Now that the long promised faster speeds of WiMAX are starting to rev up into reality, PC makers are rolling out the first WiMAX-enabled networks. At least one model -- from Asus -- is already shipping, but it'll cost you a cool $1,399.

Sprint's launch in Baltimore of the first WiMAX network in the US drew support this week from a long list of PC vendors that are either planning or already selling WiMAX-enabled laptops, including Asus, Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony.

Usually when a company these days gives advance warning to the press about earnings numbers that aren't due for another week, it's to help diffuse a negative backlash. Not this time, as IBM handed the market a rare gift.

In an SEC filing this morning, IBM went out of its way to bring good tidings of great earnings for a market that could really use a little Christmas cheer even two months early. Total revenues for the third quarter of this year for the company will be up 5% annually to $25.3 billion; and with margins rising, its net income will likely be up as much as 20% on the year, to $2.8 billion.

"Big Four" major label EMI has plans to launch a dedicated Web portal, but contrary to what many are reporting, it will not be a competitor to other online music shops.

A source familiar with proceedings told BetaNews this morning said that the forthcoming EMI.com is not an attempt to compete with, or displace iTunes, Amazon, or any other digital music store.

The much-abused .info top-level domain may be making a renewed bid for respectability with policy changes announced this week, in an effort that may make the TLD a little less meaningless.

It's reasonable for the well-traveled reader to feel that it's the net, not the .info TLD, that's the much-abused party here. One of the vaunted TLD class of 2000, .info has over its eight years of existence fallen down the spam-and-scam rabbit hole.

A popular Twitter client gets stronger as TweetDeck's v0.19b release makes its way to users of the AIR-based application.

One of a number of desktop clients for managing one's Twitter habit, TweetDeck lets users sort active feeds into various configurable columns -- for instance, Friends, Newsfeeds, and Fictional Characters (to recognize what often seems to be the greatest area of growth on the microblogging service). It's built on the AIR platform, and versions are available for Mac OS X, Windows XP, and Vista.

For the first time, video downloads generated from Google's YouTube site are no longer 100% free. Rather surprisingly, though, users have greeted the new links to fee-based music and content largely with positive comments, if any.

Google-owned YouTube yesterday abandoned its traditional business model of free content provider, adding links to paid video and audio in such a slick manner that most users either didn't mind or didn't even notice.

Can a company with patent rights over a technology charge royalties to anyone who uses that technology...even as it's passed down from reseller to retailer to customer? Recently the Supreme Court said no, and that gave Broadcom an idea.

There for awhile, it really did look as though the legal disputes between the two biggest names in the field of wireless technology licensing, were finally unraveling themselves into something resembling resolution...if not just sputtering out altogether. But as it turns out, a US Supreme Court ruling in a case involving two other parties has breathed new life into Broadcom's hopes attaining full litigation superiority, in its interminable fight with Qualcomm.

For the better part of two decades, AMD has been a producer of x86 chips, and at times sold more of them to consumers than Intel. So since x86 technology was conceived by Intel, what happens to it now that someone else will build upon it?

In an agreement between the two microprocessor manufacturers reached in the spring of 2001 and retroactive to the previous January, Intel granted AMD a license to make certain products that contain Intel's intellectual property; and AMD granted Intel a symmetrical license under that same agreement. A redacted publication of that agreement -- which is the only version that has been allowed to be made public -- clearly shows where AMD was granted "a non-exclusive, non-transferable [redacted] worldwide license, without the right to sublicense, under Intel's Patents to...make, use, sell (directly or indirectly), offer to sell, import and otherwise dispose of all AMD Licensed Products."

The class action antitrust lawsuit filed against Apple and AT&T last year for their strict control over the iPhone has withstood the companies' motions to dismiss, Northern California District Court Judge James Ware has ruled.

The original filing on behalf of Paul Holman, Lucy Rivello, and a class of complainants one year ago alleged that Apple "implemented a scheme to prohibit users from acquiring programs to run on the iPhone unless those were purchased directly from Apple." and that AT&T "will not provide the unlock code for the iPhone for international travel or otherwise. On information and belief, that is because AT&T and Apple unlawfully agreed that the iPhone would not be unlocked under any circumstances."

After ten years, Yahoo is finally updating its online calendar, with new capabilities ranging from Flickr-based photo integration to iCal compliance for sharing information with friends all over the Web.

Yahoo today launched the beta release of a new online calendar. While delivering its own new twists, Yahoo's revamped calendar adheres to the same iCal calendar standard used by Google, Microsoft, Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, and IBM's Lotus.

When the going gets weird, the weird... grow up? That's the bet Burst Media is making with its new Thought Leaders network.

Among advertisers online, where so much can be known about individual site visitors, demographic targeting is king and A/S/L information is mapped to every group from gamers to moms to trendsetters. Within the blog-advertising ecosystem, Burst Media puts together bundles of 100-200 sites that appeal to a particular demographic and sells ad space on those sites.

After initial testing with social media game maker Playfish, Google is now launching a beta that will include Sprint and Sony as advertisers and Zynga and Konami as game creators. Is this the beginning of an ad-supported virtual world?

Can online gaming and advertising co-exist, or will gamers tune out the ad-supported games at too intrusive? Google will soon find out, with the beta rollout of AdSense for Games software.

"The world's first touchscreen BlackBerry...What will it feel like?" asks Verizon's teaser page for the upcoming BlackBerry Storm that was announced today.

Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A network will carry the Storm in the US, while Europe, India, and Oceania will offer the device through Vodafone. In India last August, however, the launch of the 3G iPhone was heavily qualified with disclaimers on the 3G network's limitations. Like the complaints about AT&T's 3G in the US, Indian consumers, too expressed frustration at the unreliable service provided by Vodafone's less-than-ready 3G network.

Yesterday was the last day that U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel would be available for hearings until November 17, putting the case between Real Networks and the MPAA on hold.

In the meantime, Judge Patel said the temporary restraining order placed on RealDVD would remain. "I am extending the temporary restraining order because I'm not satisfied in the fact that this technology is not in violation. There are serious questions about copyright violations. There are questions about violations of the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act], and violations of these companies' agreement."

Cross-site scripting vulnerabilities remain the most difficult for Web browser and tool manufacturers to thwart, especially because legitimate sites may be hosted by multiple domains. Today, Adobe Flash finds itself in the crosshairs.

A relatively ancient technique for hijacking a Web page's hyperlinks by overlapping them with different, invisible hyperlinks that lead the user someplace else, has reared its ugly head again, but this time outside the realm of HTML: Recently revealed proofs-of-concept show that invisible Flash elements can maliciously lead users to mock Web pages; and now it's been revealed that Adobe was already working with security engineers to fix the problem before the latest proof-of-concept was leaked.