Online storage company Xdrive is setting its sights on the multimedia market, offering streaming music capabilities to its subscribers for the first time. The company, which allows subscribers to store gigabytes of data online, said its customers can now upload MP3 files, create playlists, and stream that music to PCs or smart phones that support Web surfing and music playback.

Daily computer security headaches such as viruses and spam threaten to spread to a far wider range of devices–from phones to car engines, a survey published by IBM on Wednesday has found. The report, published by IBM Security Intelligence Services paints a picture of rampant, albeit controllable, security dangers. Watch out for viruses that spread to mobile phones, handheld computers, wireless networks and embedded computers which are increasingly used to run basic automobile functions, the 2004 year-end “Security Threats and Attack Trends Report” report warns.

Business customers who prefer the look and feel of a phone for their primary wireless device now have a handset on which they can access their corporate and personal email and organizer information with today’s introduction of the BlackBerry 7100g from Cingular Wireless. The BlackBerry 7100g provides the look and feel of a sleek handset while incorporating a quad-band GSM “world phone” and retaining the powerful wireless email, browser and data capabilities enabled by the BlackBerry platform.

Handmade to protect the Pocket LOOX 720, the Proporta Alu-Leather case provides the robust protection of aluminum encased in elegant black leather. Both the Flip Type and Book Type cases provide internal storage for two MMC/SD cards as well as access to device functions such as stylus port, stereo output, and synchronization port. Also coming soon to Proporta – injection molded Magnesium Cases. Made from magnesium alloy the case is only slightly heavier than an ABS plastic case but is more than twenty times as strong because of the incredible tensile strength of magnesium.

Brand New Dad, an online community, resource center, and search engine for new and expectant fathers announced the launch of Mobile Brand New Dad. Mobile Brand New Dad is packed with features and true mobile functionality providing compact sized content for PDA-wielding new fathers on the go. Mobile Brand New Dad, designed for Pocket PC, Windows CE and Palm OS devices includes a database of over 5,000 baby names, a pregnancy glossary and due date calculator, the ability to view the latest full text forum posts from Brand New Dad’s community, and Brand New Dad’s “Month By Month” article series.

We are on the verge of a world where all manner of devices will speak to one another wirelessly, but it’s going to be a royal pain to put together. To get to this level, companies are simply going to have to cooperate more. Research will need to be shared, while companies specializing in software will have to team up with hardware companies at the start of product development. In other words, the much-vaunted “horizontal” IT business structure–in which chipmakers, PC manufacturers and software makers work somewhat autonomously–will have to be rethought.

A new study suggests it will be a number of years before Wi-Fi phones, supposedly a revolutionary telephone technology, manage to fulfill expectations. Analysts at Infonetics Research say portable phones using Wi-Fi, the popular technology that creates 300-foot zones of high-speed wireless connectivity, are taking hold in hospitals and businesses, but worldwide sales were negligible last year.

Fuji Photo Film announced the next step in printing solutions for today’s digital imaging generation. The new Fujifilm Digital Mobile Printer MP-70–the first portable, handheld wireless printer specifically designed for the accelerating US camera phone market creates a credit card sized, photo from an infrared enabled camera phone in about 20 seconds.

PalmSource, provider of Palm OS, announced the appointment of Patrick McVeigh as senior vice president, worldwide licensing and sales. McVeigh reports to David Nagel, PalmSource president and CEO. McVeigh, 52 years old, brings more than 20 years experience in the high technology and consumer electronics industry to PalmSource. He is the former CEO of Aliph Corporation, a developer of next-generation audio and speech technologies for mobile communications devices.

Microsoft’s MSN Music on Monday announced it would offer free downloads of some songs in the running for Grammy awards this year. From Tuesday through Saturday, the company will offer one download per day. The songs will be selected by the editorial team at MSN Music, which will pick the tracks they think will win the Grammy in several categories.