Palm Pilot turns 10

It`s been a decade since Palm unveiled Pilot 1000, the device which first made mobile computing simple and affordable.

The Pilot 1000 was the first viable mobile computer, spawning the PDA market and making Palm its champion until the market was undercut by the advent of the smart phone, reports Tech Republic.

The Pilot 1000 has been described as a distant relative of Palm`s Treo, the device that seems to be helping the company meet the smart phone challenge. Last Thursday, Palm reported third-quarter earnings that exceeded Wall Street`s expectations thanks largely to the new Treo device.

With Microsoft saying it may wait until 11 April to patch a critical vulnerability in its Internet Explorer (IE) browser, security vendor eEye Digital Security has released what it calls a "temporary" patch to address the problem, reports Computer World.

The bug, which concerns the way IE processes Web pages using the createTextRange method, is being exploited by attackers on hundreds of malicious Web sites. Users who might be tricked into visiting these Web sites could have unauthorised software installed on their computers, security experts warn.

Though Microsoft has described these attacks as "limited" in scope, the software giant is taking the problem seriously because the exploits can be used to seize control of a user`s machine.

Lycos debuted its VOIP service Lycos Phone on Monday in an effort to compete with other Internet calling services from Yahoo, eBay`s Skype division, Google, Vonage, and others, reports Red Herring.

To get a competitive-edge over rival VOIP services, Lycos is including other capabilities, such as video chat, video on demand, an MP3 player, 100 free minutes of PC-to-landline or PC-to-mobile phone calls, a free phone number in the US, and free fax and transmission of voice mail messages to e-mail.

Like its competition, Lycos Phone also includes free instant messaging and free PC-to-PC calls.

Cognos has updated its Cognos 8 business intelligence (BI) tool set, adding a new search capability and access to enterprise applications, reports Computer World. Cognos 8.1.2 is the first major release since the BI suite was launched in September.

It includes the Cognos Go Search service, which offers a browser-based search bar designed to help users find BI information housed in reports, scorecards, dashboards and analysis.

It also allows users to view, interact with and refresh Cognos 8 BI reports, analysis and metrics within Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel.