If you're the sort of person who creates countdown widgets for major Apple product releases, you've now got an official Zero Hour for the iPhone 3G launch, straight from AT&T. The exclusive iPhone service provider in the U.S. says that the latest version of the iPhone will go on sale at 8 a.m. local time on Friday, July 11.

The July 11 ship date had been set by Apple during Steve Jobs' Worldwide Developers Conference keynote last month, but the exact time of the release was still up in the air. AT&T made the announcement amid detailing the pricing plans for the iPhone 3G.

"We can't wait to offer iPhone 3G to our customers, and we want to make sure the buying process is as easy as possible," Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T's wireless unit, said in the press release announcing the 8 a.m. launch.

The early-morning release is something of a departure from recent high-profile Apple product launches. The company tends to roll out major products -- the kind that generate lines of customers -- at the end of the day. Last year, the original iPhone went on sale at 6 p.m. local time, as did Leopard, when the Mac OS X update debuted last fall.

An 8 a.m. release time would mean a change to the operating hours of Apple Stores, which typically open at 10 a.m. Macworld called the flagship Apple Store on San Francisco's Stockton Street to find out if the store would open at 8 a.m. on July; an employee there said the store wasn't revealing that information at this time, but suggested calling back later.

Because it requires in-store activation, the iPhone 3G is available only at brick-and-mortar Apple Stores and AT&T outlets in the United States.

The International Organization for Standardization has approved Adobe Systems' widely used PDF (Portable Document Format) as an international standard, and is now in charge of any changes made to the specification.

The format is open and accessible to anyone as ISO 32000-1, the standards body said Wednesday. The standard is based Adobe's version 1.7 of PDF.

PDF, the file format for Adobe's Acrobat software, has long been used as a standard way for people to exchange and view business documents. However, Adobe kept a proprietary hold on the format until it finally succumbed to industry pressure and submitted PDF for standardization in February 2007.

Adobe's move reflected an industrywide trend to standardize broadly adopted file formats to increase interoperability between different applications people use to create business documents.

Microsoft submitted Office Open XML, a proprietary XML-based document format it built for its Office 2007 productivity suite, to the ISO. The ISO approved OOXML on April 1 in a controversial vote that is still being contested by some of the standards bodies that took part in it.

Microsoft had also aimed to include PDF support in Office 2007 but revised that plan at the last minute over a squabble with Adobe. However, PDF support will be added to Office 2007 in a service pack from Microsoft expected to be released early next year.

That update also will add support for Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), an XML-based file format that also is an ISO standard. ODF is a rival to OOXML; it became an international standard in May 2006.

Micro Focus and Microsoft are working to bolster efforts to enable Cobol-based mainframe applications to run on Windows and also plan a version of CICS for .Net.

Through the arrangement, Micro Focus will extend its Windows-based portfolio, including its Net Express, SOA Express, and Enterprise Server products to provide managed code-based 64-bit offerings that leverage several Microsoft technologies. These include Microsoft's .Net Framework, SQL Server, Team Foundation Server, BizTalk Server, and System Center Operations Manager. Previously, Micro Focus enabled 32-bit solutions for Windows that did not incorporate Microsoft's managed code concept.

"What we?re doing with Microsoft is we're investing to deepen the platform integration between Windows and Micro Focus to enable customers to do this work in a much quicker and repeatable fashion," said Peter Duffell, vice president of the Microsoft soft practice at Micro Focus. Users develop and test in a Visual Studio-based environment."Cobol has a first-class place inside .Net," he said.

Additionally, Microsoft and Micro Focus in 2009 plan to offer a CICS OLTP system, to be called CICS.Net, for Windows. Users could modernize CICS applications and move them onto Windows or keep them on a mainframe, Duffell said. With the modernization process, code is updated to remove errors and applications are fine-tuned.

Users want to continue leveraging Cobol applications but move them to Windows, according to Micro Focus. "There are 200 billion lines of Cobol," in use today, Duffell said.??

A Microsoft official in a prepared statement stressed ROI and modernization.

"By working with Micro Focus we are improving the value attained by mainframe customers choosing to go with the Windows platform for their modernization strategy, and improving the ROI helping them reduce the costs of their deployment efforts," said Bill Hilf, general manager for Windows Server marketing at Microsoft, in a statement released by the two companies.

