News For Saturday Sep 6, 2008 News For Saturday Sep 6, 2008

Science & Technology Science & Technology

Oracle expands theft allegations against rival SAP - Added 5 weeks ago

Escalating its rancor with rival SAP AG, business software maker Oracle Corp. accused SAP on Monday of knowingly buying and then embracing an illegal operation set up to steal Oracle's products and customers. The...

Verizon 2Q profit up 12 pct, beats expectations - Added 5 weeks ago

Verizon Communications Inc.'s second-quarter earnings rose 12 percent, the company said Monday, while revenue was slightly shy of expectations and customers disconnected their landlines faster than before. The nation's...

Friday's remote solar eclipse will be on Internet - Added 5 weeks ago

A total solar eclipse will darken some of Earth's skies on Friday, but geography, weather, the economy and even the Olympics are combining to make it a hard and expensive for people to see it. The total blotting out of...

AH Belo reports 2Q loss, plans 500 job cuts - Added 5 weeks ago

A.H. Belo Corp., the publisher of The Dallas Morning News and three other newspapers, reported a second-quarter loss on Monday and said it was cutting 500 jobs, or 14 percent of its work force. Its shares fell more than...

Verizon starts selling TV service in NYC - Added 5 weeks ago

Verizon Communications Inc. started selling its fiber-optic TV service in New York City on Monday, but it's initially available in limited areas. Verizon said 340,000 of New York's 3 million households can order FiOS...

Motorola confirms reorganization of business units - Added 5 weeks ago

Motorola Inc. will reorganize its non-handset business into three units, the company said Monday. Motorola said in March that it plans to separate the handset business, which has been hurt by a two-year-long decline in...

Facebook fends off attack of the clones - Added 5 weeks ago

!!-- pobj:MOSB514-0725081050 -->In its bid to go global, Facebook is facing off against itself. Clones of the wunderkind social-networking Web site _ some of which resemble Facebook right down to color, font and layout...

Mars lander has trouble getting sample in oven - Added 5 weeks ago

A sample of icy soil collected by the robotic arm of NASA's Phoenix Mars lander is apparently stuck in its scoop, foiling efforts to analyze it. The arm picked up 3 cubic centimeters of material Friday night and lifted...

Bikers, pedestrians seeking better Web maps - Added 5 weeks ago

With the old gas-guzzler in the garage, you've got your bicycle ready and your sneakers laced up. Now all you need is a map of the quickest, safest routes for riding around town. Well, not so fast. As more commuters...

Mars lander has trouble getting sample in oven - Added 5 weeks ago

A sample of icy soil collected by the robotic arm of NASA's Phoenix Mars lander is apparently stuck in its scoop, foiling efforts to analyze it. The arm picked up 3 cubic centimeters of material Friday night and lifted...

Italian media says Google video probe ends - Added 6 weeks ago

Italian prosecutors have ended their investigation of four Google Inc. executives over a video uploaded onto Google's Italian site that showed a disabled youth being abused, news reports said Friday. The ANSA and Apcom...

AOL shutting 3 services to cut costs, focus on ads - Added 6 weeks ago

AOL is shutting three data-storage services, including one of the Internet's earliest photo-sharing sites, as it seeks to cut costs and focus resources on its advertising opportunities. AOL Pictures, the year-old...

Sector Snap: Handsets up - Added 6 weeks ago

Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and other handset makers rose along with the broader market Friday following Samsung Electronics' report that its mobile phone sales rose 22 percent in the second quarter. Samsung's handset...

Bikers, pedestrians seeking better Web maps - Added 6 weeks ago

With the old gas-guzzler in the garage, you've got your bicycle ready and your sneakers laced up. Now all you need is a map of the quickest, safest routes for riding around town. Well, not so fast. As more commuters...

Former Adobe CEO Chizen named to Oracle board - Added 6 weeks ago

Bruce R. Chizen, the former chief executive of Adobe Systems Inc., has been named to an expanded board of another software company, Oracle Corp. Chizen, 52, who stepped down as Adobe CEO last year "to take a break"...

Scientists expose mystery behind northern lights - Added 6 weeks ago

Scientists have exposed some of the mystery behind the northern lights. On Thursday, NASA released findings that indicate magnetic explosions about one-third of the way to the moon cause the northern lights, or aurora...

