eWEEK EDITORS

Bare Bones Software Inc. this week will release BBEdit 8.0, an updated version of the popular Mac-only HTML and text editor that officials say contains more than 100 “new features and enhancements.” But the upgrade will focus on productivity and efficiency rather than on feature creep, said Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of the Bedford, […]

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer” was the dictum of the late author Mario Puzos fictional Don Corleone. Someone at Sun Microsystems must have read Puzos “Godfather” saga: By getting closer to Microsoft, Sun has given itself an opportunity to urge a standards-based solution upon a partner, rather than stridently demanding it from […]

You wouldnt know it from the amount of ink spilled (and pixels burned), but the biggest IPO of 2004 so far is the $2.8 billion raised by financial services firm Genworth Financial in May. In second place in 2004 to date is another financial services IPO. Assurant, which went public in February, also raised more […]

The Consumer Electronics Association, the American Library Association, Public Knowledge and DigitalConsumer.org, along with other technology and consumer groups last week responded to a request from a Senate committee to submit changes to a copyright bill that would hold technology companies liable for encouraging people to infringe copyright. The groups recommend amending the legislation so […]

Banks in Japan are using a biometric security system based on vein pattern-recognition technology. The system from Fujitsu Ltd. works by shining a near-infrared light on a palm placed about four centimeters above a scanner. The vein patterns illuminated under the skin appear as dark patterns, and it is this information that becomes the basis […]

Googles IPO and the Olympics are being used as bait to lure users into new scams, according to anti-spam company SurfControl Plc. One scam asks users to download the latest Google Toolbar, saying that it will stop popups and spyware. The message includes a link that points to and IP address used for other scams. […]

Nullsoft has released a patch for its WinAmp media player that closes a vulnerability allowing hackers to install Trojans and spyware. The company released WinAmp 5.05 to modify the way the skin installer mechanism works. WinAmp will now prompt all users with a confirmation window before installing any skins and will only extract files considered […]

Palmchip Corp. last week announced the launch of Palmchip Semiconductor Inc. The new company will manufacture system-on-chip silicon for wireless storage applications. Palmchip CEO Jauher Zaidi said the company will deliver wireless NAS-on-a chip systems for around $200 for 300GB. Palmchip will be able to provide the chip, reference design and software to hard-drive vendors […]

Cisco Systems Inc. improved its storage area network (SAN) switch market share in the second quarter of 2004, according to a report from the DellOro Group. Cisco posted $44 million in revenues in the quarter, a 19.9 percent sequential gain. Brocade led the overall SAN switch market in the quarter with $148.7 million in sales, […]

Philips recently granted certification for DVD+R DL discs to the first Taiwan-based disc manufacturer. CMC Magnetics will begin to deliver DVD+R DL discs in September. CMC also obtained certification for 16x DVD+R discs. Read the full story at DigiTimes

Xiotech Corp. last week announced its tiered-storage Magnitude 3D drives. Customers can mix and match Enterprise and Economy Fibre Channel drives and SATA drives within the same storage cluster. Enterprise drives run at 15,000 RPMs. Economy drives run a third slower but have more capacity, the same reliability and cost 30 to 40 percent less. […]

A report from In-Stat/MDR said smartphone shipments will rise by 44 percent over the next five years. The research firm expects that smartphones will account for some 117 million out of 833 million handsets shipped globally by 2009. In-Stat/MDR said the Symbian operating system will dominate over the next five years, with Microsoft in second […]