Colligo Networks announced the release of Version 2.0 of the Colligo for SharePoint product family that supports the 2007 Microsoft Office System and Windows Vista. Now organizations can extend the reach of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to users who need access both online and offline–enabling these businesses to effectively increase the adoption and utility of SharePoint with their workforce. The Colligo for SharePoint product family consists of Colligo Reader for SharePoint and Colligo Contributor for SharePoint. Colligo Reader provides offline read access to SharePoint sites and is free for individual users. Contributor is designed for businesses, and adds Microsoft Outlook integration, 2-way synchronization, and advanced security and deployment options.

Xequte is currently working on a new product, still hush-hush, but of interest to anyone who replies to a lot of business emails each day. If that sounds like you (particularly if you are already a MailList King user) they would love for you to trial the new product and advise them of any problems you encounter.

A federal jury in San Diego has ordered Microsoft to pay $1.5 billion to Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute over MP3 audio technology used in Windows.

In its verdict, the jury assessed damages based on each Windows PC sold since May 2003. The case could have broader implications, should Alcatel-Lucent pursue claims against other companies that use the widespread MP3 technology.

Palm has released an update for Outlook 2007. The update adds Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 support on Windows XP and Windows Vista with Palm OS devices. It covers HotSync operations with Outlook’s Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Notes, as well as optional non-wireless Email sync.

The update is installed on your desktop computer and apparently covers all Palm OS devices, including the original Pilot. The Windows Mobile Treo 750 and Treo 700wx/w do not need the update.

Even though Microsoft will let virtualization products run the higher-priced versions of Vista, some powerful features in those editions are forbidden in virtualization. The license agreement prohibits virtualization programs from using Vista’s BitLocker data-encryption service, for example.

Making it hard for Mac owners and other potentially influential customers to adopt the software, Microsoft says the blockade is necessary for security reasons. But that is disputed.

The circumstances might simply reflect a business decision Microsoft doesn’t want to explain.

An Egyptian court has sentenced a blogger to four years in prison for insulting Islam and the president.

Abdel Kareem Soliman’s trial was the first time that a blogger had been prosecuted in Egypt.

He had used his web log to criticize the country’s top Islamic institution, al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

Motion Computing and Intel are looking to carve out a spot in the health care market with a new tablet PC.

The tablet PC maker announced that it has teamed with Intel to produce a new mobile computer, dubbed the C5 MCA (mobile clinical assistant), that will be targeted strictly at health care professionals, such as doctors, nurses and other hospital workers.

In addition to its Intel-based architecture and tablet design, the C5 will include a number of features specifically geared toward the health care market.

Inside, the C5 uses Intel’s Centrino mobile technology platform with a Core Solo U1400 processor, which runs at 1.2GHz and offers 2MB of L2 cache memory and a 533MHz front side bus. The tablet also offers an Intel 945GM chip set with an Extreme Graphics controller, which allows the image to rotate with the screen, a 10.4-inch LCD display, 512MB of DDR2 (double data rate) memory and a hard disk drive with a maximum memory of 60GB.

Microsoft’s hearing before the Supreme Court is much more about money than it is about preventing an industry-sweeping precedent. The company faces substantially increased liability if the Supreme Court upholds lower court rulings.

The core case is quite simple, while the legal nuances are enormously complex. In 2001, AT&T sued Microsoft for patent infringement over speech decoding technology shipping in Windows. Microsoft lost the case and subsequent appeals. The question before the Supreme Court: Can AT&T collect on the infringement outside the United States?

Kids in middle school send one another a steady stream of instant messages through the day. But there’s a problem.

"Kids will say things to each other in their messages that are too embarrassing to say in person," says 14-year-old Jett Lucas, "Then when they actually meet up, they are too shy to bring up what they said in the message. It makes things tense."

Jett’s complaint seems to be part of a larger pattern plaguing the world of virtual communications, a problem recognized since the earliest days of the Internet: flaming, or sending a message that is taken as offensive, embarrassing or downright rude.

The hallmark of the flame is precisely what Jett lamented: thoughts expressed while sitting alone at the keyboard would be put more diplomatically–or go unmentioned–face to face.

Ryan Patrick Halligan was bullied for months online. Classmates sent the 13-year-old boy instant messages calling him gay. He was threatened, taunted and insulted incessantly by so-called cyberbullies. In 2003, Ryan killed himself.

States from Oregon to Rhode Island are considering crackdowns to curb or outlaw the behavior in which kids taunt or insult peers on social Web sites like MySpace or via instant messages. Still, there is some disagreement over how effective crackdowns will be and how to do it.