BTLookSmart cracks open Wisenut

BTLooksmart is to incorporate the Wisenut search engine on its sites in the UK, starting with the BTOpenworld search facility. This follows a year's delay since Wisenut was bought by Looksmart Ltd. Like Yahoo, BTLooksmart is a search directory that is built on human-edited entries and is financed by paid-for listings. ...more

NEC pilots power line broadband

NEC is to investigate using high-speed communications over ordinary power lines. The Japanese electronics giant is to launch a trial using modems that could achieve data rates of 200Mbit/sec, reports NE Asia Online. According to the website, the trial will take place in the Japanese city of Ibaraki and use the high-frequency band ranging from 2MHz to 30MHz. ...more

Sun rises on latest earning results

Sun Microsystems cheered Wall Street with its latest results that showed a profit for the fourth quarter in its financial year. Despite showing a year on year decline in revenues. Revenues for the fourth quarter were $2. ...more

UPDATED: US Supreme Court tightens 'obvious' patent rules

The US Supreme Court on Monday sided with software and technology companies in two major patent rulings that could leave them less vulnerable to infringement lawsuits. The high court moved to curb the liability of firms for infringing products sold overseas and in another case loosened a key legal standard making it easier to invalidate some patents on the grounds they are obvious inventions. The decisions were applauded by software and technology companies. ...more

Microsoft and Apple agree on Office future

Microsoft and Apple have put pen to paper on a new five-year deal that secures the future of the Office software suite on the Mac platform. Microsoft's Mac Business Unit said that the software will be developed for both Apple's PowerPC and Intel platforms, with the next new Office release comprising Universal Binary code that can run on either. However Mac BU general manager Roz Ho declined to say when this would be ready. ...more