Microsoft's soon-to-be-released Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server initially will be limited in how users can access it over the Internet, according to a Microsoft blogger.

A federal program that funds "high-risk" technologies is at high risk of going out of business if Congress approves U.S. President George Bush's proposed federal budget for next year. Since it started awarding grants in 1990, the Advance Technology Program (ATP) has distributed some US$2.2 billion in funding to projects focusing on a range of subjects, including information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology and advanced materials.

As earnings season wound down this week an upbeat forecast from Cisco Systems Inc. sparked a jump in trading in IT, while news of shakeups at Borland Software Corp. and Gateway Inc. caused concern for technology investors.

Google Inc. and Skype Ltd. have teamed up with two venture capital firms, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital, to invest ?18 million (US$21.6 million) in Fon Technology SL, a Madrid-based startup that wants to build a global network of Wi-Fi hotspots.

Opera Software ASA will include support for "widgets," or small programs that run on a user's desktop, with a technical preview of its Opera 9 Web browser due to be released Tuesday, a company spokesman said.

A nyílt forráskódú Firefox böngésző piaci részesedése továbbra is közel jár a 10%-hoz, azonban a Microsoft Internet Explorer népszerűsége halványan emelkedett. A harc még nem dőlt el, hiszen nemrég új béta jelent meg a 7-es Internet Explorerből és a Firefox legújabb változata sincs túl rég a piacon.

Egy nemrég elvégzett felmérés szerint egyre többen választják telefonszolgáltatójuk VoIP megoldásait, így a Skype piaci részesedése jelentősen csökkent.

IBM Corp. plans to unveil a server, storage, networking and software bundle based on its BladeCenter servers targeting the retail market Monday. Known as the Systems Solutions for Retail Stores, the bundle follows similar packages IBM has already announced for the banking industry and small to midsize businesses.

Microsoft Corp. has issued a patch for a preliminary version of its Vista OS for the same graphics-rendering problem that raised concerns about current versions of the Windows OS earlier this month.

Taiwan's legislature has passed a resolution asking the government to reduce its purchases of Microsoft Corp. products by 25 percent this year, a further sign the world's largest software company is running into resistance in Asia.

As part of its monthly security updates, Microsoft Corp. Tuesday released patches for two critical vulnerabilities in its products. The more serious of the two flaws is a remote code execution vulnerability affecting Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server products.

Microsoft Corp. has blocked the site of a Chinese blogger critical of the government, raising sharp questions from its own employees over how far the company should go in abiding by restrictive laws used to curtail free speech and press in the communist country.

Users of the Windows OS should install an unofficial security patch now, without waiting for Microsoft Corp. to make its move, security researchers at The SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center (ISC) advised on Sunday.

Nigel Roberts used the European Union's E-Privacy Directive law to win Ł300 (US$500) in compensation from Falkirk-based Media Logistics (UK) Ltd., becoming the first person in the country to use European legislation to defeat spammers.

A firm that holds patents for technology used in Internet voice calling is suing search giant Google Inc. for US$5 billion over its Google Talk instant-messaging client, according to court papers.