DataViz announced that RoadSync, its Exchange ActiveSync client, is now available for mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software. In addition to wirelessly synchronizing email, attachments, calendar, and contacts, this edition of RoadSync supports new mobility features added in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack such as: Direct Push Technology, Remote Wipe, Global Address List Lookup and IT Policy Enforcement. As Microsoft Exchange added these new mobility features in SP2, a corresponding Messaging and Security Feature Pack was added to Windows Mobile 5.0 software, but there was still a need for comparable MSFP features for Windows Mobile 2003-based devices. DataViz has stepped in to fill this need with RoadSync by effectively delivering a similar feature pack for devices with Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software.

William B. Ziff, Jr. died Saturday at his home in Pawling, NY. Many of you may not realize it, but I worked for various companies within the Ziff empire from about 1978 through 1996 or so. I learned how magazines work and about magazine publishing from the Ziff model and a lot of the Ziff publishing formula made it into the ZATZ DNA. Although I never met William Ziff, I do feel a debt of gratitude to him and his companies for teaching me the business. Without those learnings, ZATZ wouldn’t be here and all of you wouldn’t have had the chance to read all the great articles we’ve had the honor of publishing. Our condolences go out to the family. — David

Waiting for an email reply seems to be a common occurrence in this day and age of email reliance. We look for contextual clues to why a response may be taking longer than usual, and decide when we should follow up the email. A paper by Tyler & Tang looks at the email-replying habits of a group of corporate users in this 2003 paper.

You probably have never done a perp walk, been suspected of stealing, or been treated as if you were a toxic agent. Yet you may feel like you have if you ever are laid off by a company that practices some of the moves ripped straight from The Corporate Guide to Crazy. The list of dehumanized moves is long and not likely to get shorter in an age where speed, telecommuting, cost cutting, efficiency and assets rather than human capital are king.

Hewlett-Packard chairwoman Patricia Dunn is clinging to her job as she was battered with accusations that she ordered a probe in which board members and reporters were illegally spied on. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer vowed to prosecute wrongdoers at the end of his investigation into whether private detectives hired by HP impersonated board members and journalists to get private telephone records. Dunn had detectives hired to ferret out who had been leaking information from board meetings to members of the press, according to the veteran Silicon Valley computer company.

Hewlett-Packard’s board of directors adjourned an emergency meeting Sunday with no statement on the fate of embattled Chairwoman Patricia Dunn. Some critics have called on Dunn to resign for her role in an internal probe of the company’s board that may have used illegal methods to spy on some directors as well as reporters. HP said in a one-paragraph statement that the board met for several hours Sunday morning and would reconvene late Monday. It said no further statement will be made before then.

The owner of a software piracy Web site has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison–the longest sentence ever handed down for software piracy. Nathan Peterson, 27, of Los Angeles, sold copyrighted software at a huge discount on his site, iBackups.net, prosecutors said. The FBI began investigating the site in 2003 and shut it down in February 2005. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III on Friday ordered Peterson to pay restitution of more than $5.4 million. Peterson pleaded guilty in December to two counts of copyright infringement for illegally copying and selling more than $20 million in software.

Proporta has released two new cases for the XDA Neo, their Alu-Leather Case in flip style, and the Crystal Case.

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy first appeared as “Star Trek’s” Capt. James T. Kirk and his first officer, Mr. Spock, on September 8, 1966–40 years ago today. The 40th anniversary finds the venerable sci-fi franchise at a crossroads. Some “Trek” critics have even said the unsayable: it’s time for “Star Trek” to declare victory and leave the field of battle, while it still has some dignity left and before the brand name is further tarnished. And why is this “important tech news?” Because many of the products we discuss right here in Computing Unplugged evolved from the fantasy technology of the Star Trek universe. For example, the communicator, i.e. flip-phone, or the scanning medical bed in Dr. McCoy’s sickbay, i.e. MRI, CAT, and PET scan. And most important of all, that 100-inch big screen plasma TV they had on the wall of the bridge.

A seizure order that would have barred SanDisk from showing its MP3 devices at a German trade show was overturned this week, allowing the company to display its digital audio players after all. A German prosecutor issued the seizure order for the MP3 players on Friday, Sep. 1. Sisvel, the Societa Italiana per lo Sviluppo dell’Elettronica), which licenses patents for the popular compression technology, says the players use MP3 technology that the company has not properly licensed. But by Wednesday, attorneys for SanDisk had the order overturned, and the company’s digital audio players were permitted to be displayed on the last day of the show, said company spokesman Bob Goligoski.