Technology in your hands.

There is a ton of interesting information in the documents that have been released as part of the Windows Vista Capable lawsuit.

There’s the juicy e-mails that show Microsoft caving to pressure from Intel and lowering the graphics requirements to get the Vista Capable sticker. There’s also Dell outlining all of the problems it had with Microsoft in getting Vista to market as well as with its many readiness programs.

For those that want to give the full documents a read, the Seattle Post-Intellingencer has posted the complete PDF files of the documents, linked to from this blog by Todd Bishop.

Another area that got some notice this week was the inordinate number of early Vista crashes that were attributed to Nvidia, according to a list from early 2007. Nvidia was cited as causing nearly 30 percent of early Vista crashes (the exact time of the report is not listed), while Microsoft itself was to blame for nearly 18 percent. Intel and ATI each accounted for about 9 percent of crashes, according to the documents…

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San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Systems says it hopes to boost its name recognition among a new generation of consumers who edit, store and share photos online.

While Photoshop is designed for trained professionals, Adobe says Photoshop Express, which it launched in a “beta” test version, is easier to learn. User comments will be taken into account for future upgrades.

Photoshop Express will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser. And, once they register, users can get to their accounts from different computers…

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News Corp’s MySpace earlier pledged support, and the three companies announced today they were forming a non-profit organisation, the OpenSocial Foundation, to ensure the platform remains neutral and viable.

The idea behind the Google-initiated OpenSocial platform is to create a common coding standard for the applications so they work on hundreds of web sites.

The applications could permit chats, games, media sharing and more.

By contrast, sites that haven’t joined OpenSocial typically rely on unique coding that has prevented widgets developed for its sites from working at other places on the web.

The addition of Yahoo could put pressure on Facebook, the number two social-networking site behind MySpace, to pledge support as well, though Facebook has had tremendous success encouraging developers to write tools specifically for it…

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Huge spikes in automated password guessing attacks against Australian computer servers show geographical isolation offers no protection against internet-borne threats.

Data compiled for Next by security vendor Arbor Networks also shows the US remains the largest single source of malicious internet background noise targeting Australian computers.

China ranks as the second-largest source of the noise, generated by virus-infected PCs pseudo-randomly scanning for other systems to attack.

“Some countries have better infrastructure than others or are better able to patch their systems,” says Robert Malan, the founder and chief technology officer of Arbor Networks.

Often networks of thousands of compromised computers are controlled centrally by virus writers. These so-called “bot networks” can send spam, infect other systems and launch denial-of-service attacks against legitimate and grey-market businesses such as online casinos.

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Hackers are paying top dollar on international blackmarkets for computers from Australia that have been unknowingly hijacked and infected with spyware.

A Russian malware distribution site offers $US100 for a haul of 1000 spyware-infected Australian machines, double the price offered for US machines and 30 times more than those from Asia.

Philip Routley, product marketing manager at internet security firm MessageLabs, said he believed the high price tag on Australian machines was due to the fact that Australians were more ignorant about computer security threats than people from other parts of the world…

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Now that Windows Vista service pack 1 has been released, all eyes have shifted to Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)’s plans for Windows XP service pack 3, the final package of updates for the trusty OS. And, according to at least one source, Microsoft will roll out XP SP3 next Monday.

As of Wednesday afternoon Pacific time, the BitTorrent search engine Mininova listed a 568.73 MB Windows XP Professional SP3 5503 file available for download. The file, which had 112 seeds and 417 leeches, had been downloaded 2083 times since it was posted Tuesday, according to the listing.

According to the file description notes, Microsoft will release the final version of XP SP3 on March 24, but the 5503 test build passes all Windows Genuine Advantage checks and is able to download Windows updates that previous XP SP3 builds weren’t able to, which suggests that it could, in fact, be the final RTM build…

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Social network Facebook will roll out more extensive privacy controls Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, as well as an instant-messaging service soon after, representatives from the company announced during a press briefing at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

Most notable about the new privacy controls is the fact that Facebook members will now be able to choose how much of their profiles are visible to those on their friends list.

Naomi Gleit, Facebook’s product manager for privacy and internationalization, previewed the updated options, which include a new “Friend of Friends” option based on social proximity–not unlike LinkedIn profiles, in which profile information is visible to second- and third-degree contacts rather than the site’s members as a whole. Facebook members will also be able to include or exclude certain friends from having access to information…

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Security vendor Trend Micro has fallen victim to a widespread Web attack that splashed malicious software onto hundreds of legitimate Web sites in recent days.

A Trend Micro spokesman confirmed that the company’s site had been hacked Thursday, saying that the attack took place earlier in the week. “A portion of our site– some pages were attacked,” said Mike Sweeny, a Trend Micro spokesman. “We took the pages down overnight Tuesday night– and took corrective action.”

On Thursday security vendor McAfee reported that more than 20,000 Web pages have been affected by the attack. The pages are infected with malicious code that tries to install password-stealing software on the PCs of people who visit the sites.

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AMD demonstrated its first 45nm processor designs at the giant CeBit trade show in Hanover, Germany this week and said it is on track to release 45nm processors in the second half of this year.

Intel made the move to 45nm late last year and in the process switched its manufacturing process, dropping the silicon dioxide that gave the Silicon Valley its name and instead using hafnium oxide. This reduced leakage in the chips and lowered the heat they gave off in the process.

AMD has its own high-k metal gate technology via its semiconductor partner IBM. However, it is not going to the new hafnium design with these processors, at least not initially…

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While YouTube is best known for its work in promoting social video, the company is looking to live video as its next format. In an interview with NewTeeVee, YouTube founder Steve Chen said that the company plans to introduce a new live feature sometime this year. He said that the company had always wanted to do it, but didn’t have the resources. Now that YouTube is owned by Google, Chen said the resources are now at their disposal.

Analysts say that YouTube is likely to quickly build momentum in the marketplace, which is primarily due to its already strong presence in social video. “Like video, content creators want to be on the service that gives them the most exposure, no matter how good the alternatives are,” Duncan Riley wrote for TechCrunch. “YouTube already has the user base; live video streamers will flock to YouTube like a moth to a flame.”

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