Amazon.com on Thursday announced its first-ever software developer's kit for anyone who wants to create active content for its popular Kindle e-readers.
 
The Kindle Development Kit (KDK) will be available in limited beta form next month and the new software and other content from the initiative is expected to be in the Kindle Store later this year, Amazon said in a statement.
 

Microsoft has confirmed that it is investigating reports of a vulnerability in the firm's Internet Information Services (IIS) software. The vulnerability that could allow an attacker to take over a server is reported to be in the file transfer function of versions 5.0, 5.1 and 6.0 of Microsoft's IIS product. Microsoft said in a security advisory that although detailed exploit code has been published for this vulnerability, the company is not aware of any active attacks. "Microsoft is actively monitoring this situation to keep customers informed and to provide customer guidance as necessary," the advisory said.

Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara, Calif., is announcing the firmware software development tools release of the Green Hills Probe hardware-assisted microprocessor debugging solution.

The Green Hills Probe works together with the company's Multi software development environment to enable software developers to gain the control and visibility required to perform board bring-up, device driver development, and other system debugging tasks.

A Facebook spokesperson said the company had invited way too many users to start testing the new system yesterday. With the rush of traffic, the site crashed, leaving the testers with nothing more than a broken link.

Facebook called the new bare-bones version a fast-loading, easy-to-use version of the social network that's designed for people either new to social networking or in an area with limited broadband access.

"We are currently testing a simplified alternative to Facebook.com that loads a specific set of features quickly and efficiently," said the spokesperson.