Will Murdoch swap MySpace for Yahoo! stake?
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is considering swapping MySpace for a stake in Yahoo! According to Murdoch-owned The Times, News Corp will hand over MySpace in exchange for a 25% stake in Yahoo!. The search and portal giant has been accused of lacking direction in recent months but is still worth $37bn. Murdoch paid $580m for MySpace in 2005, which would be some rate of return. Yahoo! would benefit from the deal in gaining News Corp's content and a big social networking site - although Facebook has rather overshadowed MySpace in recent months. It could be the story has more to do with Murdoch's bid to takeover the Dow Jones group. In May he offered $5bn for the group which owns the Wall Street Journal, among other titles.

MySpace officially launches MySpaceIM
News Corp.'s MySpace said it officially launched the early version of its instant messaging service, MySpaceIM, which has been available to some users for about a year The unit of Fox Interactive Media said the service uses high-end features such as video and the ability to access MySpace e-mail with a single click. It estimates that more than 17 million users have installed the service. Instant messaging is a vastly popular online communication tool, a part of every-day life for both consumer and professional interactions. Microsoft's MSN/Windows Live Messenger is most popular globally, while Yahoo is No. 2 worldwide in IM with 88.5 million users, according to audience measurement company comScore. AOL's AIM is No. 1 in IM in the United States. Google's Google Talk is also popular. Upstarts like Meebo.com are also becoming popular among early technology adopters with a Web-based service that allows users to simultaneously sign on to AIM, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google IM programs. Social networks such as MySpace and Facebook let users share images, music, videos and blogs and are popular among teenagers.

Microsoft to open Vista to Google
Microsoft agreed on Tuesday to make changes to the desktop search feature in Windows Vista in an effort to assuage Google and head off a further antitrust battle with US regulators. In a filing made jointly with the Justice Department on Tuesday night, Microsoft said it would change the search feature as part of the first service pack to Windows Vista. In the filing, Microsoft talked for the first time about when that service pack would arrive, saying a beta version will come by the end of the year. Under the agreement, Microsoft will create a mechanism whereby both computer makers and individuals will be able to choose a default desktop search program, much as they can choose a rival browser or media player, even though those technologies are built into Windows. In the filing made with the judge overseeing Microsoft's consent decree, regulators said: "Plaintiffs are collectively satisfied that this agreement will resolve any issues the complaint may raise under the Final Judgments, provided that Microsoft implements it as promised." As part of the pact, Microsoft is required to do three things in relation to desktop search. First, it has to add the mechanism for computer makers and users to change the default desktop search. Second, according to the filing, that default search program "will be launched whenever Windows launches a new top-level window to provide search results".

Good Bye Office 2003
Microsoft said it won't supply Office 2003 after the end of June. While some distributors will have stock for a short period after this, they won't be getting extra stock from the Vole after that date. People who buy Office 2007 will be able to downgrade those versions to Office 2003, but that doesn't apply to OEM Microsoft Office. So goodbye Office 2003. We never knew you at all, but we expect you had lots of features we'd never have been able to figure out how to use

AT&T Launches Live Mobile Video Calls
AT&T launched a wireless service that lets customers share live video over their cell phones at the push of a button. The service, the first of its kind in the U.S., could give AT&T an edge as competition heats up in the wireless area and it faces new rivalries in wireline phone and TV service. To use video streaming both the caller and receiver must have a new mobile phone capable of video sharing and be in an area served by the phone company's high-speed "3G" wireless network. Callers push a button on phones to activate the feature. It's available in three markets now -- Atlanta, Dallas and San Antonio -- and will expand to 160 markets covered by AT&T's 3G network over the summer. Most areas should have it by the end of July, the company says. But it won't work on Apple's much-anticipated iPhone, which AT&T plans to launch June 29, because the device uses a slower type of data connection. Many mobile phones already let callers record and store video and upload files to Web sites such as YouTube or MySpace. But the live nature of the new video sharing advances the concept much further, AT&T says. AT&T expects the video sharing service to be popular with all types of customers. It could be appealing to industries that could use faster access to on-the-field visuals: to real estate agents, insurance claims adjusters, emergency responders and companies with field technicians. And families can share video during vacations, weddings, little-league games and more. For privacy reasons, recipients can't store video. Because AT&T customers can't share videos with subscribers of other wireless services, the company is betting that the feature will spur callers to persuade friends and family members to join AT&T. While the current product works on mobile-to-mobile phone calls, AT&T plans to make video sharing available on other devices. Future versions of the product may allow users to whisk video from mobile phones to home TVs or personal computers. AT&T says its customers someday might be able to share video with subscribers to other wireless services. Wireless firms agreed on text messaging standards a few years ago to spur usage, and the same could happen with live video. AT&T will charge only the sender for video sharing. It'll cost $4.99 a month for 25 minutes of video or $9.99 for 60 minutes. AT&T also will offer a pay-as-you-go option.

