Ed Oswald

Intel warned investors Friday that it would miss its original revenue targets, making it the third consecutive quarter it has had to lower expectations for Wall Street. News of the miss sent the company's stock down almost five percent in late morning trading before rebounding late in the day.

The Santa Clara, Calif., chipmaker cited "weaker than expected demand and a slight market segment share loss" as a reason for the decline. Competitor AMD has been making inroads over the past few months, beating its larger rival to market with several new technologies, especially in 64-bit chips.

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Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority said Friday it would conduct tests to study the effects of cellular phone radiation on the human skin. Next week, researchers plan to expose the skin of participants to cell phone radiation for a period of one hour and compare the results.

In previous tests, the group found some evidence of change among its female participants at the cellular level, however it wasn't clear if those changes were posing an actual health risk. This study would use female volunteers to maintain consistency and to allow for comparisons between the results.

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Handset manufacturer Nokia said Thursday that it was placing its bets on mobile television as becoming the next big thing, saying it would reach mass appeal within two years. The Finnish cell phone maker cited studies and trials that indicate the technology is appealing to many consumers, and that they would be willing to pay 5 to 10 euros ($6 to $11 USD) per month for such a service. The statements were made as part of a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Nokia has lent its support to the DVB-H standard, one of about a half-dozen options proposed. The standard has already gained the support of several companies in the United States, who are working to implement it as soon as possible. However, in some countries in Europe, the needed frequencies are unavailable. This means some countries like Finland, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands will have the technology available soon, while others may need to wait several years.

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While CBS and NBC may have shown a deep disdain for what it sees as lax enforcement of copyright laws, YouTube this week signed its first agreement with a major network to obtain copyrighted content. MTV2 will provide the site with clips from two series and DVD releases coming this month.

Clips would be added from two shows, "The Andy Milonakis Show" and "Wonder Showzen." MTV2's clips would also receive premium placement on the featured videos section of the main page, along with the network's logo and the words "Official Partner."

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The U.S. Department of Justice has opened up an collusion inquiry to investigate the digital music prices set by four major record labels, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. While at this time it does not appear to be a criminal investigation, "civil investigative demands" -- similar to subpoenas -- have been sent to all parties.

Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI, and Warner Music have received these notices. According to sources close to the case, the investigation is similar to one being carried out by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. A Justice Department spokesperson said that antitrust lawyers are looking into the possibility of anticompetitive practices.

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In comments to the media Thursday, RIM President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said his company was still open to a settlement with NTP. The two companies are locked in a bitter patent dispute that could disrupt the BlackBerry service for its 3 million subscribers.

In deciding not to enforce an injunction immediately last Friday, U.S. District Judge James Spencer chastised the two sides for not making more effort to settle the matter out of court. Spencer said he hoped to have a decision on the injunction "as soon as reasonably possible."

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Initial reports that China may have been attempting to split off the Internet by creating its own Chinese-language top level domains now appear to be untrue. A spokeperson for China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said that the country has no intention of creating its own root servers, or breaking away from the global Internet.

The misunderstanding was caused by an inaccurate report in the English version of the state run People's Daily Online. The report, which was somewhat ambigious, gave the impression that pre-existing work being done under the .cn domain name was being done as a top-level domain to replace .com and .net.

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Hoping to drum up consumer interest in its next generation DVD format, Toshiba revealed details of a plan to traverse the United States through April to promote HD DVD. The tour will stop in over 40 cities and include live demonstrations of the technology, as well as aiming to train and educate retail salespeople on the benefits of the format.

Toshiba's first players based on the technology, the entry-level HD-A1 and its higher end HD-XA1, are due to be released later in the month at prices of $499 and $799 USD, respectively. While HD DVD's list of supporting movie studios is smaller than competitor Blu-ray, backers of the format hope its lower equipment price will help to increase sales and give it a head start on its rival.

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Parents will soon be able to use their TiVos to help limit what television programs their children can view, thanks to a new service announced by the company Thursday. Called KidZone, the software will be made available to owners of TiVo's standalone boxes in June.

To operate, KidZone would use a list of shows approved for kids by one of two groups, either Common Sense Media or the Parents Television Council. When a child hits an unapproved program, it would be blocked and only viewable by entering a password.

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The City of Philadelphia said Wednesday that both it and Wireless Philadelphia, a non-profit group, had signed agreements with EarthLink to begin construction of a wirlesss network that would cover the city. Mayor John Street urged City Council to approve the deals, which would last for ten years.

Under the terms of the deal, EarthLink would rent space on 4,000 city light posts to install its equipment at a cost of $74 per light post. The network would cover approximately 135 square miles, making it one of the largest Wi-Fi networks in the world.

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MTV parent Viacom said the company is looking to enter the social networking market this year to compete with sites such as News Corp.-owned MySpace. Viacom CEO Tom Freston said he did not think the market was saturated, and felt there was plenty of room to stake a claim.

Viacom has not decided whether it would create its own site, or enter the market through an acquisition of a preexisting network. The company has held talks with several social networking sites already, according to reports.

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Yahoo won a restraining order against wireless content company MForma late Wednesday, preventing the seven former Yahoo employees it hired from disclosing or using any proprietary Yahoo code. The search giant had accused the seven of stealing code before assuming their new jobs at MForma.

Yahoo sued MForma on Monday, asking the court to step in on the matter. The company also demanded MForma reveal how any of its proprietary code had been used. The small company shot back, with its CEO Jonathan Stacks calling Yahoo hypocritical.

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Adobe and Symantec forged a partnership Thursday that would offer downloaders of the popular Adobe Acrobat program a trial of Norton Internet Security 2006, as well as discounts on the full version of the software. While the deal initially covers only Acrobat Reader, it could be expanded to other popular Adobe products in the future.

Acrobat and Flash Player, which Adobe acquired through its purchase of Macromedia last year, are installed on some 600 million computers and devices worldwide.

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Start up Ether has launched what it calls an "eBay for services," allowing anyone with a telephone or e-mail access to charge for the services they provide. The company, wholly owned by pay-per-call firm Ingenio, launched an invite-only beta on Wednesday.

"We're selling intellectual capital through time," Ether's creator Scott Faber told BetaNews.

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NOTE: Initial reports that China may have been attempting to split off the Internet by creating its own Chinese-language top level domains now appear to be untrue. A spokeperson for China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said that the country has no intention of creating its own root servers, or breaking away from the global Internet.