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AP – Americans spent $1.23 billion on video games, hardware and accessories in April, up 47 percent from a year earlier, even as the price of more essential items like food and gasoline soared.

Reuters – U.S. sales of video game hardware
and software rose 47 percent from a year earlier, as Take-Two
Interactive Software Inc’s “Grand Theft Auto 4” and Nintendo Co
Ltd’s Wii console stole the show.

AP – A Missouri woman was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.

Reuters – Microsoft Corp reached an
agreement to make available its Windows operating system
software for the One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s XO Laptop,
the company said on Thursday.

PC World – The One Laptop Per Child Project and Microsoft plan to make both Windows and Linux available on a version of the project’s XO…

AFP – Yahoo and Carl Icahn dueled Thursday as the corporate raider vowed to overthrow the firm’s board and the Internet pioneer fired back that the billionaire misunderstood Microsoft’s failed takeover bid.

AP – The One Laptop Per Child project is about to find out whether Microsoft Corp., a rival the nonprofit group once derided, is the solution to its problems in spreading inexpensive portable computers to schoolchildren.

Macworld.com – HighPoint Technologies has introduced a new firmware update for its RocketRAID 3522 host controller card to support booting on the Mac Pro and Xserve.

PC World – Internet users in China have begun expressing solidarity with the victims of Monday’s earthquake via their instant messaging…

Reuters – Embattled Yahoo Inc has struck an
advertising partnership deal with WPP Group that will let WPP
buy ads on Yahoo’s online ad exchange, the companies said late
on Thursday.

AP – Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang spent months fending off Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited takeover bid. Now he may only have a few weeks to persuade the software maker to revive its last offer of $47.5 billion, or risk being fired in a shareholder mutiny led by activist investor Carl Icahn.

InfoWorld – In the four months since InfoWorld asked businesses and individuals to sign a petition at SaveXP.com asking Microsoft to keep Windows XP for sale beyond the planned June 30 general end-of-sales date, more than 200,000 have signed up to add their voices. As of May 15, the count was 200,805 signatures, excluding duplicates and fake signups.

AP – French wireless operator Orange said Friday it has signed a deal with Apple Inc. to sell its iPhone in the Middle East, Africa and several European countries.

Reuters – Maps showing noise levels
in towns across England were published on Friday in an attempt
to reduce the disruption caused by factories, planes, trains
and cars, the British government said.

BusinessWeek Online – Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise

USATODAY.com – In making Grand Theft Auto IV the top selling game of April, despite its only being in stores five days, consumers opted for the Microsoft Xbox 360 version at a rate of almost two-to-one. The Xbox 360 version of GTA IV sold 1.85 million copies, according to market tracking firm The NPD Group. The Sony PlayStation 3 version sold 1 million copies, taking the month’s No. 3 spot.

PC World – The former chairman and CEO of PurchasePro.com, a business-to-business software broker that died during the dot-com bust, has…

Reuters – Online publishers are doing well despite
an economic downturn, and the ones who are best positioned to
succeed are strong brands with quality content, the head of the
Online Publishers Association said on Friday.

NewsFactor – One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has entered into an agreement with Microsoft governing the installation of Windows XP on the nonprofit organization’s low-cost XO laptops for use by impoverished children around the world.

Reuters – Used goods are finding a new life on
U.S. classified sites, as a growing number of consumers wary of
a weaker economy search for bargains online, according to data
from eBay Inc’s Kijiji.com.

PC World – After hurting the environment by drinking coffee from plastic cups for many years, buying an eco-friendly laptop bag seems…

PC World – iPass partners with likely first in-flight broadband firm over U.S. for what could be a highly affordable fixed monthly service plan, including Wi-Fi hotspots, for frequent travelers.

AP – Think twice before you sign up for an online service using a fake name or e-mail address. You could be committing a federal crime.

AP – A company rooted in bringing the Internet to the masses, AOL is shifting its focus toward serving niche audiences with the launch of dozens of specialty Web sites.

NewsFactor – Before you even begin to look at engaging seriously in lots of networking effort, it is useful to look at your own temperament or disposition. This is the individual’s internal desire to network and to find value and enjoyment from the whole process of building relationships.

AP – Unless you’re looking carefully, you’ll likely miss the fact that the new Asylum Web site for young men is a creation of Time Warner Inc.’s AOL. Same for WalletPop on personal finance, Spinner on indie music and StyleList on fashion.

AP – Sumo wrestlers were the main inspiration behind Wii Fit, Nintendo’s latest attempt at getting you off the couch when you play video games.

PC World – Former One Laptop Per Child President of software and content Walter Bender has launched Sugar Labs, an organization that will…

TechWeb – InformationWeek – Interviews with Sam Ramji and Tom Robertson reveal Microsoft is strong on building open source business models and community as well as interoperability and industry standards.

AP – Yahoo Inc. is seeking to conceal large portions of a shareholder lawsuit alleging the Internet company’s board improperly thwarted Micrsoft Corp.’s $47.5 billion takeover offer, raising shareholder questions over the motives for the secrecy.

InfoWorld – ObjectWave is offering a rich Internet application platform called Swan, which makes it easier to link AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) interfaces to back-end server code.

Reuters – Two U.S. lawmakers raised privacy
concerns on Friday about plans by cable company Charter
Communications to track some subscribers’ Internet visits and
asked for a meeting before the program goes ahead.

NewsFactor – The iPhone’s reach is expanding. Orange, France Telecom’s flagship brand, announced that it will sell Apple’s phone in additional countries in Europe, as well as the Middle East and Africa.

NewsFactor – Players of Disney video games on the Nintendo DS now have their own avatar-based online community. On Thursday, Disney announced that its DGamer community is now available, along with the Nintendo DS version of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

NewsFactor – New legislation prohibiting drivers from talking while behind the wheel, combined with a demand for more fashionable and advanced devices and more sophisticated phones, is driving Bluetooth headset makers to innovate. The latest addition to the wireless world is Aliph’s Jawbone with NoiseAssassin technology.

TechWeb – Intelligent Enterprise – Netezza deployment replaces mega data warehouses while cutting query times from hours to seconds.

AP – Cable operators are riding high heading into this year’s industry trade show, which kicks off this weekend.

AP – Former satellite TV provider EchoStar Corp. on Sunday will demonstrate its first product for cable companies at the industry’s trade show: a unit that can tune in television and act as a cable modem.

PC World – This was a big IT news week, with the massive earthquake in China on Monday showing once again the role that the Internet…

InfoWorld – Looking to sharpen its business focus, Compuware this week launched its “Compuware 2.0” campaign, which is being characterized by the 35-year-old software tools vendor as a rebirth of the company.

AP – Classified ad Web site Craigslist is denying online auctioneer eBay’s allegation that it unfairly diluted eBay’s stake in it and says its board was acting to protect the company.

Reuters – For years, video games have been
blamed for turning kids into idle layabouts who only venture
off the couch to fill up on potato chips and soda.

PC World – The days of imagining Wi-Fi blanketing a city are over with the exit of the last major municipally focused Wi-Fi service provider.

AP – Cable TV, phone and Internet service provider Charter Communications drew concern Friday from two congressmen and a privacy advocate over its plan to experiment with tracking its customers’ Web use in collaboration with an online advertising firm.