"...A 32 GB solid state drive added $450 compared to the more standard 60 GB hard drive but neither performance nor battery life showed a major improvement..."

But for all the enthusiasm about harvesting sunlight, some of the most ardent experts and investors say that moving this energy source from niche to mainstream--last year it provided less than 0.01 percent of the country's electricity supply--is unlikely without significant technological breakthroughs.

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"...Gartner said orders for new equipment are entering a lull, in large part because makers of memory chips...Next year capital expending expected to rise 4.8% but that is down from prior growth predictions for 2008 that started at 16.1% and were later trimmed to 10.7%... "

"...Hynix said it is slightly behind competitors but it's not a big problem...the company has retooled part of its production facilities to make more NAND in response to demand from products such as Apple's iPhone"

"...Micron is considering selling its image sensor segment to a private equity firm..to create an immediate cash infusion...it has been working on ways to regain its profitability in the weeks by enacting job cuts, tighter 2008 capex..."

"...TSMC would make 45nm processors on a foundry basis for AMD, with volume ramp in 2Q08...could end up working with both TSMC and IBM's technology alliance on the processor front..."

To the dismay of the German photovoltaic industry, Germany’s Environment Ministry on Thursday recommended a shift in subsidies from solar energy installations to offshore wind farms. However, analysts seemed relieved the cuts weren’t more severe.... the subsidy could have easily been cut significantly or eliminated, wrote Piper Jaffray.

"...commencing with establishing a 20MW manufacturing line by mid-2008 and continue to expand to its full 60MW annual capacity by 2010...Thin film amorphous silicon technology uses 3-5 times less energy and use less than 1% of silicon than the traditional crystalline technology,"

"...two patents at issue in the lawsuit both entitled compact ISA-bus interface...complaint alleges that Advanced Micro Devices, Atmel Corporation, Broadcom, Renesas, SST, SMSC, STMicroelectronics and VIA..."