A woman walks past the logo of Internet search engine giant Google at a trade fair. Google has launched a free music search service in China in partnership with a website backed by investors who include basketball star Yao Ming. (AFP/DDP/File/Michael Gottschalk)

SAN FRANCISCO - In an assessment that could lead to a substantial charge against its future profits, Google Inc. believes its $1 billion investment in advertising partner AOL is souring.

The Mountain View-based company disclosed in a quarterly report filed late Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the 5 percent AOL stake that it bought in 2005 "may be impaired." Impairment is an accounting term used to describe an acquisition or investment that has eroded.

Unless there is an about-face, the acquiring company eventually must absorb a charge on its books to account for the diminished value of its holdings.

Google acknowledged for the first time that it might have to recognize a loss on its 5 percent stake in AOL, whose struggles have made it a financial albatross for its owner, Time Warner Inc.

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Laptop computer storage is racing fast towards the 500G-byte level with Fujitsu becoming the third hard-disk drive maker to announce a drive at that capacity.

Fujitsu is accomplishing this capacity by combining three disk platters-- the magnetically-coated disks on which data is stored-- each with a 170G-byte capacity inside the drive. Hitachi, the first company to announce a 500G-byte drive, and Samsung Electronics are also using three platter designs.

The third platter increases the thickness of the drive to 12.5 millimeters versus most other laptop drives, which have just two platters and are 9.5 millimeters thick.

As a result the Fujitsu drive won't fit into the drive bay on many laptop computers, so its availability doesn't mean an instant capacity upgrade will be possible for all laptop users. Hitachi's drive is also 12.5 millimeters thick, but Samsung said it has been able to keep the drive height at 9.5 millimeters on its Spinpoint M6 drive.

Fujitsu will begin selling its 2.5-inch drive in May. It will have a Serial ATA (SATA) interface and can transfer data at up to 300M bytes per second. The average seek time for reading data on the 4,200 rpm drive is 12 milliseconds and 14 milliseconds for writing data. Fujitsu didn't announce pricing.

Hitachi said in January that it would ship its drive this month and Samsung announced a March shipping date. Both the Hitachi and Samsung drives spin the disk faster, at 5,400 rpm.

All three drives will also be aimed at the fast growing digital video recorder (DVR) market. Many of the DVRs use laptop drives because they are smaller and lighter than the 3.5-inch models typically made for desktop computers and servers.

Japanes women at an internet cafe in Tokyo. Japan has launched a satellite aimed at providing high-speed Internet access across Asia, after a one-week delay.

(AFP/File/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

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TOKYO (AFP) - Japan Saturday launched a satellite aimed at providing high-speed Internet access across Asia, after a one-week delay.

The experimental satellite is looking at how to ensure broadband-speed services across Asia, even when terrestrial infrastructure goes down.

The Kizuna launched at 17:55 pm (0855 GMT) from the Space Centre on the small island of Tanegashima off the southern tip of Kyushu Island, southern Japan.

"The rocket launch went smoothly," a spokeswoman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in Tokyo said.

Preparations before the launch Saturday included fully loading liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen tanks and checking the radio frequency system between the launch vehicle and ground stations, the agency said.

The launch comes after the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said last week it had discovered a problem with the gas jet thruster for its launch rocket.

Japan, like developing Asian powers China and India, has been stepping up its space operations and has set a goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by 2020.

Models pose with Toshiba's new 'HD-XA1' HD DVD player in Tokyo in this Friday, March 31, 2006 file photo. Toshiba may pull the plug on its HD DVD next-generation video format, the Japanese electronics maker said Monday, Feb. 18,2008. Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp. said in a statement that no decision has been made, but acknowledged it had started a review of its HD DVD business strategy. The comment came after weekend Japanese media reports, including in Kyodo News, that the company is studying a possible withdrawal from HD DVD.

(AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara, File)

Heart illuminations for Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day e-greetings from a stranger could deliver more than the recipient bargained for in the shape of a destructive "Trojan horse" that hijacks computers, the FBI warned Tuesday.

