Reuters - IBM on Tuesday launched a set of software tools it hopes will spur wider interest in its upcoming Cell microprocessor that is key to the computing giant's return to profitable chipmaking.

TechWeb - The chip vendor is investing in Canada's Tekion Inc., which makes hybrid fuel cell and battery technology for mobile products.

TechWeb - Adults appear to be warming up to new technology, with nearly 3 in 10 saying they've become more accepting of the latest gadgets and computers over the last year.

TechWeb - Motorola Inc. on Tuesday unveiled two models of its sleek Razr cellular phone.

TechWeb - Sony BMG's woes over its CD copy protection scheme continues as a security company accused the entertainment firm of shoving spyware onto users' PCs.

TechWeb - Michael Robertson, founder of MP3tunes and Linspire, has always been something of a maverick in the IT industry. Now he's taking that reputation to a new level with his most recent hire--Jon Lech Johansen, also known as 'DVD Jon.'

TechWeb - Consumers in Mexico and the U.K. have joined the legal attack on Apple Computer's iPod nano.

TechWeb - AMD is more popular in retail PCs and notebooks, but Intel continues to lead the market in revenue, analysts say.

TechWeb - PC software infections are driving Windows users to switch, says Needham & Co. analyst Charles Wolf in a report.

Reuters - Vietnam opened its first satellite-linked ground station on Wednesday to help bring telephone and Internet services to each village by the end of this year, officials said.

TechWeb - Google hopes to use the $2,995 giveaway to capitalize on uncertainly in the enterprise search market created by Autonomy Corporation's recent acquisition of Verity.

AP - Pixar Animation Studios Inc. and The Walt Disney Co. are having 'very productive' discussions about a new distribution deal, Pixar CEO Steve Jobs told analysts, as Pixar company reported robust income in the latest quarter.

Reuters - Images of the wave of violence that has swept France for 12 consecutive nights have been splashed around the world by the press, television and the Internet. But French viewers hoping to update themselves on the country's worst civil unrest in decades are being offered little or no coverage by the nation's top broadcasters outside of regular afternoon and evening newscasts.

AP - U.S. stock futures hovered around the flat line Wednesday, with American International Group again calling into question the accuracy of its books while networking giant Cisco may see positioning ahead of its earnings report.

PARIS (Reuters) - France's government is policing cyberspace as well as rundown suburbs in the battle to end two weeks of rioting.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp. 6502.T and NEC Electronics Corp. 6723.T will join hands in developing next-generation chip technology to speed up the process and limit costs, the companies said on Wednesday.

MacCentral - Chip-making underdog Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) edged past Intel Corp. last month in supplying processors for the U.S. retail PC market, according to a study by research firm Current Analysis Inc.

PC World - Updated Jetadmin print management software and new drivers expected at conference.

MacCentral - The unrest among Palm OS developers over Palm Inc.’s forthcoming Windows Mobile-based Treo smart phone has prompted Palm President and Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan to pen a letter to Palm’s developer community with promises to continue releasing Palm OS products.

PC World - Recent slip in shipments raises questions about PC vendor's high-flying path.

AP - Microsoft Corp. is teaming with The Associated Press to offer an advertising-supported online video news network in the first quarter of 2006, the companies announced Wednesday.

AP - The entrepreneur who runs Yahoo Inc.'s China-based Web portal has announced a new strategy based on promoting the site as a search engine, saying he's ready to spend heavily in a battle with Chinese-language search leader Baidu.com.

AP - A man has been ordered held without bond on charges of spreading electronic viruses so he could gain control over military and other computers and sell access to hackers and spammers.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless said on Wednesday that it had received a court injunction to stop a Florida investigative agency from fraudulently obtaining confidential information about its wireless subscribers.

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - A federal judge said on Wednesday he would review a disputed settlement in the patent infringement case against the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device but said it was 'highly unlikely' that he would delay the case pending a review by the U.S. Patent Office.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd. RIM.TO RIMM.O shares fell almost 3 percent on Wednesday following the latest development in a patent infringement case that could lead to a shutdown of its BlackBerry e-mail service in the United States.

AP - Microsoft Corp. is teaming with The Associated Press to offer an advertising-supported online video news network in the first quarter of 2006, the companies announced Wednesday.

The Christian Science Monitor - If a terrorist tried to sneak a 'dirty' bomb into the United States, would anyone notice?

Reuters - Corporations could cut paperwork costs by making more use of the Internet to communicate with shareholders under a measure soon expected to come before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Nokia and Microsoft are almost giving away software to muscle into the wireless e-mail business now dominated by Research In Motion, the maker of the popular BlackBerry.

Ziff Davis - Microsoft's chief software architect tells Microsoft's top execs 'the next sea change is upon us.' Read the full text of his memo here.

