News For Wednesday Aug 20, 2008 News For Wednesday Aug 20, 2008

Science & Technology Science & Technology

Ericsson, STMicroelectronics form joint venture - Added 20 minutes ago

Swedish wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson AB and Swiss chip-maker STMicroelectronics NV unveiled plans Wednesday to create a 50-50 joint venture that will make a key component known as chipsets for mobile phones. ...

Some eBay sellers frustrated with rule changes - Added 30 minutes ago

Some people who sell things on eBay are fed up with new rules the company has been imposing in hopes of making the auction site more attractive to online shoppers. Now even more changes are coming in the next few weeks,...

HP posts 3Q profit jump; faces stiff competition - Added 4 hours ago

Hewlett-Packard Co. weathered economic turbulence remarkably well in the fiscal third quarter but the technology bellwether faces another big challenge _ stiffer personal-computer competition _ that threatens to slow...

China limits use of Olympians' names online - Added 6 hours ago

China has banned the use of its Olympic gold medalists' names as Internet addresses by anyone but the athletes themselves. The move announced Tuesday came after companies registered the names of winning Chinese...

IBM to spend $300M to expand data-recovery service - Added 10 hours ago

In a sign that political instability and natural disasters can fuel technology spending, IBM Corp. plans to invest $300 million building new centers that can store companies' sensitive data and deliver it remotely in...

Summary Box: HP 3Q profit jumps 14 pct - Added 13 hours ago

THE RESULTS: Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday that its fiscal third-quarter profit jumped 14 percent while sales rose 10 percent _ 5 percent if adjusting for currency fluctuations _ as strong laptop sales and a robust...

Judge lifts gag on students over transit security - Added 14 hours ago

A federal judge Tuesday lifted a gag order on three MIT students who were barred from talking publicly about security flaws they discovered in the state's automated mass transit fare system, even as a lawyer for the...

NASA fixes moonship shaking with shock absorbers - Added 14 hours ago

A space-age version of the rusty springs under old pickup trucks will help NASA fix the most pressing technical problem with its high-tech new rocket to send astronauts back to the moon. NASA is going to use 17...

Apple releases fix for iPhone 3G connectivity woes - Added 14 hours ago

Apple Inc. has released an iPhone software update it says improves communication between the smart phone and wireless networks. The iPhone 3G, which went on sale July 11, connects to cellular providers' speedier...

Intel unveils new chip design to challenge AMD - Added 16 hours ago

Intel Corp. cracked the lid Tuesday on a new chip design that is at once a big challenge to smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and an admission that AMD nailed a key design feature before it slipped into a severe...

Hewlett-Packard 4Q guidance tops estimates - Added 17 hours ago

Hewlett-Packard Co. offered a fiscal fourth-quarter outlook Tuesday that surpassed Wall Street's estimate. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said it expects to turn a profit of between $1.01 and $1.03 in the...

Apple says battery problem caused iPod overheating - Added 18 hours ago

Apple Inc. said Tuesday that batteries from a single supplier are to blame for the meltdown of some models of its tiny iPod Nano digital music player. The company's written statement came in response to a Japanese...

Modesto Bee offers buyouts to all full-timers - Added 18 hours ago

The Modesto Bee is offering buyouts to all its full-time employees, the newspaper's second round of buyout offers this year. Bee publisher Margaret Randazzo said the offer was extended Monday to about 200 full-time...

Friendster supports applications for rival sites - Added 18 hours ago

Friendster, an early online social network that has faded in the United States but remains strong in Asia, has begun letting programmers create photo-sharing applications and other programs that work on Friendster as...

Clueless about trading? Start networking online - Added 19 hours ago

Erin O'Brien and her friends are do-it-yourself investors. As part of an online community at the brokerage Zecco, they consult each other on terminology, tax law and investment philosophy. Having tagged each other as...

IOC wants opening ceremonies off file sharing site - Added 21 hours ago

The International Olympic Committee is trying to stop downloads of video of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony that are being spread on The Pirate Bay, a file-sharing Web site. IOC Vice President Gunilla Lindberg...

