[via Domain Name Wire]

Go Daddy Group, Inc., parent company of domain name registrar GoDaddy, has filed three patents related to interactive and enhanced whois and DNS records. The three applications were published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday.

The applications cover various aspects of how to add additional information to whois and DNS records, such as information about whether the domain name is for sale and comments about the domain owner’s business (e.g., hours of operation or product listings). The additional information could be collected through various entities and in several different ways, such as through information stored at a web site. It could also allow for various queries to be made of the whois record’s owner, effectively making whois and DNS records interactive.

Copies of patent applications (pdf):

Interactive DNS for Non-Controlling Party, USPTO application 20090240709

Interactive DNS for Controlling Party, USPTO application 20090240799

Interactive WHOIS, USPTO application 20090240835

Though Internet Explorer has been panned for lack of web-standard compliance, many are forced to use the browser because of stubborn IT departments. Fortunately, Google has issued its latest “up yours” to Microsoft with the Chrome Frame plug-in for IE.

The Chrome Frame allows IE to use HTML5 and other open source technologies, including high performance JavaScript enhancements, that Internet Explorer’s Trident Engine is unable to render. One of the largest barriers to the mass utilization of HTML5 was IE’s lack of support for the standard. When people install the plug-in, and developers add a X-UA compatible tag, websites can have HTML5 elements without sacrificing losing a large segment of the potential user base. Without the X-UA tag, pages render normally using the Trident engine instead of the WebKit Chrome renderer.

One of the major advantages for Google in issuing the plug-in is ensuring IE compatibility for Google Wave. Users with the plug-in will also have the benefits of offline storage and utilization of the canvas tag. It’s no secret that Google believes that the traditional desktop base is going the way of the dinosaur—making HTML5 and enhanced JavaScript a ubiquitous standard is the first step to emulating desktop environment via the web.

OK, great. Now let’s see how many of the IT departments that refuse to upgrade from IE6 allow their users to install some crazy Google plug-in. [Ars Technica and Google Chrome Blog]

via Gizmodo

AT&T Microcell

Zacks Investment Research is reporting in a matter-of-fact tone that AT&T’s long-rumored, long-desired 3G Microcell femtocell will be hitting some markets “in the next week.” The full list of initial launch areas hasn’t been disclosed, but Atlanta, San Antonio, Seattle and North Carolina are all specifically mentioned; as you might recall, Sprint restricted the launch of its Airave for some time, too, so limited availability out of the gate wouldn’t really come as a surprise. AT&T had no comment when asked about the report, so it’s a wait-and-see game — but if you’re clinging to one bar of service, have hope that help is on the way.

via Engadget

iPhone

Well, something clearly broke down behind the scenes in the ongoing Apple/Google negotiations over Google Voice on the iPhone, because Google released one of two nukes it has been holding back. In a letter to the FCC today, Google disclosed previously unpublished information about Apple’s rejection of their Google Voice application.

There’s no longer any question – either Google or Apple is flat out lying to the FCC:

Apple: “Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it.”

Google: “Apple representatives informed Google that the Google Voice application was rejected because Apple believed the application duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone”

Our position is that Apple is the one full of it, which we stated way before this new information from Google. And it isn’t just he said/she said – Apple’s story doesn’t add up.

But Apple is standing firm, and even today told press that they haven’t rejected the Google Voice application, despite what Google says.

