News For Wednesday Jul 9, 2008 News For Wednesday Jul 9, 2008

Science & Technology Science & Technology

DreamWorks Animation goes from AMD to Intel chips - Added 10 hours ago

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., maker of the "Shrek" movies and "Kung Fu Panda," announced Tuesday it will switch from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. computer chips to Intel Corp.'s as it moves toward making all 3-D movies....

Google ventures into virtual reality with 'Lively' - Added 12 hours ago

In the latest expansion beyond its main mission of organizing the world's information, Internet search leader Google Inc. hopes to orchestrate more fantasizing on the Web. The Mountain View-based company unveiled a...

VMware shares plunge on CEO change, slowing growth - Added 14 hours ago

VMware Inc. abruptly replaced co-founder Diane Greene as chief executive Tuesday and lowered its sales outlook, triggering alarms that pounded the business software maker's shares to their lowest depths since the...

NebuAd to come under spotlight at Senate hearing - Added 14 hours ago

Executives from major Internet players _ Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. _ are due for a grilling about online privacy in a Senate committee Wednesday, but the company likely to get the most scrutiny is a...

Court keeps cell tower backup rules on hold - Added 14 hours ago

More than a year after they were introduced, federal rules intended to keep cell phone towers operating during natural disasters remain in limbo. A federal appeals court on Tuesday put off deciding on the wireless...

NASA sets date for final shuttle mission in 2010 - Added 18 hours ago

NASA has tentatively set the final space shuttle mission for May 31, 2010, four months before the shuttle fleet retires. NASA has 10 missions remaining for the shuttle fleet, which President Bush ordered to retire by...

Facebook could see a standoff over Scrabble - Added 21 hours ago

C-O-M-P-E-T-E. Developers of a highly popular but unauthorized version of Scrabble for the online hangout Facebook vowed Tuesday to do just that, now that a video game maker has weighed in with an official version of...

Microsoft expands its response to hosted software - Added 22 hours ago

Microsoft Corp. is strengthening its early-stage push to fend off competition by offering more Internet-based software, a change from its traditional method of selling programs that run on individual desktops or...

Pioneer to sell Blu-ray disc recorders - Added 1 day ago

Pioneer Corp. will start selling Blu-ray disc recorders in Japan sometime before March 2009, the company said Tuesday, the latest in a string of Japanese electronics makers entering the increasingly competitive sector. ...

Microsoft backs Icahn's bid to oust Yahoo board - Added 1 day ago

Microsoft Corp. threw its weight behind investor Carl Icahn's effort to dump Yahoo Inc.'s board, saying Monday that a successful shareholder rebellion would encourage the software maker to renew its bid to buy Yahoo's...

Appeals court: EchoStar not barred from lease deal - Added 1 day ago

Federal law does not bar satellite television provider EchoStar Communications Corp. from leasing a transponder to another company to transmit network signals, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday. CBS Corp.'s CBS...

Digital threat prompts movie industry downgrade - Added 1 day ago

A Lehman Brothers analyst downgraded the entertainment industry Monday and slashed forecasts for its five major companies, saying digital downloads of movies and TV shows posed a huge threat to profits from DVD sales...

Game maker tries to legitimize Facebook Scrabble - Added 1 day ago

As Facebook has blossomed into a hot Internet hangout, its users have passed countless hours playing Scrabble with friends _ or at least, an unauthorized version of the word game that Scrabble's owners have tried to...

Rights like free speech don't always extend online - Added 1 day ago

Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative. Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other constitutional...

'Public' online spaces don't carry speech, rights - Added 2 days ago

Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative. Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other constitutional...

Terra gets Olympic Internet rights - Added 3 days ago

Internet company Terra says it has been awarded Internet and mobile rights to transmit the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Latin America. Terra says its Olympic Games site will go live Aug. 1. It will include 13...

Court orders YouTube to give Viacom video logs - Added 4 days ago

Dismissing privacy concerns, a federal judge overseeing a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube has ordered the popular online video-sharing service to disclose who watches which video clips and...

