AP - St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is suing the social-networking site Twitter, claiming an unauthorized page that used his name to make light of drunken driving and two Cardinals pitchers who died damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp's chief software architect said on Thursday the profit margins on providing online services -- broadly known as cloud computing -- would likely yield a lower profit margin than the company's existing software business.

PC World - Apple CEO Steve Jobs is on track to return from medical leave this month, and there is even speculation that he may be present at the company's annual software developers' conference next week at San Francisco, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, quoting people familiar with the matter.

AFP - A Japanese software industry body has decided to ban computer games in which players simulate sexual violence against females, a spokesman said.

PC World - Hard times are driving large enterprises to patch holes in their storage architectures with systems designed for small and medium-sized businesses, one reason enterprise disk storage revenue fell 18.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to research company IDC.

AFP - US computer giant IBM has named Chieko Asakawa as the first blind engineer -- as well as the first Japanese female -- to receive the company's highest technical honour.

InfoWorld - Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect, detailed Microsoft's embrace of cloud computing Thursday and also endorsed the concept of netbooks -- provided they run Intel x86 processors and Windows.

Reuters - Global chip sales are expected to fall 21.3 percent year-over-year to $195.6 billion in 2009, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said.

PC World - Freescale Semiconductor displayed a number of devices containing its chips at Computex Taipei 2009 this year, including an e-book reader made by an Asustek Computer subsidiary, and a smartphone and two handheld computers with Google's Android software on board.

PC World - Intel has definite ideas about how it wants small laptops based on its Atom processors to evolve, but a senior company executive readily concedes that the market -- in the form of consumers and companies that buy these machines -- will ultimately decide what happens next with these devices.

PC World - An improved version of Via Technologies' Nano processor is on track to ship later this year, with a dual-core version set to follow soon after.

PC World - A Chinese company showed what it calls the world's first mobile phone to run Windows XP at the Computex exhibition in Taipei on Friday.

AP - Electronic Arts has been playing games with attendees of the nation's biggest video-game trade show.

AP - A 15-cent monthly surcharge should be levied on Internet access across Louisiana to fight online criminal activity, the House voted 81-9 Thursday, over the opposition of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

AP - St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is suing the social-networking site Twitter, claiming an unauthorized page that used his name to make light of drunken driving and two Cardinals pitchers who died damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress.

Macworld.com - KennetNet Software has released Clarus 1.0, a pet management software app for Mac OS X. It costs £15 (US$24.11).

PC World - Every day more rumors about Apple's iPhone plans keep popping up, and today is no exception. With Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference just days away, the excitement over new iPhone models has the tech world falling all over itself to deliver the next big scoop.

AP - Internet advertising revenue is down 5 percent.

NewsFactor - Microsoft's new search service, Bing, has hit the Internet with a bang. The search engine made available on May 28 has surpassed Yahoo search in its first week, according to StatCounter Global Status, an Internet research firm that tracks page loads.

PC Magazine - Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment will join the online music video service being developed by Google Inc's YouTube and Universal Music Group.

Macworld.com - The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced attendance figures for this year’s E3 Expo and has also indicated plans for next year’s show, including a date. E3 is the annual high-profile gathering of video game publishers, developers, media and financial analysts that takes place each year in Los Angeles, Calif.

PC World - Microsoft may have violated Russia's antimonopoly laws for withdrawing Windows XP from the market last year, the country's Federal Antimonopoly Service said Thursday.

AP - Sprint Nextel Corp. CEO Dan Hesse said Saturday's release of Palm Inc.'s anticipated Pre smart phone represents a 'coming out party' for Sprint as it seeks to reverse subscriber losses.

Macworld.com - Australian site MacTalk posted a notice a couple weeks ago from Vodafone Australia and its iPhone supplier, Brightpoint, saying that the 16GB iPhone was being discontinued (declared 'end of life,' in retail speak)—a move that was hardly surprising, given the rumors flying about imminent new models. Now, MacTalk has received a cease-and-desist order about the story, mere days ahead of the Apple keynote in San Francisco.

Macworld.com - Paragon Software Group has announced the release of Snapshot, a sector-level backup utility for Mac users. It’s being publicly beta tested now.

AFP - The Palm Pre, the new smartphone from the US pioneer in handheld devices, goes on sale in the United States on Saturday amid generally glowing reviews and favorable comparisons to Apple's iPhone.

PC World - The Google Chrome team is delivering on its promises to deliver Mac users a native version of the company's browser. A developer version of Chrome for both Mac and Linux users was released last night, but Google doesn't want you to download the software.

PC Magazine - Verizon Wireless and RIM have finally updated the BlackBerry Storm's software to make last year's buggiest smartphone more stable, solid, and usable.

PC Magazine - Belkin is following up on this week's TuneBase product introduction with a combination FM transmitter and GPS-assisted iPhone app.