(AFP/File/Kazuhiro Nogi)

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Valentine's Day e-greetings from a stranger could deliver more than the recipient bargained for in the shape of a destructive "Trojan horse" that hijacks computers, the FBI warned Tuesday.

"If you unexpectedly receive a Valentine's Day e-card, be careful," the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement, warning Internet users to "be on the lookout for spam emails spreading the Storm Worm malicious software (malware)."

"The Storm Worm virus has capitalized on various holidays in the last year by sending millions of emails advertising an e-card link within the text of the spam email. Valentine's Day has been identified as the next target," the FBI said.

The bogus email directs the recipient to click on a link to retrieve an electronic Valentine's Day card.

If the user falls for the ruse, malware will infect their computer or the device they used to connect to the Internet, and make it become part of a Storm Worm botnet, according to the FBI.

A botnet is a network of computers that, unbeknownst to their users, forward transmissions, such as spam, viruses and malware, to other computers linked to the Internet.

Botnets can also be used in identity theft, the FBI warned, urging Internet users not to open Valentine's greetings from unknown senders.

A person holds an iPod. US researchers have created a nano-fiber textile that harvests energy from movement, paving the way for clothing that could one day power an iPod or other wearable electronic devices, according to a study published Wednesday.

(AFP/Getty Images/File/Justin Sullivan)

PARIS (AFP) - US researchers have created a nano-fiber textile that harvests energy from movement, paving the way for clothing that could one day power an iPod or other wearable electronic devices, according to a study published Wednesday.

Using the same mechanical principle as a self-winding watch, but on scale measured in billionths of a meter, tiny nano-generators can scavenge "wasted" energy from sound waves, vibrations, or even the human heart beat.

The fibers, developed by a team of scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology led by Zhong Lin Wang, are covered with pairs of zinc oxide nanowires that produce tiny pulses of electricity in response to friction.

"The two fibers scrub together just like two bottle brushes with their bristles touching," converting the mechanical motion into electrical energy, explained Wang.

"Many of the devices could be put together to produce a higher output," he said.

This method of generation energy from friction is called the "piezoelectric effect."

The fibers could also be woven into curtains, tents or other structures to capture energy from wind motion, sound vibrations or other mechanical energy, according to the study, published in the British journal Nature.

The human body contains many sources of energy that could drive nanogenerators, including blood flow pumped by the heart, exhalation from the lungs, and walking.

Even the act of typing on a computer is a potential source of nano-scale energy.

So far, Wang and his colleagues have made more than 200 of the microscopic nano-generators. The fibers assemblies were each tested for 30 minutes to check durability and power production.

Other kinds of nano-generators driven by scavenged energy aim to power biosensors to monitor a patient's glucose levels, strain sensors for bridges, and environmental sensors to detect toxins.

There remains at least one significant problem before Wang's nano-fibers can become part of our daily wardrobes.

Zinc oxide is sensitive to water, which means that clothes made from these fibers could never be washed, the study said.

Reports that Apple is cutting production orders on current iPhone models support rumors that a 3G version of the cutting-edge device is in the works for midyear, analysts say.

Last week, Craig Berger of FBR Research reported to clients that Apple has been accelerating production cuts for the iPhone and iPod Touch. "For both iPods and iPhones, we believe Apple was previously targeting a roughly 50 percent quarter-over-quarter decline for first-quarter units, whereas we now think the firm is targeting a 60 percent quarter-over-quarter unit decline for first-quarter units," Berger said.

In a research note Monday, analyst Richard Gardner of Citigroup cited the falling production numbers as an indicator that Apple is gearing up for a new model, The Washington Post reported. In Europe, iPhone sales have been underwhelming. "We believe that lack of 3G has been a significant headwind for iPhone in Europe, where 3G is already pervasive," Gardner said.

A television monitor shows how a new social network site Gypsii, launched this week at the Mobile World Congress, allows users to locate their contacts owing to new technology that uses the mobile phone as a tracking device in Barcelona.

