PC World - Wal-Mart Inc. opened its campaign for the back-to-school PC sales season on Wednesday by unveiling a US$298 desktop from Everex that combines three of the most popular industry trends– open-source software, a power-efficient processor, and a lack of "bloatware."

TechWeb - The new features, including a burn-to-DVD capability, are part of an upgrade of the online movie retailer's Media Manager software, which was released on Wednesday.

InfoWorld - A maker of software that simplifies getting onto public Wi-Fi hotspots is now tackling the complexity of using the network in your own home or at a friend's house.

USATODAY.com - Microsoft's video game division is taking a one-two punch. Earlier this month came news that the software giant was taking a charge of more than $1 billion to pay for costs related to extending the Xbox 360 warranty to three years. Now Peter Moore, the company's Xbox standard-bearer for the last four years is resigning to join EA Sports as its president. Replacing Moore at Microsoft as senior vice president of interactive entertainment business (Xbox and Games for Windows) is Don Mattrick, who was once EA's president of its worldwide studios.

NewsFactor - Microsoft announced Monday that it has completed its Windows Home Server (WHS) software and released the code to its OEM partners, including HP and Gateway, just six months after unveiling the project.

InfoWorld - In the IT shop of the near future, personnel likely will manage services instead of systems, a Sun Microsystems official said Monday in elaborating both on Sun's internal plans and what can be expected of the IT landscape at large.

Peep the Simpsonized The Jay!

I think it’s a pretty awesome likeness. I dig being yellow, as it’s a nice break from being Casper-pale and/or Kool Aid red, depending on how much sun I got that week. The best part about being yellow is that if Biff Tannen ever challenged me to a fight, but I walked away and then he taunted me with “What are you, yellow?”, instead of getting all huffy like Marty McFly and end up getting chased on a makeshift skateboard through 1955-era Hilldale, I could just say “Yeah Biff, I am. What’s it to you?” then walk away like a bad ass. Some real color on my skin and moting the Tannen family? It’s a win-win situation.

Really, the only problem with the animation is that my Simpsons Avatar doesn’t have that certain, what’s the word… ah yes, “dickiness”, that my real visage exudes. Simpsonized Jay looks like a relatively harmless dude, probably works the boom mike for Kent Brockman, or pulls middle management in the HR department at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. He dates a nice burnt sienna-colored girl and has season tickets to the Sprinfield Atoms. People like him. Even Snake, Springfield’s resident criminal (and my favorite character) is like “Who ho, that dude is OK! No robbing that guy till after Christmas.”

Real Jay, however, has a look that says “Who brought the dick? Oh, that’s right, I did! I always do! IN YOUR FACE. You’ve just been pwned!” Which, incidentally, is the look I’m going for.

Either way, this is a sweet promotional gimmick by The Simpsons Movie (which you can check out HERE). I can’t wait to plug a picture of Reese Witherspoon into the Simpsonize Machine and see how fugly I can make her. I tell you, what with this latest development and Book 7 Day rapidly approaching, how can you not be enjoying life? A new Harry Potter book and defiling a defenseless Reese Witherspoon… and I thought my birthday was last week!

Bangarang!

Btw: If you send me your Simpsons Avatars, I’ll post them on the site in a big Simpsonized user pic post.

TechWeb - Microsoft says software that's licensed under GPLv3 isn't covered by the patent protection deal it recently signed with desktop Linux distributor Linspire.

TechWeb - McAfee lets you test yourself at picking out malicious e-mails and telling real Web sites from fraudulent imitators.

TechWeb - Ants Software previously billed itself as a high-performance relational system; it's now emphasizing its ability to migrate database users away from Sybase to Oracle.

PC Magazine - A little more than six months after Bill Gates previewed Microsoft's Windows Home Server at CES, the Redmond, Washington–based company said it has finalized the backup and file sharing software and released it to manufacturers.

Reuters - Microsoft has launched a
pay-as-you-go computing system aimed at making its office
software more accessible for people in emerging markets, the
company said on Tuesday.

TechWeb - Small businesses that buy ads from Microsoft Office Live will see their search listings appear on Web sites operated by Ask.com and its partners, in addition to Microsoft's Windows Live and MSN.com sites.

TechWeb - The client-side software is aimed at helping consumers battle the growing botnet problem.

Reuters - A European court confirmed on Tuesday
that it will rule on September 17 on whether software giant
Microsoft broke European Union antitrust regulations.

Court of First Instance confirms June 5 report that a ruling on antitrust violations will come a day before judge’s retirement.

AP - A European Union court will rule Sept. 17 on Microsoft’s challenge to an order that that imposed hundreds of millions of dollars of fines on the world’s biggest software company for what the regulators said was anti-competitive activity, the court said Tuesday.

New hosted CRM package offers customizable platform services, highlighting company’s attempt to compete with SAP, Oracle, Microsoft.

NewsFactor - A member of the Doom9 Forum known only as "Divine Tao" claims to have defeated Microsoft's Digital Rights Management (DRM) platform for securing the distribution of digital media files over the Internet. According to other Forum members who have already downloaded it, the new utility program for PCs running Windows XP and Vista not only works wonderfully but can even run on Microsoft's Zune player.

Programmers say they’ll stop developing version 4 of the software for creating dynamic Web sites, but some who prefer it to the current version aren’t happy.

AFP - Google announced Monday that it is shortening the lives of software "cookies" used to track users' online preferences.

TechWeb - The hard drive is priced at $430, and includes bundled backup software. It comprises two 500 Gbyte hard drives that are recognized as a single drive.

New site is designed to spur development of OS for improved mobile Web surfing, networking, power management, user interface, more.

AFP - India's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services said Monday that its first quarter net profit rose by 36 percent despite sharp gains in the rupee this year that hit earnings.

AP - India’s top software company, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., said Monday profit in the April-June quarter rose 37 percent from a year ago, as new outsourcing contracts helped offset the impact of a stronger rupee and higher salaries.

InfoWorld - IBM is looking to add real-time capabilities to its data integration software by buying Canadian firm DataMirror for about C$170 million (US$162.3 million).

Reuters - International Business Machines Corp.
said on Monday that it would buy Canada's DataMirror
Corp. for about $163.5 million, continuing its push to
expand software revenue through acquisitions.

TechWeb - One patent application details advertising software that uses applications and data on a computer to provide context for and trigger advertising.

InfoWorld - Symantec declared its compensation offer for Chinese users who saw their computers damaged by a bad software update a success Sunday, but declined to say how many users had accepted the deal.

Allowing consumers to mix and match wireless gadgets and service providers could spark innovation–and compromise security.