This doesn’t end here. As we’ve speculated, Apple will capitulate and accept the application with a few minor tweaks to save face. Because if they don’t we’ve heard Google has yet another nuke waiting on the sidelines – a screen shot of the actual rejection notice via the iPhone developers admin with the formal rejection. At that point, Apple will no longer be able to rely on nuances and misdirection. The FCC and everyone else will know that they lied in a government investigation.

via TechCrunch

According to the Streaming Media blog, popular video streaming web site Hulu is in the process of internally testing a subscription service. It’s not the first time we’ve heard of the idea of paying for Hulu, and when we asked you about it, most of you said you’d go back to BitTorrent before paying for Hulu. Still, if Hulu were to keep a fair amount of its content free and ad-supported, as it is now, a subscription service for more offerings doesn’t seem completely crazy—assuming Hulu grows up a little about what devices they’ll allow users to play those videos on. [The Business of Online Video via Silicon Valley Insider]

via Lifehacker

As I continue on in the exploration of Snow Leopard to discover what’s new and what’s missing, (like double clicking the top of a window to minimize to the dock), I have found a website that is keeping tabs on…

Things Removed in Snow Leopard

Updated continuously; please submit new finds in the comments, but read the FAQ first. Or, in other words, “This document will be updated as more information becomes available.”

• PowerPC support
• The blood on the signature snow leopard’s mouth, except for in the wallpaper
• 32-bit screensaver support on 64-bit capable machines (in effect; it’s more of a replacement thing since loginwindow has to run under some architecture)
• Cocoa Java runtime support
• AppleTalk printing
• Creator code adherence when opening files

Read the full list at http://waffle.wootest.net/2009/09/05/removed-snow-leopard/

One of the most common malware advertising scams is for an advertisement to masquerade as a virus scanner, showing what looks like a real virus scan of a users computer, followed by prompt that there is a virus and that software needs to be purchased to solve the problem. The software, of course, is usually just more malware.

Website fake warning

This has been a growing problem for ad networks as scammers have found ways to successfully infiltrate the ad system to pose as legitimate clients and get malware ads on high-profile web sites.

Lots of big name sites, including Fox News, the Register and the San Francisco Chronicle have been hit with these attacks before. Over the weekend, the Gray Lady herself — the New York Times — was hit with a malware ad.

The Times ad leaked through because the malware group masqueraded as a known NYTimes.com advertiser. In its article about the post in today’s paper, Ashlee Vance explains:

“The creator of the malicious ads posed as Vonage, the Internet telephone company, and persuaded NYTimes.com to run ads that initially appeared as real ads for Vonage. At some point, possibly late Friday, the campaign switched to displaying the virus warnings. (continue reading…)

Deutsche Telekom, the owners of T-Mobile in the U.S., are reportedly looking into acquiring competitor Sprint. Together, the two companies would have a customer base that rivals AT&T.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Detsche Telekom is prepping a multi-billion dollar offer for Sprint Nextel, which is the third-largest wireless carrier in America. Together, the two companies would have a combined customer base near AT&T’s nearly 80 million subscribers. (continue reading…)

Microhoo!

A Microsoft and Yahoo search deal, announced in July, will face an in-depth antitrust review from the U.S. Department of Justice, Microsoft has confirmed.

The DOJ requested additional information about the deal earlier this week, Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said. Microsoft expected the DOJ to look into the agreement and conduct a “thorough review,” he added.

“When we announced the agreement, we said we were hopeful it would close by early next year,” Evans said. (continue reading…)

Windows 7 Upgrade Install

We can say for sure that our own Windows 7 upgrade experience didn’t take, oh say, a whole day, but according to Microsoft, your own just might. The boys and girls in Redmond set out with a goal of seeing the Vista to Windows 7 upgrade accomplished around five percent faster than an upgrade to Vista, and while it seems that they succeeded, the staggeringly wide range in install times has us a wee bit concerned. A variety of testing situations were put in place, and nearly every profile was tested on low-, mid- and high-end hardware. A clean install of Windows 7 on mid-to-high-end hardware took just a half-hour, but a 32-bit upgrade on a mid-range machine with 650GB of data and 40 applications took an astounding 1,220 minutes, or just under 21 hours. The wild part here is that it’s not all that uncommon for a power user / all-around nerd to have a half-terabyte of information and two score programs, and in anticipation of one install actually taking over a day, the team didn’t even bother testing this path on a low-end rig. Good thing our imaginations are in check, huh?

via Engadget