Microsoft chops hosted software price

Microsoft is cutting, by a third, the subscription prices for the hosted versions of Exchange, Sharepoint and Office Communications Server, reports CNet.

The software maker plans to cut the monthly per-user cost of licensing all three products from $15 to $10, while the cost of licensing individual products is also dropping by as much as 50%. The move comes as Microsoft faces continued pressure from rivals, including Google.

Last week, the city of Los Angeles voted to go ahead with a deal to shift many employees to Google Apps from Microsoft Office.

Transport for London has awarded a supplier contract for the development and implementation of a lost property system, says Computing.co.uk.

IT services firm PDMS will carry out the work related to the platform, which is scheduled to go live in mid-2010 under a software development framework aimed at speeding up delivery times. It is expected that the new system will provide real-time data on lost property so that items can be returned to customers more efficiently.

Functionality planned for the system includes a browser-based feature that allows customers to register a lost item, as well as search for lost items over the Web.

A survey has found that people who download music illegally also spend an average of £77 a year buying it legitimately, reports the BBC.

Those who claimed not to use peer-to-peer file sharing sites, such as The Pirate Bay, spent a yearly average of just £44.

Almost one in 10 of those questioned aged between 16 and 50 said they downloaded music illegally.

Federal prosecutors have charged a California man with earning $1 million over a six-year period by illegally selling products that allowed customers to get free high-speed Internet service, says The Register.

Ryan Harris, 26, of San Diego, sold software and hardware designed to fool Charter Communications and other Internet service providers into believing the gear belonged to paying customers, the prosecutors allege. Harris and his employees also offered technical support in publicly available chat forums at tcniso.net, the Web site belonging to their modem-hacking business.

The hack worked by spoofing the media access control address that acts as an electronic serial number for each modem. By replacing the unique address with one known to belong to a paying subscriber, Harris's customers were able to obtain free Internet service.