Yahoo Inc., the world’s largest consumer e-mail provider, on Monday said it has embedded instant messaging features inside its e-mail program, bridging a generational divide that has confused many users.

Heavy Internet users, especially younger, Web-savvy users of social networking sites or office workers, have long toggled between e-mail and instant messaging services.

But for more occasional users of consumer e-mail services, the allure of instant messaging has remained far from obvious.

Consumers can now run the two programs in one Web browser. There is no need to download Yahoo Messenger software, a complication for users who are not technically inclined.

Each instant messaging dialogue will take place in a new conversation window within Yahoo Mail, allowing people to chat with multiple friends simultaneously, without leaving e-mail.

Source: Reuters

Mobile operators are starting to feel the pinch from viruses resulting from the increasing use of e-mails and Internet browsing on cellphones, according to an industry study published on Monday.

Attacks on cellphones rose fivefold in 2006, with clients of 83 percent of mobile operators around the world having been hit, the joint study by security software firm McAfee and research company Informa said.

“Mobile operators are already feeling the impact of mobile threats on customer satisfaction and network performance and are increasingly concerned about the potential impact on their brand and the success of new revenue-generating services,” McAfee said in a statement.

The companies polled 200 operators globally for the study.

Source: Reuters

Microsoft Corp. Monday unveiled a digital rights management platform designed to protect a wide range of mobile content.

Microsoft PlayReady, introduced at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, can protect standard audio and video files, ringtones, pictures, games, wallpaper and other content that operators sell to mobile users. The technology aims to support operators that are working to meet the growing demand from end users for mobile content, Microsoft said.

A number of service providers including Telefonica SA, Verizon Wireless Inc., Bouygues Telecom SA and AT&T Inc. have said they plan to use the technology, Microsoft said.

Source: Yahoo

Microsoft will announce three new Windows Live services for mobile devices at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona on Feb. 12: Live Search on Windows Mobile, Live Search on Java and Windows Live for Windows Mobile.

The new services will provide new search and communications capabilities to help people more easily and efficiently access information from their mobile devices, while allowing mobile operators, OEMs and advertising partners to drive new revenue and differentiate their products in the market, Matt Champagne, director of Mobile Product Management for MSN and Windows Live, told eWEEK.

Live Search on Windows Mobile and Live Search on Java, which are now available as free, downloadable software client applications for Windows Mobile and Java devices in the United States and United Kingdom, bring advanced local search and mapping capabilities to customers.

Source: eWeek

William Temple of Sacramento, Calif., will be traveling to space as one of the winners of “Vanishing Point,�? a unique interactive puzzle game from Microsoft Corp. and AMD to celebrate the recent consumer release of the Windows Vista™ operating system. Temple was awarded the prize today by Aaron Coldiron, lead communications manager for Microsoft, Teresa de Onis, marketing manager, Advanced Marketing Group for AMD, and Randy Brinkley, president of Rocketplane Kistler at the Oklahoma Spaceport in Burns Flat, Okla.

“This has been a lifelong dream — floating in space and seeing the Earth from above is going to be an amazing experience,�? Temple said. “I’m really excited I was chosen out of the 87,000 registered players online.�?

Coldiron noted, “We wanted to show people how Windows Vista will take computing to new heights — 60 miles up, in this case. The chance to give someone the ultimate ‘vista’ from space is a fantastic reward.�?

A new system is using virtual reality scenes of surfing and jogging to help physiotherapy patients improve their balance and, for some, even to learn to walk again.

Doctors hope the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN), developed by motion simulation company MOTEK, can help 26-year-old Ido Borovsky walk with more confidence on a foot whose nerves were damaged.

Borovsky, hit in the left leg by shrapnel in an anti-tank missile attack in Lebanon last summer, was put through the paces at Chaim Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv.

Watching a virtual choppy sea on the screen in front of him and to the sound of dance music, Borovsky moved up and down on two steps on a round platform — motions that steered a boat through the waves.

“They put the platform in a way that I will walk mostly on my injured foot,” he said.

Technicians can control the size of the waves and windspeed, monitoring patients’ movements and vital signs through sensors stuck to their bodies.

Read more @ Reuters

A group of major media companies has accused Google Inc. of benefiting from the sale of pirated movies and providing business support to two Web sites suspected of offering access to illegal film downloads, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday.

The media companies, which the paper said include News Corp., Viacom Inc., Sony Corp., General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co., allege that Google deliberately directed traffic to Web sites that were engaged in fostering piracy, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Google told the studios on Friday it would implement new procedures to prevent recurrences, the Journal said.

No one at Google could be immediately reached to comment on the report.

Source: Reuters

The popular online hangout MySpace said Monday it will experiment with a video-filtering system designed to block clips containing copyright materials.

MySpace is licensing technology from Audible Magic Corp., which late last year obtained rights to a system for scanning video clips and looking for signature vectors - such as a unique digital fingerprint - to compare with vectors stored in a database. Video can be blocked from appearing on MySpace when there is a match.

The video system supplements audio filtering MySpace already has in place to block unauthorized music uploads.

Source: AP