WSJ launches free news application for BlackBerry - Added 22 hours ago

The Wall Street Journal launched a wireless application for BlackBerry smart phones Tuesday as news organizations look for opportunities to tap an emerging market for mobile advertising. The free WSJ.com Mobile Reader...

Analysts: US consumers buying fewer cell phones - Added 23 hours ago

U.S. consumers have been buying significantly fewer cell phones but paying higher prices for them, according to a research firm. The NPD Group said in a report Tuesday that 28 million cell phones were sold in the...

Japan to start overseas cell phone technology push - Added 1 day ago

Japan will start an aggressive push to market abroad its mobile technology, especially the nation's popular "wallet phone," a government official said Tuesday. Although Japan boasts some of the most sophisticated cell...

Nokia provides Lonely Planet maps on cell phones - Added 1 day ago

Nokia and travel information company Lonely Planet said Tuesday they are joining forces to sell maps and city guides that can be accessed on mobile phones. The world's largest handset maker said users of Nokia Maps can...

Australian PM urges more US climate change action - Added 1 day ago

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged the United States on Tuesday to take more action on climate change and become more involved in the global debate on the issue. As the only developed nation not to sign the...

Electronic Arts won't extend Take-Two deadline - Added 1 day ago

Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. is retracting its hostile bid for smaller rival Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., but a deal _ and a friendly one at that _ is likelier than ever. Take-Two, best known for...

Researchers say numbers aren't needed to count - Added 1 day ago

Answer this without counting: Are there more X's here XXXXXX, or here XXXXX? That's a problem facing people whose languages don't include words for more than one or two. Yet researchers say children who speak those...

Poorest countries growing fastest - Added 1 day ago

The world's poorest countries have one thing in ever greater abundance _ people. "Nearly all of world population growth is now concentrated in the world's poorer countries," said Bill Butz, president of the Population...

Analog TV shutdown kills free cell-phone TV - Added 2 days ago

!!-- pobj:NYR101-0701081047 -->Picture whipping out your cell phone and catching up with "Lost" or "Jeopardy," or watching the local 11 o'clock news, all for free. You can do this with an imported Chinese phone, but you...

Forget HD DVD: Toshiba focuses on plain old DVD - Added 2 days ago

After losing out in the battle to define the high-definition successor of the DVD, Toshiba Corp. has turned its attention to the next best thing: the DVD. On Monday, the Japanese electronics company is releasing a new...

Forget HD DVD: Toshiba focuses on plain old DVD - Added 2 days ago

After losing out in the battle to define the high-definition successor of the DVD, Toshiba Corp. has turned its attention to the next best thing: the DVD. On Monday, the Japanese electronics company is releasing a new...

Analog TV shutdown kills free cell-phone TV - Added 2 days ago

!!-- pobj:NYR101-0701081047 -->Picture whipping out your cell phone and catching up with "Lost" or "Jeopardy," or watching the local 11 o'clock news, all for free. You can do this with an imported Chinese phone, but...

In Germany, wandering whale creates wonderment - Added 4 days ago

Germans have been treated to the rare sight of a lone and wayward humpback whale swimming in the Baltic Sea, but marine biologists said it may be doomed because the waterway lacks the conditions such mammals need to...

Guess what? Military funds mind-reading science - Added 4 days ago

Here's a mind-bending idea: The U.S. military is paying scientists to study ways to read people's thoughts. The hope is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers...

NASA halts space suit contract with Texas firm - Added 4 days ago

NASA said Friday it terminated its contract with a Houston company selected in June to supply the space agency's next-generation space suit. NASA said it determined that an unspecified compliance issue required it to...

Microsoft file format approved as ISO standard - Added 4 days ago

The format used by Microsoft Corp.'s Office 2007 programs to save documents will become an international standard after appeals against the move failed to gather sufficient support, the International Organization for...

Cablevision will pay 10-cent quarterly dividend - Added 4 days ago

Cablevision Systems Corp. said Friday it will pay its first-ever regular dividend in September, a conciliatory move toward shareholders as the company seeks to boost its stock price. The decision by the diversified...

