Bank hacker walks free

A teenage hacker who was part of an international gang that stole $20 million from bank accounts has avoided jail, because police want to use his hacking skills, says Computing.co.uk.

New Zealander Owen Thor Walker has been fined $10 000 and told to hand over his IT equipment. Walker had been paid for software designed to access usernames, passwords and credit card details.

Walker admitted charges of accessing a computer for dishonest purposes, interfering with computer systems, possession of software for committing crime and accessing computer systems without authorisation, said the New Zealand Press Association.

The iPhone 3G went on sale only last week, but a Brazilian group already claims to have hacked the phone, allowing owners to use the device on any network, reports The Register.

DesbloqueioBr is thought to be one of the first groups to have successfully unlocked the iPhone 3G. It has uploaded a video onto YouTube that supposedly shows one of its untethered 3G iPhones calling another iPhone.

The group's unlocking method is thought to combine alteration of the phone's firmware and a physical SIM attachment, much like Turbo SIM. This enables users to bypass the phone's security and fool it into thinking it's connected to an approved carrier, giving a user complete access to all of the iPhone 3G's features.

Apple Computer again cracked the top three in US PC sales for the third quarter, according to surveys released yesterday by both Gartner and IDC, says PC Mag.

Worldwide, Apple didn't make the top five PC vendors, according to both firms. But within the US, IDC estimated that Apple finished in a virtual dead heat with Acer for third place, just 2 000 units behind the Asian PC maker. Gartner, meanwhile, said Apple took the third-place spot outright, topping Acer by 65 000 PCs sold.

Both IDC and Gartner retroactively ranked Apple fourth in sales for the second quarter of 2007, if measured against a merged Acer-Gateway business. If treated as separate companies, Apple would have maintained its third-place ranking.

Microsoft's latest legal headache is a suit from a little-known company, Gotuit Media, which charges elements of Silverlight infringe on the video metadata company's patented technology, says CNet.

In a suit filed on 2 July in San Francisco Federal Court, Gotuit charges Silverlight infringes on several of its patents and seeks an injunction against the software maker as well as damages and attorney's fees.

Microsoft plans to use Silverlight to allow visitors to NBCOlympics.com to watch multiple events at the same time, as well as view streaming commentary. Gotuit cited these plans as part of its patent infringement suit.