XP to be available after Windows 7's release

In today's podcast: XP to be available after Windows 7's release; Apple builds chip design capability; and hacker breaks into Twitter account of Twitter exec.

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Microsoft plans to continue offering Windows XP for netbooks after the release of its next-generation operating system, Windows 7. The continued availability of Windows XP during a transition period after Windows 7's release will reassure users who have avoided upgrading to Windows Vista and may be wary of the new operating system. MIcrosoft declined to say when Windows 7 will be commercially available, despite making the final beta version -- called a release candidate (RC) -- available to testers today. The distribution of the RC is one of the last steps before the Windows 7 code is locked down and sent off to manufacturers ahead of its commercial release.

A year after buying low-power processor designer PA Semi, Apple is looking for yet more chip design expertise. The company has been recruiting at a very senior level for its chip design team, and also has almost 20 lower-level jobs related to semiconductor design open, some of them posted to its Web site in the last few days. In January the CTO of the graphics product group at Advanced Micro Devices, Bob Drebin, left the company to join Apple, where he is now a senior director. And only last week, reports suggested that his successor as CTO for graphics products, Raja Koduri, had also left the company to join Apple. The first signs that Apple wanted to beef up its semiconductor design capabilities came with the news last April that it had acquired PA Semi, a company specializing in low-power microprocessor designs based on the PowerPC core used in a previous generation of Apple Macintosh computers.

For the second time this year, a hacker has gained administrative access to a Twitter employee's account. On Wednesday, an anonymous hacker going by the name of Hacker Croll posted 13 screenshots to a French online discussion forum, apparently captured while logged into the Twitter account of Jason Goldman, a director of product management with Twitter. Twitter CEO Biz Stone confirmed the breach in a blog post Thursday afternoon. According to the screenshots, Hacker Croll was able to access account information belonging to high-profile Twitter users such as Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher. He could also do things such as add or remove featured users, who are suggested to new Twitter members when they sign up.

The CEO of a Seattle-area consulting company was sentenced to three months of home confinement Thursday for destroying a client's Web site following a contract dispute. Minecode CEO Pradyumna Samal will also serve 288 hours of community service and three years of probation, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. A project manager with the company, Sandeep Verma, got a one-year probation sentence and was ordered to perform 40 hours of community service. Minecode, of Bellevue, Washington, had built the online gift shop for wine retailer Vinado, but things soured in late 2006.

...And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.