IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (InfoWorld) 19/02/2010

Google acquires iPhone search application ReMail

Google on Wednesday acquired ReMail, a popular iPhone application that provides "lightning fast" full-text search of your Gmail and IMAP email accounts.

Nominees sought for year's top CTOs, green IT, and enterprise architects

Is your CTO one of the best? If so, nominate him or her for the 2010 CTO 25 Awards presented by InfoWorld.com, the Web site focused on modernizing IT through effective use of business technlogy. Nominees may have the CTO title or an equivalent title such as IT director, VP of technology, or -- if there is not also a CTO-equivalent position in the organization -- CIO. The projects the CTO cites in his or her nomination must have occurred in the last two years.

Over 75,000 systems compromised by massive Kneber botnet

Security researchers at Herndon, Va.-based NetWitness have unearthed a massive botnet affecting at least 75,000 computers at 2,500 companies and government agencies worldwide.

The Kneber botnet, named for the username linking the affected machines worldwide, has been used to gather login credentials to online financial systems, social networking sites, and email systems for the past 18 months, according to NetWitness.

Kindle e-book reader available on U.S. BlackBerries

Amazon.com has released a version of its Kindle application for BlackBerry users, giving them access to their e-books without a Kindle device.

Oracle set to merge Java virtual machines

Oracle's plan to merge the Sun HotSpot Java Virtual Machine with the JRockit JVM is still evolving, but a single JVM based on both technologies is expected in 18 months to two years, an Oracle official said during a Webcast this week.

Asked about the company's plans to mix the JVMs during the Oracle Webcast, Mark Reinhold, Oracle's principal engineer and a holdover from Sun, said the company would continue to develop both platforms in the short term. A JVM enables running of Java programs and provides Java's heralded hardware and operating system independence.

Rootkit to blame for Windows Blue Screen of Death

Microsoft late on Wednesday confirmed that a rootkit caused Windows PCs to crash after users applied a security patch issued last week.

Mozilla patches critical Firefox bugs

Mozilla on Wednesday patched five vulnerabilities, three of them critical, in older editions of Firefox and in the process extended the support life of Firefox 3.0 by at least one more month.

The newest Mozilla browser, Firefox 3.6, already contains the patches.

HP profit climbs 28 percent as company raises outlook again

Hewlett-Packard's first-quarter profit increased by 28 percent from a year earlier as growth returned to some of its core businesses, prompting the company to raise its forecast for the fiscal year.

HP's profit for the quarter ended Jan. 31 was $2.3 billion, up from $1.9 billion in the same quarter last year. Revenue increased by 8 percent to $31.2 billion, HP announced Wednesday.

Oracle making new push into social services software

Oracle has its heart set on dominating the social services software market, in which its rival SAP has historically had a strong hand.

An Oracle webcast showcasing an upcoming social services application is scheduled for March 3. In a sign of the new product's strategic significance, Oracle President Charles Phillips will be presenting along with Anthony Lye, senior vice president of CRM (customer relationship management).

Mac users damn, defend 'ribbonizing' of Office 2011

Some Mac users blasted Microsoft's plan to "ribbonize" the next version of Office for the Mac, while others -- many of whom said they also use the productivity suite on Windows -- defended the move.

Office for Mac 2011 will feature a ribbon similar to what Microsoft debuted with Office 2007 for Windows, and will continue to use in Office 2010, also on Windows.

Google fixes Buzz bug

Google has fixed a Web flaw that gave hackers a way to take control of Google Buzz accounts. The flaw was patched late Tuesday, just hours after being disclosed on a Web-hacking blog run by Robert Hansen, CEO of SecTheory.

'Wired' app for iPad avoids Apple's Flash blockade, ePub format

At the TED conference last week, Wired magazine showed off a new digital version of its publication that's targeted at tablets like Apple's iPad that relies on software built by Adobe Systems (see Adobe's video demo).

CodePlex open source group moves beyond Microsoft

CodePlex Foundation, a Microsoft-backed open source projects initiative, has accepted its first non-Microsoft project, the foundation said on Wednesday.

The MVC Contrib project, enabling developers to build and test UI elements on top of Microsoft's ASP.Net MVC framework for model view controller-based Web development, has been contributed to CodePlex. MVC Contrib is led by Eric Hexter and Jeffrey Palermo of software development and consulting firm Headspring.

Friday, February 19, 2010

IT News HeadLines (InfoWorld) 19/02/2010

No comments: