Massa on pole, Hamilton fourth

Felipe Massa took a crucial pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix, as championship leader Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth position behind Jarno Trulli and Kimi Raikkonen.

Chrome Helping Other Browsers Out, Says Opera CEO

Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner confirms that new entrants in the browser market are raising awareness on the mainstream Internet community about the availability of alternatives to the ubiquitous Internet Explorer. 'How has the emergence of WebKit and Chrome changed the market for you? JvT: The effect of Chrome so far has been 20 percent more downloads every day. It's fairly logical when you think about it, because the biggest hurdle we have is all those people that don't realize there's an alternative in the market. Now, with the launch of Chrome there's focus on the choice of browsers in the market.'

3G speed test: T-Mobile G1 vs iPhone 3G

No sooner had we taken our UK T-Mobile G1 out of its box when someone shouted out, "Does it have 3G then?" It does indeed have 3G, but what's more interesting is that during testing it has been found out that it's faster than the iPhone 3G's connection.

OpenOffice.org issues critical patches for older versions

OpenOffice.org has released two patches that repair older versions of its open-source office productivity suite.

The two vulnerabilities do not affect OpenOffice.org's latest 3.0 version, released earlier this month. Software versions prior to version 2.4.2 are affected.

Microsoft refreshes Windows Live Hotmail

Microsoft is adding improvements to Windows Live Hotmail that should, among other things, make it easer for users to access their contacts.

A new feature called Contact Picker is designed to make it easier for users to look up contacts when writing an email. And, similar to Google’s Gmail, Hotmail now uses predictive text when a user starts typing in an email address.

Microsoft Releases Visual Studio, .NET Betas

Microsoft promised last month to release information at a steady rate so as not to overwhelm developers, but today's code dump might be a bit much.

This week, developers at the Professional Developer Conference (PDC) not only got their hands on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, they also got Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0.

What's Behind SAP's Change in Outlook?

Battered by its highly expensive lawsuit with Oracle and shaken by the uncertain economy, German software giant SAP has pulled its guidance for 2009 and taken a step back in its predictions for the rest of 2008.

During the company's third-quarter earnings call this week, co-CEO Henning Kagermann blamed the uncertain market and reduced customer spending for the pullback.

Will Online Office Apps Help or Hurt Microsoft?

Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates officially retired in June, but his technology torch has been taken up by his hand-picked successor, chief software architect, Ray Ozzie.

Nowhere since Gates' retirement has that been as clear as during Ozzie's dual keynotes during this week's annual Microsoft developer confab in Los Angeles.

Windows Mobile Doesn't Fear iPhone, Android

While Apple and Google grab most of the smartphone headlines for the iPhone and G1, respectively, Microsoft has quietly gone about the business of expanding the already sprawling ecosystem around its own Windows Mobile software.

"One thing we get asked a lot by media and analysts is 'What's going on with Windows Mobile?'" said Scott Rockfeld, Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) group product manager for Windows Mobile.

In response, Rockfeld and Microsoft can point to the fact that Windows Mobile-based devices continue to proliferate, even while Google's big plans for Android loom.

HP to shake up netbook market with mainstream line

After a brief experiment in the education market, HP on Wednesday is set to introduce a whole line of netbooks for mainstream consumers.

The HP Mini 1000 comes in three versions, with starting prices ranging from $379 to $699, and will be available at retailers worldwide starting Wednesday.

Windows 7 prebeta receives positive response

Microsoft on Tuesday offered up far more details on Windows 7, successor to the company's oft-maligned Windows Vista.

In particular, Microsoft is focused on improving the time it takes for Windows to start up and shut down. In addition to its own work, Microsoft has been working directly with computer makers to address all of the factors that affect system performance.

As far as other features, Windows 7 features support for multitouch input and a new taskbar that makes it easier to manage multiple open Windows.

IT contractors search for job security

Long-term unemployment is on the up for UK IT contractors and job security fears are increasingly on their minds.

The economic gloom and financial turmoil seems to have worried some IT freelancers. Research by contractor services provider, giant group, finds more freelancers are now ranking job security as a top priority than three months ago - 20 per cent compared to 16 per cent in the second quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, long-term unemployment has increased 11 per cent in the past three months, to 5.3 per cent of contractors, compared to 4.7 per cent in the second quarter.

Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform: A guide for the perplexed

Now that the initial Microsoft PDC pixie dust has settled, developers are trying to digest exactly what Microsoft’s cloud platform is. Here’s my attempt to explain it.

Microsoft layed out its “Azure” foundational infrastructure for the cloud during the keynote kick-off on day one of the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) here in Los Angeles. The goal of Azure is to provide developers who want to write applications that run partially and/or entirely in a remote datacenter with a platform and set of tools.

