Rumors of a second-generation Kindle from Amazon.com before 2009 have been greatly exaggerated, Amazon said Friday. Although many fans of the e-book reader have been abuzz this week with rumors that Amazon.com planned to release an updated version of its Kindle, the retail giant will not, in fact, have a new device out before the new year, according to Heather Huntoon, an Amazon.com spokesperson. "Don't believe everything you read," she told TechNewsWorld.

Google is gearing up to launch its Android Market -- the open source phone software's answer to Apple's iPhone App Store. Staying true to the open model, the platform will allow more instant developer access compared to Apple's approval-based system and will also offer a set of tools for developers to track their business progress. Perhaps most significant, though: The Android Market won't be the end-all for Android-based application distribution.

Comcast has announced that it will impose a monthly cap of 250 GB on customers' Internet usage. The company acknowledged it has been evaluating a specific monthly data usage or bandwidth threshold for its Comcast High-Speed Internet residential customers for some time. "Today, we're announcing that beginning on Oct.1, 2008, we will amend our Acceptable Use Policy ... and establish a specific monthly data usage threshold of 250 GB/month per account for all residential customers," reads a notice on the company's Web site.

Aberdeen's benchmark report, "Optimizing WAN for Application Acceleration," found that Best-in-Class organizations are 69 percent more likely to outsource optimization of their WANs to third parties as compared to Laggards. This research also reveals that these organizations realize that the effectiveness of different WAN optimization initiatives varies based on the types of applications being managed and the internal capabilities that organizations have in place.

Teaching and learning have always had a collaborative element, but wiki technology has in recent years made collaboration central to the method of many educators. Since they can be edited by anyone with access to them, education wikis are ever-changing and evolving documents that ideally represent the wisdom of the student crowd. Teachers are constantly finding new and creative ways to use wikis. One college new media class is writing its own textbook, for instance. Science classes are using wikis to develop research proposals.

Given my reputation as a Mac "expert," I am often asked for advice about purchasing Apple products. In recent weeks, the question I have most often been asked is a disconcerting one: "I am thinking about buying an iPhone. But I have been hearing reports about its unreliability. Should I be worried? Should I wait for the problems to be fixed before I purchase an iPhone? Should I not get an iPhone at all?" My answer is no. That is, no, you don't have to wait. And no, you certainly don't have to abandon your plans to get an iPhone altogether.

"Smart" shopping carts have been around for a while, but until recently, they haven't managed to gain much traction. Now, some momentum is building, according to proponents of the computer-rigged market baskets that -- with a swipe of a card -- can flash an alert that a customer's favorite brand of ice cream is on sale, display nutritional values of products, and even point out the aisles where items are located. Wireless touchscreens also can compile shopping lists based on a customer's own history or provide insight into an individual's caloric intake.

Computer maker Dell said Thursday its fiscal second-quarter profit fell 17 percent, hurt in part by PC price cuts. Both earnings and margins fell short of Wall Street estimates, and Dell shares plunged. For the three-month period that ended Aug. 1, Dell's earnings dropped to $616 million, or 31 cents per share, from $746 million, or 32 cents per share in the same period last year. Excluding amortization and business realignment charges, Dell said it would have earned 33 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast a profit of 36 cents per share.

Microsoft rolled out the second beta of its upcoming Web browser, Internet Explorer 8, Wednesday. When finalized, IE8 will be the first new version of the browser the software maker has released since 2006. While the browser looks much the same, Microsoft has been tinkering under the hood to bring IE users new features and functionality. "It's great to see Microsoft moving forward with IE and trying to innovate in the browser," Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, told TechNewsWorld.

Call it proof that no one's above the common malware attack: NASA's own International Space Station laptops fell victim to an infection attempt, the space agency has revealed. The bug was caught and stopped before any damage was done, but the incident is raising awareness of just how easily harmful code can reach any computer -- and how important is really is to take preventative precautions before your own system is hit. The virus detected at the Space Station is believed to be W32.Gammima.AG worm, a year-old bug designed to steal passwords from online gamers.

The Internet has made it much simpler for companies to reach potential customers. However, this wide open channel has come at a cost. Companies now expose more of their assets to outsiders who can misuse them. While the law helps -- at least to a degree -- companies increasingly find they need to take steps to monitor and protect their digital assets. Daily, corporations put time, money, and effort into differentiating themselves from competitors. Once that work is done, they want to make sure that knock-off businesses do not arise and render all of their hard work meaningless.

The moment may have passed way under your media radar, seeing as how it happened on a Sunday night in late August, when TV viewers were just coming down from a Beijing Olympics high. On CNN, anchor Rick Sanchez was previewing the Democratic National Convention about to get under way in Denver, grilling senior political analyst Bill Schneider about the latest poll numbers showing John McCain and Barack Obama in a tight race, when Sanchez turned to his audience for a question.

A federal judge in San Jose, Calif., has thrown out a copyright infringement lawsuit launched by Io Group against Veoh Networks. Io Group, which also does business under the name Titan Media, produces adult video content. Veoh is a site similar to YouTube where users can upload and watch user-generated videos as well as television show and movie clips. Io Group filed its suit against Veoh in 2006, alleging that Veoh had not done enough to stop users from uploading copyrighted material to its site. The copyrighted material in question included clips from 10 of Io Group's adult films.