MSN is having a facelift

Microsoft is on its way to give MSN a major facelift. The software giant is set to give its web portal a major upgrade freshening up its user interface with a cool new look. This major change is a bold move to declutter MSN's previous homepage. Although the update is not ready for the public and on its beta stages, Microsoft is giving everyone a taste of whats coming. You can preview and experience the new MSN BETA here.

According to MSN this is just a first step in a systematic process to update the entire MSN network. One would notice a prominent change in MSN's homepage, the trademark blue background was replace by a white one, users would also noticed the absence of the blue links to Microsoft-owned destinations focusing on everything from Autos to Real Estate/Rentals to Horoscopes to TV. Instead they replaced it with a sleeker look with a horizontal navigation bar containing drop-down menus that cover the topics of News, Finance, Entertainment, Sports, and Lifestyle. Social networks Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft's own Windows Live are integrated into the lower right-hand side of the homepage.

Video is a bigger part of the revamped MSN, with content now featured more prominently on the homepage and on other MSN pages such as Local Edition. MSN says that it will offer video from a deeper catalog of 300 sources, including Hulu, National Geographic, and Fox Entertainment Group

MSN's new homepage is expected to go live early next year. The fact that MSN is revamping its portal just as rival Yahoo is turning up the marketing heat with an "Its You" marketing campaign is probably no coincidence. It's also likely that Microsoft's official debut of the updated MSN site will occur at roughly the same time that Yahoo integrates the Bing search engine into its portal; observers expect both things to happen early next year.

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Apple is now Shipping Apple TV This Thursday

The future of television will be made available this coming week. Apple Inc. has announced that they will start shipping the much awaited Apple TV this week. The easy to use and fun gadget will wirelessly connect your Internet based videos and other content from your pc or mac to your television. Apple TV was priced at $299 and be made available in Mac stores and other authorized retailers this Thursday.

Seamlessly integrated to iTunes, Apple TV lets users choose from over 400 movies and 350 TV shows in near DVD quality, over four million songs; 5,000 music videos; 100,000 podcasts; and 20,000 audiobooks from the iTunes Store.

" Apple TV is like a DVD player for the Internet age-providing an easy and fun way to play all your favorite iTunes content from your PC or Mac on your widescreen TV. Apple TV allows you to wirelessly play your content from your PCs or Macs using your existing WiFi network as well as the newest and fastest version of WiFi-802.11n " - Phillip Schiller Apple Inc. Senior Vice President for Worldwide product Marketing

Apple TV has a 40GB hard drive that will let you store up to 50 hours of video, listen to 9,000 songs, view 25, 000 photos or a combination of each. It is capable of delivering high definition 720p output; a remote control that has a range of 30 feet; high-speed AirPort 802.11** wireless networking can auto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers right to your TV without any wires.

Apple TV requires iTunes 7.1 or later running on a Mac with Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later, or a Windows PC with Windows XP Home/Professional (SP2). Read More!

Blogger.com's Vulnerability to Phishing Attacks

Blogger.com was recently attacked by hackers who posted fake blogs to spread malwares. Fortinet Inc. posted an advisory in their website warning people of a malicious computer script that redirect weblog readers to a phishing site called Pharmacy Express, a phishing site that has turned up in many spam emails distributed by the Stration worm.

According to the company, genuine looking blogs are now being created and infected to host a variety of script initiated malwares. the topics of this blogs ranges from starwars, cars to furniture. Fortinet also gives an example of this sites, including a supposed fan of Honda CR450 motor car. Readers of this site might be infected with Wonka TrojanVirus.

" These are not legitimate blogs that were compromised. They appear to be deliberately set up to promote phishing, which is against our terms of service. We are investigating, and blogs found to include malicious code or promote phishing will be deleted. " - Google in a statement to CNET

Frotinet assessed this threat in its fourth highest severity ranking in a five point scale, five being the highest. Read More!