This is what Microsoft’s cloud looks like, from an architectural diagram standpoint:

First look: Windows 7 takes on Apple and IT needs

Activists have long known that the way to take the sting out of a pejorative moniker is to adopt it and proclaim it with pride. So it is with Microsoft and its "I'm a PC" ad campaign. But that slogan leads to a question that Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows product management, says he's asked all the time: Why is Microsoft letting Apple define Vista?

That's an issue that Microsoft needs to put to rest if it wants Windows 7 -- the heir to Vista as Microsoft's officially blessed client operating system -- to get a better reception.

Microsoft slates Windows 7 public beta for early 2009

Microsoft Corp. today said that it would expand testing of Windows 7 to the general public in early 2009.

As it told attendees at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles that they would receive an alpha edition of Windows 7 later today, Microsoft also said that it would issue a public beta of the Vista successor early next year.

The beta will be available to anyone for download, Microsoft said, according to several real-time blogs covering the event, including one at LiveSide.net where several noted Windows bloggers collaborated.

Zimbra Adds Cloud-Based Educational Collaboration

In the wake of Microsoft 's Windows Azure announcement on Monday, it seems Yahoo will not be left out of the cloud-computing buzz.

Yahoo's Zimbra is tapping into the cloud to deliver a collaboration platform for educational institutions. Through Zimbra Hosted, universities now have access to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite without having to manage on-premises software and hardware.

Google's New Android Phone Vulnerable To Attack

Less than a week after the release of Google (NSDQ:GOOG)'s T-Mobile G1 smart phone, security experts detected a serious security flaw in its Android operating system that leaves it wide open for hackers to launch drive-by attacks on users' devices.

The security vulnerability, detected by researchers at Baltimore, Maryland-based Independent Security Evaluators, follows last week's release of Google's T-Mobile G1 phone Oct. 22, which is powered by the Android operating system.

Google's open source Android operating system is designed specifically for mobile phones, many of which are designed with Web browsing, camera and GPS capabilities.

SAP Profit Falls for Q3, Drops Sales Forecast

SAP profits fell 5 percent in the third quarter, with the company canceling its sales forecast for the rest of the year, it reported late Monday.

Net profit for the quarter dropped to €388 million compared to €408 million for the same period ending Sept. 30 last year. The company also reported nine-month results, with net income for the first three quarters of the year of €1.57 billion, a 4 percent decrease over last year's net of €1.62 billion for the same period.

Microsoft sheds light on Windows 7 features

Microsoft has revealed more details of Windows 7, the next version of its desktop client platform, including user interface and usability improvements, plus features to make the operating system easier to deploy and manage for corporate IT departments.

Windows 7 is aimed at making the use of networks easier and radically improving the way people can use devices and peripherals. It will also give better performance than Vista on the same hardware, according to Microsoft.

Windows 7 Fuels War Against Google

With the first public alpha release of Windows 7 due Monday at the Microsoft PDC2008 conference, the outline of the new operating system is taking shape. What you won't see when that alpha comes out is the way that Microsoft will try to use Windows 7 as a Trojan horse in its war against Google.

Google Earth maps onto the iPhone

Google has already customised some of its websites for display on the iPhone but now the company has produced a handheld version of its Google Earth geographical software.

OpenOffice.org Update Sets Downloads Record

OpenOffice.org 3.0 was downloaded 3 million times in its first week, with about 80% of the downloads by Windows users, an official with the group said in a blog post last week.

The successful introduction of the open source office suite came despite the group's download servers being temporarily overwhelmed by demand for the new software last week.

Gmail With Smileys

Gmail now has emoticon images. You can include these icons in your message if you’re in rich-text composing mode. The French Zorgloob blog says there were no emoticons there just a brief while ago. You’ll find two main types of icons (static round ones and square animations), with symbols ranging from laughter to sadness to a cake or a broken heart.

Chelsea 0-1 Liverpool

Liverpool surged three points clear at the top of the Barclays Premier League with a 1-0 victory at Chelsea. Xabi Alonso scored the only goal of the match when his ninth-minute shot was deflected beyond goalkeeper Petr Cech by Blues full-back Jose Bosingwa. The result ended Chelsea's incredible 86-match unbeaten home league record in the Premier League.

Yahoo's Developer Platform to Launch Next Week

Yahoo will launch its platform for Web developers next week, part of an effort to attract more visitors by adding Facebook-like social networking features to Yahoo's Web sites.

Android Users Favoring Apps Over Games

Owners of the Android-powered G1 handset seem more anxious to get things done with it than to play games, according to download statistics from the long-awaited phone's first few days on sale.