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On Monday, Apple released iOS 4.2, a free software update that brings the features of iOS 4—including multitasking, fast app switching, and a unified mail inbox—to the iPad for the first time. We had a chance to use the update, which also adds the new AirPrint and AirPlay features to all compatible devices, for a few days: here's a first look. How to update iOS 4.2 is compatible with all existing iOS devices except the original iPhone an ...

Google on Monday announced a beta test of a feature that will let Microsoft Office users sync their Office activity with Google Docs. The offer, dubbed Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, will let users on Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 sync their activity to Google Docs without leaving the Office interface. After they are synched, Google will provide a unique URL, which can be accessed from anywhere, even mobile devices, via Google Docs. &quo ...

Apple on Monday rolled out the latest version of its mobile operating system. Apple users can download iOS 4.2 for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. But the update has the greatest impact on the iPad. iOS 4.2 offers plenty of in-demand features for the Apple mobile world -- more than 100, to be exact. Some of the most noteworthy are multitasking folders, a unified inbox, a game center, AirPlay and AirPrint. Apple CEO Steve Jobs was in true ...

NEW YORK – Novell Inc. has tried many times to turn itself around since it began slipping from its place as the No. 1 provider of computer network software back in the 1990s — one such effort even spearheaded by Eric Schmidt before he became Google Inc.'s CEO. It doesn't look like it will get another chance, at least not as a stand-alone company. Instead Novell has agreed to sell itself for $2.2 billion to Attachmate Corp., a business ...

Speaking publicly for the first time since he was appointed CEO of Hewlett-Packard in late September, Leo Apotheker on Monday said that HP will focus more on software and that he still has some learning to do about the company. Apotheker spoke during a brief conference call with journalists to discuss the company's quarterly earnings report, where HP reported fourth-quarter net revenue of US$33.3 billion, up 8 percent from the same quarter last year. Net ea ...

NEW YORK (AFP) – Hewlett-Packard plans to increase its focus on software, new chief executive Leo Apotheker said Monday, as the US computer giant posted fourth quarter results that topped Wall Street's expectations. HP said net profit rose five percent in the fourth quarter of its financial year to 2.5 billion dollars while revenue was up eight percent to 33.3 billion dollars, better than the 32.75 billion dollars expected by analysts. ...

NEW YORK (AFP) – US enterprise software maker Novell announced Monday that it had agreed to be acquired for 2.2 billion dollars by Attachmate, an investment group made up of three private equity firms. The deal calls for Attachmate, which is owned by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo, to buy Novell for 6.10 dollars per share in cash, a nine percent premium over Friday's closing price in New York. The Waltham, Mass ...

OAKLAND, California (AFP) – Attorneys for business software giant Oracle want a jury to order German rival SAP to pay billions of dollars for looting its software libraries for competitive advantage. Lawyers for SAP have rejected the notion that the pilfering of programs was worthy of more than 40 million dollars, calling the reasoning for many times that amount "silliness" or "crazy." Both companies made their pitches ...

So far in the Apple TV 2 jailbreak saga, we've seen hacks for a weather app and even support fot Plex, although admittedly there were a few buggy setbacks. Now, software company FireCore has announced that it will be bringing both Last.FM and Web browser named Couch Surfer to the Apple TV via its own app, aTV Flash (black). The company teamed up with a few developers to get the two custom app ready, and so far, so good. The Last.FM part of the app, ...

Adobe Reader X is here. Adobe announced earlier this year that it was working on a more secure version of its ubiquitous PDF reading software, Adobe Reader. The new version includes Protected Mode, a sandboxing security control designed to prevent malware exploits against the application. An Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team (ASSET) blog post proclaims, "Over the last few months, the Adobe Reader engineering team together with the Adobe Secure Soft ...