MySpace wins $225 million judgement against spammer, good luck with collecting

According to a report on Information Week, infamous “Spam King” Sanford Wallace, and his phishing partner Walter Rines were slammed with a whopping $225 million judgment by a U.S. District Court on Monday.

“MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site,” said Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer of MySpace, in an e-mailed statement. “The Federal District Court in Los Angeles awarded MySpace $223,777,500 under the federal CAN-SPAM Act and $1,500,000 under the California anti-phishing statute. User engagement is up 32 percent year over year while spam is significantly decreasing, proving efforts like this are working.”

In October of 2006 the pair began creating bogus MySpace accounts and hijacking over 300,000 others. They then used the compromised accounts to send tens of thousands of spam messages and bomb the comment section of thousands of MySpace pages with links to other spam sites. The popular social networking site sued in 2007. Wallace posted a response to the judgement on his website, claiming he had never been served and that “the check is in the mail.”

Since 1997 Wallace has been sued by many service providers including AOL, Earthlink, and CompuServe, and last year was fined $4 million by the FTC for deceptive advertising and distributing spyware.

AT&T announced plans to boost 3G speeds to 20Mbps by 2009

AT&T is currently working on a plan that will make their 3G wireless customers very happy. The recent announcement was a little but of a teaser, but one that should be worth the wait, as they are promising increased speed on their 3G network, offering up to 20Mbps by 2009.

Assuming the goal comes to light, this would mean the speeds would be about five times faster than what users are experiencing today. The plan would involve AT&T making the move to HSPA release 7 and according to statements from AT&T mobility chief Ralph de la Vega, this would require little hardware modifications and should make a smooth transition. Here’s hoping it all works out as planned, with potential 20Mbps speeds, mobile TV and over-the-air downloads may actually become enjoyable.

EchoStar intro’s the SlingModem

EchoStar is set to launch its SlingModem – a product that combines a standard Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) cable modem and a Slingbox at a Cable Show trade event in New Orleans next week. The device incorporates the place-shifting capabilities of Sling’s popular Slingbox, which allows television content to be transmitted from a consumer’s TV set to any location with an Internet connection. 

The SlingModem observes the DOCSIS 2.0 specification and can be used like a typical high-speed-data modem that connects to the Internet. Moreover, it also includes Sling Media’s proprietary video-encoding technology, which enhances traditional TV programming and makes it suitable for streaming to PCs and Internet-capable mobile devices – in one efficient housing. 

EchoStar is said to be working on other products and services for cable operators and would probably launch them this year.

Gates lifts a finger, demos new Touch Wall

It’s his last time to host a Microsoft CEO Summit as company chairman before answering philanthropy’s call, so Bill Gates decided to use the opportunity for one more demonstration of Microsoft Research prowess. Gates allowed the high-profile executives attending the annual meeting of high-dollar minds to see Microsoft’s Touch Wall, which threatens the existence of whiteboards and Magic Markers in all those sterile conference rooms around the world.

So far it’s been a good year for touch-screen technology, big and small; besides the iPhone and all its competitors, there’s the touch technology on display during coverage of primary elections on CNN. Microsoft’s offering is basically its Surface computer mounted vertically and expanded out to a 50-inch screen. Gates showed off interactivity with documents, Tablet-style writing and easy access to applications like PowerPoint, and promised that the technology would not be all that expensive. Still, after the showing this week in Redmond for the business elite, you can expect corner offices in corporate headquarters across America to be the first places for the Touch Wall to show up.

Take phones, leave wallets, says survey

Forget the cash, forget the credit cards, you can even forget the family pictures – mobile phones are now more important to people than their wallets. A recent survey found that more than 38% of workers would choose their mobile phones over other essentials – including their wallets, keys, laptops or digital music players if they had to leave the house for 24 hours and could take only one item.

The survey was sponsored by Nortel Networks Corp, market research firm IDC conducted the survey and found that more than 38% people chose their mobile phones first, while less than 30% picked their wallets as their essential of choice.

Nortel, who is North America’s biggest telephone gear maker was trying to determine how many workers can be defined as “hyperconnected,” or people who use at least seven devices for work and personal access, and at least nine applications like e-mail, chat or social networking sites. The answer was 16%, and that number, at least according to the survey, can be expected to rise up to 40% in the next five years.

Celebrities personalize your digital toys

It isn’t enough these days for your mobile phone or MP3 player to use the latest technology, they should also be designed by your favorite actor or pop singer. Or at least one of the ones who have signed on to design products marketed to the growing number of consumers who are looking to express their personality through their digital toys.

. Both of the two designs have a retro pop look that also happens to be very fashionable among teens and young women this season.

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The bright pink phone comes in three designs “strawberry,” “cherry,” and “candy&pumps” and is obviously targeted at the lucrative cute-obsessed teen and tween market that make up Koda’s fan base. The celebrity-designer element extends to the menus, wallpaper, call and mail indicators, and phone pouch.

Other celebrity collaborations in the 29 design strong series include featuring the cross-dressing heroine Lady Oscar. Both of these examples show that those consumer wishing to express their fandom are not limited to impressionable teens.

Not only do these designer phones allow a degree of personalization, they virtually ensure that customers will need to replace their handsets often.

After all, how much longer can it be cool to carry around the phone?

Comcast to acquire Plaxo

Remember the rumor back in February that ? Well, for the most part, it turned out to be a trumor.  However, instead of Google making the purchase, it turns out that Comcast is doing the buying. The cable company plans to utilize Plaxo to deliver upcoming social-networking features currently in the works for their TV, Internet, and phone service. Plaxo will be used to bridge all three Comcast services together, linking devices such as TVs, DVRs, and wireless devices. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, but the two companies have already been working together in developing SmartZone, an online portal available to millions of Comcast broadband and phone customers that provides easy access to several communications tools (e.g., email and voicemail)—all in one place.

Plaxo was founded in 2001 with an original premise of keeping users’ address books updated by automatically sharing data among friends. With the emergence of social networking sites, the start up company now offers capabilities to keep in touch with family and friends by sharing photos, videos, and messages. According to the :

“Joining forces with Comcast is a real win for our customers, our investors, and our employees. Comcast has an exciting vision to bring the social media experience to mainstream consumers. Together, we will be able to help users connect with all the people they care about, across all of the devices they use, with all the media they love to consume, create, and share. This is also great news for the Internet industry at large, where Plaxo has been - and will continue to be - a strong advocate for opening up the Social Web.

Plaxo will remain an independent operation in Silicon Valley, reporting into Comcast Interactive Media, which is a division of Comcast that develops and operates Internet businesses focused on entertainment, information and communication. All of our 50cmcsa1.png employees will continue to innovate on and grow both our networked address book service and our next-generation social network, Pulse.”