HP has released a new AMD processor-based quad-core workstation that it says offers the performance of a workstation at the price of a conventional desktop PC.

The HP xw4550 workstation includes the quad-core AMD Opteron processor for workstation applications such as graphic design, and entry-level video post production and animation, and has a starting list price of £599 ($1,193)  plus VAT.

HP says that the xw4550 offers many of the same features as the company's higher-end workstations, plus new features from the AMD Opteron processor line, such as enhanced power management and virtualization capabilities. All models of the HP xw4550 include an integrated ATI RadeonTM X1250 graphics card with the new error correcting memory capability.

This workstation is also registered as an Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold product, the highest rating available. HP says that all of its workstations are more than 90 per cent recyclable by weight and incorporate a tool-less chassis design for quick and easy upgrades by hand. Each workstation includes an 80 PLUS power supply, which HP says is substantially more efficient than a standard power supply, reducing both overall energy usage and the amount of waste and heat released into the environment.

The U.S. Department of Justice is continuing its formal antitrust investigation into the advertising partnership between Yahoo and Google, according to a department spokeswoman.

On June 12, Yahoo said it would run advertisements supplied by Google alongside search query results, a four-year deal estimated to bring Yahoo up to $800 million in revenue a year.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the DOJ had just opened a formal antitrust probe. However, DOJ spokeswoman Gina Talamona said the department has confirmed an ongoing investigation since June 16.

Yahoo and Google have been keenly aware of how their partnership might draw regulatory attention. In April, the two companies informed the DOJ of a planned two-week test of the advertising program, which was limited to U.S. traffic on yahoo.com and comprised no more than 3 percent of total search queries.

After reaching a larger agreement last month, the two companies said they would delay implementing the program for three and a half months pending a review by the DOJ. The DOJ said it was looking into the deal four days after the two companies announced that agreement.

The investigation means DOJ can ask questions of both companies, request documents and other material needed for its probe. It can also include the issuance of "civil investigative demands," a type of legal request for information.

Yahoo said the course of the investigation is proceeding as expected. "We cannot comment on the specific details of the process, but there is nothing unexpected in the review of this agreement as structured by the parties and Department of Justice officials," according to a statement issued by Yahoo.

"We are continuing to have cooperative discussions with the Department of Justice about this arrangement," Google said in a statement. "We are confident that the arrangement is beneficial to competition, but we are not going to discuss the details of the process."

The deal with Google, which already dominates text-based search advertising, was widely characterized as a move by Yahoo to deflect Microsoft's acquisition attempts.

(Grant Gross in Washington contributed to this report.)

Microsoft is seeking partners including Time Warner and News Corp. in a new bid to acquire Yahoo's search business, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Microsoft wants to acquire Yahoo search, with the partner, likely a media company, taking the rest of Yahoo's business. CEO Steve Ballmer called Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock and arranged a meeting set for Monday, but that meeting was cancelled, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

Microsoft officials contacted in London had no comment Wednesday morning.

In January, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to buy all of Yahoo, an offer the latter refused. Although Microsoft later raised its offer price, Yahoo continued to decline, and in early May, Microsoft ended the negotiations.

[ For the complete saga of Microsoft's attempt to take over Yahoo, check out InfoWorld's special report ]

On Monday, his final day as Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates stated that he thought any deal between his company and Yahoo was unlikely.

However, the matter has refused to go away, with Microsoft indicating it would still be interested in buying part of Yahoo, namely its search business. At the same time, Yahoo investor Carl Icahn has pushed for a deal with Microsoft. He has stated publicly on several occasions that the company's board failed to serve shareholder interests by refusing to sell and is maneuvering to replace the board at an upcoming investor meeting in August.

On Tuesday, Yahoo gave shareholders with a 32-page presentation that sought to shore up support for the board ahead of that meeting, and defended its decisions in the face of Microsoft and Icahn criticism.

Jeremy Kirk in London contributed to this report.

Microsoft has chosen the name "Equipt" for a forthcoming package of products that includes its Office suite, Internet security software and other services, and will sell it for an annual subscription fee of $69.99.

