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News

• Intel to focus on how computers will be used in the future

  Intel Corp. is creating a new research lab dedicated to helping scientists figure out how people will use computers in the future.

• Microsoft debuts data visualization tool

  Microsoft has released a controller for its Silverlight multimedia software that can present dynamic visual summaries of large data sets in Web browsers.

• EU anticompetition complaint lodged against SAP

  Versata Software lodged a complaint against SAP with the European Commission on Tuesday, claiming that the vendor illegally blocked it from selling its pricing software to SAP customers.

• Google steals security page from Mozilla's Firefox

  Google will take a page from Mozilla's playbook and block outdated plug-ins from launching, part of new efforts to keep Chrome users safer, the company said Monday.

• Cloudera preps Hadoop for the enterprise

  Cloudera has unveiled a new set of Hadoop management tools, called Cloudera Enterprise, that the company will offer for an annual subscription fee, it announced on Tuesday. It has also updated its open-source distribution package of Hadoop.

• Google sends out Android 2.2 to Nexus One phones

  Nexus One owners have begun to receive version 2.2 of the Android software, codenamed Froyo, as an over-the-air update to their phones, Google said in a blog post on Monday.

• Sprint unveils Samsung Epic 4G smartphone

  Just a few weeks after launching the HTC Evo 4G, Sprint Monday introduced the Samsung Epic 4G smartphone, which features a four-inch AMOLED touchscreen and a slide-out Qwerty keyboard.

• Microsoft fires new shot at Google Docs over support

  Microsoft took another shot at rival Google today as it touted the support it provides for Office 2010.

• Oracle engineer reveals latency mysteries with heat maps

  While data-center managers have long used heat maps to help determine where to best position racks of servers and cooling units, this mode of visualization can also be handy for better understanding system latency, argues an Oracle engineer in the July issue of Communications of the ACM.

• Google's Chrome passes Safari in US browser share

  Google Chrome is now the third-most-popular browser in the U.S., behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox, but ahead of Apple's Safari for the first time, according to a study by Web analytics company StatCounter.

• Google Chrome integrates Flash

  Google's Chrome has now integrated Adobe's Flash directly into the browser. Chrome 5.0.376.86 was released over Google's Stable channel and is now available to download for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The update also includes five bug fixes, including two relevant to video handling.

• Salesforce.com sues Microsoft for patent infringement

  Salesforce.com has sued Microsoft for patent infringement, making a move in response to an intellectual property suit Redmond filed against the on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) vendor last month.

• Microsoft updates IE9 preview, beefs up HTML5 support

  Microsoft on Wednesday updated its rough-edged preview of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), adding support for several crucial HTML5 standards and boasting that the browser is faster than ever.

• Red Hat overhauls JBoss portal interface

  Red Hat has released version 5.0 of its portal software, the JBoss Enterprise Portal Platform, the company announced Thursday at its Red Hat Summit in Boston.

• Oracle Q4 profit jumps 24 percent

  Oracle reported fourth-quarter earnings of US$0.46 per share on Thursday, a 24 percent jump over the same period last year. Revenue rose 39 percent to $9.5 billion.