Last year, the ITC ruled that certain new models of 3G wireless handsets with Qualcomm chipsets could not be imported because they infringed on a Broadcom patent. An appellate court stayed the ban in September, pending appeal. On Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the ITC's ruling about the patent's validity. However, it reversed the import ban because Broadcom filed a complaint only against Qualcomm. The ITC could not ban products made by "downstream manufacturers."

Despite a raft load of nifty new features, Apple's new MacBooks will have a hard time moving off store shelves during the economic crisis, industry analysts say.

..The company, whose customers include Intel, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, sold 37 lithography machines in the third quarter at an average price of 16.0 million ($22.0 million), and received 31 new bookings. ASML forecast that it would sell 26 machines in the next quarter, which, along with the expected selling price of those units, was lower than Pacific Crest Securities analyst Weston Twigg had expected.

Apple has unveiled a new 24-inch LED Cinema Display which is Apple's first monitor with LED backlighting and supports the Display Port interface.

At a special press event held Tuesday, Apple introduced completely redesigned MacBooks and MacBook Pros with glass, multitouch trackpads, and Nvidia graphics.

The Korean-based company will introduce on Tuesday new ultralight notebooks designed to appeal to potential buyers of Apple Inc's ground-breaking MacBook Air and smaller "netbook" models from the likes of Asustek Computer.

Elpida, which trails Samsung and Hynix, said it would allocate half of the funds raised by the one-year, zero-coupon bond issue to produce smaller versions of existing chips at its factory in Hiroshima, western Japan. The other half of the funds will be used on new equipment to make 50nm chips with Taiwan partner PSC to stay competitive, an Elpida spokesman said. Using 50nm circuits would allow Elpida to make even tinier chips that would halve the cost of making a semiconductopr compared with the company's existing chips.

Orange UK has stopped selling BlackBerry Bold handsets, after concerns were raised over potential software problems with the snazzy-looking device.