CNET - Beefed-up cell phone networks in Washington, D.C., got their first real test over the holiday weekend--with reports of scattered outages affecting people who attended the pre-inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday.

AFP - Authorities in a Chinese province where Internet users exposed an allegedly corrupt official's taste for luxury have made posting such information illegal, state media reported Tuesday.

PC World - IBM's Chinese subsidiary last week acquired a stake worth US$15.8 million in Chinese television set maker Changhong Electric, according to a company filing at the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

AFP - Canadian firm Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of the Blackberry smartphone, said Monday that it may appeal a court order that blocked its hostile takeover offer for Certicom Corp.

Macworld.com - More than a week later, and we’re still digging out from the onslaught of iPhone games that we’ve learned about since the beginning of the month. Here’s a roundup of many of the recent releases that have crossed our desks.

InfoWorld - Smartphone programming is booming. The little leash that lets your boss reach out and ruin your time off is turning into a platform of seemingly infinite possibilities. It's more than just iPhone applications that simulate a glass of beer that drains as the accelerometer measures the amount of tilt. The new smartphones can act as a wallet, a personal shopper, a personal trainer, and a source of endless amusement.

Reuters - Intel, the world's largest chip maker, has cut the price of some processors by as much as 48 percent as it confronts slumping demand and new lower-cost chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Bloomberg reported.

Reuters - Apple said on Tuesday it had launched an online shop selling second-hand Apple products in China, offering discounts of up to 22 percent, as it looks to beef up its business in the country.

CNET - Apple announced Tuesday it has opened an online store selling used products in China in an effort to expand its business there, according to a Reuters report.

InfoWorld - Nearly half of developers working on open source projects plan to offer applications as Web services offerings using cloud providers, according to results of an Evans Data open source development survey being released on Tuesday.

PC World - Florida mainframe manufacturer T3 Technologies has filed a formal complaint against IBM with the European Union's antitrust authority, it said Tuesday. In its complaint, T3 accuses IBM of refusing to sell its mainframe operating system to customers wanting to run it on computers made by T3.

AP - Real news from the virtual world:

Macworld.com - Elgato has announced the release of EyeTV 3.1, an update to its TV recording software. The software comes bundled with Elgato’s EyeTV Mac DVR interfaces; it’s also sold for use with some third-party DVR devices as well. A free update for EyeTV 3 users, EyeTV 3.1 costs $79.95. (Upgrades from previous releases are available.)

Macworld.com - Karelia Software has released Sandvox 1.5.4, a new version of their visual Web site editing software for Mac OS X. A free update for registered Sandvox users, Sandvox 1.5.4 comes in Regular and Pro editions for $49 and $79 respectively.

Macworld.com - RedleX has released Mellel 2.6, an update to its word processor for Mac OS X. A free update for all registered users who have purchased Mellel after Dec. 2006, Mellel costs $49 for a single user license.

Macworld.com - Microsoft released a public beta of Entourage for Exchange Web Services late Monday, announcing the launch on the Microsoft Mac Business Unit's Office for Mac blog.

PC World - Whether you're at work, traveling, or just not in front a television, there are plenty of ways to get a front seat at Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony today. All you need is a computer, laptop, or mobile phone and an Internet connection. So if you're going to be one of the millions watching, here are your options:

AP - Bose Corp., known for its high-end audio equipment, is cutting 1,000 jobs — about 10 percent of its work force.

Reuters - China has blocked 244 new pornographic websites over the last week, the official Xinhua news agency said, bringing the total number of sites shut down in a campaign against 'vulgar' content to over 700.

InfoWorld - Enterprise IT shops might soon get another option for virtualizing their entire datacenter.

Reuters - Intel Corp is slashing prices on a number of its processors, including cuts of up to 40 percent on some of its higher-powered, faster quad-core chips, as the world's largest chip maker copes with weakening demand.

AP - Can you hear me now? The most appropriate answer in the nation's capital on Tuesday appears to be 'sometimes.'

Macworld.com - SkypeCap has announced the release of SkypeCap 1.0, a new utility for Mac OS X that records Skype audio sessions. It costs $39.95.

Macworld.com - What do you do when you have a pallet of computers that are all broken in some way, but are too expensive to repair? You throw them in a dumpster—or at least according to APC, that’s what Apple has done. The Australian computer magazine has some graphic photos of Mac mistreatment. Parents, don’t let your kids see this picture.

AP - Comcast Corp., the nation's biggest cable TV operator, is being investigated by the Federal Communications Commission over concerns that it is giving preferential treatment to its phone service at the expense of similar services from competitors.