(AFP/File/Josep Lago)

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Users of social network sites like Facebook will soon be sharing their exact whereabouts with their friends in real-time, owing to new technology that uses the mobile phone as a tracking device, experts say.

A new social network site, Gypsii, which launched this week at a phone industry trade show in Barcelona, allows users to search for and identify their contacts, be they in the neighbouring street or across the ocean.

"Look, that's Bill, my friend in New York. He's 3,800 miles away," explained Toon Wee, a director of Gypsii, as he pointed to a coloured pin in the middle of a map of Manhattan while explaining the product at the Mobile World Congress in Spain.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. said an independent investigation into a January laptop computer battery explosion showed that batteries used in such computers won't blow up under normal conditions.

"An external shock under an extremely high temperature caused the explosion in January," the company said in a statement Tuesday, citing a test result report by the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, a state-sponsored power apparatus test firm.

"Under normal usage conditions, it is not possible for a notebook PC battery to combust," it said.

The company said tests did not reveal what initially caused the high temperature.

South Korean media reported that a laptop belonging to a South Korean journalist burst into flames after smoke began to emerge from it. The LG Electronics notebook computer was fitted with a battery manufactured by its affiliate LG Chem Ltd. There were no injuries.

Both companies have since investigated the incident to determine the exact cause of the explosion.

LG Chem said Tuesday it won't recall the batteries used in the notebook computers by LG Electronics.

LONDON (Reuters) - Online retailer Play.com is to launch a new UK download store called PlayDigital, offering music from EMI and independent labels as MP3 tracks which could be played on all digital devices including iPods.

The music industry had relied on digital rights management (DRM) as the cornerstone in its fight against illegal downloading but the labels are now offering tracks without the restrictive protection in an effort to increase digital sales.

PlayDigital will sell tracks and albums in the DRM-free MP3 format. Apple's iTunes also sells EMI music at a higher price without DRM, but this is in the unprotected AAC format which plays on many digital devices but not all.

Online retailer Amazon has signed all four major music groups -- Universal, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI -- but it has yet to set a date for rolling this out in the UK.

The company said the average price for a PlayDigital track would be 70 pence ($1.37) with the top sellers at 65 pence, and it hopes to sign more labels to the service over time.

Play.com describes itself as Britain's third most visited online retailer with over 7 million customers.

"What this shows is that new entrants into the digital music space are banking that digital rights management is not going to be around," Jupiter Research analyst Mark Mulligan told Reuters on Wednesday.

"This move by Play.com to be DRM-free illustrates the trend."

Wendy Snowdon, the head of PlayDigital, told Reuters they had avoided DRM because they believed the tide was turning against it.

"We believe DRM-free digital music is the way that digital music should have always been available because ... we think it is natural to the customer and what the customer wants."

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Paul Bolding)

Celltrust developed its SecureSMS application so banks could deliver secure text messages to their customers' mobile phones-- but the company's chief technology officer wonders whether French president Nicolas Sarkozy might like a copy of the software.

Sarkozy sued a French magazine on Thursday for publishing a message it alleged he had sent by SMS (Short Message Service) to his ex-wife just days before his marriage to singer Carla Bruni earlier this month. The president accused the magazine of falsification, use of false documents and possession of stolen goods.

If a text message is sent using SecureSMS then even if the phone is stolen, the secured messages on it cannot be read, Celltrust CTO Houman Shafiezadeh said at a press event in Barcelona, on the eve of the Mobile World Congress.

That's because SecureSMS encrypts messages before transmission using a key unique to the sender, decodes them at a secure gateway and reencrypts using another key for delivery. A special application on the sender's and the recipient's phones stores the encrypted message, and will only decrypt and display it if the appropriate password is provided.

SecureSMS can encrypt messages sent between two cell phones as long as both subscribers have set up accounts with Celltrust, Shafiezadeh said.

