Google to unveil PC

Google is planning to provide an own-brand Windows-less PC and sell the low-cost system through a partnership with retail giant Wal-Mart, according to The Register. The machine and / or the sales deal could be announced as early as this coming Friday by Google co-founder Larry Page, at the Consumer Electronics Show keynote, in Las Vegas.

Analysts from investment house Bear Stearns last month claimed that Google was preparing a box capable of shuffling digital Internet-sourced media content around the home across local wireless or wired networks. The PC is said to house Google`s own operating system - most likely Linux in Google clothing, rather than Windows.

Following the Windows security warning yesterday, BlackBerry users have to use caution too, reports CNet. Opening a malicious image sent via e-mail on a mobile device could disable a user`s capability to view attachments, says BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM).

The problem occurs because of a software flaw in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and an attacker would have to craft a special TIFF file to perform the attack, the company said. A successful attack would disable only the ability to view attachments. Other phone services would not be impacted, according to RIM.

RIM has developed a fix for the problem. The software upgrade will be made available as soon as testing is complete, the company said. While waiting for the update, RIM suggests filtering TIFF images or disabling the attachments on BlackBerrys altogether.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and footage of the 1966 England World Cup team are among items released from the BBC News archives for the first time. The bulletins, which are available online, are for the UK public to use free in their own creative works and have been made available under the Creative Archive Licence.

The scheme allows people within the UK to watch, download, edit and mix the clips and programming for non-commercial programming. The release of these reports, offered as The Open News Archive, means the BBC has now doubled the number of programme extracts it originally made available through an initial trial with Radio 1 Interactive.

The BBC said it will be releasing further material across other areas over the coming months.

The race is on to deliver all-day battery life for notebooks, reports eWeek. While Intel believes that Napa platform notebooks can push notebooks to or past an average of five hours of battery life in 2006, it`s still shooting for more.

The company said it would like to see standard-issue business notebooks run for eight hours, or the equivalent of a day, on a single charge of a standard battery versus today`s average of about four hours.

However, Intel alone can`t ensure notebooks will get to the eight-hour mark. A host of others, including PC makers, display manufacturers and battery companies have all joined in the effort, many via a battery-life consortium.