Technology News

Comcast fired back at the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday in its long-running duel with the agency. The cable-TV and Internet service provider filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google Inc. on Sept. 7, 1998, they had little more than their ingenuity, four computers and an investor's $100,000 bet on their belief that an Internet search engine could change the world.

HUMBLE START: Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated Google on Sept. 7, 1998, after unsuccessfully trying to sell their search engine for a couple of million dollars. They set up shop in their Stanford dorm rooms with just four computers before moving their headquarters to a garage owned by Brin's future sister-in-law.

SEOUL, South Korea - Samsung Electronics Co. is pursuing an acquisition of U.S. computer memory card maker SanDisk Corp., a South Korean online business newspaper reported Friday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Does Chinese President Hu Jintao give you goosebumps? Got the hots for Premier Wen Jiabao? Then Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily has the answer -- join their online fan club.

HELSINKI, Finland - Shares in Nokia Corp. tumbled Friday after the leading cell phone maker said its third-quarter global market share will decline from second-quarter levels because of aggressive price cuts by its rivals.

MOSCOW - Russia's number one cell operator MTS said Friday it has signed a deal with Apple Inc. to sell the iPhone in Russia.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas on Thursday delayed ruling until as late as November on whether EchoStar Corp owes TiVo Inc more damages for infringing on its "Time Warp" digital video recorder, or DVR, technology.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp (6758.T) shares fell more than 4 percent to hit the lowest in almost three years on Friday after the electronics maker announced a recall of 438,000 Vaio portable computers due to possible overheating that could burn users.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc's creature-building game "Spore" offers players a chance to develop new worlds -- and maybe even new lines of business for the video game maker.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Video game publisher Take Two Interactive Software made a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on strong "Grand Theft Auto 4" sales, but cut its current-quarter outlook due to the delayed release of a new game.

There is something for everyone, according to Microsoft officials who are touting the company's new prices for all three models of its video game console, the Xbox 360.

RALEIGH, N.C. (Reuters) - Why watch TV when you can be the star? Digital video recorders have done away with the notion of prime time for millions of gamers. Now game publishers are offering interactive TV stories that have ushered in virtual prime time entertainment.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it plans to cut the U.S. prices of its Xbox 360 video game machine, lowering the price of its entry-level console to $50 below Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS) top-selling Wii.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas on Thursday delayed ruling until as late as November on whether EchoStar Corp owes TiVo Inc more damages for infringing on its "Time Warp" digital video recorder, or DVR, technology.

Toshiba's rock-and-roll themed 2008 CEDIA Expo press conference featured the introduction of the company's fall lineup of LCD HDTVs, including competitively priced models with 1080p screen resolution as well as new additions to the company's REGZA series of premium televisions.

LOS ANGELES/TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - Millions have seen the YouTube video of "Christian the Lion" reuniting in Africa with the two men who bought him from a high-end London department store in 1969.

RALEIGH, N.C. (Reuters) - Why watch TV when you can be the star? Digital video recorders have done away with the notion of prime time for millions of gamers. Now game publishers are offering interactive TV stories that have ushered in virtual prime time entertainment.

Amazon.com on Thursday made available to the general public its video-on-demand service, through which ad-free movies and TV shows can be streamed on Macs, PCs, and Sony Bravia flat-screen TVs.

NEW YORK - Google Inc.'s new Web browser, called Chrome, does much of what a browser needs to do these days: It presents a sleek appearance, groups pages into easy-to-manage "tabs" and offers several ways for people to control their Internet privacy settings.

TALLINN (AFP) - The world has to unite against the growing menace of cyber terrorism, IT experts said Thursday, evoking a recent "cyber war" against Georgia as the latest example of the threat.

Google's new Chrome browser contains a "sandbox," where each tab is isolated from the others. The problem is that hackers can attack a vulnerable version of the WebKit rendering engine, which is used in both the current version of Chrome and an older version of Apple's Safari.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - NASA confirmed on Wednesday that a computer virus sneaked aboard the International Space Station only to be tossed into quarantine on July 25 by security software.

SAN FRANCISCO - Intercepting Internet traffic, and spying on the communication between two computers, is a gold mine for hackers. Now Carnegie Mellon University researchers hope software they've built will make it harder for criminals to hit that jackpot.

MOSCOW - Russia's number one cell operator MTS said Friday it has signed a deal with Apple Inc. to sell the iPhone in Russia.

San Francisco - A Google executive Thursday heaped praise on Apple's iPhone, even with his company set to challenge Apple in this same space with its Android mobile computing platform.

I'm pretty sure that I do not have an addictive personality. I don't drink or smoke -- I'm just not into doing anything in excess. However Will Wright's new game, the remarkably immersive Spore ($49.95, PC and Mac only), could have me signing up for the nearest 12-step program any day now.

ProteMac has announced the release of ProteMac Meter, a network activity monitor and traffic logging utility for Mac O SX. It costs $29.95 for a single-user license. A download is available.

Dell has taken the wraps off a new mini-notebook PC squarely aimed at U.S. consumers. Called the Inspiron Mini 9, the PC maker's first offering in the so-called netbook category sports an 8.9-inch LED screen with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels.

Microsoft hasn't publicly commented on Google's new Chrome browser, but Redmond's Internet Explorer 8 team may wind up echoing Mozilla's makers: We're not worried.

San Francisco - They're back! Just when you thought the "browser wars" were over, with the two camps ??? Microsoft and Mozilla.org ??? settling in for a kind of intransigent d??tente, along comes Google to stir things up all over again. Clearly, Google is unhappy with the current state of browser geopolitics and feels it needs to roll its own in order to ensure a robust base for its myriad hosted applications (that is, Gmail, Google Docs, and so on).

Google on Tuesday released the beta version of its new open-source Chrome Web browser. Google executives gave the press a tour, and addressed the first questions of how it will compete with more established offerings.

Will Google Chrome sink Firefox? Not exactly, according to Mozilla chief executive John Lilly.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp has launched a voluntary recall of 438,000 Vaio portable computers, citing a potential hazard that could cause the machines to overheat or possibly burn a user.

LOS ANGELES/TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - Millions have seen the YouTube video of "Christian the Lion" reuniting in Africa with the two men who bought him from a high-end London department store in 1969.

NEW YORK - Being a trendsetter can be pricey. As any fashionista or gadget hound knows, the latest frocks and tech toys don't pay for themselves. But a new Web site is trying to make it profitable for music lovers to stay ahead of the curve — by paying them when other people purchase MP3s they've bought.

SEOUL, South Korea - Samsung Electronics Co. is pursuing an acquisition of U.S. computer memory card maker SanDisk Corp., a South Korean online business newspaper reported Friday.

NEW YORK - Google Inc.'s new Web browser, called Chrome, does much of what a browser needs to do these days: It presents a sleek appearance, groups pages into easy-to-manage "tabs" and offers several ways for people to control their Internet privacy settings.