Gateway Inc. is recalling 14,000 batteries used in its notebook PCs after four customers reported that their computers had overheated, a similar condition to the massive battery recall that swept the industry in 2006,” Ben Ames reports for IDG News Service.

Microsoft Corp. will make changes to the program that helps Windows Vista users search their hard drives, in response to antitrust complaints from Google Inc., according to a U.S. Justice Department report issued late Tuesday.

Google filed a 49-page document with the Justice Department in April claiming Vista’s desktop search tool slowed down competing programs, including Google’s own free offering, and that it’s difficult for users to figure out how to turn off the Microsoft program.

Microsoft initially dismissed the allegations, saying regulators had reviewed the program before Vista launched. However, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said in an interview last week that the company was willing to make changes if necessary.

Tuesday’s regularly scheduled status report on Microsoft’s post-antitrust business practices detailed a compromise that would give computer users clearer options for picking a non-Microsoft desktop search program.

New technology will place cameras inside students’ homes to ensure that those taking exams online don’t cheat.

This fall, Troy University in Alabama will begin rolling out the cameras for many of its approximately 11,000 online students, about a third of whom are at U.S. military installations around the world.

The device, made by Cambridge, Mass.-based Software Secure, is similar in many respects to other test-taking software. It locks down a computer while the test is being taken, preventing students from searching files or the Internet. The latest version also includes fingerprint authentication, to help ensure the person taking the test isn’t a ringer.

But the new development is a small Web cam and microphone that is set up where a student takes the exam. The camera points into a reflective ball, which allows it to capture a full 360-degree image. (The first prototype was made with a Christmas ornament.)

When the exam begins, the device records audio and video. Software detects significant noises and motions and flags them in the recording. An instructor can go back and watch only the portions flagged by the software to see if anything untoward is going on — a student making a phone call, leaving the room — and if there is a sudden surge in performance afterward.

The inventors admit it’s far from a perfect defense against a determined cheater. But a human test proctor isn’t necessarily better. And the camera at least “ensures that those people that are taking classes at a distance are on a level playing field,” said Douglas Winneg, Software Secure’s president and CEO.

An upcoming video game from the maker of the “Grand Theft Auto” series came under fire Tuesday in United States and Britain, where the government’s ratings board banned sales for what it called an “unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone.”

Rockstar Games’ “Manhunt 2″ was scheduled for a July 10 release on Nintendo Co.’s Wii and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 2 consoles.

Players of “Manhunt 2″ assume the role of an escaped mental institution patient who goes on a killing spree as he fights his way to freedom. It includes special death moves players can perform by moving the Wii’s wireless, motion-sensitive controller at just the right moment.

The British Board of Film Classification last banned a game in 1997, when it barred the sale of “Carmageddon,” in which players rack up points by driving vehicles over pedestrians.

In a statement, BBFC director David Cooke said the board was unable to approve the game because it was “distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing.”

Rockstar spokesman Rodney Walker said “Manhunt 2″ was meant to be a horror game, something akin to gory films like “Saw.”

Privately held Swarmcast, which specializes in streaming video over Web connections, on Tuesday unveiled a new application to accelerate video downloads from Apple Inc.’s popular iTunes store.

Swarmcast said its technology can help a viewer download movies, music or television episodes to their computers up to 10 times faster than usual. Such technologies are viewed as key to help Internet media proliferate, by making it easier for viewers to access entertainment off the Internet.

Glaxstar, a software developer that makes plug-ins for Firefox, has crafted a specialized extension for the Web browser that helps parents keep their kids in a safe Web-surfing sandbox.

The software, called Glubble (for global bubble), is essentially a white list, or collection of pre-approved sites, for the Web browser. By downloading the Firefox plug-in, parents can control their kids’ experience online by choosing which sites they can visit and with whom they can chat. Designed for children under 12, the browser extension filters out all other sites, and maintains personalized preferences for parents and individual children. It even offers a version of Google that searches only the pre-approved sites.

Glubble, a free download, will launch in beta form on Tuesday. During test mode, the community of Mozilla Firefox developers can try out the software, build personalized sets of kid-friendly sites, and recommend changes for the plug-in, according to company CEO and co-founder Ian Hayward.

Literally, it might be known as Voustube, Voitubo or Vocetubo, but the world’s most popular video-sharing site introduced local-language sites in nine countries on Tuesday that will all just go by YouTube.

Until now, while user-generated videos and comments could be posted in any language, the YouTube.com site framework and navigation menus are in English only. And the featured pages users first see are heavily skewed to U.S. tastes. This is despite the fact that more than half of YouTube’s audience comes from outside the United States, Chen said.

YouTube unveiled national sites for Brazil (http://www.youtube.com.br), Britain (http://youtube.co.uk), France (youtube.fr), Ireland (youtube.ie), Italy (http://it.youtube.com), Japan (youtube.jp), the Netherlands (youtube.nl), Poland (youtube.pl) and Spain (youtube.es).

During the first stage of the international move, each site will offer fully translated local homepages and video search functions. Over time, each national site will have an entirely “local” feel that will allow for country-specific video rankings and comments in various sections, YouTube said.