Real sounds challenge to rivals

Digital media company Real Networks has again upped the ante with the release yesterday of its latest server which is capable of streaming just about every audio and video format over the Internet, including the formats of its competitors. The Helix Universal server, which the company is billing as "redefining the industry", is capable of serving up content produced by Microsoft`s and Apple`s audio tools, as well as the company`s own formats, making it possible for media companies to standardise on one platform. Real Networks has been losing ground to Microsoft on the player side of the market in recent months. The company also plans to make the Helix server available under an "open source friendly" licence which will allow users to modify the program to their own needs. The server will be available for Windows, Unix and Linux operating systems.

With an eye on the Christmas trade, Intel is planning to release its Pentium 4 3GHz processor by the year`s end. The early release will also put the world`s biggest chip maker well ahead of its primary rival AMD. The Athlon from AMD is expected to run at 1.8GHz by the end of the third quarter, while the Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz is planned for early release in the same quarter.

Level 3 Communications, the high-speed networking company that recently brought Warren Buffett on as an investor, said yesterday it will provide infrastructure services for Microsoft`s Xbox Live online gaming service. Xbox Live, which is set to launch later this year after beta tests, is part of Microsoft`s multibillion-dollar video gaming strategy and the company`s strategy for linking broadband networking and home entertainment services. Buffett, part of a group which invested $500 million in Broomfield, Colorado-based Level 3 two weeks ago, is an old friend of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Under the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, Level 3 will provide Internet access and private network services for Xbox Live, a subscription service.

The open source Web scripting language PHP has announced a severe vulnerability in the POST handler used to submit forms over the Internet. TheRegister reports that the form-data POST handler is susceptible to a malicious POST request that can trigger an error condition which, depending on the hardware, can crash the machine or provide for remote exploitation. On an Intel platform, the vulnerability means that the attacker can only cause a denial of service. On the Solaris/Sparc platform, however, the hole opens the way for an attacker to free chunks of memory and overwrite them arbitrarily to run code. Versions 4.2.0 and 4.2.1 are vulnerable to the flaw. [More at TheRegister]

Sources: Reuters, TheRegister

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