Japanese manufacturer NEC disclosed Monday that at least two of its desktop computers in Japan have caught fire after the power supply units inside of the computers malfunctioned. Thus, as a safety precaution, about 14,600 units carrying the Valuestar brand would be recalled, and the power supply replaced free of charge.

The computers were produced between November 2003 and June 2004. NEC said that a third party manufactured the component, however it declined to name the manufacturer. The total cost of the recall would be released in a future statement from the company, it added.

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After nearly a year of testing the waters, including joint ventures such as MySpace Mobile Alert service for Cingular customers last March, and April's Cingular-sponsored ringtone generation service for independent music artists, social networking giant MySpace has at last entered into a true mobile distribution partnership with Cingular Wireless, the joint venture between would-be merger partners BellSouth and AT&T.

The deal will help create a legitimate business model or at least part of one for MySpace's corporate owner, Fox Interactive, which purchased MySpace's founder in July 2005 for $580 million. Under the new deal, Cingular customers, perhaps using a Samsung BlackJack device, will pay an extra $2.99 per month for the ability to do a lot of what MySpace patrons already do for free on their PCs.

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Google has teamed up with two Internet registrars to offer its users low-cost domain registration for the .com, .net, .org, or .info suffixes. For $10 per year, the name would be registered through either GoDaddy.com or eNom, and Google would do all the configuration work. The offering would be made part of Google Apps for Your Domain, a service introduced by the Mountain View, Calif. company in August of this year.

That service includes the e-mail service Gmail, a Web-based version of its Google Talk software, Google Calendar, and Google Page Creator, a Web site design application. All services are given away for free during the beta period. Analysts say Google's moves clearly position it be a direct competitor of Microsoft in the business software industry.

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The special master appointed to hear evidence from both parties in the AMD v. Intel antitrust case has recommended that Intel be compelled to produce documents for evidence that it had previously declined to submit. If Judge Joseph A. Farnan, Jr., agrees, Intel may be asked to produce evidence of what AMD alleges to be "foreign misconduct," and efforts by Intel to monopolize the US semiconductor market.

As Special Master Vincent Poppiti's filing with the court made clear today, he held a hearing two weeks ago to address the dispute over whether the documents AMD sought were relevant to the case. Last September, Judge Farnan had ruled that many of AMD's claims of Intel's misconduct could not be addressed by the court, since it fell outside the purview of US antitrust law.

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The once-certain merger process between the largest US telephone company, AT&T Inc., and former "baby Bell" and regional telephone carrier BellSouth, could perhaps be delayed further on account of a curious federal district judge. His hearings into why the AT&T/SBC and Verizon/MCI mergers were expedited by the Justice Dept. could raise skepticism about the viability of AT&T/BellSouth.

In a filing in US District Court yesterday, covered brilliantly by Anne Broache of CNET, attorneys for the Justice Dept. defended themselves against allegations that they slacked off on their reviews of the legality and competitive implications of the Verizon/MCI and AT&T/SBC mergers of 2005.

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The merger between Nokia and Siemens' networking divisions has been postponed due to an ongoing investigation at Siemens over charges of bribery. Several former Siemens executives have already been arrested as a result of the investigation, which includes the division that would become part of the new company. Nokia expressed its concern with the issues, and said it would participate a review to ensure there are no remaining issues.

"Nokia and Siemens intend to adjust their agreements in order to have Siemens conduct an appropriate compliance review prior to closing of the transaction," the company said in a statement. The results of such a review would be used to prevent the issues from occurring within the new company, it said.

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Although it may be five or more years behind similar capabilities in Europe, the US is finally getting technology that would allow consumers to use their cell phones as a way to pay for consumer goods. The first trial would be through Cingular Wireless in New York City.

The test is a result of a partnership between the carrier, MasterCard, Citigroup, and cell phone maker Nokia. Certain phones would be outfitted with MasterCard's PayPass technology, which is accepted at thousands of retailers across the country. The trial would last up to six months.