Macworld.com - In the late 1980s a pair of brothers, Rand and Robyn Miller, founded a game development studio called Cyan. They created a series of memorable children’s games including The Manhole, Cosmic Osmo and Spelunx, gradually winning critical praise and seeing commercial success for creating non-violent games in which players were encouraged to spend time solving problems rather than reacting with their trigger fingers.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. MGM.N on Wednesday said it would support the new high definition Blu-ray Disc format, created by a group led by Sony Corp. 6758.T.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O must change its business to better compete against an array of new competitors offering technology and services on the Internet, Bill Gates, the world's largest software maker's chairman, said in a recent memo to executives.

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Research in Motion Ltd. RIM.TO RIMM.O, maker of the BlackBerry handheld e-mail device, suffered a setback in a potentially damaging patent infringement suit when a judge said on Wednesday he was unlikely to await a U.S. patent office review.

AP - Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told shareholders Wednesday that the software behemoth measures its success by its products, not its share price.

BOSTON (Reuters) - It's looking like it may be a slow holiday season for PC Plus, an independent retailer in Austin, Texas, that sells Toshiba and Acer computers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday said they would press ahead with draft legislation that would ease the path for telephone companies to enter the video business.

NewsFactor - Advanced Micro Devices pushed past arch rival Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) as the top supplier of processors for the U.S. retail PC market in October, based on strong desktop sales. The October numbers provide a feather in the cap for AMD (NYSE: AMD) as it strives to gain market share.

NewsFactor - An unavoidable fact of computing is that PC owners must attend to what are, essentially, design flaws. Everyday use can cause Windows PCs to slow down, through disk fragmentation, conflicting DLLs, and registry issues -- not to mention outside threats such as viruses and spyware.

AP - The New York Times Co. said Wednesday it had signed up about 135,000 paying subscribers to its new online service that offers access to Op-Ed columns and other premium content.

NewsFactor - An online scam offering the lure of free money through a bogus Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Web site has been uncovered by security company Websense, which reported that the site was shut down about 30 hours after it was first discovered on Monday.

NewsFactor - Today, CIOs are more comfortable with creating heterogeneous environments that include open source and Linux, according to several high-level speakers at a recent conference.

NewsFactor - IBM's (NYSE: IBM) Tivoli software family is one of the most comprehensive enterprise-level packages ever developed. One of Tivoli's premier components is Storage Manager with Backup and Recovery Management -- a tool designed to provide a precious safety blanket for any network.

AP - Catching a favorite TV show used to require being at the right place at the right time: plopped in front of a set whenever a network decided to broadcast something of interest.

AP - Cell phone providers are adopting a ratings system for multimedia services to flag music, video and gaming products intended for adults. They will also provide tools to block access to that content.

AP - America Online Inc. is updating its privacy policy to outlaw a marketing tactic it has already stopped employing and to permit the targeting of ads and content based on what users do online.

AP - In one of the largest sales yet of property in an online game, a Miami resident has bought a virtual space station for $100,000 and wants to turn it into a cross between Jurassic Park and a disco.

Reuters - A federal judge on Wednesday granted video game industry groups' request for a preliminary injunction preventing the state of Michigan from enforcing a new law aimed at banning sales of violent video games to minors.

AP - The stock of Chinese cell-phone designer Comtech Group Inc. jumped Wednesday on an analyst's upgrade.

InfoWorld - SAN FRANCISCO -- Borland Software is in a peculiar spot when it comes to offering tools for developing Windows applications.

Reuters - Record company Sony BMG Music Entertainment has been targeted in a class-action lawsuit in California by consumers claiming their computers have been harmed by anti-piracy software on some Sony BMG CDs.

Ziff Davis - It's looking like it may be a slow holiday season for PC Plus, an independent retailer in Austin, Texas, that sells Toshiba and Acer computers.

Investor's Business Daily - In what's usually the slowest period for networking gear sales, Cisco Systems reported solid -- but not spectacular -- fiscal first-quarter results.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Casio Computer Co. Ltd. 6952.T is making an overseas push with plans to supply 3G phones to U.S. mobile carriers and for a deal to win shelf space for its digital cameras at U.S. electronics retailer Best Buy BBY.N, Casio President Kazuo Kashio said on Wednesday.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O must change its business to better deliver software and services over the Internet to compete against new technology upstarts, Chairman Bill Gates said in a recent memo to executives.

AP - A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday stopping a Michigan law that bars retailers from selling or renting violent video games to minors from going into effect until a lawsuit filed by the gaming industry is resolved.

Macworld.com - Perhaps one of the greatest songwriters in music history will soon have his music available for digital download. Former Beatles frontman, John Lennon’s entire solo catalogue will be made available on several online music services, but not on Apple’s iTunes Music Service.