Technology - CNET

Correction: This post initially misstated the portion of spectrum cited in newly released FCC report. It was updated 3:15 PDT with corrected information and related background.A Federal Communications Commission engineering report released late Friday essentially backs a plan to create a free wireless Internet service by dismissing concerns about interference for existing providers.

Hollywood isn't suing RealNetworks over piracy--that's just a smokescreen, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

An investigation by Apple shows some MacBook Pros may have faulty Nvidia graphics processors after all, despite Nvidia's earlier assurances to the contrary, the computer maker has announced.

Stock crash or no, CEO Larry Ellison says that Oracle is sticking to his game plan and that means more acquisitions.

President Bush on Friday signed into law a bill that would facilitate the collection of data regarding broadband access in the United States, though most of the actions required by the law have already been accomplished by federal regulators.

With a tough economic climate figuring to put a crimp on IT spending, Microsoft is already working on honing a message that it can help businesses save money.

The masses have spoken.

A sampling of green-tech news with quick commentary.

The U.S. Senate is investigating allegations by two National Security Agency whistleblowers who have described widespread monitoring of innocuous telephone conversations by the Bush administration's clandestine program.

LONDON--In the first part of our interview with Digg founder Kevin Rose at the Future of Web Apps conference, CNET News asked the Web start-up poster boy about everything from the company's Series C funding round to whether he's concerned about when those election stories stop rolling in.

LONDON-- Britain's normally gray capital was unusually sunny this week. So were the attitudes of Web developers gathered here for a conference while, across the pond, Wall Street was in full panic mode.

Even with the teetering economy, solar companies are bullish that tapping free energy from the sun is a solid financial move.

With the release of its Apple SA-2008-10-09 security update on Thursday, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer company provided patches for nearly two dozen software flaws.

Two former top executives from Seattle software provider Entellium were arrested on Tuesday night after allegedly inflating their company's revenues to attract investments.

Yahoo fell into the $12-a-share-range Thursday, marking the second consecutive day its stock tumbled to a new low.

On Thursday, Microsoft announced four security bulletins for next week. The announcement is intended as a heads-up for IT departments before Patch Tuesday. Four fixes are considered critical, six important, and one is moderate as ranked by the software giant.

LONDON--On Thursday afternoon at the Future of Web Apps conference, I had to make a choice: Was I going to blog about a talk hosted by Six Apart engineer David Recordon, talking about the "open social Web," or a talk by Ben Huh, the "Chief Cheezburger" of goofy "lolcat" meme site ICanHasCheezburger.com?

Intel-backed start-up ZPower may be the first to introduce an alternative to the ubiquitous lithium-ion laptop battery, with a silver-zinc technology the company says will make its debut with a large laptop maker in 2009.

Virtualization could end expensive long-term software licensing in favor of a pay-per-use model, according to Symantec.

Ask and ye shall receive.

LONDON--Perhaps it's fitting that Digg founder Kevin Rose chose the Future of Web Apps conference here as the place to elaborate on his company's international expansion strategy. London, after all, has become the San Francisco-based Digg's biggest hub of user activity. But with headlines dominated by financial disasters, life gets a little more complicated for a company determined to build up and keep hiring.

A number of Internet titans received an across-the-board stock target haircut on Thursday from UBS Securities analyst Ben Schachter, who said a weakening economic outlook is expected to take a toll on display advertising and, to a lesser degree, search advertising.

LONDON--Digg founder Kevin Rose had a message for the audience at the Future of Web Apps conference on Thursday: It's time to grow up.

While much of the tech sector is bemoaning a sluggish economy, Big Blue sees blue skies ahead. IBM on Wednesday announced positive preliminary earnings for the third quarter of 2008.

WASHINGTON--With only five days left for President Bush to decide whether to sign into law a controversial copyright bill, business lobbyists and even the AFL-CIO are pushing for it to become law.

Botnets are proving to more resilient and harder to shut down.

On Wednesday, HBGary announced that Andy Purdy has joined their advisory board.

Tech stocks and the broader markets received a mild case of whiplash Wednesday, as rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world prompted a brief run up before stocks gave way to yet another consecutive day of losses.