LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Video game publisher Sega has expanded its relationship with Marvel Entertainment, adding superheroes Captain America, the Incredible Hulk and Thor to its stable with exclusive multiyear deals.

TechWeb - The company unveiled plans for processors for notebooks, ultra-mobile PCs, and smaller computers that Intel calls "mobile Internet devices."

TechWeb - The server has as many as 10 two-socket, quad-core-processor servers per chassis, offering more cores per cubic foot than many existing blade server racks, the company says.

TechWeb - The servers deliver a 50% performance boost and blend Fujitsu's mainframe technology with Sun's Solaris operating system, which is offered under Sun's open source license.

TechWeb - A Maine legislator says it will be beneficial to keep the toxic chemicals found in cell phones out of the environment.

AP - A flood of last-minute tax filers swamped the servers of the company that makes the popular TurboTax and ProSeries tax software Tuesday, forcing taxpayers to wait hours for confirmation that their electronic returns had been submitted successfully.

AFP - Asia's star is shining brightly once again at this year’s MIPTV/MILIA international TV and digital content trade show as the digital revolution sweeping the audiovisual, Internet and cellphone worlds pushes the region’s hi-tech strengths to the fore.

Reuters - Video game publisher Sega has expanded its relationship with Marvel Entertainment, adding superheroes Captain America, the Incredible Hulk and Thor to its stable with exclusive multiyear deals.

AFP - Taiwan's Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) said Wednesday a Carlyle Group-led consortium has decided to drop its offer to buy the company due to irreconcilable differences over the price.

AFP - Sony Corp.'s game division said Wednesday that it may cut up to 160 jobs in Europe to streamline its operations as the PlayStation 3 battles fierce competition from rival video game consoles.

PC World - Intel Corp. said Wednesday it plans to next year add WiMax to its Centrino platform, a long-expected move likely to boost demand for wireless broadband services.

AFP - US software giant Microsoft plans to set up a multi-million-dollar joint research and development centre in Beijing with China's leading computer maker Lenovo, the Chinese company said Wednesday.

PC Magazine - I don't think the iPhone will set the world on fire. But I do expect a lot of chatter about it, about its competition, about the state of the phone industry, and everything in between. Hey, look! Even I'm writing about it!

PC Magazine - I felt wistful that my little daughter wouldn't get to use TiVo's kids-only programming menu, wield the peanut-shaped remote, or watch that little antennaed guy bobble down his slide. But then I turned on my HDTV.

Reuters - Two people have been arrested and cautioned for using someone else's wireless Internet connection without permission, known as "piggy-backing," British police said on Wednesday.

FT.com - Operators have struggled to make web browsing on a cellphone relevant to the customer ever since the mobile internet emerged in 2000.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd. said on Wednesday its BlackBerry mobile e-mail network had an interruption, and gave no time frame for restoring service.

LONDON (Reuters) - Players of violent video games believe they are just 'exhilarating' escapism which does not desensitize them to real-life mayhem, according to a new survey of one of the entertainment industry's fastest growing sectors.

Reuters - Research In Motion Ltd. said on Wednesday its BlackBerry mobile e-mail network had an interruption, and gave no time frame for restoring service.

InfoWorld - The BlackBerry wireless e-mail service from Research In Motion appears to have suffered a widespread outage starting Tuesday evening in the U.S.

Reuters - Politicians are lost deep in cyberspace, struggling to reach a new generation of tech-savvy voters through blogs, social networking sites and video-sharing.

AP - Motorola Inc. slipped to a loss in the first quarter, hurt by disappointing sales of mobile phones, as well as expenses to cover a legal settlement, restructuring efforts and an acquisition.

InfoWorld - Delivering software as a service (SaaS), accessed from the Internet rather than installed on a computer, is rapidly becoming the way for businesses to use software, said experts attending a conference Tuesday called SaaScon in Santa Clara, California.

InfoWorld - Many students at Virginia Tech on Monday turned to message boards and social networking sites to try to find out what exactly was happening on campus during a shooting spree that ended with 33 dead.

Reuters - Players of violent video games believe they are just "exhilarating" escapism which does not desensitize them to real-life mayhem, according to a new survey of one of the entertainment industry's fastest growing sectors.

InfoWorld - Intel on Wednesday unveiled its Ultra Mobile platform, also known as McCaslin, designed for ultramobile PCs and other handheld devices, and outlined plans for increased Linux support and a new chip for ultramobile PCs due in 2008.

