"Our preliminary reaction is that SearchPerks will likely result (in) a sub-standard outcome," Aggarwal wrote in a report Thursday. "In our view, attempts like this one can in fact hurt Microsoft's reputation in the eyes of end-users and advertisers."

...This is a huge accomplishment, especially because it is the first commercial network in the U.S. to use mobile WiMax technology. But given the paucity of devices available that can even access the network, Sprint is being forced to apply traditional broadband and wireless business models to the new network. And as a result, the company will initially compete with existing broadband services and 3G data services...

The strategy marks a major shift for Nintendo. Previous versions of the DS were mainly old-fashioned consoles that required cartridges to play games. With the DSi's Wi-Fi and SD card features, Nintendo pushes further into the digital platform business. That puts it squarely in competition against Apple, which has been luring big-name studios to sell downloadable blockbuster games for the iPhone through the App Store. Studios that might have had second thoughts about manufacturing cartridges for the DS now have an online distribution channel...

Apple has announced via its Apple Developer Connection website that it has dropped the NDA that has left iPhone developers frustrated since the release of iPhone OS 2.0 this past July. In a note addressed "To Our Developers," Apple finally admitted that the NDA had "created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone's success."

..Nintendo president Satoru Iwata took the wraps off the DSi, which packs a bulit-in camera, music playback and a bigger display than the current model. The DSi will ship in Japan on November 1, migrating to the US in 2009. It will sell for 18,900 yen, which translates to about US$179.

HP today became the second major storage vendor to make a big move into the iSCSI market this year, with a US$360 million acquisition of LeftHand Networks. The move follows Dell's US$1.4 billion acquisition of EqualLogic earlier this year and adds HP's name to the list of vendors chasing the fast-growing IP storage market.

Buffett, often mentioned in the past as the world's wealthiest man behind former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, is reportedly looking to buy 10% of shares in China's BYD, a major electronics and auto-parts manufacturer.

...the problem boils down to the solder bump material, in Nvidia's case high-lead that was used in all of the firm's GPUs that were produced until late July. According to sources, Nvidia has switched to eutectic solder bumps in recent weeks and there is now a new, apparently independent research report, that claims that eutectic solder bumps, which are used for example by AMD’s ATI unit, may live much longer than high-lead versions.

Typhoon Jangmi is expected to lash Taiwan with massive amounts of rain and strong winds for a second day today after leaving a trail of destruction behind.

..it will be discontinuing the operations of its GO Networks business unit, a supplier of wide-area Wi-Fi network equipment. Accordingly, NextWave today filed a request in Israel to seek bankruptcy protection for its GO Networks subsidiary located in Tel Aviv.

The SlotMusic cards, about the size of a fingernail, will feature music by artists from EMI Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, the companies said in a statement Monday. Listeners can insert them into portable devices or copy the music onto a personal computer. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

...technology outlays will sink 20 percent to $17.6 billion next year from an estimated $21.9 billion in 2008, said Larry Tabb, founder of Tabb Group in New York, which tracks securities firm budgets. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy and Bank of America Corp.'s purchase of Merrill Lynch mark the beginning of stark spending cuts amid plans for a US$700 billion government bailout for Wall Street. More than 20% of global technology spending comes from the finance industry, said researcher Gartner...