Nintendo's new Wii U console had a tough holiday launch, and its 3DS handheld continues to struggle.

As expected, Qualcomm cashed in on smartphone sales and the chipsets that go with them. In a statement, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said the company is positioned for strong growth courtesy of its Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and 600 processors.

The LCD touch screen has become commonplace in cars, but the technology suffers from limited shaping. Texas Instruments used its Digital Light Processor (DLP) technology to come up with a display that could take a wide variety of shapes in the car, and allow touch control for people wearing gloves.

A computer display that has the refresh rate and color reproduction of LCD, but the power consumption and daylight visibility of e-ink - it sounds too good to be true, but I've just described an electrowetting display.

Aside from the Triton 2 color E-ink screen there wasn't much to new see from E-ink this time around (and even that screen looks pretty much like the earlier Triton screen), so here's something interesting to take the place of the non-news.

Holographic maps developed by Zebra Imaging (Austin, TX) and sponsored by a US Army contract allow soldiers to view three-dimensional (3D) landscapes and cityscapes prior to entering a battle zone.

Integrated Device Technology (IDT) has announced the availability of what it claims is the industry's first complete chipset for DDR4 load reduced dual inline memory modules (LRDIMMs), including both a registered clock driver and data buffer devices.

"Fuelled by robust demand for its popular Galaxy models, Samsung was the star performer, shipping a record 396.5 million mobile phones worldwide and capturing 25% market share to solidify its first-place lead," said Neil Shah, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Lenovo has signalled it is a potential acquirer of Research In Motion, lifting the shares in the troubled Canadian maker of BlackBerry smartphones.

Starting from January 26, Americans will have to get permission to "unlock" their smartphone so it runs on more than one mobile network.

Worldwide microprocessor sales are expected to regain strength in 2013 and grow 12% to US$65.3 billion after rising just 5% in 2012 to US$58.2 billion due to weakness in standard PCs and the shaky global economy, according to IC Insights.

The new plant will take approximately two years to build, and it will create 3,500 construction jobs, as well as 800 full-time jobs inside the plant once its complete.

Apple is working on "a new product" aimed at the low-end of the market that will be built around a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

Samsung plans to invest US$1.7 billion in expanding and fitting out its operations in Kunshan, a fast-growing manufacturing hub west of Shanghai, the Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

LED lighting system costs can be reduced with good control circuit design and component selection, writes Fabrizio Petris from Omron Ellectronic Components Europe

In a move that may augur more Siri-like functionality for its tablets, Amazon on Thursday announced it is buying Ivona, a firm specializing in text-to-speech technology.

Japan has posted a record high trade deficit for 2012, as exports to Europe and China continued their plunge.