A banner advertisement posted on the MySpace Web site may have infected more than one million users with adware, according to security firm iDefense. The advertisement was included in user profiles on MySpace and could have been operating for about one week. The deckoutyourdeck.com advertisement exploited a flaw in the way Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser handles Windows Metafile image files. Users running unpatched versions of IE would never have realized that the banner ad had silently installed programs that generate pop-up ads on their system.

nova media updated its Internet connection wizard Mobile High Speed to version 5.3.5, introducing support for more mobile phones and network operators. The new release features support for dozens of new mobile phones with support of phone families. In addition, connection settings have been added for new many network operators on each continent. A complete list of supported devices and networks can be found at nova media’s Web site.

Exmovere has unveiled a Web-based Bluetooth-enabled biosensor wristwatch dubbed “Exmocare,” which is designed to help provide elderly care assistance for individuals 65 years of age and older. Exmocare allows family and other caregivers to monitor an elderly individual’s physiological and emotional health status from afar (and in real-time). The “wearable sensor system” offers automated reports on the elderly individuals’ vital signs including pulse, heart rate and motion. It can also assess up to ten different emotions including relaxed, worried and agitated.

Rumor site Think Secret is reporting that Apple is preparing to expand iTunes beyond music and television into the realm of movies, with an announcement slated for August 7 at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Unlike its music and TV downloads, which are perpetually owned by the user once purchased, Think Secret says movie downloads will be offered on a rental basis and will expire after a certain period of time or number of viewings. Apple reportedly made this concession after movie studios would not budge to its demands.

Belkin announces its new Wi-Fi Phone for Skype that lets you make free Skype calls without being on your computer. Belkin’s Wi-Fi Phone gives you increased mobility to place free, unlimited domestic and international calls over the Internet to other Skype users, and low-cost calls to ordinary phones worldwide. The Wi-Fi Phone will ship in North America in August 2006, with launches in Asia, Europe, and Australia to follow shortly.

Microsoft said Friday it plans to release a new music and entertainment player and accompanying software under the “Zune” brand this year, in a belated attempt to challenge the dominance of Apple’s iPod player. The announcement comes after weeks of rumors and speculation about such an offering. The iPod holds more than half of the digital media player market, according to research company NPD, while iTunes accounts for over 70 percent of U.S. digital music sales. In the United States, the iPod has more than 75 percent of the digital music player market, according to NPD.

Summer heat turns gadget makers’ minds to chilly winter days, when shoppers buy millions of iPods and sleek TVs, but consumers may be lukewarm to this year’s newest crop of gizmos. As they vie for a bigger slice of a global market estimated at $135 billion, leading consumer electronics makers are already showing off their wares — from advanced products such as Nokia’s N91 multimedia mobile phone to novelties like iRobot’s kitchen floor-cleaning robot.

Many people see Web journals, or blogs, as alternatives to the mainstream media, but most Americans who run them do so as a hobby rather than a vocation, according to a report released on Wednesday. About 77 percent of blog authors, or bloggers, said they post to express themselves creatively rather to get noticed or paid, according to the report, released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The report also found that 37 percent of bloggers cited their life and experiences as their primary topics, while politics and government came in second at 11 percent.

SanDisk introduced the new SanDisk Extreme IV line of CompactFlash digital film cards for professional photographers. The line is targeted at photographers who require the highest possible performance and the largest capacities for their medium format and high-end digital single lens reflex cameras. The SanDisk Extreme IV cards are available in capacities of up to 8-gigabytes and deliver minimum read and write speeds of 40 megabytes per second, making these the fastest flash memory cards in the world. This exceptionally fast card speed is critical when shooting large numbers of high-resolution images.

After more than a year of posting a “Daily Nightly” blog, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is expanding to a video blog that will give a quick glimpse at the day’s top stories by midmorning. The “Early Nightly” went live earlier this week on the “Daily Nightly” page as a one- to two-minute video blog recorded by Williams after the 9:30 a.m. Eastern time meeting held by members of the NBC Nightly News staff.