By Euan Rocha WATERLOO, Ontario | Tue Nov 13, 2012 5:20pm EST WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) - Research In Motion is confident its new BlackBerry 10 devices will be 100 percent ready for the January 30 launch and available in stores "not too long after" that, Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear said on Tuesday. "We're working hard right now to mak...

Tue Nov 13, 2012 3:52pm EST (Reuters) - The head of global sales at Intel Corp's McAfee Security division is leaving to take a job with another firm, McAfee said on Tuesday. The executive, Joe Sexton, is one of only a handful of top managers who had remained with the world's No. 2 maker of anti-virus software following its February 2011 sale to Intel for $7.7 bil...

NEW YORK | Tue Nov 13, 2012 2:48pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless said on Tuesday that it plans to sell HTC Corp's latest smartphone, the Droid DNA, as its flagship phone for the holiday season. The device may help HTC in its battle against arch-rivals Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc, to which it has heavily lost ground in recent years.While...

By Jonathan Weber SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Nov 13, 2012 2:14pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nokia introduced a mapping application for the iPhone and other platforms on Tuesday and rebranded its geo-location services under the Here.com umbrella as it sought to exploit a bright spot in its product mix. Nokia also said it was partnering with Mozilla, m...

Tue Nov 13, 2012 1:21pm EST (Reuters) - The head of global sales at Intel Corp's McAfee Security division is leaving the company to take a job with another firm, McAfee said on Tuesday. The executive, Joe Sexton, is one of only a handful of top managers who had remained with the world's No. 2 maker of anti-virus software following its February 2011 sale to Intel ...

MILAN | Tue Nov 13, 2012 12:35pm EST MILAN (Reuters) - Apple Inc has stopped selling a customer protection plan that raised concerns with Italy's antitrust authority, a company spokesman said on Tuesday. Italy's competition watchdog had threatened the U.S. giant with a fine and even temporary closure of its Italian operations if the company did not make ...

By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:42am EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two years ago, employees from the start-up Square Inc descended on farmers markets in San Francisco to hand out a new type of credit-card reader that let small, independent merchants accept plastic via their smartphones or tablets. But this month, when Starbucks ...

Delays in the construction of the large hydropower projects and increases in their costs are making the future level of electricity tariffs unpredictable. Elfinancierocr.com reports that "the Association of Major Power Consumers (Acograce) and the Chamber of Industries (CIRC) believe it is time for the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) to improve and streamline their internal processes,...

By Ritsuko Ando HELSINKI | Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:48am EST HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia's new Lumia smartphones are trickling into the market and early signs suggest they may sell well enough to give the handset maker more time in its fight against industry leaders Samsung and Apple. But investors shouldn't expect a quick turnaround for the struggling ...

By Bill Rigby SEATTLE | Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:32am EST SEATTLE (Reuters) - The executive most widely tipped to be the next chief executive of Microsoft Corp has left the world's largest software maker barely two weeks after launching the flagship Windows 8, as CEO Steve Ballmer moved to tighten his grip on the company. The exit of 23-year veteran St...

By Bill Rigby SEATTLE | Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:32am EST SEATTLE (Reuters) - The executive most widely tipped to be the next chief executive of Microsoft Corp has left the world's largest software maker barely two weeks after launching the flagship Windows 8, as CEO Steve Ballmer moved to tighten his grip on the company. The exit of 23-year veteran St...

HELSINKI | Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:43am EST HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia Siemens Networks made strong gains in the mobile telecom equipment market in the third quarter, narrowing the gap with market leaders Ericsson and Huawei, telecoms industry research firm Dell'Oro said on Tuesday. Nokia Siemens reported record third quarter profits last month on the back of...

By Bill Rigby and Dan Levine Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:41am EST (Reuters) - Microsoft and Google's Motorola Mobility unit are set to square off on Tuesday at a trial with strategic implications for the smartphone patent wars and which could reveal financial information the two companies usually keep under wraps. The proceeding in a Seattle federal court will det...

