While companies such as Samsung and Panasonic showed off over 100-inch plasma televisions at CES in January, those sets were largely prototypes designed to showcase the companies' technological prowess. LG, meanwhile, has delivered the largest plasma TV for retail, measuring 71-inches and offering 1080p HD resolution.

Ken Cranes on the west coast and Sixth Avenue on the east coast will sell the massive display, which incorporates LG's XD Engine technology to take lower resolution images and up-scale them to near high-definition levels. "The retail launch of the LG 71-inch plasma HDTV monitor underscores our commitment in providing innovative solutions to the premium, high-end consumer electronics industry," said Robert A. Perry, LG vice president. Pricing for the 71-inch plasma TV was not yet announced.

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Microsoft told reporters in Tokyo Thursday that it planned to triple the number of games it will offer in Japan by the end of this year. The console has struggled in the country, largely out of a lack of Japanese-centric games and consumers' wishes to wait for Sony's PlayStation 3.

Role-playing games like Final Fantasy are popular in Japan, much different from stateside gamers' preference for first person shooters. Also, Japanese gamers seem to prefer consoles made by companies based in the country, accounting for Sony and Nintendo's success.

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Like many things these days in Washington, a rift between Democrats and Republicans over the concept of net neutrality seems to be growing. The Republican controlled House Energy and Commerce subcommittee struck down a Democratic proposal that would have prevented broadband providers from charging a premium to companies for delivery of content.

Several Internet firms including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo among others sided with Democrats. They claimed such an amendment was critical in order to ensure a two-tier Internet would not form as a result. The amendment failed 23 to 8.

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Verizon Wireless will become the first mobile operator in the United States to include Adobe's Flash animation software on its phones, thanks to a deal signed between the companies Wednesday. The idea is to give customers more options for viewing graphics on a small screen.

Adobe first detailed its plan to expand Flash to mobile devices when it purchased Macromedia for $3.4 billion last year. The company already ships Flash on phones in Japan, but the United States could prove a big market for the technology, analysts say. Flash is commonly used for Web graphics, animations and even video.

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Microsoft on Wednesday won its largest contract to date for smartphones using its Windows Mobile operating system. The U.S. Census Bureau has requested a half-million phones through manufacturer HTC that would be used for the 2010 Census. According to press reports, the deal was one of the largest ever covering smartphones.

The agency has made the move in order to speed up the data collection process. Previously, employees would digitize the paper forms filed out by the Census Bureau's workers in the field. The contract was part of a larger $600 million deal with Harris, a company that is working to automate the entire census-taking process.

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Microsoft in May will release a beta of Speech Server 2007, the third revision of the company's speech and telephony platform. The software is designed for call centers and businesses that want to automate their customer support infrastructure through the use of VoIP and other technologies.

Speech Server 2007 brings support for VoiceXML, which serves as a standard for linking together voice-centric applications, as well as SIP and RTP to maximize integration with other VoIP gateways. New monitoring and analysis tools are also included in the release. Speech Server 2007 will be officially launched in late 2006.

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Netflix is attempting to have rival Blockbuster Online shut down by suing Blockbuster in a federal court in Northern California on Tuesday. The company claims its biggest competitor is committing patent infringement and is asking for an injunction to bar Blockbuster from allowing online rentals.

Two patents surrounding online DVD rental are held by Netflix. The first was awarded in 2003 and covers the concept of the automatic queue, which customers add to from the company's library and then receive movies in a customizable order of preference.

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D-Link on Wednesday said it planned to deliver its first 802.11n capable wireless devices by the end of April, heralding the arrival of the next-generation wireless standard. Although 802.11n has not yet been finalized, hardware manufacturers are using draft specifications with ratification expected soon.

802.11n promises wireless speeds of up to 100Mbit per second, with the potential for much higher throughput in future updates. Using a technology called MIMO, or multiple-in, multiple out, an 802.11n device could have multiple antennas that handle more than one data stream at a time, thus speeding the transfer of data tremendously.

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AT CTIA WIRELESS Microsoft said Wednesday at the CTIA Wireless tradeshow in Las Vegas that it planned to make "significant investments" in digital rights management for mobile devices such as cell phones. The company also disclosed it was in discussions with several wireless firms to enable new mobile entertainment options for consumers.

The more than 800 million handsets worldwide represent an "untapped market" for entertainment, Microsoft argued.

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As expected, Disney announced Wednesday at CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas plans to launch its own cellular service in June utilizing Sprint Nextel's network. The company would sell phones with GPS functionality that would enable parents to locate their children using their cellphone or the Internet.

Disney Mobile will target the growing "tween" segment of the market, which covers children between the ages of 8 and 12. Two phones will be offered initially with features such as built-in cameras, text messaging, ring tones and exclusive Disney content for kids and their parents. Parents will be able to control how much their kids can talk, and give priority to family messages and phone numbers.

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AT CTIA WIRELESS MSNBC is expected to announce Wednesday a new application for Windows Mobile devices that would allow users of the Web site to access news and video content from PDAs and smartphones. Using technology from mobile application firm Action Engine, the service breaks new ground in the mobile delivery of news content.

The service will be provided free of charge through an innovative advertising model developed by both MSNBC and Action Engine. The two companies researched extensively on how to best deliver ads in a way that wouldn't scare off the consumer, and have settled on banner and video ads within the application

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Hoping to improve its online security offerings, McAfee on Wednesday announced that it had acquired SiteAdvisor. The Boston, Mass. based company maintains a database of Web sites that it tests for spyware, adware, spam, browser attacks, and online scams.

Each site is rated by a green, yellow or red icon based on those tests. McAfee says the acquisition would give an unprecedented level of security for those surfing the Internet when combined with the company's other products.

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Creative disclosed Wednesday that it expected to report a loss for the quarter ending March 31, which it blamed on falling prices of flash memory. The Singapore-based electronics marker will post a loss of between $55 to 65 million on revenue of $220 to 230 million. The company said the loss figures did not include a non-cash impairment charge of $25 million and $9 million to refocus its graphics business during the quarter.

Creative has struggled to stay competitive with Apple in digital media, and that has taken a toll on the company's bottom line, say analysts. "The sharp drop in memory prices had a significant negative impact on sales in March and resulted in lower revenues and gross margins and inventory write-downs in the period," Creative said in a statement.

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Hewlett-Packard and Cingular announced a deal on Wednesday to integrate the wireless carrier's Broadband Connect service into future HP laptops. The computer manufacturer previously signed a similar deal with Verizon for its EV-DO network. The feature will enable users to connect to the high-speed wireless service without an extra PC card.

Cingular's UMTS/HSDPA network offers download speeds of between 400-700 kilobits per second, with bursts to 1 megabit. BroadbandConnect is currently available in 16 markets covering 52 cities, and Cingular says it expects to cover most of the United States by the end of the year. HP isn't the only PC maker looking to integrate 3G support into notebooks; Sony and Lenovo plan such functionality as well.

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In a stunning move, Apple on Wednesday officially sanctioned the running of the Windows XP operating system on Intel-based Macs through the release of a software package. Called Boot Camp, the 86MB beta product provides a dual-boot sequence and the drivers necessary to run Windows.

"Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple's superior hardware now that we use Intel processors," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

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