Rumours gather strength over Google phone

Google is developing its own mobile phone, according to industry insiders and analysts, with a Google official in Spain acknowledging that the company is looking into the idea. Google isn't commenting directly on leaks from Europe and the United States which describe a low-cost, Internet-connected phone with a colour, wide-screen design. Newspaper and blog reports in recent months have Google shopping its phone design to potential mobile phone manufacturing partners in Asia. ...more

December brings seven Microsoft security bulletins

Microsoft has announced seven bulletins in its monthly security update affecting Windows, IE, Outlook Express and Visual Studio. This is one more than it projected last week, having added a fix for a buffer overflow issue in a Windows Media file format. Last Thursday, Microsoft highlighted the problem as it had seen exploit code publicly available and has turned round a patch sharpish, which it rates as Critical. ...more

iPhone 'coming soon'

Business 2.0 has included an Apple phone amongst its predictions for 2004. The website writes that, 'a sleek, beautiful cell phone that doubles as a digital-music player is coming soon from Apple's iPod division . ...more

Microsoft betas software locker

Microsoft is trialling a new way to buy software through its Windows Marketplace site. The new 'software locker' technology is designed to make Marketplace easier, with a single interface and checkout facility rather than having to go to individual vendors. Windows Marketplace is a Microsoft site that offers a range of Windows titles from small to medium sized vendors. ...more

Banks 'shift liability' over fraud prevention

UK High Street banks stand accused of over-complicating systems and alienating customers in their attempt to clamp down on card-not-present fraud. Currently, the UK payment association APACS is trialling a new scheme where online shoppers put their credit or debit card into a special card reader that would generate a one-time passcode to authenticate the card and transaction. But the CEO of fraud screening company the 3rd man, Paul Simms, said many retailers deal with fraud and manage the threat with 'little or no impact on their genuine and honest customers. ...more