The FCC late Tuesday agreed to extend the deadline for VoIP providers by another month, acknowledging the work many of the providers had already done to inform their customers of the limitations of 911 over VoIP.

In a public notice, the FCC said that 21 companies had received notices of 100 percent compliance, and at least 32 others had heard back from more than 90 percent of their customers.

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AOL subsidiary Tegic Communications unveiled this week a new version of its T9 predictive text input software that adds support for backing up user-created preferences. When a user switches mobile phones, he or she can now simply download their T9 settings from the wireless carrier.

The backup function can store personal words, such as 2-6-6-5 representing "cool" rather than "book," as well as language preferences. Currently 49 languages are supported by the messaging technology.

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In an interview with the German daily Berliner Zeitung on Monday, Apple vice president and iPod division head Jon Rubenstein expressed his feelings on the convergence of music devices and cell phones, saying the devices are best left separate.

The remarks were published the same day Motorola CEO Ed Zander was criticized in the media over his "Screw the nano" statement made at a leadership conference in California on Friday. The recent comments made by either side -- whether a joke or not -- emphasize just how tenuous the Apple-Motorola relationship may be.

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BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer technology that has become one of the most popular methods for sharing files, has landed $8.75 million in funding, according to reports. Venture capitalist firm DCM-Doll provided the cash infusion and intends to bring BitTorrent to Hollywood's doorstep.

But whether BitTorrent can shed its pirate image and appeal to content owners remains to be seen. The technology is currently used almost exclusively for the illegal distribution of copyrighted material by end users. Recent statistics have estimated that 33 percent of P2P traffic is attributable to BitTorrent.

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Ending a summer of speculation, Research in Motion on Tuesday announced that it would use Intel XScale processors in its next-generation devices. The two companies will also work together on new technologies and features for BlackBerry handhelds.

The new devices would be for use on the Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) network, a GSM-based standard that acts as a stepping-stone to 3G wireless technologies such as UMTS and W-CDMA.

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Hot off the heels of news that Microsoft and Intel are throwing their support behind HD-DVD, Toshiba says it has developed the first PC with an integrated drive capable of reading the new high-definition DVD format. The PC will launch in Japan early next year, but a U.S. debut has not been scheduled.

The slim HD-DVD drive was developed jointly with Samsung, and will additionally support reading and writing of CDs and traditional DVDs. Although the drive is an important first step for bringing the new format to market, HD-DVD and competitor Blu-ray have a long road ahead before consumers are ready to adopt the technology, analysts say.

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Research firm In-Stat said Tuesday that the market for mobile music in the United States could be larger than the mobile gaming market, but both manufacturers and carriers need to act fast in order to cash in on what could be a very profitable business.

The news is nothing but good for carriers like Cingular who plans to attempt a mobile music service next year, possibly with Apple. Motorola, meanwhile, recently introduced the ROKR iTunes phone capable of holding 100 songs.

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Microsoft on Tuesday quietly slipped out Service Pack 2 for Office 2003, which includes a number of security and performance improvements for the productivity suite. Among the new additions is a Phishing Protection feature for Outlook that filters out e-mails trying to steal personal information.

SP2 is a cumulative update that combines previously released patches and Office 2003 Service Pack 1. Microsoft says stability improvements have been made based on feedback received from the Online Crash Analysis tool. Those running the Multilingual User Interface Pack will need to install an additional update that will be available at a later date.

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Microsoft announced that it had officially launched its solution for disk-based backup called Data Protection Manager (DPM) on Tuesday.

The company claims that it would cost a user about $5,000 per terabyte of data versus ten times that in competing services. DPM also offers a speed advantage, working much faster than tape-based solutions.

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Billed as the smallest personal computer available, OQO launched the second version of its pocketable pen-based computer system on Tuesday.

Measuring in at 4.9 inches long and 3.4 inches high by just under an inch thick and weighing 14 ounces, the OQO Model 01+ is the tiniest commercially available system to be running a full version of Windows XP. The first version, the model 01, was introduced at CES 2004.

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As part of its seventh birthday celebration, Google on Tuesday announced it has expanded its search index, but will no longer offer a specific count of indexed Web documents on its homepage. Instead, Google simply claims that its search is three times larger than rivals.

Although Google will not provide numbers, which it explains "vary greatly and are no longer easily comparable," the company says the new index is 1,000 larger than when Google first launched. But quality is important when it comes to search results, not quantity.

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Iyer Ventkesan has no easy task. As senior product manager for StarOffice, his chief responsibility is creating a suite of productivity software that gives users a compelling reason to make the switch from Microsoft Office, the market leader.

Thus, Ventkesan asked his developers to ensure the compatibility with Microsoft's product, as well as making a transition to StarOffice easier on the end user. "We have made it real easy for the Microsoft Office user to use StarOffice right away," he told BetaNews.

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Highlighting its OpenDocument compatibility, Sun on Tuesday released the final version of StarOffice 8. With the launch announcement also came deals with two software distributors, Encore and Avanquest Software, to ensure wider retail distribution of the productivity suite.

Encore will be the sole distributor of StarOffice 8 in the U.S. and Canada, while Avanquest will initially offer the software across ten countries in Europe. The new retail agreements are aimed at placing StarOffice in front of the eyes of more consumers, and attempt to cut into Microsoft's dominance in the productivity software market.

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Microsoft and Intel on Tuesday pledged their support for HD-DVD, the next-generation DVD format created by Toshiba. Microsoft had previously remained neutral in the standards war between HD-DVD and Sony-backed Blu-ray, as the company's VC-1 Windows Media Video codec will be included with both formats.

The announcement isn't that surprising, however. Microsoft's Xbox will soon begin a fierce battle with Sony's Blu-ray capable PlayStation 3 for living room dominance, and the company inked a deal in April for Warner Home Video to use VC-1 in its HD-DVD discs.

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Sun has begun to aggressively pursue legacy Dell server owners, offering a promotion that will allow them to use their old servers as a trade-in for up to $1,900 off the purchase of a new SunFire X4100 or X4200 server.

The push comes complete with an online advertising campaign that not so subtly attacks Sun's competitor.

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