A new optical recording method could pave the way for data discs with 300 times the storage capacity of standard DVDs, Nature journal reports. Researchers describe their method as "five-dimensional" optical recording and say it could be commercialized.

Globalfoundries has announced a joint development agreement with T-RAM, as part of which the two firms will bring T-RAM's Thyristor-RAM embedded memory technology to "advanced technology nodes."

Sony Electronics Asia Pacific has introduced three new entry-level cameras. The new cameras support the Memory Stick Duo slot for high-capacity Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo media, and the additional SD (Secure Digital) slot that is also SDHC-compliant.

A number of efforts to leverage Google's "Android," software for Google's open source project for mobile phones and other home information appliances, were introduced at the 12th Embedded Systems Expo.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall of 70,000 lithium-ion batteries used in Hewlett-Packard and Compaq notebook. Apparently, there have been two reported cases where the batteries caught on fire.

Sanyo Electric, the rechargeable-battery maker being acquired by Panasonic, forecast an increase in annual operating profit, beating analyst estimates.

Sony on Thursday announced its first annual loss in 14 years and warned it would stay in the red this year as the global economic downturn inflicts heavy damage on Japan's high-tech giants.

Retailers logged a second straight month of sales declines in April as consumers continued to pull back on all types of unessential purchases, the government reported Wednesday.

Worldwide, the rate of software piracy rose from 38% to 41%, because of the increase of Internet users in high-piracy locations such as China and India, the report found. Software piracy within the US, meanwhile, has remained flat.

Blu-ray player sales in the first quarter of 2009 jumped 72 percent over sales in the first quarter of 2008, according to market research firm NPD Group.