Equipt, which was formerly known by its code name, Albany, includes Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live OneCare, Office Live Workspaces, Windows Live Mail, Live Messenger and Live Photo. Microsoft plans to begin selling it in the U.S. on July 15 through Circuit City, with other outlets to follow. It will be offered in other countries at about the same time, though pricing elsewhere was not announced.

The name comes from the idea that the package will help customers "equip their PC with a core set of services," said Bryson Gordon, a group product manager for Microsoft Office. "It resonated well with customers in testing."

Indeed, the name is more succinct than Microsoft has used for some other Office products, including unwieldy names like Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager.

Rumors began circulating in March that Microsoft was devising a new way of packaging Office to help it better compete with Google Docs and other free or low-cost productivity suites. The company sent out invitations to a select few, asking them to test a mysterious new project code-named Albany.

The company asked people to sign nondisclosure agreements just to sign up for the test. In April, Microsoft confirmed the products that would be available in the package.

Gordon played down the effort to compete with Google Docs and other free office suites, such as IBM Symphony. He said Equipt is aimed at people who are interested in purchasing a PC security suite -- such as Windows Live OneCare -- and might forgo buying Office as well in favor of using an older copy they might already have, or that they might pirate. "We're lowering the barrier to entry" for those customers, he said.

Because Equipt is such a "complicated value proposition" to understand, Microsoft is selling it first through Circuit City because the store's staff has been trained to explain it to customers, and because it has successfully handled other Microsoft product campaigns, Gordon said.

Microsoft determined the $69.99 subscription rate by taking into account the pricing for Windows Live OneCare, which costs $49.99 a year, and the pricing for Office Home and Student 2007, which has a one-time license fee of $149.99, Gordon said. It also took input on pricing from the beta testers, he said.

Customers can load Equipt on up to three PCs for the yearly subscription fee.

Taiwan's First International Computer (FIC) showed off several new low-cost laptops, or netbooks, at Computex last month, and many of them will hit U.S. stores through affiliate Everex Systems.

I had a chance to try out the upcoming version of the Cloudbook with an 8.9-inch screen at FIC's offices in Taipei. One build, the Cloudbook Max, is able to connect to WiMax wireless networks and will be out in the United States in September.

The 8.9-inch-screen netbooks will also be sold in other parts of the world, but may not carry the Everex name.

The device they had ready for me to try held a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor, 512MB of DRAM, and a 40GB hard disk drive. It was running Windows XP.

One nice thing was the keypad, which is important because none of the netbooks use a standard-size keypad. On netbooks with a 10-inch screen size, some of the keypads are 80 to 90 percent the size of a mainstream laptop keypad, but on smaller devices such as 8.9-inch ones, they're much smaller.

Some companies have even designed unique keypads that are flat with little space between keys. That may make the device look nicer, which I'm told is the reason for such a design, but without space between the keys, it's easy to hit the wrong letters. Maybe it takes some time getting used to typing on a smaller keypad, but for anyone buying a device like this, the secondary application -- after surfing the Internet -- will likely be typing: e-mail, homework, work, journal or blog entries, and so on. Comfortable typing is important.

These mini-laptops, or netbooks, are designed to be portable and offer easy access to the Web. That's why they weigh around 1 kilogram each and are about half to two-thirds the size of a mainstream laptop computer, with batteries that can last up to 8 hours.

They aren't really supposed to have the same functionality as a mainstream laptop and FIC's 8.9-inch laptop didn't. Battery life, performance on simple software tasks, screen size, and the size of the keypad were my biggest concerns.

It took about 35 seconds to boot Windows XP on the FIC device, and launching programs took about the same time as other devices I've had a look at, including Asustek Computer's Eee PC and Micro-Star International's Wind. Since most of the components are the same, similar performance isn't surprising.

One part of the FIC device that did set it apart was an express card slot for 3G or WiMax cards and options for built-in WiMax, 3G, and Bluetooth technology. Wi-Fi connectivity with 802.11 b/g is standard on the devices.

The mousepad worked well, and was easy to navigate on despite its small size.

