Microsoft will issue a patch on Tuesday for a critical vulnerability that could allow a hacker to gain control of a computer remotely, the company said in an alert on Thursday.

Microsoft will also host a Webcast at 11 a.m. PST as part of Patch Tuesday, which comes the second Tuesday of every month. There will be just one security update.

The critical vulnerability affects Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft will also release non-security updates on Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services, as well as an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.

Macworld Expo Storage and display vendor LaCie showcased its recently released 730 LCD Monitor at this week's Macworld Expo, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous 30-inch display with an equally jaw-dropping price of $4,239.99 (about £2,785).

Who on God's green earth would pay well over four-thousand bucks for an LCD display, even one as lovely as this one? Even Apple - a company not known for its low, low prices - charges just $1,799 for its 30-incher, and PC Connection is offering the well-received 30-inch Samsung SyncMaster 305T for just $1,249.

To answer that question, let's first look at the 730's specs: It's an LED-backlit screen, which ensures instant-on and even illumination, plus intense colors. It has a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1600. Not too shabby. But, still, pixels are just pixels. LaCie claims a contrast ratio of a killer 1000:1 and viewing angles of 178 degrees both horizontally and vertically.

Box.net has made two new interesting hires. On Thursday the Web storage provider announced the addition of Jen Grant as the new VP of Marketing, and David Lee who will be taking up the reins as Box's Director of Product Management.

Grant was formerly the head of Google's marketing team for Google Apps, while Lee was heading up work building advertising into several of Yahoo's video projects.

From a brief interview on the company's blog Lee says one of the things he hopes to improve is Box's business and collaboration features. Lee formerly worked on WebEx's MeetMeNow Web conferencing service as a UI designer, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. Last month company began a beta program with a handful of new features aimed at SMBs, filling in the gap between its consumer and enterprise offerings.

While reaction to Palm’s new Pre device are still trickling in, it’s already pretty clear that one group liked what Palm offered up at CES today: Its investors.

Palm’s stock is currently up over 30 percent on the day. While it opened the day at $3.36 a share, it currently stands at $4.30 a share. The stock immediately shot up following the Pre’s unveiling, before dropping back down to the $3.60 a share-range, but with the keynote address now over, the stock is heading north again.

General reactions also seem to be very good early on, though some, like GigaOM’s Om Malik are "totally disappointed" by the Pre.

Palm's new Pre, running its WebOS mobile operating system.(Credit: Corrine Schulze/CNET)

Palm took one giant step toward regaining its position as a relevant mobile computing company with the introduction of the Palm Pre Thursday.

If you missed out on Ina Fried's live coverage of Palm's press conference in Las Vegas at CES, here's a few basic details about the Pre (rhymes with glee). It's a touchscreen phone with a slide-out keyboard than runs WebOS, Palm's long-awaited new operating system formerly code-named Nova.

Sprint will be the exclusive launch carrier for the Pre, which comes with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a 3.1-inch display, GPS, and 8GBs of storage, among other things. Palm did not announce a price for the Pre, but said it should be available some time in the first half of 2009.

Like the Apple's iPhone, Palm's Pre has a single button when the slide-out keyboard is shut. Everything on the screen can be controlled by gestures similar to the ones used on the iPhone, and the homescreen has four icons at the bottom for the most frequently used tasks, such as the phone, e-mail, and calendar.

Verizon is following the herd with a broadband backup and sharing product for home PCs announced today. Just drag and drop your files into a folder on your PC, and Verizon will store them online for you - no matter who provides your broadband. The first 250 MB is free, but it will cost $30.99 a month for 50 GB.

I’ll applaud Verizon for trying to get more revenue from broadband subscribers (even other companies’) by offering a service rather than capping bandwidth or selling customers’ data, but that’s pricey. Verizon is reselling storage from DigiData. Providers such as Drop.io and SugarSync have similar services for less. Dropbox offers 50 GB for $99 a year or $9.99 a month, and SugarSync charges $9.99 a month for 60 Gb or $99.99 a year. And if you’re looking for backup only, get Carbonite - unlimited storage for $49.95 a year ($4.16 a month).

In 2007, U.S. officials recalled melamine-laced pet food and lead-coated toys that were killing cats and dogs and endangering toddlers. Last year it was melamine-tainted baby formula. And now, digital photo frames infected with computer viruses are the latest import from China.

