IBM announced an advanced real-time collaboration platform, which includes a set of tools and technologies designed to help customers communicate, share information and conduct business faster, using the collaborative tools that best suit their business need. IBM’s new platform includes a new version of IBM Lotus Sametime, new audio and video conferencing integration, and connectivity with some of the leading consumer IM platforms, including AOL, and Yahoo! In addition, IBM and Google intend to connect Lotus Sametime and Google Talk users.

A wide-scale shutdown of the Blackberry mobile email service has gotten closer as the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request to review a major patent-infringement ruling against Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry email device. The court rejected a petition by Research In Motion to review a federal appeals court ruling that could lead to a shutdown of most U.S. Blackberry sales and service.

Research In Motion is showcasing the upcoming BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 for IBM Lotus Domino at Lotusphere 2006 this week in Orlando, Florida. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1, a substantial upgrade to RIM’s secure, reliable and proven wireless server software, will add support for IBM Lotus Sametime and IBM Lotus Domino 7, the latest version of IBM’s leading collaboration and enterprise management messaging software. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 will provide further integration with Lotus Notes and Domino including the ability to read Notes native encrypted mail (Lotus Domino encrypted mail) on BlackBerry handheld devices, support for IBM DB2, and a new IBM Lotus Sametime client for BlackBerry handheld devices that supports presence, group chat, "buddy list" synchronization with the Sametime server, message auditing and enterprise access controls.

A serious vulnerability has been found in the popular KDE open-source software bundle. The flaw, deemed "critical" by the research outfit the French Security Incident Response Team, could allow a remote attacker to gain control over vulnerable systems. KDE is a desktop software package for Linux and Unix systems and includes the Konqueror Web browser and other applications. The vulnerability lies in the JavaScript interpreter engine used by Konqueror and other parts of KDE.

Right-to-privacy groups said Friday that an attempt by the Bush administration to force Google to turn over a broad range of materials from its databases has set a dangerous precedent that should worry all Americans. The Bush administration is already under fire from a number of rights groups over security measures it has taken since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, including pursuing checks on library records and eavesdropping on some telephone calls. In court papers filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., the Justice Department stated that Google had refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for 1 million random Web addresses from Google’s databases as well as records of all searches entered on Google during any one-week period. The government said it needed the information to prepare its case to revive the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which the Supreme Court blocked from taking effect two years ago.

DYS Analytics is debuting a new outbound messaging compliance solution. CONTROL! Guardian, for Domino, Sametime, and Exchange. The solution lets IT managers find and stop noncompliant message traffic before it is sent–ensuring corporate policies are met. Guardian also helps IT recover capacity squandered by inappropriate email and IM traffic, while also improving end-user productivity by eliminating unnecessary messages. The new product includes some content filtering capabilities not found in earlier DYS CONTROL! family solutions, as well as in-depth analysis and reporting features on email/IM trends–both on a quota level as well as on a content level.

Logic Springs Technologies announced the availability of its Department Calendar group calendaring and scheduling software in three new editions, Starter, Standard, and Pro editions. Based on the IBM Lotus Domino platform, the new editions of Department calendar support IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 7. The selection is designed to help businesses and organizations of any size choose the appropriate group calendaring product that meets their unique needs.

News and rumours from Lotusphere, and it hasn’t officially started yet. Rumour: there will be some sort of major announcement in the opening session, one that hasn’t yet been anticipated.

Facts: there really will be a Notes 9, 10 and beyond. The roadmap is becoming clearer; there will be unification of Notes and Domino functionality with Workplace Collaboration Services functionality, but it appears that you won’t have to unify stuff that you don’t want to. You will be able to develop and run traditional Notes apps the way you always have, or you can include them with Collaboration Services in the Workplace Rich Client, and run them on Macs and Linux, and also be able to customise the UI. All of this will be much clearer as "Hannover" gets closer to shipping — which could well be before Lotusphere 2007. Post-Hannover, the server start to unify, too. More to be revealed in the opening session, tomorrow, Monday, 08:30am. — Mick Moignard, DominoPower Senior Technical Editor

Teamstudio’s Nigel Cheshire is back in the pages of DominoPower, this time refuting Microsoft’s latest attempt to lay claim to the traditional Notes/Domino markets. Nigel’s been in this business a long time. It’s worth your time to read what he’s got to say, and it may save you a whole lot of time, effort, and money in the long run. When seasoned Lotus Business Partners speak out, we recommend you listen.

Read this DominoPower article.

Yahoo said that it recently turned over information about its users searching habits to federal investigators, a startling admission that has touched off a new round of privacy concerns. As previously reported, search inquiries may be evidence in an upcoming trial that the government hopes will revive a controversial 1998 Internet law to protect children from stumbling onto inappropriate material on the Web. The law was struck down two years ago. The search queries are to serve as the raw material so the government can test whether Web filters are a match for the overwhelming amount of pornography that a child could run into while online.