Antivirus vendor F-Secure has issued a warning for a new strain of the “Skulls” Trojan sneaking into Symbian-based smartphones by posing as a mobile security application. The latest mutant, identified as Skulls.L, pretends to be a pirated copy of the F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus application, a sign that virus writers targeting cell phone users are borrowing well-known replication tactics from computer viruses.

Research In Motion’s “workaround” technology, designed to skirt patents at the center of its legal battle with NTP, could be used on all existing and future BlackBerry devices. RIM, which helped popularize mobile emailing with its thumb-operated BlackBerry, rattled investors earlier this month with news it had reopened its legal battle with NTP after failing to finalize a $450 million settlement. After announcing the impasse, RIM said it had developed a technology to work around the NTP patents which it could use as an alternative, but gave few details.

Software maker Adobe Systems acknowledged that an information disclosure vulnerability in two of its products could be exploited by malicious hackers to hijack sensitive system information. The flaws were flagged–and fixed–in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat, two programs widely used to view and print PDF files. Affected versions include Adobe Reader 7.0 and 7.0.1, and Adobe Acrobat 7.0 and 7.0.1 on Windows and Macintosh platforms.

In the future, you may not have to work at the office, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have to work as much. That’s the upshot of a report released by staffing firm OfficeTeam. The firm’s “Office of the Future: 2020” study concluded that the future office will be increasingly mobile, with technology enabling employees to perform their jobs from virtually anywhere. But 42 percent of executives polled in the report said they believe employees will be working more hours in the next 10 to 15 years. Only 9 percent said employees would be working fewer hours.

BoxWave is happy to announce the release of Styra for Mio devices. The Styra is a combination stylus and ball point pen, and because Styra is designed to fit in your handheld’s built-in stylus holder, you’ll always have a pen prepared and never have to worry about forgetting one. In addition to a pen, Styra includes the important reset tool especially useful for those times when your device needs to be reset.

PhatWare Corporation released the beta of CalliGrapher 8.0, the next generation of the company’s handwriting recognition software. CalliGrapher 8.0 supports the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 software platform and a new method of entering handwritten data called “Write Pad”. Write Pad is a specified writing pad area at the bottom of the screen where users can enter handwritten information that will be instantly recognized and converted to the digital text. CalliGrapher 8.0 is available to consumers for beta testing, and PhatWare welcomes user participation and feedback.

Already a device of multiple disguises, from camera to music player and mini-TV, the cell phone’s next trick may be the disappearing wallet. Since more than a quarter of the people on the planet already carry around cell phones, why should they bring along credit and debit cards when a mobile device can make payments just as well? At the simplest level, all that’s needed is to embed phones with a short-range radio chip to beam credit card information to a terminal at a store register. This is already a reality in Japan, where NTT DoCoMo Inc. says 3 million cell phone subscribers use its Mobile Wallet service to buy things at 20,000 stores and vending machines.

It’s amazing how these companies can be complicit in this. How can Jerry and Bill sleep at night?

Delta Air Lines, Google and other major companies are firing and disciplining employees for what they say about work on their blogs, which are personal sites that often contain a mix of frank commentary, freewheeling opinions and journaling. And it’s hardly just an issue for employees: Some major employers such as IBM are now passing first-of-their-kind employee blogging guidelines designed to prevent problems, such as the online publishing of trade secrets, without stifling the kinds of blogs that can also create valuable buzz about a company.

American Power Conversion is bringing fuel-cell technology to its InfraStruXure data center enclosure. The company is introducing the Proton Exchange Membrane, or PEM, Fuel Cell as a green alternative to generators and batteries, which use lead and acid. InfraStruXure is a rack-optimized data center enclosure that integrates power, cooling and environmental management.