AP - Sun Microsystems Inc.'s wobbly financial performance has done little to hearten investors over the past couple of quarters. But Wall Street found some joy in the server and software maker's latest results: sales weren't as bad as expected during the last three months of 2008.

AP - Yahoo Inc. won't be consummating any deals with its jilted suitor Microsoft Corp. any time soon if Carol Bartz, the beleaguered Internet company's new chief executive, has any say in the matter.

Reuters - The United States and Scandinavian countries top the annual rankings on the usage of telecommunications technologies such as networks, cellphones and computers, a report released on Wednesday shows.

InfoWorld - Mozilla's open source Firefox browser has made a significant dent in Internet Explorer's dominant market share.

InfoWorld - Google on Tuesday rolled out a new wrinkle in its Gmail service: Offline e-mail for businesses using Google Apps and for consumer Gmail users. The move was announced in a posting to the Google Enterprise blog.

CNET - A premium movie channel backed by a trio of studios is expected to debut as an on-demand Web site months before its traditional TV launch.

CNET - We have Valentines Day and Mothers Day and even Inauguration Day. And now that cyber crooks have turned the Internet into their playground, we've got Data Privacy Day.

AFP - The world leader in professional software, Germany's SAP, said Wednesday it will cut more than 3,000 jobs this year to save up to 350 million euros (460 million dollars) as demand slumps.

Reuters - A New Zealand man who bought a second-hand MP3 player that contained U.S. military files on personnel who served in Afghanistan and Iraq handed it over to U.S. officials on Wednesday, New Zealand media reported.

PC World - SAP intends to reduce its global workforce to 48,500 staff by the end of this year, it said Wednesday. The company currently has more than 51,800 employees worldwide, according to its Web site.

PC Magazine - Security firm Intego said this week that it has discovered a second version of the Trojan hiding within a pirated version of iLife '09. The new variant is being distributed via BitTorrent within Adobe Photoshop CS4 for the Mac.

Macworld.com - Apple’s no stranger to missing a deadline or two, nor is the company averse to pushing back products a few weeks or months when they need more time. But less common are products that disappear entirely into the world-devouring maw of 1 Infinite Loop’s private black hole.

Macworld.com - Last June, at its 2008 Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple announced that it would introduce a new feature of the iPhone Software Development Kit: a push notification system that would allow applications to receive information over the network and alert the user even while programs weren’t actively running.

AFP - As Data Privacy Day dawned Wednesday, Microsoft released research indicating that people want to defend themselves online but are looking for a little help.

AP - Software maker SAP AG said Wednesday it would cut 3,000 jobs worldwide to cut costs as its 2008 net profit fell 2 percent, weighed by a difficult year-end when the financial crisis deepened.

AP - The New York Times Co. said Wednesday that fourth-quarter earnings plunged 48 percent and online sales fell for the first time as the recession depressed spending by advertisers. The results still beat analyst estimates, and its shares rose more than 7 percent.

Reuters - AT&T Inc said its fourth-quarter profit fell despite higher wireless sales, as the top U.S. phone company paid high subsidies to support Apple Inc's popular iPhone and traditional phone users disconnected their service.

PC World - Relic's Dawn of War II multiplayer beta is now live, doors officially unlatched to anyone interested. You'll need Steam to grab the download, 5.5GB of hard drive space for the install, and a beastly system if you're running DX10 per Vista or the Windows 7 beta.

Macworld.com - iSimple has announced that it has approved its GateWay iPod and iPhone integration system for use in more than 30 2009 model cars and trucks.

Macworld.com - Orbicule has announced Undercover 3, a major new release of its theft-recovery software for Mac OS X. It costs $49.

Macworld.com - InFocus on Wednesday announced Intel-based Mac support for its line of DisplayLink digital projectors. The support has been added through the release of a driver available for download from InFocus’ Web site.

PC World - AT&T reported net income of US$2.4 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008, down from $3.1 billion in the previous year, with declining voice revenue offsetting gains in iPhone adoptions and broadband profit increases.

CNET - Thanks in part to armies of compromised computers, click fraud reached an all-time high in the fourth quarter.

Macworld.com - Less than one week ago, 25 years ago, the world changed as the Macintosh arrived. Macworld and, of course, this very blog would not exist had that event not preceded them (so don't get any ideas, time travelers). Naturally, there was tons and tons of (sometimes skeptical) media attention at the time. 

Macworld.com - Now that I'm living abroad, I spend most of my time on buses and metros listening to podcasts. My earbuds are constantly rockin' offerings from PRI's The World, NPR, CBC, and even, The Bugle . [Full disclaimer: I do freelance reporting for The World, NPR and CBC.] But, there are times when you want live radio—when you want to know what's going on right now.

