Gmail to adopt IMAP

Google Inc. has launched a new IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) service for Gmail that will allow users to sync Gmail with their e-mail clients.

"It keeps the same information synced across all devices so that whatever you do in one place shows up everywhere else you might access your e-mail," said David Murray, associate product manager, in a blog post. "For example, I can read an e-mail in Gmail, then move it to the 'Starred' folder on my iPhone, then archive it by moving it to 'All Mail' in Thunderbird, then see all of those changes on my BlackBerry or any of [these] devices for that matter."

As with many things Google, Gmail's IMAP implementation is not quite finished. It lacks a few important features, and in our initial tests, we found it to be painfully slow.

"Our primary focus is on our users and the user experience," a Google spokesperson says, "and we're focused on building the features that are most important to our users. We'll be updating our IMAP implementation as we go, in response to how our users use it and what they request."

To use the new service, users should click on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab in their Gmail Settings and turn it on.

Apple OKs Unlock Process

After taking much flak for ‘locking up' its prestigious iPhone, Apple has announced that it would ‘open it up'.
Apple CEO Stave Jobs said on Wednesday that the company would allow third-party applications to work on the iPhone.
There was much fury after Apple issued an update last week which messed up iPhones which had installed other software.
Though Apple meant it as a lesson to those who did not heed its words, consumers were not at all amused.

Computer sales hit peak

Computer sales peaked from July to September this year, mostly driven by the increased demand for laptops.
Reports released by analyst firms IDC and Gartner also showed that Hewlett Packard had surged ahead in PC shipments leaving its immediate rival Dell far behind.
There was a 15.5 per cent increase in global PC shipments in the third quarter. In all, 66.9 million PCs were shipped from July to September this year, while only 57.9 million were sold during the same period last year.
HP has further cemented its number one position by increasing its share in the world PC market to 19.6 per cent, while Dell's share declined and touched 15.2 per cent.
Gartner predicted that the overall growth in global PC shipments this year would be around 12.3 per cent.



Thanks To DC IT Watch

Google- The Boss!

Google Inc. topped global search charts in August, but search engines in China and South Korea are challenging the search company in their own countries, according to Internet research firm comScore Inc.

Google captured roughly 60 percent of the searches conducted worldwide in August, blowing away the field with 37.1 billion of 61 billion queries, comScore said. Five billion of Google's August searches came from the Mountain View, Calif., company's video property YouTube.com.

Yahoo was the second most used engine, followed by Baidu, the Chinese language search engine, the report said.

"Seeing Asian search engines like China's Baidu.com and Korea's NHN ranked alongside Google and Yahoo underscores the fact that search has become a truly global phenomenon," said Bob Ivins, executive vice president of international markets at comScore, in a statement.

Mozilla preps a Mobile Firefox

Mozilla has recently hired two new developers to help work on the project and plans to release Mobile Firefox some time in the next year or two.

"People ask us all the time about what Mozilla's going to do about the mobile web, and I'm very excited to announce that we plan to rock it," Mike Schroepfer, a Mozilla developer known as "schrep," wrote on the Mozillazine blog.

Mozilla's plans include making mobile devices a first-tier platform, shipping a version of Firefox designed for mobile devices that also supports extensions and XUL application development, and expanding the team of full-time mobile Firefox developers. The problem for Mozilla is that there are already some entrenched players in the mobile space, and dislodging them is bound to be difficult.

The new Mozilla hires who will contribute to the mobile Firefox initiative are Christian Sejersen, who recently worked for Openwave Systems Inc., and Brad Lassey, who worked for France Telecom R&D, which has been very active in mobile Linux initiatives.

Microsoft-XBox offers complementary gift!

Microsoft on Monday has announced release of two Xbox 360 bundles that will come with two games-Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Forza Motorsport 2 packed in.

The games, which Microsoft lists as a $90 value, will be included with every $450 Elite system and $350 Pro system sold this holiday, beginning at the end of October. The games will not be included with the limited-edition $400 "Halo 3" version of the console.

Microsoft is counting on this holiday season to provide the Xbox 360 with plenty of momentum to fend off Sony and Nintendo. The company has said it expects at least seven upcoming and recently released Xbox 360 games to break the million-unit sales mark, including Madden NFL 08, BioShock, Halo 3, Project Gotham Racing 4, Mass Effect, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

'Internet Explorer 7' for all (legally)!

Microsoft has released a new version of its Internet Explorer 7 Web browser that does not require Windows Genuine Advantage validation to install.

"Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we're updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users," Microsoft Program Manager Steve Reynolds wrote in a blog post.

Flaws in Windows Genuine Advantage have reportedly resulted in millions of Windows users erroneously being reported to Microsoft as software pirates. A Chinese student has gone so far as to sue Microsoft over the issue.

Microsoft is clearly hoping the update will boost adoption of IE 7, which debuted last year for Windows XP and was updated in January for Windows Vista. Despite the releases, Explorer's market share has declined slightly over the past year as competition emerges from Firefox, Safari, Opera, and other alternative browsers.

Yahoo, ebay and Paypal to fight against Phishing

Yahoo Inc, is working with auction leader eBay Inc and its PayPal payments unit to block fake e-mails to users purporting to be from eBay and PayPal, hoping to spur on an industry that has been slow to fight the scourge of so-called phishing attacks.

Phishers use forged e-mail messages that purport to come from brand name services like eBay or PayPal to dupe computer users into clicking on Web links that lead to phony Web sites. Unsuspecting consumers may then enter personal or account information and passwords under false pretenses. Phishers typically use this information for fraud or theft.

To prevent phishing messages from reaching users of Yahoo Mail, the companies are now using Yahoo's Domain Keys technology in the U.S. to block e-mail messages that claim to come from eBay or PayPal but really originate elsewhere. Yahoo expects to make the system available globally in the next few weeks.

Over the past decade, phishing has been clogging the inboxes of e-mail users worldwide with ever more sophisticated attempts to fool users into clicking on fraudulent sites or giving up personal financial details to commit fraud.

Beware of Video files!

Hackers are depending more on online videos to introduce malicious code into computers. They have chosen this mode since most users are wary of opening suspicious looking emails. But nobody thinks twice about clicking a video link to You Tube. A report on Internet threats released by Georgia Tech Information Security Centre the other day termed the use of online videos a major threat. One code opens a booby trapped website as soon as the user opens a media file. Another malicious programme installs spyware by way of a video link. Social networking sites, blogs and wikis are also becoming fertile terrain for hackers.

