Research In Motion has not shut down communications with U.S. patent holding firm NTP and remains open to a “reasonable settlement opportunity,” its chief financial officer said Friday. With one week before a February 24 court hearing on NTP’s request for an injunction to halt U.S. service of RIM’s BlackBerry email device, he also repeated that the Canadian firm’s technical workaround will avert any blackout.

As part of Microsoft’s attempt to make the Web omnipresent, the company announced a new service that will connect boaters to the Internet. Seafaring Web surfers can stay connected 25 miles from land thanks to a partnership struck between Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft and antenna maker KVH Industries. KVH’s Mobile Internet Receiver will connect users of MSN TV service, a customized version of the MSN TV 2 Internet and Media Player, to the Web. Under the plan, customers can access Microsoft Windows Media player, MSN Mail, MSN Messenger and MSN Radio, to name just a few applications. The service was configured to allow people to use it on televisions, since most boats over 25-feet are already equipped with color TVs.

A malicious program that could be the first Trojan in the wild to target Apple Computer’s Mac OS X operating system has been discovered, security experts confirmed Thursday. Apple and outside analysts said the program, referred to as Leap-A, is not a “virus” per se. Rather, it “requires a user to download the application and execute the resulting file,” Apple said in a statement to CNET News.com. The company provided no further comment on the nature of the program.

Microsoft has confirmed the existence of a flaw in its USB 2.0 drivers for Windows XP Service Pack 2 that can cause a notebook to consume power at a faster-than-expected rate when using a peripheral device. The issue, first uncovered by Tom’s Hardware two weeks ago, appears to affect certain Intel-based notebooks running Windows XP Service Pack 2. When a peripheral device was connected to a USB 2.0 port, the notebook’s battery life plunged at a greater rate than would normally be expected from the use of a peripheral such as a mouse or storage key. When details of the flaw were first published, Intel denied that its processors or chipsets were the responsible for the issue. And Microsoft refused to confirm to CNET News.com until last Thursday that the software company was responsible for the battery performance problem.

The news pages here on the ZATZ network are going to look a little crufty for a day or so. We’re making final preparations for RSS integration and, while we’re making changes to the news pages, figured we’d fix some bugs and make things a bit more spiffy. But like any time you’re doing maintenance, there’s a mess for a little while. Pages will look better in a day or so. Please be patient and have a great weekend.

XM Satellite Radio Holdings on Thursday posted a wider fourth-quarter loss, hurt by higher programming and marketing costs even as revenue more than doubled. In addition, XM said a company director, Pierce Roberts, has resigned from the board because he saw “a significant chance of a crisis on the horizon” and was “troubled” about XM’s direction. XM disclosed Roberts’ resignation in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and said Roberts favored cutting spending to boost cash flow.

Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s best known blogger, and Shel Israel, a veteran consultant for start up companies, have teamed up to write Naked Conversations: How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers, a book the authors say is intended to tell businesses of all sizes and in all places why they will benefit from blogging.

Amazon is in advanced talks with the four global music companies about a digital-music service with a range of features designed to set it apart from Apples iTunes. Among them: Amazon-branded portable music players, designed and built for the retailer, and a subscription service that would deeply discount and preload those devices with songs, not unlike mobile phones that are included with subscription plans as part of the deal. Music executives privately welcome Amazon’s plans, which they see as one of the only credible challenges to Apple’s hegemony in both digital music and portable players. The service could be launched as soon as this summer.

Best Buy Haas CNC Racing and SanDisk announced that SanDisk has signed on as an associate sponsor of the No. 66 Chevrolet, driven by Jeff Green, in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. SanDisk will have its logo displayed on the quarter panels of the No. 66 Best Buy entry throughout the 2006 season. In addition, the SanDisk sponsorship will be highlighted on team uniforms, trailers, and merchandising items. SanDisk will also have a presence in the Best Buy Fun Zone Technology vehicle, a mobile unit featuring interactive technology displays that will make appearances at select races.

Laplink Software announced that their Web-based remote access product, Laplink Everywhere 4, now includes remote Google Desktop Search functionality, allowing users to quickly retrieve files and email from distant machines. Searches can even be initiated from a handheld device such as a PDA or Smartphone. Unlike Google’s latest remote search feature, Laplink’s remote Google Desktop Search won’t trigger EFF alarm bells. All searchable data remains safely on the remote PC. Files are retrieved using a Web interface, and streamed to the local computer via an encrypted channel. Once the files are retrieved and the remote session is terminated, no trace of it remains on the local device. Laplink Everywhere’s remote Google Desktop Search feature does not require a client or application to be installed on the device that is remotely accessing the PC, and at no time is the content of your remote PC ever stored on a server or an external location.