My calendar

Reuters – Activision Inc posted a
quarterly profit on Thursday that blew past expectations as
demand for its “Guitar Hero 3” and “Call of Duty 4” video games
made up for a complete lack of new releases.

PC World – Two giant offers for free Wi-Fi extended, one from AT&T to iPhone users, and another from Cablevision for its millions of home territory broadband subscribers.

AP – Google Inc.‘s top executives expressed hope Thursday that the Internet search leader will be able to form a potentially lucrative advertising partnership with Yahoo Inc. — a deal that would lower the odds of Microsoft Corp. renewing its attempts to buy Yahoo.

AP – Facebook, the world’s second-largest social networking Web site, is adding more than 40 new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies under an agreement with officials nationwide that was announced Thursday.

PC World – They say everything comes to those that wait. A year after it went on sale in the rest of the world customers in Japan will…

Reuters – Young, tech-savvy South Koreans are
making coupon clipping a thing of the past and turning to their
mobile phones instead.

Macworld.com – Softpress Systems on Thursday announced the release of Freeway 5.1, a new version of its Web design software for Mac OS X. A free update for 5.0 users, Freeway is available in Express and Pro versions for $79 or $249 respectively.

AFP – Top US state attorneys have announced that Facebook has agreed to get tougher on keeping its young website users safe from bullies, porn, pedophiles and other online hazards.

Reuters – Shares in British engineering software
firm Flomerics Group surged on Friday after rejecting a
buyout offer from larger U.S. rival Mentor Graphics, saying it
would explore interest from several other parties.

AP – Microsoft Corp. will focus on growing its own advertising and Internet search business after it withdrew its takeover offer for Yahoo Inc., Chairman Bill Gates said Friday.

InfoWorld – We started the week with Microsoft calling off the Yahoo deal (or maybe not). Then Grand Theft Auto stole the spotlight with its record-breaking sales. Along the way, we have the Webby Awards, big settlements for movie piracy, and candidates seeking to save us from the evils of Second Life. We cover it all in this week’s quiz. Give yourself 10 points for each correct answer. Ready to test your news know-how? Then begin.

PC World – Spray them with water, subject them to extreme temperatures or drop them on the ground, NEC’s rugged ShieldPro laptops are…

USATODAY.com – Millions of U.S. small-business owners are geeking out in the digital bazaar. As online commerce grows and technology gets cheaper and easier to use, small firms – especially mom-and-pop shops that had shied away from technology – are using tech tools more than ever to sell goods, market themselves and run their operations.

Reuters – Playing video games does not turn
children into deranged, blood-thirsty super-killers, according
to a new book by a pair of Harvard researchers.

InfoWorld – Sun Microsystems is counting on the ubiquitous nature of Java to help its JavaFX technology compete in the rich Internet application (RIA) space against rivals Adobe Systems and Microsoft.

AP – Wholesale fees for Internet addresses ending in “.org” will increase 10 percent Nov. 9.

AP – Shares of Activision Inc. hit a record high Friday after the video game publisher reported profit and sales that soared past guidance and Wall Street’s expectations.

AP – EBay Inc. is exploring whether to require customers to use its online payment service PayPal, a move that has angered users and prompted antitrust scrutiny in Australia, where a PayPal-only rule takes effect next month.

NewsFactor – The move toward data portability for denizens of social-networking sites gained more momentum Thursday with MySpace’s announcement of its Data Availability project.

NewsFactor – The move toward data portability for denizens of social-networking sites gained more momentum Thursday with MySpace’s announcement of its Data Availability project.

Reuters – Take-Two Interactive Software Inc said on Friday that “Pirates of the Caribbean”
director Gore Verbinski will make a movie version of
“BioShock,” its hit video game about an underwater utopia gone
disastrously wrong.

AP – Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes.

AP – Texas officials may claim that Amazon.com owes millions in sales taxes on purchases that state residents made from the Internet retailer.

AP – Meat retailers can now trace their wares from the ranch to the refrigerator case using DNA analysis.

PC Magazine – Reeling from the aftermath of its HD DVD debacle, Toshiba laid out a plan for growth that leans heavily on its other strengths, namely its Cell processor and improvements in notebook technologies, including fuel cells. On tap: auto-upscaling TVs, more SSDs, and some nifty notebook tech.

InfoWorld – Ian Murdock is vice president of developer and community marketing at Sun Microsystems. Prior to that, he was the founder of the Debian Linux distribution and CTO at the Linux Foundation. InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill met with Murdock at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco this week to talk about open source and how Sun, with its OpenSolaris version of the Solaris Unix platform, will fare in the open-source arena versus Linux.

AP – Rapper Foxy Brown has pleaded guilty to menacing a neighbor with her cell phone last year. She avoided jail based on time already served.

Reuters – Microsoft said on Friday it
was appealing against a record 899 million euro ($1.39 billion)
fine imposed by the European Commission for using high prices
to discourage software competition.

AP – Rapper Foxy Brown has pleaded guilty to menacing a neighbor with her cell phone last year. She avoided jail based on time already served.

AP – An online advertising partnership between Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. is facing opposition from consumer and civic groups that didn’t wait for an official deal announcement to voice their discontent.

AP – The popular online social hangout Facebook says it’s setting up a new system that will allow its 70 million users to take their personal profiles with them as they surf other Web sites.

TechWeb – InformationWeek – The payout was based on user complaints that led to Apple recalling 570,000 power adapters and offering replacements at no charge.

PC World – Security researchers have developed a new type of malicious rootkit software that hides itself in an obscure part of a…

AP – Microsoft Corp. on Friday said it has appealed a $1.39 billion fine imposed in February by the European Commission for the company’s failure to comply with a 2004 antitrust order.

AP – It’s a new kind of virus for Sun Microsystems Inc.

Investor’s Business Daily – A global study from IBM says that top executives are eyeing major investments in the next three years to meet changing customer demands.

Reuters – Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile USA
Inc and South Korea’s SK Telecom Co, which controls U.S. mobile
service Helio, are in early talks on a deal, a person familiar
with the discussions said on Friday.

Reuters – Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile USA
Inc and South Korea’s SK Telecom Co, which controls U.S. mobile
service Helio, are in early talks on a deal, a person familiar
with the discussions said on Friday.

Reuters – Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile USA
Inc and South Korea’s SK Telecom Co, which controls U.S. mobile
service Helio, are in early talks on a deal, a person familiar
with the discussions said on Friday.

Investor’s Business Daily – U.S. retailers are getting better at blocking underage teens from buying M-rated video games, says an FTC survey using undercover 13- to 16-year-old shoppers. Just 20% of the undercover teens were able to buy M-rated games, vs. 42% in ’06. Retailer GameStop was the best at blocking underage sales of video games, stopping 94% of them. Less-diligent retailers included Hollywood Video, which blocked 60%. ...

TechWeb – InformationWeek – The strategy of rolling out service packs in phases gives the market plenty of time to evaluate the software.

AP – Apple Inc. has agreed to settle a pair of class-action lawsuits in Canada alleging it misled customers about the staying power of their iPods, the latest courtroom truce over the dwindling battery life of early generations of the device.