Business

A recent security update from antivirus company McAfee has resulted in an estimated "hundreds of thousands" of crashed Windows XP computers. The issue appears to be widespread, causing PCs to crash, freeze, or be stuck in and endless reboot loop, ... thereby rendering the PCs completely unusable. The impact of the malicious update thus far has been staggering. According to the University of Michigan's medical school, almost 1/4 of its PCs (8,000 of 25,000) crashed after the update was applied. The Lexington, Kentucky police force reported shortly afterwards that it had been forced to ... (view more)

It's rumored that Google is close to launching its own rival for the Apple iPad tablet device. Google's tablet computer will reportedly blend an e-reader with the multi-functional and very popular Android operating system (OS). Google Opts For ... Android Operating System The choice of operating system is certainly a surprising one, given that Google has been pushing its own Chrome OS, due sometime this year. The reason the Chrome OS won't be a part of Google's tablet is actually pretty simple: Chrome will be extremely slim, offering only minimal software support and the Chrome Internet browser. ... (view more)

You'd think it'd be great to get award-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore's work on your portable Apple device, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, Fiore, who last week won the Pulitzer Prize for his edgy political cartoons, was banned from Apple's App Store ... late last year. Cartoonist App Violates License Agreement According to a report by Nieman Journalism Lab of Harvard University, Fiore submitted a cartoon app to the NewsToons Apple App Store in December. Unfortunately, it was rejected because of a perceived violation against section 3.3.14 of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement. The issue? ... (view more)

Google has announced it will ask all users to reconfirm their preferred privacy settings on its social networking site 'Buzz'. It follows a controversial launch in which many believed, correctly or otherwise, that their privacy had been compromised. ... Buzz is Google's rival to Facebook and Twitter. It's integrated into Gmail and allows users to follow and reply to posts made by people they decide to follow on the service. The service also allows users to share information from other Google-owned services such as Google Reader (an RSS newsreader) and picture-sharing site Picasa. It was clearly ... (view more)

Microsoft, like competitor Apple before it, has become embroiled in a scandal over the treatment of its foreign workers. But it's arguably more embarrassing, as the details continue to emerge via third-party investigation. When stories broke about ... labor violations among staff working overseas on Apple products, the negative publicity was tempered by the fact that it was Apple's own program which uncovered the abuses. That's not the case with the Microsoft allegations, however. The claims come in a report by the National Labor Committee, an independent pressure group which aims to uncover and ... (view more)

Apple's iPad may have sold hundreds of thousands of times over the course of its opening weekend, but that doesn't mean the new device is without its problems. Already Apple is feeling the sting from hundreds of user complaints about the iPad's weak ... WiFi abilities, reports say. "[The] signal is weak, downloading anything is painfully slow and it will drop the signal and go offline every 5-10 minutes," complained user "mbell75" on Apple's support forum website early last week. WiFi Trouble Forum Grows at Rapid Pace In the past week and a half, a thread entitled "Weak wifi" has accumulated 547 ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer provide support for the first retail version of Windows Vista, which was released to manufacturers (RTM). The move is intended to force early adopters of Windows Vista to upgrade their systems using at ... least Vista Service Pack 1 or 2. Microsoft made the announcement on Vista RTM Tuesday. According to a spokesperson for the Redmond-based firm, "Today, Windows Vista RTM has reached end of support... End of support means that customers can no longer receive support benefits from Microsoft and will need to upgrade to a supported service pack (Windows ... (view more)

Google has unveiled several changes to its cloud-computing based office application service, Google Docs. Changes include the ability to collaborate on documents in real time and improvements to the spreadsheet editor. While Google Docs is a free ... service, and meant as a more basic edition of Google's paid Apps package, it is used by many business users -- particularly those on tight budgets. That explains today's launch of the Docs updates at Google headquarters, which was attended by chief information officers from 400 companies. Google Docs Allows for Collaborative Editing The big update ... (view more)

Microsoft is wasting little time in developing the successor to their recently released Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) browser. Many believe that Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) will be a much improved browser. IE9: New HTML5 and Improved Java Engine Changes ... discussed thus far for IE9 include: the addition of Hyper Text Markup Language version 5 (HTML5), and support for a faster, new JavaScript engine called "Chakra". According to Internet Explorer GM Dean Hachamovitch, IE9 will improve HTML5 applications by taking advantage of PC hardware through Vista and Windows 7. With IE9, Microsoft is looking to ... (view more)

Less than two weeks after Microsoft patched a significant zero-day flaw in its Internet Explorer web browser, it's come to light that a Java vulnerability in the software company's Windows operating system (OS) could compromise PCs if they visit a ... particular web page infected with malicious code. Thus far, two researchers working for different security companies have reported on the matter. Late last week, Tavis Ormandy, an engineer for Google, covered the issue in the Full Discloser email list while Ruben Satamarta, an engineer at Wintercore, discussed the issue on his company's web site. ... (view more)