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Microsoft has announced that Games for Windows Live will receive Games on Demand on December 15, essentially becoming a full-fledged game distribution platform. As implied by its name, Games on Demand will allow users to purchase and download titles from their PC.

While this concept is hardly new (think: Steam, D2D, Impulse), Microsoft said its offer won't just be a "cut-and-paste version of existing digital distribution services." Without citing any particular innovations, the company said it has worked to develop an integrated platform that "takes full advantage of the unique capabilities offered by the Live service."

Users of that hoary old web mail service Hotmail have a new reason to regret their devotion: Over the weekend, thousands of user names and passwords from the service were posted on a data-sharing service called Pastebin, with potentially hundreds of thousands of additional users at risk.

Over 10,000 accounts on Hotmail (still the largest web-based email service in the world) are immediately known to be affected.

Reports are pouring in now that Conficker, at last, has started doing its dirty work -- and that work is nothing which thousands of malware applications haven't done long before it: Sending out spam.

The activation is being deemed a "quiet" one, as Conficker's creators seem to want to take advantage of the powerful botnet they've built without drawing too much attention to themselves. As a result, Conficker may shape up to be a relatively innocuous exploit compared to some of its massively destructive predecessors, and that's undoubtedly a good thing.

Global Mail Exchange (GMX.com) brings a lovely AJAX interface and ease of use to satisfy any home-users' needs. According to the holders of the service 11 million members enjoy the benefits and functionality of the webmail. And judging by the features sported the number cannot but grow in the future unless the main competitors decide to do something about it.

The capabilities of the new player on the webmail market are quite astounding as it allows the collection of third-party email accounts in a single inbox. This means that the contents of inboxes from popular and in some cases less popular webmail services can be viewed directly from GMX. It supports POP3, IMAP and SMTP protocols as well as mobile device integration for ultimate portability.

It seems that Microsoft is on its way to launch the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system as soon as May 11. The Redmond giant’s TechEd 2009 conference in Los Angeles kicks off on that day, and Stephanie Ferguson, GM (general manager) of Business Experiences at Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business will open the launch presentation of Windows Mobile 6.5, as stated on the Windows Mobile Team blog. “This TechEd 2009 session focuses on one of the biggest launches in the history of Windows Mobile – Windows Mobile 6.5. It is targeted at both IT Professionals and Developers, with a cool demo and an outline of great stuff to come.