Technology - PC World

After two years of often bitter debate, the European Parliament approved a raft of new telecom laws Tuesday.

In a desperate bid for survival, longtime office software maker Corel has agreed to a takeover by its majority investor, Vector Capital, a move that could help keep classic software packages such as WordPerfect and CorelDraw around as Microsoft Office alternatives, at least for a while.

Google and TiVo are teaming up for a new deal that'll put your clicking habits into the hands of advertisers. Before you grab the nearest "privacy violation" placard, though, check out the specifics of this arrangement -- it's probably far less invasive than what you're expecting.

Verizon has challenged Sprint's marketing claim that its "America's most dependable 3G network." The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has asked Sprint to drop the slogan in response to the Verizon complaint, expanding the ongoing marketing battle between the leading mobile service providers.

Black Friday is only days away, and while early sales have been heating up this year, the day after Thanksgiving will still be a day for big bargains. If you haven't already, you should get warmed up for the big shopping day by checking out PC World's 10 Fascinating Facts (they're really tips) for Black Friday 2009, 8 tech tools to keep you on top of this year's deals, and some online shopping pointers from Black Friday pros.

Ubisoft's action-stealth game Assassin's Creed 2 already has its predecessor on the run for first-week sales, to the tune of 1.6 million units worldwide. That's 32 percent more than Ubisoft's original medieval sneaker, which, working backwards from that figure, sold about 1.1 million units during its inaugural sales week in November 2007.

Two U.S. senators have asked President Barack Obama's administration to allow the public to review and comment on a controversial international copyright treaty being negotiated largely in secret.

Google is the leader in online search and search-based advertising, and recent acquisitions are designed to expand the vast Google empire. Critics take exception to Google undercutting traditional marketing channels, but the evolving advertising landscape levels the playing field for small and medium businesses.

Amazon has boosted the battery life of its Kindle e-reader and added native support for PDF documents, and you don't even have to buy new hardware to get the benefits.

Criminals today can hijack active online banking sessions, and new Trojan horses can fake the account balance to prevent victims from seeing that they're being defrauded.

Taiwanese 3G mobile operator Vibo Telecom launched a trial TD-SCDMA network on Tuesday, an event timed to coincide with a Chinese official's visit to Taiwan to discuss how Taiwan and China can work more closely on developing technology standards.

One of the most notorious U.S.-based spammers was sentenced to more than four years in jail on Monday for a scheme that used spam to manipulate stock prices in order to make a profit.

Apple's jumping into the battle that sees Verizon Wireless and AT&T flaming each other in advertisements, but unlike AT&T's recent effort to defend itself, Apple's new pair of iPhone ads are actually good.

Navigating your way out of town for Thanksgiving got easier for more Android users, thanks to Google. In a blog post

Some Facebook users have been infected with a worm after clicking on an image of a scantily clad woman, which then redirects the victims to a pornography site, according to security researchers.

Facebook has reportedly blocked an exploit propagating on the social networking site, which spreads when users click to see a revealing photo of a woman.

Video games don't respect humanitarian laws, according to a study of virtual 'war crimes' in contemporary shooters like Modern Warfare 2 and Army of Two, and whose results, say researchers, are 'as deflating as reality'. Swiss human rights groups Pro Juventute and TRIAL ("track impunity always") chose to analyze video games and not literature or film, which they view as 'passive' mediums, compared with 'shooter games, [in which] the player has an active role in performing the actions'. What's more, says the report, games are used as military training tools and set during present-day conflicts, 'thus illustrating the realism these games have now achieved'.

The European Commission has closed its antitrust probe of Qualcomm's patent licensing practices after Ericsson and others withdrew their complaints, the regulator said Tuesday.

A hacker who posted a fake message on the Web site of China's famous Shaolin Temple repenting for its commercial activities was just making a mean joke, the temple's abbot was cited as saying by Chinese state media Monday.