Microsoft's security moves throw industry into confusion

Microsoft's recent announcements over forthcoming anti-virus and antispyware have thrown the security community into confusion with some companies eyeing the Microsoft's strategy as a business opportunity for the rest of the industry, while others fear a repetition of the browser wars. Antispyware The likes of Lavasoft, says its product Ad-Aware 'far surpasses the offering from Microsoft.' But it seems unlikely - given historical precedents of browsers and media players - that consumers will feel much motivation to pay for a solution when they already have Microsoft's one free. ...more

Microsoft tackles W3C on a Royalty Free-only patents policy

Microsoft has clashed with the Internet standards body W3C over the acceptance of a royalty-free policy on the development of patents. The W3C Patent Policy working group (PPWG) is proposing the adoption of a Royalty Free (RF)-only policy, for the work in generating future Internet standards. The W3C, of course, oversees the development of such Internet standards and specifications as HTML, MathML and SVG. ...more

Yahoo.com Nazi memorabilia case will not be heard in US

Yahoo! has failed in its request to have a case involving the sale of Nazi memorabilia heard in the US. A US appeals court has ruled that the case which will decide whether such material should be offered for sale on Yahoo.com is not within the US jurisdiction. ...more

Minolta-QMS colour laser is its fastest yet

Minolta-QMS has announced the latest addition to its printer range, the Magicolor 3300 colour laser. The company says the printer is its fastest ever colour laser, capable of 24 pages per minute for both colour and mono output, at the full 1200x1200 resolution. It provides standard duplexing, though this drops the speed to 15ppm. ...more

New file format causes Mass panic at Microsoft

The state of Massachusetts has caused a stir after it has emerged that it plans to adopt the OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) open file format as a prerequisite for new productivity suites from 2007. The decision to adopt OASIS formats, pioneered by the open source OpenOffice project, has naturally angered Microsoft whose Office suite dominates the commercial market. Massachusetts is one of the most liberal states in the US and home to many of the US's leading academic establishments, including the world famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). ...more