MS denies Windows 7 battery issues

Although some users have been complaining about a variety of battery issues related to Windows 7, Microsoft says its testing shows that nothing is amiss, says CNET.

The software maker initially thought there might be a problem with the firmware in some PC models, causing an error message to appear where one was not warranted. However, Microsoft now says it believes the operating system is behaving properly.

Windows division president Steven Sinofsky says the company's follow-up research shows those seeing a notification that their batteries need replacing are getting the message because, in fact, the batteries are not performing up to a certain threshold.

Former Intel executive Rajiv Goel has pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy and securities fraud in connection with the Galleon insider trading case, reports The Register.

Goel is the tenth person to plead guilty in the case, which the FBI and the US attorney's office in Manhattan call the largest hedge fund insider trading case in US history.

The US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York announced that Goel pleaded guilty to passing insider information to Raj Rajaratnam, founder and MD of Galleon Group, a $7 billion New York hedge fund.

Google plans to tweak Gmail to make it easier for its users to post and share status updates, in an attempt to inject the Web mail service with social networking capabilities popularised by Twitter and Facebook, writes PCWorld.

Google would be the latest consumer Internet company to try to graft social networking features onto its online communications services. Yahoo and AOL have already taken steps to "socialise" their respective Web mail and instant messaging services.

It is still unclear how successful Google and the others will be in replicating the allure of the social networking sites' experience in their Internet communications services.

Whatever excitement was generated when Apple announced its iPad is beginning to wear off, according to surveys by the consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo, states Geek.com.

As part of the surveys, the shopping site asked: “Have you heard about the new Apple tablet that might be revealed in January?” The two surveys included one taken before and one after the iPad announcement.

The latter study showed a significant increase in consumers who said they had heard of the iPad, but were not interested in buying one. In fact, the amount doubled from 26% to 52%.