Government regulators are trying to shut down a company they say secretly downloaded spyware onto the computers of unwitting Internet users, rendering them helpless to a flood of pop-up ads, computer crashes and other annoyances. The Federal Trade Commission accused Walter Rines of Stratham, N.H., and his company, Odysseus Marketing, of luring computer users with the promise of free software that would make peer-to-peer file sharing anonymous. The claim was bogus, the agency said, and the software was bundled with spyware that was secretly downloaded onto computers.

CVMstat provides leading edge information on hundreds of topics involving all aspects of cardiovascular medicine, including sections on diagnosis and management of peripheral arterial and venous disease. CVMstat reviews and summarizes important clinical trials in cardiology and vascular medicine. Created by an international team of over 100 leading authorities, CVMstat was designed from the ground up for access on handheld devices. Coupled with new Handheldmed technology, CVMstat will empower health care providers who care for patients with cardiovascular disease by providing instant handheld-based access to authoritative monographs on thousand of topics in cardiovascular medicine, and will allow them access to updates and new information as that information becomes released.

Palm has released update 1.04 for the Verizon Treo 650. This update optimizes memory handling with non-volatile file system improvements, and improves user interface for multiple call scenarios.

Experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are designing a durable laptop computer that will cost about $100. MIT Media Lab leader Nicholas Negroponte hopes to give the machines, which would be durable, flexible and self-reliant, to needy children around the world. The machine’s A-C adapter would double as a carrying strap, and a hand crank would power them when there’s no electricity. They’d be foldable into more positions than traditional notebook PCs, and carried like slim lunch boxes. For outdoor reading, their display would be able to shift from full color to glare-resistant black and white.

Diamond Multimedia, manufacturer of PC graphics cards, sound cards, and communications products, announced the company has launched the Diamond SupraMax DSL642WLG DSL Modem. This four-port wireless gateway features an auto configuration wizard to automatically detect telephone company settings for a high ease-of-use. It allows for full rate operation with up to 24 Mbps downstream data rate and up to 1024 Kbps upstream, enabling high-speed access to the ISP or corporate network. Its built-in support for Triple Play allows for voice, data and video transmissions over a single, high-speed connection, up to three times faster than standard DSL.

Rapper Eminem’s publishing companies filed a lawsuit in an effort to stop his songs from being used as cell phone ring tones. In the suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Michigan-based Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated are seeking a court order to prohibit five companies from selling Eminem song ring tones on the Internet. Lawyers for the rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, said they also plan to sue karaoke companies that sell Eminem songs without getting the proper licenses.

Apple’s hugely popular iPod digital music device could be in for another makeover–this time as a highly anticipated unit that plays both audio and video. “Apple Computer has begun production of a new version of its iPod digital music player that will be capable of playing videos, AppleInsider has learned, “according to a Tuesday post on the AppleInsider Web site.

A Florida man who collected nearly $40,000 over the Web for Hurricane Katrina humanitarian relief was indicted on fraud charges Monday. According to the indictment, Florida resident Gary Kraser allegedly used email and the Web site AirKatrina.com to dupe nearly 50 people out of their money over a two-day period. He claimed to be flying medical supplies to Louisiana and helping to evacuate children and sick people in his plane, the indictment said. Kraser is the first person that the United States has charged with Internet fraud linked to Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. Internet security experts have warned of numerous online scams designed to exploit charitable giving in the aftermath of the catastrophe.

On Friday last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005 into law. The first-of-its-kind bill makes Internet phishing a punishable offense. The new law will permit victims to seek recovery of actual damages or up to $500,000 for each violation, whichever is greater. Under the Anti-Phishing Act, any attempt “to solicit, request or take any action to induce another person” to divulge personal information on the Internet via “a Web page, electronic mail message or any other electronic means” while representing oneself as a business without the permission or authority of that business is a civil violation. The new law seeks to protect personal information, such as bank account numbers, driver’s license records, and Social Security numbers. It also covers automated and electronic signatures, account passwords, unique biometric data, and “any other piece of information that can be used to access an individual’s financial accounts or to obtain goods or services.”

The Streamlined Sales Tax Project may sound to some like the states are getting ready to start charging state sales tax on all e-commerce purchases, but the reality is that simple. What the SSTA (Streamlined Sales Tax Project), a group of U.S. states united in trying to simplify state and local tax collection, is doing is setting up a system by which Internet e-commerce companies can voluntarily pay state taxes to the states in which their customers reside. The carrot that the SSTA is offering companies that agree to do this is that, rather than try to work out how much tax a company owes for each locality they can instead use a CSP (certified service providers).