Top technology news headlines

• 

  Let the battle for holiday gadget shoppers begin

  Retailers try different strategies for competing with behemoths like Amazon and Wal-Mart in the cutthroat competition to lure those giving electronics as gifts.

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• 

  Firefox hopes to one-up IE with fast graphics

  Windows 7 features called Direct2D and DirectWrite will speed up Internet Explorer 9 performance. But Firefox hopes it might retool for the same benefit first.

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• Major Intel chip upgrade coming to Netbooks

  Chipmaker is set to announce the biggest makeover for its Atom processor since it was introduced back in the spring of 2008.

  (Posted in Nanotech - The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)

• Millions using social media on Xbox Live

  Microsoft has released its first figures on how well Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm have done on Xbox Live. They show substantial, though not huge, engagement.

  (Posted in Geek Gestalt by Daniel Terdiman)

• Google places ad explaining offensive image

  A distorted image purporting to be First Lady Michelle Obama is currently the No. 1 image result for her name. Google is using ad space to explain its policy for such matters.

  (Posted in Relevant Results by Tom Krazit)

• Chrome OS security: 'Sandboxing,' auto updates

  Google operating system will have many of the same security features as the Chrome browser, including "sandboxing" of apps, auto updating, and antiphishing.
  • Full Chrome OS coverage

  (Posted in InSecurity Complex by Elinor Mills)

• Can News Corp. afford calling Google's bluff?

  Google makes it easy to remove content from its search engine, but few companies do because of the loss of traffic. News Corp., with help from Microsoft, could change that.
  • Microsoft may help News Corp. delist sites

  (Posted in Relevant Results by Tom Krazit)

• AT&T offers prepaid wireless broadband

  AT&T is following Verizon Wireless by offering a prepaid wireless broadband service for laptop users.

  (Posted in Signal Strength by Marguerite Reardon)

• Police arrest exec for not using Twitter

  After singer Justin Bieber does not appear at a Long Island mall, police ask a record label veep to tweet encouragement for the crowd to disperse. He allegedly doesn't and is thus arrested.

  (Posted in Technically Incorrect by Chris Matyszczyk)

• 'Technical issue' downs eBay search over weekend

  Some power users are none too pleased, though, and are requesting refunds for seller fees if their auctions were disrupted as a result.

  (Posted in The Social by Caroline McCarthy)

• HP reports in-line earnings, raises 2010 outlook

  Company reports earnings of $1.14 per share on $30.8 billion in sales, and it forecasts earnings of $1.03 to $1.05 per share on sales of $29.6 billion to $29.9 billion.

  (Posted in Business Tech by Sam Diaz)

• LinkedIn's platform loosens up

  The professional networking site now lets developers access its API to import LinkedIn features into external sites.

  (Posted in The Social by Caroline McCarthy)

• Time short to agree on smart-grid standards

  The next phase of smart-grid standards is due to start next year but vendors pushing their own home networking options threatens to slow the process, says a NIST official.

  (Posted in Green Tech by Martin LaMonica)

• E-tailers linked to 'scam' blame customers

  Priceline, Classmates.com, and Orbitz say customers should read the fine print before complaining about being charged recurring monthly fees to join loyalty programs they didn't want.

  (Posted in Security by Greg Sandoval)

• Microsoft warns of IE exploit code in the wild

  Company says it is investigating a publicly published exploit code that allegedly could lead to computers running versions 6 or 7 of the browser getting compromised.

  (Posted in InSecurity Complex by Elinor Mills)
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