Celltrust's target market, though, is big business: it hopes that banks will use its gateway and application software to secure the messages they send out to customers. The software has other advantages for banks: it provides confirmation of the reception and opening of secured messages, showing that whoever holds the phone also has the password.

These confirmations, however, are sent by SMS and paid for by the phone subscriber. That makes the application more suitable for customers on tariffs allowing unlimited text messages.

"If you're paying 10 cents a message, I wouldn't recommend it," Shafiezadeh said.

Celltrust is in talks with a number of U.S. banks to roll out the software in trials, he said. Finding enough customers with the right kinds of account, phone and SMS tariff is slowing things down, he said. Once the banks have identified the customers, the company will invite them to download the application, so that it can fine-tune the delivery process. The trials should begin in March, with a commercial service up and running by September, he said.

The SecureSMS software is initially available as a J2EE applet for phones capable of running Java applications. Other versions, for Microsoft's Windows Mobile and for Qualcomm's Brew platform, will soon be ready.

After that, Shafiezadeh said, it will be a race between Celltrust coders producing versions for Google's Android platform-- for which there is an SDK (software development kit) but no phones-- and for Apple's iPhone, on the market for almost eight months but with no official SDK available yet. That's frustrating for Shafiezadeh because Celltrust has issued its employees with iPhones.

Other companies offer secure SMS tools, but for more limited ranges of handsets. Kryptext, in Brighton, England, offers an application by the same name that works only on phones running Symbian OS, while Finnish handset maker Benefon (now GeoSentric) offered handsets that could send encrypted text messages back in 2003.

The Mobile World Congress, at the Fira de Barcelona, runs through Thursday.

You might think the last thing you'd need to play games on your mobile phone would be a wireless remote control, but Zeemote's JS1 is just that.

The Bluetooth device has four buttons and a thumb-operated analog joystick, and can be held in the left or right hand, leaving the other hand free to hold the phone.

The control measures 3.8 inches by 1.4 inches by 0.8 inches, and is less fiddly to operate than the small buttons on phones, said Jim Adams, Zeemote's vice president of sales and business development. Separating the control from the phone also makes it easier to hold the display steady while playing action games, he said at a press event on the eve of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where Zeemote will be showing the device.

This reporter is no gamer, but flying the helicopter in Fishlabs' shoot-em-up game Heli Strike 3D seemed easier with the Zeemote than with the tiny joystick of the Nokia N95 on which the game was running. The instinctive reaction is to point the control at the phone, holding them close together, but the gadget works just as well if you relax and let your arm fall to your side.

Fireworks, a bubble-bursting game developed by Finblade, showed off what Adams sees as a key benefit of the JS1: it makes two-player gaming possible on a single mobile phone. It also showed that whoever is holding the phone has a certain advantage.

Games must be specially coded to work with the Zeemote, Adams said, but the company will offer programmers a software development kit (SDK) at no cost. Zeemote will retain control of the SDK under a royalty-free license that will allow it to ensure that game play meets a certain minimum quality standard, he said.

In addition to Fishlabs and Finblade, Zeemote is working with developers such as Eidos and Sega Mobile, the company said.

Zeemote will sell the device first in Europe, because the high-end handsets it is most likely to be used with are more prevalent here, Adams said.

No price has been set: the company hopes to convince operators or retailers to bundle the controller with games and a new phone. Focus groups have told the company they would expect to pay between US$30 and $50 for such a device, Adams said.

The company plans to put the controller into mass production in May. The three-year-old company is on surer financial footing after landing $7million in new funding from Nauta Capital, Commonwealth Capital Ventures and Egan-Managed Capital.

The Mobile World Congress, at the Fira de Barcelona, runs through Thursday.

source : yahoo

Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, seen here in January 2008, has said the Finnish telecommunication giant will release a touch-screen handset for the first time in the second half of this year.

(AFP/Lehtikuva/File/Markku Ulander)

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BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Finnish manufacturer Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, said Monday it would release a touch-screen handset for the first time in the second half of this year.