MS-Office goes 'Online'

Microsoft has revealed more of its software-plus-services plan to better compete with online competitors, announcing new hosted services targeted at enterprise customers and small businesses.

In the coming months, Microsoft will roll out "Live" and "Online" service offerings, with the former aimed at consumers and small businesses, and the latter at larger businesses.

"The distinction between Live and Online was made in response to larger businesses asking for better articulation of the vendor's services strategy", said Eron Kelly, director of product management in Microsoft's business online services group.

Users are now invited to pre-register for Office Live Workspace, which allows those with Microsoft Office to access their Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents online.

Also Microsoft announced the start of Microsoft Exchange Labs, a research and development program intended to produce next-generation messaging and communication technologies. It will involve select universities and school districts, Microsoft said.

Finally the 'unlocked' iPhones are 'dead' !

Users are reporting that a new update to Apple Inc.'s iPhone is making previously unlocked iPhones unusable. The iPhone 1.1.1 update, released Thursday, breaks phones that have been hacked so that they work with providers other than AT&T Inc., the only U.S. provider Apple has allowed to carry its mobile phones.

Apple warned earlier this week that the iPhone update-which adds access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and fixes some security flaws-could permanently disable phones that have been already modified for use in networks other than AT&T Inc.,-its exclusive partner's network.

Security researcher Tom Ferris said the new software disabled a phone that had been unlocked using the open-source anySIM software in order to work on T-Mobile USA Inc.'s wireless network. After the update, the iPhone was stuck with an error message and apparently unusable. "It kept saying 'unsupported SIM card,' even with the AT&T SIM card in it," he said. "You can turn the phone off or on, but we just can't figure out how to get past this 'SIM card not supported'," he said.

There were reports online that employees at Apple stores were reviving or replacing some dead iPhones. But Ms. Bowcock. an Apple spokeswomen did not offer much hope to iPhone owners with problems: “If the damage was due to use of an unauthorized software application, voiding their warranty, they should purchase a new iPhone.”

Nokia to launch its new E51 Mobile phone

Nokia will be launching its E51 in India towards the end of next month. With the introduction of E51, the number of E-series phones available in the market would go up to seven (E50, E65, E90 communicator, E60, E61, E62 and E61i).

Introducing the product for the first time in India at a press conference here on Thursday, country general manager of the company, G. K. Chakrapani, said the product was launched in Europe and priced at 300 euro. However, the price of the product [in India] would be decided before the launch.

The slim E51, which was demonstrated, has many features. It has FM radio, music and multimedia players, 2 mega pixel camera, Nokia browser with a variety of Internet applications including interoperability with Windows Live, active notes, voice recorder, five-party conference calling, in-device search for finding data, video recording on 3G platform and MPEG-4.

It has a 130 MB of user data memory which is extendible up to 4 GB with microSD card, GPRS, remote and local synchronisation through Bluetooth 2.0 technology.

Thanks To Hindu-Business News

"Live Search" to compete with "Google Search"

Seeking to narrow the gap with Google, Microsoft Corp unveiled a retooled Web search service that aims to deliver more relevant results and combines text, video and other information onto a single page.

The overhauled Live Search, announced Wednesday, automatically packages results for some search queries -- such as celebrity, business and product names -- in a way that looks like a specially designed page on the subject, not a standard list of results.

The updates will be phased in by the end of the month, said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president for Microsoft's search and advertising group. Among them, he said, are improvements to the way Live Search interprets what users are looking for, even if they misspell a word, type in two separate words instead of a compound word or use a variation, like "driving" instead of "drive."

Live Search also will better detect what Nadella calls "stop words" — keywords or phrases that aren't considered unless there's a specific combination or context — like the name "Will Smith" in the U.S.

Apple warns against unlocked iPhones

Apple has warned that anyone attempting to unlock their iPhone to use with an unauthorised mobile network could find their phones irreparably damaged.

A few weeks ago, some teenager posted instructions about how to do it on YouTube. Since then, other hacks have surfaced, and the issue has become serious enough that Apple had to issue the warning late Monday against such actions.

The warning is likely to rankle the online community of programmers who have come up with various unlocking programs that permit users to reprogram the phones so that they can work on any wireless network based on the global system for mobile communications, or GSM, technical standard.

The company said that modified mobiles would become "permanently inoperable" once Apple updates were installed, i.e., Users with unlocked iPhones, in theory, might avoid the problems simply by not installing Apple software updates. That means they will then likely have to forgo new features Apple designs for the phones. Apple said its next iPhone-software update will be available later this week and will include the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, a new capability that will let users wirelessly download songs from iTunes.

MySpace occupies mobile space!

News Corp owned MySpace launched Monday a "free," mobile version of its Web site accessible to anyone with a standard Web-enabled cellphone.

The new site will work with all U.S. phone carriers and allow users to send and receive messages, comment on pictures, post bulletins, update blogs and request, find and search for friends.

Nothing is truly free, however: MySpace serves up ads to pay for the service. The new site loads two ads-one banner and one text snippet-for each visitor.

In coming months, the company-News Corp-also plans to offer a mobile version of Photobucket, its picture-sharing site, as well as mobile versions of FoxSports.com, gaming site IGN, AskMen and its local TV affiliates.

Microsoft's XP 'downgrade' option from Vista

While Microsoft is still pushing Vista hard, the company is quietly allowing PC makers to offer a "downgrade" option to buyers that get machines with the new operating system but want to switch to Windows XP.

Details vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and only apply to computers sold with Vista Business or Ultimate editions. Different vendors are handling the downgrade in a variety of ways: Fujitsu and HP, for example, offer the option of getting an XP disc in the box with its laptops. "That's going to help out small and medium-size businesses," Fujitsu marketing manager Brandon Farris told in a press conference. On the other hand Lenovo is allowing users to purchase a Windows XP recovery CD any time until July 31, 2008. In most cases, the XP CDs are very inexpensive, sometimes free.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's requirement that vendors no longer preload XP on computers is still set to take effect on January 31, 2008, though vendors have four more months to attempt to get Microsoft to change its tune.

