According to an article on SecurityFocus, Microsoft has found more than 750 specific Web URLs that attempt to download malicious content onto unpatched Windows systems. Honeymonkeys are Microsoft's aggressive variation on the more passive Honeypot idea. Where Honeypots are dummy computers that lie in wait for port scans and attacks, Honeymonkeys are unpatched Windows boxes that go out and actively search the Web, looking for hostile sites. It is unclear how Microsoft will leverage these experiments; perhaps the sites will find their way into Microsoft's new antiphishing technology, which is to become available within Internet Explorer 7.0--whenever that product ships.

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Although the Apple iPod doesn't have recording features built in, it became obvious that the player at least had the capability to record voice when Belkin came out with the iPod Voice Recorder. Now, the company improves upon this concept with the TuneTalk for iPod. This cute and stylish baby mic looks funky sticking out of the top of the iPod but in a good way. A flexible neck allows you to position the mic in any direction, all the better for pointing directly at the sound source of your recording (definitely a step up from the Voice Recorder). The mic comes with a foam cover through which a red LED shines to indicate that the device is recording. The TuneTalk, which is priced at $29.99, was due out at the end of July, but it was still unavailable at the time of this writing.

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President Bush today signed the energy bill that will extend daylight saving time by four weeks, starting in 2007, and possibly send computers and gadgets into a confused state. Experts say consumer electronics gadgets, such as MP3 players, are most likely to be confused. Man, time, and tech--not a happy partnership.

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Today Fujitsu announced the LifeBook P1500, a convertible tablet that weighs 2.2 pounds and is about the size of a paperback book. Curiously, the tablet runs on Windows XP Pro, rather than Windows XP Tablet Edition, and features a passive touch screen that accepts input from any stylus or even your fingers--no active digitizer pen required. With a 1.2GHz Pentium M processor and 512MB of RAM, will the LifeBook P1500 prove to be the happy middle between a handheld and a laptop? We'll test it soon and let you know. Meanwhile, read more about the Fujitsu LifeBook P1500.

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Dell introduces a couple of firsts with its new XPS 600 system announced today. In addition to the usual high-end configurations, it features the first SLI-capable chipset to allow full x16 bandwidth from both PCI Express slots. That chipset, Nvidia's Nforce 4 SLI x16 (also announced today) is also the first in a Dell PC made by someone other than Intel.

You won't see an immediate benefit from the added graphics bandwidth. Even with two x16 PCI Express graphics slots, no current 3D games move that much data. We expect it won't be until 2006 that games really begin to require a larger pipe.

Also, although the move to an alternate chipset was necessary for Dell's elite XPS line to compete with the other upper-echelon SLI-capable PCs, don't get too excited about Dell looking to someone other than Intel for its motherboard tech. The chipset is still Pentium CPU compatible, so there's no Athlon in here just yet.

Earlier this year Dell announced a "Lexus lineup" of PCs scheduled to come out this fall. The XPS 600 is not one of those, although you'll note that, unlike past XPS systems, it no longer carries Dimension as part of its name.

The Dell XPS 600 should be available from Dell today. Pricing starts at $3,046. We've already put one in front of the camera. Look for our full review by the end of the week.

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Apparently, IBM has decided that just launching a corporate blog doesn't make it sufficiently hip. Big Blue is now planning to start podcasting various technology reports--such as product updates and the like. OK, that's actually not such a bad idea. As long as they have some engineers with personality. And that, to be honest, is not a guarantee.

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Just when we thought we'd hit the pinnacle of PC audio quality with the Sound Blaster Audigy 2, Creative introduces a whole new line of audio chip. Creative's announced its new X-Fi chip and attendant sound cards today.
Creative trumpets the X-Fi for, among other things, bringing improved audio quality (Creative claims a minimum of 109dB SNR, for those keeping score), a 24-bit "Crystallizer" that's supposed to restore CD audio to the quality of its original master recording, and the introduction of EAX 5.0, the latest, greatest version of Creative's reverb engine that lends enhanced effects to game audio.
The X-Fi will be bundled in four different packages:

- The Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro ($399.99 ) includes the card, an external audio port box, and 64MB of dedicated audio memory.

- The Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS ($279.99) and the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum ($199.99) include the card and a front panel port plate (the latter card also comes with Creative's Entertainment Center media management app).

- The Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Music ($129.99) is the most basic package that includes just the card and a handful of audio-related apps.

We can't say we've thought poorly of our Audigy 2 cards lately, but Creative seems determined to make audiophiles out of all of us. Stay tuned for our review.

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