China will begin requiring prepaid cell phone subscribers to register their devices using their real names in 2006, the country's Minister of Information Industry said Tuesday.

The goal, Wang Xudong told the official Xinhau news agency, is to cut down on surging cell phone spam and fraud, most of it delivered via

McAfee will provide its top-of-the-line consumer anti-virus and firewall software to subscribers of MSN's dial-up service in early 2006, the security company said Wednesday.

Currently, MSN Dial-up, the slowest-speed Internet service offered by Microsoft, ships with free versions of McAfee's VirusScan Online, but sans firewall. Beginning in the first quarter of next

SAN FRANCISCO — Programmable logic supplier QuickLogic Corp. and top-tier EDA vendor Mentor Graphics Corp. have entered a multi-year OEM agreement by which QuickLogic customers get access to Mentor's Precision Synthesis tool within the QuickLogic Quickworks field-programmable gate array (FPGA) development environment, the companies said Tuesday (Dec. 28).

According to the companies,

Several Web blogs and Web sites Tuesday reported that Lenovo, known for its ThinkPad laptops, will be releasing a smartphone based on Windows Mobile 5.0 in March.

The report originated with a Chinese-language site called PhoneDaily. The site said that the Lenovo ET980 will support GPRS, be able to play MP3 files

NEW YORK - Kevin Federline, aspiring rapper and husband of Britney Spears, has unveiled his own Web site.
 
Federline, whose new hip-hop album, "The Truth," is due out in 2006, appears to expect big things in the coming year.

The Web site begins with an introduction of Federline rapping,

Helsinki-based F-Secure told users to ignore instant messages with the subject head "MSN Messenger 8 Working BETA" that go on to claim that "Messenger 8 BETA has been leaked!"

The message, which refers to an alternate name for the upcoming Live Messenger, also sports a link. Users who click on the link,

SAN FRANCISCO — On-chip subsystem provider IPextreme Inc. has opened a design center in Tokyo and named design and EDA veteran Kirk Saotome head of the company's Japanese operations.

Most recently, Saotome worked for a design consulting firm introducing a platform solution for high-end digital signal processing applications. He has previously worked

Towfique Raj, a Bangladeshi, has been selected as the recipient of the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship, says a press release.

He is one of 38 US students who joined the Gates Scholars from around the world who began their graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in October 2005.

As a Gates

The camera-enabled cellular phone market is booming, as shipments are expected to reach nearly 1 billion units by the end of this decade, according to a new report.

In total, the market for camera-enabled cellular phones is expected to grow from 225 million units in 2004, to 365 million units in 2005,

Oslo-based browser maker Opera has issued denials of a buyout, in the midst of persistent rumors that Microsoft and Google have both targeted the company for acquisition.
 
Reports of pending acquisition have been cropping up on Web sites and blogs, fueling speculation that the company is not only up for