IBT Staff Reporter

PDA and Smartphone maker Palm Inc. announced a new version of its Palm Treo branded smartphones on Thursday, aiming to market the phone to professional consumers as well as business users.

IBM, provider of information technology services and products, announced on Thursday that it will relocate its global procurement headquarters to Shenzhen, China, expanding on the company's initiative to become more efficient.

America's largest video game retailer said on Thursday that will begin accepting pre-orders for Nintendo's anticipated Wii video game console in October 13.

Computer graphics developer Nvidia Corporation announced on Thursday that it is teaming up with Dell Computer to deliver the worlds fastest graphics processor to Dell's enthusiast line of notebook computers.

Memory manufacturer SanDisk Corp. announced on Thursday that it will begin selling microSD memory cards at capacities up to 2-gigabytes, the highest amount of storage offered in microSD format to date.

Sales of digital music soared to $945 million in revenue for the first half of 2006, eclipsing the sales figures for the same period in 2005 by 106 percent, a new study finds

Zhang Yin, 49, the woman who founded Nine Dragons Paper Industries Co., Ltd., was named the richest person in the Chinese mainland with a worth of 27 billion Yuan ($3.4 billion), according to the Huran Report. It was the first time a woman had made it to the top of the list since it began keeping track in 1999.

Websites featuring instant-messaging icons use to garner the most traffic from teems. Latest research, however, indicates that sites offering assistance for teens wishing to embellish their social networking profiles has become the number 1 site among teens.

The number of China IPTV subscribers is expected to surpass ten million by 2011, increasing four-fold, according to one research firm.

As quickly as it began, the nation's largest gaming retailer sold completely out of Sony Playstation 3 pre-orders.

Nokia, the world's largest producer of mobile handsets, announced on Wednesday that it will introduce cell-phones based on the emerging WiMAX standard, beginning in 2008.

The French Development Agency (AFD) signed a subsidized loan agreement on Wednesday with top South African bank, Nedbank, for $50.1 million (€40 million) to provide housing loans for low-income households.

The company behind the Bratz series of fashion dolls is partnering with a Canadian designer to bring a new series of Haute Couture dolls to the local market.

The Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin reported on Wednesday that manufacturing production has grown by around 1.9 percent compared to August levels.

The semiconductor market is showing strong signs of growth, new research shows, with global sales expected to rise to $255.7 billion in 2006, up 7.8 percent from the previous year.

Samsung Electronics announced a 10-megapixel camera phone to the South Korean market on Wednesday.

Companies that do not refine their remote-working policies will incur increasing information-technology expenditures, seeing costs multiply up to 10 fold by 2010, new research indicates.

WTO members began negotiating Vietnam's membership to the trade body on Monday. The talks are aimed at concluding the final terms of agreement and completing the deal by the end of the month.

Despite recent massive recalls of batteries by major PC manufacturers, the world wide battery demand is projected to rise at nearly 7 percent per year, reaching $73.6 billion by 2010.

Jewelry sales in the U.S. are expected to rise 6.3 percent from 2005 to reach $62.6 billion by the end of the year, according to the Bureau of Economic analysis.

On Monday, Google announced its acquisition of online video leader YouTube in a $1.65 billion stock deal, an amount unprecedented in Google's acquisition history. Despite the high price, however, experts believe the move strategically places the firm ahead of its rivals.

Nokia donated $1.25 million (€1 million) to Plan, an international children's organization, the company announced on Monday. The funds will be used to modernize communications technologies in Africa and raise children's awareness of their rights and opportunities.

The market for software that allows one machine to host multiple operating systems rose in 2005 by 67 percent, topping the previous record set in 2004 of 63 percent growth new research indicates.

Internet search giant Yahoo Inc. is creating an electronic time-capsule - comprising electronic data submitted from internet users - which the company will use to commemorate the year of 2006.

Deutsche Telekom AG, the venture capital division of Motorola Inc. T-Online Venture Fund will invest $16 million in Ruckus Wireless Inc., a wireless equipment manufacturer that designed Wi-Fi routers that can beam various forms of media around the home.

The biggest ever EU investment conference got underway on Monday with the start of a four day meeting in Brussels. A total of 30 European countries will prepare around 300 regional development programs for the next seven years worth $630 billion (€500 billion).

The world's largest online search firm announced today that it will buy the largest online video site for $1.65 billion in stock. Google will combine its advertising and data organizing expertise with Youtube's video sharing prowess and traffic.

Sony Pictures will release its first 50GB Blu-ray disc on Tuesday, making it the first to release a film in the next-generation DVD format on any disk at that capacity.

Denmark announced a donation of $2.37 million (DKK 14 million) to support the WTO's technical assistance and training activities in developing countries.