Stories by: Peter Sayer

Sun Microsystems has bought Q-layer, a Belgian vendor of software for automating the management of computing clouds, it said Wednesday. The acquisition provides a clue as to how Sun plans to go about delivering on the cloud computing strategy it outlined last month.

The European Commission is investigating a possible cartel among manufacturers of the smart card chips used in payment cards and mobile phones, it said Wednesday.

LG Electronics announced a range of Internet-enabled televisions on Monday that can stream movies from the Netflix rental service. The companies will show the televisions at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, a year after they first announced their plans to work together on a set-top box for downloading movies.

Web sites saw visitors deserting Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser in favor of Apple's Safari, Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome in December, according to Web analytics company Net Applications.

The decline in semiconductor sales accelerated in November, an industry body reported Friday.

A single malformed text message can prevent some Nokia smartphones from receiving further messages via SMS (Short Message Service) -- and the offending message can be sent from almost any Nokia phone, even non-smartphone models, a German security researcher demonstrated Tuesday.

If the next generation of Internet startups presenting at Le Web 08 conference in Paris have their way, the Web of the future could look like one big social-networking site.

MySpace.com users will soon be able to access their profile information through a browser toolbar that will allow its users to exchange status information with their network of friends.

Linux distributor Good OS and BIOS vendor Phoenix Technologies each have plans to make netbooks speedier devices, the vendors said at the Netbook World Summit in Paris on Monday.

Yahoo has sold Kelkoo, the European comparison shopping service it bought in 2004 -- at a time when Microsoft is busy adding such features to its own search offering. The sale, to U.K. company Jamplant, is the first sign since CEO Jerry Yang stepped down last Monday that Yahoo is refocusing.

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft will announce a common code of conduct relating to freedom of expression and the protection of privacy online.