The picture quality on the screen of the device was also nice. The company used WSVGA (wide super video graphics array) LCD screens with LED (light-emitting diodes) backlights with 1,024x600 resolution. Pictures on the screen looked crisp, as did a picture slideshow.

FIC has developed two main configurations of the model with an 8.9-inch screen. The CE2A1, with a 1.2GHz Via C7-M microprocessor, 1GB of DRAM, and 60GB of storage, and the CW0A1, which is similar but comes with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor.

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are optional on the devices.

They come with either four- or six-cell lithium-ion batteries. The six-cell batteries can run for seven to eight hours before needing a recharge.

They will be available in Taiwan and Japan by the end of August, the FIC representative said. In Taiwan, an 8.9-inch FIC netbook with an Atom microprocessor will cost around NT$15,000 ($493), while one with a Via processor will sell for around NT$14,000.

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gained some ground on rival Intel in the lucrative microprocessor market during the first quarter, market research iSuppli said late Tuesday.

AMD's share of global microprocessor market revenue in the first quarter rose by 2.2 percentage points compared to the same time last year to 13 percent, iSuppli said. Meanwhile, Intel's microprocessor sales dropped by 0.7 percentage points to a 79.7 percent share of the market.

The figures show that AMD is growing its market share at the expense of Intel, iSuppli said.

"AMD's PC microprocessor product portfolio has become much stronger during the last year, particularly on the desktop side," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst and iSuppli, in a report.

The market research company also noted that microprocessor prices appear to have stabilized, a sign that price wars between AMD and Intel have abated.

A portion of AMD's first quarter market share increase came from smaller microprocessor suppliers, iSuppli said. The report results included all kinds of microprocessors, not just the x86 processors AMD and Intel make for computers.

In fact, Intel and AMD accounted for 92.7 percent of total microprocessor revenue in the first quarter, up 1.4 percentage points from the same time last year, iSuppli reported.

Writers of a password-stealing Trojan horse program have found that a little patience can lead to a lot of infections.

They have managed to infect hundreds of thousands of computers -- including more than 14,000 within one unnamed global hotel chain -- by waiting for system administrators to log onto infected PCs and then using a Microsoft administration tool to spread their malicious software throughout the network.

The criminals behind the Coreflood Trojan are using the software to steal banking and brokerage account usernames and passwords. They've amassed a 50GB database of this information from the machines they've infected, according to Joe Stewart, director of malware research with security vendor SecureWorks.

"They've been able to spread throughout entire enterprises," he said. "That's something you rarely see these days."

Since Microsoft shipped its Windows XP Service Pack 2 software with its locked-down security features, hackers have had a hard time finding ways to spread malicious software throughout corporate networks. Widespread worm or virus outbreaks soon dropped off after the software's August 2004 release.

But the Coreflood hackers have been successful, thanks in part to a Microsoft program called PsExec , which was written to help system administrators run legitimate software on computers across their networks.

For a widespread infection, attackers must first compromise a system on the network by tricking the user into downloading their program. Then, when a system administrator logs onto that desktop machine -- to perform routine maintenance, for example -- the malicious software tries to run PsExec and install malware on all other systems on the network.

Often the technique succeeds.

Over the past 16 months, Coreflood's authors have infected more than 378,000 computers. SecureWorks has counted thousands of infections in university networks and has found financial companies, hospitals, law firms, and even a U.S. state police agency that have had hundreds of infections. "It's kind of insane how often they are getting on hundreds or thousands of computers at a single company," Stewart said. "They've probably stolen far more accounts than they can use."

The SANS Internet Storm Center reported one of the infections, which affected 600 machines on a 3,000 PC network, on June 25.

Malicious programs have used PsExec for more than five years, said the software's creator, Mark Russinovich, a Microsoft technical fellow. However, this is the first time he had heard of it being used in this fashion. "PsExec doesn't expose anything that a malware author can't code themselves or even accomplish with alternate mechanisms," he said in an e-mail interview. "Once you have credentials that give you local admin rights via remote access, you own that system."

Coreflood, which is also known as the AFcore Trojan, has been around for about six years. It has been used in the past for such things as launching denial-of-service attacks, but not to steal passwords, Stewart said.