Stefania Spagnuolo

Many people have turned to Google to answer various questions, like how to loop a necktie or how to change a tire. As it turns out, the helpfulness of Google is not limited to law abiding citizens; two robbers in Colorado used Google to help them ... crack a safe and take off with $12,000. Here's how the heist goes: The burglars had broken into an indoor amusement center known as Bigg City. Although the robbers knew the codes for the safes, they were unable to get them open after several tries. To solve their problem the bandits consulted a computer in the next room and searched "how to crack a ... (view more)

Although the first official Firefox 3 beta release was tentatively scheduled for late July, the timeline has been pushed back as a result of performance regressions and the need for additional front-end development time. "We are driven by quality, ... not time. We want Firefox 3 to be something that we are all proud of," said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president of engineering. "The Firefox front-end has had significantly less development time than the platform and has yet to have the opportunity to innovate on top of infrastructure built for places, password manager, and others. So we'd ... (view more)

Microsoft put many Xbox users' minds to rest last Thursday, when the company announced that it would be extending the warranty on the Xbox 360. The peace of mind won't come cheap for Microsoft, however, which will take a hit of just over $1 billion ... to provide the extended warranty. "As a result of what Microsoft views as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, the company conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures," Microsoft said in a statement. (Source: news.com ) The company said that the investigations revealed many factors ... (view more)

On Friday, Google employee Lauren Turner created a post on the official Google blog which criticized Michael Moore's new film "Sicko." The post caused so much outrage that Turner has since posted another note which apologizes for her controversial ... suggestions. In the original post, Turner not only panned the movie but also offered health care advertisers a way to fight back by placing Google ads so that when a user searches for Sicko, their health care ad pops up. "We can place text ads, video ads, and rich media ads in paid search results or in relevant websites within our ever-expanding ... (view more)

Windows Vista Ultimate director Barry Goffe has apologized for Vista's 'Ultimate Extras.' What are 'Ultimate Extras'? Ultimate Extras were initially a key selling point for the Ultimate edition of Windows Vista. When the operating system (OS) first ... launched in January of this year, four extras were released: Windows Hold'Em, 16 language packs, Secure Online Key Backup, and Windows BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool. But since then, the ultimate extras have fallen flat. In fact, not a single extra has been released since January, except for a beta version of a feature known as DreamScene. ( ... (view more)

Google has hired more lobbyists to its staff in an effort to create a strong presence in Washington. "We're seeking to do public policy advocacy in a Googley way," said Andrew McLaughlin, Google's director of public policy and government affairs. ... "We want our users to be part of the effort." (Source: imedinews.ge ) The sudden focus on lobbying strength is a vast change from two years ago. At that time, Google only had one staff lobbyist in Washington, Alan B. Davidson, who now heads Google's Washington office. But when Google co-founder Sergey Brin found it difficult to get meetings with ... (view more)

Two of Google's Antiphishing and Antimalware employees have announced that the company is releasing its Safe Browsing API to the public. Meaning? The public will be able to access Google's updated blacklist of suspected phishing and malware-infected ... websites. Brian Rakowski and Garrett Casto explain that developers could use the API to prevent users from posting phishing links on a blog, or to notify users that links lead to sites with malware. "The API is still experimental, but we hope it will be useful to ISPs, web hosting companies and anyone building a site or an application that ... (view more)

Not long ago, infopackets.com reluctantly reported news that Facebook had decided to allow its website partners to create their own applications. Why worry? Concern that the clean and simple interface would be overrun by countless applications aimed ... at gathering user info for advertising purposes, that's why. Now, less than one month into Facebook's app venture, it looks like our fear may be coming true. (Source: infopackets.com ) Amit Gupta, the host of Wednesday's Facebook Developer Meetup event in New York City, said "I definitely think that people are initially going to run into 'app ... (view more)

After a haze of uncertainty further blurred by the acquisition of YouTube, Google Video is beginning to resemble a legitimate video search engine. When Google Video was first announced, its plans and purpose remained a mystery; not only to the ... public, but also to Google. Even Google co-founder Larry Page admitted, "We're not quite sure what we're going to get, but we decided we'd try this experiment." (Source: outer-court.com ) However, the ambiguity was cleared up in January, when Google announced its plans to mould Google Video using one of the company's definite strengths: search. Months ... (view more)

When a former Dell sales manager posted an aggressive and revealing blog post on Consumerist.com, their former employer was, as you might expect, less than enthused. Dell was so unhappy, in fact, that it sent a letter to the website requesting that ... the blog be removed for allegedly containing confidential information. But after Consumerist.com refusal to comply, Dell has changed its tune and apologized for its cease-and-desist request. The original post, entitled "22 Confessions of a Former Dell Sales Manager," offered advice to consumers purchasing a Dell. The blog offered various tips, ... (view more)