News


Google Co-Founder Admits China Compromise

Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.

Storage Demands Fuel Hard Drive, Flash Memory Industries

The senior vice president of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc. whipped out a tiny hard drive about the size of a Wheat Thin. The drive's label claimed a capacity of 1,000 gigabytes -- more than 100 times greater than today's models that can hold 8,000 photos or 2,000 songs.

Spam King Settles With Texas, Microsoft

One of the world's most notorious spammers has settled lawsuits with the state of Texas and Microsoft Corp. that cost him at least $1 million, took away most of his assets and forced him to stop sending the nuisance e-mails.

Swedish File Sharers Protest Police Shutdown of Pirate Bay Web Site

Hundreds of people waving picket signs and skull-and-crossbones pirate flags demonstrated in Stockholm on Saturday against a police crackdown on a popular file-sharing Web site that had millions of users worldwide.

Microsoft, Adobe Continue Spat Over Office Integration

Microsoft Corp. said it has canceled plans to include an automatic way to save documents in the popular PDF format in the next version of its Office software, amid an ongoing dispute with Adobe Systems Inc.

IT Weekly Roundup, June 2

From the business wires this week: a Windows auditing and reporting solution, a database development app for SQL and Microsoft highlights.

AMD Unveils New Dual-Core Chips

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp.'s biggest rival in the market for microprocessors that act as the brains of personal computers, unveiled plans for new products it said would deliver improved performance and efficiency.

Microsoft To Offer Premium Exchange Server License

Microsoft Corp. will offer a premium license for the upcoming version of its Exchange e-mail server.

Microsoft Revamps Office Group

Microsoft said this week it will split the Office business unit in two to better reflect the suite's continuing evolution, and has appointed two veteran insiders to head the new groups.

New Version of Ubuntu Software Coming

A new version of the Ubuntu software package, a flavor of the freely distributed Linux operating system, is due out Thursday.

NetIQ To Ship Analysis Center Update

Enterprise management software vendor NetIQ will ship its new Analysis Center 2.5 package on June 22, the company says.

Analyst: AMD Considering Acquisition of Graphics Chip Maker ATI

Shares of ATI Technologies Inc. jumped more than 9.5 percent Wednesday after a Wall Street analyst said the graphics chip maker may be acquired by Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the PC microprocessor maker that's been taking market share from Intel Corp.

Cap on High-Tech Visas for 2007 Already Met

The government has already reached the limit on high-tech worker visas for 2007 even though the fiscal year doesn't start until Oct. 1, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Thursday.

Microsoft Launches Live OneCare Security

Microsoft Corp. announces release of software that aims to better protect people who use Windows from Internet attacks.

Microsoft To Release Visual Studio for Database Developers

Microsoft says it's hard at work on a Visual Studio edition product targeted specifically at database developers and that it plans to ship it by year's end.

Free Microsoft Tool Tests Corporate Apps for Vista Compatibility

Microsoft has released a tool to help IT shops and developers determine if changes are needed to users’ applications in order to run under Windows Vista.

Sun Plans To Cut Up to 5,000 Jobs

Computer server maker Sun Microsystems Inc., whose revenue has declined four years in a row, said Wednesday it planned to cut 4,000 to 5,000 jobs in an effort to return to consistent profitability.

Ballmer Defends Need to Invest, Innovate

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told investors Wednesday to be patient as the world's largest software company spends time and money developing new products and entering new markets.

Google Unlikely To Make Own Web Browser

Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt on Wednesday told industry analysts the online search engine leader is unlikely to create its own Web browser, even though the company remains worried about being slighted by the next version of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer.

Anti-Censorship Campaign Targets Microsoft, Google, Yahoo

Amnesty International on Sunday accused the world's Internet firms of colluding with repressive regimes to curtail online freedom.