The US government sued Apple and five publishers, saying they conspired to fix the prices of electronic books, and reached a settlement with three of the publishers that could lead to cheaper e-books for consumers.

Oil traded near the highest price in two days in New York as investors speculated fuel demand may increase amid signs the US economy is strengthening.

WiLink 8, which plugs into TI's upcoming OMAP5 chipset, combines Wi-Fi 802.11n, GPS/Glonass, NFC, Bluetooth and FM onto a single small chip using a 45nm process, dramatically reducing the space and price of NFC technology.

Price declines accelerated in the latter part of the fourth quarter, CFO Judy Bruner said on a conference call. That, along with lower orders from some mobile-phone customers, will hurt sales in the first quarter, she said.

Nearly every mobile handset manufacturer is looking for one thing: A chip platform that can be used immediately as leverage in price negotiations in order to compete with industry leader Qualcomm. Renesas Mobile's Manfred Schlett insists the company is up to the task.

Solar power company SunPower Corp. will cut about 125 jobs, or 2 percent of its workforce, as the company faces a global solar power market where prices and demand are stagnating.

China Sunergy Co. (CSUN) swung to a third-quarter loss despite a jump in sales as the Chinese solar-products maker saw its margins plunge into negative territory amid falling solar panel prices.

Rambus has announced the jury in its anti-trust case against Hynix Semiconductor and Micron Technology has found in favor of the defendants.

Germany's largest module manufacturer, SolarWorld reported weakening financial conditions in the third quarter. Shipments and revenue remained flat with the second quarter but margins declined as weak demand and declining prices impacted results.

Panasonic Corp will drop a plan to convert a television panel plant in Japan into a solar panel factory, hit by an industry price war and a strong yen that is making exports less competitive, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

South Korean flat-screen maker LG Display, a key supplier to Apple Inc, posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday as tepid demand for TVs and PCs hit panel prices and one-off losses weighed.

WHSmith is to sell a range of eReaders as it battles to counter the shift away from real books. The chain has signed a deal to stock two eReaders made by Canadian tech firm Kobo, with a starting price of 瞿89.

Fusion-io has released the first upgrade to its in-server NAND flash card, the ioDrive2, doubling the card's speed, bandwidth and density, while maintaining its resiliency and endurance.

The hype for 3D content and devices pumped up through 2010 has steadily deflated through 2011 as expectations have been punctured by predictable barriers to adoption: screen price, consumer ambivalence about 3D glasses, gimmicky use of 3D by Hollywood studios, and lack of investment in 3D from broadcasters.

Samsung Electronics was spared from fines for fixing the price of LCD screens, officials from the nation's top antitrust watchdog said. But its rival LG Display is under investigation and may face a heavy fine.

The rumours are unstoppable: Amazon is going to unveil a tablet in the next few weeks, and if the hands-on description of an internal prototype by MG Siegler over at Techcrunch are even vaguely correct, then it's going to be a 7in device with a colour touchscreen running a forked version of Android, at a price around $250. (UK price still unknown).

The HP TouchPad saw massive consumer frenzy as soon as the device's price was lowered to $99. HP itself was shocked by the want that was generated during the fire sale.

Price and design are the two biggest factors driving the e-reader market; and in the past, Sony severely dragged its feet on the former. But today the company has rectified the situation with the introduction of the newest Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1.

Retailers expect a sharp rise in the cost of the traditional 60W light bulb as European-wide legislation preventing their production or import takes effect on September 1.

The price of gold has plunged 9.3%, after hitting a record US$1,913.50 an ounce on August 23, as markets became more upbeat about the economy.

After two quarters of declining shipments, photovoltaic module manufacturers are set to see strongly recovering demand through the second half of 2011.

Soaring silver prices are hampering the solar industry's ability to compete with fossil fuels.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., one of China's biggest solar equipment makers, said it is prepared for an industry-wide capacity glut and that its narrowing profit margins are good for consumers.

Applied Materials and Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates have announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement under which Applied will acquire Varian for US$63 per share in cash. The acquisition will extend Applied's leadership in wafer fabrication equipment with the addition of the technology leader in ion implantation.

Sequans Communications has announced the pricing of its initial public offering of American Depositary Shares (ADSs), representing 7,700,000 ordinary shares, at a price to the public of US$10.00 per ADS. The ADSs began trading on April 15 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Renesas Electronics America will sell its semiconductor wafer fabrication facility in Roseville, California, to Telefunken Semiconductors. The sale price is approximately US$53 million, and the closing for the sale is planned for May 2, 2011. Telefunken also will enter into a supply agreement with Renesas for manufacturing services at the Roseville factory.

In the short term, this deal certainly favors Nokia. The company will still be spending money on Symbian development-the company is expecting to ship 150 million of the handsets in the next couple of years-but will be able to scale back this expenditure, as its operating system development costs are increasingly pushed onto Redmond. This, plus the cash infusion, gives the company instant savings.