Beware Adobe Acrobat users!

The security researcher who discovered a recently patched QuickTime flaw affecting the Firefox browser says he has found a similar serious flaw in Adobe Systems Inc.'s PDF file format.

"Adobe Acrobat/Reader PDF documents can be used to compromise your Windows box. Completely!!! Invisibly and unwillingly!!!," wrote Petko D. Petkov, in a blog posting. "All it takes is to open a PDF document or stumble across a page which embeds one."

Petkov confirmed this issue on Adobe Reader 8.1 on Windows XP and he said he would not disclose the code that exposes how this attack works until Adobe provides a patch for the problem, but he has already sent other software developers scrambling for bug fixes over the past week.

Turkey's another YouTube ban

A Turkish court has ordered the country's top telecommunications company to block access to popular video-sharing site YouTube because of CLIPS the court deems insulting to leading political figures.

In March, Mountain View-based Google Inc.'s YouTube site was banned in Turkey for two days after complaints that clips insulted the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The ban was lifted after the clips were removed.

In response, a media advocacy group has criticized Turkey.
“Blocking an entire Web site because of a few videos is a disproportionate measure,” the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the authorities to reverse this decision.”

The latest ban involves alleges insults to Ataturk, President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the army.

IBM's helping hand for the blinds

IBM student researchers are working on technology which will help blind people enjoy online virtual worlds, the new fad among Net users. The team in Ireland is attempting to do this by creating an impeccable audio replica of virtual worlds which will give blind people a sense of space. They are using 3D sound for this.Researchers used the Active Worlds online environment for their design. Blind people entering it will hear even the rustle of leaves. The project will now be taken up by IBM’s Human Ability and Accessibility Centre in Texas to be developed further.


Thanks To DC-IT Watch

Phishing Mania: Thrilling Report From Symantec

Symantec Corp's latest security report says that cyber crime has become an increasingly professional business and that malicious code and services are being sold in open markets on the Internet.

Bank account details command prices of up to US$400, while credit card details sell for between $0.50 and $5, e-mail passwords from $1 to $350 each, and e-mail addresses from $2 to $4 per megabyte, according to Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report.

The Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume XII covers the period from Jan. 1, 2007, through June 30, 2007 and finds that professionally developed toolkits are being sold in the underground economy. Credit cards continued to be the top commodity sold by cyber criminals accounting for 22 percent of all advertisements, while bank accounts totalled 21 percent.

Google's Private Moon Landing Contest.

Google recently announced plans to offer up to $30 million to the first private organization that is able to safely land a robotic spacecraft on the Earth's moon.

Working alongside the X Prize Foundation -- a foundation known for offering challenges for monetary reward -- the contest will be open to any "nongovernmental entity" that is able to complete the mission.

Teams from around the world will vie for the Google Lunar X-Prize by building lunar missions complete with robotic rovers capable of roaming the surface of the moon for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and other data back to Earth, according to a statement from the X Prize Foundation.

Bonus prizes of upto $5 million will be awarded to teams that successfully complete additional mission tasks such as roving distances longer than 5,000 meters.

All zealed parties have until 2012 to complete the required tasks to collect the prize. If all teams are unable to complete the task, Google will extend the deadline to 2014, but the prize purse will also drop $5 million. Visit their site more info.

Yahoo's way of Social Networking: "Y! Mash"

Yahoo's rumored social network, dubbed "Mash," has arrived. The company started inviting people outside the company to test it on Friday, the company says in a blog.

Mash is different from other social networks in that you can start profiles for your friends and "open" your own profile to friends you trust, according to the Mash blog. What that means, exactly, is still a bit unclear.

You can also reportedly customize your profile or friends' profiles with other apps, ala Facebook.

"One last note before you jump in: Mash is still pretty raw--there are bugs and we haven't gotten to several of the features it really should have. We need to hear from you about where to focus our efforts," writes Will Aldrich, the head of Mash.

No word on what will happen to Yahoo 360, a social networking service that never really caught on, leaving Yahoo executives to acknowledge that they had some catching up to do.

Beware Skype Users!

A virus masquerading as a chat invitation is doing the rounds via the instant messaging facility of Skype, the popular Internet telephony network. It pops up on screens of Skype users with Windows operating system and offers a link to erotic pictures. Those who are gullible enough to click on the link will be persuaded to download another file which contains a virus that will steal crucial information from the computer. Skype is working with Internet security firms to neutralise the worm. Until then, those who love hot pictures might as well hold their horses.

Thanks To DC-IT Watch

Sandisk proclaimed war against Apple?

SanDisk yesterday announced a new, ultra-thin video MP3 player that appears likely to go head-to-head with Apple's newly upgraded iPod nano.

The new Sansa View combines MP3 playback capabilities with full-motion video support, a large screen, long battery life and generous capacity. Perhaps even more notable, the device also boasts an optional 8 GB microSD/microSDHC card for memory capabilities of up to 24 GB.
Scheduled to hit the market in October, the Sansa View will carry a suggested retail price of US$199.99 for a 16 GB flash-based player or $149.99 for a 8 GB version.

"The Sansa View is a new video MP3 player that combines all of the great characteristics of an MP3 player with the video capabilities of a portable media player, and packs it into a pocketable device," said Eric Bone, vice president of marketing for SanDisk's Sansa audio/video product line. "What's more, we're once again showing that category-leading technology can still be very affordable."

AMD Quad-Core release

Quarrels and Competition between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the world's leading chip makers, will redouble on Monday with the launch of AMD's quad-core processor for the server market.

This is the company's most important launch in four years.

AMD's chip with four "brains," codenamed Barcelona, is part of its Opteron product line and comes at a critical time for the company.

Firefox Campus Edition for Students.

Firefox recently launched its new version of Internet Browser targetting students. Firefox Campus Edition, as it is known, is the same and has all the features of its earlier version except that it is bundled with some three featuristic add-ons- FoxyTunes, Zotero, StumbleUpon.

FoxyTunes- Let users to play music while they browse the Internet. The player is located at the bottom-right of the browser. There is an option to even select the player to play the files-from Windows Media Player to Pandora!

Zotero- May be a bit confusing at a first-see. It can be used for taking notes, snapshots of the website while browsing. It will be a very useful tool for those students who involved in researches.

