IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (Digital Trends) 12/09/2009

Mac Releases Upgrades for Most of Its Big Cats

Twitter keeps it simple with new terms of service

Twitter Inc. keeps it simple, even when it comes to updating the legalese in its terms of service. As part of changes made Thursday, Twitter translated some of the jargon into plain language, to lessen the chances that its users might get the wrong idea about what was happening. In particular, Twitter wanted to leave no doubt that the short messages that people post on their profiles will always be their own, even though the San Francisco-based company eventually may try to profit from the "tweets" by allowing ads on the service. "What's yours is yours — you own your content," Twitter wrote in a colored capsule that stood out from the rest of the surrounding text. It seems Twitter

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Facebook "Lite"-ens Up to Compete with Twitter

Social networking giant Facebook has launched Facebook Lite, a new streamlined version of its service designed to appeal to people with low-bandwidth or low-quality Internet connections. It's probably no coincidence that Facebook Lite comes across a lot like micro-blogging service Twitter, but the site may also be appealing to new Facebook users who find the mainstream site too chaotic and overwhelming to take in at first glance. Facebook Lite is currently only available in the United States and India, although the company is working on additional translations of the Lite site for other markets like China and

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Verdict spares Microsoft $358M in patent damages

A federal appeals court said Friday that Microsoft Corp. does not have to pay Alcatel-Lucent $358 million for patent infringement because of problems with how the damages were calculated. The disputed patent covers a method of entering information into fields on a computer screen without using a keyboard. Alcatel-Lucent says Microsoft's Outlook calendar and other programs illegally used this technology. A U.S. District Court jury determined that damages should roughly equal what Microsoft would have paid up front to license the technology from Alcatel-Lucent. But Friday, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit said the telecommunications company didn't prove its technology was valuable enough to have merited $358 m

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Automaker Ford Gets Behind Driving While Texting Ban

Anyone who has spent any time on roadways in the last several years has no doubt witnessed several near misses caused by drivers distracted by trying to use text messaging on their mobile phones or respond to email using a mobile device—and, unfortunately, many of us have also witnessed or been victims of outright accidents caused by "texting while driving." Last July, New York Senator Charles Schumer and Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (both Democrats) introduced legislation that would ban texting and emailing while driving. Verizon Wireless quickly jumped on board, declaring their support for the plan, and now Ford Motor Company h

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Hacker pleads guilty to huge theft of card numbers

A computer hacker who was once a federal informant and was a driving force behind one of the largest cases of identity theft in U.S. history pleaded guilty Friday in a deal with prosecutors that will send him to prison for up to 25 years. Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, admitted pulling off some of the most prominent hacking jobs of the decade — invading the computer systems of such retailers as TJX Cos., BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble and Sports Authority. Federal authorities say tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers were stolen. Gonzalez entered guilty pleas in U.S. District Court in Boston to 19 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud and

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Western Digital Drives Pack Backups, Hardware Encryption

Storage vendor Western Digital has introduced new versions of its My Book Essential and My Book for Mac external hard drives, adding new WD SmartWare for automatic backups of both Mac and Windows systems, as well as hardware encryption for data protection if the drives are ever lost or stolen. The My Book Essential drives are available in capacities from 500 GB to 2 TB, while the My Book Mac drives range from 640 GB to 2 TB. "Keeping an extra copy of your digital life used to be a painstaking, manual task undertaken only by the most expert and dili

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Video game sales slide again in August

Video games sales declined in August for the sixth straight month, following what analysts called a disappointing showing from the latest "Madden" game. Nonetheless, game makers are eyeing a stronger September, boosted by the much-hyped launch of "The Beatles: Rock Band" as well as "Guitar Hero 5." Although the video game industry held out longer than many other sectors in the recession, it began recording double-digit declines in March when compared with the same period in 2008. Besides the economic turmoil that has led consumers to sharply cut back spending, 2009 so far has also suffered from a lack of blockbuster games. On Thursday, market researcher NPD Group reported a 16 percent

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Motorola Cliq Android Phone

Fall in the love with the look of a Motorola phone, learn to tolerate the software. That’s always been our approach to Motorola’s undoubtedly stylish but hard-to-live-with phones. Even when the company hit it out of the park with the original Razr, the phone’s operating system drove many early adopters crazy in the ensuing years of ownership. Which is why were elated to hear Motorola has embraced the Android operating system with the upcoming Motorola Cliq for T-Mobile, mating the company’s own knack for design with one of the most exciting mobile platforms.

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Managing your Family and Co-workers on Facebook

Managing your Family and Co-workers on Facebook - So Mom and Grandma have just friend requested you on Facebook-stay calm, don't panic-let us show you how to deal with this situation. After this podcast, you will be fully prepared with an arsenal of tips on how to manage your friends, family members, and coworkers on Facebook. We'll show you how a few simple clicks on Facebook's privacy features can spare you the awkwardness of rejecting a colleague and also, just for fun, we'll rehash horror stories of some not-so-lucky fellow facebookers who have had intimate details posted all over their walls and have been fired.

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Saturday, September 12, 2009

IT News HeadLines (Digital Trends) 12/09/2009

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