Red Hat exec launches blog attack on Sun

A Red Hat executive has accused Sun of being 'pathetic' and 'doing things that benefit nobody but Microsoft' in his blog. Red Hat VP Michael Tiemann's attack comes in response to a post in the blog of Sun's COO Jonathan Schwartz, in turn responding to recent articles and comments suggesting that an agreement between Sun and Microsoft is 'probably as close as Microsoft can legally get to buying OpenOffice.org'. ...more

Adobe acquires image management technology

Adobe has acquired digital photography management specialist Fotiva in an attempt to satisfy perceived high consumer demand for image management systems for organising and sharing digital photography. Adobe aims to combine Fotiva's focus on 'end-to-end' solutions with its own expertise in digital imaging and manipulation, layout and ePaper in order to improve on what it calls, 'Web-centric solutions and hobbyist orientated software.' Analyst Alexis Gerard of Future Image said that by simplifying the process of managing photos, emailing and printing them and sharing them on the Web, 'Adobe is in a position to simplify and improve consumers' digital photography experiences, develop new imaging technologies that will foster the growth of the imaging market and, ultimately, benefit all users. ...more

Adobe acquires DVD authoring technology

Adobe has announced an agreement to license DVD authoring technology in order to create a professional DVD authoring application. The agreement with Sonic Solutions will allow Adobe to use the technology that underpins Sonic's market-leading systems for DVD-video production, including the AuthorScript formatting engine. Adobe reports that according to industry analysts Dataquest DVD players are being bought by consumers 'faster than any other device in history'. ...more

Key-fob fights online banking fraud

Lloyds TSB is trialling a key-fob device that gives their online banking customers a unique one time code to help secure access and prevent fraud. The trial is the biggest of its kind for the UK and, although banks are currently working towards standard device for all UK banks under the auspices of the APACS body, a spokesperson told us that Lloyds TSB wanted to get moving with it as soon as possible. The trial will cover 30,000 randomly chosen customers to test the device. ...more

DoS attacks targeted by proposed UK legislation

A revision of the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) is back in the debating chamber, in the form of a 10 Minute Rule Bill proposed by Tom Harris MP. The Bill follows a similar proposition last year from Derek Wyatt MP, which was the result of work by the All Party Internet Group (APIG) which canvassed opinion from the public, industry and government as to the appropriateness of the 1990 CMA in today's Internet-dependent society. Wyatt's Bill, however, fell at the first hurdle when the General Election meant it ran out of time. ...more