StumbleUpon- It is a kind of Bookmarking-tool. Users can align the internet to their interest, connect to all sorts of people and sites.

Though this edition is meant only for students, for others its worth a try.

Excuse me, No Cellphones please!

Using a mobile phone inside a hospital may risk the lives of patients by interfering with equipment, according to academics.

Signals from mobile devices may alter the performance of pacemakers and other life-saving machinery, says the study from the University of Amsterdam.
Researchers recorded 50 incidents of electromagnetic interference caused by mobile use, and classified 75 per cent of them as being hazardous.
Most of the problems result from General Packet Radio Service signals, a data transfer service used by the most recent handsets.
Mobile phones should be kept at least a meter away from hospital beds and equipment, according to advice published in online medical journal Critical Care.
'Critical care equipment is vulnerable to electromagnetic interference by new-generation wireless telecommunication technologies with median distances of about three centimetres,' says the report.

Thanks To vnunet

Facebook profiles to go public?

Facebook Inc, the social-network site that has enjoyed explosive growth in new members over the past three months, said it plans to let users tell the rest of the world how to find them on the site.The function will initially allow anyone who is not registered with the site to search for a specific person.
By publicizing member profiles, Facebook could attract a new wave of users. Unlike most sites on the Web, Facebook has previously denied access by search services to information on the site.
In a few weeks, Facebook will also make the information accessible via search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN Live, said Facebook engineer Philip Fung in the blog post.
Users who don't want their listings to become public can opt out by changing their Search Privacy settings. Listings will only appear in outside searches if users' search settings are set to "Everyone."
Facebook began life as a way of keeping US college students in touch with each other. Devised by Harvard drop-out Mark Zuckerberg, the site now accounts for 1% of all net traffic and is the sixth most visited site in the US.

Chinese Children : An Internet Addict!

The vast majority of Chinese schoolchildren chose to stay home and surf the Internet during the summer holidays rather than play outside, state media said on Tuesday, citing a survey.
The poll of 103 children aged 4 to 14 found that just 4 percent chose to do outdoor activities during the holidays and only 9 percent took part in summer educational camps.
School began again across China on Monday.
"Five years ago, when the Internet was not so popular among students, they preferred going out during summer holidays. Nowadays they prefer to stay at home and play Internet games," a medical official was quoted as saying by the China Daily.
About 13 percent of China's 20 million Internet users under 18 are classed as addicts, state media have reported.
In Shanghai last month, local authorities launched an experimental summer camp for 40 youngsters to try to wean them of their addiction.

Thanks To Reuters

Vista SP1 release scheduled

On Aug 29, 2007, Microsoft Corp. finally put out details of Service Pack 1(SP1), the long-awaited first major upgrade of the operating system that the company released in January. SP1, as it's known, will be available to the public in the first quarter of 2008; the 50 MB upgrade will come to Vista users as a download. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will be released to more than 10,000 beta testers in the next few weeks.

SP1 will bring improvements in security, reliability, performance, and system administration, and it will roll together bug fixes and other updates that have been issued in the seven months since Vista's launch. One thing it doesn't include: major new features. "This is not a feature delivery vehicle," says David Zipkin, a Microsoft senior product manager.

IBM launches two great Nanotechnology

IBM has demonstrated how to perform certain computer functions on single atoms and molecules, a discovery that could someday lead to processors the size of a speck of dust, the company said Thursday.
In a first report, IBM scientists describe major progress in probing a property called magnetic anisotropy in individual atoms. This fundamental measurement has important technological consequences because it determines an atom's ability to store information. Previously, nobody had been able to measure the magnetic anisotropy of a single atom.
In the second report, researchers at IBM's lab in Zurich said they had used an individual molecule as an electric switch that could potentially replace the transistors used in modern chips.
The company published both research reports in Friday's edition of the journal Science
Although still far from making their way into products, these breakthroughs will enable scientists at IBM and elsewhere to continue driving the field of nanotechnology, the exploration of building structures and devices out of ultra-tiny, atomic-scale components. Such devices might be used as future computer chips, storage devices, sensors and for applications nobody has imagined yet.

'Manhunt2' to release in US

Manhunt 2, a computer game banned in the UK for its extreme violence, is to be released in slightly sanitized version in the US in time for Halloween. This modified version of the game was given an updated 'Mature' rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) from an 'Adults Only' rating in June when it became the first game to be banned in the UK in ten years and subsequently its release in the US was delayed.

Manhunt 2 is developed by Rockstar Games, a development division of games publisher Take-Two Interactive. Rockstar Games is responsible for other controversial games such as Grand Theft Auto(GTA) and Bully.

"Manhunt 2 is important to us, and we are glad that it can finally be appreciated as a gaming experience," said Rockstar Games founder and executive producer Sam Houser. "We think horror fans will love it."

Yahoomail gets updated!

Five months after announcing its plan to offer unlimited storage for its Web-based free e-mail service, the Webmail giant Yahoo! Inc. is now upgrading its free e-mail service with new enhancements and taking the “beta” label off the product.

With the competitive pressure rising significantly in recent years among Webmail providers, due in large part to Google's introduction of Gmail in 2004, Yahoo's radical revamping of Yahoo Mail is targeted at protecting and extending its traditionally solid standing in this market.

Starting Monday, the improved Yahoo! Mail will incorporate quality enhancements that will make it easier to send email, instant messages or text messages from a single Web site. A button provided at the top of the page gives users the option to choose between sending an e-mail, chatting over IM or sending a text, or SMS, message, for free.

Although the new Yahoo Mail will now become the service's primary version, users will be able to continue using the "classic" version. "We'll continue to offer both products for the foreseeable future and we'll let our users decide what's the right Yahoo Mail experience for them," said John Kremer, Yahoo Mail's vice president.

Microsoft waters XBox owners.

Microsoft has told the owners of its Xbox 360 console that it will pay to replace a 'racing wheel' controller which could overheat and release smoke. About 230,000 of the wheel-shaped controllers – used for driving games such as Test Drive and DiRT – have been sold worldwide. Microsoft said there had been only 50 reports of the devices smoking when plugged into the mains using an AC/DC adapter. The company told Xbox owners not to plug the £90 controllers into a power supply until they had obtained the "retro-fit", but said the device could safely be used with batteries."There have been no reported incidences of fire, personal injury or property damage due to the wheel malfunction," Microsoft said in a statement. Owners of the racing wheel can visit their Online Support or call Microsoft (US) on (0800) 587 1102 to register for a retrofit.