Syria returns stolen marble artifact to Iraq - Added 5 days ago

Syria has returned a marble artifact to Iraq that was stolen from one of the country's archaeological sites. The marble block roughly 4 feet tall and 1 1/2 feet wide contains an engraving of a bearded man kneeling in...

Mars lander's next bake test could be its last - Added 5 days ago

The Phoenix lander's first chemical sniff of Martian soil did not turn up any trace of the building blocks of life. Its next whiff could be its last. Engineers said a short circuit that occurred last month in one of...

Merger of US earth sciences agencies proposed - Added 5 days ago

From climate change to volcanoes and earthquakes, the world's growing challenges have leaders in earth science proposing a merger of agencies that study the planet. Creation of a new Earth Systems Science Agency is...

Internet addressing agency loses its own addresses - Added 5 days ago

This doesn't sound good: The nonprofit agency in charge of the Internet's addresses recently lost track of its own. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, said it happened when an Internet...

Court orders YouTube to give Viacom video logs - Added 5 days ago

Dismissing privacy concerns, a federal judge overseeing a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube has ordered the popular online video-sharing service to disclose who watches which video clips and...

Adobe to make searching easier on Flash sites - Added 5 days ago

Internet users will now have an easier time finding sites that rely heavily on the popular Flash video format. Adobe Systems Inc., the format's developer, has released a customized version of its Flash Player software...

Ex-tech exec gets new judge in extradition case - Added 5 days ago

A Namibian prosecutor says a new judge will be appointed to hear the extradition case of businessman Jacob "Kobi" Alexander. Deputy State Attorney Nixon Marcus says a Sept. 17 hearing can now go ahead as planned to...

Case dropped against parents who put baby on eBay - Added 5 days ago

A baby boy removed from his parents' custody after they offered to sell him on eBay for just a euro _ $1.59 _ as a joke is back at home, a prosecutor said Thursday. "The child has been returned to his parents,"...

EU musicians oppose Europe-wide online licensing - Added 5 days ago

The Bee Gees' Robin Gibb and other European music composers warned Thursday that standardizing music royalties across Europe could hurt musicians and the songs they write. The European Commission, the EU's executive...

Study says many dial-up users don't want broadband - Added 6 days ago

A new study suggests that attitude rather than availability may be the key reason why more Americans don't have high-speed Internet access. The findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project challenge the...

Report: Microsoft seeks help for another Yahoo bid - Added 6 days ago

Unable to strike a deal on its own, Microsoft Corp. reportedly is hoping to snap up Yahoo's online search operations with the help of News Corp. and Time Warner Inc. The latest twist in Microsoft's convoluted courtship...

Mars lander's next bake test could be its last - Added 6 days ago

The Phoenix lander's first chemical sniff of Martian soil did not turn up any trace of the building blocks of life. Its next whiff could be its last. Engineers said a short circuit that occurred last month in one of...

Michael Dell buys $100 million in stock - Added 6 days ago

In recent days, Chief Executive Michael Dell has bought about $100 million worth of stock in Dell Inc., the shares of which rallied this spring but are still near a five-year low. Shares in Dell rose 4.5 percent...

Washington's boyhood home found, but no hatchet - Added 6 days ago

The archaeologists were delighted to at last find the remains of George Washington's boyhood home but got stumped when they looked for evidence of the cherry tree and rusty hatchet. "This was the setting for many...

Adobe releases tools to improve Flash video search - Added 6 days ago

Internet users will now have an easier time finding sites that rely heavily on the popular Flash video format. Adobe Systems Inc., the format's developer, has released a customized version of its Flash Player software...

Microsoft to sell Office, OneCare for $70 a year - Added 6 days ago

Microsoft Corp. will begin selling its Office programs to consumers on a subscription basis starting mid-July, in a bid to reach thrifty PC buyers who would otherwise pass on productivity software. The move may also...

Space probes show solar system dented, not round - Added 6 days ago

When viewed from the rest of the galaxy, the edge of our solar system appears slightly dented as if a giant hand is pushing one edge of it inward, far-traveling NASA probes reveal. Information from Earth's first space...

