Google Chrome challenges Microsoft Windows

Microsoft could potentially face a threat in the newly-announced Google Chrome operating system (OS), intended to operate on netbooks, reports eWeek.

If netbooks continue to increase their share of the overall PC market, some analysts predict, Google's OS could seize a respectable OS market share within three to five years.

Google has also suggested Chrome OS will eventually be able to power full-size desktop systems, an idea that directly threatens Windows.

Shortened URLs began a sharp rise last week and now appear in more than 2% of all spam caught in the company's spam trap, according to MessageLabs, says cnet. The shorter URLs allow spammers to hide the real Web address from surfers and are commonly used on social media sites like Twitter, where message character length is restricted.

"Usually when we see a spike of this nature, it tends to indicate that a spammer has found some method of automating the creation of these short URLs," said Matt Sergeant, a senior anti-spam technologist at MessageLabs.

The many URL shortening services make it more convenient to post long URLs on sites like Twitter, but they also make it easy for attackers to lead Web surfers to sites hosting malware.

Since the PlayStation 3 (PS3) launched in November 2006, third-party publishers have been grumbling it is too expensive. That dissatisfaction came to a head last month, when the world's largest third-party publisher publicly threatened to discontinue support of the costly-to-develop-for platform, which lags behind the rival Wii and Xbox 360 in terms of market share, states GameSpot.

"They have to cut the price because if they don't, the attach rates are likely to slow," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.

"If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony... When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console - and the PSP."

T-Mobile has unveiled its second Google Android phone, the MyTouch 3G. Company executives said they will use a high-touch retail experience and custom cases to give the new phone a unique personalisation spin, reports PCMag.

"You can take the entire range of the rainbow and you can create for yourself the most powerful device that is 100% you, inside and out," T-Mobile chief marketing officer Denny Marie Post said at a press conference in New York.

The MyTouch 3G is similar to a T-Mobile G1, but somewhat slimmer and without a physical keyboard.

Facebook has unveiled the "fan box", a tool for celebrities, brands, products, companies and other entities with Facebook "fan pages", to effectively embed their Facebook presence into their Web sites, says cnet.

This allows the Web sites of participating brands, like Coca-Cola or Lance Armstrong's Livestrong non-profit, to post a widget that lets surfers add that brand as a "fan" on Facebook. This will subscribe surfers to a feed of updates and profile photos from members who have already proclaimed themselves to be fans.

Facebook hopes people will find the "fan box" to be extremely easy to install, so that it's a no-brainer for companies and sites that might not be quite up to speed on technical expertise.