Jennifer Maurina

Announced earlier this week, a group of technology companies are planning to provide a vast wireless network that will give the entire Silicon Valley free high-speed Internet access. The free WiFi service will be available as early as next year and ... will be provided by Silicon Valley Metro Connect: a group that is comprised of IBM, Cisco, SeaKay, and Azulstar. (Source: abcnews.com ) Silicon Valley Metro Connect will provide the service for 38 cities in California's San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, and Santa Cruz counties -- an area covering roughly 1,500 square miles. This move takes advantage ... (view more)

In late July, Intel's sales and profits for Intel were its lowest since 2004, supporting the inception of the company's efficiency analysis launched in April. Intel is currently strategically restructuring its operations to revive growth and refocus ... on the company's core chip operations. Intel is putting its efforts into a product overhaul and PC price cuts to regain market share lost to rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD). (Source: marketwatch.com ) Intel spokesperson, Chuck Mulloy recently revealed that the results of Intel's efficiency analysis would be divulged by the end of September ... (view more)

The world's bibliophiles have a new place to consume their daily intake of literature as Google Book Search now offers free book downloads available in PDF format. The company announced last week that it will provide free PDF downloads of public ... domain classic out-of-copyright titles that users can view at their leisure. Books that are being offered for download include all titles published before 1923 in the US, and feature such classics as Dante's "Inferno," Aesop's "Fables," Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and Ferriar's The "Bibliomania." The PDF download carries a watermark that identifies the ... (view more)

Apple announced this past Tuesday that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been appointed to the company's board of directors. Schmidt will still remain CEO of Google. Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO praised both Schmidt and Google saying that "Eric is obviously ... doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple's board of directors … Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric's insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead." (Source: eetimes.com ) Schmidt brings to Apple 20 years of ...<a href="/news/1535/googles-ceo-joins-apples-board-directors" class="more-link">view more

Dell announced recently that it is pulling out of the MP3 player market due to high competition from products such as Apple's iPod. Dell began producing MP3 players in 2003; in February 2006, Dell halted sales of their hard-drive based MP3 players, ... but continued to produce the lower-end "DJ Ditty," (similar to the "iPod Shuffle"). (Source: dailytech.com) Dell spokeswoman, Anne Camden confirmed that "as of last week, we did remove the DJ Ditty from our web site and we are not going to offer a follow up product." Camden also noted that the company will be tightening " ... (view more)

Google has introduced a new program for Google Talk users that tracks their music listening habits and posts the results online for others to view. Activating Google Music Trends To activate Google Music Trends, users must have a gmail account and ... Google Talk, the search giant's one-year-old instant messaging program. The option for Google to track your music likes is voluntary, and to participate you must check the Google Music Trends option in the Google Talk settings menu. How does it work? Google Music Trends tracks your music preferences by registering each song you listen to via Google ... (view more)

CBS has announced that it will begin streaming a live Webcast of Katie Couric's new gig, the "Evening News" when the program makes its official debut on September 5, 2006. This news piggybacks on CBS's recent announcement that it will offer Webcasts ... of several of its popular primetime programs including: "CSI," "NCIS," "Survivor," "Jericho," and "Numbers." The online portion of the simulcast will be made available to Web users for free and will be supported by advertisements. After airing, Viewers will also be able to access the "Evening News" will be available as a whole on an on-demand ... (view more)

Korea's number one online social network, Cyworld, recently launched into the U.S. market on August 15, competing with the U.S.-based MySpace.com. What is Cyworld? Cyworld, which was started in 1999, leads Asia's social networking scene with ... localized sites in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China. In the Korean language, Cyworld means "relationship world" and the media is touting its U.S. debut as a "refreshing and essential platform for the burgeoning online U.S. social networking sector." (Source: biz.yahoo.com ) Entering into the U.S. Market The U.S. Cyworld team is based in San Francisco ... (view more)

After battling recent bad press showing Dell laptops exploding in flames , Dell and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Tuesday that the company will recall 4.1 million notebook batteries. (Source: news.com ) Affected Products The ... batteries that have been recalled were manufactured by Sony and the recall affects notebooks that were shipped between April 2004 and July 2006. Models that could potentially be affected include: Latitude: D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810 Inspiron: 500M, 510M, 600M, 700M, 710M, 6000, 6400, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, ... (view more)

On Monday, MySpace.com's parent company, Fox Interactive Media (owned by News Corp) announced a newly launched deal with Google that will give the search engine exclusive rights to online search results and sponsored ads on the MySpace web ... community. The deal also gives Google the same access to Fox Interactive Media's other online enterprises such as RottenTomatoes.com and Scout.com. (Source: news.com ) Agreement Stipulations The agreement stipulates that in exchange for being Fox Interactive's exclusive search engine and ad provider, Google will pay $900 million U.S. from its AdSense ... (view more)