AsusTek

A U.S. software maker sued China's government and seven computer makers Tuesday alleging piracy of its Internet filtering software.

Cybersitter LLC, whose software is designed to help parents filter content seen by children, seeks $2.2 billion in damages in the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Android, the open-source operating system from Google, is now in the ring against the heavyweight champion for computers, Microsoft Windows. In the latest round Tuesday, laptop makers Acer and ASUSTeK Computer said they will release netbooks with Android later this year.

The announcements were made at Computex, a huge computer trade show now taking place in Taiwan.

Android, Google's open-source operating system for mobile devices, is beginning to spread to other devices. According to a report in Sunday's New York Times, T-Mobile is planning to take the lead in that migration, rolling out Android on a variety of new consumer devices.

Positioning device maker Garmin has dropped plans to enter the cell phone market on its own and instead teamed up with Taiwan's low-cost PC maker Asustek, the companies said on Wednesday.

The move to jointly offer navigation phones -- often called GPS phones, because they can determine a person's exact location -- builds on an existing manufacturing deal between the companies, and comes as the phones continue to gain in popularity among handset users.

The global credit crisis may have caused the decline in consumer and business spending that is assaulting the giants of technology. But as the dominant companies try to emerge from this slump, they may find themselves blaming people like David Title just as much as they blame Wall Street.

After having successfully stimulated consumer demand in low-cost notebook computers, Taiwanese computer makers are now betting on the next killer device -- the all-in-one (AIO) desktop.

Asustek, Acer, Micro-Star and BenQ are among companies set to introduce their first such offerings by this quarter.

These AIO PCs -- one-piece desktops in which computer components are built into the monitor -- will come with more affordable price tags, just like their low-cost laptop counterparts, and are expected to woo more budget users.

A low-price laptop product line is helping Taiwan's Asustek Computer Inc. generate record revenue despite signs of slowing global growth, a senior company executive said Tuesday.

Chief Executive Jerry Shen said the company is expecting revenue will grow 26 percent to $834.3 million in September with the prospects for October and November even brighter.

Shen attributed much of the success to Asustek's budget Eee PCs, whose prices range from $300 to $1,000.

Intel Corp.'s push to create and boost new categories of small, cheap Internet-connected devices is taking the world's largest chip maker in some unusual directions.

It's investing in wireless networks, or even buying them outright. It's relying on software that isn't from Microsoft. And it's looking at making processors cheaper and smaller rather than faster and faster.

To Chief Executive Paul Otellini, it's all part of bringing the Internet to new places and people, and computer makers are responding.