AP - Blockbuster Inc. will start renting movies and television shows through a new gadget that may give consumers another reason to bypass the struggling video chain's 7,500 stores.

AP - Even in troubled times, Hewlett-Packard Co. has managed to stack up some impressive gains.

AP - A marketing research firm is dimming its Internet advertising outlook for the next four years, the latest sign of the more austere times looming for the high-tech sector.

CNET - A teenager lay dying in bed after swallowing a lethal does of narcotics while his suicide attempt is being broadcast to the Web. A group of concerned viewers attempted to save his life by alerting the authorities. Others however prodded the teen to take his own life with messages such as 'do it.'

Reuters - Blockbuster Inc on Monday said it would roll out a new digital media player that brings fewer, but more recent titles from the Internet to consumers' televisions than a six-month old offering from rival Netflix Inc.

Reuters - Social networking company Facebook recently held acquisition talks with Twitter, the micro-blogging company, the Financial Times said.

InfoWorld - The new BlackBerry 9530, sold in the United States as the Verizon Storm, has the familiar fingertip navigation and flick-to-scroll gesture common to most widescreen phones. Apart from that, the Verizon Storm is very much its own device, unmistakably a BlackBerry in its strong messaging, connectivity, and extensibility, but carried to a new level of usability by a touchscreen display and a redesigned GUI.

Reuters - No.1 computer services provider IBM Corp said India remains one of its fastest growing markets and it expects to maintain double-digit revenue growth in the region despite growing domestic competition, a company official said on Tuesday.

Reuters - Samsung Electronics on Monday warned on cell phone market growth this year and next, the latest sign that weaker consumer confidence is hitting the wireless sector around the world.

CNET - Unclear product labeling prevents many consumers from buying affordable, energy-efficient electronics, and companies making 'greener' goods aren't getting proper credit, according to a report released Monday.

CNET - It would be tempting for those in the video game business to take some recent news -- for instance, that October sales were through the roof, or that the latest World of Warcraft expansion broke the all-time record for single-day PC game sales -- as proof that their industry may be immune from the deep despair confronting the global economy.

Reuters - Want to optimize your looks without radically altering them? An Israeli team of computer scientists may have the answer.

Reuters - Social networking company Facebook recently held acquisition talks with Twitter, the micro-blogging company, the Financial Times said.

AP - While superheroes may have taken over Hollywood, the video-game world has been harder for them to conquer. Sure, recent games featuring Iron Man and Spider-Man have sold well, but they haven't fired up gamers the way that a typical 'Grand Theft Auto' or 'Madden NFL' release does.

Reuters - The world's largest cell phone maker, Nokia, said on Tuesday its 264 million euro ($339.9 million) acquisition of British software firm Symbian was on track to be closed this year.

InfoWorld - The new BlackBerry 9530, commonly called the Blackberry Storm, has the familiar fingertip navigation and flick-to-scroll gesture common to most widescreen phones. Apart from that, the BlackBerry Storm is very much its own device, unmistakably a BlackBerry in its strong messaging, connectivity, and extensibility, but carried to a new level of usability by a touchscreen display and a redesigned GUI.

PC Magazine - The Canon EOS 5D Mark II began shipments to U.S. dealers Tuesday, possibly ushering in a new era in digital imaging: a device that's both a first-rate digital still camera and a first-class high-definition video camera.

PC Magazine - TiVo said Tuesday that the company has launched a new mobile Web site for programming TiVo boxes on the go. On Monday, TiVo also announced special holiday deals with Best Buy.

NewsFactor - Facebook's leaders are smiling as the company announced an antispam victory. The popular social-networking Web site was awarded more than $873 million in damages Friday against a Canadian spammer who was sending sexually explicit images to Facebook users.

AP - Siemens AG, Germany's largest industrial and electronics company, said late Tuesday it reached a deal with administrators in the case of BenQ Mobile's insolvency settlement.

Reuters - German police have arrested three men suspected of distributing propaganda on websites on behalf of al Qaeda after raiding a dozen locations across Germany, the federal prosecutors office said Tuesday.

NewsFactor - A joint venture between Intel and Micron Technology is preparing to mass-produce a 32-gigabit memory chip featuring Intel's multi-level cell memory technology. The new NAND chips to be manufactured by IM Flash Technologies will go up against similar products from rivals Samsung and Toshiba, beginning next year.

NewsFactor - EMG Technology has filed a patent suit against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

NewsFactor - TiVo on Tuesday launched a mobile version of its Web site that aims to give people the ability to record their favorite programs.

PC Magazine - University of Wisconsin-Madison senior Ted Durkee and graduate Brandon Gador are a duo of green entrepreneurs with a penchant for PCs. Their laptop badges promote wind power -- although it's not clear how much the organization itself pockets.

CNET - EchoStar's loss was TiVo's gain during the third quarter of 2008.

AP - TiVo Inc. recorded a profit for its latest quarter because of a $105 million settlement it received in a patent suit, but revenue declined, the maker of digital video recorders said Tuesday.

AP - Cisco Systems Inc. will close most of its U.S. and Canadian offices for 4 days over the holidays as part of a plan to cut $1 billion in costs in the current fiscal year, the company said Tuesday.

AFP - Growth in online advertising spending is slowing amid a weak economy and will fall into single digits next year for the first time, research firm eMarketer reported on Tuesday.

Reuters - Touchscreen phone users are discovering that much of the fun in their devices stems from applications -- those little nuggets of convenience, amusement and distraction available for download on the slightest whim.

AP - The U.S. Army plans to invest $50 million over five years to develop video games for use in training soldiers for combat, according to a report in Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper.

CNET - Warner Music Group, the label that represents such acts as REM and Green Day, is the second major recording company to report healthy growth in digital sales during the past quarter.

Reuters - Janel Landon, who runs a small PR consultancy in Chicago, has long been aware of the potential of online networks: now in her mid-50s and facing a global recession, she's decided to sign up.

Reuters - Australia's two largest telecommunications firms lodged bids on Tuesday to build an around $6 billion fast broadband Internet network that would give a much-needed boost to the country's infrastructure.

Investor's Business Daily - With valuations of emerging-market phone companies falling, some of the telecom industry's big players are swooping in to make acquisitions.

Reuters - MySpace, the popular social networking website owned by News Corp, said on Tuesday former MTV executive Courtney Holt will become president of its MySpace Music joint venture with the four major record companies.