"If you visited the Plasma project's outdated Web site in past weeks, you might have gotten the impression that the team behind the project to revitalize the KDE desktop hasn't been up to much these past months. Delve into KDE's SVN repository, mailing lists, or the mind of lead developer Aaron Seigo, however, and you'll find a more exciting story." More here.

Microsoft is using the multi-touch technology that they implemented into their Surface Table and porting it to normal computers. Check out the video of a demo of a Vista laptop modified to use multi-touch.

The lack of announcements about 64-bit Carbon in Mac OS X Leopard created uncertainty about Carbon's 64bit capabilities in the developer community. But it seems like only the UI parts of the Carbon API are not ported to 64 bit - at least according to Apple engineers on the Apple mailing list.

The Internet opens new doors to artists, there is no question about that. And between geeks like us here at OSNews, we should be supporting the independent artists. The most well-known online Indie short film competition, DVXFest, finished last week and the results are in. The latest theme was "make a spy movie", and one of our favorites, "Imprint" by Van Blumreich was awarded second place (a production that cost just $500). The story is set in a somewhat-futuristic time that's been plagued by the deadly Long Virus. Rob Cardine is dying of it and in order to keep himself alive, he carries out ethically questionable assignments in order to receive treatments for his disease. But when an assignment goes wrong, Rob is confronted with his own questions of ethics and humanity. How far is too far? Click here to download and view the short movie for free (48 MB), and read more for our interview with Van Blumreich.

Apple on Wednesday afternoon released Mac OS X 10.4.10, a free maintenance update recommended for all PowerPC and Intel-based Mac computers running versions of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. The update includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific enhancements to RAW camera support and third-party application support. Additionally, Apple said the update bundles security improvements and fixes for mounting and unmounting external USB devices.

Microsoft agreed Tuesday to make changes to the desktop search feature in Windows Vista in an effort to assuage Google and head off a further antitrust battle with U.S. regulators. Under the agreement, Microsoft will create a mechanism whereby both computer makers and individuals will be able to choose a default desktop search program, much as they can choose a rival browser or media player, even though those technologies are built into Windows.