Articles by Tim Gray

Samsung has bulked up its single-disc line with a new range of 2.5-inch drives with capacities of up to 160 GB. The new SpinPoint M5 drives products are intended for mobile computing devices including notebook and tablet PCs. They are four percent lighter and 15 percent quieter -- both important factors in reducing power consumption. The new drives reduce consumption by five percent compared with other drives of similar capacity, according to the firm...

IBM on Thursday announced a method of connecting processors inside of products ranging from cell phones to PCs to supercomputers This breakthrough -- dubbed "through-silicon vias" -- allows for a move away from horizontal 2-D chip layouts to 3-D chip stacking, in which chips and other components that usually sit side-by-side on a silicon wafer are ...

The organization responsible for developing security measures for next-generation DVDs has plugged a hole that allowed hackers to locate and unlock encryption keys for movies released on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs The Advanced Access Content System License Administrator (AACS) has responded to recent attacks on its copy protection on Blu-ray and HD D...

Microsoft on Tuesday issued fixes for what it called four "critical" security flaws in its software, which it said could let hackers gain remote control of a user's computer The software giant, which defines a critical flaw as one that allows an Internet worm to replicate without user intervention, issued the updates as part of its monthly "Patch T...

Following last week's publication of Internet pioneer Tim O'Reilly's proposed "Blogger's Code of Conduct," the online community has spoken -- and they say forget about it O'Reilly, a longtime blogger who coined the term "Web 2.0," and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales both began pushing for the code of conduct after some high-profile online bullying b...

Intel is ramping up its long line of Core 2 quad-core range with a new chip designed for gamers, design professionals and computer aficionados Running at 2.93 GHz, the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 is currently the firm's fastest processor for desktop systems, the company said....

Google has launched Google Voice Local Search, an experimental directory assistance service using speech recognition over telephones that allows people to search for local businesses Callers can dial in from any phone to use the free voice-activated service, which is available on an experimental Google Labs Web site....

Flash memory maker Sandisk has partnered with Yahoo to help provide music services for its Sansa Connect digital audio player Unlike other players in an increasingly crowded music player market, Sansa Connect is a WiFi-enabled portable MP3 player that allows users to listen to LAUNCHcast Internet radio, download music, share music with friends over...

The nation's largest cable TV trade group is dropping eBay from its prime-time lineup, saying it would withdraw from an online advertising exchange program proposed by the auction giant The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau (CAB), which represents big-named networks such as ESPN, Discovery and A&E, said, "it is the best decision for the industry a...

VeriSign announced Thursday it will raise the fees it charges individuals and organizations to register Internet domain names ending in ".com" and ".net." The firm, which controls the two most popular domain name suffixes on the net, said the annual ante for .com will increase by 7 percent to US$6.42, and the .net fee will go up 10 percent to $3.85...

A December 2006 geomagnetic storm from the sun wreaked havoc on the Global Positioning System (GPS), a satellite-based navigational system used widely by the U.S. military, scientists and civilians, researchers reported Wednesday The solar storm interfered with a variety of technologies including wireless communications networks....

A lawsuit brought against Microsoft this week claims the software giant knowingly placed "Windows Vista Capable" labels on a large number of PCs that can run the new operating system only in its most basic form A consumer who claims to be a victim of "bait-and-switch" sales tactics by Microsoft filed the class action suit in U.S. District Court for...

The State of Texas has charged electronics retailer Radio Shack with violating state identity protection laws, claiming the company dumped thousands of customer records behind a store near Corpus Christi, possibly exposing consumers to identity theft Attorney General Greg Abbott leveled two charges against the Fort Worth-based company this week, in...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has established rules that prohibit telephone and mobile phone carriers from releasing customer records over the phone without a password In part, the new privacy rules are designed to protect against pretexting, the practice of impersonating a phone customer to gain access to personal phone records,...

The video game publisher that has made a financial killing off its most popular game title, "Grand Theft Auto" (GTA), is in hot water just one week after restructuring its board of directors and promising to increase its "exceptional brands and creative resources." The latest version of Take-Two's popular run-and-gun video game, in which players in...

Microsoft announced the early release of a patch that will eliminate an increasingly dangerous Windows flaw from users' PCs -- a full week before the company's scheduled monthly "Patch Tuesday" cycle The software giant's move to fix the vulnerability on Tuesday was provoked by an increasing number of hackers who stepped up attacks on PCs running va...

The boardroom of game publisher Take-Two resembled a scene from one of its violent video games as the often embattled firm booted five of six board members who were up for reelection Among them was chief executive Paul Eibeler, who had the dubious distinction of being removed from both the boardroom and the executive suite....

Microsoft unveiled a new mobile Web browser designed to make navigating the Internet on wireless devices as easy and clear as surfing on a PC The new browser, dubbed Deepfish, is the latest entry in the growing mobile browser wars designed for delivering content such as Web pages to Windows Mobile devices....

Computer hackers swiped information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards of discount retailing giant TJX customers over the course of several years, the company confirmed this week TJX, the parent company of Marshalls, T.J. Maxx and several other national retail chains, first reported in January that hackers had breached a system that ...

Months after it planned to release the third discussion draft of the GNU General Public License Version 3 (GPLv3), the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has finally posted a draft on its Web site GPLv3 is the first upgrade of the document in 16 years, when Version 2 was released. GPLv3 is a direct response to several industry developments, including a...