Daily News Links

• The Wi-Fi Alliance, the industry group that promotes Wi-Fi technology standards, is launching a simplified method for configuring the security settings between a wireless router, laptops and other devices, addressing a long-standing complaint that keeps many users from protecting their home networks.  Read more here (from FindLaw).
• Canada's CanWest Global Communications may look to sell its stake in Australia's Network Ten in order to partner with investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co to make a C$2.1 billion ($2.3 billion) bid for specialty television group Alliance Atlantis Communications.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Several years ago, social networking sites were all but unknown to the general public, but today the majority of online U.S. teens--55%--have profiles on such sites. MySpace is far and away the leading such site, with 85% of youngsters ages 12-17 reporting they use the service.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• The executives in charge of the NSW Government's $1 billion computing budget see little value in upgrading to Microsoft's new Windows Vista.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• As grip of censors endures, a poem satirizing local officials accused of corruption lands a man in jail.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Crikey website writer Stephen Mayne is waging a bitter fight to block his expulsion from the People Power political party that he helped set up.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• long-suffering ERG Group struck its latest smartcard deal with hardcore gay-porn website entrepreneur James Mackay, who has been under investigation by US authorities.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• Time looks at the war against e-voting in the US here.
• Loaded with new features, Yahoo Messenger for Vista is set to be released in second quarter of the year.  Read more here (from CNet News.com).
• CNN.com has tapped Inform Technologies to provide an on-site search engine, which allows users to search other news sources without leaving the CNN site. The service aims to discourage Web users from clicking away from news publishers' sites to visit search engines like Google and Yahoo.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• Microsoft chairman Bill Gates unveils a new Xbox 360 set-top box feature and shows off some radically different PC designs.  Read more here (from the Sydney Morning Herald).
• Bill Gates is unveiling a partnership with the Ford Motor Company to build Microsoft technology into several Ford models.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• Time and The Wall Street Journal both unveiled new looks and directions this week as they seek to enter a New Digital Age for print media.  Read more here (from Risky Biz Blog).
• While refusing to abandon the innocent construction rule, the Illinois Supreme Court has reversed the finding of an appellate court that statements complained of as defamatory were capable of a "reasonable innocent construction" and has remanded the case to a trial court.  Read more here (from Media Law Prof Blog).
• A gallery of photographs of shopping trolleys was among winning entries in a competition for the best websites.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• The annual Consumer Electronics Show kicks off later today in Las Vegas giving gadget-lovers a first look at the next big things.  Read more here (from The Age).  Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer, is expected to launch at least one revolutionary product on Tuesday at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. Speculation has focused mainly on an Apple-branded mobile phone and a set-top box that allows people to send video from their computers to their televisions.  Read more here (from The Age).
• Broadcasters could use technology allowing viewers to influence drama storylines via text message during the programme.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Sonic Solutions, manufacturers of the Roxio brand of burning software, has come up with a technology that allows the creation of DVDs from downloaded films.  Moreover, the resultant DVDs will play on any machine.  This means consumers should be able to buy DVDs of films not normally available on the shelves of retailers limited to the currently popular.  Read more here (from Tech Law Prof Blog).
• Video game makers are shipping more consoles than expected, setting the stage for what may be a multiyear battle among Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• Comedy Central's Web site is launching 11 new original broadband shows, which ups the total number of Web shows from the channel to 25. Among the new shows is "The Fudge Judge," the first Web series to be created from an on-air show.  Read more here (from Broadcasting & Cable).
• From creating toilets to shaping the iPod - read about the rise and rise of the Apple genius, Jonathan Ive here (from Media Guardian).