Internet News

SAN FRANCISCO - Laura Fitton's ascent has been staggering: In less than a year, she's become mayor of nine different places in several different states, all without giving any speeches or kissing any babies.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Hackers have built a virus that attacks Apple Inc's iPhone by secretly taking control of the devices via their Internet connections, security experts said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Google is acquiring Web display advertising startup Teracent, the Internet giant announced on Monday.

LONDON (AFP) - British reality TV singing sensation Susan Boyle's debut album went on sale Monday, having already become the most pre-ordered CD in the history of online retailer Amazon.

News Corp. and Microsoft are reportedly in "early stage talks" to cut an exclusive deal that would prevent Google from indexing the media conglomerate's news Websites some of which include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and others.

ATHENS, Greece - The chief executive of Fox Filmed Entertainment said Monday the U.S. should join France in cutting off the Internet connection of users who repeatedly download copyright-protected films.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has had talks with News Corp about a tie up, which would involve News Corp getting paid to take its news websites off Google Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

To get the best deals on Black Friday, you'll need patience, aggression and preferably advanced knowledge of what you're looking for. But with the help of Web sites, mobile apps and social media tools, your day of shopping can be made easier, or even avoided thanks to online or early deals. Here's a list of tech tools to ease the pain of Black Friday:

If the world needs one browser-based operating system, why not three more? With the interest Google's Chrome OS has generated, can operating systems based upon Firefox, Internet Explorer, even Opera, be far behind?

Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber owes his entire career to the Internet. When he was the ripe old age of 13, Bieber and his family began posting videos of his performances on YouTube. Someone in a suit liked the tunes and boom -- Bieber was signed with Usher's label. Now his infamy shall be cast in the iron of the Web, as one of Bieber's team was arrested for not using Twitter. One more time: arrested for not using Twitter.

LONDON - A leading climate change scientist whose private e-mails are included in thousands of documents that were stolen by hackers and posted online said Sunday the leaks may have been aimed at undermining next month's global climate summit in Denmark.

Care to take your very own Federation starship for a spin and maybe right a few of the wrongs done by Paramount writers to the franchise over the past decade or two?

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - You've got followers and post regularly, but ever wondered how popular you are on Twitter? An online tool that evaluates "tweets" can tell.

Freed from its oppressive Time Warner overlords, AOL is understandably undergoing something of an identity crisis. Gone is "AOL," in is "Aol," plus some interesting new logos.

Microsoft has discussed paying News Corp. to remove its news Web sites from Google's search results and list them on its Bing search engine instead, The Financial Times reported Sunday on its Web site.

LONDON (AFP) - Microsoft has held talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp over a possible plan for the software giant to pay the media company to remove its news websites from Google, a report said Monday.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Online auction giant eBay apologized Sunday for a technical glitch that caused a one-day crash of its website search functions it attributed to a surge in holiday shoppers.

LAS PIEDRAS, Uruguay (AFP) - A laptop is now finding its place alongside a notebook and pen in schoolbags in Uruguay, the first and only country to offer an Internet-connected computers to all public primary school students.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - eBay Inc said on Sunday it had restored a search function on its website overnight Saturday after a glitch led to searches returning either limited or no results throughout the day.

A hacker has posted attack code that could be used to break into a PC running older versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - With its deal to buy Revolution Money, American Express is taking aim at the growing market for online and alternative payments, in a challenge to recognized leader PayPal, analysts say.

VIENNA (AFP) - Austrian cattle farmers no longer have to travel long distances to sell or buy cattle: it can all be done at the click of a mouse, on a new auction website.

You probably already know that many Black Friday bargains are available online too. Rather than brave the elements or risk being trampled at 5 a.m., it's much more pleasant to shop from the comfort of home. Save the Kevlar vest for another day.

HAVANA (Reuters) - The husband of Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said he was attacked by government supporters as he waited on Friday to confront state security agents accused of detaining and beating his wife two weeks ago.

California's ban on plasma-screen televisions to reduce energy consumption could cost as much as $50 million per year in sales taxes because consumers are free to buy the sets online or in other states. "At a time when the state of California is facing its worst money crisis in history, this is going to be disastrous," said Jennifer Bemisderfer, a spokesperson for the Consumer Electronics Association, which lobbied against the ban.

MILWAUKEE - A lawsuit in Wisconsin is bringing a fresh challenge to the practice of paying for keywords on Google and other search engines to boost one company's link over a rival's.

For entertainment hardware companies like Sony, a thriving, all-encompassing online media store is the Holy Grail. It's a glorious balance, in which the customer buys software through the store, and therefore becomes hooked on the hardware to which it's attached. That's how brand loyalty is created.

ROME (AFP) - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's blood and brain went on sale Friday for 15,000 euros (22,000 dollars) on online auction website eBay, before the company pulled the ad posted by an anonymous seller.

On Friday, Cloud Engines released its newest version of the Pogoplug, a small "multimedia sharing device" that connects hard drives to the Internet and allows a user to access the files remotely. The company described Pogoplug as "your own personal cloud that broadcasts safely from your home."