Google announced on Friday that it is acquiring AppJet, a small startup with a focus on real-time online document collaboration. The AppJet team will be relocating "down under" to join the Google Wave team in Australia and help redefine "real-time" collaboration.

Many of the AppJet team formerly worked for Google according to the AppJet Web site. Chief executive officer Aaron Iba used to write algorithms for improving search quality, chief operating officer Daniel Clemens was an associate product manager, and chief technology officer J.D. Zamfirescu left Google as well.

Google has released a new version of the Android SDK. Version 2.0.1 is a minor update to the Android platform, not a significant release, and it doesn't address the most serious issues faced by Android developers.

The Android Developers blog site describes the update "Android 2.0.1 is a minor update to Android 2.0. This update includes several bug fixes and behavior changes, such as application resource selection based on API level and changes to the value of some Bluetooth-related constants."

If you spend half your day in Gmail, as I do, then you're probably up for just about anything that can help you manage mail more quickly. The Gboard promises to do just that, so I jumped at the chance to give it a spin.

Microsoft has published the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for December 2009. According to the notice, Microsoft will release a total of six new security bulletins next Tuesday for the final Patch Tuesday of 2009.

In an effort to enhance the Web experience and speed things up for users, Google is getting into the DNS business. DNS has privacy and security implications, though, that Google has to take into consideration in providing this service.

I will let my PC World peer David Coursey explain DNS: " DNS is an Internet protocol that acts as both telephone directory and switchboard. It provides for the translation of a URL, such as http://www.pcworld.com/, into the IP address of the server that hosts the site."

Microsoft's Bing site was offline Thursday night. Relatively speaking, the outage didn't last very long, but any outage is a bad outage when you are introducing new features and trying to win market share from a dominant competitor like Google.

No time is a good time for a site outage. It was particularly bad timing for Microsoft, though, considering that it just unveiled an array of changes and updates and there has been a lot of attention focused on the beta rollout of the new Bing Maps this week.

IDC analysts have published a list of predictions for 2010. One of those predictions is that 2010 will be the year of the app. It may seem like apps are ubiquitous now, but if IDC analysts are even half right you haven't seen anything yet.

The IDC predictions state "It will be a watershed year in the ascension of mobile devices as strategic platforms for commercial and enterprise developers as over 1 billion access the Internet, iPhone apps triple, Android apps quintuple, and Apple's "iPad" arrives."

Intel unveiled an experimental CPU (central processing unit) cramming 48 processing cores into a single, stamp-sized piece of silicon. There are obvious implications in terms processing capabilities taking a quantum leap from what we use today, but what's truly amazing is the power consumption and power management features of the chip.

The CPU arms race has gone from focusing on the speed of the processor, to how many processors can be squeezed into a single chip. Dual-core processors are the standard these days, with quad-core processors being relatively mainstream, and 6-core and 8-core processors representing the sort of cutting edge of what is currently in mainstream production.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is on a mission to kill cash. He likes money, just not actual cash transactions. Dorsey's new venture, Square, could help businesses--large and small--, and even consumers eliminate the need to carry cash.

Square allows credit card payments to be processed directly from an iPhone or iPod Touch. That part alone isn't all that revolutionary. There are a number of iPhone apps that facilitate credit card payments, but they require manual input of the credit card number. What sets Square apart from those apps is that is provides users with a small--well....square--gadget that can read the magnetic stripe information from credit cards.

The reports of the Windows "black screen of death" seem to be greatly exaggerated and hardly worth mentioning. The FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) and sensationalism that have surrounded the issue are a bigger story than the actual black screen of death at this point, and highlight the need for clear communication and ethical disclosure.

Vulnerability research is a race for bragging rights. The competition to be first to announce a new flaw--particularly a flaw that allegedly impacts Windows 7--is fierce and can have unfortunate consequences as it apparently did in this case.

It doesn't take much to ignite FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) against Microsoft--especially with news of a critical flaw affecting Windows 7. News that a Microsoft update is causing "millions" of PC's to experience a "black screen of death" is both exaggerated and wrong. Apparently, its much ado about nothing.

Originally reported by security firm Prevx, the black screen of death issue was believed to have been caused by updates issued by Microsoft on the November Patch Tuesday. The combination of a headline like "Black Screen woes could affect millions on Windows 7, Vista and XP" and the fact that Prevx didn't bother to contact Microsoft about the issue suggest that Prevx was primarily interested in sensational publicity for itself.

Nokia has filed a lawsuit against eight LCD manufacturers accused of collusion and price-fixing. Nokia is hoping to win damages to recover money it overpaid to the various companies for LCD displays for its mobile handsets.

The lawsuit includes Seiko Epson, Hitachi, LG Display, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes as defendants. Nokia has not specified the amount of the damages it is seeking, but the alleged collusion covers a ten-year period spanning 1996 to 2006, during which time Nokia claims to have paid inflated prices for the LCD displays.