DARPA CREATING 'VIRTUAL FIRING RANGE' TO HELP COMBAT CYBER ATTACKS

Reuters reports that DARPA is working on a National Cyber Range, which would act a standalone internet simulation engine where digital warriors can be trained and experimental ideas tested out. Lockheed Martin and Johns Hopkins University are competing to provide the final system, with one of them expected to soon get the go-ahead for a one-year trial, which, if all goes well, will be followed by DARPA unleashing its techies upon the virtual firing range in earnest next year.

The cost of the project is said to run somewhere near $130 million, which might have sounded a bit expensive before the recent spate of successful hacking attacks on high profile private companies, but now seems like a rational expenditure to ensure the nuclear missile codes and the people crazy enough to use them are kept at a safe distance from one another.

MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 MOVES TO PUBLIC BETA FOR SMALL BUSINESSES AND ENTERPRISE

Back in October 2010, Microsoft announced Office 365, the company’s first cloud-based productivity software product and, some would say, a direct response to Google Apps. On Sunday, Microsoft announced that Office 365 would now be offered as a public beta to both small businesses and enterprises.

The small business beta is open for companies with up to 25 employees who need a solution that doesn’t require an IT staff, but still offers essential email, calendar, and website services. There is also an enterprise version for any size organization looking for more features and control, Office Professional Plus, Active Directory, and high-end archiving. Once an account is activated, which may take 2-4 weeks as part of the beta, users will have 30 days (from activation) to decide whether they would like to purchase the service or not.

Small business owners are billed month-to-month starting at $6/user while those enrolling in the enterprise program have four plans to choose from starting at $10/user/month for the E1 plan. Currently, only the E3 plan, which begins at $24/user/month, is available in the public beta. All four (E1-E4) are described below.

GOOGLE OUT OF CR-48 LAPTOPS; CHROME OS TO DEBUT THIS SUMMER

Google has sent out all 60,000 of the CR-48 netbooks it ordered to testers. The CR-48 is a test netbook Google had manufactured to test their cloud Chrome OS. With 60,000 potential testers the OS should be solid when it arrives this summer.

It is rumored that Google will be releasing the master to its manufacturing partners mid-summer for an early fall release on devices. This comes just in time for some publicity for the important holiday shopping season.

LEAKED: AT&T U-VERSE ON XBOX

A snapshot has been leaked showing Xbox prompts in AT&T's U-Verse technical support screen.  It is no surprise that Microsoft has been trying to integrate more media into the Xbox as it was announced recently that U-Verse customers would soon have access to Mediaroom functionality.

The Xbox integration is supposedly being field tested using AT&T employees and is only  a couple of months from debuting live. [Engadget]