Los Gatos (CA) - Streaming videos to game consoles could be coming soon to Netflix customers. The company is surveying its customers and asking if they would likely use a streaming service to Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. The streaming wouldn’t cost any more money, but would require a special install disc costing $3.

The Netflix survey was posted at seanbajuice.com and reads, "Now you can watch movies from Netflix instantly by using your Internet-connected Playstation 3. Simply insert a special Netflix disc into your PS/3 to enable instant movie streaming. The disc is available from Netflix for a one-time fee of $3."
The survey then asks if anyone in the household would be likely to use such a survey. There are five options from definitely not to definitely would.

Netflix says streaming customers would be able to watch over 7000 movies and television series in as little as 30 seconds. Currently Netflix offers streaming video on all of its plans. The cheapest plan offers one DVD at a time and two hours of streaming video per month for $4.99/month. Unlimited streaming plans start at $8.99/month.

Game console streaming probably wouldn’t be a big technical hurdle for Netflix as it started computer video streaming last summer.

Albany (NY) - New York Governor Eliot Spitzer wants all US-based online retailers to be required to collect sales tax, but Amazon hopes that doesn’t happen.

Currently, residents are on an "honor system" to report Internet sales and pay the appropriate tax. Additionally, online retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence in the state must collect sales tax at the time of the transaction.

All other Internet-based stores are under no legal obligation to collect sales tax. Under the plan led by Spitzer, all e-tailers with annual sales of $10,000 or more in New York would have to collect the state’s minimum sales tax.

"This would be a radical departure from anything that’s being done anywhere in the country," said Amazon vice president of global public policy Paul Misener.

It’s an idea that has been on the docket at some point or another in more than a dozen states, but none have actually put a new policy in place. Several of them, including California, Michigan, and Texas have just abandoned the idea outright.

New York feels online stores have an obligation to collect sales tax. "We’re not asking Amazon to do anything that any New York vendor does not already do," said the state’s tax commissioner Robert Megna.

"It’s a terrifically unfair advantage that has cost the states in which they operate a vast amount of money," added Jonathon Welch, the owner of a local New York book store, in an Associated Press story. It’s estimated the proposed law would bring in an additional $47 million to New York.

Mountain View (CA) - Mozilla has launched the third version of its preview build for Firefox 3, adding numerous enhancements to the next-generation Web browser.

In addition to the requisite slate of security and visual enhancement updates, the new beta includes a more user-friendly add-on installer and download manager. Also, it has full-page zoom functionality and one-click bookmarking.

Other noted features to premiere in the latest Firefox 3 build are focused on the "smart" side of the browser, meaning its ability to recognize and even predict browsing and downloading preferences. For example, a feature called "frecency" compiles the user’s browing history to suggest similar websites and searches. Also, it recognizes various file types before they’re downloaded and can perform customizable actions based on the type.

On the more technical side, the update fixes over 350 memory leaks, reduces the memory footprint, enhances SSL functionality for security, and has tighter integration with all three supported operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux).

Redmond (WA) - Six "critical" updates join five more "important" vulnerability fixes in this month’s regularly scheduled security bulletin from Microsoft.

Of the six critical patches, all of which fix vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code execution, four affected Microsoft Office. Three of these deal with problems that could be exploited if a user opens a specially crafted document created for attack purposes. The other deals with the way Office interacts with Internet Explorer.

Another critical update was privately reported to Microsoft, and fixes a vulnerability in the Windows WebDAV Mini-Redirector, which if exploited could give remote users full administrative privileges of the computer. The last critical patch relates to Internet Explorer and a vulnerability involving specially crafted websites.

Of the five important updates, only two could lead to remote code execution, one of which is a vulnerability in Microsoft Office and Microsoft Works. The other four patches deal with business and developer applications.

Microsoft noted that none of the vulnerabilities affect Windows Vista Service Pack 1. However, users running the general Vista operating system are still at risk.

Users can download the update from Microsoft’s update website.