SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios' alien shooting video game 'Gears of War' on Wednesday took home three honors at the Game Developers Choice Awards, winning best game as well as awards for technology and visual arts.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bulky, outlandish professional wrestlers will soon be fighting for space on tiny mobile phone screens thanks to Cingular Wireless.

Reuters - Bulky, outlandish professional wrestlers will soon be fighting for space on tiny mobile phone screens thanks to Cingular Wireless.

TechWeb - Similar to Second Life, users can build their own virtual apartments, including custom furniture, floors, and walls.

TechWeb - The sidebar now blends into the image on a user's desktop and the various Google Gadgets sport interface and design improvements.

TechWeb - To entice potential customers, Amazon is offering $15 worth of free movie or TV show downloads to TiVo subscribers who register for the new service by April 30.

AP - Gasoline prices have jumped above $3 a gallon in some parts of California and Hawaii, and may hit that level other parts of the country when the busy summer driving season approaches. 'It kills me,' said Gloria Nunez, 53, as she filled her Ford Explorer SUV at a San Jose gas station. Nunez, a clerk for a communications company, has started working a couple hours of overtime each week to help soften the blow.

TechWeb - The problematic fix, issued last December, affected the Firefox browser and the SeaMonkey application suite.

AP - The executive who led Microsoft Corp.'s Web search division is leaving the his post with the software maker to start his own business, Microsoft people aware of the situation said Wednesday.

TechWeb - The announcements come as Nortel launches its North American Optimized Networking campaign, building on IPT 1-2-3 campaigns from last year.

AFP - "Gears of War" designed for the Xbox 360 console was crowned on Wednesday best game at a video game industry version of the Academy Awards, complete with red carpet and adoring fans.

AP - A company trying to harness energy from sunlight and interior light to wirelessly power everything from cell phones to signboards now has financial backing from the White House.

AFP - Sony has unveiled plans for its own virtual universe for the PlayStation 3 where users will be able to socialise, shop and even go to the movies -- all without setting foot outside in the real world.

AP - Gasoline prices have jumped above $3 a gallon in some parts of California and Hawaii, and may hit that level other parts of the country when the busy summer driving season approaches. 'It kills me,' said Gloria Nunez, 53, as she filled her Ford Explorer SUV at a San Jose gas station. Nunez, a clerk for a communications company, has started working a couple hours of overtime each week to help soften the blow.

Reuters - Oracle Corp. promised to take the Linux software world by storm last October, but the major expansion by one of the world's largest software companies so far has failed to show momentum.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Anyone who believes that cheaters never win, obviously isn't a video game fan.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli defense firm on Thursday unveiled a portable robot billed as being capable of entering most combat zones alone and engaging enemies with an onboard armory that includes a machine-pistol and grenades.

AP - Under threat of new multimillion fines, Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that it had signed up its first licensee for a scheme EU regulators told it to set up three years ago to share code that helps servers work with the Windows operating platform.

AP - Four college students on Thursday asked a Turkish court to revoke the ban it imposed on YouTube for running videos that prosecutors said insulted the founder of modern Turkey.

Reuters - Anyone who believes that cheaters never win, obviously isn't a video game fan.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Anyone who believes that cheaters never win, obviously isn't a video game fan.

AFP - Portugal Telecom wants to set up a new pan-African mobile services operator based in Angola, the company's chief executive officer said in a magazine interview published on Thursday.

InfoWorld - The president of virtualization software leader VMware on Wednesday questioned the strategy of rivals that are integrating virtualization functionality into their operating systems.

InfoWorld - Microsoft has signed up the first licensee for the workgroup server protocols the European Commission ordered it to open up to competitors in a 2004 antitrust ruling, it said Thursday.

Reuters - Anyone who believes that cheaters never win, obviously isn't a video game fan.

TOKYO (Reuters) - The on-line collaboration responsible for Wikipedia plans to build a search engine to rival those of Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., the founder of the popular Internet encyclopaedia said on Thursday.

InfoWorld - Executives at AU Optronics, the world's third largest LCD panel maker by revenue, on Thursday said demand for notebook PCs and digital cameras has picked up recently, and predicted better times ahead.