PC World - T-Mobile's update of the BlackBerry Curve, the 8900, isn't an earth-shattering revision of one of Research in Motion's most successful QWERTY keyboard models.

Reuters - AT&T Inc reported a fall in quarterly profit despite strong wireless sales, due to high costs of supporting Apple Inc's popular iPhone and more customers disconnecting their traditional phones.

PC Magazine - The long-awaited Firefox Mobile browser, codenamed Fennec, could be ready for a Windows Mobile beta as soon as next week on the HTC Touch Pro.

NewsFactor - IBM's lawsuit to block former Vice President Mark Papermaster from taking a position at Apple has been settled. Apple announced Papermaster will begin his new job in April as senior vice president of devices engineering, reporting directly to CEO Steve Jobs.

AP - Winter tests the patience of many iPhone users.

PC World - As you've no doubt heard, Apple has won a patent for its coveted multitouch technology on the iPhone and is also in the process of trademarking the term 'Multi-Touch.' (You can see some of the patent paperwork below). This has prompted many tech pundits to consider the implications of such a patent for touch products in general. Will Apple litigate every new touch product that comes along and stifle innovation?

AP - Time Warner Inc.'s AOL business is cutting up to 700 jobs, or about 10 percent of the Internet unit's work force, in a bid to cut costs.

Reuters - Google Inc on Wednesday unveiled a plan aimed at eventually letting computer users determine whether providers like Comcast Corp are inappropriately blocking or slowing their work online.

PC World - Mozilla has given $100, 000 to the Wikimedia Foundation to improve and develop Ogg Theora, an open source video codec being developed by the Xiph.org Foundation. Wikimedia will disburs funds over a six-month period. Although not the best-known video format, Ogg already has some major support from web developers. Theora will be built into Firefox 3.1, which is currently in Beta 2, as well as into Norway's homegrown browser Opera. Theora is also the video format of choice for all Wikimedia Foundation projects.

NewsFactor - Now that President Obama has gotten the OK from his security team for limited use of his BlackBerry, he might be taking a look at a thinner and lighter BlackBerry with a full QWERTY keyboard: the Curve 8900.

NewsFactor - AT&T said it activated 1.9 million iPhone 3Gs in the fourth quarter. It also reported iPhone 3G activations topped 4.3 million in the second half of last year.

AP - How do you lose $7 billion?

AP - Chip maker Qualcomm Inc. slashed its forecasts for revenue and operating income Wednesday as it reported its fiscal first-quarter income plunged 56 percent.

Reuters - Qualcomm Inc on Wednesday posted a smaller quarterly net profit and cut its fiscal 2009 revenue outlook on weakening demand for wireless chips, citing slowing phone sales in the economic downturn, sending its shares down 2.6 percent

InfoWorld - The wheels are in motion to make Jetty, an open source Java Web server, an Eclipse Foundation project, said Webtide, the main developer of Jetty. The software is used as a server for rich Internet and embedded applications.

PC Magazine - Cox Communications next month will implement a new traffic management method that prioritizes 'time sensitive' Internet traffic but temporarily delays traffic like software updates and peer-to-peer transactions when the network is congested.

Macworld.com - The moment the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers settle matters on Sunday at Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, we enter a blighted period for sports fans.

CNET - Many have by now learned that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is a bit, uh, prickly. But Michael Dell found out first hand at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.

AFP - Growing numbers of American seniors are going online, chipping away at the dominance of 18- to 44-year-olds who comprise half the Web population, according to a study released Wednesday.

PC Magazine - Symantec Corp, the largest maker of computer security and data backup software, issued quarterly results that beat forecasts, sending its shares up 6 percent.

AFP - Lara Croft is set to return in a new movie based on the 'Tomb Raider' video games but Angelina Jolie is unlikely to reprise her role as the gun-toting archeologist, reports said Wednesday.

Reuters - Google Inc on Wednesday unveiled a plan aimed at eventually letting computer users determine whether providers like Comcast Corp are inappropriately blocking or slowing their work online.

Reuters - Qualcomm Inc posted a lower quarterly net profit that was halved by a charge for investment losses and cut its full year revenue target on weak demand for cell phone chips, sending shares down 6 percent.

Reuters - Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts are teaming for the second game in their partnership, 'Boom Blox Bash Party,' which will be available in the spring for the Nintendo Wii.

Reuters - U.S. public radio stations are looking to thumb-sized, high-tech gadgets to help raise money and make it easier for on-the-go listeners to access their programing.

PC World - Lenovo has acquired a secretive startup called Switchbox Labs that was cofounded by a former Microsoft Windows executive, the PC maker announced Wednesday.