Technology - PC World

Technology companies are awfully fond of comparing their work to poetry and art. Unlike most poets and artists, though, techies seem incapable of leaving well enough alone.

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp. (GIC), a sovereign wealth fund, has taken a sizable stake in Shanda Games, an online gaming spin-off of China's Shanda Interactive Entertainment.

Microsoft has unleashed the public beta of Microsoft Office 2010. The Office 2010 beta includes updated versions of Word, excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath, SharePoint Workspace, and Communicator. You can download it right now from the Microsoft Office 2010 beta site.

Shares of security vendor Fortinet surged 33 percent Wednesday as the company made its debut on the public markets.

When Sony unveiled the Reader Daily Edition, its first e-reader with a wireless connection, it said it would be available in December in time for the holidays.

Dubbed by AMD as the "world's fastest," the ATI Radeon HD 5970 joins the ranks of DirectX 11 capable graphics cards, and includes ATI's Eyefinity multi-display technology.

The inexpensive T-Mobile Tap ($80 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile; price as of 11/17/09), designed by Huawei, is a stylish touch phone targeted toward tweens. While the Tap has a solid suite of communication and multimedia features, the slow interface and cramped touch keyboard keep it from being the ultimate messaging phone.

Reading some of the Web's headlines today, you'd be hard-pressed not to think the so-called Google Phone is as good as on store shelves. Fresh from the tech page of Google News:

Yahoo Go will soon be gone. The mobile application service, launched in 2006 at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will shut down on January 12, 2010, Yahoo has announced.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a civil contempt complaint against an online check-writing service, saying the company continues to allow customers to create and e-mail checks without verification of their identities.

Google Chome OS, which Google is expected to preview this Thursday, has been the subject of much speculation and rumors since its announcement last summer, when Google made public its plans to develop a lightweight, open-source Linux-based OS aimed primarily at netbooks. Ever since, a series of fake screenshots and speculation as to what Chrome will offer has bombarded the Web.

Hope you didn't pay $100 for a Palm Pixi on launch day, because the same phone now costs $25 through Amazon.

Several factors, including a lack of a broadband subsidy program at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, have contributed to gaps in broadband adoption in the U.S., a new report from an FCC task force said.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday set limits on how long state and local governments can take to review proposals for cellular base stations.

Salesforce.com opened up its annual Dreamforce conference on Wednesday by previewing Salesforce Chatter, a social-networking application the vendor dubbed a "Facebook for the Enterprise."

With the release of the Office 2010 beta, the general public finally gets to check out how Microsoft plans to deliver on its promises for the next edition of its flagship productivity suite--namely, close integration with lightweight Web versions of core apps (Excel and PowerPoint Web are the first to debut for consumers via Windows Live, with Word and OneNote available only in the business-oriented SharePoint 2010 server beta), better multimedia support, a subtle interface refresh, and a slew of features designed to make document creation and sharing easier. But there's some news too, most notably support within Outlook for tracking feeds from social networks.

Tomorrow's hot ticket is for the Chrome OS event at Google HQ down in Mountain View. Chrome OS has already caught many imaginations, as something exciting often does, especially before the real world interrupts the fantasy.

As Verizon Wireless and AT&T square off in federal court today, speculation is swirling that Verizon's new Droid phone isn't selling as well as expected, and that the Palm Pre will soon join the Droid on Verizon's 3G network.

Google's new YouTube Direct allows amateur journalists (meaning anyone with a camera in their mobile phone) to upload video clips for a shot at their 15 seconds of fame. The broadcast news media seem to have learned the wrong lesson from the fall of print media and embracing 'citizen journalists' may expedite the extinction of traditional news as we know it.