T-Mobile Denies Blocking VoIP Firm
T-Mobile has denied that it is blocking a VoIP firm from receiving calls from its network. T-Mobile is not currently allowing calls to the 07978 8XXXXX number range used by VoIP provider Truphone. Other mobile phone companies have all agreed to connect to the Truphone network and the company claims that T-Mobile is trying to block VoIP "as a matter of policy" while it develops its own VoIP services. "It is a complete red herring that we are anti-VoIP," said Simon Marks, corporate communications manager at T-Mobile. "Truphone has some of the highest termination rates in the industry. We feel they are not fair and reasonable given their costs and we are trying to sort of reasonable rates." Marks said that T-Mobile was in communication with Truphone but felt that as a VoIP company its costs should be lower than average and that the rates being asked for were too high. He pointed out that T-Mobile already works with VoIP firms including Skype and Fring and does not block VoIP software on the Nokia N95 it sells. "T-Mobile will argue that it is not 'blocking' Truphone but is merely negotiating on price," said Truphone chief executive James Tagg. "T-Mobile receives 35p per minute from its customers but is offering only 0.21p per minute to Truphone even when Truphone's costs are 9p per minute to terminate the call.

Mafia-style mobs muscle in on malware
Organized crime syndicates have taken over much of the creation and exploitation of malware in circulation today, security experts have warned. Jeff Green, senior vice president of product development at McAfee Avert Labs, said: "Professional and organised criminals continue to drive a lot of the malicious activity on the net." However, he added that he was pleasantly surprised that mobile malware and image spam have tapered off, according to McAfee's latest threat monitoring data. McAfee Avert Labs list of the top 10 security threats for 2007:

Password-stealing websites are on the rise
The number of phishing websites continues to rise exponentially. McAfee Avert Labs saw a 784% increase in phishing websites in the first quarter of 2007, with "no slowdown in sight".

Spam, particularly image spam, is on the rise
The total amount of spam caught in McAfee Avert Labs' traps has stayed fairly flat during the first part of the year. Image spam accounted for up to 65% of all spam at the beginning of 2007 but it has actually dropped recently.

Video on the web will become a target for hackers
Cyber-criminals are riding the wave of online video on social networking sites such as YouTube and MySpace.

More mobile attacks
Mobile malware numbers are "surprisingly" down with a dozen new examples of malicious software targeted at devices such as cellphones and smartphones for the first quarter of 2007.

Adware will go mainstream
McAfee predicted that more legitimate companies would try advertising software to target consumers. However, because adware has a bad reputation, businesses are trying other ways to deliver their message on the internet. BitTorrent, for example, is establishing a trend by offering free ad-supported video downloads as an alternative to paid downloads.

Identity theft and data loss will continue to be a public issue
Unauthorised transfer of data is becoming more of a risk to enterprises including loss of customer data, employee personal information and intellectual property. This information can leak not only via the web, but through portable storage devices, printers and fax machines. More than 13.7 million records have been breached so far this year, according to Attrition.org, compared to 1.8 million records during the same period last year.

Bots will increase
This prediction has been particularly tough to prove. A superficial read of statistics indicates that the use of bots has actually decreased lately.

Parasitic malware is making a comeback
Parasitic infectors are viruses that modify existing files on a disk, injecting code into the file where it resides.

Root-kits will increase on 32-bit platforms
About 200,000 computers have been infected with root-kits since the beginning of 2007, according to Avert Labs' virus tracking mechanism, a 10% increase over the first quarter of 2006.

Vulnerabilities continue to cause concern
There are more vulnerabilities to worry about than ever before. Microsoft issued 35 security bulletins, 25 of which were tagged 'critical' and nine 'important', in the first six months of 2007.

Brazil Beats a Path Online
The surdo is the huge bass drum that creates the driving beat of the samba, and that pounding rhythm can be heard throughout the Brazilian Internet today. After lagging for a number of years, Brazil is finally dancing online. Although home connectivity still remains too costly for the majority of Brazilians, the country already leads Latin America in the number of Internet users, ahead of both Argentina and Mexico. Like most of the world, many Brazilians have become accustomed to going online as part of everyday life, with Internet usage increasing steadily from about 9% of the total population (17.5 million) in 2005 to an expected 22% of population (43.7 million) in 2011. According to the new eMarketer Brazil Online report, although less than 15% of Brazil's population currently uses the Internet either in their homes, at work or in online cafés and public access kiosks, by 2011 nearly a quarter of Brazil's population will be online. A survey of Brazilian adults conducted late last year by Ipsos Public Affairs for Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto Br (NIC.BR) found that 40% of them used the Internet from home, while 30% accessed the Internet from a public paid access location, such as an Internet café. Smaller percentages went online at work or school. However, Brazil now has the third-largest number of broadband lines in the Americas, behind only the US and Canada.

Bond 22 !
Finding Neverland director Marc Forster will take the helm of Bond 22. Forster, 37, will replace Martin Campbell, who successfully guided Daniel Craig in his first outing as 007 in Casino Royale, having done the same for Pierce Brosnan in 1995's GoldenEye. The German-born Bond newbie has just completed work on literary adaption The Kite Runner, due for release later this year. His earlier credits include 2001 flick Monster's Ball for which Halle Berry walked off with a best actress Oscar. He enthused: "I have also always been a Bond fan, so it is very exciting to take on this challenge. I have always been drawn to different kinds of stories. "The new direction that the Bond character has taken offers a director a host of new possibilities and I look forward to working with Daniel Craig." Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli offered the traditional: "We are delighted that Marc Forster, with his exceptional talent and unique vision, has agreed to direct our next James Bond film." Bond 22 will start shooting in December and is slated for a 2008 release. It's based on a script developed by Forster and Crash director Paul Haggis, who also contributed to the Casino Royale screenplay.

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