Technology News

(Reuters) - Google Inc and Yahoo Inc are in talks with the U.S. Justice Department in an effort to head off an antitrust challenge to their proposed advertising agreement, The Wall Street Journal said citing lawyers close to the effort.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Michelin guides, lauded as roadmaps to the world's finest cuisine, will be delivered to iPhones and other "smart" mobile devices as the century-old publication embraces the Internet age.

LONDON (AFP) - Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has told his fans in a bizarre online video message to stop sending him fan mail as he is too busy to sign or read it, and it will only be "tossed".

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A Canadian company has unveiled software crafted to prevent people, particularly mobile device-loving teenagers, from making telephone calls or text-messaging while driving.

NEW YORK - When David Teater's 12-year-old son, Joe, was killed in 2004 by a driver who was talking on a cell phone, he tried to cut back on his own habit of driving and talking. It turned out to be very difficult.

While the smartphone world is moving toward touchscreen technology, Research in Motion on Monday partnered with T-Mobile to announce the first BlackBerry flip phone.

The Tokyo Game Show is, to put it mildly, a noisy event as game manufacturers crank up the volume on their latest racing or military combat products. But the loudest sound may have come from Kazuo Hirai, president and group chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, who told the Financial Times that Sony has no plans to cut prices on its gaming consoles for the holiday season.

There's a lot to look forward to in the upcoming New Xbox Experience -- set to launch on November 19 -- but for those who own Xbox 360s without a hard drive or a 256MB memory card, you may have to go through a few headaches before you can download it.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AFP) - American millionaire video game guru Richard Garriott followed in his astronaut father's footsteps Sunday, blasting off aboard a Russian rocket to become the world's sixth space tourist.

LONDON (AFP) - Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has told his fans in a bizarre online video message to stop sending him fan mail as he is too busy to sign or read it, and it will only be "tossed".

LONDON (Reuters) - The Internet has the potential to save the book trade instead of dealing it the near-fatal blow it dealt the music industry, the more optimistic participants at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair believe.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Millions of youngsters across Europe could suffer permanent hearing loss after five years if they listen to MP3 players at too high a volume for more than five hours a week, EU scientists warned Monday.

DUBAI (AFP) - Computer hackers claiming to be Shiite shut down the website of Saudi-owned satellite channel Al-Arabiya on Friday, a month after Iran reported similar attacks on many of its websites by hardline Sunnis.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Computer security specialists warn that hackers are using fake YouTube pages to trick people into opening their machines to diabolical software.

David Kernell, who was accused of accessing Gov. Sarah Palin's email account without authorization, pleaded innocent to the charges on Wednesday.

Anyone who's held an iPhone near electronic equipment like car radios, computer speakers, audio receivers and more has likely been subjected to the noise of electronic interference from the iPhone. A new product from Quick Bridge Solutions promises to fix that. The QB-EM Shield costs $3.99.

ATTO Technology on Monday rolled out new host adapter cards for Macs and PCs used in data-intensive storage environments. They include new Fibre Channel and SATA host controllers and a new RAID storage controller.

Delkin Devices on Friday announced it's shipping its Secure Digital to CompactFlash card adapter. The adapter costs $29.99.

San Francisco - Dissatisfied with the Web development tools already available, researchers at the newly formed Developer Tools Lab at Mozilla Labs intend to find better options.

Mozilla is doing its part in the battle against clickjacking. The open-source company is offering an updated plug-in for the Firefox browser that blocks what security researchers call one of the most dangerous problems on the Web.

OpenOffice.org will host a launch party in Paris on October 13 to celebrate the eighth anniversary of OpenOffice and the release of version 3.0. The goal? As always, provide a free, open-source alternative to Microsoft Office.

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean researchers said Monday they have developed a robot which can dance and get emotional when it's not tackling the chores.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Culture fans thousands of miles from Beijing can now visit its famous Forbidden City, through a three dimensional recreation of the vast palace that also allows them to dress up as an imperial eunuch and meet a courtesan.

NISKAYUNA, N.Y. - On a bank of the Mohawk River, a windowless industrial building of corrugated steel hides something that could make floor lamps, bedside lamps, wall sconces and nearly every other household lamp obsolete.