TechWeb - In the next five years, Apple's latest device could overtake set-top box maker TiVo, and mail-order DVD renter Netflix in delivering content, according to one financial analyst.

AP - Business software maker Oracle Corp. has a tough act to follow as it tackles the biggest quarter of its fiscal year.

AFP - South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second largest memory chipmaker, said Wednesday it has forged a patent cross-licensing and product supply deal with SanDisk of the United States.

AFP - Total Access Communication, Thailand's second largest mobile phone operator, said Wednesday it would float shares on the local stock exchange in a bid to raise at least 172 million dollars.

AFP - US computer maker Dell Inc unveiled a low-cost computer Wednesday which it said was specifically designed for the Chinese market and could help large numbers of novices get online.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - New Line Cinema has acquired the film rights to the hit video game 'Gears of War,' which overtook 'Halo 2' to become the most popular title on the Xbox Live service following its release last November.

Reuters - New Line Cinema has acquired the film rights to the hit video game "Gears of War," which overtook "Halo 2" to become the most popular title on the Xbox Live service following its release last November.

Reuters - Before he was directing the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie "TMNT," which opens Friday, filmmaker Kevin Munroe was creating video games at Shiny Entertainment and Midway Games. Like a growing number of Hollywood CGI authors, Munroe entered the world of storytelling through interactive entertainment.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hundreds of rectangles, each the size of a grain of rice, cover a shiny platter of silicon at a research facility belonging to Micron Technology Inc..

AFP - A boat will ferry a special consignment of PlayStation 3s to the foot of the Eiffel Tower as hardcore gamers queue in the cold at special midnight openings across Europe when Sony's next-generation console hits stores on Friday.

InfoWorld - Dell has launched a new low-cost desktop PC aimed at grabbing market share in China. Instead of Microsoft's new Windows Vista OS, it runs Windows XP.

Reuters - Sportingbet Plc said on Wednesday the state of Louisiana had withdrawn charges of "gambling by computer" against its former chairman, Peter Dicks, whose arrest heralded a U.S. crackdown on online gaming.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Dell Inc. , the world's second-largest personal computer maker, on Wednesday unveiled a low-cost PC targeting consumers in China to grab market share from dominant player Lenovo Group Ltd. .

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Contract chip maker Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. is in discussion with PC chipmaker AMD to make chips with more advanced technology, Chartered Semi said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Contract chip maker Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. is in discussion with PC chipmaker AMD to make chips with more advanced technology, Chartered Semi said on Wednesday.

AP - IBM Corp. said Wednesday it has won a 10-year contract to manage the information technology infrastructure of Indian mobile company Idea Cellular in a deal valued between $600 million and $800 million.

Reuters - Dell Inc. , the world's second-largest personal computer maker, on Wednesday unveiled a low-cost PC targeting consumers in China to grab market share from dominant player Lenovo Group Ltd. (0992.HK).

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio expect to offer a lower-priced package consisting of fewer channels after the companies combine, Sirius said on Wednesday.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Hydrogen is being touted as an environmentally friendly fuel of the future, but the road to hydrogen-powered vehicles will not be easy, industry experts said on Tuesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - A global computerized system that tracks wood from stump to store is aiding the battle against illegal logging and helping consumers choose sustainable products, says Scott Poynton of the Tropical Forest Trust.

InfoWorld - Hynix Semiconductor and SanDisk have reached a patent cross-license agreement and will jointly manufacture and sell NAND flash memory in addition to developing four-bit-per-cell flash memory, the companies said Wednesday.

AP - Bills, bills, bills — You can't get away from them if you're a Belgian mobile phone user.

NewsFactor - According to published reports citing unnamed sources, Palm might sell out to rivals Motorola or Nokia as the mobile market braces itself for the arrival of Apple's iPhone.

InfoWorld - True to the saying "when it rains, it pours," BenQ Corp. could find itself being sued by creditors of its failed mobile-phone venture in Germany.