Wanna unlock iPhone? Hotz can help you!

Armed with a soldering iron and energy drinks, a teenager has found a way to free Apple's much-hyped iPhone from the AT&T network. The development could represent a serious blow to the US phone giant AT&T, which had been hoping to leverage the popularity of the sexy new phone into a dominant position in the US market. The hack would also allow the phone to be used on networks in countries outside the US. But they failed to take into account 17-year-old George Hotz, and his desire to use the phone on the T-Mobile network. Hotz posted details of the ten step hack on his blog and also a video of the procedure on YouTube. The video has already been viewed more than 130,000 times.

Hotz seems an unlikely candidate to have hacked the world's most hyped product. The recent high-school graduate had little experience hacking cell phones, and by his own admission he feels more comfortable with a soldering iron than a piece of computer code. "My iPhone works with T-Mobile now, and that's all I ever wanted," Hotz told MacNewsWorld, adding that it had taken him about 500 hours to figure out the workaround.

SMS Threat on Rise!

An expert Central committee appointed by the government has sought penal action against hackers who steal phone numbers to send SMSs.
The committee was appointed by the department of telecom after getting several complaints about mobile numbers being stolen by hackers to send SMSs, which often ‘phish' for personal information.
According to the committee, stealing a person's number and using it amounted to ‘impersonation and forgery', is a criminal offence.
Centre has already blocked sites which offered SMS hacking tools for free.
There were also complaints that hackers had used SMS messages in the name of banks to get information about accounts.

Thanks To DC-IT-Watch.

Monster attacked by Monster?

A computer program was used to access the employers' section of the website using stolen log-in credentials. Personal details stored on Monster.com, a website that lists job vacancies, were taken after a raid by hackers who posed as employers to gain access to the site. Having stolen the information, hackers e-mailed the victims claiming to have infected their computers with a virus and threatening to delete files unless demands for payment were met. The details, which included names, surnames, e-mail and home addresses, as well as phone numbers, were then used to send 'phishing' e-mails to members, apparently from Monster.com, encouraging them to download a tool known as 'Monster Job Seeker'. The tool was in fact a malicious 'trojan' program called Infostealer.Monstres, which encrypted the files on the victim's machine, making them inaccessible to the computer owner. A message was left requesting that money be paid to the attackers before the files – which could include photos and other personal documents – would be decrypted. As an initiative for prevention Symantec said users should always limit contact information posted to job websites and to use a disposable e-mail address.
"Never disclose sensitive details such as your social security number, passport or driver's license numbers, bank account information to prospective employers until you have established they are legitimate," said the firm.

Google launches Indian Languages tool

Google Inc. today launched Google Labs India, a version of its Google Labs platform that includes technologies to allow people in India to conduct searches and get results in their local languages, according to a Google blog post. Google has put up two technologies for testing by users on the Google Labs Web site: an Indic On-Screen Keyboard iGoogle Gadget and Google Indic Transliteration. The engineers said they are testing two technologies on Google Labs India, an Indic On-Screen Keyboard iGoogle Gadget and Google Indic Transliteration. Users can search by choosing letters from the on-screen keyboard using a mouse. They can add the gadget for their chosen language to their personalized iGoogle home pages and use it to search for content in their languages. Google Indic Transliteration allows the user to type in Hindi, a key language in India, using phonetically equivalent English text entered through an English keyboard. The content created can be used in e-mail, word processors and other applications from both Google and its competitors, Agarwal, a spokeswoman for Google India, said. Internet growth in India is expected to come from outside of cities, where many people are more at ease using Indian languages, he added.

The End Of Yahoo Photos!!

Well its time to vacate all the Yahoo Photos accounts as they decided to close it once for all. Its seems that they are going to concentrate on 'Flickr'-The Award Winning Photo Sharing Program. Yahoo Inc., give their users time to either download their favourite photos to their system HDD or transfer it to any other photo sharing program. However they recommend the use of Flickr for all its user's future photo uploading need.

Yahoo! Photos is closing on September 20, 2007. That's in 32 days.

We're sorry. Yahoo! Photos is closing on September 20, 2007 so we are no longer accepting new accounts or allowing users to upload photos if you don't already have photos in your account. We've decided to focus all our efforts on Flickr - the award winning photo sharing community that Time Magazine has even called "completely addictive". Why not head over to Flickr for a look?

Google's click-fraud tracking site.

Google has announced it's new Web site to serve as the single source for all click-fraud and ad traffic-quality-related information. Google developed the new Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center primarily to give its advertisers a single place to find Google's information about click fraud, said Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager for trust and safety at Google, on Friday. In the pay-per-click format, advertisers pay every time someone clicks on their ads, which are linked to a Web page. Click fraud happens when companies click on competitors' ads to drive up their ad spending. Another common click-fraud practice is for Web publishers to click on their sites' ads to increase their commissions.
The group decided to prioritize organizing a click-fraud forum for Google advertisers that was held at the company's headquarters in May, he said. A similar event will be held later this month in Google's New York City offices, he said.
Already in place is a service called IP Filtering, which lets advertisers "blacklist" certain IP (Internet Protocol) addresses for whatever reason, such as suspicion of click fraud or simply because their clicks never lead to a sale, he said.

Happy Birthday! CD turns 25.

Twenty-five years (17 August 1982) ago the first compact discs rolled of the production presses at the Philips factory near Hannover in Germany. Since then more than 200 billion CDs have been sold worldwide after pushing out vinyl records and then cassettes as the format of choice for listening to music. Those early CDs also paved the way for other digital discs, like the DVD and CD-Rom, which became ubiquitous in the computer and and movie industries. "In the late seventies and early eighties we never imagined that one day, the computing and entertainment industries would also opt for the digital CD to store the growing volume of data for computer programs and movies," said Piet Kramer, one of the Philips engineers who developed the CD. Those first CDs contained Strauss' Alpine Symphony and would sound equally sharp if played today, says Holland's Royal Philips Electronics NV, which jointly developed the CD with Sony Inc of Japan. But their future looks increasingly under threat from iPoda and MP3 players that play music downloaded directly from the internet or digital storage devices for computer files.