PC World - Intel Corp. Wednesday unveiled its Ultra Mobile platform, also known as McCaslin, designed for ultramobile PCs and other handheld devices, and outlined plans for increased Linux support and a new chip for ultramobile PCs due in 2008.

AFP - Research in Motion Ltd. said Wednesday a network outage overnight had stunted its hugely popular wireless Blackberry e-mail service, but messaging to "most" of its handsets had been restored.

Reuters - Strong demand for a fabric keyboard and a loudspeaker bag for iPods helped Britain's Eleksen Group Plc nearly tripled 2006 sales.

Reuters - Research In Motion Ltd. said on Wednesday that BlackBerry service has been restored to "most" users of the wireless e-mail device after a service interruption that affected customers in North America.

PC World - The BlackBerry wireless e-mail service from Research In Motion Ltd. appears to have suffered a widespread outage starting Tuesday evening in the U.S.

AP - Wholesale prices for Internet addresses ending in '.info' are going up 2.5 percent on Oct. 15, the same day fees for '.com' and '.net' are increasing.

PC World - Two patents owned by Verizon Communications Inc. in its infringement lawsuit against Vonage Holdings Corp. are invalid, and if allowed to stand, could threaten all competing VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services, a telecommunications industry veteran said Tuesday.

AP - Motorola Inc. said Wednesday it slipped to a loss in the first quarter, hurt by disappointing sales of mobile phones, as well as expenses to cover a legal settlement, restructuring efforts and an acquisition.

InfoWorld - Building on its December acquisition of Stellent, Oracle on Wednesday began to flesh out its content management software strategy.

FT.com - Wall Street broke a week-long rally and went into reverse on Wednesday as disappointing earnings updates from IBM and Yahoo rekindled concerns about the technology sector.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd. said on Wednesday that BlackBerry service had been restored to most users of the popular wireless e-mail device after an overnight service interruption hit customers across North America.

LONDON (Reuters) - Strong demand for a fabric keyboard and a loudspeaker bag for iPods helped Britain's Eleksen Group Plc nearly tripled 2006 sales.

InfoWorld - BlackBerry service was mostly restored by late morning Wednesday East Coast time, following a widespread North American outage that started Tuesday evening and has left some users irked enough by Research in Motion's laggard customer service that they are considering finding an alternative.

NewsFactor - Apple's iPhone might be moving toward a lower effective price and a higher degree of office compatibility. A recent analyst's report indicated that the Cupertino, California-based company is considering rebates. And Cisco has acknowledged it is working to enable better compatibility between the new device and its business phone systems.

Reuters - Research In Motion Ltd. said on Wednesday that BlackBerry service had been restored to most users of the popular wireless e-mail device after an overnight service interruption hit customers across North America.

AP - With more people watching TV on their cell phones, Sharp Corp. is unveiling a tiny liquid crystal display that boasts four times better contrast than the best products commercially available today.

InfoWorld - British computer security experts are designing a Web portal to gather more precise statistics on Europeans victimized by Internet crime, an area that remains difficult for collecting accurate data.

Reuters - Motorola Inc. posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday and offered a forecast that raised doubts over when the world's second-biggest mobile phone maker would return to profit.

PC World - Businesses that use ECM (enterprise content management) software to manage data could soon be giving employees more control over that data, as application providers are inspired by Web 2.0 tools like wikis, mashups and data tags.

InfoWorld - Businesses that use ECM (enterprise content management) software to manage data could soon be giving employees more control over that data, as application providers are inspired by Web 2.0 tools like wikis, mashups and data tags.

LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - Better study habits, weight loss and the iron discipline to train for the marathon could be yours for the price of a few messages over your cell phone.

Reuters - Self-confessed BlackBerry addicts experienced both a sense of panic, and relief, as the mobile e-mail device's network stalled overnight and cut communications for many of its millions of subscribers.

Reuters - Better study habits, weight loss and the iron discipline to train for the marathon could be yours for the price of a few messages over your cell phone.

AP - If you Googled 'Virginia Tech shooting' or 'Virginia shooting' this week, the Internet search engine served up dozens of links to news about the university massacre. Yet some media outlets weren't taking the chance of missing readers' attention by being bumped down the list.

AP - Teens generally don't think twice about including their first names and photos on their personal online profiles, but most refrain from using full names or making their profiles fully public, a new survey finds.

AP - Microsoft Corp. agreed Wednesday to pay Iowans up to $180 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed the company had a monopoly that cost the state's citizens millions of dollars extra for software products.

Reuters - Cyberspace has become the new front line in the battle between Mattel Inc.'s Barbie line and MGA Entertainment's Bratz collection.

