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Latest by Geoff Duncan

Corel Ships WordPerfect Office X3

Corel has shipped WordPerfect Office X3, and the latest version of its productivity suite takes sharper aim at Microsoft Office.

Surfers Judge Web Pages Seen for Only 50ms?

A study from researchers at Ottawa's Carleton University claims to find Web surfers can make up their minds about Web pages they see for less than 1/20th of a second.

Google Set to Acquire Radio Ad Firm

Google has announced it plans to buy dMarc Broadcasting, a radio advertising company, to create a radio ad distribution channel for Google AdWords.

NPD: 600,000 Xbox 360s Have Sold in U.S.

The NPD Group says Microsoft has sold a mere 600,000 Xbox 360 gaming consoles in the U.S. since their November launch, putting Redmond's sales goals in doubt.

BlackBerry: Google Talk & Local, plus Macs

BlackBerries may have just become more addictive: RIM has announced support for Google Talk, Google Local, plus Mac users can get PocketMac for BlackBerry free.

Watch iPod Video Anywhere With myvu Headset

MicroOptical Corp. joins the iPod accessory melee with the myvu personal media view, an iPod-compatible video headset.

Get Your Butt in Gear with iPod Levi’s

Clothier Levi Strauss announced Tuesday it has designed jeans intended to be compatible with Apple's iPod music player, complete with a, uh, "joystick."

Apple Ships iPod FM Remote, Updates Apps

At his Macworld Expo keynote, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new $49 iPod remote with an FM Tuner, plus iLife '06, an update to its lifestyle applications featuring Web authoring.

Study Finds Violent Games Affect Behavior

Researchers monitoring brain activity in 39 game players suggest there may be a causal link between violent video games and aggressive behavior.

Sheraton Hotels Check into Yahoo Lounges

Sheraton and Yahoo are teaming up to create free WiFi-enabled Yahoo-branded Internet lounges in Sheraton Hotels.

Vodafone, Sony to Customize Mobile Music

Vodafone's teaming with Sony to launch a mobile music service in Europe which will enable customers to personalize streamed songs by keying "like" or "dislike."

Google Opens Video Store, Online Payments

It's official: Google's in the content business, launching the Google Video Store with CBS and NBA programming, along with the much-expected Google Payments System.

Acer TravelMate 8200 Sports Centrino Duo

Acer's new TravelMate 8200 laptop sports Centrino Duo dual-core processing, and Voice and Video over IP capabilities.

ATI, Microsoft Prepping HD CableCard

Microsoft and video card maker ATI are working on a high-definition CableCard system for PCs, but it's not due until the end of 2006.

Motorola Phones to Get A Google Button

Motorola and Google have inked a deal that will put a Google icon on selected Motorola mobile handsets so users can Google anywhere, anytime.

Rhapsody to Replace iTunes on HP PCs

RealNetworks has inked a deal with HP to replace Apple's iTunes as the default jukebox software on HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario PCs.

Samsung, Panasonic to Make Comcast Set-Tops

Comcast has announced deals with both electronics makers Samsung and Panasonic to manufacture hundreds of thousands of digital cable set-top boxes.

Verizon Launches Wireless V CAST Music

Verizon Wireless is launching V CAST Music, enabling customers to purchase and download from more than 1 million songs to either their phones or their Windows computer.

New Lenovo ThinkPads Sport Centrino Duo

Lenovo's new T60 and X60 ThinkPad portables are among to the first to feature Centrino Duo dual-core processors for notebooks.

Consumers Spent $22.8 Bln on DVDs in 2005

Figures from the Digital Entertainment Group show consumers spent $22.8 billion buying and renting DVDs in 2005, and DVD players are in an estimated 82 million homes.

Toshiba To Ship HD DVD Players in March

Toshiba has fired another salvo in the next-generation DVD format war: its players are to be available in March 2006, a full three months ahead of Blu-Ray.

Netgear to Ship WiFi Skype Phone

Netgear has announced a WiFi-powered Skype handset to ship during the first quarter of 2006, enabling Skype VOIP users to chat from hotspots without a computer.

Sony: Blu-Ray DVD Player Due By Mid-2006

Among CES announcements from electronics giant Sony is the news they plan to ship a next-generation Blu-Ray DVD player in the North American market by mid-2006.

Gates: Xbox to Ship 5.5 Mln, Get HD-DVD

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says his company expects to ship between 4.5 and 5.5 million Xbox 360s by June, and will make an HD DVD drive for the game system.

Sonos Announces Amp-less ZonePlayer ZP80

The Sonos ZonePlayer ZP80 converts existing amplified music systems to components in Sonos' wireless multi-room music system.

XM Readies Inno and Helix Portable Players

XM Satellite Radio is prepping the Helix and the Inno, two new $400 portable XM receivers which can also store and play MP3 and WMA audio.

HP Debuts Turion-powered Multimedia Laptops

Hewlett-Packard has rolled out two new multimedia Pavilion notebook computers with TV tuners based on AMD's Turion mobile processor.

Samsung Preps 2 and 4 GB Flash MP3 Players

Samsung's forthcoming YP-Z5 portable MP3 player offers 2 to 4 GB of memory and nearly 24 hours of battery life.

Sanyo VPC-HD1 to do HD Video for $800

Sanyo's VPC-HD1 video camera sports a 10x optical zoom records HD video to SD cards for $800. The catch? It records as MPEG-4.

Motorola Fires Up iRadio

Motorola has unveiled details about iRadio, its forthcoming music subscription service which will offer more than 400 ad-free stations.

Slingbox To Put Your Home TV on Mobiles

Sling Media's big announcement at CES should be a mobile client that puts makes television channel available at your house viewable anywhere you have broadband and Windows Mobile.

iPod Designer Jonathan Ive Awarded CBE

Jonathan Ive is the chief designer of Apple's iPod media players, and now he's also a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Online Holiday Shoppers Spent Over $30 Bln

Online holiday shoppers forked over some $30.1 billion this year, up 30 percent from 2004, according to the fifth annual Holiday eSpending Report.

Sony BMG Gets Tentative Music CD Settlement

Sony BMG has reached a tentative settlement in class action suits over music CDs the label embedded with copy-protection software.

Intel Launches New Logo and Brand Renewal

Reflecting a shift towards consumer products, chip-maker Intel is scrapping its 37 year-old logo and "Intel Inside" tagline.

Men and Women Use The Internet Differently

A study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project finds equal numbers of men and women now use the Internet, but they ways they use it often differ.

Merriam-Webster’s Top Words of 2005

Just when you thought end-of-year metadata might be going away, Merriam-Webster releases its top 10 online dictionary lookups for 2005. At the top: integrity.

Music CDs Slide While Downloads Double

Preliminary numbers show music album sales in the U.S. dropped 7 percent in 2005, but the market for music downloads doubled.