A worm that first disguised itself as an email from computer vendors is now attempting to trick MSN Messenger users into executing malicious files. The Chod.B worm, which was first discovered on April Fools’ Day, spreads via email purportedly from Microsoft and security companies Symantec and Trend Micro. When using the MSN Messenger instant-messaging client as its propagation tool, the virus sends out messages to contacts from the infected user’s address book, warning them that they are about to receive a file. The virus then sends a file designed to infect the recipient’s system.

Start-up MSpot hopes to take on the fledgling satellite radio industry with a new service that delivers streaming news, talk and music programming to mobile phones. MSpot is set to launch its MSpot Radio service, initially targeting customers of Sprint’s PCS Vision mobile phone service. The service will start out with 13 channels of live and on-demand programming, including feeds from National Public Radio.

Hitachi Global Storage will come out with hard drives containing 230 gigabits of data per square inch, the company is expected to announce Monday, and that means 20GB iPod Minis. The company is expected to release the denser drives in 2007. The density breakthrough represents a refinement in perpendicular recording.

Supplies of the materials and components used to make large liquid crystal displays won’t meet demand in the second half of 2005, market researcher iSuppli predicted Friday. Glass substrates used to manufacture large-size thin film transistor LCD panels are likely to be 8 percent to 10 percent short of demand in terms of area, the market research firm said. The shortage of color filters used in fifth- and sixth-generation LCD plants is projected to be between 7 percent to 12 percent toward the end of 2005.

CNET Senior Editor Molly Wood recently spent some time in Japan at the International Expo 2005. This report brings us her take on the prototype and next-generation robots she found there.

Advances that transformed how the world communicates are among the top 25 technological breakthroughs of the past quarter century, according to a panel of experts assembled by CNN. Advances in computers, entertainment, and science top the list.

CrystalVoice Communications, provider of enterprise Internet protocol (IP) communications software, announced that they have partnered with Datacraft Asia, a leading independent IT solutions and services systems integrator. Datacraft will utilize CrystalVoice’s Click-to-Talk solution internally and will sell, install, and support the technology together with the entire suite of CrystalVoice Acoustic QoS software solutions to its current customer base and prospective customers throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Research In Motion (RIM) announced plans to introduce a new wireless application development framework for BlackBerry customers and developers. BlackBerry Mobile Data System (MDS) v4.1 is the next generation of RIM’s MDS technology that will leverage and build upon the existing features of BlackBerry Enterprise Server and provide a powerful, easy-to-use and integrated system for mobilizing enterprise data and optimizing wireless applications. A preview of BlackBerry MDS v4.1 will be provided at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium 2005 in Orlando, Florida on April 19-21.

Research In Motion (RIM) and Polska Telefonica Cyfrowa (PTC) announced the introduction of the BlackBerry wireless solution to PTC’s business clients. PTC will initially offer the BlackBerry 7290 Wireless Handheld and BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0. BlackBerry is a wireless platform that keeps mobile customers connected to the people, data and resources that drive their day, including corporate data located behind the corporate firewall.

China is playing host to a growing number of phishing scams, according to recent research that found a sharp rise in fraudulent Web sites hosted there. Security professionals in the Chinese National Computer Emergency Response Team, or CNCERT, said that 223 fraudulent Web sites were discovered in China last year, compared with only one reported in 2003.