China says has more people surfing the Web than US - Added 6 weeks ago

China's booming Internet population has surpassed the United States to become the world's biggest, with 253 million people online despite government controls on Web use, according to government data reported Friday. ...

Creators of Scrabble knockoff on Facebook sued - Added 6 weeks ago

T-R-O-U-B-L-E could loom for a Scrabble knockoff that has become one of the most popular activities on Facebook. Hasbro Inc., the company that owns the word game's North American rights, sued the creators of the...

Microsoft defends search investments to analysts - Added 6 weeks ago

Microsoft's CEO defended the software maker's decision to invest heavily in its unprofitable online business, but shed minimal light Thursday on specific steps it will take to challenge Google in the wake of the failed...

Major shareholder advisory firm backs Yahoo board - Added 6 weeks ago

An influential shareholder advisory firm endorsed the re-election of Yahoo Inc.'s entire board Thursday, reducing the chances that the Internet company's directors will be ousted for spurning Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5...

Embarq provides more details on Web tracking test - Added 6 weeks ago

Embarq Corp. has revealed more details about its exploration of a program that tracked Internet subscribers' Web-surfing habits for advertising purposes, telling Congress that it performed the test on 26,000 customers...

McClatchy 2Q profit drops on lower ad revenue - Added 6 weeks ago

Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co.'s second-quarter earnings tumbled 44 percent as ad revenue continued to shrink in its key markets. McClatchy, whose papers include the Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee, said Thursday...

Amazon shares leap on strong quarterly report - Added 6 weeks ago

Amazon.com Inc. shares leaped 13 percent Thursday after the Internet retailer showed that it doesn't seem to be bothered by the sputtering U.S. economy. On Wednesday, Amazon reported second-quarter earnings that more...

N.M. cavers chart unique `snowy' river of crystals - Added 6 weeks ago

Hundreds of feet beneath Earth's surface, a few seasoned cave explorers venture where no human has set foot. Their headlamps illuminate mud-covered walls, gypsum crystals and mineral deposits. The real attraction,...

South Korea's Hynix to close US chip plant - Added 6 weeks ago

Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the world's second-largest memory chip manufacturer, said Thursday it will close its only U.S. factory amid changes in production standards and steep price declines buffeting the industry. ...

Amazon shrugs off high gas prices, weak economy - Added 6 weeks ago

Amazon.com Inc. doesn't seem to be bothered by high gas prices or the sputtering U.S. economy. On Wednesday, the Internet retailer reported second-quarter earnings that more than doubled and easily topped analysts'...

Facebook to help some programmers, punish others - Added 6 weeks ago

Facebook Inc. is introducing more tools to help the software applications fueling the online hangout's popularity and is promising to intensify its efforts to weed out programs that violate its rules for protecting...

Nokia, Qualcomm settle long-running dispute - Added 6 weeks ago

The legal salvos between Nokia Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. stopped months ago, part of what officials at the wireless industry heavyweights described as a truce in a long-running battle that spanned three continents. Peace...

Sony opens up e-book Reader to other booksellers - Added 6 weeks ago

With the market for electronic books still relatively sleepy, Sony Corp. is trying a new tack: untethering the latest model of its e-book reading device from its own online bookstore. On Thursday, Sony will provide a...

Microsoft exec who led Yahoo buyout team to leave - Added 6 weeks ago

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday said Kevin Johnson, the executive in charge of its Windows and Web operations and an instrumental player in the company's failed $47.5 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc., is leaving the company. ...

AT&T 2Q profit up 30 pct, matching Street's view - Added 6 weeks ago

AT&T Inc.'s second-quarter financial results Wednesday indicated that the weak economy is catching up to the nation's largest telecommunications company, but investors were largely satisfied with what they saw. ...

EMC 2Q profit jumps 13 pct, tops Wall Street views - Added 6 weeks ago

EMC Corp. said Wednesday its second-quarter profit climbed 13 percent, topping Wall Street's forecasts, as the data storage specialist rang up record sales despite fears that economic uncertainty is tamping down...

Tech awards go to plane de-icing goo, headlights - Added 6 weeks ago

Camera flashcubes of the 1960s, high-definition TVs and the Nicoderm quit-smoking patch have at least one thing in common: Each found a place over the years on R&D Magazine's annual list of the 100 most...

