Chinese regulators announced Tuesday they had chosen a homegrown format for the nation's digital television broadcasting standard, according to Chinese media reports.

Nonprofit environmental organization Greenpeace has rated mobile phone giant Nokia Corp. highly for its eco-friendly policies, but gave low marks to Lenovo Group Ltd., Motorola Inc. and Apple Computer Inc., among others.

Consumers will have to wait until the end of January for Windows Vista if the availability for the OS listed on Amazon.com's Web site is accurate.

Corel Corp. announced Monday it will buy multimedia software company InterVideo Inc. for US$196 million in cash.

Microsoft Corp. on Monday accidentally listed the pricing of the high-end consumer versions of Windows Vista on its Canadian Web site.

Google Inc. has launched Google Apps for Your Domain, a suite of hosted collaboration applications for small to medium-size businesses, universities, groups and affinity organizations, with plans to expand to larger companies by year's end.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has formed an "Internet Access Task Force" to examine whether net neutrality advocates' fears of large broadband providers blocking or slowing Web content from competitors are justified, the agency's chairwoman said.

Federal prosecutors in Brazil are threatening to force Google Brazil to shut down and pay fines for failing to turn over customer records as part of investigations against pedophiles.

Apple Computer Inc. will resolve its patent squabble with Creative Technology Ltd. by paying the Singapore-based company US$100 million for a license to use a recently awarded patent.

SanDisk Corp. cut prices on its mid-range, handheld MP3 music players Monday as it released a high-capacity, 8G-byte player.

Despite all the negative publicity Dell Inc. has encountered over its battery recall, the biggest in consumer electronics history, the company's CEO and founder, Michael Dell has stressed he retains his trust in Sony Corp., the company's battery supplier.

A spike in PC demand has created a new shortage of Intel Corp. chipsets, potentially reviving an issue blamed for causing the company to lose market share to rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) last year.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will this week unveil what it says is the first 70-inch high-definition LCD (liquid crystal display) panel.

Blu-ray Disc players and movies expected on sale later this year in Japan and the U.S. will share the same region code, Sony said Thursday.

Asian countries are playing a bigger role than ever before in the development of new technologies, and the region's importance as a research and development (R&D) center will continue to grow during the years ahead, said one of Microsoft Corp.'s top executives in the region.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) on Tuesday released a new version of its Opteron processor, the popular server chip that has made AMD a serious competitor of rival Intel Corp.

Computer maker Dell Inc. is recalling 4.1 million laptop computer batteries because of a potential fire hazard, the company said Monday.

Logitech Inc. introduced an array of new products on Monday designed for VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) users, including a keyboard with dedicated call management buttons and a speakerphone.

Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. and Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc. have agreed to align elements of their respective TV businesses with the creation of a new joint venture.

As anyone who's ever held forth in a barroom debate can attest, strange topics attract strange people.