AFP - China on Wednesday agreed to start awarding long-awaited third-generation mobile phone licences, state media reported, in a move that was expected to help battle an economic slowdown.

Source:China to start awarding 3G mobile phone licences: state media
(AFP)

PC Magazine - Peace on earth, good cell to men… 3G Americas, the wireless industry trade association representing GSM devices, has announced that as of December 2008, four billion cell phones are currently in use, covering 60 percent of the world population.
Source:Sixty Percent of All Humanity Owns a Cell Phone
(PC Magazine)

which might even get a few geeks drooling. At Macworld, Apple is expected to announce updates of its iMac line of consumer desktops. And a rumor about Apple introducing a smaller version of the iPhone, dubbed the iPhone nano, is making the rounds again.
Source:Macworld and CES both open this week

Macworld.com - Oh, Danny boyâ?¦the Zunes, the Zunes are calling. As a sign of the impending apocalypseâ??no doubt caused by the addition of the leap secondâ??a plague has descended upon scads of Microsoftâ??s Zune media players. As of 2AM this morning, Zunes around the world have begun to freeze with full loading bars, resulting in [...]

intro ever’ Test Centre ? SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Prepped For Storage ? Getting started with your new iPod Touch ? Researchers boost brightness of energy-efficient OLED lighting ? Check Point frees Nokia to be Nokia ? Toshiba adds OpenSolaris to its
Source:Windows 7 Leaked To The Internet

EDA/IC Design |Process/Manufacturing|Test/Packaging|Sensor Technology|Amplifying/Converting/Conditioning|RF/Wireless Digital Signal Processing |Control Design|Networking Design|Interface Design|Buffer/Storage|Power Design EMI/EMC Design |Optical
Source:#1 in '08: Hackers crack iPhone 2.0 code

AFP - AsianWeek, a 30-year-old newspaper for Asian-Americans based in San Francisco, has announced plans to drop its print edition and go online only.

Source:AsianWeek to go online only
(AFP)

(Close-Up Media via COMTEX) — DTEH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating — General Patent Corp. (GPC), a patent licensing and enforcement firm, announced on behalf of its client, Digital Technology Licensing (DTL), that it has licensed a key cell phone
Source:General Patent Licenses DTL Patent to Sony Ericsson

InfoWorld - Imagine how different the tech industry might have been had Gary Kildall accepted IBM’s offer, back in 1980, to license his computer operating system for a top-secret project. CP/M would have been the OS that shipped with the original IBM PC, and the world might never have heard the name of Kildall’s competitor, [...]

PC Magazine - Sony has reduced the price of its second-generation PlayStation 3 revision by 35 percent, to $448.73, according to a teardown report by analyst firm iSuppli this week.
Source:Sony Cuts PlayStation 3 Costs; Will It Matter?
(PC Magazine)

Thousands of Zune players, Microsoft’s rival to the Apple iPod, shut down over the new year, leaving many owners waking up on January 1 unable to listen to their cherished music. While many people loudly celebrated the passing of the year, disgruntled
Source:Zune MP3 players hit by leap year bug

Product Mini Profile PlayStation 2 Hardwarein: links Research groups tell us a lot of interesting things, and Nielsen has begun the new year with some unexpected news from 2008. With other reports fussing over the three ‘next-gen’ consoles, who would
Source:PlayStation 2 most-played console; WoW dominates PC gaming

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China is expected to issue third-generation mobile phone licenses before the end of January, the official Shanghai Securities News reported, citing sources close to the matter. The report, citing a source from Datang Mobile,
Source:China to issue 3G licenses by end-Jan - report? 2 hrs ago

AP - Music sales have continued to slump in 2008 as the increased number of downloads of digital tracks failed to make up for a plunge in the sale of compact discs.
Source:Album sales plunge, digital downloads up
(AP)

PC World - LG Electronics plans to debut a wristwatch-style 3G phone at the Consumer Electronics Show next month, it said Sunday.
Source:LG to Debut 3G Watch-phone at CES
(PC World)

significant new product to offer. Apple will probably use the expo to show updated versions of its aluminum-cased iMac desktop computers and a new operating system, said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Broadpoint. AmTech in San Francisco. Apple currently
Source:Apple may unveil cheaper iPhone in 2009

PC World - The latest iPod Touch is a nifty little gizmo that does a lot more than play tunes, but I’ve always found its 3.5-inch screen too tiny for watching movies or serious Web browsing. After a few minutes of screen-tapping or finger-dragging to view Web pages designed for larger displays, well, things [...]

then, he said. The Zune media player is Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft?s answer to Apple Inc.?s iPod. The Zune ranges in price from $99 to $249 depending on storage capacity. Zunes have paltry popularity compared the iPod, which owns nearly
Source:Microsoft says Zune players working again

The programmers released a test version of the software, called Yellowsn0w, on their blog this week.: The program aims to free iPhone 3G owners from having to get their wireless service from Apple’s approved partners, such as AT&T Inc. in the ‘The iPhone
Source:Apple iPhone 3G may be Unlocked with New Software

PC World - The conflict raging in Gaza between Israel and Palestine has spilled over to the Internet.
Source:With Gaza Conflict, Cyberattacks Come Too
(PC World)

Extract not available.
Source:3G netbooks 'to eat into smart phone segment'

PC World - The words “free” and “Xbox 360″ are like J.D. Salinger and a gaggle of paparazzi — never seen together. Still, Popular Science just invoked them with this curious bit of homebrew trickery that might (and having not tested it, I stress might) save you the $100 Microsoft hoodwinks consumers to pony up [...]