Airlines push for homegrown jet fuel - Added 4 days ago

With the price of oil still above $100 a barrel, everything from wood chips to chicken fat is being scrutinized as an alternative to traditional fuel. But when it comes to airplanes, finding the right mix poses a...

Netflix resumes normal shipping after 3-day glitch - Added 4 days ago

Online DVD rental leader Netflix Inc. resumed normal shipments Friday after its distribution centers were crippled by three days of severe technical problems, a spokesman said. The Los Gatos-based company also offered...

New magazine-sharing site may violate copyrights - Added 4 days ago

The magazine industry, already facing a decline in newsstand sales and falling ad revenue, is being besieged by a new foe: digital piracy. A fledgling Web site called Mygazines.com encourages people to copy and upload...

Qwest union contract expires Saturday - Added 4 days ago

The labor contract with the largest union at Qwest Communications International Inc. expires Saturday, little more than a week before the company is to provide phone and Internet service for the Democratic National...

Yahoo selects Biondi, Chapple as new board members - Added 4 days ago

Yahoo Inc. said Thursday it will add the former chief executives of Viacom and Nextel Partners to its board of directors as part of the company's deal to ward off a proxy fight with billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The...

Worrying invasive snail found in Lake Michigan - Added 5 days ago

Scientists worry that a rapidly reproducing, tiny invasive snail recently found in Lake Michigan could hurt the lake's ecosystem. The New Zealand mud snail joins a long and growing list of nonnative species moving into...

Court says copyrights apply even for free software - Added 5 days ago

In a crucial win for the free software movement, a federal appeals court has ruled that even software developers who give away the programming code for their works can sue for copyright infringement if someone...

Remains of cemetery found in Sahara - Added 5 days ago

A tiny woman and two children were laid to rest on a bed of flowers 5,000 years ago in what is now the barren Sahara Desert. The slender arms of the youngsters were still extended to the woman in perpetual embrace when...

Netflix shipping centers slammed by problems - Added 5 days ago

Netflix Inc. said Thursday that major technical problems over the past three days have severely limited the number of DVDs it could send out. The unspecified problems affected all of the Los Gatos-based company's 55...

Xbox to sell Warner Music videos for $1.99 - Added 5 days ago

Gamers with a hankering to watch music videos will have more choices after Warner Music Group Corp. announced Thursday it is adding its library of videos to Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 game console. Videos from Sony...

Ex-Apple top attorney settles with SEC for $2.2M - Added 5 days ago

The former top attorney at Apple Inc. on Thursday agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle federal regulators' charges that she altered company records to conceal improper backdating of stock options for senior executives...

July video game sales jump 28 percent - Added 5 days ago

Even in a seasonally slow month and with the economy in the doldrums, U.S. sales of video game hardware and software soared 28 percent in July, hitting $1.19 billion. According to data from market researcher NPD Group,...

Yahoo selects Biondi, Chapple as new board members - Added 5 days ago

Yahoo Inc. said Thursday it will add the former chief executives of Viacom and Nextel Partners to its board of directors as part of the company's deal to ward off a proxy fight with billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The...

Court says copyrights apply even for free software - Added 5 days ago

In a crucial win for the free software movement, a federal appeals court has ruled that even software developers who give away the programming code for their works can sue for copyright infringement if someone...

New BlackBerry expected within month in N. America - Added 5 days ago

The new BlackBerry model should be coming to North America within a month now that Research In Motion Ltd. has started selling it in Germany and Chile. The first major new BlackBerry model in more than a year, the Bold...

Judge keeps gag order in subway hacking case - Added 5 days ago

Three college students who discovered a way to hack into the Boston subway system's payment cards and add hundreds of dollars in value to them were ordered again Thursday to keep details of their findings secret. A...

Autodesk sees FY '09 profit of $1.72-$1.78 a share - Added 5 days ago

Autodesk Inc. said it expects to report earnings of $1.72 to $1.78 per share _ or $2.24 to $2.30 excluding items _ on $2.5 billion to $2.53 billion in revenue for fiscal 2009, ending in January. The San Rafael,...