Reuters - China has declared war on scams using mobile phone short messages that promise everything from fake cash prizes to sexual services to contract killings.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, said it will make a strategic shift by offering software with online services, a move analysts said was prompted by competition from Google and other rivals.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's anti-monopoly commission urged the government on Tuesday to allow cable companies to offer phone services through their networks, arguing that such access would lower call prices.

TechWeb - Dell updated its four-way PowerEdge server line Tuesday by offering customers Intel's dual-core Xeon processors.

PC World - Dual-Itanium BL60p will ship next year with HP's version of Unix.

TechWeb - The new Xeon processors are the first to ship with Intel's built-in virtualization technology, which will be turned on using a BIOS switch in early 2006.

TechWeb - The servers use Opteron processors from AMD and Fabric7's Q-Par technology to let customers create hardware-based partitions.

TechWeb - The BL60p is the first blade to support both the HP-UX 11i operating system and the Itanium 2 processor.

TechWeb - The mobile phone remains a cumbersome device for getting information from the Internet, so Web site AskMeNow is offering search with a human touch.

TechWeb - Sirius Satellite Radio reports that third-quarter revenues rose 250 percent.

TechWeb - Customers anxious to get their hands on Microsoft's new Xbox 360 gaming console, which won't be in stores until late November, are turning to eBay. The online auction site is hosting dozens of listings for the system.

TechWeb - The F-250 truck will offer a touch-screen PC, printer, and GPS for around $3,000 and will be available in 2006, Ford says.

PC World - Why bother printing snapshots yourself when using an online service is less trouble and saves you money?

BARCELONA (Reuters) - The world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia NOK1V.HE launched three new mobile devices on Wednesday, two multimedia phones and one able to receive mobile television broadcasts.

Reuters - It may not be quite what Steve Jobs had in mind, but an online search engine called Guba is set to offer vast amounts of pornography and other video files, specifically tailored for Apple's new iPods.

AFP - German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom said it had no intention of launching a counter-bid for British mobile phone operator O2, which is being targeted for takeover by Spanish operator Telefonica.

TechWeb - Apple Computer updates its Macintosh operating system to fix 60 flaws in the OS and bundled applications. Even for Apple.

USATODAY.com - Microsoft, battling Web giant Google, Tuesday announced 'Live' versions of its Windows and Office programs that are transmitted over the Internet instead of stored on a PC. The Live programs are meant to be complementary online services that work from any Web browser.

Reuters - The world's largest cellphone maker, Nokia (NOK1V.HE), said on Wednesday it expected the market for smartphones to double next year, and launched three new premium models it hopes will take advantage of that growth.

Ziff Davis - Lawyers involved in organizing a class-action suit against Apple over its iPod Nano device say that a significant number of consumers are trying to join in the effort.

AFP - In their quest for profits, Western companies are selling press muzzling equipment to China, censoring their search engines or blog tools and even passing on information that may help reveal the identity of journalists critical of Beijing.

AFP - European stock exchanges rose with Deutsche Telekom shares climbing in Frankfurt after it ruled out a counterbid for the British mobile phone group O2.

MacCentral - Mark/Space on Wednesday announced the release of The Missing Sync for Palm OS v5.0, a new version of their software to manage data synchronization between Macs and Palm OS-based devices, including many that do not come with software that natively supports the Mac. Priced at US$39.95, the software costs $24.95 to upgrade from previous versions.

Reuters - Four U.S. cable operators on Wednesday announced a $200 million mobile phone service joint venture with Sprint Nextel Corp.,, giving them another weapon in a growing battle with telephone companies.

PC World - Compact DSC-T9 uses two methods to compensate for shaking and ensure sharper images.

AP - A 67-year-old man who says he doesn't even like watching movies has been sued by the film industry for copyright infringement after a grandson of his downloaded four movies on their home computer.

AP - Shares of Sun Microsystems Inc. slipped Wednesday after the maker of servers and software posted a loss in the first quarter of its fiscal year despite a boost in sales from two recently closed acquisitions.