Hot future shock: Heat wave temperatures to soar - Added 6 days ago

During the European heat wave of 2003 that killed tens of thousands, the temperature in parts of France hit 104 degrees. Nearly 15,000 people died in that country alone. During the Chicago heat wave of 1995, the mercury...

Study says many dial-up users don't want broadband - Added 6 days ago

A new study suggests that attitude rather than availability may be the key reason why more Americans don't have high-speed Internet access. The findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project challenge the...

Correction: Earns-Research in Motion - Added 6 days ago

In a June 25 story about quarterly earnings at Research In Motion Ltd., The Associated Press incorrectly reported that the BlackBerry Bold will be a touch-screen phone. Current plans do not call for the device to have a...

Tesla Motors to stay in Calif. after tax break - Added 6 days ago

The company that built the first mass-produced, all-electric car will keep its manufacturing plant in California, thanks to a new state tax break. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Treasurer Bill Lockyer worked out...

Correction: Earns-Research in Motion - Added 6 days ago

In a June 25 story about quarterly earnings at Research In Motion Ltd., The Associated Press incorrectly reported that the BlackBerry Bold will be a touch-screen phone. Current plans do not call for the device to have a...

Report: Fiber Internet growth overtakes cable - Added 6 days ago

For the first time, more people around the world are signing up for fiber-optic broadband service than for cable Internet service, according to a British research firm. Fiber providers added 4.2 million customers in...

Correction: AT&T-iPhone - Added 6 days ago

In a July 1 story about the new version of the iPhone, The Associated Press, relying on information from an AT&T spokesman, erroneously reported that the carrier is working on creating a prepaid plan for the phone....

Review: Banking site MoneyAisle shows promise - Added 6 days ago

MoneyAisle is a free new Web service that makes a bold claim: It says it will maximize the interest rates consumers can get on savings accounts, by running online auctions in which banks bid for consumers' business. ...

EU clears Nokia to buy mapmaker Navteq - Added 6 days ago

European regulators cleared Nokia's takeover of U.S. digital mapmaker Navteq on Wednesday, saying the deal would be unlikely to shut off rivals' access to digital maps. Navteq Corp. is one of only two international...

Drug, fraud trials set for Broadcom co-founder - Added 1 week ago

A federal judge has set two trial dates for Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III, one on drug charges and one on corporate fraud charges. Nicholas, 48, was indicted by a federal grand jury last month on multiple...

Citibank ATM breach reveals PIN security problems - Added 1 week ago

Hackers broke into Citibank's network of ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores and stole customers' PIN codes, according to recent court filings that revealed a disturbing security hole in the most sensitive part of a banking...

Keeping a landline number on your cell phone - Added 1 week ago

Q: I want to get rid of my landline phone service and go all wireless, but I don't want to lose my home phone number. Can I transfer it to my cell phone? A: Probably. In a lot of cases, it's possible to transfer, or...

Monster founder sets sights on online obituaries - Added 1 week ago

Fourteen years ago, Jeff Taylor helped set off a tectonic shift in recruitment advertising by founding Monster.com, one of the first online companies to challenge a big profit source of newspapers. Now, just as papers...

Buffett is amazed his lunch drew a $2.1M bid - Added 1 week ago

A Chinese investment fund manager's bid for the chance to have lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett was the largest ever in a charity auction on eBay and surprised even Buffett. "It kind of blew me away," Buffett said...

Experts say tourists harming Machu Picchu - Added 1 week ago

An influx of tourists to Peru's famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu may prompt UNESCO to add the jungle-shrouded ruins to its list of endangered World Heritage sites. Yearly visits to Machu Picchu, Peru's top tourist...

AT&T offers new option of iPhone without contract - Added 1 week ago

AT&T Inc. will sell the new version of the iPhone without a service contract for $400 more than the price with a two-year plan, a break from the rules set when Apple Inc.'s popular touch-screen gadget debuted last...