SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Bizarre little creatures that look like walking eyeballs and a puzzle-cracking professor may not seem to have much in common at first glance.

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SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it plans to cut prices of its Windows Vista operating system sold at retail outlets in a move aimed at pushing customers to switch to the newest version of Windows.

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FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A meeting to hammer out a consensus on whether a Microsoft document format should become an international standard descended into near chaos this week, people close to the meeting told Reuters.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc have extended by two months a deadline to potentially terminate without penalty Sirius’s year-old proposed acquisition of its bigger rival.

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(Reuters) - China’s top search engine Baidu.com Inc said it plans to launch an instant messaging service, called “Baidu Hi.”

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SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Two industry groups representing China’s local musicians and songwriters have filed a lawsuit against the country’s Web search leader, Baidu.com Inc, accusing it of copyright violation.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - EBay Inc and MercExchange LLC have settled a long-running patent lawsuit, said eBay on Thursday, ending a fight that prompted a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc said on Wednesday it is offering a simple Web site publishing tool for office workers to set up and run their team collaboration sites, taking aim at Microsoft Corp’s rival SharePoint franchise.

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Experts have digitally rebuilt the face of 18th century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach — and say the results may surprise his fans.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Technical problems have forced the Bush administration to retool a high-tech “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border and will delay the first phase for at least three years, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

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ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Google Inc has unveiled a plan to help U.S. patients gain control of their medical records and is working with doctors’ groups, pharmacies and labs to help them securely share sensitive health data.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Apple Inc rose more than 4 percent on Thursday amid optimism on Wall Street that the maker of consumer favorites such as the iPod media player and iPhone can weather economic troubles.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc posted a narrower-than-expected loss on Thursday as it added more than 1 million subscribers during the quarter that included the holiday season.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd’s Wii game console outsold Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3 nearly 4-to-1 in Japan in February as Wii software titles dominated the best seller list, a game magazine publisher said.

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Remote control cars and trucks are some of the most fun toys out there. Even adults can have a blast with the latest models of gas RC cars. The Micro Desert is an RC truck that offers desert style racing in a micro truck that is just under six inches long. It uses a Ni-MH battery for a long lasting running time and even has an independent suspension system. It comes with a differential equipped transmission and 27 MHz radio system and is ready to ride, right out of the box. This desert truck has the speed and handling to tackle nearly everything you throw at it, and is small enough to travel with you to show off to friends.The Associated Nitro RC car which has won ‘Reader’s Choice’ awards has now been updated with even more enhancements and features. The car has been upgraded with a more powerful .15 size engine and a newly designed, ‘Sure Shift’ 2 speed transmission for faster acceleration and a higher top sped. Finally the rear suspension components have been reworked to provide more strength and durability. With chrome wheels and modern sport style graphics, this is one gas RC car that will satisfy your RC desires.

When you add a GPS antenna to your plane then you will experience quite a few benefits. This is especially the case if you are flying for aerial applications like aerial surveying and others. When high aircraft positioning is necessary a GPS antenna is especially beneficial. For example, your flight time will be reduced significantly because the GPS antenna makes the turning time for the aircraft much less. The time may be reduced as much as four minutes, which offer a great deal of time savings. Another benefit of your airplane GPS is that your efficiency is increased. There are no lost signals so you will always be on target and save time, increasing efficiency. That is great news because you have more time to read sky charts and things of that nature. You may not need to read your aviation maps as much, either, when you use a GPS antenna on your plane because of the constant connection to GPS. Another benefit is that the flight cost is greatly reduced because of the greater efficiency. The final benefit is that the minimal investment associated with a GPS antenna really makes it worthwhile.

The self directed project 2007 training available from CBTPlanet.com is the best way to become proficient with Microsoft’s popular Project application. With the proper training, you will confidently be able to lead your projects without having to stumble over the tasks, and their self-study tutorial CD offers the best way to get the training you need in an interactive, hands-on environment.

With the included multimedia components and simulated software environment, you can to see and do all of the tasks right on your own PC. Through engaging presentations, step by step demos, high quality content, and hands-on labs, you will learn the skills you need to utilize Project to its fullest. In the project 2007 tutorial, a qualified instructor introduces each new topic and gives you a preview of the material that will be covered. Then you simply click on the video presentations for an informative summary of the topics that will be covered next.

Because the Microsoft Project 2007 training course is designed for self directed learning, users will have the option to learn at their own pace. More experienced users can skip ahead to unfamiliar information, and new computer users can take the time they need to understand the new concepts.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Microsoft was fined a record 899 million euros ($1.35 billion) by the European Commission on Wednesday for using high prices to discourage software competition in the latest sanction in their long-running battle.

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SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp released the latest version of its Windows operating system for powerful servers on Wednesday, thrusting itself into the red-hot market for virtualization technology that allows one computer to act like many machines.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics is in the final stages of talks with Sony Corp to jointly build a new LCD production line, a Samsung source said on Wednesday, soothing concerns that their alliance was in jeopardy.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Killer robots could become the weapon of choice for militants, a British expert said on Wednesday.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc said on Wednesday that it will give details next week of how outside programmers can create software for its iPhone, a move aimed at spurring demand for the multifunction device.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese camera and office equipment maker Canon Inc said it would pay $403 million for a quarter stake in Hitachi Ltd’s LCD panel business to get its own supply of parts for its cameras and copiers.

