MARKETS / FINANCE

Apple posted the highest growth rates in terms of shipments, among the top 6 computer vendors according to research released this week.

Apple Inc said on Thursday it will start supporting Microsoft Corp's Exchange product for corporate email, opening a potential new market for the popular iPhone.

Microsoft released a test version of its latest web browser, Internet Explorer 8, on Wednesday.

Apple is planning to hold a press event at its headquarters on Thursday and comments made as recently as Wednesday suggest the company will make its iPhone more popular with enterprise users.

Finland's GeoSentric unveiled on Wednesday its mobile social-networking service GypSii for Apple's iPhone.

At Microsoft's MIX08 online technology conference, Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft's Internet Explorer team, provided a first glimpse at the successor to IE 7, which was released in October 2006.

Yahoo Inc extended a deadline to nominate board directors, buying the company time to pursue alternatives to Microsoft Corp's $41.7 billion offer, while also giving Yahoo room to negotiate a friendly deal with Microsoft.

Social networking site Facebook denies rumors that it has approached major music labels about launching a music service in a bid to compete with Apple's iTunes, according to news reports.

Warner Music has signed a deal with media site 7digital.com to offer its music without copy protection.

Apple reiterated its goals of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of the year in spite of growing concerns of a slowing macro-economy analysts concerns

Google is making Google Gears available on mobile phones, an application programming interface that allows users store Web application data on their handsets.

The mobile gaming market suffered an unexpected slump last year, with many game developers and analysts pointing to telecom operators' lack of interest in investing in marketing games.

When a user winks, movement in their skin is detected by sensors clipped to their glasses or headphones, said Kazuhiro Taniguchi of Osaka University's Graduate School of Engineering Science, who developed the KomeKami Switch or Temple Switch.

For the second time in a month, Apple has simply missed the mark. Apple reportedly has failed to meet their goal of having 1,000 titles available on the iTunes Store rental service by the end of February.

Incoming students at Oklahoma Christian University will receive new Apple Macbook laptops the school said, and also get a choice between a new iPhone or an iPod Touch.

T-Mobile International was confirmed on Monday as the sole carrier of Nokia's new 6650 smart phone after a joint announcement from both firms at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hanover, Germany.

After mixed reports surrounding Apple and China mobile talks, the mobile carrier confirmed on Monday that it has not yet entered into negotiations to take the iPhone to China, saying such talks may be held closer to the release of a 3G version of the touch-screen handset later this year.

Facebook, the social network site that has enjoyed spectacular international growth in the past year, despite being published only in English until recently, said on Monday it was offering a German version.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone operator, said on Monday it had not officially entered into talks with Apple Inc to bring iPhones to the mainland, but was interested in doing so.

Microsoft Corp, faced with Web rivals looking to poach its business customers, said on Sunday it plans to broaden the availability of its online services for e-mail and collaboration software. Last year, Microsoft started subscription-based online services to run its Exchange corporate e-mail program and SharePoint collaboration software on Microsoft's own computer systems as an alternative to customers buying their own hardware to run licensed software.

E-mail messages from Microsoft executives released this week reveal technical and marketing struggles the company faced in launching the Windows Vista operating system last year.

Online auction leader eBay Inc warned in an annual report on Friday that it faces difficulty getting former customers to return, adding to the normal challenge of attracting new users to its sites.

Bizarre little creatures that look like walking eyeballs and a puzzle-cracking professor may not seem to have much in common at first glance. But they are the stars of two new vastly different hand-held video games that are winning praise for the ways they combine different genres to produce quirky new experiences.

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it plans to cut prices of its Windows Vista operating system sold at retail outlets in a move aimed at pushing customers to switch to the newest version of Windows. The world's largest software maker said it plans to lower retail prices for Vista in 70 countries later this year in tandem with the shipment of the first major update to Vista, known as Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Google on Thursday unveiled its plan to give San Francisco's homeless lifelong phone numbers and voice mail.

EBay Inc and MercExchange LLC have settled a long-running patent lawsuit, said eBay on Thursday, ending a fight that prompted a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Google unveiled a new Web-site publishing tool for office workers late Wednesday, taking aim at rival Microsoft in the corporate tools arena.

Nintendo software titles continue to dominate video-game sales in Japan according to new data released today, while its Wii game-console outpaced rivals Sony and Microsoft.

Web search company Google Inc is testing in the United States an online storage bank where individuals can store and access their medical records, the company said on Thursday. Just last week, Google said it was teaming up with the Cleveland Clinic, a leading academic medical center, to test an exchange of medical data that Google says will put the patient in charge of his own records.