Gartner

Gartner said Tuesday that Apple succeeded in capturing market share from Nokia and other smartphone producers last year. The iPhone OS held 14.4 percent of the worldwide market at the end of 2009 -- sharply up from Apple's 8.2 percent share in the prior year -- enabling Apple to slip by Microsoft and become the world's third-largest smartphone vendor, the research firm said.

HTC unveiled an advanced handset Wednesday that is powered by Qualcomm's Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) platform -- which provides developers with the technology for porting their applications between all Qualcomm devices. The move marks a major departure for the Taiwan-based company, which has heavily invested in the development of handsets based on Google's Android platform and Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS.

It has been only one day since Oracle announced details of its $7.4 billion acquisition of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems, and the dust is far from settling. Oracle, a software company, needs to pacify Sun's customers and build confidence in those asking how they will conduct business with a hardware company operated by a software company.

Sun's hardware customers may especially be questioning Oracle's devotion to Sun's hardware business since Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in the past attempted to acquire only Sun's software assets.

Eastman Kodak filed complaints with the International Trade Commission Thursday against Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. According to Kodak, mobile devices from both companies infringe on technology pertaining to its patented method for previewing color images.

Global PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2009 increased 22.1 percent year-over-year to surpass 90 million units, according to Gartner. However, worldwide shipments were largely driven by sales of low-cost notebooks and netbooks to price-sensitive consumers.

The traditional publishing industry is developing strategies to counteract the adverse effects that digital-content providers like Google and Amazon.com are having on its business. Among other things, publishers facing plummeting sales of physical media and advertising are expected to assert more control over when, where and how their content is made available.

However, Forrester Research Vice President Mark Mulligan believes today's pervasive free content means paid content is no longer king and the traditional media meltdown will continue through 2010.

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told investors Tuesday that the world's number-one handset maker remains committed to the open-source Symbian and Maemo operating systems as the main platforms for smartphones, advanced handsets, and web tablets. Among other things, Kallasvuo said Nokia intends to drive user-experience improvements in 2010 by taking the Symbian user interface to a new level.

Apple will soon begin offering its iPhones through carriers in South Korea. On Wednesday, Apple jumped its last hurdle in getting the iPhone into the hands of mobile-phone users in South Korea.

Scientists developed the so-called X-Y position display for monitor systems all the way back in the 60s. That breakthrough begat the mouse, which gained dominance in the '80s. It has remained the number one user input device ever since.

Yet new developments are nibbling away at the rodent's lead. More and more displays are designed using touchscreens. Computers are learning to take voice commands. New sensors are even allowing controls to be given via gestures.

A Microsoft report released Monday indicates that Windows Vista significantly outperforms Windows XP when it comes to enhanced security. Infection rates for Vista were significantly lower than XP during the first half of 2009, the Security Intelligence Report said.