A second U.S.-German group of investors, led by Sentex Sensing Technologies Inc., plans to make an offer for insolvent mobile phone maker BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co. OHG, following a bid by a rival group of American-German investors, Sentex said Monday.

Dell Inc. added Blu-ray disc capability to its notebook PC line on Monday, making an effort to compete with Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. in the growing market for mobile high-definition video platforms.

Gamers love Sony Corp.'s new PlayStation 3 for its graphic capabilities and firepower, but the advanced Blu-ray DVD drive is annoying some by raising the cost, slowing production and forcing them to buy into a format they've not yet aligned with.

Users are being advised to disable a certain type of file in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Player software following the discovery of a new security hole in the software.

Asustek Computer Inc. launched its second LCD (liquid crystal display) TV this week, extending the growing visibility of its brand name in the digital home segment. The product comes as demand for new LCD TVs gains momentum, according to market researcher iSuppli Corp.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has formed an "Internet Access Task Force" to examine whether net neutrality advocates' fears of large broadband providers blocking or slowing Web content from competitors are justified, the agency's chairwoman said.

File-sharing service Kazaa has agreed to pay record labels a US$100 million settlement for allowing tracks to be illegally swapped through its service.

The Indian government has blocked about 20 Web sites and blogs in India, following suspicions by the country's intelligence agencies that the sites were likely being used by terrorists to communicate with each another.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will spend US$2.5 billion to expand its chip manufacturing plants in Dresden, Germany, to keep pace with growing demand for its PC and server chips, the company announced Monday.

"There is growing evidence that more people these days don't work from a physical workplace, but work from home or other places," says David Thorns, director of the social science research center at the University of Canterbury.

Google Inc. has released a free version of the SketchUp application for creating, viewing and modifying 3D images it acquired when it bought @Last Software Inc. in March.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is showing several new cell phone handsets at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas, including models with support for the Blackberry service and with Wi-Fi connectivity, it said Thursday.

As German electronics giant Siemens AG refocuses its business, it is selling its remaining stake in components-maker Epcos AG, following the sale of its share in Infineon Technologies AG last week.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has developed a higher-capacity version of its solid-state disk (SSD), a flash-memory based replacement for hard-disk drives, and is showing it at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, this week.

Google Inc. is tightening the link between Gmail and Google Talk by allowing users to conduct instant messaging text chat sessions from within the Webmail service's interface, the Mountain View, California, company plans to announce on Tuesday.

Intel Corp.'s poor performance in the last three months of 2005 turned out to be good news for rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc., (AMD) which on Wednesday reported better-than-expected financial results for the period. With sales of AMD's microprocessor division increasing nearly 80 percent from the previous year, the company reported revenue of US$1.84 billion.

A Delaware judge has lifted a stay in an ongoing lawsuit between Rambus Inc. and Micron Technologies Inc., allowing Rambus to file new claims and to proceed in its patent infringement suit against the Boise, Idaho, memory chip maker.