By Bill Rigby SEATTLE | Tue Nov 13, 2012 2:34am EST SEATTLE (Reuters) - The executive most widely tipped to be the next chief executive of Microsoft Corp has left the world's largest software maker barely two weeks after launching the flagship Windows 8, as CEO Steve Ballmer moved to tighten his grip on the company. The exit of 23-year veteran St...

By Nicola Leske Tue Nov 13, 2012 12:06am EST (Reuters) - Security software maker Palo Alto Networks Inc, which went public in July, is teaming up with VMware Inc to expand its range of security products to virtual machines and networks. The companies will announce the partnership at a Palo Alto Networks' industry event in Las Vegas on Tuesday.The Palo Alt...

By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:01pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's No. 1 supplier, Lockheed Martin Corp, on Monday cited dramatic growth in the number and sophistication of international cyber attacks on its networks and said it was contacting suppliers to help them shore up their security. Chandra McMahon, Lockhe...

By Jose Sanchez BELIZE CITY | Mon Nov 12, 2012 7:39pm EST BELIZE CITY (Reuters) - Police in Belize want to question U.S. anti-computer virus software pioneer John McAfee in connection with the murder of a neighbor he had been quarrelling with, but they say he remains a person of interest at this time and is not a suspect. McAfee, who invented the...

By Malathi Nayak SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:09pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said its "Halo 4" video game racked up $220 million in global sales on its launch day, beating records set by previous installments of the hit series. Action-shooter "Halo 4," released last Tuesday, is on its way to reaching $300 million in globa...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Nov 12, 2012 4:48pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The mobile video game Kingdoms at War is popular with owners of Apple Inc's iPhone and Google Inc's Android smartphones alike. But for the game's maker, there is a very important difference - it earns more than double the money on iPhones and iPads than it d...

By Euan Rocha Mon Nov 12, 2012 3:53pm EST (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd plans to introduce its new line of BlackBerry 10 smartphones on January 30, the company said on Monday, giving investors a measure of confidence the long-awaited devices are approaching the finish line. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company, a one-time pioneer in the smartphone ind...

PARIS | Mon Nov 12, 2012 1:05pm EST PARIS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's new Surface tablet - its challenger to Apple's iPad - had a "modest" start to sales because of limited availability, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told French daily Le Parisien. The world's largest software company put the Surface tablet center stage at its Windows 8 launch ...

PARIS | Mon Nov 12, 2012 1:05pm EST PARIS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's new Surface tablet - its challenger to Apple's iPad - had a "modest" start to sales because of limited availability, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told French daily Le Parisien. The world's largest software company put the Surface tablet center stage at its Windows 8 launch ...

By Ben Blanchard BEIJING | Sun Nov 11, 2012 4:05am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top official in charge of fighting copyright piracy on Sunday slammed what he said was deliberate distortion of the problem by the Western media caused by the country's poor global image, saying important facts had been ignored. Foreign governments, including the U...

TOKYO | Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:13pm EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Sharp Corp aims to raise the output from its Kameyama No.2 plant to near 100 percent, from a current 30 percent, as early as the end of 2012, by mass producing larger, high definition, power-saving IGZO screens, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Sunday. The Kameyama plant makes IGZO displays, which consu...

By Dan Levine Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:01pm EST (Reuters) - Apple Inc and HTC Corp announced on Saturday a global patent settlement and 10-year licensing agreement that ends one of the first major conflagrations of the smartphone patent wars. Apple sued HTC in 2010, accusing the Taiwanese handset company of infringing on the iPhone maker's patented technology....

Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:36pm EST (Reuters) - IBM, which is being sued by chemicals manufacturer Avantor Performance Materials for fraud and breach of contract in connection with a software project, said the accusations were blown out of proportion and that it was surprised by the move. "We believe the allegations in the complaint are exaggerated and misguided and are ...

By Lucy Hornby BEIJING | Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:15am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States is exhibiting a "Cold War mentality" with its fears that Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei poses a security risk because of its ties to the Communist Party, China's commerce minister said on Saturday. The U.S. House of Representatives...