AP - The mysterious disappearance of an Air France jet this week while flying over the Atlantic in fierce thunderstorms is stirring a debate about whether new technologies and procedures are needed to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

Reuters - Many Internet and media companies that were busy buying start-ups in the boom years could shed assets they no longer deem central to their business, as the recession imposes an age of frugality.

AP - Navigational device maker Garmin Ltd. will start selling its oft-delayed wireless phone in Asia within the next month.

Macworld.com - The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced attendance figures for this year’s E3 Expo and has also indicated plans for next year’s show, including a date. E3 is the annual high-profile gathering of video game publishers, developers, media and financial analysts that takes place each year in Los Angeles, Calif.

NewsFactor - Microsoft faces charges of breaking antimonopoly laws in Russia. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of the Russian Federation initiated a case against the software behemoth alleging that Microsoft violated Russian law when it took its Windows XP operating system off new PCs and the boxed versions off store shelves.

AFP - The local unit of US computer giant IBM has filed a libel suit against a Philippine government agency after being accused of selling it faulty software, court records showed Friday.

PC World - Cash machines around the world are hosting malware that can harvest a person's card details for use in fraud, a situation that could worsen as the malware becomes more sophisticated, according to a security researcher.

AP - No doubt bolstered by positive reviews, Sprint Nextel Corp. CEO Dan Hesse said Saturday's release of Palm Inc.'s Pre smart phone represents a 'coming out party' for Sprint as it seeks to reverse subscriber losses.

AP - When Apple Inc. launched an updated iPhone at its annual gathering of software developers last June, its biggest competitor was the iPhone that Apple had introduced the year before.

NewsFactor - Google has released Chrome browser test builds for Mac OS X and Linux, but is warning users to beware.

Macworld.com - We're just a weekend away from the start of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), where two items are expected to dominate the proceedings—iPhone OS 3.0 and Mac OS X 10.6 (also known as Snow Leopard). Dan Moren covered what we know and think about iPhone OS 3.0, so now it’s Snow Leopard’s turn on the stage.

AP - Internet advertising in the United States dropped 5 percent in the first quarter, marking the marketing medium's first downturn since 2002 when the Web was still recovering from the dot-com bust.

AP - Kasabian, 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum' (RCA/Sony)

NewsFactor - The hustle and bustle in Los Angeles is over for this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show, which closed Thursday, and the future of video gaming can be summarized with one word: Motion.

AP - Mainframe software maker Compuware Corp.'s chief executive, Peter Karmanos Jr., was awarded compensation for fiscal 2009 valued at $4.2 million, down 29 percent from a year earlier, according to an Association Press calculation.

PC World - The Semiconductor Industry Association on Friday projected a precipitous drop in semiconductor sales this year, with a slow recovery starting as soon as next year.

Macworld.com - Scosche on Friday announced the TapStick, a new accessory for the latest iPod shuffle. Available in black or white, the TapStick is a polycarbonate case that fits around the front and sides of the shuffle, extending its length by approximately half an inch, and provides the same volume and playback controls as Apple's included headphones.

PC World - Nintendo's Wii did motion control way before Sony's PlayStation 3D motion wand and Microsoft's Xbox 360 controller-free motion sensor, right? But wait, didn't Sony's Eye Toy show up back in 2003, years before Nintendo's wireless remote and nunchuck? Wait again: Didn't Nintendo's Power Glove beat all decades ago, when it splashed on-scene in 1989?

AP - A judge approved a $4.1 billion arbitration award against an Internet communications company accused of firing its chief operating officer in a dispute over commissions he said he was owed.

PC World - Saturday, the launch day for the Palm Pre smartphone, will be a big day all around for Palm, struggling carrier Sprint Nextel and anyone looking for another slick alternative to the Apple iPhone. But next Friday may have even more historic significance for all those parties, according to Avi Greengart.

PC World - A $99 iPhone may finally become a reality -- with the key word there being 'may.' A report published in the Financial Times on Friday reignited the long-standing rumor of a cheaper iPhone, suggesting Apple will announce a lower-priced, scaled-back device at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week.

AFP - St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa settled his lawsuit against popular micro-blogging service Twitter out of court on Friday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Macworld.com - Live update.

PC World - Sprint quietly made some adjustments to its Palm Pre availability press release today. Initially, the release stated you could buy the Pre at Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and online at Sprint.com . And poof! The ability to buy your shiny new Pre online is gone

PC World - Anyone familiar with LCD HDTVs expects their prices to decrease, and for TVs from established companies to cost more than models from upstarts like Insignia and Vizio--but no one expects the top-shelf brands to come down in price faster than the value brands.

Reuters - A surprise appearance by Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs at the company's annual developer conference could boost its stock on Monday, but his absence might trigger a bigger move in the other direction.

PC World - A Hampton, New Hampshire, man has pleaded guilty to fraud charges for his role in a scheme to empty brokerage accounts by installing malicious Trojan horse software on victims' computers.