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If competition for Google is still “just a click away” — as its executives kept saying last summer to anybody who would listen — then the U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission made that click easier with their decisions this week to bless the Microsoft-Yahoo search technology merger. Here’s the new search query for this latest development: Will consumers get the hint?
Just as Skype devotees use the Voice over Internet Protocol service to talk to friends and family anywhere in the world, Verizon Wireless used Skype Tuesday to send a loud message of its own to Apple, AT&T and the rest of the competition: We can play the VoIP game too. Beginning in March, Verizon said, the wireless carrier will offer a full suite of Skype mobile services on nine of its smartphones.
A newly formed international consortium has claimed it can be the glue that unites a fragmented mobile applications market. However, if the Wholesale Applications Community can’t deliver on its promise of an open platform that will let developers write apps for all devices — save perhaps Apple’s iPhone — then that “glue” could simply result in a stickier situation in the mobile space.
After enjoying a holiday bounce, the U.S. video game industry came crashing back down to Earth in January with post-Christmas double-digit drops in hardware and software sales, according to the latest figures from industry researchers NPD Group. However, new gaming categories for casual, social media and smartphones may offer a glimmer of hope for companies still stuck in a recessionary swamp.
Two Monday technology stories, both involving China: Call them the yin and yang of that country’s attempts to repair its image following Google’s recent hacking allegations and the search giant’s subsequent threats to end its business dealings in the country. Chinese police are trumpeting their shutdown of a major hacker training Web site and three related arrests.