A commercial radio station in Texas, KZPS, is getting rid of the ads
Facing increasing competition from satellite radio and iPods, Clear Channel Communications is trying something radically different at a commercial radio station in Dallas.

Research In Motion offers applications for non-BlackBerry devices
A non-BlackBerry device would be able to connect with BlackBerry servers for e-mail, calendar, address book and other applications written for the platform by RIM and third-party developers.

Wikipedia serves as Internet news source on the Virginia Tech shootings
From 2,074 contributors, at last count, the site created a polished, detailed article on the massacre, with more than 140 separate footnotes, as well as sidebars that profiled the shooter.

Wireless: Case of the disappearing bees creates a buzz about cellphones
It was a good story for sure, except that the study in question had nothing to do with mobile phones and was actually investigating the influence of electromagnetic fields, especially those used by cordless phones that work on fixed-line networks, on the learning ability of bees.

VJs for the digital age
'Video journalists' are reducing the distance to the TV viewer with their solo, close-encounter format of news reporting.

When YouTube is a threat
Some governments see a risk in Internet video sites, and many are moving to ban, restrict or censor them.
- Un-censoring YouTube

Twitter, a new online service, takes instant messaging to an extreme
Twitter lets users answer the question, "What are you doing?" and offers the world a window into the banality of our daily lives. But it's still unclear whether this over-the-top form of digital connectedness will catch on.

Software blamed for BlackBerry service crash
The installation of an insufficiently tested piece of software set off a chain reaction that eventually cut off BlackBerry service to more than five million users in North America, the devices' maker said.

Google's financial results exceed expectations
Google said first-quarter profit rose 69 percent, to $1 billion, or $3.18 a share, up from $592.3 million, or $1.95 a share, in the period a year ago.

Google grilled on privacy issues in Europe
Privacy groups in the U.S. and Europe are worried that search engines like Google collect and store data when consumers make Internet queries.

Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, said Monday that it would introduce a software application that can make Palm Treos and other Windows-based mobile devices built by rivals work like a BlackBerry.

The software, due in the autumn, is designed to extend BlackBerry's dominance by offering an option to those individuals who may not want to switch devices to get the BlackBerry service, and to companies that would like to give employees a wider selection of devices without being forced to support multiple mobile e-mail platforms.

The application replaces the Windows layout and icons on the display with the look of the BlackBerry interface, customized to the specific buttons and screen size of that device. A non-BlackBerry device would then be able to connect with BlackBerry servers for e-mail and other applications written for the platform by RIM and third parties.

Neuf Cegetel, a leading French provider of fixed-line phone service, is in exclusive talks with Deutsche Telekom to buy the German company's French online unit Club Internet.

The companies aim to complete the deal by the end of June, Neuf Cegetel said in a statement. The takeover would add about 570,000 broadband Internet clients and let Neuf Cegetel leapfrog Iliad in providing Web access to French households.

The purchase would be at least the sixth French Internet-access deal in two years as the industry shrinks from more than a dozen competitors in early 2005.

The talks come less than six months after Neuf Cegetel bought Time Warner's AOL France unit for €288 million, or $391 million. That allowed it to challenge Iliad for the runner-up position in broadband Internet access behind the former telecommunications monopoly France Télécom.

The British broadcaster GMTV suspended its phone-in competitions after an investigation said that callers had been defrauded out of millions of pounds.

The BBC's "Panorama" show found that short lists of potential winners had been finalized before premium-rate phone lines to the GMTV breakfast show had closed, depriving subsequent entrants of a chance to win.

The BBC program estimated that the amount of money these entrants spent trying to enter was £45,000, or $90,000, a day or £10 million a year.

GMTV accepted that the program had uncovered irregularities in the way their phone-in operator Opera Interactive Technology had managed its interactive services but said it was confident that it had not breached the codes of the industry regulator Icstis.

Phone-ins have grown rapidly, generating a total of about £1.2 billion in revenue in 2006, according to Icstis.

The French-American group Business Objects said it would buy the privately held Cartesis for about $300 million, improving its presence in the fast-growing financial enterprise software market.

Business Objects, with a market capitalization of $3.7 billion, had been under pressure to make a move since the U.S. software giant Oracle bought another business software company, Hyperion Solutions, in March.

Several analysts raised their share recommendation on Business Objects, saying that the Cartesis deal was made at a reasonable price and would allow the company to compete with the giants of the sector.

Amazon.com, the Internet retailer, unveiled plans to employ 450 people at its new Irish support center, which will help customers on its British and French Web sites. About 150 people, including many French citizens, have already been recruited to work at the center near Cork Airport in southwest Ireland.

NTT DoCoMo, the biggest wireless operator in Japan, introduced a new mobile phone equipped with a motion sensor - like the Nintendo Wii console - that allows users to play games. DoCoMo's D904i, which is made by Mitsubishi Electric, lets users swing the handset like a tennis racket or wield it like sword to control game play, instead of punching on the keypad.

Vonage, the Internet phone company that had been ordered to stop adding customers after it lost a patent ruling, asked a court for a reprieve allowing it to conduct business as usual while it appealed the decision.