“Hacker Croll” has supposedly managed to infiltrate the Twitter website with an administrator account. The person has bragged about the breach in a French web forum, saying he hacked into Jason Goldman’s account, a product management director at Twitter. As proof, he published 13 screenshots of the company’s account management interface. The screenshots indicate that he accessed several celebrity Twitter users, such as Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears.

Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder admitted on the site’s blog that the site was accessed, but that no account data was changed or deleted. The only unauthorized activity that took place is that 10 accounts were viewed without permission. Hacking into Twitter doesn’t seem like a worthwhile activity for a hacker since there isn’t any user financial information listed on the site. More of a technical challenge, which seems not to pose much of a barrier for some.

The BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has revealed information regarding its new online application store, which would be costlier than Apple’s. BlackBerry App World is set to launch later this month in Canada, the U.S. and Britain with the purpose of allowing customers to select and download games, social networking and personal productivity applications, and other software for a numerous BlackBerry models. RIM opened the online store this week, inviting customers to register and developers to submit their applications.

Apple’s iTunes app store is loved by iPhone users, who have made more than 500 million downloads. As the iTunes app store, BlackBerry App World would allow some applications to be free while the rest will range in price from $3.69 to $12.25. iTunes charges 99 cents for many of its apps, although it does have more expensive offers as well. Payments on Blackberry App World will be administered via PayPal.

RIM first declared its intentions regarding the store in October. Back then, it stated it is working with PayPal on a system that would permit customers to make their purchases right on the BlackBerry. It also stated the company would take a 20% commission, allowing developers to keep 80% of revenues. Apple lets developers keep 70%. Microsoft is also preparing to launch its own app store for mobile devices, Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The store is set to open in the fall when the company launches its new Windows 6.5 operating system for mobile phones.

Struggling Internet search portal Yahoo has introduced a new type of online advertising that integrates traditional search results with pictures and video. For example, on the Yahoo page, type in the keyword “pedigree,” and a sponsored search result for Pedigree dog food will appear together with a video ad that’s aired on TV for the past few weeks. The new ads were tested with a small group of advertisers during the 4th quarter, and advertisers noticed click-through rates rise by as much as 25%, according to Yahoo. This percentage may be misleading because people may have just clicked more since it is a new feature.

The new ads are presently offered on an invitation-only basis. So far, Pepsi and Esurance have also created search ads. Yahoo’s new ads, are called “Rich Ads in Search,” and enable advertisers to:

* post images and video designed for improved branding impact;
* deep links creation to relevant pages, which can help drive conversions directly from the Yahoo search page;
* include fields within the listing for searching desired products or a store location without additional navigation.

Yahoo’s new search ads are an attempt to take back some of the market share that the company has lost to Google. On the other hand, introducing a video to search ads may act as an obstacle between consumers and the quick information they seek online.

Although retail sales are not doing well, Microsoft hired a former Wal-Mart executive to assist it in launching its own retail stores. David Porter, a 25-year veteran, will have the title of VP of Retail Stores. Microsoft hasn’t offered much information on its retail plans, but this is an obvious attempt by the company to offer more customer focus and create a great experience for visitors so they will buy products on a continuing basis.

There’s no word yet regarding the opening date, locations and specifics for planned Microsoft-branded retail stores. Making those recommendations is Porter’s first task. He also has to work in close partnership with leaders of existing retail programs in Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division. Before joining DreamWorks Animation in 2007, Porter spent 25 years at Wal-Mart Stores in various roles. In his last role at Wal-Mart, Porter was vice president and general merchandise manager of Entertainment. Should be interesting to see if Microsoft can successfully operate retail stores during such a tough economic period.

The Bids for new Internet addresses to compete with “.com” and other extension will likely be delayed until the end of the year as the agency in charge, known as ICANN, tries to address issues with trademark and online security. Such concerns include whether trademark owners will end up having to register thousands of new domain names just  to protect their intellectual-property rights.

For instance, the $185,000 application fee would likely discourage casual bidders from seeking, an extension such as, a “.ibm”, but IBM. might feel pressured to register “IBM.computer,” “IBM.software” and many others. Other issues include whether new extensions would encourage more cons involving fake websites that look legitimate, and whether new extensions would even get significant use.

ICANN plans to present a new draft by Thursday to clarify and expand on some of the proposed guidelines, such as the fcreating a foundation for collecting any money raised through auctions that are planned for resolving conflicts when more than one applicant seeks the same domain name. The foundation would support research and other tasks related to running the domain name

E-commerce applications have existed from the early days of the Internet, but not all software is created equal. The Interspire shopping cart software stands above its competition since it was designed with the store owner in mind. The software is loaded with numerous useful features and offers a fully customizable interface for both the front and back end, requiring no HTML or server-side editing. Some elements of the control panel are Ajax based which further enhance the layout’s user friendliness.

