US-TECH Summary

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/080923/3/3pfcz.html

Monday September 29, 1:30 PM

Iraq signs billion-dollar power deals with GE, Siemens
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq has signed preliminary deals worth billions of dollars with General Electric Co and Siemens for equipment to almost double electricity generation capacity, an energy official said on Saturday. The deals with GE, Siemens and a third company would be worth a total of $7 billion to $8 billion, Iraq's Electricity Minister Karim Waheed told Reuters.

Nintendo to launch camera, music-capable DS: report

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co Ltd plans to launch a new model of its DS handheld machine that can take pictures and play music by the end of the year, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday. The move would pit the top-selling portable game gear with Apple Inc iPod and camera-embedded cellphones in general.



Hole in Adobe software allows free movie downloads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A security hole in Adobe Systems Inc software, used to distribute movies and TV shows over the Internet, is giving users free access to record and copy from Amazon.com Inc's video streaming service. The problem exposes online video content to the rampant piracy that plagued the music industry during the Napster era and is undermining efforts by retailers, movie studios and television networks to cash in on a huge Web audience.



Theaters, studios near deal for digital projection

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A consortium of the nation's top movie-theater chains will announce within two weeks a $1 billion-plus financing agreement with four major studios to equip more than 15,000 screens nationwide with digital-projection systems during the next three years. Universal, Paramount, Disney and Fox -- with financing backing from JPMorgan Securities -- are expected to announce the funding of systems to be rolled out by New York-based Digital Cinema Implementation Partners. Regal Cinemas, AMC Entertainment and Cinemark formed DCIP more than a year ago, but it has taken until recently to get a majority of the major studios to sign off on so-called virtual print fee (VPF) agreements to fund the digital rollout.

Nokia's iPhone rival due Oct. 2: sources

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia will unveil its first touch-screen phone next week in a direct challenge to Apple's successful iPhone, two industry sources told Reuters on Friday. LG Electronics , Samsung Electronics and several smaller handset vendors have rolled out their own touch-screen phones over the last two years, while the first handset using Google's Android platform will also have a touch screen.

Tech industry still buoyant, Microsoft CEO says

SANTA CLARA (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday he still sees a "certain buoyancy" among technology and telecommunications customers worldwide, despite recent U.S. economic woes. "Our industry is not immune to what goes on in the global economy. And yet as I travel...given the current circumstances, people still see a certain buoyancy in the market," Ballmer told a meeting of Silicon Valley civic leaders.

DirecTV to market AT&T satellite service

NEW YORK (Reuters) - DirecTV Group , the largest U.S. satellite television provider, said on Friday it has reached an agreement with AT&T Inc to offer customers a co-branded package of video, home phone, wireless phone and Internet service from Feb 1 2009. DirecTV will begin selling the service once AT&T's current partnership with DISH Network expires on Jan 31. AT&T said current AT&T/DISH customers will continue to receive the same service after that date.

America Movil braces for iPhone shortage in Brazil

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Mexico's America Movil is set to start selling Apple Inc's iPhone in Brazil on Friday but does not expect to have enough of the hugely popular devices to meet demand, an executive at the company's Brazilian unit said on Thursday. Claro, America Movil's Brazilian unit, received an initial lot of just 30,000 iPhones from Apple. It had hoped to receive a much larger number since more than 100,000 subscribers had already signed up for the phone by late July.

Studios and theaters seen announcing digital deal soon

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal are soon expected to announce a long-sought $1.1 billion digital cinema deal that Hollywood hopes will boost attendance, cut costs and enable more 3-D viewing, sources close to the deal said on Thursday. The studios declined to comment, but sources with knowledge of the talks said the deal to help co-finance the upgrade for a group of movie chains was virtually complete, with an announcement expected within days or weeks.

Russian retailers to start Apple iPhone sales Oct 3

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Major Russian home electronics and cell phone retailers said on Friday they would kick off Apple Inc's iPhone sales in Russia beginning on October 3, and estimated that 150,000 units could be sold by year end. "All retailers will begin sales of iPhone in Russia at the same time, during the night between October 2 and October 3. Our company will be also selling them," Nadezhda Senyuk, a PR director at retail chain Tekhnosila, said by telephone.