Today, CheckPoint Software launched a public beta for version 7 of the popular ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.

This version’s antivirus component is powered by Kaspersky Labs (previously the suite used an antivirus engine from Computer Associates). According to CheckPoint, Kaspersky’s hourly signature releases “ensure that users have the industry’s most rapid protection against emerging attacks.” The new AV engine will catch more and more varied threats, yet signature updates remain small.

Source: Yahoo

Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, on Friday filed a lawsuit against popular social networking site MySpace for copyright infringement of thousands of its artists’ works.

Source: Reuters

The wait is over. Late on Nov. 16, Microsoft posted Windows Vista to its developer Web site. The software is immediately available to MSDN subscribers. Microsoft also posted Office 2007 earlier this week.

The products’ availability to developers —less than two weeks before the official business launch—is essential for partners getting out applications updates or customers beginning serious deployment testing. In a MSDN notice earlier this week, Microsoft had indicated that Windows Vista wouldn’t be available until Nov. 17.

Source: eWeek

US chip-related intellectual property company Opti has accused AMD of infringing three of its patents, all centring on techniques microprocessors can use to predict cache memory access requirements.

Opti’s lawsuit, filed with the US District Court for the Eastern Texas, claims AMD is shipping CPUs that use such techniques and that AMD does so without its permission. It also claimed AMD “induced” other companies to infringe the patents too - in other words, by selling allegedly infringing processors to its customers.

Source: Reg Hardware

A man was shot early on Friday morning outside a Wal-Mart store in Connecticut while waiting to buy a new Sony Playstation 3, Connecticut State police said.

He was one of 15 to 20 people lined up outside the store when confronted by two armed men who demanded money at around 3:15 a.m., Lt. J. Paul Vance said in a press release.

Police said the victim had confronted the armed suspects and was shot. He was treated at the scene and transported to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center across the state line.

Police were searching for the two suspects.

Source: AP

Israel is using nanotechnology to try to create a robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase, photograph and kill its targets, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.

The flying robot, nicknamed the “bionic hornet”, would be able to navigate its way down narrow alleyways to target otherwise unreachable enemies such as rocket launchers, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth said.

It is one of several weapons being developed by scientists to combat militants, it said. Others include super gloves that would give the user the strength of a “bionic man” and miniature sensors to detect suicide bombers.

Source: Reuters

Days of waiting paid off for Sergio Rodriguez, one of the relatively few able to buy Sony’s PlayStation 3 when the coveted console went on sale early Friday.

He was among the die-hard gamers and entrepreneurs across the country who braved foul weather and heckling by passers-by all week for the chance to shell out $500 or more for the sleek game machine. With shortages resulting from production problems, many had camped out for days without knowing if they’d be going home empty-handed.

At a midnight launch event at a Circuit City in New York, Rodriguez was the first to walk away with the PS3 as people still standing in line outside the store cheered. He had been waiting outside since Sunday.

Source: AP