Microsoft on Tuesday is expected to officially launch a community-building Web site where it will share code with developers. The CodePlex site will be a venue for Microsoft to provide programmers with tools available under its Shared Source licenses. These licenses allow people to view the source code of products, the software giant said. The [...]

On Monday the company made its U-verse TV service commercially available to 5,000 homes in San Antonio. Until this week AT&T’s TV service was available to only a handful of consumers in that city, the first of many on the list of U-verse prospects. AT&T expects to offer the service to a total of 15 [...]

The European Union’s top antitrust regulator is poised to issue a formal ruling that finds Microsoft guilty of breaking EU competition rules. The ruling is likely to be accompanied by fines for the U.S. software group of up to $2.5 million a day. The move came as Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and the [...]

Foxconn, an original equipment manufacturer for Apple’s iPod, has admitted that their employees work about 80 extra hours each month, which is against the law in China. According to Chinese labor laws, a company breaks the law if it asks employees to work more than 36 extra hours each month. However, Li Zong, a spokesperson [...]

Los Angeles-based Napster has upgraded its digital music service, announcing this morning that its latest version adds the ability to synchronize its subscription music content with MP3 players. The new feature automatically synchronizes subscribers MP3 players with Napster’s music library when the MP3 player is docked to a computer. The company also has rolled out [...]

On Thursday, June 22, 2006 the Spanish Congress voted to implement a tax on all blank media, including flash memory sticks, blank cd and dvd-rs, even mobile phones and printers. There is no word on how much this new tax will be, only that the revenues will be collected by the government, and will then [...]

Toshiba Corp. said on Tuesday it would still like to develop a unified format for advanced optical DVD discs, but two competing — and incompatible — products are likely to hit the market at first. Toshiba is a leading proponent of next-generation HD DVD optical disc technology, which competes with the Blu-ray standard promoted by [...]

Five leading online service providers will jointly build a database of child-pornography images and develop other tools to help network operators and law enforcement better prevent distribution of the images. The companies pledged $1 million among them Tuesday to set up a technology coalition as part of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. [...]

NBC will use the YouTube video-sharing site to promote its fall television lineup in a strategic partnership that further underscores the Internet’s growing role in generating buzz around traditional media shows. Even with the deal, announced Tuesday, YouTube visitors are not likely to find legal clips of “Lazy Sunday,” the “Saturday Night Live” parody rap [...]

A security start-up is borrowing a technique from the research labs to try to give Internet Explorer PCs relief from Web-based attacks. GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed start-up, plans to release on Tuesday a consumer security tool that puts Microsoft’s IE in a virtual sandbox. Called GreenBorder Pro, the product uses virtualization technology similar to what [...]

Warner Bros. began selling its movies and TV shows over the Internet video site Guba.com Monday, marking the second deal the studio has made to distribute content over Web sites that have offered pirated video in the past. Guba.com has featured mainly user-generated video clips for free or as part of a subscription, some of [...]

When I invented the Web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA. I blogged on net neutrality before, and so did a lot of other people. (see e.g. Danny Weitzner, SaveTheInternet.com, etc.) Since then, [...]

When I was still in High School I worked at Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. During my tenure at this minimum wage job I made quite a few friends who worked in food operations and was privy to their gripes and frustrations. As I remember, one of their biggest headaches came from a standing edict [...]

A former freelance film critic for the Boston Herald and past president of the Boston Society of Film Critics is to be sentenced in October after pleading guilty in a San Jose, Calif., court last month to aiding in copyright infringement, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Paul Sherman , 46, of Malden, sold on eBay [...]

Music retailer Tower Records is preparing to take the shrink-wrap off its digital download store on Tuesday, when Tower.com/Digital goes live with a comprehensive service powered by Puretracks. Tower will market the digital alternative across all media in tandem with the chain’s retail business, which comprises 89 stores in the United States. Initially the store [...]

A French alternative to Google Earth – offering hi-res coverage of the entire country – went into meltdown last Friday shortly after its launch and is still unavailable due to a stampede of punters eager to avail themselves of the free service. French prez Jacques Chirac chaired the official launch of Geoportail, Yahoo! reports, and [...]

Think you need an internet connection for music downloads? Think again. UBC Media Group, one of the UK’s largest independent radio production companies, today launched a download service that delivers songs across the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) network. To be fair, we’re not quite talking iTunes here. UBC’s system, which is being offered next month [...]

Sony Corp. Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer said movie studios are starting to favor its Blu- ray DVD, which can store high-definition films and other media. Sony, the world’s second-largest consumer electronics maker, is promoting Blu-ray DVD against rival Toshiba Corp.’s HD DVD to gain acceptance from film makers and consumers as the standard for [...]

FON, a Spanish start-up on an ambitious crusade to turn home Wi-Fi connections into wireless “hotspots” for nearby users, is set to unveil on Monday a plan to hand out 1 million wireless routers for just $5 apiece. FON, which aims to create a network of home users and small businesses to resell wireless access [...]

A Scranton woman found herself on the receiving end of a lawsuit when eight major record companies teamed up in civil suit in federal court accusing her of illegally downloading music, court papers say. Plaintiffs in the case filed Tuesday in U.S. Middle District Court in Scranton are Capitol Records, Virgin Records America, Maverick Recording [...]