TechWeb - How well does your carrier rate? J.D. Power and Associates' survey covers seven key performance areas.

TechWeb - The agency is likely to begin full testing of Windows Vista in a month or two after it finishes a project to encrypt all of its laptop computers in order to comply with new government security policies.

AP - Former dot-com mogul Takafumi Horie was found guilty of securities laws violations and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison on Friday, in a case that has come to symbolize the challenges Japan faces in policing rising startups.

AP - A spiky-haired Takafumi Horie sat quietly as the judge read out his sentence Friday — two and half years behind bars for violating securities law.

AFP - Malaysia on Friday issued licences to four telecommunication operators to provide fourth generation (4G) wireless high speed Internet services nationwide this year.

InfoWorld - More and faster: That's how SAP wants to deliver enhancements to its software for small businesses.

AP - Cisco Systems Inc. said Thursday that it has agreed to acquire the online meeting company WebEx Communications Inc. for about $3.2 billion in cash.

InfoWorld - The founder and former CEO of Japanese Internet portal Livedoor was found guilty of violating securities laws on Friday and sentenced to two and a half years in prison in one of the biggest cases of corporate abuse for Japan in recent years.

InfoWorld - In an apparent attempt to boost its disappointing Web search market share, Microsoft is giving financial incentives to large enterprise customers whose employees use Microsoft's Live Search engine.

ROME (Reuters) - Italy has banned schoolchildren from using mobile phones in class in an attempt to stop ringtones disrupting lessons and prevent pupils messing about with video cameras.

InfoWorld - Vodafone Group is demonstrating a service at the CeBIT trade show that allows mobile phone customers to call and exchange presence information with users of Internet phone services such as Skype.

USATODAY.com - SAN FRANCISCO - An emerging technology standard could be the answer to a major headache: It lets consumers use the same user name and password for hundreds of websites that require a sign-in. OpenID's approach has quickly earned it the support of Microsoft, AOL and thousands of users online. "It's all about convenience," says Raven Zachary, 33, a technology analyst for The 451 Group. He intends to use the same user name and password for dozens of social-networking and news sites.

PC World - It's a "huge conflict of interest" for one company to provide both an operating platform and a security platform, Symantec Corp. CEO John Thompson said during a keynote speech at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany. Although Thompson didn't mention Microsoft Corp. by name, that company's introduction of consumer and enterprise security products to complement its operating systems could hurt Symantec, which currently tops the security software industry by market share.

Reuters - Italy has banned schoolchildren from using mobile phones in class in an attempt to stop ringtones disrupting lessons and prevent pupils messing about with video cameras.

PC World - Vodafone Group PLC is demonstrating a service at the Cebit trade show that allows mobile phone customers to call and exchange presence information with users of Internet phone services such as Skype.

PC Magazine - After numerous random acts of violence enacted at the launch of the PlayStation 3 in North America, can you blame European police for being a little jittery at the thought of the impending European launch of Sony's new system?

PC World - Cisco Systems Inc. is entering new territory with its planned US$3.2 billion acquisition of WebEx Communications Inc., with plans to deliver collaboration tools as an online service and possibly integrate the company's business-related offerings with consumer social networking technology.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Training the brain with a computer workout program may be better than classic computer games at staving off age-related mental decline, scientists reported on Friday.

NewsFactor - "Within three years it will just be Blu-ray." That bold assertion was made by Frank Simonis, the European chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association, in an interview with Reuters at the 2007 CeBIT technology conference in Hanover, Germany.

NewsFactor - A research firm has reported that Nintendo sold as many Wii game consoles in February as both of its rivals put together. The NPD Group's latest report found that that Nintendo sold 355,000 units during the month, with Microsoft selling 228,000 of its Xbox 360 units, and Sony coming in third place with just 127,000 of its PlayStation 3 consoles.

Reuters - Time Warner Inc. could spin off a stake in online division AOL or merge it with another Internet company as early as this year, a move that would boost the value of the world's largest media company, a UBS analyst said on Friday.

InfoWorld - The Bluetooth chip, which holds the dubious honor of being available in more devices than any other wireless technology but actually used by the least number of people, will get a much-needed upgrade later this year.

InfoWorld - Researchers at IBM Corp. are trying to address privacy concerns about video surveillance systems, part of a broader effort by IBM to build a new business in the fast-growing surveillance market.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Of all of the proposals aimed at improving America's failing schools, there's one idea kids will really like: More video games and fewer books.

NewsFactor - In an apparent attempt to one-up Nintendo's claims that its Wii system helps fight obesity, Sony on Thursday announced that its PlayStation 3 video game consoles will engage in a new battle -- against disease.

PC Magazine - Other World Computing (OWC), has introduced both new Blu-ray internal and external drive solutions, which are 100-percent compatible with both PCs and Macs; the external drives offer connectivity via FireWire or USB 2.0.

AP - Actor-comedian Sinbad had the last laugh after his Wikipedia entry announced he was dead, the performer said Thursday.

AFP - Europe is laying the groundwork to roll out mobile TV services and hopes to have a system up and running in time for the European football championship in 2008, officials said Friday.

InfoWorld - Get ready to rumble: the fight for enterprise applications customers is going to heat up as Microsoft Corp. this week confirmed its intention to more aggressively compete with the dominant high-end ERP and CRM players Oracle Corp. and SAP AG.

Reuters - Of all of the proposals aimed at improving America's failing schools, there's one idea kids will really like: More video games and fewer books.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fans of Internet radio who want to listen to their favorite stations away from the computer will soon be able to do so with a new digital music player called Slacker.

Reuters - Fans of Internet radio who want to listen to their favorite stations away from the computer will soon be able to do so with a new digital music player called Slacker.

AP - In the wake of its backdated stock-options troubles, Apple Inc. is offering affected employees the chance to amend the strike price of past options that were incorrectly backdated and receive cash payments to cover related losses and tax penalties, according a regulatory filing Friday.

InfoWorld - Mozilla is changing the way it publishes security fixes for its Firefox browser.

PC Magazine - According to the latest sales numbers from Nielsen VideoScan, the Blu-ray format appears to be gaining momentum over HD DVD.

AFP - Wikipedia called actor-comedian Sinbad on Friday to apologize after a prankster declared the performer dead in the communally crafted online encyclopedia.

PC World - Google's blogger.com is being hijacked to spread malware through fake blogs, a security vendor has warned.

InfoWorld - Skype says business users grab 30 percent of its downloads, but is the enterprise ready for wider use?

Reuters - Slacker Inc., a new venture from the executives behind MusicMatch, Rio and iRiver America, wants to revolutionize Internet radio by making it portable.

AP - Qualcomm Inc. and Broadcom Corp. agreed to dismiss patent and trade-secret claims against each other Friday, ending several skirmishes in the long-running legal battle between the two wireless technology companies.