BusinessWeek Online - It's the kind of notoriety that comes with a $2.6 billion buyout. Since Luxembourg-based Internet telephone startup Skype Technologies was gobbled up by online marketplace eBay Inc. for that princely sum in September, Skype has added 12 million more users, for a total of 66 million -- and has attracted a boatload of closer scrutiny.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Capcom's 'Resident Evil 4,' 'Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie' from Ubisoft and Oscar-winning actor Charlize Theron were among the winners at the 3rd Spike TV Video Game Awards held in Los Angeles on Friday.

TUNIS (Reuters) - A U.N. summit this week made progress in narrowing the technology gap between rich and poor countries, participants said, despite rich nations' reluctance to contribute to a development fund pushed by African states.

TechWeb - Alienware has released a new mobile workstation featuring high-performance AMD Opteron processors.

TechWeb - Peppercon has reduced its KVM-over-IP chipset to a single-chip solution, promising server management down on the motherboard and advanced management features as a result.

TechWeb - Sun Microsystems’ distribution strategy is in flux as the company steps back from the small-business server arena and ponders its relations with new distributors inherited with its acquisition of StorageTek.

TechWeb - Bill Gates talks to <i>InformationWeek</i> about how work done at Microsoft Research can apply to science, medicine and engineering, how more powerful desktop processors can improve user interfaces, and his evolving role at Microsoft.

TechWeb - A new marketplace research service at eBay forecasts trends in online sales. The tool takes consumer behavior, analyzes the results and predicts sales.

TechWeb - Consumers are unhappy with buying a cellular phone from carriers, giving higher ratings to retailers, a research firm says.

TechWeb - Think Secret, an unofficial Mac enthusiast site, has reported that Apple Computer Inc. plans to release an Intel-based iBook in January.

TechWeb - Printer upstart Dell lead all other sellers in customer satisfaction, while long-time powerhouse Hewlett-Packard tied for third, a sruvey says.

TechWeb - A Nokia executive says the company is banking on there being about three billion mobile phone users by 2010.

TechWeb - With the help of U.N. and MIT, $100 laptops are expected to be available for children worldwide in early 2006.

Ziff Davis - In a move suggesting major entertainment companies are warming up to the file-swapping technology they'd once hoped to blot out, NBC Universal announced it would make its content available through a partnership with Wurld Media, parent of the legitimate P2P Peer Impact network.

AP - Johnathan Wendel's blue eyes stare raptly at the computer screen, his long, thin fingers gliding the mouse side to side as he moves through dark corridors of a video game where a lethal opponent lurks. Before long, seemingly without effort, he has annihilated his foe.

AP - Former ABBA member Benny Andersson has composed a ring tone for mobile phones that will be sent to people who donate money to the Swedish Red Cross' annual Christmas collection drive, the organization said Friday.

AP - WASHINGTON — People could carry their medical records around their necks or on key chains through technology being encouraged in a bill passed Friday by the Senate.

AFP - US software titan Microsoft takes the computer game wars to the Japanese enemy with the North American launch Tuesday of its next-generation Xbox 360 console.