The Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium has released its Model Specification for Adaptive Control and Remote Monitoring of LED Roadway Luminaires aimed at helping municipalities and utilities maximize energy savings.

According to reports, Suntech Power may sell its stake in the Global Solar Fund Sicar (GSF Sicar), in a bid to reduce its over US$2 billion debt mountain.

Samsung Electronics is considering purchasing mobile memory chips from rival SK Hynix Inc for future products including its new flagship Galaxy S smartphone to be launched this month, JK Shin, head of Samsung's mobile business, said on Thursday.

GlobalFoundries, the contract chip manufacturer whose clients include Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Qualcomm, plans to spend US$4.4 billion in 2013 to expand production as demand for smartphones and tablets climbs.

The funds will be used to help small and medium-sized exporters, create jobs, boost a stagnant property market and cover a shortfall in tax revenue.

First Solar, the largest thin- film panel manufacturer, sees "significant growth" in renewable energy projects being developed in the Middle East and North Africa by the end of 2014.

Every day the consumer becomes more and more involved in a digital world. From movie screens, TVs and PCs to smartphones, tablets and digital signage, the screens are converging on several levels.

Meldaikyte's mixed-media exhibit reimagines the language of smartphone communication as sculptures; there's pinching, tapping, scrolling, flicking and swiping.

Pixelligent Technologies, a manufacturer of nanocrystal additives for the electronics and semiconductor markets, recently announced the launch of its PixClear Zirconia nanocrystals. When incorporated into existing products, the nanoadditives can dramatically increase light output and readability of modern touch screens and displays.

Samsung's internal practices and external strategies-from how TVs are designed to the company's philosophy of "perpetual crisis"-all spring from the codified teachings of the chairman.

Eastman Kodak has agreed to sell document-imaging assets to Japanese office-equipment company Brother Industries for about US$210 million, setting the minimum bid for an auction.

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.