PC World - Executives at AU Optronics Corp., the world's third largest LCD panel maker by revenue, on Thursday said demand for notebook PCs and digital cameras has picked up recently, and predicted better times ahead.

PC Magazine - HP unveiled three new digital cameras today, the five-megapixel Photosmart M437, 6MP M537, and 7.2MP R837. HP has also announced a printer/camera bundle that costs as low at $179.

Reuters - Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios' alien shooting video game 'Gears of War' on Wednesday took home three honors at the Game Developers Choice Awards, winning best game as well as awards for technology and visual arts.

Reuters - An Israeli defense firm on Thursday unveiled a portable robot billed as being capable of entering most combat zones alone and engaging enemies with an onboard armory that includes a machine-pistol and grenades.

Reuters - The on-line collaboration responsible for Wikipedia plans to build a search engine to rival those of Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. , the founder of the popular Internet encyclopaedia said on Thursday.

PC World - Yahoo Inc. apologized on Thursday after recipes from the blog of an Indian housewife were used without permission on Yahoo's India's new Malayalam-language Web portal.

AP - Clearwire Corp., a wireless Internet services provider founded by cellular phone pioneer Craig McCaw, raised $600 million in its initial public offering which valued the entire company at just over $4 billion.

PC World - Aiming to let enterprises do more with their IP (Internet Protocol) telephony systems and keep them available when a network goes down, Avaya Inc. introduced new software, phones and a gateway at this week's VoiceCon Spring conference.

PC World - If companies like Apple Inc. or even Italian fashion designer Prada SpA can design a mobile phone, why not Google Inc.?

Macworld.com - In the past couple of years, regular attendees to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) have seen a fundamental change in the makeup of the business: Mobile service, hardware and software vendors have taken up an increasing amount of the show floor. Graphics chip maker ATI Technologies, now part of Intel rival AMD, aims to compete for their attention with new efforts.

InfoWorld - If companies like Apple or even Italian fashion designer Prada can design a mobile phone, why not Google? Maybe it will.

AP - Normally the switch to daylight-saving time isn't a big deal, but this Sunday, Jeff Ronner has to put people on the case.

AP - Sweden's government presented a contentious plan Thursday to allow a defense intelligence agency to monitor — without a court order — e-mail traffic and phone calls crossing the nation's borders.

AP - Online search leader Google Inc. has won a key court ruling in a patent dispute over its popular three-dimensional software that provides Internet tours of the Earth.

PC World - An Indian NGO (non-government organization) called Telecom Watchdog has filed a petition with the High Court of Delhi, alleging that foreign shareholding in mobile services operator Hutchison Essar Ltd. is in breach of the Indian government's regulations on foreign direct investment (FDI).

InfoWorld - Demand for software and IT services will continue to grow steadily in Europe this year, but sluggish performance in the telecommunications sector will dampen the reasons to celebrate, according to a forecast released Thursday ahead of the Cebit trade show.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc. may sell zippy notebook computers later this year that use the same type of fast memory as music players and digital cameras, driving down prices of hard-disk drives, an analyst said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. court ruled on Thursday that Dell Inc. personal-organizer products did not infringe a patent held by Alcatel-Lucent , according to a court document.

Reuters - Apple Inc. may sell zippy notebook computers later this year that use the same type of fast memory as music players and digital cameras, driving down prices of hard-disk drives, an analyst said on Thursday.

InfoWorld - If companies like Apple or even Italian fashion designer Prada can design a mobile phone, why not Google? Maybe it will.

NewsFactor - Bored with your current universe? Sony Computer Entertainment has the answer: create your own. At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, the PlayStation 3 manufacturer announced its planned release of Game 3.0, a system of online collaboration and user-created content.

USATODAY.com - Breaking up is always hard to do. But when couples split these days, they don't just have to divide their friends, dishes and favorite restaurants. They also have to figure out how to untangle their digital lives. 'You need to visualize your breakup as exorcising your electronic connections as well as your physical connections,' says Anna Zornosa, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Personals, the largest online dating site, according to comScore Media Metrix, which tracks Internet traffic. And that, she says, does not just apply to teenagers who spend hours on social networks. Just about all of us use e-mail, cellphones and other devices to stay connected.

