Scott Ferguson

Linden Labs, the San Francisco-based creator of the virtual community Second Life, has told its users that their personal information could have been stolen due to a zero-day attack. In a Sept. 8 announcement, the company said that users unencrypted names and addresses, as well as encrypted passwords and payment information, could have been exposed […]

As part of a major announcement scheduled in San Francisco on Sept. 12, Apple CEO Steven Jobs is expected to talk about moving his company further into digital entertainment with a movie distribution deal and a high-capacity video iPod. One item not expected to make the agenda is the long-rumored debut of the iPhone, the […]

Browzar, a British company, has launched its own Internet browser that it hopes will attract users by offering a chance to surf the Web without creating personal histories. The Browzar browser is currently being offered as a free beta download through the companys Web site. An Aug. 30 release by the company did not give […]

For the fifth time in less than a year, Lenovo Group—fighting to extend its position as the worlds third-largest PC maker—has hired away an executive from rival Dell. On Aug. 31, Lenovo appointed Gerry Smith, 43, senior vice president of its Global Supply Chain division. Smith will report directly to Lenovo CEO William Amelio and […]

If your MacBook shuts down without warning, a new Web site says that you may not be alone. The site, macbookrandomshutdown.com, is dedicated to the random shutdown problems encountered by the owner of a 2GHz MacBook purchased in the summer of 2006. About four weeks after it arrived, the MacBook began randomly shutting down without […]

Verbatim is launching a new line of USB flash drives with built-in security features that the company hopes will appeal to enterprises. The Charlotte, N.C., storage maker said the new drives, called Store n Go Corporate Secure USB Flash Drives, will include “mandatory security features,” such as a hardware-based AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) data encryption […]

By releasing its operating system more often and at a slightly higher cost, Apple Computer is better able to maximize its profitability in the OS field compared with its rival, Microsoft. That conclusion is according to a new analysis released Aug. 28 by Gene Munster, a senior researcher at Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray & Co. Since […]

A federal judge sentenced the owner of a Web site that peddled more than $4 millions worth of pirated software from such companies as Adobe Systems, Autodesk and Macromedia, to six years in federal prison, the Department of Justice announced Aug. 25. The Web site owner, Danny Ferrer, 37, of Lakeland, Fla., must also pay […]

Lenovo Group has poached its fourth Dell executive and will tap him to lead a new business unit that will address customer service. Christopher J. Askew, 44, was appointed senior vice president of the new Lenovo Services unit on Aug. 24, the company said in a statement. He will be based in Singapore and report […]

Intel has announced plans to issue an update to fix a flaw related to its ProSet software Version 10.5, which accompanies the drivers that run the companys wireless system on PCs. The problem, according to an Intel spokesperson, was that the one of the processes used by the software was not releasing the file handles […]