Ryan Naraine

Loudeye’s quest to become a global powerhouse in the digital music wholesale space got bigger Tuesday with its purchase of On Demand Distribution for $38.6 million. The digital music distribution company emerged as the surprise winner in the bidding for OD2 with a cash-and-stock deal that would give it a significant entry to the lucrative […]

In what amounts to a change in strategy about ending support for Windows NT, Microsoft has agreed to an unspecified extension of Windows NT 4.0 software security and support for customers in the financial industry. In a deal with BITS, a consortium of financial institutions that collectively holds more than half of the nation’s financial […]

With ambitious plans to shake up the video-compression space, the research arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is widely hailed for its research work in the areas of digital television, digital radio and multimedia technology, developed a prototype video coding algorithm based on wavelet technology . Seeking open source help to turn it […]

Moving to batten down the hatches in the face of increasing malicious attacks against mobile devices, handheld manufacturer Symbol Technologies has acquired networking security outfit Trio Security. The Holtsville, N.Y.-based Symbol said the addition of Trio’s security capabilities will help provide seamless network roaming and authentication and offer enterprise clients assurances that their data and […]

Anti-virus experts have nabbed the first computer virus spreading via cell phone networks. Russian security consultants Kaspersky Labs issued an advisory for the network worm, called Cabir, which was detected squirming through mobile phones running the Symbian OS. The Symbian OS powers some cell phone models manufactured by Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Panasonic. […]

NEW YORK — The emergence of breakthrough technologies that integrate Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-Fi, instant messaging and wireless transactions will speed up the growth of the Internet into a faster, more versatile and secure communications infrastructure. That’s the message from former IBM executive and Internet visionary John Patrick, who believes the next generation […]

Nearly two years after first announcing plans for a video on-demand service, RealNetworks and Starz Encore Group have finally launched a $12.95 a month movie subscription service for broadband users. The Starz Ticket on Real Movies service will hawk unlimited access to the Starz cable channel’s library of movies, as well as a streamed version […]

A buffer overflow vulnerability in RealNetworks’ flagship RealPlayer software could put millions of users at risk of PC takeover, the company warned in an advisory. The flaw, which carries a “high risk” rating, affects the RealOne Player, RealOne Player v2, RealPlayer 10, RealPlayer 8 and RealPlayer Enterprise. eEye Digital Security, the company that discovered and […]

Microsoft is mulling a plan to go outside of its monthly patching cycle to release a fix for two “extremely critical” vulnerabilities in its flagship Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser. A Microsoft spokesman said the company was investigating public details of a malicious attack exploiting the IE flaws. “Microsoft is actively investigating these reports, to […]

The never-ending quest to find revenue streams in the public (consumer) instant messaging market has hit a new gear with America Online’s rollout of new paid service to allow voice conferencing and browser-based Web meetings direct from IM buddy lists. On Thursday, AOL’s 36 million active IM users will get access to the new AIM […]

A security vulnerability in Oracle’s E-Business Suite could put users at risk of arbitrary script execution, according to a warning from the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT). In an advisory issued late Tuesday, US-CERT said an unauthenticated attacker could exploit the flaw to execute arbitrary SQL statements on the vulnerable system with the privileges […]

A security flaw in one of Microsoft’s widely deployed DirectX application programming interfaces (API) could leave computer games at risk of denial-of-service attacks, the company warned on Tuesday. The DirectX vulnerability, which carries a “moderate” severity rating, affects the IDirectPlay4 API used in network-based multi-player games. Microsoft said the flaw exists in the implementation of […]