Beatles and EMI reach royalty deal
The announcement prompted speculation that they might be close to an agreement to release the Beatles' music in digital form.

In Europe, the social network as digital friend
The Continent's innovators in business, social and mobile networking Web sites expect growing demand for their services.

MSNBC drops talk show host over racist remark
NBC News has canceled its televised simulcasts of the "Imus in the Morning" radio talk show on MSNBC, a week after its host, Don Imus, made a racially disparaging comment about some female African-American college basketball players.

EU Parliament to vote on roaming fees
An important EU committee voted to send to the full Parliament a proposal that would reduce to 40 euro cents the maximum charge for outgoing calls and to 15 cents for incoming calls.

IBM announces new chip-stacking technology
IBM said that it has found a way to connect memory and processor chips on top of one another, an advance that promises to prolong battery life in wireless devices and speed data transfers in computers.

China expected to issue more than one 3G permit
China will probably award more than one license for high-speed mobile phone services as part of its WTO commitments, said Viviane Reding, the EU media commissioner.

For Wi-Fi, the 'n' is near
This year's newest WiFi flavor is 802.11n, which is supposed to offer two huge advantages over the popular "b" and "g" types: 5 times the speed and 15 times the range.

Gadgets of the week
If you are vacationing by yourself or as a couple, you may not always have a kind stranger handy to take your photo. The Quik Pod can help.

Getting more reality from games
A number of developers have adapted off-the-shelf products to make video game play more realistic and to offer the promise of giving players a leg up on their competition.

Tolkien's Middle Earth goes online
If The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar meets expectations, it could be the biggest thing to hit the online game industry since World of Warcraft.