Apple’s iTunes software might not be totally ready for Windows Vista just yet, but Mac users will now be able to run Vista on their Intel-based systems with a new release of Boot Camp.

It’s still officially a beta product, but the newest version of Boot Camp now works with the 32-bit version of Vista and also includes support for updated drivers and the Apple Remote.

Bullies are no longer content to taunt their victims in the playground but are turning to cyberspace, according to Canadian researchers.

They are using e-mail, text messaging and social networking sites in new forms of victimization.

Cyber bullies are even forcing their girlfriends to undress in front of webcams and then sharing the images with others online.

“They’re pressuring each other. This is particularly (true) for girls to send pictures of themselves with their tops off,” said Professor Faye Mishna, of the University of Toronto, who has been researching the cyber abuse of children.

“Girls might send it to their boyfriend and she is pressured to do it thinking he’s just going to see it. So she gives in and the next thing you know it’s all over (the place).”

A Web browser that promises to help the user surf to explicit Web sites bundles malicious software, a researcher has warned.

“It comes with its very own rootkit,” Chris Boyd, director of research at FaceTime Communications wrote on his blog Wednesday.

The program, called NetBrowserPro, is advertised in poor English on a Web site as a tool with a purpose: “NetBrowserPro is the internet browser which aimed to the one thing–help you to watch porn. Secure, confidential, quick and free.”

When installing NetBrowserPro a rootkit gets dropped on the PC, Boyd found. A rootkit could provide a cloak for cybercrooks. Also, the browser asks to install an application called MovieCommander which, according to Boyd, is associated with fake codecs that are known to install spyware on computers.

Google on Tuesday made moves to beef up its Google Pack service. The free collection of software applications now includes antivirus, antimalware, and antispyware tools.

Google Pack provides basic virus protection from Symantec’s Norton Security Scan, which offers automatic security updates and scheduled scanning. No subscription fee is required. The company also added PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor Starter Edition, an antispyware utility that offers scheduled scanning, threat removal, active protection, and automatic updates.

Microsoft wants to buy New York-based online advertising firm DoubleClick, according to the Wall Street Journal.

DoubleClick, which is majority-owned by private equity firm Hellman and Friedman, is said to be exploring options and working closely with Morgan Stanley to secure a possible sale with Microsoft.
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A $2bn price tag has been placed on DoubleClick by the private equity firm. DoubleClick, which was founded in 1996 and went private in 2005, has seen revenue of $150m in the last year.

European countries and Singapore have surpassed the United States in their ability to exploit information and communication technology, according to a new survey.

The United States, which topped the World Economic Forum’s “networked readiness index” in 2006, slipped to seventh. The study, out Wednesday, largely blamed increased political and corporate interference in the judicial system.

The index, which measures the range of factors that affect a country’s ability to harness information technologies for economic competitiveness and development, also cited the United States’ low rate of mobile telephone usage, a lack of government leadership in information technology and the low quality of math and science education.

LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday it has reached an agreement with Google Inc. to offer the leading online search engine’s products on its mobile phones.

“LG’s mobile devices, combined with Google, will provide consumers with easy access to their favorite Internet services even without a PC and make it easy for them to stay connected while in motion,” Paul Bae, vice president of product planning at LG Electronics Mobile Communications Co. said in a statement.

LG said it plans to start shipping globally select handsets with Google products and services including Google Maps, Blogger Mobile and Gmail during the second quarter of this year.

Beijing has banned sending pornographic text messages or pictures via mobile phones after busting phone dealers who sold mass-storage devices containing porn, state media reported Wednesday.

Violators face fines of up to 3,000 yuan (385 dollars) and two weeks in detention, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting city public security authorities.

Those who sell such content face jail terms between six months and three years, it said.

In the past three weeks, Beijing police have arrested 19 second-hand mobile phone dealers who were found selling storage devices containing pornographic pictures or films.

The chips can hold an hour-long film and were being sold for only five or six yuan (about 60 to 80 cents) each, a security official told Xinhua.

Pornography in any form is banned in China but state media reports have signalled a rise in porn traffic as Internet and mobile phone use increases.

A Japanese man was sentenced to death on Wednesday for killing three people he met through an Internet site for group suicides in 2005, a local court spokeswoman said.

The unemployed man, Hiroshi Maeue, 38, invited a 14-year-old boy out to commit suicide together using charcoal fumes, but then suffocated him to death, Kyodo news agency said.

Maeue, killed two others — a 25-year-old woman and a 21-year-old male college student — by similar means and abandoned their bodies, Kyodo said.

The nature of the crimes was cruel and made Maeue difficult to correct, Presiding Judge Kazuo Mizushima of the Osaka District Court in western Japan was quoted saying in handing down the sentence.

Yahoo will give users of its free Web-based e-mail service access to unlimited storage capacity starting in May, according to a post on a company blog.

The capacity upgrade, timed to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of Yahoo Mail in 1997, will not be available to all users at the same time. The upgrade will be rolled out to users over a period of several months, wrote John Kremer, the vice president of Yahoo Mail, in a post on the Yodel Anecdotal blog.

While holding out the promise of unlimited storage capacity for Yahoo Mail users, Yahoo appears to have defined limits for how users can use the storage capacity of their inboxes. In his post, Kremer noted that Yahoo has developed “anti-abuse limits” for users.

Kremer’s post did not detail what those limits will be.