At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, Microsoft wasn't the only company talking up its next-generation gaming platform. Nintendo used the event to announce its upcoming console, dubbed "Revolution," which will feature wireless networking capabilities for connecting gamers.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata outlined Revolution in his keynote address. The system will sport a processor designed by IBM known as "Broadway," and a graphics chipset developed by ATI called "Hollywood." But the focus will be on wireless, and creating games for global play to compete with Microsoft's Xbox Live service.

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The Mozilla Foundation is calling it a day and officially putting to rest the Mozilla Application Suite, known as Seamonkey. No further development will be done on old-man Mozilla, as focus shifts entirely to newcomers Firefox and Thunderbird. But the legacy browser will live on with a new name and independent community.

Although phasing out the Mozilla suite has been a longstanding plan for the Mozilla Foundation, it wasn't clear when it would actually occur. Version 1.7 was referred to on project roadmaps as the "final stable branch," but officials also stated, "We are not retiring the Seamonkey application suite, or its XPFE front end, in the foreseeable future."

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Although it remains in beta, Google News has received its first major facelift since launching in 2002 and now enables readers to fully customize their headlines. Along with rearranging categories, news from different languages can be combined and custom sections created based on specific keywords.

"We've made a number of improvements to Google News that allow you to customize your News front page by creating sections that focus on topics you care about, for instance, your favorite sports team, technology, or celebrity," Google says on its Web site.

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A 7-megapixel camera with phone isn't the only hybrid device Samsung has on display this week at CeBIT in Germany. The electronics giant and number two phone maker has developed a Windows Mobile based handset with 3GB hard drive, which enables the device to offer iPod-like music and storage capabilities.

The SGH-I300 doubles the storage of Samsungs first hard drive phone that debuted last September, and is the first such device to function on GSM networks. But Samsung isn't the only manufacturer rolling out new mobile phones with big capacities for multimedia; Motorola is preparing its own hard drive laden handset, which is expected to appear before the end of the year.

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Microsoft says it will bring Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to 20 new markets this year, broadening the company's digital media experience to a total of 33 countries and 17 languages. Currently, 90 of the top computer manufacturers and over 7,000 system builders are shipping Windows Media Center based PCs.

"We're continuing to see unprecedented demand for Windows XP Media Center Edition worldwide," said Will Poole, senior vice president the Windows Client. "Now, together with our partners, we are answering that demand by delivering our best version of Windows ever with new ways to experience digital photos, music, TV and more."

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Microsoft announced early Thursday that it will acquire Groove Networks and integrate Groove's Virtual Office collaboration software into the Office System lineup. Groove's founder, Ray Ozzie, will become chief technology officer of Microsoft and report directly to company chairman Bill Gates.

Groove Virtual Office enables workers to share information, manage projects and hold meetings no matter where they are located geographically. Groove's products were already closely tied to Microsoft's Office applications, which will aid in the transition.

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Microsoft stopped short of confirming reports that it plans to back-port its next-generation WinFS file system architecture to Windows XP, telling BetaNews it is only evaluating the move while also acknowledging WinFS is still years off.

"We are currently evaluating making the WinFS storage subsystem available on this platform and will make the decision based on what is best for customers," a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews.

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A U.S. government national security committee has given the green light to Chinese computer firm Lenovo's proposed purchase of IBM's PC business. Regulators previously voiced concerns over "security issues," but have unanimously approved the $1.75 billion deal. Terms of the approval were not released, but IBM said no compromises were made.

The Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States is a government watchdog that evaluates purchases of US companies made by foreign entities. The go-ahead from CIFUS is the final hurdle Lenovo had to overcome after antitrust regulators approved the IBM deal in January. The transaction is now expected to close in the second quarter.

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This week at CeBIT in Germany, Samsung is showcasing a 7-megapixel camera phone that blurs the line between mobile handsets and digital cameras. In fact, the SCH-V770 resembles a still camera more than it does a phone. It includes a 3x optical zoom lens and 2-inch TFT display above a dial keypad.

Samsung has also added photography features not found on most camera phones, including manual focus and controllable shutter speeds. Like most new consumer handsets, the SCH-V770 includes an MP3 player for music playback. Samsung has not announced pricing or a release date, but said last month it expects only a 5-megapixel phone to reach the United States this year.

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Users of Danger's popular Sidekick, or Hiptop, device have found themselves unable to check e-mail or send instant messages since Sunday due to a technical glitch. T-Mobile, which sells the device and is a major Danger investor, has has taken the brunt of customer complaints. Both companies are promising a fix by Wednesday.

"Danger and T-Mobile regret any inconveniences experienced by Sidekick customers as a result of an identified technical issue that has been limiting customer access to data services since Sunday, March 6. Voice and SMS functions on the Sidekick are unaffected," Danger said in a statement to BetaNews.

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Following its initial announcement and subsequent controversy last October, Mac emulator CherryOS has finally been released.

The $49.95 CherryOS was developed by Maui-X-Stream -- a small Hawaiian company that makes streaming media technologies -- and enables users to run Apple's Mac OS X operating system atop Windows PCs. The software mimics the Mac G4 processor and touts complete access to a system's hardware resources and networking capabilities.

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Microsoft has given a name to its Windows Messenger successor: Office Communicator 2005. The new communications client, formerly known by its code-name Istanbul, integrates IM, voice, video, telephony and Web conferencing capabilities into a single interface and makes them accessible in Microsoft's Office applications.

Communicator serves as the preferred client for Office Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005, which streamlines business communication and is the core of Microsoft's real-time collaboration vision. With Communicator, users have access to presence features that rout incoming messages based on a schedule, or offer additional availability data such as the next available meeting.

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Samsung announced Monday it has built the world's largest TFT LCD display for TV, which measures 82 inches. The monster LCD will be showcased at CeBIT in Germany later this week, and serve to dispel the misconception that TFT displays cannot reach sizes attained by plasma or rear-projection televisions.

The 82-inch LCD boasts a 1200:1 contrast ratio and 8ms response time. The screen is the first developed by S-LCD - a joint venture between Samsung and Sony. Samsung says it plans to invest over $2 billion in the development of a 7th generation LCD production line to compete with market rival L.G. Phillips.

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Maps and movie reviews weren't enough for the search giant; Google can now pull up instant weather forecasts, further consolidating a myriad of content into a single search. The new functionality comes as a result of Google's 20% program, which allows its employees to devote one-fifth of their time to a project of their choosing.

By typing "weather" before a city name or zip code, Google will display current conditions and a forecast above search resuts. "As a kid, I would stare for hours at repetitious weather reports on TV. Boring, you say? Not to me - I love weather," said Google software engineer Ben Sigelman. "And since I've worked here, I've wondered why Google doesn't do weather. It seemed like a perfect 20% project for me."

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As expected, European governments have approved a controversial bill allowing software patents, despite objections from Denmark, Poland and Portugal. The draft legislation, called the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, will now be sent back to the European Parliament for a second reading.

The directive's fate is still uncertain, however, as the parliament could demand further changes. The EU Parliament has previously expressed dissatisfaction with the bill, requesting that it be returned for a first reading in February.

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