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Security firm eEye Digital Security said Friday it had discovered a new non-Microsoft based malware that has both the characteristics of a worm and a botnet spreading the wild. However, it uses a flaw in a program meant to protect users from such issues to propagate itself.

The flaw is within Symantec's popular anti-virus software. Calling it "Big Yellow," the exploit takes advantage of an issue within the remote management interfaces of both Symantec AntiVirus and Symantec Client Security.

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Half-heartedly acknowledging that there may be some type of issue with the straps that hold the controller to gamers hands, Nintendo will voluntarily recall 3.2 million of them to be replaced with stronger versions. In addition, an AC adapter for its DS handheld system has been recalled as well.

Costs for the strap replacement would run in the hundreds of millions of yen, while the adapter recall, affecting 200,000 units in Japan, would cost between 100-200 million yen ($848,000 -$1.7 milion USD). The cost would be divided between Nintendo and its supplier, Nagano Japan.

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Continuing his public demonstration that a scaled-down media company can perhaps accomplish more than a single, conglomerate colossus of swallowed-up media brands, CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves is reviving one of the greatest and most storied brands in the history of all media - CBS Records - in order that his company, now separate from Viacom, can partner with music providers such as Apple's iTunes.

After CBS decided last year to partner with Time Warner in the joint management of a subsidiary broadcast network - thus merging UPN with The WB to form The CW - it acquired The WB's lucrative music publicity strategy. Popular CW shows, such as Smallville and 7th Heaven, feature musical tracks prominently, then tell viewers at the end the name of the artist and CD, along with an ad for a music vendor. With broadcast radio's influence waning very suddenly, the WB/CW strategy paid off more than anyone expected.

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Epic Games' Gears of War is the fastest selling next-generation game of the year, and the fastest selling exclusive for the Xbox platform ever, Microsoft said Friday. In addition, the game was the best selling title during the month of November, according to NPG Group.

The first-person shooting game beat out Sony's highly-anticipated PlayStation 2 title Final Fantasy XII, released October 31, and the Wii's Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the top spot in November. No game for the PlayStation 3 was in the top ten.

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As Apple and Dell continue wrestling with the dregree of false value unreported options grants gave their respective companies, both announced they would be delaying their quarterly earnings filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Having already repeatedly delayed its second quarter fiscal 2007 filing from last August, and now delaying its third quarter filing a second time (the first was last month), Dell is now entering uncharted waters for a reputed technology giant. The first threats of possible delisting of Dell stock from the NASDAQ exchange came three months ago. After Dell received its first delisting notice from the exchange, it responded with an appeal, which normally gives a company a few weeks to get its accounting together.

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Adobe customers will be able to test out the next version of Photoshop, as the company is releasing a beta on its Adobe Labs development site on Friday. The application, due in Spring 2007, will now natively support Intel Macs. Adobe said that only those with a valid serial number from Photoshop CS2 or Creative Suite 2 would be eligible to participate in the beta.

Versions will be released for the Windows platform, as well as in Universal Binary format for Mac OS X. Although all the new features have not been disclosed, CS3 will include an application aimed at assisting designers in creating content specifically for mobile devices. A beta of Adobe Bridge, which assists in the organization of files is also included.

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The group responsible for enticing game developers to build their 3D assets in a new way so they can later port them to cell phones is taking the next step this week toward the development of a single, cross-platform API geared toward the creation of rich graphical applications, for displays so small that "rich" would seem impossible.

If it works as theorized, the new OpenKODE set of APIs from Khronos Group - which last year took on the caretaker role of the OpenGL ES 3D rendering API for small devices - could make it even more feasible for developers writing games and, if you can imagine this, applications for Sony's PlayStation 3, to rapidly develop small-display versions that run in a Linux-, Symbian-, or Windows Mobile-based cell phone.

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Microsoft plans to issue a service pack for Visual Studio on Friday, as well as a version of the update specifically aimed at fixing issues with the software for those running Windows Vista. The company said the updates will be available by midday ET.

The fixes come from customer and partner feedback, as well as the company's own internal testing. The companies responsiveness to customer comments could be measured in the percentage of bugs addressed, the Redmond company pointed out.

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