Its Yahoo vs Google battle now!

A new survey has found that Net users are more satisfied with Yahoo than Google. Yahoo scored 79 points while Google got 78 points in the survey conducted by the University of Michigan. Though Yahoo has only a slight edge over Google, it has much to gloat about. Last year, Google had a five point lead over Yahoo.
It was the comprehensive services offered by Yahoo’s portal which shifted votes in its favour, researchers said. Though Google is still the favourite search tool, it has not been able to promote its other services as robustly as Yahoo.
Larry Freed, president of Foresee Results which did the survey for the university, pointed out that users don’t see anything different in Google’s portal from what they saw three years ago. But Yahoo has refurbished its portal and gained in points.

Parent's Internet Nightmare!

A survey by security firm Symantec has confirmed the worst fears of parents. It warns that most teens and kids who browse the Internet are doing dangerous things online. While most parents thought that kids were online only about three hours a week, in reality, they were online for more than seven hours. And more than 25 per cent of them confessed that they were doing things that would make their parents shudder.
The survey revealed that 88 per cent of parents were wary of their children’s activities online but did not know what to do about it. Over 21 per cent of the teens revealed that they had uncomfortable experiences online and 18 per cent had been subjected to cyber bullying. About 23 per cent of them said they had revealed their details to strangers on the Internet.

Thanks to DC-IT Watch

Kingston unveiled its 4GB MiniSD

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, announced it is expanding its line of Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) memory cards with the introduction of a 4GB miniSDHC card, available in Class 2, 4 and 6 speed ratings. The higher capacity and faster speeds offered by Kingston miniSDHC cards make them ideal for supporting new, smaller-profile multifunction phones and digital devices able to take advantage of the advanced expansion memory platform."As sleeker, more sophisticated mobile phones, PDAs and MP3 players offer digital imaging, music, video, mobile TV and games, the need for higher data transfer rates, increased storage and smaller form factor expansion memory becomes greater," said Country Manager, India, Kingston Technology. Backed by a lifetime warranty and free technical support, Kingston miniSDHC Flash memory cards are available through distributors, resellers, and retailers in India.

Toshiba's Notebook PC--New Release

Korea-based Toshiba has unveiled its latest laptop for professionals, known as the Toshiba Tecra S5.
Toshiba Tecra S5 sports a 15.4-inch monitor, fingerprint reader, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard disk SATA. Powered by a 256MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 170M, Toshiba offers the S5 a much faster 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo on an 800MHz bus, a serial port to administer older server computers.

Here are the other features of the Toshiba Tecra S5 notebook PC:
Intel Centrino Pro processor technology featuring Intel Core2 Duo Processor T7500
Genuine Windows Vista Business Edition
2,048 (1,024 + 1,024) MB up 4,096 MB DDR2 RAM (667 MHz)
12.7mm 8x DVD-Super Multi +-R DL Ultra light
RGB, USB 2.0 x 3, Modem, Lan, IEEE1394, 4-in-1 card reader.

In addition, it comes with a DVD Super Multi drive and supports the company’s security solution named ‘Easy Guard’.
The price of the Toshiba Tecra S5 is around $2,166 (87,181.50 INR) and will be available in Korea. The latest laptop will be soon available in US with a different configuration and price tag.

Acer's new TravelMate 4520.

Acer announced its new 4520 Notebook PC in Bangkok. The TravelMate 4520 is a mid-range laptop for the mobile professional, featuring an AMD Turioni 64 X2 (1.8GHz) CPU and based on the ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 chipset. It comes bundled with 1GB DDR2-533 RAM, and graphics is handled by the Radeon Xpress which can share up to 384MB of your RAM (and simultaneously slow down your system).
There's a 120GB 5400 RPM hard drive. The display is a nice 14.1" WXGA display with Acer CrystalBrite technology that runs at 1280x800 pixels resolution, and there's also an S-Video out on the back. A DVD-Super Multi double layer drive is available for your backup needs, and as a bonus, it has a 5-in-1 media card reader.
It also sports 4 USB 2.0 ports, integrated Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. Priced at 32,900 baht (approx US $970).

Laptop thieft caught on cam!!

Dawson Anthony Bliss, 50, of Hastings, was convicted in Greymouth District Court yesterday after pleading not guilty to a charge of theft.
The court was told a video of the theft from a window display at a computer shop was posted on the internet websites YouTube and Google Video. The man was taped slowly circling the store, stealing a laptop computer, slipping the computer into his overcoat and stepping out of the store in the South Island town of Greymouth, local media reported on Friday.
The video had recorded more than 500,000 hits, one of them from a man who recognised the thief as Bliss.
Judge Gary MacAskill fined Bliss $2000 and ordered him to pay $1990 reparation. He noted Bliss had behaved himself for six years but said he had lapsed into his old ways on a visit to Greymouth.

Google's Online Storage

Search giant Google Inc. on Friday began selling expanded online storage, targeted for users with large picture, music or video file collections.
The price range is shown below

$20 per year for 6 GB
$75 per year for 25 GB
$250 per year for 100 GB
$500 per year for 250 GB


According to the company's official blog, the storage can be used across several Google products, including photo site Picasa; Gmail, a Google email application; and Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google's office applications.
Gmail users currently get 4 gigabytes of free storage while Picasa users get 1 gigabyte of free storage.

Vista Updates Ready

Microsoft Corp. Tuesday released the two Windows Vista updates that had leaked to the Internet at the end of July. Pegged as performance and reliability packs, the pair install a long list of non-security bug fixes, among them speed improvements to wake-from-hibernation, a patch that eliminates the long wait to calculate the time it will take to copy or move large directories, and several that target compatibility glitches with video drivers. The performance update, designated KB938979, weighs in at nearly 10MB, and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. The accompanying support document is also available.

Microsoft's Surface Computer- The Next Gen PC!

