Six Microsoft patches due tomorrow

Microsoft will release six patches tomorrow as part of its standard monthly fix, Top Tech news reports.

At least one of the patches is rated critical and will require users to restart their systems.

The company has also given IT administrators advance notice that there will be a release of one high-priority update that is not security-related.

Also set for release on "Patch Tuesday" is an updated version of Microsoft`s Malicious Software Remove Tool, an application that users can download to remove worms, Trojans and other malware.

IBM is to embrace podcasting, the digital audio craze that allows consumers to take audio programming of the Web and listen to it on portable music players, CNET reports.

The company said on Friday it planned to introduce a series of occasional podcasts on its investor relations site as part of a broader effort to communicate directly to its investors and the wider public about hot topics.

"These are insights that our consultants get from conversations with customers into emerging issues," said spokesman John Bukovinsky. "They are not IBM commercials."

Referring to the traditional "white paper" technical think pieces that companies like IBM offered as publications or on their Web sites, Bukovinsky said: "We`ve killed our fair share of trees and people with white papers."

Apple has worked out a way to prevent its customers downloading the company`s new Intel-based operating system onto cheaper, uglier PCs, the Inquirer reports.

Jobs Mob boffins have installed a Trusted Platform Module made by Infineon Technologies to prevent the operating system being used on anything that is not reassuringly expensive and has an Apple trademark.

The chip has been found in an Intel-fitted PowerMac sent to members of its Apple Developer Connection to have a look at and contains a digital signature necessary in order to install the Mac OSX operating system on the box.

AOL has acquired US-based storage outfit Xdrive to meet the demand from Internet users to save their music, pictures and videos online, The Register reports.

Xdrive manages an online, centralised storage platform that gives subscribers access to all their digital assets and provides its subscribers with storage safety and security, and automatic backup of a wide variety of digital assets such as music, pictures and video.

"The digitisation of consumer home media is skyrocketing, with consumers and AOL members increasingly looking for easier ways to protect and manage a wide variety of important data files and digital media assets," says Gio Hunt from AOL Digital Services.

Financial details concerning the acquisition of the private company were not disclosed.