A live demo of mobile WiMAX was successfully presented by Motorola at a sold out trade show in Singapore this week, not long after it announced completion of a successful trial of the technology in Thailand.

Show-goers taking a bus tour at the WiMAX Forum Congress Asia reportedly experienced Web browsing, video conferencing, and other wireless applications while moving past Motorola 400 access points (APs) along the route, with mobile hand-off between the APs. Motorola provided backhaul to its facility in Singapore over its wireless IP equipment.

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As the debate continues over foreign-born students educated in America taking their skills to other countries, the US continues to limit the number of non-citizen students working here to a number that can be met in under one week's time.

Last Tuesday was the first day for the US Citizenship and Immigration Service to receive employers' petitions for foreign workers to obtain H-1B visas, to perform bachelor's and master's degree-level work in the US during its fiscal year 2009, beginning this October. Yesterday morning, the first scheduled filing period ended, and USCIS reports the number of petitions already well exceeded its annual quota of 65,000 for the bachelor's category, and 20,000 for the "advanced degree" category.

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The top-of-the-line version of the company's disc playback software will now support Blu-ray's advanced interactivity platform, the company said Tuesday.

PowerDVD 'Ultra' has already been certified for several HD formats, including Blu-ray Profile 1.1. It also supports BD+, AVCHD, and BD-RE 3.0. With Profile 2.0 support now under its belt, it becomes one of the most-feature rich disc playback applications available.

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Hewlett-Packard today announced a new low-priced $499 mini-notebook aimed at school students and business professionals wanting a small, low-cost system capable of withstanding the kinds of punishment that only a school can dish out.

The HP 2133 Mini-Note is the latest effort by the world's #1 PC maker to approach a market with still very little competition, though with very high growth potential.

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Now that AT&T is starting to crystalize its strategy for the 4G wireless era, wireless industry veteran John Donovan has been named its chief technology officer.

Although AT&T announced the appointment just today, Donovan has actually been on the job at AT&T since at least Thursday of last week, when AT&T broke its silence about plans for its future LTE network. The company won a major chunk of B-Block spectrum in the FCC's recent 700 MHz auction, and boasted of that victory immediately after the FCC lifted its gag order around the auction.

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Can a fair compromise be obtained on the matter of how long search engines should be allowed to retain personally identifiable data? Last week, a key European advisory group moved the goalposts on that issue yet again.

The European Union's key advisory panel on governing policy for Internet services issued an opinion last Friday stating that search engines and Web sites that retain personally identifiable data delete that data from their servers after six months. Member states would then be free to specify an even tighter timeframe.

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Embarq, formerly the local division of Sprint Nextel, has introduced its eGo home phone, a DECT 6.0 IP handset manufactured by Vtech that looks to challenge VoIP leaders Comcast and Vonage.

The company was formed under the leadership of Dan Hesse, who saw the future in converged communications, and was escalated to Sprint Nextel's CEO position late last year. The company offers triple (and quadruple) play service bundles in 19 US states, maintaining its alliance with Sprint and partnering with DirecTV.

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MySpace says its Spanish-language site will feature "culturally relevant content" aimed at this quick-growing segment of the internet population.

MySpace has signed on partners that produce content for the market to support its effort, including the Spanish Broadcasting System, Billboard en Espanol, and Remezcla.com.

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Sony BMG and Warner's music is missing from Wal-Mart's online store, which has been recently redesigned to feature its catalog of DRM-free music.

With the apparent full switch to MP3, it marks yet another former customer of Microsoft's PlaysForSure who let the DRM technology fall by the wayside. However, it appears that with the embrace of DRM-free music, some artists are not available, at least temporarily.

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The engine that powers the company's online applications suite will soon be accessible by a select number of developers, for testing their own Web services at their own pace...on Google's servers.

In a highly anticipated move given the fact that it had publicized that something would emerge today for a company retreat billed as "Campfire One," Google this morning announced it is granting developmental access to its application servers, to the first 10,000 developers who apply.

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Sony will release Blu-ray recorders April 30 in Japan that allow for one-touch transfer to the PSP, Walkman, and select mobile phones.

The BDZ-A70 will carry a hefty price tag, coming in at ¥170,000 ($1,658). At the same time, it shows a willingness by Sony to embrace the growing consumer desire for media portability.

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New search engine venture Spock.com is using a Linux-based software architecture to save money on development. But it's also showing some ingenuity with its business model, focusing on partnership rather than competition.

NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - Now in beta since August of last year, Spock.com specializes in "people searches" across the names of both "ordinary people" and celebrities, said Jay Bhatti, the company's VP for marketing, services, and user experience, during a press briefing last week.

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Following six months of studies, the EU is finally ready to move forward with allowing in-flight cellular calls within the next month or so.

Once the plane has reached an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,850 feet), calls will be permitted. An on-board cellular tower of sorts will handle the calls, and then transfer them to the network on the ground.

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The worst is not over by a long shot for AMD. This afternoon, the company confirmed it would have to make very painful cuts, the repercussions of which are already being felt in terms of declining revenues.

Up until today, AMD had been saying it expected its revenue from the first calendar quarter of this year to decline "in line with seasonality" -- meaning, it would be lower than over the Christmas holiday because January always drops from December. And analysts had been responding to that claim, for the most part, with disbelief. As it turned out, the analysts were right.

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Is Web video distributor Joost, facing new competition from Hulu, shrinking its geographic coverage as a result? According to at least one recently published report, Joost has now decided to focus on the US only.

But last month, Nimbus Sport International unveiled deals with Joost spanning multiple continents, and a Joost spokesperson told BetaNews today that new but still unannounced agreements are also in the works for Europe and Asia.

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