Business

Apple has finally caught up with its rivals by issued a Mac-based fix for a major flaw in the Internet's workings. However, experts say it may not have fixed the problem. The patch is for a recently discovered issue with the Domain Name System ... (DNS). In short, DNS translates website addresses into the numbers which identify the computer where a website is physically stored. When you visit a popular website, Internet providers usually keep a copy of the relevant DNS data to make the site quicker to load for the next visitor. The problem is that hackers found a way to exploit the way the DNS ... (view more)

Apple has admitted that problems with its MobileMe service may mean 10% of emails have been lost for good. The service, aimed at users of mobile devices such as the new iPhone, gives access to features such as online data storage, an address book ... and calendar, and email, with data and setting accessible from all the user's devices. While the launch last month at first appeared to have gone without a hitch, some customers soon after reported problems accessing their emails (both new and old). According to a company blog, this issue only affected 1% of users -- however, Apple now says, "We ... (view more)

While Microsoft excitedly tries to sway public opinion by touting that Windows Vista License sales top 180 Million units, Hewlett-Packard (HP) was busy smacking Microsoft down -- reportedly shipping PCs with a Vista Business license but with Windows ... XP pre-loaded in the majority of business computers sold since the June 30 Windows XP execution date established by Microsoft -- casting a lot of doubt over how many copies of Vista have actually been sold. In other words, Microsoft counts a sale for Windows Vista even though the computer manufacturer actually sold Windows XP. It's kind of ironic ... (view more)

There are now more than a trillion web pages...and those are just the ones Google knows about. Google's index of web pages has grown from 26 million in 1998 to a billion (one thousand million) in 2000 and now to a trillion (one million million) in ... 2008. The search engine firm announced the statistic as a way of publicizing its position as the market leader (ahem, gloating). Writing in a post on the company's blog, software engineers Jesse Alpert said that the Google system reprocesses the entire index several times a day, each of which is equivalent to checking every road intersection in a ... (view more)

After losing its bid to take over rival search engine Yahoo and gain greater influence on the web, Microsoft has shifted its strategy in trying to reach web users. The Redmond-based company announced last week that it will be providing search ... services and online advertising for social networking giant Facebook. No, this is not a case of deja vu. Yes, Microsoft is already working alongside Facebook, but this most recent deal augments their outstanding 2006 advertising agreement in which Microsoft acquired 5 per cent of the social networker for $240 million. (Source: nzherald.co.nz ) How will ... (view more)

Microsoft is funding one of the biggest open-source organisations to the tune of $100,000. But it's not an out-and-out backing of the open-source concept. The software giant is giving the cash to the Apache Foundation, a non-profit group designed to ... co-ordinate several projects including the Apache web server, software that physically handles requests for web pages and the files involved. Apache's web server arguably made the World Wide Web what it is today. At one point, the majority of sites used it and even today it's still the most popular with a 49% market share. Major sites such as ... (view more)

Wikipedia is everyone's one-stop-shop for quick answers online. The name, an amalgamation of 'wiki' (a collaborative website) and 'encyclopedia', is the "biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet." Once virtually alone in its ... field, the site faces new competition from Google. The seven year-old site has over 75, 000 contributors and over 10 million articles published in over 250 languages. Allowing people from all walks of life to write, contribute to and supplement articles has allowed it to amass a truly global, if not academically sound, archive of information. There ... (view more)

In the technological world, few other phenomena are receiving as much attention as "cloud computing". The concept pertains to files and programs that are stored in places beyond the hard drive, existing exclusively in the air around us (or in ... "clouds"). In actuality, this secured data is stored on some kind of encrypted Internet server. All of us have had at least one previous experience with cloud computing. Anytime you use an Internet-based backup service, an online word processor, or send an email using Windows Live Hotmail you are clouding. Microsoft has been staying ahead of their ... (view more)

Just a few days after announcing it will be releasing a new line of chips specifically designed for the skyrocketing laptop market, Intel has now revealed it will also be slashing the price of its server and desktop processors. Things are certainly ... looking up for Intel, which last week boasted an impressive second quarter profit jump. All that profitability has allowed the company to slash the price of its most prominent chip, the Core 2 Duo. Intel's top of the line version of that chip, the 3.1GHz E8500, plummeted from $266 to $183, a 31 per cent drop. The lower performance E8400 also ... (view more)

After months of speculation and board room wrangling, the fate of Yahoo! is officially decided. Earlier in the week, Carl Icahn and the Yahoo! board came to an agreement over the future of the beleaguered Internet portal. Under the terms of the ... deal, eight members of the board will stay on including Chairman Roy Bostock, Ronald Burkle, Eric Hippeau, Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur Kern, Mary Agnes Wilderotter, Gary Wilson and CEO Jerry Yang. Robert Kotick will step down from the board and be replaced by Icahn. The board will also enlarge to include two more members for a total of 11, and both spots ... (view more)