Nokia has been late in introducing the technology. Apple has scored a hit with its touch-screen iPhone and Nokia's traditional rivals LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and HTC have already used the technology.

Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told a press conference here that the touch-screen phone would appear "in the second half of 2008."

He added that Nokia, which had 40 percent of the world market at the end of 2007, would launch its music download service "Nokia Music Store" in 10 more countries in the next six months. It is currently available only in Britain.

source : yahoo

Yahoo's board of directors on Monday rejected Microsoft's buyout offer, saying the 44.6-billion-dollar deal "substantially undervalues" the veteran Internet company.

(AFP/HO/File)

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SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. spurned Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid as inadequate Monday, betting that it can elicit a higher offer from the world's largest software maker or find another way to deliver a comparable payoff to its shareholders.

The rebuff by the slumping Internet pioneer had been widely anticipated after word of Yahoo's intention was leaked during the weekend.

In its formal response, Yahoo said its board had concluded Microsoft's unsolicited offer "substantially undervalues" the Sunnyvale-based company.

Yahoo indicated it could be lured to the negotiating table if Microsoft ups the ante, without mentioning the price it has in mind.

"The board of directors is continually evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders," Yahoo said in a statement.

Investors appeared confident that Microsoft wants Yahoo badly enough to raise the stakes. Yahoo shares rose 25 cents to $29.45 in Monday's morning trading while Microsoft shares fell 48 cents to $28.08.

Yahoo's stock price had dropped by more than 40 percent in the three months leading to Microsoft's bid, valued at $31 per share when it was announced Feb. 1. The offer was 62 percent above Yahoo's market value at the time.

Many analysts believe Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft will eventually raise its bid to $35 to $40 per share, sweetening the pot by $5 billion to $12 billion in an effort to negotiate an amicable sale.

Microsoft was prepared to pay at least $40 per share for Yahoo a year ago, according to a person familiar with the talks between the two companies a year ago. Yahoo wasn't interested then because it was confident in its own strategy, said the person, who didn't want to be identified because Microsoft's 2007 offer was never publicly disclosed.

But a higher bid now could hurt Microsoft's own stock price, which has been slipping amid concerns that a Yahoo takeover could be more trouble than its worth. Microsoft's market value has plunged by more than $40 billion, or 14 percent, since the bid was made public.

Microsoft representatives didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Monday morning.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Jordan Rohan predicted Yahoo's board will have little choice but to sell the company if Microsoft raises its bid to $35 or $36 per share. "Yahoo management has already exhausted the patience of its largest, longest-suffering shareholders," Rohan wrote in a Monday note.

If it doesn't want to pay more money, Microsoft could take its original bid directly to Yahoo's shareholders. Microsoft's management began preparing for that possibility last week by meeting with some of Yahoo's major shareholders to rally support for its offer.

In a more extreme tactic, Microsoft could try to override Yahoo's board by trying to oust the current directors later this year — a risky maneuver that would likely create hard feelings that would make it more difficult to cobble the two businesses together if a deal were consummated.

Yahoo also could fend off Microsoft by exercising an antitakeover device, known as a "poison pill," that would issue more company shares to make a buyout too expensive to pull off.

Although its profits have been dwindling during the past two years, Yahoo still possesses one of the Internet's biggest audiences and most valuable franchises. Microsoft believes it can build on those assets to become a more formidable competitor to Google Inc., which now holds a commanding lead in the lucrative online search and advertising markets.

Yahoo has reportedly been exploring an advertising partnership with Google as one way to boost its profits and remain independent. The company also has been looking for other suitors that might be interested in countering Microsoft's bid, but so far no one has stepped forward.

By rejecting Microsoft's initial offer, Yahoo's board is running the risk that the company's stock will plunge below $20 per share again if its suitor decides to walk away.

That scenario would probably unleash a flood of shareholder lawsuits, intensifying the pressure on Yahoo's management team to deliver on a long-awaited turnaround that has been in the works for the past 18 months.