Microsoft has announced the release of their most hyped and awaited Surface Computer. A Surface computer is able to recognize physical objects from a paintbrush to a cell phone and allows hands-on, direct control of content such as photos, music and maps. Surface turns an ordinary tabletop into a dynamic surface that provides interaction with all forms of digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. It is essentially a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a shiny black table base, topped with a 30-inch touchscreen in a clear acrylic frame. Five cameras that can sense nearby objects are mounted beneath the screen. Unlike most touchscreens, Surface can respond to more than one touch at a time. The world's largest software maker said it will manufacture the machine itself and sell it initially to corporate customers, deploying the first units in November. It is considered as the major step towards the co-founder Bill Gates's view of future!

Gphone-The Next Boss!

The search giant Google Inc. is in the process of developing a new mobile phone. The Google "GPhone" with proposed free subscriptions said to include adverts via its search engine, e-mail, and Web browser applications. Although Google has not yet issued any official comment on the story, the source report points out that a prototype version of the handset has been dispatched to mobile phone manufacturers and network operators. Google has been testing new softwares and mobile services to bundle it all together with its search engine and new mobile web browser, to be able to present an attractive product.

While a free subscription to Google’s phone might attract those not willing to invest $499 USD or $599 USD for the much hyped Apple’s 4GB or 8GB handsets, an industry analyst offers that consumers might not readily accept listening to commercial ads prior to each and every outbound call. The GPhone is expected to arrive at retail before the close of 2008

Kittens fight against spammers?

Web majors are scratching their heads to stop the increasing email spam-mania as the recent study indicates that around 90 billion pieces of email spam is being sent everyday. In this course, software giant Microsoft have come up with a new idea to fool the spammers; an alternative to the currently implemented Human Interactive Proofs (HIP). According to Kevin Larson, a researcher at Microsoft's advanced reading technologies group, asking the user to identify the subject of a photo like kittens would help them block spam programs. In order to avoid spammers matching the correct response with each photo in the catalog and begin to spoof the system, Microsoft would continually take videos of kitten jumping around a room so that it generates almost an endless series of photos for identification. Jokingly, kittens can become the wave of future!

"Music Eater": The Latest Virus

Security experts have detected a mischievous worm which slips into computers and destroys all MP3 music files. It does no other damage. Graham Cluey of security research firm Sophos said that the worm could be the brainchild of teenaged geeks since it only feeds on MP3 files. It is suspected that the music eater enters computers through USB devices.

The worm, which has been named 'W32.Deletemusic' [Symantec], 'W32/Deletemp3.worm' [McAfee], 'W32/DelMP3-A' [Sophos], does not discriminate between illegally downloaded MP3 files and legally purchased ones. It just eats them all up happily. There are also speculations that some do-gooder who wants to save the music industry from piracy may be the author of the worm. “We need not lose too much sleep over it,” said Cluey. Say that to music lovers.

FireFox's new version released

Mozilla has released a new version of its popular open source browser Firefox three days ago fixing security problems which occur when it is combined with Microsoft's Internet Explorer on desktops.
Secunia, an Internet security firm, had discovered that hackers were using a loophole in Firefox to download malicious data on to the computer. The malware then makes use of the Internet Explorer to create trouble.
The new Firefox 2.0.0.6 version contains a security patch which reduces the risk of malware being passed on.
Mozilla and MS initially blamed each other for the security flaw. However, Mozilla later decided to release a new version of its browser and not just an update. But MS has not done anything to sort out a similar problem in Internet Explorer, though security experts have put the blame on both.
Mozilla has released a new version of its popular open source browser Firefox fixing security problems which occur when it is combined with Microsoft's Internet Explorer on desktops. Secunia, an Internet security firm, had discovered that hackers were using a loophole in Firefox to download malicious data on to the computer. The malware then makes use of the Internet Explorer to create trouble. The new Firefox 2.0.0.6 version contains a security patch which reduces the risk of malware being passed on. Mozilla and MS initially blamed each other for the security flaw. However, Mozilla later decided to release a new version of its browser and not just an update. But MS has not done anything to sort out a similar problem in Internet Explorer, though security experts have put the blame on both.

Dell's 1st 'Made In India' PC

Dell revealed that the company has finished the manufacturing of their first 'Made in India' PC. The desktop computer from Dell's new plant (near the southern Indian city of Chennai) was delivered Monday to outsourcing company Infosys Technologies Ltd., one of Dell's largest customers in the country.
Dell computers are relatively expensive in India partly because the company ships fully assembled systems into the country, paying more in duties than its rivals who manufacture locally.
Dell plans to achieve the target figure of 4,00,000 PCs per year from this Chennai unit.

VoodooPC's new rocking Laptop

VoodooPC, the world's leading architect of personalized, handcrafted high-performance PCs, introduced its 17-inch widescreen notebook PC, the ENVY H:171. The machine is the first notebook to offer a range of next-generation PC technology, including the Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme X6800 processor, a Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7950 graphics processing unit (GPU), a 1.3 Megapixel integrated video camera and a hard drive capacity of up to 600GB using three 200GB hard drives. This balanced and powerful platform delivers unprecedented frame rates and extreme multitasking capabilities for gamers, content creators and all other mobility power users.

Internet Explorer on the top

Top software professionals have chosen Internet Explorer as the most influential technology product in the last 25 years. Techies overwhelmingly voted for IE in a survey conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association recently. The next three places were also occupied by products from the Microsoft stable.
MS Word came second and Windows 95 came third. The fourth place was shared by MS Excel Spreadsheet software and Apple’s iPod. Other technology products that have impressed geeks over the years are Blackberry, Adobe Photoshop, McAfee’s VirusScan, Netscape Navigator, and PalmPilot. The survey was conducted in connection with CompTIA’s 25th anniversary. More than 22,000 companies in 100 countries are members of the association.

Wiki search engine

Jimmy Wales, the founder of the popular Wikipedia, is now planning to barge into the terrain of search engines. He told a conference of software developers the other day that his company Wikia Inc was planning to launch a community-based search service. Wikia has acquired web crawler Grub to power the search service. But the real power will rest on millions of anonymous users, who will use their spare time to index and collate searches. Like Wikipedia, the search service will depend on humans and not on algorithms which are used by Google and other popular search engines. “We (will) collectively work to free the judgment of information from invisible rules inside an algorithmic black box,” said Wales. He added that the new service may change the balance of power in the search terrain. We can take him at his word.

