Technology & Media - International Herald Tribune
Technology news from The International Herald Tribune, the world's daily newspaper online.

• E-greetings gain ground at businesses this season
  Once seen as the tacky, last-minute substitute for pen and paper, e-cards have become more acceptable this holiday season.
• MIT spinoff's little green laptop computers a hit in remote Peruvian village
  Doubts about whether poor, rural children can benefit from quirky computers evaporate quickly in an Andean village, where 50 children got machines from the One Laptop Per Child project months ago.
• Quoted in the news? Post a comment, please
  Google News offers a new feature that allows people quoted in news articles to post a comment that will be paired with that article online.
• Little love among matchmakers
  The online dating service Chemistry.com plans to unleash a new advertising campaign that seeks to depict its competitor, eHarmony.com, as out of touch with mainstream American values.
• Altadis revels, in private, on the mystique of smoking
  The European tobacco company has set up an internal Web site, Le Lab, designed to be part social networking site, part data resource, part virtual pep rally for its brand managers.
• Breakup of Eircom could be opening for rivals
  The potential separation of Eircom's network and service businesses comes as European lawmakers consider a more modest, but far-reaching proposal.
• 'Quarterlife,' series born on Net, struggles to thrive
  Some episodes of the drama about a group of good-looking people in their 20s have yet to attract 100,000 video views.
• Slim Sony TV uses new technology
  The sets replace the bulky backlighting of typical LCD televisions with a thin film that glows with colors even when viewed from the side.
• Studios face rising cost of archiving films
  Digital masters cost 12 times as much to preserve as conventional masters, and the film industry is again wrestling with preserving its most precious assets.
• Free papers draw new audience in Italy
  Instead of diluting the market, 24 minuti and Corriere della Sera Anteprima are contributing to the stability of the newspaper industry.
• U.S. approves Google-DoubleClick takeover
  The $3.1 billion transaction still faces substantial antitrust scrutiny from European regulators and cannot be completed without their approval.
• With deal, Apple settles last of lawsuits to stop leaks
  The suits were aimed at the gaggle of Apple enthusiasts who have made a sport and a business out of pre-empting Steven Jobs's product announcements.
• Two Russian telecommunications companies to merge
  VimpelCom's purchase of Golden Telecom will create Russia's first integrated mobile and fixed-line provider.
• Dell to buy UK technology consultant, also signs retail deal
  Computer maker Dell Inc. said Friday it has agreed to buy The Networked Storage Co., a privately held data-storage consulting firm based in the United Kingdom.
• SFR makes offer to buy rest of Neuf Cegetel
  The Vivendi unit is willing to pay about €5 billion to create a formidable competitor to the leading French telephone company, France Télécom.
• BSkyB rebuffed on ITV stake
  BSkyB faces a losses of more than £200 million, or $400 million, if forced to sell most of its shares at the current price.
• Top editors at Le Monde walk off job
  The departure was impelled by an e-mail sent to 400 staff members describing financial details at the paper that they considered confidential.
• 'Sopranos' creator vindicated
  A U.S. court found that David Chase owed no money to the lawyer who did him a favor when he was in the midst of developing the show.
• Kerry Group buyout offer raises share price of SCMP Group
  Shares of SCMP Group, publisher of the South China Morning Post newspaper, rose as much as 9.2 percent to 2.73 Hong Kong dollars after Kerry, owned by the billionaire Robert Kuok, offered 2.75 dollars per share to buy the 55.1 percent of the stock that it does not already own.
• NetSuite raises $161 million from IPO
  The IPO proved more lucrative than the California company anticipated, reflecting the hopes riding on NetSuite despite a nine-year history of losses, which total nearly $242 million.
• New licenses lift Oracle's revenue projections
  Oracle, the business software company, has reported a sharp rise in new licenses, soundly beating Wall Street projections for the second quarter.
• Zell expected to take over control of Tribune Co.
  The real estate billionaire Samuel Zell was to take the helm of Tribune Co. on Thursday, if Tribune's investment banks agree that the company still meets the financial standards they set for it when they signed on last spring.
• At 71, physics professor is a Web star
  Walter H. G. Lewin, a physics professor at MIT, has found devotees across the country and beyond with his free online lectures.
• Tech "microclusters" form in Silicon Valley
  The wellspring of the digital technologies fueling globalization is itself a collection of remarkably local economies.
• Watchdog says British broadband users shortchanged
  The Consumer Panel, which advises Ofcom, said there was widespread discontent among computer users over frustratingly slow broadband.
• Facebook apologizes for suspending British member of Parliament as fake
  Steve Webb, of the Liberal Democrats, tried to log on but received a message saying his account had been disabled following complaints he did not exist.
• Paul Allen venture to bid for U.S. wireless spectrum
  Allen heads an investment company called Vulcan Capital and is also a majority shareholder in U.S. cable operator Charter Communications.
• Microsoft and Viacom form $500 million partnership
  Programming from Viacom's MTV, Comedy Central and BET cable networks, and Paramount studio will be distributed on MSN and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
• Jerry Bruckheimer to make a leap into video games
  Bruckheimer, the Hollywood producer whose movies and television shows are so replete with car chases and fast action that critics say they look like video games, is finally lending his expertise to that medium.
• IRobot wrests U.S. Army contract from rival
  IRobot has snatched away a $286 million U.S. military contract previously awarded to a rival, Robotic FX, which iRobot accused of stealing trade secrets.
• System is developed to track cloned livestock in food chain
  A system to track cloned animals as they move through farms and slaughterhouses is meant to make it easier for food companies or retailers to support claims that their products contain no meat or milk from cloned animals.
• L'Oréal spoofs product placement in U.S. ads
  The online campaign sends up the conce