Reuters - Hydrogen is being touted as an environmentally friendly fuel of the future, but the road to hydrogen-powered vehicles will not be easy, industry experts said on Tuesday.

AP - Satellite radio customers will get the option to pay a lower price for just the channels they want if the industry's two big providers are allowed to merge, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. said Wednesday in a securities filing of its bid to buy XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

AP - It's guerrilla politics at its cleverest.

Reuters - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a decision that exempted Internet telephone companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. from many state regulations and oversight.

InfoWorld - IBM has bagged a 10-year business transformation contract from a large Indian mobile services operator, Idea Cellular. The contract, awarded on a risk-reward revenue sharing model, is expected to bring to IBM revenue of between $600 million and $800 million over 10 years, Idea said Wednesday.

NewsFactor - Social-networking site MySpace has launched a politics channel called Impact, which highlights political candidates, offers opinions on current news topics, and has videos on issues such as global warming and poverty.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A major shareholder of Palm Inc. expects Motorola Inc. to announce a deal to acquire Palm for about $2 billion as soon as Thursday, CNBC said on Wednesday.

SAN MATEO, California (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc. showed a marked acceleration in U.S. market share gains in February, online audience measurement firm comScore Networks said on Wednesday.

AP - News from the virtual world:

InfoWorld - Zune users who were waiting for a important firmware update from Microsoft Corp. were disappointed on Tuesday when the company didn't deliver on schedule.

NewsFactor - The technology press has been filled lately with increasingly feverish rumors and even photos of a possible Google-built mobile phone. Separate statements by two Google executives, however, suggest that the search giant has no plans to become a phone manufacturer.

InfoWorld - Google will partner with Rwanda and Kenya to make Web communication tools such as e-mail and PC-to-PC voice calling more widely available in Africa, the company said on Monday.

AP - The chief executive of Broadcom Corp. urged a government panel Wednesday to bar imports of cell phones that include chips made by Qualcomm Inc. that infringe on its patents.

NewsFactor - Fortran, the first mainstream programming language to change how people talk to computers, has lost its father. John Backus, who led the development team at IBM, was 82 and died at his home in Ashland, Oregon, on Saturday. The family said there was no known cause other than old age.

AP - There have been only a few truly scary video games, most notably the 'Silent Hill' and 'Resident Evil' series. Nonetheless, characters we're used to seeing in horror movies — vampires, werewolves and the like — pop up in games all the time.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday said it is actively investigating reports of 'fraudulent behavior and theft' on its Xbox Live online video gaming service, which has more than 6 million subscribers.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc. made its biggest move yet into the living room on Wednesday by starting shipments of the Apple TV box, a gizmo that lets people take music, photos and video stored on a computer and play them on a television screen.

InfoWorld - Intel Capital, the investment arm of chipmaker Intel, is investing up to $40 million in a digital TV IC (integrated circuit) maker.

AFP - Hardcore computer game fans queued on Wednesday to be the first in Britain to grab Sony's Playstation 3 when the next-generation console gets its long-awaited European launch.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday said it is actively investigating reports of "fraudulent behavior and theft" on its Xbox Live online video gaming service, which has more than 6 million subscribers.

AP - Biotechnology was first applied in medicine, then farming. Today, dozens of lifesaving drugs are on the market, while many crops are genetically engineered to withstand weed killers.

AP - Elton John says he will make his back catalog of more than 30 albums available for digital download later this month.

InfoWorld - SugarCRM plans to ship the beta version of Sugar 5.0 next month, an upgrade to its open-source CRM software that should make it easier for companies to extend the product with third-party applications, company executives said Wednesday.

InfoWorld - Microsoft will open up beta versions of its unified communications server and client software to the public for download on Monday, a senior company executive said Wednesday.

