SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. plans to make its Web site a social hub by hosting applications from other online services, part of the Internet pioneer’s effort to spawn more advertising opportunities.

Fouad Farhan was detained in early December after running an online campaign over 10 men arrested since February 2007 on suspicion of financing militant groups, but whose supporters say they are being punished for pro-democracy activity.

“I spoke to him and he’s in good spirits. He said he was treated really well,” said Ahmed al-Omran, who published the news on his website (https://www.saudijeans.org).

“It was surprising. After blocking his website, I thought his detention would go on longer. It’s good news.”

Saudi authorities blocked Farhan’s website (https://www.alfarhan.org) earlier this month.

An Interior Ministry spokesman was unable to confirm Farhan’s release. The ministry had declined to say on what charges he was arrested, but said it was not security related.

Saud Arabia, a key U.S. ally, has no political parties or elected parliament, and many Web forums calling for reforms have been blocked by the government.

An Islamist preacher was detained for nearly two weeks in 2006 for an Internet article that criticized government ministers.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the availability of Live Mesh, at first for a limited number of users, an idea that Ray Ozzie had mentioned at last month’s MIX Conference. The mesh concept suggests a new point of interest for Microsoft, rather than the “old” PC: the World Wide Web.

Mike Zintel, Product Unit Manager, Mesh and Storage Platform, unveiled on a blog that the project they have been working on is going to take competition by surprise, by allowing users to easily manage their information by combining their computing experiences (PCs, applications, web sites, phones, video games, music and video devices) in the context of different communities (i.e. myself, family, work, organizations).

“The PC era has given way to an era in which the Web is at the center of our experiences,” say Ray Ozzie in a memo to Microsoft employees, Information World reports. “It is our mission in this new era to create compelling, seamless experiences that combine the power of the Internet with the magic of software, across a world of devices.”

Live Mesh enables devices to work together and is in fact a software-plus-service platform that connects devices (PCs, and soon Mac and mobile phones) through the internet, making file sharing and folder synchronization a lot easier.

In addition to being able to access information from anywhere, Microsoft also introduced a “stay informed” feature which keeps track of all the activities on the mesh and keeps the user informed of all updates: online status of friends, who updated files or folders, check the status of his devices etc.

At first, the service will be available to a limited number of users, in order to get the necessary feedback and to make sure the system is reliable and responsive. At the same time, the interface will be in English only, as the data center hosting service is in United States (broader availability is expected within a few months). Although only supported on Windows XP and Vista machines, support for the Mac and mobile devices will be added.

Despite all the openness Microsoft wants to embrace with Live Mesh however, some are still raising eyebrows on exactly how open Mesh really is: an interesting concept, but needs a lot of testing and work to prove a point.

A News Corp unit is currently involved in a trial, after being accused of hiring a computer hacker to develop pirating software.

 The hacker, Christopher Tarnovsky, testified against News Corp’s NDS Group, saying that he received a payment of $20,000 in cash sent from Canada inside some electronic devices. He stated that for the past 10 years he has been paid on a regular basis by the News Corp. One of his assignments was to develop a new security program for the DirecTV network.

The company, well known for providing security technology to a global satellite network strongly denies all the charges.

The lawsuit was started by EchoStar Communications, which is now formed by DISH and EchoStar Corp. The main accusation regards Tarnovsky’s alleged mission to hack into DISH’s satellite network and flood the market with pirated smart cards after stealing the security codes. The company also claims that their losses during the process were of over $900 million in lost revenue and system-repair costs.

“I never got money for reprogramming Echostar cards. Someone is trying to set me up,” Tarnovsky said according to Reuters, expressing his concern that the accusations are part of a large conspiracy mission.

In the days to follow many more will testify on the different matters concerning the accusations and according to officials, the trial is expected to last two or three more weeks.

The location set for the trial is in the U.S. District Court’s Central Division in Santa Ana, California as both Tarnovsky and NDS are located there.

Attention gamers: If you’re looking forward to the taking a hands-on role with the forthcoming Spore, you’ve got work to do starting June 17.