"That phenomenon apparently has bled over to the digital side as well," Marcus Sachs, director of the Internet Storm Center at the SANS Institute (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security), said of the Chinese manufacturing problems that get exported. "Essentially, it's a supply chain problem. We've become dependent on a cheap source coming out of Asia."

The culprit is believed to be poor quality-assurance testing procedures in which one of every 1,000 or so devices is plucked off an assembly line and tested on a computer that is infected with a virus, he said.

Palm (PALM) bet the company on a new smartphone platform, and it looks like the bet could pay off.

Palm unveiled its new platform, Web OS, and its first phone, Pre, today at CES in Las Vegas. And from here in San Francisco -- without being able to touch it or see it in action yet -- it looks pretty good.

Which means... look out Apple (AAPL), RIM (RIMM), Google (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT).

Lots of details -- pricing, launch date, specs etc. -- to get sorted out, but:

Is this an iPhone killer? No. Will it be the second-best smartphone on the market for consumers? A possibility. A lot can change in six months, but this looks like a huge step up from what Palm has been shipping the last three years.

Update: Will Palm try to price itself into extinction? MediaMemo's Peter Kafka:

My assumption is that Palm would try to take market share by coming in significantly lower than the $200 or so that Apple wants for its iPhone. But when I ran that by theory by Palm CEO Ed Colligan, he looked at me liked I’d peed on his rug. “Why we would we do that when we have a significantly better product”, he told me, then walked away.

LAS VEGAS--It was fitting that in a city created as an elaborate fantasy world that a knight would get up on stage and tell us how to save the princess.

In this case, the knight is Sir Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony (and Knight Bachelor, a title awarded by the Queen of England), and the princess is the consumer electronics industry. And according to Stringer, one of the keys to slaying the monster of the recession we're in is the convergence of networked entertainment and technology.

In his keynote address on the opening day of CES here, besides pushing various Sony products like OLED TVs, Blu-ray players, and PlayStation 3, Stringer outlined a series of principles he says will be necessary to create consumer experiences that, if followed, will sustain the consumer electronics industry. The industry is expected to see negative growth for the first time in seven years.

CES Troubled Palm today launched its (hopefully) turnaround product, the Palm Pré, running its new Palm Web OS operating system.

There's a heck of a lot of Mac OS X and the Apple phone about the Pré - pronounced 'Pree' - with an animated application dock on the main view, Exposé-style app switcher, JavaScript widgets as applets, and full finger-flicking multi-touch control through the 3.1in, 320 x 480 touchscreen. The OS is full of curved edges and graphically sleek.

But the Pré improves on its rival by adding missing features: a slide down Qwerty microkeyboard, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR with A2DP wireless stereo, and a removable battery.

The handset packs in 8GB of Flash storage that appears as a mass storage device when the Pré's connected to a computer through its micro USB slot, which is also used for charging. It can be charged inductively, without cables too. The internet friendly device has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and EvDO, along with GPS and motion, proximity and ambient light sensors.

You've cleared away most of the web of myth. You know that today's evil viruses and other malware exist to make money, that antivirus alone is no guarantee of safety, and that neither is your own good sense (as important as that is). And you know that some of the best protection comes from keeping your software and your operating system up-to-date.

Now it's time to make sure you don't fall for the final and potentially worst myth: That the crooks own the Internet, and that the only good option is to use it as little as possible. Denying yourself the cornucopia of benefits the Internet can bring out of fear of its dark side.

Yes, you can get nailed. But that shouldn't stop you from venturing online, any more than the potential for getting the flu should prevent you from ever leaving your house. If you know the risks and prepare for them adequately, you can weight the odds heavily in your favor and confidently enjoy what the Web has to offer.

Nova Media has updated its iSync plug-in to support synchronization between a number of recently released mobile phones and Mac OS X.

iSync lets users synchronize contacts and dates between a cell phone and Mac OS X. Version 7.1.2.1 adds support for more than 200 new phones, including ones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. Nova Media has a complete list of supported devices on its Web site.

In addition to supporting a number of new phones, the application is now available in English, French and German.

For those just venturing into the plugin world or those who dislike hunting and pecking for their cell phone make, model and description, iSync sports an easy-to-use preference pane. Models come up in a list, and the user selects the model and is quickly on the way to synchronizing contacts and dates.