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - A friendly dog can make older people feel less isolated — and it appears to make little difference if that wagging tail belongs to a robot doggie or the real thing.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp said on Wednesday they would beef up cooperation in the supply of vehicles in a bid to save development costs in the increasingly competitive industry.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM is set to launch the latest update of its powerful mainframe computer on Tuesday, a more energy-efficient machine that it hopes will compete with high-end computers from rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc .

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Restaurants aretesting technology to let diners order their food direct from ascreen at their table instead of depending on a fellow humanbeing.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - An independent movie producer with rights to the horror movie “George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead” sued video game maker Capcom Co Ltd on Monday in the latest salvo in a copyright dispute.

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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani Internet service providers may have inadvertently blocked the popular YouTube Web site across the world at the weekend when they restricted local access to the site, a telecommunications official said.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - VMware Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co. said on Tuesday they have signed an agreement to integrate VMware’s virtualization software into 10 models of HP’s computer servers.

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SAN FRANCISCO/BANGALORE (Reuters) - Google Inc shares fell as much as 8 percent on Tuesday after a U.S. industry report published this week showed a decline in a key measure for how Google gets paid by advertisers.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal court which hears patent appeals told a lower court on Tuesday to reconsider damages that Microsoft must pay a Guatemalan inventor for infringing his software in its popular Office Suite.

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Web search company Google Inc has agreed to build an undersea cable with five telecoms operators that will link the United States to Japan, and provide the capacity to sustain a surge in Internet traffic between the continents.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp said it would take a one-third stake in Sharp Corp’s $3.5 billion LCD panel plant set for completion by March 2010, in an effort to meet fast-growing demand for flat televisions.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Texas Instruments Inc unveiled new application chips on Tuesday that can be used in everything from music players to medical equipment, with an aim of expanding its business beyond the cell phone chip market.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Sony Corp said on Monday Phil Harrison, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, the game software development arm of Sony’s videogame division, will resign on February 29.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Qwest Communications International Inc said on Monday it is working on a new kind of wireless partnership as its current arrangement to resell Sprint Nextel Corp services is inadequate.

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GENEVA (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp ramped up its fight to have its Office Open XML document format made into an international standard on Monday as delegates from 37 countries met to reconsider the proposal.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares of electronics maker Sharp Corp jumped 5.2 percent on Monday after a source said that Sony Corp was planning to start buying TV-use liquid crystal display (LCD) panels from Sharp.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Monday it would test a new way to measure the effectiveness of Internet advertising in a challenge to an industry standard that has helped the likes of Web search leader Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Video game giant Electronic Arts Inc’s (EA) offer of $26 a share for Take-Two Interactive Software Inc undervalues the company, and shareholders are unlikely to sell at that price, an investor who owns about 5 percent of Take-Two said on Monday.

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Restaurants in Europe, the United States and Japan are testing technology to let diners order their food direct from a screen at their table instead of depending on a fellow human being to note their choice — sometimes grumpily or erroneously.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Pioneer Corp will stop making 42-inch plasma panels and instead buy panels in that size and smaller from Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric Industrial or Hitachi Ltd to turn around its loss-making flat TV business, the Asahi newspaper said.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp will stop making video players based on the HD DVD standard for its Xbox 360 game system, a move that comes days after Toshiba Corp pulled the plug on the high definition movie technology.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc said on Sunday it wants to buy rival Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, best known for its “Grand Theft Auto” title, for about $2.0 billion in cash.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - A battery in a Samsung Electronics Co Ltd notebook computer melted on Sunday, officials from the company and South Korea’s fire department said.

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HELSINKI (Reuters) - Cellphone maker Nokia said on Sunday its agreement in a U.S. court in Delaware with Qualcomm was unlikely to solve the major legal battle over patent fees between the two technology heavyweights.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp is planning to start buying TV-use liquid crystal display (LCD) panels from Sharp Corp as early as in the next business year that begins in April, a source close to the matter said on Saturday.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A deadline for Google Inc to turn over documents in Viacom Inc’s $1 billion copyright lawsuit against the Web search leader has been extended by two months by a federal judge.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A high-tech “virtual fence” on part of the U.S. border with Mexico is finally ready for service and the technology can fight illegal crossings all along the frontier, the Homeland Security chief said on Friday.

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SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp suggested on Friday that it had no plans to make major lay-offs if it succeeded in buying Yahoo Inc, saying there were plenty of employee opportunities throughout the company.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. telecommunications industry will grow at a slower rate than the global industry in the coming years as the wireless and wired markets mature, the Telecommunications Industry Association said on Friday.

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BELGRADE (Reuters) - A video of two young women looting with gay abandon during rioting in the Serbian capital Belgrade was becoming a Balkan smash hit on the video-sharing website YouTube on Friday.

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China has called on domestic Web sites to sign a voluntary pact governing online video and audio content, saying they should exercise self-censorship to ensure a “healthy and orderly” cyberspace.

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU and U.S. senior officials said on Friday they would crack down on counterfeiting of computer components after they seized over 360,000 fake items in just two weeks in a joint operation at the end of last year.