Faced with growing criticism about the way its newly released game Spore is activated on computers, gaming publishing giant Electronic Arts did a little retooling of its own.

EA has increased the number of computers that can be loaded with the game to five from three, despite earlier precautions with its digital rights management (DRM) policy intended to reduce piracy of its copyrighted software.

Spore, released two weeks ago featuring unlikely creatures that can be tailored to the user’s liking, has altered other DRM limitations embedded in the software, the company announced.

Frank Gibeau, EA Games Label president, said in a statement:

We’ve received complaints from a lot of customers who we recognize and respect. And while it’s easy to discount the noise from those who only want to post or transfer thousands of copies of the game on the Internet, I believe we need to adapt our policy to accommodate our legitimate consumers.

EA announced it will not only increase the number of computers that users can load one copy of Spore onto, but will also offer ways in which users can receive additional activations of the gaming software if warranted.

The game publisher also plans to fast-track its development efforts on creating a system that will allow consumers to de-authorize machines and transfer authorizations to new computers.

The single life for Atom is over–or at least one version. Intel said it has begun shipments of the first dual-core version of the Atom processor.

Atom 330 pricing information and data sheets for customers will go live Monday, according to Intel.

The chipmaker indicated at the Intel Developer Forum in August that it would be shipping the dual-core chip this month.

The power-efficient processor will be targeted at Atom-based desktops called nettops. Currently, Intel offers the single-core Atom N230 processor for this category of small desktops.

At 8 watts, the chip has a higher power envelope than single-core Atom processors. The N230 is rated at 4 watts, while Atom processors for mobile devices such as the Eee PC and Acer Aspire have a thermal envelope of 2 watts.

Other specifications include a core clock speed of 1.6GHz, 1MB of level-2 cache, and support for DDR2 667MHz memory.

An al Qaeda video marking the anniversary of the September 11 attacks has appeared on the Internet more than a week late due to technical problems.

The delay of the much-touted 87-minute video, caused in part by the main Islamist websites crashing, has thwarted al Qaeda’s yearly celebration of its attacks on U.S. cities in 2001.

Parts of the video — a compilation of documentary footage and messages by al Qaeda leaders — were aired on September 8 by Al Jazeera television, which did not say how it obtained it.

But the full version hit websites on Friday, eight days after the anniversary.

On it, senior al Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid vowed that Western forces in Afghanistan would face “more large-scale attacks … where they least expect it” and called for militants in Pakistan to step up their fight.