US-TECH Summary
Microsoft, News Corp weigh web pact: source
NEW YORK - Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> has had talks with News Corp <NWSA.O> about a tie up, which would involve News Corp getting paid to take its news websites off Google Inc <GOOG.O>, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday. News Corp, which owns such papers as the Wall Street Journal and the Sun, started the discussions, which were at an early stage, the source said.
eBay says fixes search glitch on website
NEW YORK - eBay Inc <EBAY.O> said on Sunday it had restored a search function on its website overnight Saturday after a glitch led to searches returning either limited or no results throughout the day. The technical issue on eBay.com resulted from a surge in live listings as sellers ramped up for the holiday season, the global e-commerce and payments company said in an e-mailed statement.
Tweets or bleats? Tool measures importance on Twitter
SINGAPORE , a free tool that measures the importance of a user on the popular social networking site, how trusted they are as well as the influence they wield.
Barnes & Noble says Nook sold out before holidays
SAN FRANCISCO - Barnes & Noble Inc <BKS.N> said on Friday it had sold out of its newly-launched Nook electronic readers due to high demand -- a pre-holiday miscalculation that analysts said could boost sales of rival Amazon.com Inc's <AMZN.O> market leading Kindle. The news followed a similar announcement on Thursday by Sony Corp <6758.T> about its electronic reader.
Gameloft says it, others reining in Android plans
BARCELONA - French mobile phone games company Gameloft <GLFT.PA> said it and other software developers were cutting back investment in developing games and other applications for Google's <GOOG.O> Android platform. Android has won attention in the mobile industry lately, with Motorola <MOT.N> and Sony Ericsson <6758.T> <ERICb.ST> choosing it for their new top models.
Google says PC will start in seven seconds or less
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California - New Google Inc <GOOG.O> software will start up a computer as fast as a television can be turned on, the search company said on Thursday as it showed off its Chrome operating system designed for PCs that do their work on the Web. Google gave the first public look at its Chrome OS four months after declaring its intention of developing the PC's main software, a move that pits it directly against Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> and Apple Inc <AAPL.O>.
Smartphone growth to continue strong in 2010
BARCELONA - The wireless chip industry expects smartphone market surge to continue, with British microchip designer ARM <ARM.L> saying growth would likely even accelerate further next year. The smartphone market slowed drastically in the September quarter, but chip makers -- whose products are sold weeks, if not months, before phones are sold to consumers -- said they were seeing strong market growth, indicating third quarter slowdown was temporary.
Sony to launch online entertainment service in 2010
TOKYO - Sony Corp said on Friday that its planned entertainment content distribution service for network-compatible TVs and other devices will be launched next year. Sony plans to launch a new online service to distribute movies, music, books and other content to network-capable TVs, Blu-ray players, ebooks and others in a bid to add value to its hardware.
Chinese cyber-spying seen growing against U.S.
WASHINGTON - China's government appears increasingly to be piercing U.S. government and defense industry computer networks to gather useful data for its military, a congressional advisory panel said on Thursday. "A large body of both circumstantial and forensic evidence strongly indicates Chinese state involvement in such activities," the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its 2009 report to Congress.
AOL shows worst not over for media job cuts
LOS ANGELES - If AOL's announcement on Thursday of another 2,500 job cuts is anything to go by, the painful layoffs that have ravaged the media industry over the past year are nowhere near over. Even though U.S. media conglomerates have largely reported stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings and their CEOs are touting a long-awaited uptick in advertising spending, analysts and recruiters warn that more cost cuts lie ahead.