Technology News

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Google is among more than 260 companies vying for wireless licenses to be auctioned in January, which could allow the search giant to extend its reach to the mobile Internet.

Online sales grew 25 percent in the last shopping week before Christmas.

New year will see launch of open-source Wikipedia search project the company hopes will challenge Google, others.

San Francisco - E-tailers have laggards and penny-pinchers to thank for last week's brisk sales, which grew 25 percent over the comparable period last year, according to comScore.

Researchers report Web shoppers are busier and happier than last year, as the holiday approaches and online sales finally slow.

ARAHUAY, Peru - Doubts about whether poor, rural children really can benefit from quirky little computers evaporate as quickly as the morning dew in this hilltop Andean village, where 50 primary school children got machines from the One Laptop Per Child project six months ago.

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan likely shipped 6.2 million smart handheld devices in the fourth quarter, up 81.7 percent on last year partly because it produces Apple's iPhone, an IT consulting firm said Sunday.

WHAT IS HAPPENING: Cell-phone carriers including AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Alltel will be turning off their analog networks starting Feb. 19, 2008.

HELSINKI/LONDON (Reuters) - Nokia (NOK1V.HE) and wireless technology firm InterDigital each declared victory in a court decision on Friday over patents related to the UMTS third-generation (3G) mobile phone standard.

Carriers will start shutting down the country's oldest cellular network, for analog devices, in February. How to know if you will be affected:

LONDON - The Scottish government said Monday it would pay to insert advertisements discouraging drinking and driving into video games.

NEW YORK - Just weeks ago, the holiday shopping season seemed headed for disaster. But in the waning hours before Christmas, the nation's retailers got their wish — a last-minute surge of shopping that helped meet their modest sales goals, according to data released late Monday by research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp.

Whatever other accolades the Nintendo Wii might receive, it has already grabbed the title of this season's Scarcest Electronic Gift. Retailers and desperate parents alike tell similar tales of Wiis being sold so quickly that sightings of new shipments are big news.

The Remote Gambling Association charges that the United States goes after European online gambling companies while ignoring U.S. online gaming operators.

NEW YORK (Billboard) - After being released from his Sony Music deal earlier this year, rapper DMX has signed a deal with the music division of Canadian online gaming company Bodog Entertainment.

LONDON - Just call her Queen e-Lizabeth.

San Francisco - The Queen's Christmas message, an annual greeting from the U.K.'s Queen Elizabeth II to her subjects, will be available on YouTube for the first time this year as part of an official YouTube channel opened on Sunday by Buckingham Palace.

SEATTLE - Advertisers are hungry to reach consumers congregating at sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube to socialize and access free content. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo all want to help advertisers track consumer behavior, then distribute product pitches dovetailing with an individual's interests. If they are successful, consumers will see more websites posting compelling free content.

LONDON (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth is joining the YouTube generation.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Sony Online Entertainment on Sunday denied an Indian media report that said Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd, part of the Anil Ambani-led ADAG group, was buying Sony Online and said the company was not up for sale.

Trend Micro has convinced the trade commission to look into whether competitors are infringing on its patents.

San Francisco - The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted to investigate claims by Trend Micro of competitors' patent infringement involving antivirus products.

Analysis of the Pushdo Trojan provides a glimpse of the tracking and hiding techniques used by online criminals.

People who author malware are part of a thriving underground economy that's expected to grow in 2008, according to computer security researchers.

Grisoft seeks info on companies that promoted counterfeit AVG antivirus products through sponsored text ads.

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan likely shipped 6.2 million smart handheld devices in the fourth quarter, up 81.7 percent on last year partly because it produces Apple's iPhone, an IT consulting firm said Sunday.

Palm is getting squeezed by RIM's BlackBerry device for business users and by Apple's iPhone for consumers, one analyst says.

Mozilla rolled out its second beta release of Firefox 3 in less than a month with the goal of receiving feedback from developers on the browser's core functionality. The Beta 2 release now available for download features builds for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 25 different languages.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc and a popular Web site that published company secrets about the maker of the Mac computer, the iPhone and the iPod have reached a settlement that calls for the site to shut down.

Mac users are also much more likely to listen to music files on their computers, according to a report from the NPD Group.

New year will see launch of open-source Wikipedia search project the company hopes will challenge Google, others.

San Francisco - Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has set Jan. 7 as the launch date for an open-source search project that eventually hopes to challenge Google and other established players.

As part of a European antitrust settlement, Microsoft will supply Windows protocol documentation to developers of the open-source software.

The healthcare services company moved 50 of its 70 applications to Linux over the last two years and will complete the process with the remaining 20 within a year or two.

Microsoft has entered into a licensing agreement with the nonprofit Protocol Freedom Information Foundation (PFIF) under which the software giant will be providing developers working on the Samba file and printing system with the information they need to ensure interoperability between their open-source software and Windows.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tough-guy actor and martial arts expert Chuck Norris sued publisher Penguin on Friday over a book he claims unfairly exploits his famous name, based on a satirical Internet list of "mythical facts" about him.

NEW YORK - Seat 17D is yapping endlessly on an Internet phone call. Seat 16F is flaming Seat 16D with expletive-laden chats. Seat 16E is too busy surfing porn sites to care. Seat 17C just wants to sleep.

NEW ORLEANS - The route to the moon and perhaps to Mars now goes through New Orleans — and the detour couldn't come at a better time in the city's struggle to rebuild its shattered economy after Hurricane Katrina.

LONDON (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth is joining the YouTube generation.

NEW YORK - When Adele Rothman bought her 16-year-old son a car in 2003, she made sure to pick one that had OnStar, the onboard communications and safety system.