Carlo Fernandez

Google Inc. (GOOG) unveiled at its annual Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco yesterday, a new online music service, based on a "cloud" system for storing and streaming music.

International credit rating agency Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said May 9 that is has lowered its long-term issuer credit rating on New Zealand finance company NZF Money Ltd. (NZF) to 'CCC-' from 'CCC'.

Amidst a recession, housing starts in Japan dipped below 1 million units in 2009 and 2010, the first time in four decades. Following an earthquake in March that killed thousands and destroyed more homes, Sekisui House Ltd. (1928), Japan's second-largest home builder, expects the biggest housing boom in 15 years, according to Bloomberg News.

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) will hold a conference call for Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 1:30 PM (PT), to discuss its third quarter fiscal year 2011 results, amid a management shake-up that began last month. Financial results will be released after the close of the market on Wednesday.

YouTube, the video-sharing Web site of Google Inc. (GOOG), is adding around 3,000 new movie titles for rent available to users in the U.S., according to an announcement by Salar Kamangar, Head of YouTube.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich will announce Wednesday he is running for president of the United States in 2012. The former Georgia congressman will make the official announcement by Facebook and Twitter, according to spokesman Rick Tyler.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) released last week a software update of its iOS operating system to fix up a glitch that allowed the iPhone to save location data of the users automatically.

Sony Corp. (6758), which had previously said its Playstation network would resume normal operations by the weekend, has delayed the relaunch of its popular gaming service.

Apple, which has overtaken Google as the world's most valuable brand, has recently begun gain traction with the subscription platform, with new or looming deals with the Big Three publishers.

Google Inc. (GOOG) failed to overturn a ruling by a Belgian court that that blocked the world's number one search engine from publishing links to local newspapers on Google's online news service.

Now General Motors Company (GM), second only to Toyota in global auto sales, has reported its fifth consecutive profitable quarter, posting net income of $3.2 billion, or $1.77 per fully-diluted share. Revenue in the first quarter ended March 31 increased $4.7 billion to $36.2 billion, compared with the first quarter of 2010.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments grew in the first quarter, rising 1.6% from the fourth quarter of last year, and 7.4% in the first quarter of 2010, research firm IDC said.

After a two-week long outage of its PlayStation Network, Sony Corp. (6758) said that it is in the final stages of internal testing of the new system and will restore the popular gaming service "in the coming days".

The federal government said it would reduce generous subsidies for home solar electricity panels, in response to the escalating demand for solar electricity panels on Australia's rooftops.

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (NTDOY) will drop the price of its Wii game system by US$50 to US$149.99 and cut the price of several popular games before the launch of its new console. This is the second time Kyoto, Japan-based company has made a price cut since it was launched in 2006.

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is expanding its publishing business with a new line of romance books, with the new imprint Montlake Romance.

National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB) said cash earnings for the half year ended March 31, 2011, were A$2.7 billion, a 21.7% rise from a year earlier. First-half statutory net profit rose 15.9% to A$2.4 billion as it won mortgage customers and boosted fees from business banking.

A U.S. space probe carrying four gyroscopes has confirmed two key elements of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, according to the journal Physical Review Letters.

Electronic Arts Inc. on Tuesday announced an agreement to acquire mobile game developer Firemint Pty Ltd. for an undisclosed amount.

Westpac Banking Corp. 's cash earnings for the six months ended March 31 increased 7% from a year earlier to A$3.2 billion. Statutory net profit for the first half rose 38% to A$3.96 billion.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Bing will be the default search engine and map application on Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM)'s BlackBerry smartphones, the software maker announced Tuesday.

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified radio-frequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use.