Belkin exec offers to pay for positive reviews - update

The president of Belkin has slammed the actions of an business development employee who has been exposed for offering to pay for positive reviews of its products and marking negative reviews as ‘unhelpful’. The company believes this is an isolated incident and is currently working to remove any offers and reviews that are associated with them.

PC Advisor

Google gives up on newspaper ads

Under the pretense of ‘cost cutting’ Google has given up on its two-year attempt to sell newspaper advertising. No word has been given on what will happen to the 900 media outfits that signed up for the service.

The Inquirer

T-Mobile set to launch G1 to European market

T-Mobile announced this week it plans to launch HTC's Android-powered G1 handset in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and the Netherlands, with prices in Germany starting from €1 on a 24-month contract. At present the G1 is only available in the U.K. and the U.S.

Total Telecom

Intel cuts prices by up to 40% to ward off competition from AMD

Intel has cut the prices of its quad-core desktop and Xeon server processors by as much as 40%, as the company battles with rival Advanced Micro Devices for customers in a PC marketthat is being hammered by the economic downturn.

Information Week

IT capital investment cash dries up

Venture capital investments in IT companies plunged 40 per cent to $2.18bn in the fourth quarter, their worst level in a decade, according to figures released by VentureSource.

Silicon.com

Microsoft to unveil new version of Windows Mobile at MWC

Leaked documents have revealed that the cornerstone of Microsoft’s MWC plans is to be the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5, the latest version of the software giant’s mobile platform. With Android and Apple competing in the Smartphone market, much rides on the new platform. Also leaked were Microsoft’s other announcement plans, including cloud computing services aimed at consumers and businesses.

Mobile Choice

Qualcomm acquires AMD’s handheld business

Qualcomm yesterday announced it has agreed to acquire the handheld graphics business of AMD for $65 million. Qualcomm is already a licensee of AMD’s technology, so this deal effectively sees Qualcomm bring it’s multimedia and 3D graphics technology in-house.

The Register

Bad news for Ericsson as it plans to shed 5,000 more jobs

In an effort to further cut costs and slim down it’s business, telecoms giant Ericsson has announced it is to shed a further 5,000 jobs worldwide. This comes on top of 4,000 redundancies announced at the end of last year.

Bloomberg

Intel planning to launch Atom chips which are 60% smaller

Atom, the chipset from Intel aimed at Netbooks and handheld devices, will have a smaller version called ‘Pinewood’, according to sources at Intel. The new chip will be 60% smaller than the current Atom chips and will reach the market at the end of the year.

Tech Digest

Logitec revenues slump 70%

Things are set to get worse before they get better, according to PC peripherals company Logitec, as it announced that revenues for its 3rd quarter sales were 70% down on 2Q 2007. With sales volumes dropping 16%, the company laid much of the blame at the feet of retailers, saying they had gone too far with discounting and price promotions.

PC Retail