In addition to the ability to upload and sell books in English, French and German languages, authors and publishers now have more options when offering their books to Kindle customers.

Google has announced that it has completed its acquisition of On2 Technologies, valued at approximately US$124.6 million, after On2's shareholders voted to approve the transaction.

Their system-on-a-chip (SoC) platform is based on ARM's Cortex-A9 processor and Globalfoundries' 28nm manufacturing process, and will be used in smartphones, tablets and smartbooks.

The share of exports of the Big Five of 1999 fell to 34% in 2009. That loss of nine percentage points was matched by a similar gain for China, India and South Korea, with most of the gain going to China.

The emergence of the world economy from the worst slump since World War II spurred businesses in Taiwan, where exports equal half of GDP, to boost production and hire more workers.

"40nm is constrained around the world," according to representatives from Nvidia. "Supply will be constrained for the first half of this year."

The strong start prompted Applied Materials to brighten its outlook for the fiscal 2010. The company expects its sales to increase by more than 50%, up from its previous forecast of a 30% gain.

First Solar has posted a higher-than-expected profit, but its shares fell as its outlook disappointed and profit margins narrowed.

Emily Gin Kilpatrick, director of corporate communications for Qualcomm, issued a statement offering condolences to the man's family, friends and colleagues. She declined to say what position the man held, saying that "we don't provide information about our employees."

Snowstorms shut 30 highways across China, disrupting travel on a day when more than 66 million people were expected to take to the roads for the nation's biggest festival of the year.

Researchers from Toshiba and the Keio University in Tokyo have jointly created a 1TB SSD prototype the size of a small postage stamp, consisting of 128 NAND flash memory chips and one controller chip.

German exports in 2009 were equivalent to US$1,121.3 billion which compared with the US$1,201.7 billion exported by China. China's goods exports also suffered badly last year, falling by 16% over the course of the year, the first time they had declined since 1978.

Leading shareholders of Hynix Semiconductor have attracted no bid for the memory chipmaker's controlling stake by the extended deadline and will likely have to unload a large chunk of their US$3.1 billion stake into the market.

Creditors of memory-chip maker Hynix Semiconductor plan to name a new chief executive to replace Kim Jong-Kap, whose three-year term ends in March 2010.

Toshiba will spend 800 billion yen (US$8.9 billion) to build a new microchip plant, reviving plans that it had put on hold amid sluggish sales, according to the Nikkei business daily. It may start construction of the new factory for NAND flash memory chips as early as this summer, aiming to begin operations in spring 2011.

The prototype solar cells demonstrated a power-conversion efficiency of 9.6%, a 40% gain in efficiency from solar cells built by others using the same or similar widely available materials, said David Mitzi, who leads the research team at IBM Research.

Last summer, TSMC made a surprising decision to use a gate-last deposition method for the high-k/metal gate stack of its 28nm transistors. TSMC'S decision to use a replacement metal gate technique was guided by history, said SY Chiang, in charge of R&D at the foundry.

Micron generated revenues of US$4.8 billion in 2009. According to industry estimates, Numonyx generated about US$1.8B in revenues. The combined revenue will make Micron one of the largest memory suppliers in the world.

While analysts are bullish on Micron Technology's acquisition of Numonyx in a US$1.3 billion stock deal, a lack of details on the takeover and a market in decline had investors shying away Wednesday.

"We didn't use any of Samsung Electronics' copper-based processing technology in our memory lines. Hynix is confident we will be cleared of such allegations in court," CEO Kim Jong-kap told The Korea Times.

That's good news for Samsung, but bad news for its memory rivals that use ASML's tools, such as Elpida, Hynix, IM Flash, Micron, Nanya and others. NAND rival Toshiba is said to use scanners from Nikon.

Telecom Italia rises more than 2%, boosted by report in Brazil's O Globo newspaper that it and Spain's Telefonica will announce a merger at the end of February or early March.

SMIC would announce a new investment by China's Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Holdings Co., which would continue to invest money in the company through 2010, the source said, declining to be more specific.

"Foreign firms have expressed a willingness to increase investment or make new investments in Taiwan" once the island signs the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China to remove bilateral tariffs, Ma told reporters at a news briefing to promote the pact. He didn't make any forecasts about the potential value of such investments.