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Adobe begins patch Tuesday
Adobe Systems will deliver its first set of quarterly patches, all of them rated critical, next Tuesday, as it seeks to improve how it responds to security vulnerabilities in its widely used products. The critical rating means that malicious code can be executed on a PC without a user knowing it. The patches will cover Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat versions 7 through 9, for Microsoft Windows and Apple’s Mac OS X. The company will release information about patches for Unix systems later. Adobe chose to release its patches on the second Tuesday of the month, the same day Microsoft releases its updates, so administrators can test both sets of patches at the same time before updating PCs.
Lawyers call for oversight of domain name organization
Several U.S. lawmakers and an executive with the world’s largest domain-name registrar have called on the U.S. government to maintain oversight of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, after an agreement between the two expires in September. However, other countries have called for more international oversight of ICANN. Lawmakers and witnesses raised several concerns about ICANN, including its plan to introduce dozens of new generic top-level domains. ICANN has not yet reassured companies worried that this will force them to register hundreds of new Web sites to protect their brand names.
Jobs back on the job
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is on track to return from medical leave this month, and there is even speculation that he may be present at the company’s annual software developers’ conference next week at San Francisco, according to media reports. His recovery is “coming along” and he is set to return to work sometime this month, according to the Wall Street Journal. Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, has played a pivotal role at Apple, leading its foray into digital players like the iPod and the iPhone. This has made his health an issue of concern for investors as well as the company’s customers.
Via improves its CPUs
Via Technologies is on track to ship an improved version of its Nano processor later this year, with a dual-core version set to follow soon after. The Nano chips are starting to make inroads into the market for netbooks, and the new version will offer better performance and lower power consumption. The dual-core version will make the company’s offerings more competitive against low-power, dual-core processors made by rivals Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. While Via once struggled to win business from multinational PC makers, the Nano has changed this with several key design wins, including the laptops announced by Samsung and Lenovo.
And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I’m Peter Sayer in Paris. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.