AP - Looking to leapfrog its rivals, computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a server chip that it claims will deliver more performance while requiring less electricity than competing microprocessors.

AP - An IBM-built computer that has topped the list of the world's 500 most powerful supercomputers has widened its lead in the latest ranking released Monday.

AP - Hoping to capture a larger slice of the small-business market, Cisco Systems Inc. is launching a bundled offering that will combine data, Internet telephone and other services in a single platform for companies with fewer than 100 employees.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. GOOG.O plans to give away a set of analytic tools allowing Web developers, administrators and advertisers to fine-tune their sites including advertising, the Web search leader said on Sunday.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said on Monday it was launching three entry-level phones as it seeks to broaden its portfolio beyond the high-end handsets for which it is best known.

Reuters - Virgin Group Ltd. on Monday is set to launch Virgin Digital Red Pass, the latest choice in the increasingly competitive field of comprehensive subscription music services. In addition to its library and package of editorial and other features, Red Pass undercuts other services by offering unlimited access for $7.99 a month without a contract.

Reuters - Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said on Monday it was launching three entry-level phones as it seeks to broaden its portfolio beyond the high-end handsets for which it is best known.

Reuters - Time Warner Inc.'s AOL said on Monday it planned to launch a free Internet television service by early 2006, in one of the technology and media industry's most ambitious designs to reach TV viewers online.

Reuters - Sun Microsystems Inc. on Sunday announced its latest microprocessor that is more powerful than its predecessors, uses less electricity, and is one of the cornerstones of the computer maker's plan to return to sustainable revenue and profit growth.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. cable television channels Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network will offer the online sale of several half-hour programs for $2.99 per download, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Data and communications equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO.O on Monday said it will release a version of its Linksys home networking system for small businesses, a key area in the company's growth strategy.

AP - Sales of accessories for portable digital players are soaring as the gadgets become the latest craze in take-along technology.

AFP - Strong sales of high-end digital cameras lifted Nikon's profits to record levels in the six months to September despite fierce competition in the compact market.

AP - Video game makers saw sales slump dramatically in October, but analysts still expect the industry to end the year with record-breaking sales after the busy holiday season, according to market research firm NPD Group.

AP - Dozens of old television shows including 'Welcome Back Kotter' will be available online and free-of-charge under a deal between America Online Inc. and Warner Bros., the companies announced.

AP - British telecommunications company O2 PLC on Monday reported strong growth in customer numbers and a higher profit in its final set of interim results as an independent company.

USATODAY.com - Investors are still trying to sort out whether the economic expansion is coming or going. Bulls betting the economy can continue to grow are focusing on areas, such as transportation and software, that do best early in an expansion.

InfoWorld - Sun Microsystems is gearing up for an early launch Monday of its UltraSparc T1, the multithreaded, multicore processor formerly code-named Niagara. The chip was previously slated to appear early in 2006.

The Christian Science Monitor - Deciding what kind of software Massachusetts wants to load on some 50,000 state computers may sound like something of interest only to über-geeks. But that decision could spark a revolution in how software is developed and sold.

Reuters - Sun Microsystems Inc. on Sunday announced its latest microprocessor that is more powerful than its predecessors, uses less electricity, and is one of the cornerstones of the computer maker's plan to return to sustainable revenue and profit growth.

Reuters - Israel's government on Monday approved a grant of $525 million for an investment by Intel Corp. to build a new chip plant in Israel, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour said.

PC World - Intel's newest chips are tuned to support virtualization, running several operating systems.

AFP - A tense dispute over US control of the Internet in the run-up to the World Summit on the Information Society could eventually lead to the break-up of the global network and hamper seamless browsing.

AFP - The Finnish government has launched a tender process for Europe's first mobile digital television licence with the aim that it will "lay the groundwork for a new type of content service market".

InfoWorld - CipherTrust has launched CipherTrust IronNet, a gateway security appliance designed to prevent information leakage and compliance violations in the enterprise.

PC World - Microsoft opens an Xbox lounge to give Japanese gamers an early turn at the console.