Sat Nov 10, 2012 1:33am EST (Reuters) - Spotify is in the middle of a $100 million financing round that could value the music streaming company at just over $3 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported citing sources. The Journal said Spotify would raise the fresh capital from multiple investors including Goldman Sachs. The WSJ report did not name any other inves...

Fri Nov 9, 2012 7:51pm EST (Reuters) - Telus Corp reported a stronger third-quarter profit on Friday, as increased smartphone adoption boosted earnings from its wireless business and spurred the Canadian telecom company to raise its quarterly dividend. Wireless data revenue jumped 23 percent in the third quarter ended September 30 as the proportion of postpaid su...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 9, 2012 3:17pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc said several of its online services have been blocked in China. Traffic to Google's services in China dropped sharply beginning Friday evening there, according to an online "Transparency Report" website operated by Google, which provides updates ab...

In the recent past The Costa Rica Star has published about the Costa Rica Easy social network. Living in Costa Rica is a dream for many people, but the distance it creates between friends and family can often lead to feeling lonely and transplanted into a different culture. A great cure for this is video conferencing with your friends and family, which can be achieved on the Costa Rica Easy soc...

BEIJING | Fri Nov 9, 2012 6:48am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China Electronics Corp has delayed a planned cooperation with Japan's Sharp Corp on production of the world's most advanced LCD panels due to a territorial dispute between the two countries, the chairman of the state-owned firm said on Friday. The cooperation on the production of the 10th generatio...

TOKYO | Fri Nov 9, 2012 4:09am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp's long-term debt rating was lowered one notch by Moody's Investor Service to the lowest investment grade level because of shrinking demand for its consumer electronics. The downgrade to Baa3 from Baa2 follows a one-notch cut by Moody's in October, which also said its outlook on the firm remai...

By Euan Rocha TORONTO | Thu Nov 8, 2012 9:06am EST TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd said on Thursday it won a much-coveted U.S. government security clearance for its yet-to-be-launched platform for BlackBerry 10 devices, due to hit store shelves in the first quarter of 2013. The company said its BlackBerry 10 platform has received the F...

Thu Nov 8, 2012 8:58am EST (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S3 became the world's best-selling smartphone model last quarter, pushing aside Apple Inc's iPhone, which has dominated the chart for more than two years, research firm Strategy Analytics said on Thursday. Strategy Analytics estimated Samsung sold 18 million S3 models in the third quarter, compare...

By Maria Sheahan BERLIN | Thu Nov 8, 2012 7:07am EST BERLIN (Reuters) - Engineering conglomerate Siemens AG aims to save 6 billion euros ($7.7 billion) over the next two years as it fights to stay competitive in a weak global economy. Siemens, Germany's most valuable company which makes products ranging from fast trains and gas turbines to hearin...

By Sarah McBride SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Nov 8, 2012 7:03am EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $300 million a year from $200 million, catapulting Google Ventures into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds. Access to that sizeable checkbook means Google Ventures wil...

By Jessica Wohl Thu Nov 8, 2012 7:03am EST (Reuters) - Target Corp is bringing reviews from tech news website CNET into its aisles in time for the holiday season as it tries to stand out from a crowd of stores and websites selling a mix of new gadgets. The partnership between the discount chain and CNET, a website popular with gadget enthusiasts and known...

By Jeremy Wagstaff SINGAPORE | Thu Nov 8, 2012 6:03am EST SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Google launched a service on Thursday it hopes will push millions of people in the developing world to access the Internet - and Google's ads - via basic mobile phones. Google is launching the service, called Free Zone, first in the Philippines via local carrier Globe...

By Lee Chyen Yee HONG KONG | Thu Nov 8, 2012 5:17am EST HONG KONG (Reuters) - Lenovo is on track to become the world's No.1 PC maker, but with traditional PCs going out of vogue with consumers, the Chinese company is pinning future growth hopes on smartphones and tablets, a segment dominated by Apple and Samsung Electronics. The Thinkpad maker ha...