Reuters - Video games reach more players than retail sales figures suggest, according to a report issued on Wednesday by private research and measurement firm Interpret.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Video games reach more players than retail sales figures suggest, according to a report issued on Wednesday by private research and measurement firm Interpret.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Next-generation hybrid cars could one day help ease corn prices that have doubled as greater supplies of the grain are distilled into ethanol fuel, and could also head off potential meat and dairy price boosts, a U.S. environmentalist said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a decision that exempted Internet telephone companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. from many state regulations and oversight.

InfoWorld - Broadcom officials called on the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban the import of mobile phones containing high-speed Qualcomm processors because of patent infringement.

AP - Motorola Inc. replaced its chief financial officer Wednesday in a shake up of top management as it slashed its first-quarter sales forecast, blaming weaker-than-expected revenue from its cell-phone unit.

Macworld.com - When Google product manager Jessica Ewing gets a new cell phone, the first thing she does is change its background theme. Adding a beach scene or a dancing pig makes it feel more her own, she wrote in her blog.

AP - A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a decision by the Federal Communications Commission that barred states, including Minnesota, from regulating Internet-based phone services.

Reuters - Ten months before the first 2008 U.S. presidential primary, a video war has erupted between supporters of Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, their opening skirmish on the new campaign battleground -- the Internet.

Reuters - Motorola Inc. warned on Wednesday it will post a first-quarter loss and cut its revenue forecast to far below Wall Street expectations due to weak cell phone sales, driving shares down nearly 6 percent.

InfoWorld - IBM's Jazz platform for collaborative application lifecycle management has leveraged Eclipse in terms of processes used to develop both initiatives, an IBM official said during TheServerSide Java Symposium conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

AP - Irish playwright Oscar Wilde once said, 'Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.'

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it is combining its search and advertising development teams, highlighting the importance of those services as the software giant struggles to compete with Web search leader Google Inc.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Palm Inc., maker of Treo smartphones and handheld devices, continues to gather takeover interest although an imminent deal is seen unlikely, several sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Palm Inc., maker of Treo smartphones and handheld devices, continues to gather takeover interest although an imminent deal is seen unlikely, several sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

AP - After a slight delay, Apple Inc. said Wednesday it is now shipping Apple TV, a set-top box that can wirelessly stream or download iTunes videos, podcasts and music from a computer to a television. The slim, square gadget, which has a suggested retail price of $299, was previously promised to arrive by the end of February. Apple would not explain the uncharacteristic delay and said only that the launch took a few weeks longer than expected.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it is combining its search and advertising development teams, highlighting the importance of those services as the software giant struggles to compete with Web search leader Google Inc.

Investor's Business Daily - Analysts ponder how search leader Google (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News) might make a play for the mobile market as rumors swirl that the company will make a phone or similar handheld device.

Investor's Business Daily - Red Hat is staving off an Oracle assault -- at least for now.

InfoWorld - Microsoft Wednesday named Satya Nadella to lead the newly formed Search and Ad Platform group, the software giant's effort to optimize the advertising revenue-raising potential of its search business.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it found no evidence of a security breach on Bungie.net or its Xbox Live online video game network following reports of fraudulent behavior and theft.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it found no evidence of a security breach on Bungie.net or its Xbox Live online video game network following reports of fraudulent behavior and theft.

AP - A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced the former chief financial officer of scandal-tainted dot-com company Livedoor to 20 months in prison for inflating earnings reports.

Reuters - Ten months before the first 2008 U.S. presidential primary, a video war has erupted between supporters of Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, their opening skirmish on the new campaign battleground -- the Internet.

Reuters - Motorola Inc. warned on Wednesday it would post a first-quarter loss and said its 2007 outlook was "substantially" worse than expected due to weak mobile phone sales, driving its shares down nearly 6 percent.

AFP - US sales of music compact discs plummeted 20 percent in the first three months of the year as downloading of songs continued to knock the underpinnings from record studio revenues.

AFP - Thousands of Australian computer game fans were expected to begin queueing here Thursday to be the first outside the United States and Japan to experience Sony's new Playstation 3 console.