PC World - The morning after Sony said it expects to report its first net loss in 14 years, shares in the consumer electronics company slid 7 percent.

AP - Google Inc.'s fourth quarter wasn't picture perfect, but the results looked good in an ugly recession.

AP - The Senate appeared close to agreement late Thursday on a bill to delay next month's planned transition from analog to digital television broadcasting to June 12 � setting the stage for a vote early next week.

Reuters - China sought on Friday to portray its Internet crackdown as a campaign to protect youth from filth and nothing to do with stifling political dissent, with an official promising long-lasting action against 'vulgarity.'

PC World - Sony CEO Howard Stringer hinted on Thursday that the company has a number of new mobile devices in the pipeline.

PC World - Chinese demand for semiconductors will fall nearly 6 percent this year, according to market analyst iSuppli, adding to the growing evidence that China's economy will not be a haven for companies seeking shelter from the economic crisis.

Macworld.com - In the beginning—that is, 1984—a Mac could store 400K on a painfully slow 3.5-inch floppy disk. Today, your MobileMe membership provides you with 20GB of combined e-mail and file storage space—that’s 50,000 times as much—up in “the cloud,” swiftly accessible by Macs and PCs, iPhones, and iPod touches anywhere with a data connection.

PC World - Samsung Electronics plans to follow-up its NC10 netbook in the coming few months with a new model and expand its range of smart phones with models based on a number of different operating systems, it said Friday.

CNET - Storage maker NetApp ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's list of the top 100 companies to work for, bumping Google from its perch, according to a report in the publication on Thursday.

Reuters - China sought on Friday to portray its Internet crackdown as a campaign to protect youth from filth and nothing to do with stifling political dissent, with an official promising long-lasting action against 'vulgarity.'

PC Magazine - If in the next few months you have a problem finding an AMD processor to buy, there's a reason. AMD executives acknowledged that they plan to let existing inventories in the reseller channel deplete, and then manufacture fewer processors than its customers demand.

PC Magazine - President Obama is keeping his BlackBerry, but if he wants to send war plans to Gen. Petraeus, he'll need a Sectera Edge � and maybe not even a second, personal, BlackBerry. Here's why.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI says social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can foster friendships and understanding, but warns they also can isolate people and marginalize others.

AP - The Vatican is launching its own YouTube channel to engage more with the digital generation and better control Pope Benedict XVI's online image.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI joined U.S. President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II on Friday by launching his own YouTube channel, the latest Vatican effort to reach out to the digital generation.

AP - Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc. is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results after the stock market closes Tuesday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

Reuters - Internet security provider VeriSign Inc agreed to acquire Certicom Corp, just days after Blackberry maker Research in Motion withdrew its hostile offer for the software company.

Macworld.com - Bohemian Coding and Laurent Baumann have released Fontcase 1.0, a new font management utility for Mac OS X. It costs $46.

CNET - Clarification at 7:25 a.m. PST: The time of Friday's show has been updated. Tune in (browse in?) to CNET TV at 11:30 a.m. PST Friday for a special edition of Editors' Office Hours with Brian Tong and me, where we'll talk all about the 25th anniversary of the Mac.

CNET - What is a Macintosh?

CNET - The fact that the Los Angeles Raiders humiliated the Washington Redskins in a 38-to-9 victory is a mere afterthought. Super Bowl XVII's lasting legacy has been a single advertisement sandwiched somewhere in the third quarter: Apple Computer's iconic '1984' commercial.

CNET - The list-happy business magazine Forbes released on Thursday its annual survey of the nation's most wired cities. Topping the list is Seattle, the home of Amazon.com, Starbucks, and Microsoft (well, it's in a suburb).

Reuters - Intel Corp Chairman Craig Barrett will retire in May after 35 years with the company and be replaced by director Jane Shaw, the chip maker said on Friday.

AP - Intel Corp. says its chairman, Craig Barrett, plans to retire in May after more than three decades with the chip maker.

NewsFactor - Who said Macs are immune to viruses? Some malware makers aim to bust that myth with a Trojan horse that's being downloaded across the Internet.

PC Magazine - Scientists at the Hollins Communications Research Institute, a stuttering research and treatment center, have completed successful trials using Apple's iPhone as a stuttering therapy tool for transferring fluency skills from a clinical setting into real-life situations.

InfoWorld - Look for software development environments to make accommodations for cloud deployments, a Sun Microsystems official said on Thursday.

Reuters - Intel Corp Chairman Craig Barrett, the courtly former academic credited with building the company into the world's foremost chip maker, will retire in May after 35 years at the firm.

AP - After back-to-back hospital visits for congestive heart failure, Eva Olweean figured her health was back to normal. But the nurses at her retirement home knew better: Motion sensors in the 86-year-old's bed detected too many restless nights.

InfoWorld - The House committee on Energy and Commerce??, which has oversight on broadband and energy matters, approved its portion of the Economic Recovery Legislation this week.