Reuters - The world's biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia (NOK1V.HE), said on Wednesday it is unhappy with the sales of its N-Gage gaming device and will bring the games to other phones to get enough scale.

Reuters - The world's largest cellphone maker, Nokia, said on Wednesday it expected the market for smartphones to double next year, and launched three new premium models it hopes will benefit from that growth.

Reuters - Mobile phone giant Nokia (NOK1V.HE) expects mobile TV networks using its chosen standard to be up and running by the middle of next year, allowing people to watch live TV broadcasts on their cellphones.

Reuters - Four U.S. cable operators on Wednesday announced a $200 million mobile phone service joint venture with Sprint Nextel Corp., giving them another weapon in a growing battle with telephone companies.

Reuters - News International, the newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate News Corp, said on Wednesday it had purchased the UK classified advertising Web site Propertyfinder.com for 14.3 million pounds.

AP - Four of the nation's top cable TV providers announced a long-awaited deal to deliver their own cell phone services through Sprint Nextel Corp., creating a 'quadruple play' of voice, video, Internet and wireless products for a new battle against telephone companies that are adding TV to their arsenals.

AP - Software maker Mercury Interactive Corp. Wednesday said Chief Executive Amnon Landan and two other executives resigned due to an internal investigation into stock-option grants.

AP - Stocks moved higher Wednesday as strong earnings from Time Warner Inc. outweighed an earnings miss by Sun Microsystems Inc. and lower guidance from Dean Foods.

PC World - Dell, HP, IBM choose Intel's latest CPU to power new systems.

Reuters - Electronic Arts Inc. , News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox Television and Gracie Films on Wednesday announced a long-term deal granting EA exclusive rights to develop multiple video games based on the Fox television series "The Simpsons."

AFP - Is Cupid showing signs of cupidity? In Europe battle has been joined for the continent's lonely hearts looking for love online -- but it's multi-million-euro revenues that are at stake, not the delicate blossoming of "Amour."

Ziff Davis - Business Portal Lite enables access to Microsoft's Solomon ERP system through Safari, Firefox, Mozilla and other non-Windows browsers.

AP - Stocks moved higher Wednesday as strong earnings from Time Warner Inc. outweighed an earnings miss by Sun Microsystems Inc. and lower guidance from Dean Foods.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Privately held AtomShockwave Corp. on Wednesday said it bought AddictingGames.com, a gaming Web site, expanding its presence in the online game market.

AP - The publisher of a financial newsletter told Maryland's second highest court Wednesday that he should not be forced to disclose his subscriber list and other information sought by an Arizona company seeking those it says made defamatory online comments.

Reuters - Shares of Internet network iVillage, an online women's media company, rose as much as 11.5 percent on Wednesday on talk it was exploring a sale, analysts said.

Reuters - Symantec Corp. shares tumbled nearly 20 percent on Wednesday, a day after the world's biggest security software maker cuts its full-year revenue forecast and said its chief financial officer was leaving the company.

AP - Stocks moved higher Wednesday on strong earnings from Time Warner Inc. and declining oil prices.

AP - Shares of Sun Microsystems Inc. slipped Wednesday after the maker of servers and software posted a loss in the first quarter of its fiscal year despite a boost in sales from two recently closed acquisitions.

NewsFactor - Security specialist Trend Micro (Nasdaq: TMIC) has introduced new antispyware software for enterprise-class networks, providing protection for desktop and server hardware and helping larger organizations keep their systems clean.

NewsFactor - HP this week unveiled its first blade server supporting the HP-UX operating system and powered by Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC) Itanium 2 processor. The new offering targets enterprise Unix users looking to extend their distributed-computing networks.

AP - Nokia Corp., the world's top mobile phone maker, launched three new multimedia handsets Wednesday that let users watch TV, play music and swap content between electronic devices at home.

NewsFactor - Tablet PCs are rivaling their notebook counterparts in full force these days. The HP Compaq tc4200 Tablet PC is no exception, packing enough hardware to outperform many midlevel business laptops and managing to do so in a smaller, more mobile package.

