Yahoo! News: Technology News

• Googles convoluted search for China compromise (AP)

  

  AP - Shedding Chinas shackles on free speech is proving to be easier said than done for Google Inc.

• Challengers gain in important phone software fight (AP)

  

  AP - As smart phones increasingly appear alike, with high-end models mostly taking their cues from Apple Inc.s iPhone, more and more its the software they run that makes a difference.

• Motorola says will split in 2 in early 2011 (AP)

  AP - Struggling technology company Motorola Inc. said Thursday it plans to split in two in early 2011 — with one half containing its consumer-focused mobile phone and television set-top box products, and the other holding divisions that target business customers.

• NPD: January video game sales down 13 percent (AP)

  AP - U.S. video game retail sales dropped 13 percent in January, another down month for the industry after a difficult 2009.

• Google rebuts DOJ objections to digital book deal (AP)

  

  AP - Google Inc. wants the digital rights to millions of books badly enough that its willing to take on the U.S. Department of Justice in a court battle over whether the Internet search leaders ambitions would break antitrust and copyright laws.

• Google buys ask-your-friends site Aardvark (AP)

  AP - Google Inc. has bought Aardvark, a free question-and-answer Web service.

• You dont know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz (InfoWorld)

  InfoWorld - It was all Google all the time this week, as the search behemoth unveiled new ads and new services to a grateful world.

• Microsoft Ends War on Macintosh with Office 2011 (PC World)

  PC World - The long war between Microsoft and Macintosh is almost over. It will end when Microsoft ships Office for Mac 2011, the release that ends Redmond's decade-long attack on Apple computers in business.

• Google, Apple pile pressure on phone world (Reuters)

  Reuters - At next week's mobile trade show in Barcelona you can find a program that measures how high you can throw a Nokia smartphone, an apt metaphor for Nokia's efforts to raise its game.

• iTunes approaches 10 billion downloads (Reuters)

  Reuters - Apple's iTunes Music Store on Thursday launched "Countdown to 10 Billion Songs," and is planning to give away a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the customer who buys the song that turns the counter to eleven digits.