Between March 2012 and October 2012, the proportion of people who used a desktop or notebook computer for tweeting fell from 77% to 64%. In the same period the proportion who used a mobile phone for tweeting rose from 53% to 64%.

Gold prices have suffered their sharpest fall since the 1980s, heightening fears among investors that the precious metal's decade-long bull run has ended.

An investigation is under way after two explosions near the finishing line of the Boston Marathon left three people dead and at least 140 injured.

Japan-based Sony has managed to slash the operating loss in its television business by half in the just-ended fiscal year by reducing fixed costs and narrowing its product lineup, a company executive said Thursday--a significant improvement even though the segment has lost money for a ninth year in a row, the Nikkei reported.

Altera has agreed to acquire TPACK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Applied Micro Circuits. TPACK delivers complete FPGA-based OTN (optical transport network) products targeting packet and optical networking equipment suppliers.

"More generally there is a growing level of dissatisfaction among Apple executives and employees, and a greater willingness to explore leaving..."

Increased spending in NAND and flash by Micron, LEDs by Philips and Osram, and continued investments by Globalfoundries will create new opportunities for equipment and materials suppliers in Southeast Asia.

Digital convergence is rapidly coming to lighting as component makers pave the way for customizable, networked lamps.

German state bank KfW says it is ready to start support of storage systems for solar PV systems in early May.

Germany reportedly added 290MW of new solar capacity in March, according to the Federal Environment Minister.

TSMC has pulled in plans for initial production of its 16nm FinFET process to the end of 2013. In addition, it hopes to adopt extreme ultraviolet lithography to make 10nm chips starting in late 2015 but is still researching e-beam as an alternative.

After strong gains in 2010 and 2011, power transistor sales fell more than 8% in 2012 to US$12.3 billion primarily due to weak economic growth and high levels of uncertainty, which caused equipment makers to rein in semiconductor purchases, according to IC Insights.

Toshiba has said that it will concentrate on three fields: analog, automotive and communications in 2013.

China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first quarter, raising concerns that a recovery that started in the second half of last year is already losing steam.

A German security consultant, who's also a commercial pilot, has demonstrated tools he says could be used to hijack an airplane remotely, using just an Android phone.

Suntech stock has rallied on rumors that Warren Buffet may buy the bankrupt China-based solar company. No one is quite sure why Warren Buffett might want to buy Suntech, Alic writes, and there has been no confirmation from MidAmerican Holdings that any deal is in the works.

The plunge in shares of Suntech Power Holdings, the China-based solar-panel maker forced into bankruptcy in March, highlights risks with structured notes that can leave investors exposed to collapsing equities.

Cash-strapped China-based solar panel maker Suntech Power is seeking to sell some assets and bring in a strategic investor to repay debt and revitalise the company, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on April 10.

The slump in global venture capital (VC) investments, which started in third-quarter 2012, continued, dipping to US$126 million in 26 deals in first-quarter 2013 compared to US$220 million in 27 deals in the previous quarter according to Mercom Capital.

So far the virus has been limited to the east of the country, with infections reported in the Shanghai region, as well as in the provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

China has posted a surprise trade deficit in March as imports rose more-than-expected on stronger demand for commodities such as copper and oil.

Data from Chinese semiconductor industry sources identifies Allwinner as, by far, the number one apps processor supplier for Chinese tablets in 2012, followed by Rockchip, ViaTech, Amlogic and Vimicro.

Norway's Renewable Energy Corp's (REC) and Seattle-based Summit Power have sold their North Star solar power plant project in California to First Solar, an American solar firm, the Norwegian company said on April 10.

At a recent event in San Jose, California, TSMC CEO Morris Chang said that company sales will rise at a percentage in the teens this year.

Kingston's 512GB USB 3.0 Drive might have trouble being used as a boot drive for multiple operating systems as a result of this bug.

Cadence Design Systems has announced an ongoing multi-year agreement with TSMC to develop the design infrastructure for 16-nanometer FinFET technology, targeting advanced node designs for mobile, networking, servers and FPGA applications.