Americans put the brakes on purchases of LCD TVs and other electronics this summer. That didn't help manufacturers like 3M Co. - which rely on those expensive goods to drive their business.

Renewable energy is generating a lot of political heat. The bankruptcy of solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra, after a half billion dollar loan from the Federal government, has set off a hot debate on Capitol Hill.

A massive new Westford solar-power plant heavily subsidized by state and federal aid is using the same kind of cut-rate Chinese solar panels that drove publicly backed Evergreen Solar and Solyndra out of business, drawing the ire of Massachusetts labor and business groups.

Greece will use future revenue from the country's ?嚙瘡elios' solar energy project to cut debt by as much as 15 billion euros ($21 billion), euro-area leaders said.

While solar's ascent in 2010 was stunning, it would play an even bigger role in our energy mix and have achieved grid parity across many more markets already if fossil fuel subsidies were removed.

Broadcom was down more than 4% at last check as Chief Executive Scott McMcGregor said in a statement that the company's outlook "reflects potential industry softness."

Qualcomm has announced that its Snapdragon mobile processors power the first Nokia Lumia smartphones, the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710.

Rubicon Technology says that it has shipped over 200,000 six-inch sapphire wafers to LED manufacturers worldwide.

Apple is planning to build a huge solar farm to augment the power supply of one of its dirtiest datacenter clusters.

In order to promote solar power, the government is subsidising the technology. Besides, efforts are also on to encourage people to get into using the solar energy equipment.

The Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 mark the begin of Nokia's fightback against Apple's iPhone and rivals using Google's Android software.

Thailand announced a five-day holiday on Tuesday to give people the chance to escape floods closing in on Bangkok as the prime minister warned that the capital could face an inundation of 1.5 meters (nearly five feet) of water if barriers collapsed.

GOVERNMENT help for solar power was supposed to be a triple play: jobs at a time of dire short-term need; incubation of an American industry sure to be important on a global scale in the next few years; and a long-term reduction in climate-changing pollution.

Infineon Technologies is the global market leader in power semiconductors for the eighth consecutive year. According to IMS Research data, Infineon again strengthened its position in 2010 and commands an 11.2% share of the overall market.

Strong growth in customer numbers helped UK chipmaker ARM beat analysts' forecasts with its third-quarter results, despite "below seasonal growth in the semiconductor industry."

A new technology innovation could sway some would-be tablet buyers to instead purchase a dedicated e-reader. Bookeen, one of the oldest companies in the e-reader space, has spent two years of research and development on a new High Speed Ink System (HSIS).

Amazon is talking up the new features that it is adding to the Kindle Format 8 (KF8) upgrade for ebooks. The key feature is the support of HTML5 in the new format.

During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that 'broad agreement' was reached to ramp up the firepower of the eurozone rescue fund.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is collaborating with Thailand's central bank to implement a loan programme to help Japanese firms affected by flooding in the country.

"Economic uncertainty continues to weigh on demand in almost every major market segment in which we operate," said CEO Rich Templeton. "Our revenue for the third quarter was higher than we expected though, overall, the quarter was below the seasonal average. We expect the same in the fourth quarter."