TechWeb - Despite its sales slump in 2006, analysts suggest the No. 1 chipmaker has momentum this year with new processors and manufacturing plants announced.

TechWeb - The processor for laptops and handheld devices will have increased IT management and security features as well as an 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter.

TechWeb - The Wi-Fi Alliance believes the wireless vacuum on planes will soon be filled by the wireless data-access technology.

TechWeb - After two years on the market, Sony hopes to goose sales on its handheld gaming device.

AP - Going high-tech doesn't lead to higher math and reading scores, according to a federal study.

Reuters - Google Inc. is out to make map-making simpler, giving away tools for ordinary users to pinpoint locations, draw routes and attach photos or video to existing online maps, the company said on Wednesday.

TechWeb - The plug-in from Mozilla Labs allows the browser to become a content sharing tool and compete directly with sites like MySpace.

AFP - The European Commission will force Microsoft to hand over what the US software giant claims is sensitive and valuable technical information about its Windows operating system for almost no compensation, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing a confidential document.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. is out to make map-making simpler, giving away tools for ordinary users to pinpoint locations, draw routes and attach photos or video to existing online maps, the company said on Wednesday.

AP - Google Inc. is calling upon its millions of users to chart a new direction for its online maps.

Reuters - Google Inc. is out to make map-making simpler, giving away tools for ordinary users to pinpoint locations, draw routes and attach photos or video to existing online maps, the company said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. raised its sales and profit forecasts for the fourth time on Thursday for the business year just ended, thanks to robust demand for its DS handheld games, sending its shares higher.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Three Japanese naval officers who swapped pornography on their computers triggered a scandal over a possible leak of sensitive data linked to Japan's missile defense system, a newspaper said on Thursday.

AFP - Thailand's decision to ban video-sharing website YouTube highlights a growing crackdown by the junta against political comment online, media rights groups said on Thursday.

AFP - British telecom giant Vodafone insisted Thursday its 11.1-billion-dollar acquisition of mobile operator Hutchison Essar meets Indian foreign investment rules amid reports the deal faces yet more scrutiny.

AP - Japan's Nintendo Co. raised its group sales forecast 7.3 percent Thursday for the business year that ended in March to 966 billion yen, or $8.14 billion, thanks to the popularity of its Nintendo DS handheld game console.

Reuters - Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. said it had received a letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission saying it was under formal investigation for its stock-options practices.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii video game console was the surprise hit of the holiday season, but fans are wondering when it will match rivals Microsoft and Sony by offering a way to compete in cyberspace.

InfoWorld - Nokia may have bought itself a little more time in a legal dispute with Qualcomm, which wants Nokia to stop selling some of its mobile phones until it pays for new patent licenses.

InfoWorld - A security researcher at Juniper Networks says he plans to demonstrate a new class of attack that can be used to compromise electronic devices like routers or mobile phones.

Reuters - Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii video game console was the surprise hit of the holiday season, but fans are wondering when it will match rivals Microsoft and Sony by offering a way to compete in cyberspace.

USATODAY.com - What does a Microsoft billionaire do for fun? Charles Simonyi spends some of his fortune to rocket into space, where he'll blog, fight off nausea and use his technical skills to fix broken equipment. Simonyi blasts off Saturday in a Russian ship that will carry him to the International Space Station for an 11-day stay.

AP - European Union regulators want Microsoft Corp. to give rivals access — at little or no cost — to information that would help their products work better with Windows, according to a published report Thursday. But the software maker says its current charges are fair and the EU has not provided clear guidance on what fair pricing would be.

NEW YORK, April 5 (Reuters) - Two university professors have combined their knowledge of science and videogames to create a game that helps students learn chemistry.

PC World - A security researcher at Juniper Networks Inc. says he plans to demonstrate a new class of attack that can be used to compromise electronic devices like routers or mobile phones.

PC World - Nokia Corp. may have bought itself a little more time in a legal dispute with Qualcomm Inc., which wants Nokia to stop selling some of its mobile phones until it pays for new patent licenses.

AP - Two leading retail industry associations have teamed up with the Federal Bureau of Investigations to create a national online database that will allow merchants to share information to fight organized retail theft.

AP - The Thai government retained a ban on YouTube on Thursday despite the removal from the video-sharing site of a short clip deemed insulting to the country's beloved monarch.

PC World - Any lingering image of Hewlett-Packard Co. as a stodgy company was dispelled Wednesday night in San Francisco as the company called "Game On" in its bid for a piece of the online gaming industry.

Reuters - Germany's Software AG plans to make its biggest acquisition in a decade by buying U.S. software firm webMethods for $546 million in cash, strengthening its position in the U.S. market.

