1. , and : Apple offered tips to avoid overheating the iPhone 3GS, but the tip list is written as if to suggest that users are more at fault than the hardware. Meanwhile, a supposed AT&T memo talks about how hot the iPhone has been in terms of sales. Keep reading for yet more iPhone news ...
2. : Jailbreaking iPhones -- or altering them so that applications not digitally signed by Apple can be installed on them -- may let users feel they have more control over their handsets, but jailbreaking could well give miscreants the upper hand. Jailbreaking removes most of the security protections from iPhones, a security researcher warned this week.
3. : The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed that it has officially opened its investigation into a settlement involving Google Book Search in what will undoubtedly be a closely watched antitrust probe.
4. : The World Wide Web Consortium will provide more resources toward development of the HTML 5 specification and will discontinue development of XHTML 2. HTML 5 is out in draft form, with a focus on multimedia for browser-based applications. It could be big competition for browser plug-in technologies such as Adobe Flash.
5. : Although Oracle's European performance was a highlight of its most recent quarterly financial report, the company could be about to lay off as many as 1,000 employees in Europe, according to a French labor union.
6. and : After months of delays, Mozilla released Firefox 3.5 and more than 2 million users downloaded the updated browser within a few hours of its launch. Early reviews were mostly positive.
7. : We're puzzling over why it seemed like a good idea to create an online advertisement for Internet Explorer 8 that showed a woman projectile vomiting after borrowing her husband's laptop and seeing his Web browsing history. Microsoft pulled the ad, but not before one Internet wag opined that using IE is enough to induce vomiting. Undoubtedly, that isn't what Microsoft had in mind.
8. and : Companies continue to cut IT salaries while available jobs also have been reduced because of the recession. But amid the cost-cutting efforts, IT companies led all others when it comes to how shares are holding up in stock markets. While a weak third quarter could be in the offing, at least some analysts continue to forecast strong PC sales (relatively speaking) before the year is out.
9. : Solid Oak Software plans to take legal action against Lenovo, Acer and Sony to keep the companies from shipping Web filtering software in China. Solid Oak contends that its programming code was stolen to develop the program, called Green Dam Youth Escort.
10. : A U.S. District Court judge dismissed a jury verdict on misdemeanor charges against Lori Drew, the Missouri woman accused of assuming a fake MySpace identity to taunt a neighborhood teenager in suburban St. Louis. The teenager, Megan Meier, hanged herself after one of the three people involved in the fakery posted a message that the world would be better off without the girl. Prosecutors had argued that violating MySpace terms of service for the purpose of harming someone else was legally tantamount to illegal access to a computer. The judge said that the conviction could set a precedent that any violation of MySpace terms of service could be a misdemeanor.