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Motorola Solutions to lease out 2 buildings

From the Daily Herald | Motorola Solutions is offering for lease two major buildings on its Schaumburg campus to outside companies. After Motorola Inc. split on Jan. 4, the remaining Motorola Mobility equipment was transferred to Libertyville, so more space opened at the Motorola Solutions headquarters, located off Algonquin and Meacham roads. Get the full story>>

Sony ‘digital jukebox’ streams into U.S. homes

Sony Corp. is betting on being able to bring music to consumers’ living rooms by offering millions of songs through a digital jukebox connected to popular devices such as TV sets and games consoles.

The new service called Music Unlimited Powered By Qriocity was launched in the United States Thursday, offering 6 million songs on demand through the cloud-based network that 60 million Sony PlayStation gamers use to play video games online. Get the full story »

Steve Jobs to attend meeting with Obama

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs will attend a meeting in California on Thursday with U.S. President Barack Obama, a source familiar with the meeting said. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt, Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt will also attend the meeting, the source told Reuters. Get the full story »

HTC unveils 5 smartphone models

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC unveiled on Tuesday two social networking phone models, with a focus on Facebook access, and introduced its first tablet computer to a crowded marketplace. Get the full story »

Apple rolls out digital subscription service

Apple is launching a long-awaited subscription service for magazines, newspapers, videos and music bought through its iTunes App Store.

The plan calls for publishers to set the price and length of subscription, marking a break from the previous practice of “newsstand sales” under which each issue of a magazine, for instance, would be bought separately. Get the full story »

Cricket brings music download service to Chicago

Prepaid wireless carrier Cricket Communications Inc. has expanded its new over-the-air music downloading service to Chicago and 12 other markets, offering unlimited downloads as part of a $55 monthly plan.

The company, which is owned by San Diego, Calif.-based Leap Wireless International, Inc., launched its Muve Music service in Las Vegas last month. Cricket said its service includes the entire catalogs from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music, as well as music from independent label IODA. Get the full story »

Icahn’s investment in Motorola declines in value

From Bloomberg News | Activist investor Carl Icahn is loading up on shares of Clorox, his most recent investment, after the shares of some of his other investments have declined in value. According to Bloomberg data, Motorola Inc. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. are worth less now than when Icahn’s stakes in the companies were first disclosed.

Chrome users now can block certain search results

AFP | Google Inc.  on Monday gave users of its Chrome Web browser the ability to block search results from low-quality Web sites known as content farms.

Google’s principal engineer, Matt Cutts, said Chrome users can download and install an extension for Chrome that blocks sites which provide “shallow or low-quality content” from their search results. Get the full story »

RIM’s PlayBook to span all high-speed access

Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry smart phone, will release its PlayBook tablet computer on two more high-speed network standards in the second half of 2011, the company said Monday.

The move to offer LTE and HSPA+ versions of its PlayBook guarantees access to the most advanced wireless data networks in the world, including all major carriers in North America. Get the full story »

Motorola shares falls on report of cheaper iPhones

Shares of Motorola Mobility fell about 5 percent on Monday on concerns it would be particularly vulnerable to competition from the next version of Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Motorola shares fell $1.44 or 4.6 percent at $29.71 on New York Stock Exchange after the Wall Street Journal reported Apple was developing a cheaper iPhone that is cheaper than its current model, the iPhone 4, and about half the size. Get the full story »

Costolo vague in saying Twitter ‘making money’

Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Dick Costolo said the microblogging service is “already making money,” but he did not immediately clarify whether he was referring to revenue or profit.

Costolo made his comments in a webcast keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but a subsequent Q&A period was not streamed on the Internet. Get the full story »

SI bundles print, mobile subscriptions

Sports Illustrated said Friday that it’s offering new digital subscription plans, including one that bundles the printed magazine with versions that are available online, on Android smart phones and tablets, as well as  forthcoming devices.

Time Inc., the owner of the magazine and the publishing arm of Time Warner Inc. , has yet to reach an agreement with Apple Inc., maker of the iPad tablet and iPhone, to sell the subscriptions on iTunes, but its new offerings are part of a broader effort to create a subscription platform that allows customers to sign up once and access publications in any medium, including print. Get the full story »

FDA OKs first 3-D mammography system

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first three-dimensional mammography system developed by Hologic Inc.  to screen for breast cancer with hopes the device will prove better than current mammography technology.

The device, the Silenia Dimensions System, augments traditional two-dimensional images produced by a mammogram with a 3-D image to be used in breast cancer screening and diagnosis. The system would provide both types of images during a scan so doctors could compare images with previous ones from prior, conventional mammograms. Get the full story »

Apple working on smaller, cheaper iPhone

Apple Inc is working on a smaller and less expensive version of the iPhone, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing sources.

The prototype device is about one-third smaller than the iPhone 4, the report said, citing a person who had seen it.

Apple has considered selling the new iPhone for $200 without a two-year wireless contract, Bloomberg reported. Get the full story »

Report: Apple begins production of new iPad

Apple Inc. has started manufacturing a new version of its iPad tablet computer with a built-in camera and faster processor, said people familiar with the matter.

The new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model, these people said. It will have at least one camera on the front of the device, but the resolution of the display will be similar to the first iPad, these people said. It will also have more memory and a more powerful graphics processor, they said.

The new iPad will initially be available through Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., but not Sprint Nextel Corp. or T-Mobile USA in the U.S., according to some of the people familiar with the matter. Get the full story »