AP - After an initial pop, shares of Clearwire Corp., a wireless Internet service provider, slipped a bit Thursday after raising $600 million in an initial public stock offering.

AFP - Microsoft announced on Thursday its first software licensing deal under a program mandated by a 2004 European Commission anti-trust ruling.

NewsFactor - Users can already register to download the beta of Office Communications Server 2007 through the Microsoft Web site, as well as sign up for Office Communicator 2007, a client application for mobile and desktop systems that blends voice, video, and instant messaging.

USATODAY.com - Take-Two Interactive, maker of the popular Grand Theft Auto series of video games, came under the gun itself Wednesday when several investors threatened to take on the company's management.

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's Gabetti Property Solutions has joined the Second Life land rush, laying claim to being the first real-life property company in the booming virtual world.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three U.S. surfing friends whose jobs moved them to different cities have come up with a way to continue their weekly drinking session -- in an online pub that even has happy hours.

AP - Thanks to the Razr fad, there are plenty of thin phones out there by now. But in terms of sheer smallness, the options remain slim.

PC Magazine - General Electric is jumping into the digital-imaging market with a pile of new cameras and a compact photo printer.

AP - A federal jury ruled that two former Gateway Inc. executives manipulated earnings to meet analysts' expectations, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.

InfoWorld - Seeking to assist software developers coping with many languages, IBM plans to offer its Safari technology to the Eclipse open source community, an IBM official said at the EclipseCon 2007 conference on Thursday.

NewsFactor - Social-networking sites have become an integral part of life for most teens, with talk of collecting friends and tweaking profile pages peppering chatter both online and off. But if a Connecticut lawmaker has his way, access to the sites by underage users would require parental consent.

Reuters - A U.S. court has ruled that Dell Inc. personal-organizer products did not infringe a patent held by Alcatel-Lucent , according to a court document filed online on Thursday.

AP - Shares of Clearwire Corp., a wireless Internet service provider founded by cellular phone pioneer Craig McCaw, fell in their first day of trading Thursday after the company raised $600 million in an initial public stock offering.

AP - Video game developers should resist the temptation to produce only sequels of established hits and games based on horror and revenge, Nintendo Co.'s top designer said Thursday.

PC World - Even with Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote just minutes away, Nintendo has already made a huge announcement at GDC regarding this year's second quarter lineup for the North American market. And the focal point of this lineup is the announcement of Pokemon Battle Revolution, the first Wii game that will take advantage of the console's online capabilities.

PC World - Peter Jackson, auteur of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong, is reported to have signed on with Microsoft to create two interactive series for the Xbox 360 to be released in episodic format. According to a piece from gaming blog Joystiq, reporting from Wednesday's second annual 'Blogger Breakfast' event at GDC, one of the series will be based on the Halo franchise while the other will be a brand new IP.

AP - Video game developers should resist the temptation to produce only sequels of established hits and games based on horror and revenge, Nintendo Co.'s top designer said Thursday.

AP - The music industry is asking 50 Ohio University students to pay $3,000 each to avoid lawsuits accusing them of pirating songs off the Internet.

Reuters - Sony Corp. (6758.T) plans to lower the production cost of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) game consoles by using less expensive chips, aiming to turn the operations profitable between September and next March, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp. plans to lower the production cost of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) game consoles by using less expensive chips, aiming to turn the operations profitable between September and next March, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

PC World - During Wednesday's keynote presentation, Sony's Phil Harrison mentioned that, while the finished version of Home for the PlayStation 3 would be available in fall of this year, there would be a beta of the program that would be made available in April. It looks like Sony's getting a bit of a head start on the process, however, since a new Web site opened up Thursday, advertising the impending release of the beta trial. Currently, it doesn't say much, but what it does say is this:

Reuters - Connecticut lawmakers debated a bill on Thursday that would require social-networking Web sites such as MySpace to verify users' ages and force minors to obtain parental consent before posting profiles.

AFP - Reality, mobility and community were prime themes at the international video game developers gathering that ends on Friday in San Francisco.