PCMag.com Breaking News

RealNetworks Appeals DVD-Copying Case

RealNetworks has appealed the DVD copying decision it lost in August, arguing that the federal judge overseeing the case should be overturned on several key points.

Microsoft Pulls Windows 7 Download Tool

Microsoft has pulled a tool that is designed to help users with existing Windows XP installations on their netbooks.

Microsoft Upgrades Bing Maps

One area where Microsoft's Bing search site lagged the competition a bit was in maps. That's been fixed.

Twitter Retweets: Thanks but No Thanks

Twitter's newest feature won't let you add or edit your retweets. Seriously?

Government Streamlines Broadband Grants Process

Want some of that federal broadband stimulus money? Better make it snappy. The government agencies running the program announced Tuesday that they will consolidate the process and hold two funding rounds, instead of three.

Panda Launches Cloud-Driven A/V Service

Panda on Tuesday pulled its purely cloud-driven anti-malware service Panda Cloud Antivirus out of beta after six months of user testing.

Intel Reader Speaks Printed Words Aloud

On Tuesday, Intel launched the Intel Reader, a gadget designed to photographically capture text, translate it into an electronic format, then read it aloud for the user, which may include the blind or dyslexic.

Windows 2000, Server 2003, XP All Get Patches

Microsoft issued six updates to Windows and Office today, fixing fifteen vulnerabilities. Three of the updates are rated Critical, and some are quite serious, especially on Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003. Windows 7, however, is off the hook.

Hands On: Amazon's Kindle for PC, Beta 1

Amazon rolled out Beta 1 of the new Amazon Kindle for PC this morning. I own a Kindle 2 and had a touch-screen laptop on hand, so I decided to take it for a spin.

Best Buy to Launch $249 Acer Notebook Wednesday

Get ready. Best Buy is gearing up to sell its lowest-advertised-priced laptop ever. The exact model will be revealed tomorrow, but we do know that it will be a $249.99 Acer laptop, and that it will have an Intel Celeron 900 CPU, 2GB of memory, and a 160GB hard drive.

VESA Adopts Mini DisplayPort Standard

VESA's new Mini DisplayPort standard will bring the full power of DisplayPort to smaller-form-factor connectors.

Google's 'Caffeine' Super Search Is Almost Here

Last August, Google announced a new technical underpinning for its search engine results, called Caffeine - a pretty fundamental move for the search giant's business. Now, it's ready to go live.

New B&N Nook Orders Won't Ship Until December

Barnes & Noble on Tuesday confirmed that due to demand, new orders for its Nook e-reader will ship on December 11.

Hackers Take Over Hundreds of Facebook Groups

A group of hackers (or perhaps just one, but they are identifying themselves as "we") have taken control of hundreds of Facebook groups.

LinkedIn Hops on Twitter Bandwagon

LinkedIn and Twitter this week announced a deal that that lets users update both services by publishing a status update to either site. The new features will be rolled out on the sites over the next few days.

Blocking Google Could Cost WSJ.com 25% of Traffic

If News Corp. opts to remove its publications from Google News, the company's flagship publication, The Wall Street Journal, could lose up to 25 percent of its traffic, according to Monday data from Experian Hitwise.

Analyst Pegs Android Sales at About 100,000

How good were sales for the Motorola Droid during the phone's first weekend? Good--quite good, in fact, though Verizon's first Android handset is certainly no iPhone.How good were sales for the Motorola Droid during the phone's first weekend? Good--quite good, in fact, though Verizon's first Android handset is certainly no iPhone.

Google Sponsoring Free Wi-Fi at Airports

Google is getting into the holiday spirit early this year, bringing the gift of free WiFi to 47 U.S. airports.

Navigon Adds Crowdsourced Traffic to GPS App

Navigon has added the optional Traffic Live service to its MobileNavigator iPhone GPS app.

Samsung Spotlights its Feature-Phone OS

Samsung appeared to announce a new mobile-phone OS today, but it didn't really. Bada is an extension of Samsung's long-time, proprietary feature-phone OS, but it's also open to developers.