TOKYO — Hitachi Ltd. has developed a 0.15 millimeter by 0.15 millimeter, 7.5 micron thick IC for radio-frequency identification applications, which the company claimed is the smallest and thinnest in the world.

Hitachi was due to present details of the chip on Sunday (Feb. 5) at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference

NEW YORK - Google Inc. and eBay Inc.'s Skype are investing in a startup that plans to help hotspot owners charge for Wi-Fi access, a plan that could face significant opposition from Internet service providers.
 
The Internet heavyweights were joined by venture capital firms Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital in

Volkswagen AG's American unit on Friday said it is working on a prototype vehicle which features Google Inc.'s satellite mapping software to give drivers a bird's eye view of the road ahead.

The two companies are working with the graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. to build an in-car navigation map system and a

TOKYO — For its third fiscal 2005 quarter ended December, Sharp Corp. reported record high sales of 732 billion yen ($6.2 billion), up 12.5 percent from a year ago, and an operating profit of 44 billion yen ($371 million), up 20 percent year-to-year.
 
Sharp Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) said sales were driven

Nineteen members of an international computer piracy ring have been indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury, which accused the group of making illegal copies of $6.5 million worth of movies, games, and software.
 
The indictments were announced by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago against the 19 individuals, alleged

NTT Docomo Inc. will begin evaluating Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) this month.
"Docomo will be in charge of the test among the NTT group and landline companies will join the test," said Masao Nakamura, president and CEO of Docomo.

"I've been interested in WiMax as an intermediate technology

Apple Computer Inc. has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for touch-screen technology. The latest patent filed on Jan. 31, 2005, was approved on Feb. 2.
 
The patent is for touch screen, touch pad and other types of touch-sensing technology. The document identifies a

Mozilla this week delivered an update to its Firefox browser to address several software vulnerabilities and improve the product's overall stability.
 
"This is part of our regular, two-month upgrade cycle, and deals in part with eight vulnerabilities identified by us and our users," said Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering

Symantec plans to defend its consumer security turf against inroads by Microsoft with new software delivered over the Internet and sold as a service, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company said Friday.

The new software, for now dubbed "Genesis," will go on the market in September, said Tom Powledge, director of product management. "Genesis

Online video game playing is growing up. A new generation of game consoles is ushering in online features that promise to make playing with others over the Internet easier and more compelling than sitting on the couch and playing solo or with a friend.
 
Eyeing a much larger market, console