Motorola expects iRadio, featuring 435 channels, to be sold by wireless service providers to their subscribers for between $7 and $10 a month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/04/technology/04radio.html?th&emc=th

MUSIC BUSINESS STILL SINGS THE BLUES

Sales of music albums in the United States fell 7 percent last year, to 618.9 million units, according to Nielsen Soundscan data released yesterday. Sales of downloaded tracks are increasing rapidly, but not enough to compensate for the decline: overall sales of music are down about 4 percent if 10 tracks counts as an album. The drop reverses the previous year's slight uptick in sales, and means the industry has posted declines for four of the last five years, despite laborious efforts to hang on to consumers and contain piracy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/business/05music.html?pagewanted=print

LOST? ASK YOUR CELL PHONE WHERE YOU ARE

If you missed that left turn at Albuquerque and have no idea where you are, MapQuest's new Find Me service can pinpoint your current location and display it for you right on your mobile phone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/technology/circuits/05mapquest.html

TOSIBA PRICES HD-DVD UNIT UNDER $500

With the announcement, the fight for control of the market for new high-definition DVD players intensified Wednesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/technology/05videos.html?th&emc=th

APPLE: A TRAGIC LOVE STORY

Apple users are fervent in their love for Steve Jobs' devices. I'm happy they have technology that works for them -- but they're misguided.

http://cl.exct.net/?ffcb10-fe6810767460077c7716-fdec1573716c0d7f72137473-ff011674776105

McAFEE FINED $50 MILLION

McAfee agreed to pay a $50 million fine -- perhaps the largest in Silicon Valley history -- as part of a deal that closes the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation of the software company's accounting scandal.The SEC probe of Santa Clara-based McAfee -- previously known as Network Associates -- focused on ``manipulative accounting artifices . . . and undisclosed ploys'' that executives used to inflate revenues and pump up the company's stock price from early 1998 through 2000.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/13554653.htm

BIO ZONE

SECRET LIE DETECTOR

A new detector that assesses you without you knowing it's there is on the wish list of the US Department of Defense. It has revealed plans to develop a Remote Personnel Assessment (RPA) device that will use microwaves or laser beams reflected off a subject's skin to assess various physiological parameters without the need for wires or skin contact. It could also be used to find fighters hiding in a combat zone, or even to spot signs of stress that might mark someone out as a potential terrorist...

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18925335.800

TOP SCIENCE STORIES OF 2005

2005 has been a year of tempests both literal and figurative. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma led a record pack of devastating storms; the issue of whether to teach intelligent design in the classroom went to trial; the decision about whether to make "Plan B" emergency contraception available over the counter was postponed; a celebrated stem cell researcher was revealed as a fraud; and the threat of avian flu loomed large. But there were exhilarating developments as well. Long believed extinct, the ivory-billed woodpecker was detected in the Big Woods of Arkansas; astronomers discovered a tenth planet in our solar system--complete with its own moon; physicists created a new state of matter using quarks and gluons;and the genome of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, was sequenced.

http://cl.exct.net/?ffcb10-fe5410757d61037d7213-fdfb15737467027b72147874-ff3310707762

BIO BRIEFS

Birmingham---Biotech needs capital, human and otherwise

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1999361

East Bay  East Bay Biotechs hit sales block

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1999362

Phoenix--Biotech takes hold, health care to get personalized

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1999363

Sacramento--The One to Watch: Biotech: Volcano plans area's 1st tech IPO since '96

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1999364

San Francisco--Preview: Biotech: Mergers, acquisitions mark year for biotechs

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1999365

Washington--People to Watch: Tom Watkins

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/c/1999366

ASIA-PACIFIC ZONE

INTEL SEEKS TO BUILD US$605 MILLION VIETNAM CHIP PLANT

Intel Corp. the world's largest microchip maker, has sought permission to build a $605 million plant in Vietnam to produce chips and computer parts, a Vietnamese government official said on Thursday.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-vietnam-intel.html

BEIJING RELEASES FIRST COMPUTER LITERACY INDEX

The Beijing Municipal Informationization Work Office has published "Beijing Digital Gap Research Report", the first of its kind in China to measure the level of computer literacy among the general public in the city.

SONY CHINA FINED RMB30000 FOR UNDERSTATING SALES REVENUE

The Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau has punished a list of enterprises that have been found to have reported false financial tax data.

Sony (SNE), which was identified to be hiding RMB5.98 million for this year's payable welfare fees and RMB1.8 billion in sales revenue, has been included in the list and fined RMB30000 as an administrative punishment.

http://www.chinatechnews.com/index.php?action=show&type=news&id=3376

DoCoMo TO ACQUIRE STAKE IN PLDT

President of Philippines Gloria Arroyo announced that Japanese telecom major NTT DoCoMo will acquire a stake in the country's leading telecom company PLDT. No details were available. However, an AFP report said that DoCoMo's investment in the Philippines carrier would be in the range of $300 million. Local news agencies reported earlier that NTT Communication would transfer its stake in PLDT to its affiliate DoCoMo.

It is speculated in the local market that NTT may increase its interest if PLDT commences 3G services in the country. DoCoMo has expertise in 3G services. PLDT's cell phone service arm, Smart Communications is one of the four licensees for the 3G services. PLDT's second largest overseas equity participant is NTT, which has 14.7% stake while Hong Kong's First Pacific holds 24%

CHINA FORECAST TO ADD 78 MILLION MORE TELCOM SUBSCRIBERS IN 2006

Dow Jones reported that Chinese telecom industry would add over 78 million subscribers in 2006, of which 30 million would be fixed-line and 48 million would be cell phone customers. This will take the total number of China's telecom users over 820 million by December 2006. The report also said the country's telecommunication industry had 746 million users in December 2005. China's telecom industry grossed $72 billion for the first 11 months of 2005 compared to $65 billion in 2004. In 2006, China's telecommunication industry is estimated to generate revenues worth $86.7 billion

WIRELESS ZONE

MOTOROLA WORKS AROUND WLAN ROAMING TO ENABLE WiFi TELEPHONY

Motorola on Tuesday leveraged the intense spotlight of the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show to introduce a new Motorola Residential Seamless Mobility Gateway (RSG) that takes WiFi-to-cellular handover control out of the hands of the carrier and puts it squarely in the hands of the consumer.

http://www.tmcnet.com/enews/e-newsletters/Internet-Telephony/20060103/u1257991-motorola-works-around-wlan-roaming-enable-wifi-telephony.htm

Hotspot Hits

The latest in public access Wi-Fi: Airpath adds Singapore sites; The Cloud to spread across London and other cities; Scottsdale, Ariz., tries a hotzone

with a game hour; and more.

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,24zg,1,l0p5,ecft,jcj3,9ffi

SITE CITE

SOME LIKE IT HOT...OR DO THEY?

Do you prefer your white wine freezing cold, your red wine luke warm and your tea and coffee piping hot? Why do certain things we eat and

drink taste better at different temperatures?

http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=mg18925332.400