Reuters - Electronic Arts Inc. , the world's biggest video game publisher, has reduced prices on some titles by 20 percent to spur sales and thwart competition, an analyst said on Monday.

AP - As the Internet's influence grows, so too does resistance from nations wary of giving their citizens the tools to voice their opinions and mine the online mother lode of knowledge.

Reuters - Mercora Inc., an aggregator of over 500,000 individual Webcasters, on Monday began offering a version of its service to users of Google Inc.'s Google Talk instant messaging service.

Reuters - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn on Monday revealed that one of his investment vehicles no longer holds a $39 million stake in software maker Siebel Systems Inc. , but picked up 2.4 million shares, or about 2 percent, of memory card maker Lexar Media Inc. as of September 30, regulatory filings showed.

Macworld.com - Halloween has barely passed us by, and Thanksgiving has yet to arrive, but there is already a big red ribbon tied across the top of the Apple Store which can mean only one thing: ready or not, the holiday shopping season is upon us and Apple wants you to stuff at least a few stockings with nanos, shuffles and video iPods. If the analysts Playlist spoke with are correct, many of you will do just that.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - One in three mobile computers and smartphones is not protected with a password or security lock, even though they contain PIN codes and sensitive information, a survey showed on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner's TWX.N AOL said on Monday it planned to launch a free Internet television service by early 2006, in one of the technology and media industry's most ambitious designs to reach TV viewers online.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. GOOG.O plans to give away a set of analytic tools allowing Web developers, administrators and advertisers to fine-tune their sites including advertising, the Web search leader said on Sunday.

AP - Microsoft Corp. said Monday it will offer 18 Xbox 360 games when the new version of its video game console hits store shelves in North America next week.

AP - As the Internet's influence grows, so too does resistance from nations wary of giving their citizens the tools to voice their opinions and mine the online mother lode of knowledge.

AFP - Hollywood studio Warner Brothers said it plans to put thousands of episodes of old television favourites including "Wonder Woman" online for free under a groundbreaking deal with America Online.

FT.com - Peter Erskine, chief executive of O2, the UK mobile phone company, insisted on Monday that Telefónica would not repeat the mistakes made by France Telecom (NYSE:FTE)when it acquired Orange, if the Spanish telecoms group's £17.7bn ($30.8bn) bid for his company goes through.

AP - WebSideStory Inc. stock fell Monday after key competitor Google Inc. announced it will provide free Web-site usage tracking software, similar to the services Webside sells.

Reuters - Electronics testing and equipment maker Agilent Technologies Inc. on Monday posted a lower quarterly net profit due to restructuring charges, but still beat Wall St. estimates, sending its shares up by more than 5 percent.

NewsFactor - Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) today unveiled its first multithreaded UltraSparc processor, a chip that Sun promises will deliver cost savings to businesses running Web servers.

NewsFactor - Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is shipping the industry's first desktop processors that boast virtualization technology, which allows a computer to run different operating systems simultaneously.

AP - Microsoft Corp. said Monday it will offer 18 Xbox 360 games when the new version of its video game console hits store shelves in North America next week.

AFP - Powerhouse Internet portal Google began offering free data about effective way to market things online.

NewsFactor - Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has concluded that the rootkit Sony (NYSE: SNE) secretly included on some music CDs is malware and will be treated the same as any other malicious software. The company will update Windows AntiSpyware to detect and remove the Sony software.

AP - Microsoft Corp. said Monday it will offer 18 Xbox 360 games when the new version of its video game console hits store shelves in North America next week.

Macworld.com - The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked a judge to ensure that government users can continue to send each other e-mail on their 'essential' BlackBerry devices, even though the court has ruled against the maker of BlackBerry devices in a patent infringement case.

InfoWorld - Providing an alternative to JavaServer Pages (JSP) Web development and the PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) scripting language, Apache's Jakarta Velocity tools team is touting open source tools to function with the Velocity Java template engine.

Reuters - TiVo Inc. has created a digital video recorder with a name that has worked its way into the American lexicon, but its reputation among users and would-be users is beginning to erode amid generic competitors, according to a new study that relies on Internet buzz to study consumers' opinion.