PC maker competes with Sony and Toshiba on hi-def video on notebooks.

Dell today added Blu-ray disc capability to its notebook PC line, making an effort to compete with Sony and Toshiba in the growing market for mobile high-definition video platforms.

In addition to showing high-end movies and games, Dell's XPS M1710 notebook could serve as a central node to support digital entertainment throughout the home, the company said. Customers can save 50G bytes of either data or video on a single Blu-ray disc.

Microsoft is investigating a new vulnerability in Windows Media Player that could be used to run malicious code on a user's PC.  Users are being advised to disable a certain type of file in Microsoft's Windows Media Player software following the discovery of a new security hole in the software.

Windows Media Player versions 9 and 10 are affected by the flaw, which could allow a malicious hacker to run unauthorized software on a victim's PC or cause a denial of service attack, according to security company FrSIRT, which rated the problem critical in an advisory Thursday.

Company will release six security updates next week.

Microsoft plans to patch its Windows and Visual Studio products next week, but it does not have a fix in the works for a widely publicized flaw in Word, which hackers are reportedly exploiting in targeted attacks.

User criticism sparks new tweaks to Windows Genuine Advantage checks.

Microsoft plans to roll out a new version of its antipiracy Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications tool for Windows XP over the coming weeks and months, following a barrage of criticism from users.

Advanced Micro Devices today showed a laboratory version of its promised "Barcelona" quad-core Opteron 8000 server chip to analysts gathered in Berkeley, California, and said it plans to begin selling the product in the second quarter of 2007.

AMD will pitch the chip to users of high-end, commercial workstations and servers.

Google shuts down ad-hoc online consulting service.

Google is pulling the plug on Google Answers, a service that allows people to submit questions over the Internet that researchers answer for a fee.

The search giant didn't say why it was closing the service, which launched about four years ago and was one of Google's first non-search projects. Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of SearchEngineWatch.com, said the service never achieved the popularity of Yahoo's rival offering, Yahoo Answers.

Security firm finds a bug that could allow hackers to spoof Web sites; Microsoft says there's an issue.

Just one week after claiming that users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 browser could be at risk to an online attack, Danish security vendor Secunia is reporting a new bug in the browser.

Mozilla team downplays first Firefox 2.0 bug reports.

Bug trackers have had a couple false starts with the release of Firefox 2.0, a top Mozilla engineer said today.

Of the two vulnerabilities reported since the browser's release on Tuesday, the first was patched in a previous version and the second alleged problem couldn't be replicated during testing, said Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering.

Next up: Microsoft Office joins the software validation program.

If you don't like the mandatory antipiracy checks that Microsoft now enforces for Windows, brace yourself. The Microsoft Office productivity and collaboration suite is about to get a similar program.

The company's Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program will require mandatory validation of Office software starting October 27, the software vendor quietly disclosed today.

Nefarious user took advantage of the social networking site's URL organization to get access to user information

Phishers have found a way to use genuine MySpace.com accounts to trick users into revealing their account information.

Microsoft Corp. released a new version of its operating system for businesses this week that extends the life of older PCs by effectively turning them into thin-client computers.

Called Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, the software is offered only to customers on Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing and maintenance program. It is not a full-featured operating system, but it improves the security and manageability of PCs for customers with systems that are too old for Windows XP and who aren't ready to upgrade their hardware, Microsoft said.

Intel moves Tulsa release up to the third quarter; confims Woodcrest rollout on June 26
 
Intel has moved up the release of its 'Tulsa' server chip, one of its next generation multicore line of chips.

Enterprise Instant Messenger targets companies that use IM for collaboration, document sharing

MessageLabs launched on Monday encrypted IM (instant-message) software, targeting companies that use consumer IM clients for collaboration and document sharing.

Researchers have found a way to cut power consumption by 35 percent, company says.
 
 Researchers at Intel have found a better way to insulate circuits, enabling them to save energy as they pack more transistors onto each processor.

Toshiba has claimed a first with its MK2035GSS 2.5in notebook hard drive which uses perpendicular recording technology to achieve a massive 200GB of storage.

The ads are being shown to AOL subscribers using version 9.0 of the company's proprietary access software

For the first time in its history, AOL is displaying ads along with e-mail messages to its paying subscribers, to increase the delivery mechanisms of its online ad inventory, an AOL spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday.

Company readies five low-cost laser printers and new networking software.
 
Dell launched an effort this week to woo customers away from rival Hewlett-Packard, releasing five new laser printers and open-standards monitoring software.

Company makes public the source code for its mobile phone Web browser.
 
In a bid to encourage the mobile phone industry to standardize on a single Web browser, Nokia on Wednesday released the source code for the mobile phone Web browser it developed last year.

New Turions will be the first 64-bit, dual-core processors to reach the notebook market, company says.
 
Advanced Micro Devices aims to grab notebook PC business from Intel, launching a new line of Turion mobile processors today.

Don't click! Malware loads after you open infected Word doc.

Microsoft Word users should be extra careful about the files they download because hackers are exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in the popular word-processing software.

Security vendor McAfee warned users Thursday of a new Trojan horse program, called BackDoor-CKB!cfaae1e6, that secretly installs software on a computer.