THE HEAD PLEADER at Microsoft told hacks at the Washington DC National Press Club that it will adhere to 12 principles for future versions of Windows. Brad Smith, for it was he, said the Vole will continue to abide by these 12 golden rules even after big chunks of the US antitrust ruling go away in November next year

Google has begun testing a new version of its search system that makes finding information on the Web easier for the blind or visually impaired, its creator said on Wednesday. T.V. Raman, a research scientist at Mountain View, California-based Google, said his project sorts search results based on the simplicity of page layout, the quality of design and the organization and labeling of information on each page

Whirlpool Corp. is looking to speed up the day when most consumers will be able to monitor and control appliances from their computers and cell phones. The world's largest appliance company begins testing "smart" washing machines and dryers Tuesday at three homes in metropolitan Atlanta. The pilot project, called "Laundry Time," is designed to making doing laundry easier by sending alerts to consumers via televisions, computers and cell phones

Japan’s second largest telecoms company KDDI says it plans to work with Toshiba Corp, Sanyo Electric and Qualcomm of the US to jointly develop a common operating system for mobile phones. The move is designed to cut down on R&D for new handsets by up to two-thirds and will involve the four companies working together on a universal OS for cameras, messaging programs and wireless applications. KDDI says the new software will be ready for launch by end-2007

Many people see Web journals or "blogs" as alternatives to the mainstream media, but most Americans who run them do so as a hobby rather than a vocation, according to a report released on Wednesday. About 77 percent of blog authors, or "bloggers," said they post to express themselves creatively rather to get noticed or paid, according to the report, released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project

A well-known security researcher has released code that can be used to mine Google’s database for malicious software. The tool is similar to one developed by Web filtering vendor Web sense last week that was not released to the general public. Web sense said making this software public could lead to its being misused by attackers

Intel Corp is set to introduce a new Itanium chip, code-named Montecito, which will pack the equivalent of two electronic brains on a single piece of silicon, the Wall Street Journal reported. The latest addition to Intel’s Itanium processor family has 1.7 billion transistors — triples that of its predecessor. It also has two processing cores to handle multiple tasks at the same time, and a huge amount of memory to crunch data faster

Software Company Microsoft said on Tuesday it had filed 26 lawsuits that allege computer dealers sold illegal software. The filings are part of the company's effort to crack down on intellectual property piracy. The lawsuits, filed in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and South Carolina, allege that the computer resellers pirated software or installed unlicensed software on computers they sold, Microsoft said

At 9.14 a.m. on July 17 the space shuttle Discovery and its six returned to Earth through thick clouds, ending an impressive mission that put NASA's space program back on a solid, safer course. For the crew it was the end of a 13 day 5.3 million mile mission that took them from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the international space station and back again. During the mission astronauts delivered supplies and dropped German astronaut Thomas Reiter off at the station

English music fan has exposed on auction a collection of 2139 hits, occupying the first place in the British hit parade since 1952 till today. Cost of collection value at 25 thousand pounds (46 thousand dollars), The Times, London newspaper informs. The oldest hit in the collection of 35-year's Stephen Hitchcock became the song "Here in My Heart" of the American performer Al Martino, taken the first place of the first British hit parade in 1952