News


Xbox 360 Repairs Will Cost Microsoft $1B

Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it expects to spend more than $1 billion to repair widespread hardware problems in its Xbox 360 video game console after a large number of them broke down.

Dell Sees Growth in Asia

Dell Inc. expects shipments of personal computers, notebooks and servers in Asia excluding China, Japan and South Korea to grow almost 20 percent in 2007, a company executive said Thursday.

Sanyo to Make More Laptop Batteries

Osaka-based electronics maker Sanyo Electric Co. said Wednesday it will spend 30 billion yen ($245 million) to boost output of lithium-ion batteries for laptop computers.

Google-DoubleClick Deal Draws Criticism

Europe's major consumer group BEUC said Wednesday that it feared Internet search engine Google Inc.'s takeover of online ad tracker DoubleClick Inc. would damage European Union privacy rights and limit consumers' choice of Web content.

Three Critical Patches on Tap for Tuesday

The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) plans to publish six security bulletins next Tuesday, according to Thursday's advance notification.

New-Gen Certifications Retirement Policy Changing

Holders of the premium MCITP or MCPD titles will have to take refresh exam to maintain status; policy to go into effect in about two years.

SAP: Unit Made 'Inappropriate Downloads'

Software company SAP AG acknowledged Tuesday that one of its units made "inappropriate downloads" of Oracle Corp. computer code for fixes and support documents, responding to a lawsuit filed by its rival.

Windows Plans on the Wane for Developers

North American software developers are expecting to devote less of their efforts toward developing for the Microsoft Windows operating system, with some of the slack being absorbed by Linux and niche operating systems, according to a survey conducted by Evans Data Corp.

Microsoft Releases New CTP for ADO.NET Entity Framework

Microsoft has released a new community technology preview of the ADO.NET Entity Framework, which allows coders to program against data defined in a conceptual fashion instead of directly interacting with information stored in traditional table-and-column fashion.

Tibco Rolls Out New BPM Solution

Tibco Software has issued a new release of its business process management (BPM) solution, called iProcess Suite 10.6.

Google Goes Back to Court Over Vista Desktop Search

Google remains undaunted in its quest to become a legal player in the battle to keep Windows Vista's desktop search subject to federal scrutiny.

Business Process Management: SOA's Reason for Being?

A service-oriented architecture (SOA) is supposed to bring flexibility to IT resources and lower costs by letting IT personnel reuse software components instead of coding from scratch. However, some experts have suggested that reuse -- the principal justification in most cost-benefit analyses for SOA -- might amount to just 10 percent.

Cyber Attacks Engulf Kremlin's Critics

A political battle is raging in Russian cyberspace. Opposition parties and independent media say murky forces have committed vast resources to hacking and crippling their Web sites in attacks similar to those that hit tech-savvy Estonia as the Baltic nation sparred with Russia over a Soviet war memorial.

Layer 7 Virtualizes SOA Security Solution

Virtualization rocketed to the top of the gotta-have-it technology list a few years ago, primarily as a means of consolidating servers. But since that initial resurgence, vendors have been finding other applications for the technologies that provide a layer of abstraction between hardware systems and the software running on them.

Vista Ultimate Customers Await Their 'Extras'

Vista Ultimate has been out more than half a year now, and several prominent Windows bloggers have been asking when more Extras are coming.

Moonlight in Paris

In a move that could broaden the appeal of Microsoft's new Silverlight rich Internet application plug-in to both the .NET and open source communities, a group of developers has demonstrated Silverlight-based multimedia running on a Linux-based system.

Massachusetts Considering Microsoft's New Document Format

Massachusetts has decided that Microsoft's latest format may meet its standards.

iPhone Lure Used in Hacker Exploit

The iPhone hype makes it a natural target -- by scammers looking to sell Apple's first cell phone for a huge markup, and also by hackers looking to add to their bot networks.

Ohio's Laptops Often Stolen or Missing

In Dayton, a state employee returns to work to find a $2,000 computer stolen. In Cleveland, someone walks into an unlocked office and takes a $2,200 laptop belonging to the state auditor's office.

Hacker Defaces Microsoft U.K. Web Page

A hacker managed a rare feat Wednesday, successfully attacking a Web page within Microsoft's U.K. domain and replacing the page with several graphics related to Saudi Arabia.