According to Yahoo!News, “

[c]onsumers spent more money online for clothes than computers last year, the first time that’s happened.  A report by the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org, out today, found apparel, accessories and footwear sales hit $18.3 billion in 2006, while computers were $17.2 billion. The group predicts 10% of all clothing sales will occur online this year, a sea change in how people shop.”

French-Law.net reports that “[o]n Thursday, the French government launched ‘Signal Spam’, an anti-spam platform created in association with public entities and private companies, such as Microsoft. Internet users will be able to report spam messages by mailing them to this platform which will act as a centralised monitor of spamming activities. The platform will generate a blacklist and help initiate prosecutions against spammers.”

Reuters writes that, according to a study released today, “[o]nline video sites that sell shows and movies such as Apple Inc.’s iTunes will likely peak this year as more programming is made available on free outlets supported by advertising.”

According to TechTalk, “[l]eading AV researchers at Kaspersky have now identified three criminal gangs which are participating in an increasingly desperate battle of the botnets.  […]  No longer are the gangs happy to settle for a slice of the spam pie, they want it all. And that means control over as many compromised third party computers to create the biggest of mega zombie botnets. To accomplish this, the gangs behind the Bagle, Warezov and Zhelatin worms are turning their attention to ridding those compromised computers of rival gang malware infections in order to install their own and gain that control.”

The Seattle Times reports that Microsoft announced today it is “partnering with nine hardware companies to offer a range of office phones and devices optimized to work with its new ‘unified communications’ software.  The 15 devices from makers including LG-Nortel, NEC, Samsung and Tatung are designed to take advantage of features in Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007, due out in the next two months.”