Summary Box: Study sees online banking flaws - Added 6 weeks ago

INCREASING RISKS: A new study finds that online banking customers are more vulnerable to fraud when their banks' Web sites have design flaws that teach bad surfing habits. WIDESPREAD DANGERS: University of Michigan...

Netflix shuts movie financing arm to focus on core - Added 6 weeks ago

The movie-rental service Netflix Inc. is closing a small unit that finances independent movies, partly to avoid competing with Hollywood studios with which it partners for DVD and Internet distribution. The financial...

Yahoo CEO remains upbeat despite lackluster 2Q - Added 6 weeks ago

With Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover bid off the table and his company's stock price down 20 percent during his 13-month reign as Yahoo's CEO, Jerry Yang has a message for his exasperated shareholders: Things aren't...

Yahoo share gain short-lived after earnings - Added 6 weeks ago

Yahoo Inc. shares moved higher Wednesday but ultimately lost ground, a day after the company reported a drop in earnings and missed Wall Street's forecasts. Yahoo shares fell $1.01, 4.7 percent, to close at $20.39....

UN agency pushes global ID for emergency contacts - Added 6 weeks ago

In the English-speaking world, many cell phone users leave emergency contact information in the devices' address books under an entry labeled "ICE" _ for "in case of emergency." Now, the U.N. International...

AOL integrates widget tech to boost social-net ads - Added 6 weeks ago

Install a little photo program to show off pictures of your dog on Facebook, and you might find you're really spreading an ad. Time Warner Inc.'s AOL said Wednesday it was integrating technology from its newly acquired...

Amazon 2Q profit doubles, beats estimates - Added 6 weeks ago

Amazon.com Inc. says its second-quarter profit more than doubled and surpassed Wall Street's expectations. Sales were strong in several sections of Amazon's massive marketplace. The Seattle-based Web retailer earned...

Review: TextBuyIt fun, easy to use, but limited - Added 6 weeks ago

TextBuyIt, a recently launched shop-by-cell phone service from Amazon.com Inc., seemed like the ultimate comparison shopping tool _ perfect for an unabashed bargain hunter like myself. As it turns out, TextBuyIt is fun...

Google unveils reference tool after 7-month test - Added 6 weeks ago

Google Inc. is taking the wraps off an Internet encyclopedia designed to give people a chance to show off _ and profit from _ their expertise on any topic. The service, dubbed "knol" in reference to a unit of...

AT&T introduces global GPS service for phones - Added 6 weeks ago

Is it a long, long way to Tipperary? Don't know if you're on the path to Bath? AT&T Inc. aims to help, with a new phone service that truly puts the "global" in the Global Positioning System, or GPS. On Tuesday, it...

Tech awards go to plane de-icing goo, headlights - Added 6 weeks ago

Camera flashcubes of the 1960s, high-definition TVs and the Nicoderm quit-smoking patch have at least one thing in common: Each found a place over the years on R&D Magazine's annual list of the 100 most...

Study: Online banking possibly dicier than assumed - Added 6 weeks ago

Many banks are unwittingly training their online customers to take risks with their passwords and other sensitive account information, leaving them more vulnerable to fraud, new research shows. The result is that even...

Summary Box: AT&T profit up 30 pct - Added 6 weeks ago

KEY RESULTS: Investors expected the weak economy to finally catch up to AT&T, and it did, but not as badly as many feared. Profit was up 30 percent, even though more customers disconnected their landlines. ANALYST...

Electronics giants to create wireless HD standard - Added 6 weeks ago

Sony, Samsung and other consumer-electronics heavyweights are uniting to support a technology that could send high-definition video signals wirelessly from a single set-top box to screens around the home. The...

ADC Telecom cuts full-year outlook on lower demand - Added 6 weeks ago

Communications equipment maker ADC Telecommunications Inc. has lowered earnings and sales expectations for the current fiscal year, citing lower demand. ADC now expects earnings of 18 cents to 26 cents per share for...

Researcher says Gulf dead zone bigger than ever - Added 6 weeks ago

A "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas-Louisiana coast this year is likely to be the biggest ever and last longer than ever before, with marine life affected for hundreds of miles, a scientist warned. "It's...

Gupta removed as InfoGROUP chairman - Added 6 weeks ago

Database provider InfoGROUP Inc. said Tuesday it has removed founder Vin Gupta as chairman, citing excessive corporate expenditures and expense reimbursements. The changes are the result of an internal investigation,...