I’m sure many people wondered if Google will release a presentation tool, after building Google Docs&Spreadsheets. Well, the answer is yes, and the code-name of the tool is Presently (a play on Writely, the name of the online word processor bought by Google).

You will be able to convert a document into a presentation, create slides and view the presentation in full-screen. Here are some messages from a Google file, that will be used by Presently:

Source: Google Operating System

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that TiVo is collecting and selling data on what parts of broadcasts people are rewinding for review and what commercials they are skipping. The data collection is part of a service the company provides to advertisers and television networks, collecting anonymous data on their users’ commercial-watching habits. The data they provide is a random subset of their overall userbase, detailing which commercials are skipped and which are actually watched.

Source: Slashdot

Sorry, e-book fans, whoever you are. You will be able to read the new Harry Potter on paper, listen to it, probably purchase it in Braille. But don’t expect to download the text - at least legally.

Author J.K. Rowling has not allowed the first six Potter stories to be released as e-books and has no plans to change that for the seventh and final work, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” Neil Blair, a lawyer with Rowling’s literary agency, told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Rowling has cited two reasons over the years: concern about online piracy (which has never been a major problem for the Potter books), and the desire for readers to experience the books on paper. E-books, hyped as the future of publishing during the dot-com craze of the late 1990s, remain a tiny portion of the multibillion dollar industry.

Source: AP

Pirated Microsoft Corp software helped Romania to build a vibrant technology industry, Romanian President Traian Basescu told the company’s co-founder Bill Gates on Thursday.

Basescu was meeting the software giant’s chairman in Bucharest to celebrate the opening of a Microsoft global technical center in the Romanian capital.

“Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania,” Basescu said during a joint news conference with Gates.

“It helped Romanians improve their creative capacity in the IT industry, which has become famous around the world … Ten years ago, it was an investment in Romania’s friendship with Microsoft and with Bill Gates.”

Gates made no comment.

Source: washingtonpost.com

The man responsible for unleashing what is believed to be the first self-propagating cross-site scripting worm has pleaded guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court to charges stemming from his most infamous hacking.

Samy Kamkar, who was 19 when he unleashed the attack on MySpace.com in October 2005, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to perform 90 days of community service, according to a MySpace statement released Wednesday.

Kamkar also must pay an undisclosed amount of restitution to MySpace, and he is banned from accessing the internet for personal reasons for an unknown amount of time, according to the statement.

Source: SC Magazine

A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction against a Web site peddling personal pictures, videos, diaries, and other items that heiress Paris Hilton once kept at a storage facility.

Hilton sued the Web site ParisExposed.com last month, accusing it of exploiting her private personal belongings for commercial gain. The injunction issued Friday temporarily bars the Web site from releasing Hilton’s Social Security number, health data and other personal information.

Source: AP