NewsFactor - Sony (NYSE: SNE) has introduced software to enhance the reputation of its PlayStation Portable (PSP) gaming device as a multifunctional product. The new application lets users easily transfer a variety of content from a computer to the PSP.

NewsFactor - Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has announced that it will roll out online versions of its Windows operating system, in addition to other applications, kicking off what the company is calling the 'live era' of software.

Reuters - Wireless technology company Qualcomm Inc. on Wednesday posted higher fiscal fourth-quarter earnings as revenue rose on strong demand in the market for mobile phones.

AP - Software maker Mercury Interactive Corp. Wednesday said Chief Executive Amnon Landan and two other executives resigned due to an internal investigation into stock-option grants.

NewsFactor - In a new CRM report, research firm Gartner (NYSE: IT) has noted that revenue generated from CRM software licenses should continue to grow, driven by quickly moving industry segments, such as marketing automation.

Reuters - Shares of Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday jumped to a record high as investors made bets on growth in its digital music and video businesses, analysts said.

AP - After a chorus of criticism, Sony Corp.'s music division said Wednesday it is distributing a free software patch to reveal hidden files that automatically installed to hard drives when some of its music CDs were played on personal computers.

Reuters - Four U.S. cable operators on Wednesday announced a $200 million mobile phone service joint venture with Sprint Nextel Corp., giving them another weapon in a growing battle with telephone companies.

AP - Nearly three in five school-age teens with Internet access have created online content, including Web pages with artwork, photos and stories — and about a fifth have their own blogs, which also allow friends and other readers to create feedback postings.

AP - Driven largely by the growth in legal music services, U.S. spending on online content grew 16 percent to nearly $1 billion in the first half of the year.

AP - Political bloggers should not have their free speech rights infringed upon by campaign finance law, House lawmakers said Wednesday in debating legislation that critics said opens up a new loophole for uncontrolled campaign spending.

PC World - Model S60 smart phones from Nokia and Siemens can use the new Safari-based browser.

AP - Symantec Corp. stock fell Wednesday, a day after the software maker cut its financial forecast and announced the surprise retirement of its chief financial officer.

BusinessWeek Online - In the early 1980s, Shigeru Miyamoto got his first glimpse of a Rubik's Cube at a toy fair in Japan. The young video-game creator from Nintendo Co. (ntdof.pk.PK) found the six-sided puzzle to be an ideal toy -- a cinch to get started, murder to solve, and impossible to put down. Miyamoto kept those qualities in mind when he created Super Mario Bros., which went on to become the hottest-selling video game of all time, with more than 40 million copies sold. And the mustachioed carpenter-turned-plumber was in good company. Six of Miyamoto's games are among the global top 10 sellers.

Reuters - Wireless technology company Qualcomm Inc. on Wednesday posted higher quarterly earnings as revenue rose 40 percent as demand grew for mobile devices including phones with video players and Web browsers.

InfoWorld - ActiveState is looking to accommodate the burgeoning interest in the open source Ruby programming language by supporting it in the company's IDE. Officially being launched on Thursday, ActiveState's Komodo 3.5 IDE adds Ruby to a list of other programming languages supported, such as Python, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), and Perl. Version 3.5 also offers support of the Mac OS X platform.

Reuters - Micron Technology Inc. is in a good position to benefit when the computer industry switches to computer flash memory from using hard disk drives to store data, Chief Executive Steve Appleton said.

AP - Google Inc.'s Internet-leading search engine on Thursday will begin serving up the entire contents of books and government documents that aren't entangled in a copyright battle over how much material can be scanned and indexed from five major libraries.

AP - A quartet of Internet telephone providers has asked a federal appeals court to partially delay enforcement of new Federal Communications Commission guidelines requiring them to ensure reliable 911 emergency call service.

AP - Business software maker Novell Inc. will cut about 600 positions, or more than 10 percent of its work force, by January as part of its restructuring efforts to concentrate on core strategic areas such as the Linux and open-source markets.

Reuters - Micron Technology Inc. sees partnerships with other companies as a strategy to improve performance, Chief Executive Steve Appleton said on Wednesday amid speculation that Micron might form a partnership with Intel Corp.