AFP - Millions around the world commented, twittered and prayed as they watched Barack Obama's inauguration live on Tuesday on the Internet, pinning their hopes on a new world order and era in American politics.

NewsFactor - In response to a down economy and a slowing PC industry, Intel has slashed the prices of its processors. The chipmaker cut the price of its Core 2 Quad chips by up to 40 percent and continued the theme with less-dramatic price cuts across its line.

Macworld.com - Famed game publisher Midway announced Tuesday that it will release five new games for the iPhone and iPod touch later this month. Each game will be priced at 99 cents, or you can buy all five for $3.99.

Macworld.com - You’ve got yourself a slick, shiny new MacBook, so it’s only right that you treat it with the style with which it deserves. No neoprene laptop sleeves for these marvels of modern engineering; you need only the finest materials to complement the use of aluminum and glass. You need a wooden laptop case lined with leather.

InfoWorld - Smartphone programming is booming. The little leash that lets your boss reach out and ruin your time off is turning into a platform of seemingly infinite possibilities. It's more than just iPhone applications that simulate a glass of beer that drains as the accelerometer measures the amount of tilt. The new smartphones can act as a wallet, a personal shopper, a personal trainer, and a source of endless amusement.

AP - Google is abandoning its attempt to sell print advertising on behalf of the struggling newspaper industry because the 2-year-old program wasn't paying off.

NewsFactor - With the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona coming up next month, new developments around the Android open-source mobile platform are beginning to build expectations.

InfoWorld - The Eclipse Foundation is releasing on Wednesday version 2.0 of its Eclipse PDT (PHP Development Tools) project, which adds object-oriented programming and usability features.

AFP - French videogame-making powerhouse Ubisoft said Tuesday it has bought Southlogic Studios, adding Brazil's oldest videogame developer to a growing list of acquisitions.

PC World - Qualcomm has acquired Advanced Micro Devices' handheld chip division for about US$65 million, looking to bring greater multimedia capabilities to handsets based on its chips.

NewsFactor - The history-making inauguration of President Barack Obama also was a cell-phone test. Wireless networks braced for an onslaught of photos, text messages, video and voice communications from the millions of people attending the inauguration.

AP - IBM Corp. forecast significantly higher profits for 2009 than Wall Street expected, a surprisingly bullish sign that reflects IBM's belief it can outmaneuver the financial crisis by focusing on landing high-margin services and software contracts. Shares leaped 4 percent in extended trading.

AP - An unprecedented number of people watched the inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama on their computer screens rather than the TV set, according to two leading companies that deliver Internet video.

AP - Google Inc. is giving up on selling print ads for the ailing newspaper industry, ending a 2-year-old attempt to extend its dominance of Internet marketing into another medium.

CNET - Two companies trying to lay claim to having the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the U.S. have secured financing to get closer to that goal.

Reuters - Google Inc said on Tuesday it would halt its Print Ads program on February 28 because the program to help newspapers make more money in online advertising sales was not working.

PC World - A payment processor responsible for handling about 100 million credit card transactions every month disclosed today that thieves had used malicious software in its network in 2008 to steal an unknown number of credit card numbers.

Reuters - IBM , the world's top technology services company, beat Wall Street estimates of its quarterly earnings, helped by rigid cost controls and a lower tax rate, and forecast a higher-than-expected 3 percent rise in 2009 earnings per share.

Macworld.com - Accelerated Internet Strategies has launched an iPhone development training program. It begins February 2, 2009 and costs $97 per course. Five courses are in the series.

PC World - Mobile phone networks around Washington, D.C., experienced periodic overload during inauguration ceremonies for U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday, but by mid-afternoon the congestion seemed to dissipate.

AP - In an inauguration defined by a sense of change, the experience of watching Barack Obama take office was fittingly revolutionary.

InfoWorld - Adobe Systems plans to publish its RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol) specification for high-performance transmission of audio, video, and data between Adobe Flash technologies, the company said Tuesday.

Reuters - IBM issued a 2009 profit outlook that blew past Wall Street expectations, underscoring the ability of the world's top technology services firm to weather the global downturn and boosting its shares 4 percent.

AFP - Hackers are using dozens of fake websites linked to Barack Obama's inauguration as US president to spread a virus on the Internet, a security company warned Tuesday.

AFP - The first US Internet president is an online sensation, triggering a tidal wave of Web traffic as he officially seized the nation's reins.