Software: News

After releasing its largest-ever group of security patches two weeks ago, Microsoft has done a little cleaning up.

Amazon Payments has introduced a new way to pay at Amazon.com and a number of other web retailers. The service is called PayPhrase and lets users enter a phase and personal identification number to speed up the checkout process, it said on Thursday.

File-sharing site The Pirate Bay should be closed, and if it isn't, two of the founders will each have to pay a fine of 500,000 Swedish kronor (US$71,500), according to a verdict in the Stockholm District Court on Wednesday.

Oracle has provided new details about its plans for certain key Sun Microsystems technologies, including the GlassFish application server and the NetBeans application development toolkit.

Microsoft has confirmed that users can apply a workaround trick to do a clean install of Windows 7 on a blank hard drive as long as they toe the licensing line.

Juniper Networks has launched new software for its Junos operating system to allow a greater level of customisation for resellers and customers.

For the third time this year, Sun Microsystems has announced major pricing changes, this time cutting the cost of hardware and software by 10 per cent in Australia and New Zealand.

Los Angeles City Council approved a US$7.25 million five-year deal Tuesday in which the city will adopt Gmail and other Google Apps.

Apple built excitement last week when it debuted two new iMac desktop machines, a new 13" MacBook, a revamped Mac Mini, and the touch-sensitive Magic Mouse, which ships along with the new iMacs. But about a week later, what it has built around that intriguing mouse is frustration.When Apple provided specifics on pricing and release dates for most of the products last week, it didn't mention that the Magic Mouse (designed to be employed not only with the company's latest iMacs, but also with any Bluetooth-enabled Mac) requires a specific software update. Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2 will reportedly support the Magic Mouse, but it's not yet available for download. Apple has not commented on when you'll be able to grab 10.6.2, though it's already been seeded to developers

Israeli company Red Bend filed a lawsuit this week against Google, charging the search giant with infringing one of its patents.

A number of influential members of the open-source community are raising their voices about Oracle Corp.'s pending takeover of the open source MySQL database. Surprisingly, many are not opposing the shift in MySQL ownership that would come with the close of Oracle's $7.4 billion deal to acquire current owner Sun Microsystems Inc., contending that it would not wound the open source database.

If you're an Android user, Google is hoping to help you get where you're going.

The English-language Wikipedia should have a system in place by December to vet anonymous edits for certain high-profile entries, according to the online encyclopedia's founder.

If SAS Institute CEO Jim Goodnight is feeling pressured by IBM's recent US$1.2 billion purchase of rival predictive analytics vendor SPSS, he's not showing it.

Users remained stymied today by endless reboots after trying to upgrade their PCs to Windows 7, according to messages posted on Microsoft's support forum.

Cisco has announced plans to buy privately held ScanSafe, a maker of software-as-a-service (SaaS) Web security services for enterprises and small-to-midsize businesses, for $US183 million.

Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI) has refreshed its partner program and introduced a Web-based Partner Portal.

Some users trying to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 have seen their PCs crippled by an endless series of reboots, according to reports on Microsoft's support forum.

Software licensing and networking will be key in Corporate Express’ mid-market solutions arsenal going forward, according to its IT division manager.

IBM will announce a range of additions to its already-burgeoning portfolio of BI (business intelligence) tools on Monday during its annual Information on Demand (IOD) conference in Las Vegas.