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Microsoft Announces Windows Live Academic Search — New research tool delivers enhanced search capabilities to the academic community. — REDMOND, Wash. — April 11, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the beta release of its Windows Live™ Academic Search service in seven countries.
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Tangled up in spying controversy — NARUS SAYS IT WAS UNAWARE ITS TRACKING SOFTWARE AIDED THE NSA — The engineers at Narus weren't intending to create Big Brother's dream machine when they began writing software a decade ago to help phone companies send out more detailed bills.
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AT&T asks judge to order documents alleging wiretaps returned — Attorneys for AT&T have asked a federal judge to order a San Francisco civil liberties group to return ``highly confidential'' documents that allegedly show that the telecommunications giant provided detailed records of millions …
Discussion:
dailywireless.org


Yahoo! Satellite Maps: Good for Pilots — When Google first launched their maps with satellite imagery, I immediately began using it as a tool for examining airports and non-airport landing spots. — It turns out that I wasn't alone. The aviation community at large has been all over Google Maps.
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ABC experiment faces infrastructure problems — Internet not designed for mass-market streaming video, analysts say — SAN FRANCISCO - The design of the Internet is unsuited to the sort of "live" online television services announced this week by Walt Disney, according to analysts and Internet executives.

The Skinny on April's Batch of Microsoft Patches — Microsoft on Tuesday released five updates to remedy security flaws in its software products, including a huge — and potentially disruptive — patch bundle that fixes eight "critical" flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser.
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Google spreads tentacles to Russia — Google has announced that it is going to open a research and development centre in Moscow this year. — Sergei Burkov, a former CEO of Dulance, an Internet search company, will run the centre. According to sources, Google has acquired Dulance.

Apple's iBook successor may sport fashionable hues — When Apple Computer introduces its new line of Intel-based consumer notebooks this spring, the company may once again offer buyers a fashionable option it phased out of its iMac product line nearly half a decade ago: colored enclosures.
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, Gizmodo, The Tao of Mac, Good Morning Silicon Valley and O'Grady's PowerPage

Coming soon: Google Voice Search — The master of text-based search is looking to lend a lend a voice to Internet users everywhere, or so it appears based on Google's latest patent. Patent #7,027,987 issued today by the US Patent and Trademark Office covers a "Voice interface for a search engine," which is described as:


The limitless Xbox 360 hard disk — XSATA links your 360's paltry drive to your computer's - so it need never fill up! — Great as the Xbox 360 is, the capacity of its hard drive is verging on embarrassing. Although marked up as a 20GB, you only really get around 12GB of space to play around with - unless you add the XSATA.


Samsung to announce Helix XM2go & NEXUS Players soon. — Samsung Electronics has announced the official launch of its two most anticipated digital audio products, the Helix XM2go and Nexus digital player. Both will be launched on the 25th of April 2006 at the Time Warner Center.

TiVo and DIRECTV Agree to Extend Relationship for Three Years — Agreement Guarantees Quality Service for Existing DIRECTV TiVo Subscribers; Also Addresses Intellectual Property — ALVISO, Calif., April 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO - News), the creator of and a leader …

Blogosphere suffers spam explosion — Boing Boing would allow its readers to leave comments and engage in a discussion on the wildly popular blog, if it weren't for spam. — The editors of the technology and pop culture blog took down the comment option about two years ago.


Google defends cooperation with China — Unveil Chinese language brand name: 'Gu Ge' or 'Valley Song' — BEIJING - Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt on Wednesday defended the search engine's cooperation with Chinese censorship as he announced the creation of a Beijing research center and unveiled a Chinese-language brand name.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch Blog

A Bloggy Boost for Old Media — Tech startup Pluck is rolling out syndicated blog offerings for traditional publications. But is this a service anyone needs? — As recently as a year ago, it was inconceivable that much of Old Media would embrace blogs.