New forms of spam and similar abuse find a welcome home at Google, and the company doesn’t yet seem up to the security task of fighting them. Perhaps it’s a responsiveness issue.

Much has been made of the recent revelation that Google had reached No. 4 on Spamhaus’ list of “The 10 Worst Spam Service ISPs.” In fact, as I check now, Google is No. 3.

It’s no secret why Gmail is such a big spamming source now: Spammers have had success cracking the CAPTCHA tests and creating Gmail accounts from which to spam. Because the spam comes from a domain reputation systems can’t block because it’s so popular, spam from these accounts has an advantage in getting past many anti-spam systems.

But some other ISPs and mail service providers with lousy reputations, in the older sense of the word, are not in the top 10. Microsoft had been a fixture in the Spamhaus list and Comcast was once known as a happy hunting ground for botnet herders. Both of these companies seem to have turned the corner.

Toshiba Corp. is planning to use the Cell processor, the brain of Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 game console, to create an ultra-powerful TV set-top box that can record up to six high-definition channels at once and improve the look of any video.

The box and a separate flat-panel LCD TV will be sold as a package this year in Japan for between $5,000 and $10,000, said Scott Ramirez, vice president of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products. It may come later to the U.S., he told press gathered Wednesday at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

Toshiba has been experimenting with several different ways to expand the use of the zippy Cell processor, which was jointly developed by Toshiba, Sony and IBM Corp. Toshiba has demonstrated laptops and TVs with Cell processors, but the PlayStation remains the main use for the chip.

The Cell TV box will accept video content from cable, memory chips and other sources, raise their apparent resolution, then send the video signal wirelessly to the TV, Ramirez said.

“You’re going to have the cleanest picture you’ve ever seen,” Ramirez said.

Microsoft Corp.’s next version of the Windows operating system is almost ready for prime time.

That’s one message Chief Executive Steve Ballmer delivered on the eve of the official opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show.

The world’s largest software maker also disclosed deals to make its Live Search programs the default search engines on more personal computers and mobile phones. And it announced a new version of its Ford Sync in-car technology that folds in the voice-operated directory service TellMe, which Microsoft bought in 2007.