InfoWorld - Fast, cheap and all over the place. That's how technology experts behind Microsoft's fast-growing Live offerings envision the future of the enterprise data center in a Web 2.0 driven world. 

AP - Still wondering just how powerful that pricey PlayStation 3 is? The off-road racing video game 'MotorStorm' is a mud-caked showcase of the system's excellent graphics.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. agreed to pay up to $180 million to settle a class-action lawsuit, claiming the company has used its monopoly to overcharge citizens in the state of Iowa.

AP - Most of it happened outside 'work' hours, but the nature of mobile e-mail meant plenty of dismay as BlackBerry service went down across North America from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning.

PC World - As of late Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Eastern Time, Research in Motion Ltd. had offered no explanation for the cause of the BlackBerry e-mail service outage that affected users in North America.

AP - EBay Inc. reported Wednesday that first-quarter profit surged 52 percent, trouncing Wall Street expectations thanks to big-spending shoppers overseas and scorching performance of its PayPal electronic transaction division.

InfoWorld - The biggest dangers to extending Web 2.0 capabilities to the enterprise are information overload and lack of information accountability, experts attending and speaking at Microsoft's IT Pro Town Hall Event in Redmond said on Wednesday.

BOSTON (Reuters) - The iPhone, Apple Inc.'s first mobile handset, is on schedule to hit the U.S. market at the end of June, a senior executive with AT&T Inc. said on Wednesday.

PC World - Sun Microsystems Inc. and Fujitsu Ltd. are introducing new servers Tuesday that they jointly developed, while another server maker, Hitachi Ltd., is unveiling new blade servers. They each aim to address buyers' dual needs for computing power and energy efficiency.

Reuters - The iPhone, Apple Inc.'s first mobile handset, is on schedule to hit the U.S. market at the end of June, a senior executive with AT&T Inc. said on Wednesday.

InfoWorld - Microsoft and Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group have struck a deal to set up a technology center in China to promote research and development (R&D) of new consumer technology and, in particular, mobile devices.

InfoWorld - As of late Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Eastern Time, Research in Motion had offered no explanation for the cause of the BlackBerry e-mail service outage that affected users in North America.

AP - A break-in targeting State Department computers worldwide last summer occurred after a department employee in Asia opened a mysterious e-mail that quietly allowed hackers inside the U.S. government's network.

InfoWorld - While the movement toward SaaS (software as a service) and away from client-based software may change the role of the IT professional, it shouldn't signal a widespread loss of jobs, experts speaking during Microsoft's IT Pro Town Hall in Redmond said on Wednesday.

InfoWorld - At the Web 2.0 Expo at Moscone Center in San Francisco on Wednesday, three thought leaders in the Web 2.0 space, Ross Mayfield, CEO of Socialtext, Satish Dharmaraj, CEO of Zimbra and Matthew Glotzbach, business product manager at Google, participated in a panel discussion titled, Web 2.0 for the Enterprise.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co. maintained its lead over Dell Inc. in the global personal-computer market in the first quarter, market researcher IDC said on Wednesday.

NewsFactor - Research in Motion (RIM) succeeded in restoring service to most of its BlackBerry users in the U.S. by Wednesday morning, following the crash of its popular e-mail service Tuesday night. However, there were still sporadic reports of message delays on Wednesday, most likely resulting from a backlog of undelivered messages overnight.

AP - Hewlett-Packard Co. maintained its lead over Dell Inc. in the worldwide personal-computer market as industry shipments continued to grow in the first quarter, according to reports released Wednesday by two top technology research firms.

Reuters - A Chinese couple sued Yahoo and its Chinese affiliates on Wednesday, alleging the Internet firms provided information that helped the Chinese government prosecute the man for his Internet writings.

Investor's Business Daily - Handset makers are racing to develop better mobile phone screens to meet expected demand for watching TV on the devices. In Japan, where TV on phones already is becoming commonplace, Sharp announced a fall release of phones featuring 2.2-inch screens that offer contrasts of 2,000:1, about 4 times greater than current top screens. The new phones also will be capable of receiving digital TV broadcasts, significantly expanding their capabilities since most phones are only able to show video downloaded from the Internet.

PC World - Most business servers should not be vulnerable to current attacks directed at an as-yet unpatched flaw.

AP - Sony's European video-game unit is cutting jobs to grow more competitive, a company spokesman said Thursday, as the just-launched PlayStation 3 machine struggles against rival offerings from Microsoft and Nintendo that beat it to the market.