That’s when Electronic Arts and Maxis plan to release the Spore Creature Creator, in both a free, downloadable demo version and a $9.99 retail version (or 9.99 euros, for buyers in much of Europe). The demo version will be available from Spore.com and also will be included with The SimCity, due to be released June 23.

The retail edition provides access to all the creature-making parts for Spore, while the demo version is limited to 25 percent of those parts. Gamers will be able to share their creations with friends, via routes including uploads to YouTube.

In Spore, a long-awaited game from Sims creator Wil Wright, gamers will get a taste of evolution, taking their characters from primordial existence to civilization. (Wright has set a high standard for success–The Sims recently logged its 100 millionth sale.) Besides the individual characters, Spore-ophiles will be able to establish tribes and conjure up buildings and vehicles, including UFOs.

The hands-on work of shaping and painting fantastical critters with Creature Creator won’t be just a preliminary exercise, to be abandoned when Spore arrives in September. Gamers will be able to import their creations into the retail version of the game.

Spore for the PC and the Mac is set to debut September 5 in Europe and then two days later in North America, and a version for the Nintendo DS is also due at that time. A version for the Nintendo Wii will come sometime later–it’s still in the “early prototyping phase,” according to the Spore FAQ.

Starbucks and Wi-Fi, now the combination is on, as the coffee giant and AT&T officially launched the service in Starbucks stores in San Antonio. The two partners promised to continue the Wi-Fi campaign across the U.S. all throughout the next month.  The service was first announced in February this year, when Starbucks ended a partnership with T-Mobile and started a brand new one with AT&T, promising to offer consumers Wi-Fi connectivity in all the 7,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. 

“With the power of our Wi-Fi network, and through our partnership with Starbucks, we’re strengthening our ability to meet the needs of today’s mobile consumer virtually anywhere and everywhere,” said chairman and chief executive officer Randall Stephenson.

He added: “Expanding our reach across company-operated Starbucks locations nationwide helps us bridge the gap between our wired and wireless offerings and affirms AT&T’s commitment to connect people with their worlds, everywhere they live and work.” Costumers will be able to use the service by selecting “ATTWiFi” from their computers. 

In February this year, AT&T unveiled that customers who will buy the Starbucks purchase card will receive two hours of free wireless access. Those who want more than two hours have two options. They could buy another additional two hours for $3,99 or a monthly membership which costs $19.99 and includes access to any of AT&T’s 70,000 hot spots in 89 countries around the world.

“We continue to build on the experience we know our customers expect from us,” said Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer, Starbucks. “By partnering with AT&T as our U.S. Wi-Fi provider we aim to deliver a better value, greater convenience and seamless connectivity in a mobility centric world to our customers.”

Instant messaging is not just fast, it’s also short, and teenagers seem to be addicted to it, in the sense that they tend to incorporate all sorts of emoticons and informal ways of writing into their school assignments, a study released by Pew Internet & American Life Project and the National Commission on Writing unveiled.

According to the study, most mistakes of such nature involuntarily occur, as teenagers often use acronyms or emoticons in their writing, and that happened to at least 64 percent of them. And for whoever might think such a small mistake isn’t in fact such a big deal, well it is, as good writing skills will most certainly prove efficient in their future careers.

Although it might seem negligent of them, 60 percent of the teenagers interviewed are aware that this shouldn’t normally happen and could influence their careers, and that electronic text does not equal writing. However, it became such a normal way of writing (sometimes you can comprise a whole sentence in just a few letters), that teachers and parents should try to pay attention to their children’s habits.

The study unveiled that 85 percent of teens, aged 12-17 use electronic ways of communication, including text messaging or posting comments on social networking sites. Half of the interviewed teens use informal writing styles in their school assignments, while 38 of them admitted to using text shortcuts such as LOL (“laugh out loud”) and 25 of them have used emoticons.

“Teens know that writing is important. Most know that the informal writing they do now will not sustain them as they grow to be adullts. However, they take great pleasure in developing personal informal writing styles as a way to express and distinguish who they are now – teens who do not yet need to be adults,” the study said.

While some teenagers know and make a difference between writing styles, some of them incorporate the informal into formal as a habit. However, as technology is and will continue to be part of our lives, they must be able to distinguish between the two environments and choose the appropriate writing every time.