Reuters - Investors are bracing for some of the worst earnings reports this decade from wireless chip suppliers Texas Instruments Inc , Qualcomm Inc and Broadcom Corp , after top mobile phone makers posted abysmal sales and forecast more deterioration.

PC World - In the social networking arms race, without a doubt Facebook and Myspace are the leading contenders. But now, at least on a global stage, it looks like a definitive leader between the two giants has emerged, with Facebook claiming double the visitors of Myspace.

AFP - Intel Corp. said Friday that board chairman Craig Barrett will retire from the world's largest computer chip company in May.

PC World - After 35 years with the company, Craig Barrett plans to retire as chairman of Intel in May, the chip maker announced Friday.

PC Magazine - Intel chairman Craig Barrett will retire at the company's May board of directors meeting, the chipmaker announced Friday.

NewsFactor - The world's biggest to-do list, on the desk of President Barack Obama, now has one less item. Obama will keep his BlackBerry.

Macworld.com - The ranks of iPhone client apps for the Craigslist online classified service grew a little larger this week, as CraigsPal made its App Store debut.

Macworld.com - The original Mac was the first mass-market computer to be networkable right out of the box. A popular saying of the time boasted that LocalTalk ensured that “no Mac is an island.”

AP - With the clock ticking toward the Feb. 17 deadline for TV broadcasters to shut off their analog signals and go entirely digital, analysts say more than 6.5 million households are not ready. Now Congress appears poised to postpone the transition to June � but a delay could bring its own problems.

NewsFactor - Popular news-collection and social-networking Web site Digg.com is cutting back its workforce in hopes of achieving profitability. The San Francisco, Calif.-based company will reduce its staff of 75 people by 10 percent, according to founder Jay Adelson.

NewsFactor - Nokia told investors that its sales declined 19 percent year-over-year to 12.7 billion euros (US$16.5 billion) in the fourth quarter. The company also said it now expects the mobile-device industry's sales this year will fall about 10 percent from 2008 levels.

PC Magazine - Verizon Wireless launched a VOIP-based, Linux-powered home phone on Friday, the Verizon Hub. The Hub plugs into a home broadband line and acts as a family calendar, limited Web browser, messaging center, digital picture frame and, of course, a phone.

Reuters - A U.S. senator has asked Microsoft Corp about its plans to slash up to 5,000 jobs, urging the world's biggest software company to preserve the jobs of Americans ahead of foreigners working on visas.

PC World - Intel Chairman Craig Barrett has announced his retirement from the company. Barrett will leave Intel in May, ending a 35-year career with the top-rated chipmaker. While much of Barrett's tenure has been positive, his departure comes as the company struggles to surmount slumping sales and increased competition.

Macworld.com - Cast your mind back to the golden yesteryear of 2005. George W. Bush had started his second term; Million Dollar Baby had come away with the Academy Award for Best Picture; and the English cricket team won the Ashes. Oh, right, and Apple introduced a brand new kind of iPod, the iPod nano, to replace its previous best-selling model, the iPod mini.

PC World - Barack Obama became the 44th, and first African-American, president of the U.S. on an Inauguration Day that captured the world's attention and provided a flurry of technology-related headlines. The post-inaugural buzz ended quickly, though, with dismal economic news being rife (again) this week. On a happier note, Apple did well with its quarterly financials and celebrated the 25th birthday of the Mac.

CNET - Apple has reached a $22.5 million settlement agreement in the class action iPod Nano scratch lawsuit and potential claimants began receiving settlement notices this week, according to the plaintiffs attorney.

AP - Google Inc. is showing its love for its employees by giving them a second chance to profit from their wilting stock options. But the move irked shareholders still stuck with agonizing losses on their investments.

CNET - It looks as though the digital TV transition will likely be delayed now that a group of Senate Republicans agreed to a plan that would push it back to June 12.

CNET - Hollywood has gotten better at delaying pirates from posting illegal copies of Oscar-nominated films on the Internet. The bad news is that eventually a higher percentage of nominated films end up on the Web.

PC World - For the best broadband, head northwest. That's the word from Forbes, which has chosen Seattle as the nation's most-wired city. The publication's annual list of top tech towns picks the 30 best U.S. cities for broadband access. The Emerald City earned high marks for its high-speed Internet access and plentiful Wi-Fi hot spots. The fact that it's home base for tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft didn't hurt either.

Reuters - Intel Corp Chairman Craig Barrett, the courtly former academic credited with building the company into the world's foremost chip maker, will retire in May after 35 years at the company.

PC World - A day after reporting flat revenue for its online services business, Microsoft said it is postponing construction on a planned data center in Iowa.

PC World - VeriSign said it plans to buy Certicom, just three days after Research In Motion's hostile bid for the security company unraveled.

PC World - Details are scarce, unless Russian is your language of choice, but CNews is reporting that Russia plans to develop its own national operating system. The move is designed to reduce Russia's need to rely on foreign software and licensing agreements. And the alleged 'open code' solution, likely a Linux/GNU derivative, will give Russia a greater degree of customization, as well as increased control over how the potentially free OS is used and accessed.