Interspire comes integrated with some of the world’s most popular payment and shipping providers such as PayPal, Google Checkout, VISA, MasterCard, USPS, FedEx, UPS and others. This ecommerce software also has built-in tools for marketing and business intelligence such as Google Adwords, e-mail Marketer and traffic analysis tools providing every update about the new visitors through maps, graphs and charts. The shopping cart allows for selling of physical and digital Items, from t-shirts to ebooks, with advanced product variations (such as different colors and sizes). You can also add email marketing and FAQ’s to your store with just a few clicks.

To see how the Interspire shopping cart works, check out the demo on the company’s site. You can also watch the video tour, see live stores running the Interspire shopping cart or take a look at the numerous store designs that are fast and easy to customize from your Internet browser.

Some improvements will be obvious from analyzing the necessary data, and others will take more planning and thought, but there are certainly improvements that can be made by any business, no matter the industry or sector. The more information we have collected on our operations, the better we will be able to streamline our processes, and in turn, cut down on costs. Any time we can lower overhead and increase production will result in increased profitability.

Computer software has the ability to help businesses better track performance, organize operations, and ultimately improve efficiency. I would say that in most industries, using a performance tracking software is necessary for success. One software supplier I have found that offers a range of business software solutions is called IBS. They offer supply chain management software which can help your business remain competitive by collecting and providing the data that your business needs in order to work in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

One thing I noticed while browsing the IBS website, is that they offer distribution software which is specifically tailored to companies looking to improve the efficiently of their warehousing operations. The software is designed to help businesses better optimize their warehouse by better managing delivery orders, managing large volumes of transactions, and helping to eliminate errors in the order entry process. The software is able to span multiple warehouses, and has a large range of functions which will be useful to the business owner or warehouse manager.

IBS also offers software solutions for other types of businesses, so check them out if you’re looking to improve the efficiency of your business operation.

Burger King has recently been advertising on Facebook with the help of an interesting, if not bizarre, new application. The fast-food giant has built a Facebook application which entices Facebook users with the promise of a free Whopper (how delicious).

However, getting your hands on the flame-broiled offering isn’t as easy as simply installing the company’s Facebook app. In fact, it’s just a little bit more difficult, and some might even say sinister. To enjoy your whopper, you must not only install the application, but also “sacrifice” ten of your Facebook friends.

That’s right, the application asks but a simple question of its users “What would you do for a free Whopper? Now is the time to put your fair-weather Web friendships to the test. Install Whopper Sacrifice on your Facebook profile and we’ll reward you with a flame-broiled Whopper when you sacrifice 10 of your friends.”

It’s kind of funny, as when the friend is removed, they receive a message letting them know that they were considered to be less important than a free Whopper. Of course, the removed friend is then encouraged to install the application and “sacrifice” some friends themself.

So the question is, would you sacrifice ten friends for a free Whopper?

Despite a bad economy, Microsoft managed to sell 28 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide in 2008, expanding the Xbox’s lead over its nearest competitor Sony’s PlayStation 3. Despite financial problems by some publishers, the video game industry overall has charged ahead against the recession. Market researcher NPD found video games sales rose 10% and totaled $2.91 billion in November.

Microsoft stated that global sales of the Xbox, which was launched about a year prior to the PS3, outperformed the PS3 by over 8 million units by the end of 2008. Online consumer spending on Xbox Live online service increased 84% compared to last year and members of the Xbox Live community rose to over 17 million by the end of 2008. Consumers have spent over $1 billion on Microsoft’s Xbox Live online service since its launch for the 360 in 2005, according the company.

Critical to its success, Microsoft cut the U.S. price of its entry-level console in September to $199, which is $50 below Nintendo’s Wii console.

The founder of Apple and its chief executive Steve Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, stated recently that a hormone imbalance is what caused his weight loss that was widely reported by the media. Jobs, 53, said he will receive a “relatively simple” treatment and will remain the head of the company. Investors seemed happy to have some clarity on his health. Apple’s shares rose $3.42, 3.8 per cent, to $94.17 in early trading.

Speculation about Jobs’ health permeated in 2008 as he appeared slim in his public events. The rumours compounded after Apple decied in December that Jobs would not be making his annual keynote speech on Tuesday in San Francisco at the Macworld conference.

Officially Apple stated Jobs would not give the presentation since this year will mark the company’s last appearance at the show, which is held by a separate company, the IDG technology media group. Phil Schiller, an Apple marketing executive, would give the company’s presentation instead.

Some analysts have began questioning the company’s viability without Jobs, who has emphasized the design principles that made standouts out of Apple’s Mac computers, iPods and iPhones.

In his letter Monday, Jobs said, “I will be the first one to step up and tell our board of directors if I can no longer continue to fulfil my duties as Apple’s CEO.”