YouTube Implements a change

The free for all in YouTube may soon come to an end. The popular website has decided to introduce recognition technology from September to prevent uploading of copyrighted videos. A lawyer representing YouTube told a United States court hearing a copyright case that the company was planning to deploy recognition technology which akin to the one used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The new technology would help the website to quickly identify digital fingerprints on copyrighted videos and shut them down within a minute. At present, hundreds of thousands of videos of all kinds are indiscriminately uploaded in every day.

HCL's Quad Core Desktop

HCL’s new range of desktop computers contains chipmaker Intel’s latest high-tech quad-core processor. This is akin to a machine having four brains working in tandem. Needless to say, this increases the performance range of the PC several fold, something that inveterate gamers and multimedia professionals were longing for. HCL is the first to launch desktops on quad-core platform in India. The PCs are priced between Rs 40,000 and Rs 90,000. Intel claims that apart from delivering greater performance, quad-core processors will also cut power consumption by as much as 40 per cent.

MS backs Vista

Microsoft has sold about 60 million copies of its new operating system Vista until now. Unveiling the latest sales figures, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said in a none-too-subtle manner that in the first five weeks after its launch, Vista had overtaken the entire installed base of rival Apple. Turner’s upbeat announcement comes after wide speculation in the media that Vista was not doing well. Laptop maker Acer recently stated openly that most of the industry was disappointed by Vista. Analysts are not too impressed by the latest sales figures either since they include the 42 million computers covered under volume license agreements. Vista had sold 20 million copies the month after its launch. After that, sales had levelled out probably because of reports about teething problems. It seems that slow and steady pace is continuing

WGA attack on pirates

The Windows Genuine Advantage tool developed by Microsoft has helped sleuths to bust the biggest ever software piracy racket. Under WGA, users have to validate their operating system with Microsoft to update software. This helped MS detect lots of pirated versions of its programmes. Making use of this data, the FBI the other day busted the China-based racket which had distributed pirated Windows software worth $2 billion in more than 27 countries. CDs of pirated software worth $500 million were seized from the racket’s base in Guandong province. It had been bringing out and selling pirated versions of Microsoft’s popular products including Windows Vista and MS Office 2007.

The 1st Official attack on Vista!

Major PC manufacturer Acer has expressed deep disappointment with Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows Vista. Acer’s chief Gianfranco Lanci told a newspaper that the entire industry was disappointed by Vista though he was the first person to say it openly. Acer is the fourth largest PC maker in the world. Vista has had a slow start and Microsoft has been pushing it.

Search Engines Surrenders!

Stung by criticism on their hostility to privacy, major search engines are now shortening the time span in which they will retain user data relating to searches. Microsoft said the other day that it will retain search information only for 18 months. This follows Google’s announcement a few weeks ago that it would restrict data retention to 24 months at the most. Another popular search engine, Ask.com, went a step further and has said that it would give users the option to erase data soon after a search. Yahoo is also expected to announce its policy to restrict data only for 13 months soon. The flurry of announcements have come in the wake of sharp attacks on Google by privacy advocates who said it could build up psychological profiles of users with all the data retained in its various applications.

Africa out of the Net

Africa is still a dark continent as far as Internet connectivity is concerned. Latest reports point out that less than four percent of the continent’s population is connected to the Web and majority of them are in South Africa. Even the meagre infrastructure in many countries of Africa had been destroyed in civil conflicts and this has hampered connectivity. As of now, even an email message from an African country has to be routed through United States or Britain, jacking up costs heavily. About 75 per cent of Africa’s Internet traffic is carried out with the help of others.

New Windows after Vista?

Microsoft is tentatively planning to release the next version of its Windows operating system in 2010. The present version, Windows Vista, was released five years after Windows XP hit the market. Its production and release was marked by many delays and MS had promised that this would not occur again. It has revamped its Windows team to avoid such delays. the new version is codenamed Windows 7 for the time being.

OLPC Laptop from October

The first low-cost laptops produced under the One Laptop per Child Project will reach kids in developing countries by October 2007. OLPC was conceived by tech guru Nicholas Negroponte in 2002 and he has faced both bouquets and brickbats for the idea. The XO laptop he designed is a rugged green coloured machine which can survive the heat and dust of a third world existence. It is priced at $100, has a flash memory of 1 GB and a pared down operating system which will fit the needs of school kids. Most importantly, it is energy efficient and can be charged with solar power or even a foot pump. This innovative design did not earn the praise of corporates. Intel, for instance, called it a gadget and Microsoft said its screen was way too small. Negroponte, however, pointed out sagely that it was just an educational tool for poor kids.

Finally the Classmate PC to take off

Intel and HCL will introduce Classmate PCs for students in India from August. The PC will be priced at Rs 18,000 initially. The cost may go down further. The chipmaker is already holding talks with education departments of various states to market at least 10,000 Classmates in the coming year. It will offer monthly instalment schemes for schools and provide teachers’ training and customised software as add-ons. The PCs, with a child-friendly and colourful interface, will be powered by Intel processor 900 MHZ. Intel has already carried out pilot projects with Classmate PCs at schools in Delhi and Bangalore. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project of Nicholos Negroponte will soon market its low cost PC in third world countries. Microsoft has also announced plans to launch its cheap IQ PC for students in India.

The Fastest Internet Connection

A 75-year-old woman living at Karlstard in Sweden has the fastest residential internet connection in the world at 40 gigabytes per second. Sigbritt Lothberg had only recently started browsing the Internet and did not know anything about computers a few years ago. She had never used computer in her entire life. Her connection was tweaked and speeded up by her son Peter along with Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network, with the help of a new modulation technique. It became so fast that Sigbritt can now download a full length movie in two seconds flat. But she is only using the connection to read online newspapers. Now, she is extremely happy by using Internet.

Vista profits MS

Microsoft’s profits rose by seven per cent to touch $3.4 billion in the first quarter of 2007, thanks mainly to the success of its new operating system Vista. However, Microsoft mandarins were not grinning from ear to ear as the company had lost money on the much-hyped Xbox game console, which turned out to have many hardware flaws. It had extended the warrantee for the console to three years as part of its damage control exercise and would have to spend an extra $750 million for this. The console imbroglio is reported to have reduced profits by about $1.06 million. However, Vista and MS Office 2007 together bolstered earnings this quarter. Microsoft is hoping to do better next year when it will release new server software and the much-anticipated Halo 3 video game.