Reuters - Two university professors have combined their knowledge of science and videogames to create a game that helps students learn chemistry.

InfoWorld - A new report filed by federal security auditors finds that that the Internal Revenue Service has had almost 500 laptop computers lost or stolen over the last three years, many of which were loaded with sensitive taxpayer information.

AP - A parliamentary commission approved a proposal Thursday allowing Turkey to block Web sites that are deemed insulting to the founder of modern Turkey, weeks after a Turkish court temporarily barred access to Google Inc.'s YouTube.

InfoWorld - Yahoo is quietly testing a search engine which users can customize by adding, removing and rearranging components, suggesting that the company may plan to make it easier for users to tailor search sites to reflect their interests.

InfoWorld - Software AG hopes its planned acquisition of webMethods will catapult it to a leadership position among vendors of SOA (service-oriented architecture) development products as well as help accelerate its ambition to become a €1 billion ($1.3 billion) entity by 2011.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Staying in touch constantly by using laptops, BlackBerrys and other wireless devices has blurred the line between a person's professional and personal life, according to a new survey.

AFP - Japanese electronics giant Matsushita said Thursday it will set up a research centre in Vietnam to develop key software installed in cellular phones and flat-panel televisions.

Reuters - Staying in touch constantly by using laptops, BlackBerrys and other wireless devices has blurred the line between a person's professional and personal life, according to a new survey.

AFP - The battle to control cyberspace in Malaysia intensified Thursday as a minister said bloggers may be forced to register their names to avoid unjust claims being posted on the Internet.

Reuters - Qualcomm Inc. on Thursday requested an arbitration ruling for its legal fight with No. 1 mobile phone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE) of Finland to resolve their dispute over a technology license agreement ahead of a deadline next week.

NewsFactor - Mozilla's research group has developed a set of content-sharing tools that will allow users to swap links and more efficiently track personal content such as blog posts, movies, and photos.

InfoWorld - Microsoft isn't finished with its security fixes for the month. Next week, the software maker plans to release five more sets of patches fixing critical flaws in Windows and the Microsoft Content Management Server.

NewsFactor - If the sounds of hard drives in your home or office sometimes remind you of the background hum aboard the Starship Enterprise, Samsung's new SpinPoint S166 series might help clear the air.

NewsFactor - The post-holiday sales figures are out for the computer game console manufacturers, and the results might be somewhat surprising for both industry watchers and consumers alike.

AP - Many newspaper publishers still consider major Internet companies to be a threat, but a deal announced last week to bring foreign news and commentary to Yahoo Inc. from correspondents at McClatchy Co. newspapers could open the way to even more cooperation between print and online media.

InfoWorld - Qualcomm threatened to forbid Nokia from using its patents forever, the strongest blow yet in the ongoing battle between the mobile technology companies. 

AP - NASA failed to follow through on its promise to rebid a $5.2 million software contract after inconsistencies were found in the procurement process more than a year ago, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee said Thursday.

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - 'Electronic paper' has long been hyped as the future of newspapers and books, but products like e-books have been slow to take off. That may soon change, say executives involved in the pioneering technology.

InfoWorld - Incremental updates to the latest Windows and Java technologies have been made available recently with Microsoft offering a new preview of its upcoming Longhorn server platform and Sun Microsystems adding a fix for daylight saving to Java.

Reuters - A key U.S. cable TV trade group said on Thursday it would withdraw from an online advertising exchange proposed by eBay Inc., dealing a blow to the Web company's plans to build a system to sell ad time.

InfoWorld - Microsoft on Thursday released a beta of documentation for a free SDK that helps developers build applications for its forthcoming Windows Home Server product.

PC World - Blu-ray Disc Association clarifies what the new specs, due later this year, mean for current Blu-ray owners.

AP - The master-keeper of Internet addresses ending in '.com' and '.net' — two of the most popular domain name suffixes — said Thursday it would raise fees charged to register those names.

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: My son, "Marshall," is in an abusive marriage. This week, while his military unit was training in another state, his wife had his cell phone turned off. Then she took a cash advance (over the credit limit) against the card Marshall uses while away from home, and canceled his ATM card so he would not have access to money. She did all this because she was angry with him.

PC World - You bought an Windows XP-based PC--before the Vista launch--and heard rosy promises of an OS upgrade. But scoring Vista has been a painful process for many.

Reuters - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing a record group recurring profit of 260 billion yen ($2.2 billion) for the year ended March 31 on strong sales of its handheld DS consoles and a weaker yen, the Nikkei business daily said on Friday.

PC World - Executives at Chinese Internet company Sohu.com Inc. have examined a new product from Google Inc. and found what they believe are striking similarities with one of their own products, opening the door to possible legal action, according to a source familiar with the situation.