Sun puts more Java into Web Services

Sun is to beef up the forthcoming 1.4 release of its J2EE specification (Java 2, Enterprise Edition) with extended support for Web Services. The company has announced that it is working through the Java Community Process to make J2EE technology the standard for Java Web services 'development and interoperability'. ...more

Red Hat feels the squeeze

The emergence of Linux has lost some of its lustre. Red Hat - a leading Linux systems vendor - has announced that it is to close three of its office and lay off some staff. The San Francisco (US), Newbury (UK) and Cagnes sur Mer (France) offices are to close and a total of 20 employees laid off. ...more

UK owner of Gmail trademark keeps up legal fight

The UK company that claims ownership of the Gmail trademark is preparing to take further legal action against Google after talks between the two companies failed to reach an agreement. Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) began negotiations with Google 16 months ago after the US search company unveiled its Gmail Web-based email service. IIIR claims a prior right to the trademark as the name of the webmail component of its Pronet software suite, which was first released in May 2002. ...more

Adobe plugs free 3D content into Photoshop Extended

Adobe has released a free plug-in that enables users of the new Extended version of Photoshop to find and download content from Google's collection of 3D models. Google 3D Warehouse is a free online repository for 3D models and content and the plug-in will enable this content to be placed, manipulated and used in composites with the new 3D tools in Photoshop CS3 Extended. The content is generated by users of the SketchUp application that Google acquired in March 2006 and has since made freely available. ...more

Microsoft emails reveal Tiger envy

A series of emails between Microsoft developers in June 2004 has revealed how impressed they were by the new Tiger operating system that Apple had just previewed. The emails focus primarily on Tiger's Spotlight search feature, and how far it was in advance of similar functionality in Microsoft's Vista/Longhorn OS. 'Tonight I got on corpnet, hooked up Mail. ...more