TECHNOLOGY

IBM plans to buy Sterling Commerce from AT&T Inc for about $1.4 billion in cash to expand its portfolio of software for companies in financial services, manufacturing and retail.

International Business Machines Corp said on Monday it has agreed to buy business software integration services company Sterling Commerce from AT&T Inc for about $1.4 billion in cash.

China struck a conciliatory note at the opening of talks with the United States on Monday by vowing to spur domestic demand and keeping a guarded opening to exchange rate reform, which the Obama administration says is needed to rebalance the global economy.

China will stick to gradual reform of its yuan currency, President Hu Jintao told the United States at the start of high-level talks on Monday in which North Korea emerged as a point of potential contention.

China urged the United States to lift restrictions on exports to China as early as possible, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said ahead of talks between the two countries in Beijing.

Paris police advised people against going to the Champ de Mars area Sunday evening where a mass cocktail party organized over the internet is due to take place.

Telecom equipment venture Nokia Siemens Networks aims for an operating profit margin of up to 3 percent on revenue of between 3.1-3.4 billion euros ($3.88-$4.25 billion) in the current quarter, according to a Sunday newspaper.

Research In Motion is poised to beat profit expectations over the next 12 months, powered by demand for its new BlackBerry Pearl 3G smartphone, a TD Newcrest analyst said on Friday.

Dell Inc's quarterly sales and profit beat expectations but its gross margin fell short of analysts' forecasts and the computer maker warned that components supply will remain tight.

Computer maker Dell Inc reported a stronger-than-expected profit, but warned of volatile global currencies and components shortages, and the company's shares stumbled in after-hours trade.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission for the first time since 2002 did not describe the wireless industry as having effective competition, a situation one senior regulator blamed on consolidation.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Ever wonder why overhearing a cellphone conversation is so annoying? American researchers think they have found the answer.

Corrects spelling of researcher's surname

Google Inc, Intel Corp and Sony Corp unveiled Google TV on Thursday in the latest effort to marry the Web to television and reach into the $70 billion TV advertising market.

Google Inc unveiled Google TV on Thursday in an effort to bring Web- connected television into living rooms and its reach into the $70 billion TV advertising market.

A mass cocktail party organized over the internet and planned to take place in Paris this Sunday cannot go ahead due to an existing ban on drinking alcohol in the Champ de Mars area, police said on Thursday.

Competition in the U.S. wireless industry has eroded and is worsening due to continuing consolidation and concentration among companies, Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps said on Thursday.

Google Inc said more than 100,000 smartphones running on its Android mobile operating system are now activated daily and its library of applications has grown to 50,000, underscoring rapid adoption of the devices.

Hewlett-Packard Co is preparing a broad push to make it easier to print images and information from the Internet, building an iPhone-style apps market in the process, the head of the company's imaging group said on Wednesday.

Ever wonder why overhearing a cellphone conversation is so annoying? American researchers think they have found the answer.

Opera Software has seen daily downloads of its browsers in European countries as much as triple after Microsoft started to give consumers greater access to rival browsers.

Global shipments of smartphones may grow 50 percent this year and drive explosive expansion in high-end OLED display sales over the next five years, a Samsung Mobile Display executive said on Thursday.

The Internet is a lifeline for Asian mothers, with a survey finding two-thirds use it to shop for themselves and their children and an even bigger number going online to research purchases and talk about them.

A federal judge has dismissed a plaintiff's lawsuit against Apple Inc that accused company employees of waiting like vultures to spy on her every time she used an Apple laptop to access the Internet.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority directed Internet service providers to block Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.

Wireless Linux group LiMo expects three major operators to offer handsets using its platform this year, to compete with news rivals Google and Apple, its executive director said. So far only Vodafone has launched a model in Europe, using its Linux-based operating system, while 60 handsets were launched using the platform, mostly in Japan and South-Korea.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as Germany's decision to ban naked short-selling of certain financial instruments fueled investor worries about exposure to riskier assets and about the global economy.

Fewer than 2 percent of mobile users in the United States and western Europe used their phone to download music in the first quarter, showing the uphill task facing Apple iTunes challengers like Nokia.

Google Inc is posing a bigger challenge to Apple Inc in the mobile world as more and more start-ups develop applications for Google's Android software, venture capitalists said on Tuesday.