows Vista “will be of limited value” because the operating system’s integrated anti-counterfeit technology would disable the fakes in short order.

The Redmond, Wash. developer’s response was an answer to earlier reports that final code of both Windows Vista and Office 2007 had been posted to BitTorrent download sites, peer-to-peer networks, and Usenet groups. On some message forums, pirates gloated that they could side-step Vista’s product activation process with “cracked” keys.

Source: informationweek

Microsoft Corp. has still not supplied the “complete and accurate” documentation necessary to comply with a 2004 antitrust order,
European Union regulators said Wednesday. They warned new fines could be imposed unless the world’s biggest software maker supplies full information by Nov. 23.

The European Commission, which fined Microsoft 280.5 million euros ($357 million) in July for not providing the technical information, said it expects “the remaining omissions and deficiencies” to be remedied quickly.

“Our patience is finite,” said EU spokesman Jonathan Todd. “Until we have the whole set of documents, it’s worth nothing.”

Source: AP

Spamhaus has published a revised list of the world’s 10 worst spammers. According to the anti-spam organisation, 200 professional spam gangs are responsible for 80 per of the high volume of junk mail pumped onto the internet every day.

Public enemy number one is a Ukrainian known variously as Alex or Alexey, a prolific user of botnets, networks of PCs compromised with malware, to send out junk mail in association with a Russian spam gang called Pavka/Artofit. Alexey is involved in distributing child porn spam, among the many types of unsolicited junk he spew onto the net every day.

Four of the world’s most prolific spammers in Spamhaus’s Register Of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database are from Russia and two are from the US. The other four members of the rogue’s gallery are from Canada, Hong Kong, Israel and the Ukraine. Between them they push out a huge volume of junk mails touting porn, penis pills, loans, stock scams and other assorted tat.

Source: The Register

Borland Software has announced that it has not sold its developer tools group, as previously anticipated, but has moved the tools group into a wholly owned subsidiary.

The new operation, known as CodeGear, will be responsible for the development of Borland’s IDE (integrated development environment) business, which includes Developer Studio, JBuilder, Turbo and Interbase.

Source: News.com

Apple Computer on Monday posted firmware updates for all Intel-based Mac computers, but as usual was mum about exactly what the patches fixed.

The updates for the Mac mini, iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro lines of desktop and notebook systems can be downloaded directly from the Apple support site, or users can launch the update process from their machine’s desktop.

Source: InformationWeek

After being in beta for nine months, Microsoft announced the availability of Microsoft Office Live in the United States, and its free beta availability in Japan, France, the U.K. and Germany on Nov. 21. Customers can sign up for Office Live.

“Most small businesses lack IT expertise,�? said Rajesh Jha, corporate vice president for Microsoft Office Live at Microsoft. “Office Live is a one-stop shop that levels the playing field for companies with 10 or fewer employees by providing software and services that make a big difference; Office Live can impact business growth and profitability. Small businesses that sign up for Microsoft Office Live will now find it easier and cheaper than ever before to build and manage their business online. I’m confident that our industry partners will do a fantastic job of helping customers get started on Office Live.�?

Microsoft Office Live provides an open platform for partners on which they can build customized or industry-specific software applications and deliver services for their customers.

Today’s release of Office Live contains new features as a result of the feedback from many of the more than 160,000 customers who participated in the beta program. Microsoft Office Live adManager beta is designed to allow small businesses to easily purchase keywords on Live.com and MSN to drive traffic to their Web site and optimize their search advertising budget. Microsoft Office Live Business Contact Manager allows small businesses to keep all their customers, contact histories and sales information in one place and make it accessible to everyone in the organization. Integration with Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007 and third-party fee-based services helps small-business owners manage everyday financial tasks, get organized, and do business online with tools to sell on eBay, receive payments via PayPal and monitor credit via Equifax.

Microsoft Office Live also provides updated Web site design tools to allow users to easily drag and drop content and images into any section of their Web site using asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) technology. It includes more page templates and the ability to modify and import HTML to create more robust and sophisticated Web sites. For customers with a Web site managed by another provider, Microsoft Office Live further streamlines the process of transferring domain names for greater ease of use.