In Brief: Panasonic moves up plasma display expansion plans

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., better known by its Panasonic brand name, is moving up expansion plans for plasma display panel (PDP) production in response to high demand.

The company is planning to start second phase production at a state-of-the-art factory in Amagasaki, west Japan, in July 2006, four months ahead of the original plan. The factory, which Panasonic says is the largest PDP plant in the world, began operating in September this year two months ahead of schedule. When the expansion work in Amagasaki is complete the factory will be capable of producing 250,000 panels per month to take Panasonic's total output to a maximum of 425,000 panels per month. Panasonic said it expects global demand to reach 10 million units in 2006 and 25 million units in 2010.

4| | |Google talks up future additions to Talk | | |3

Google has set up a blog to talk about future additions to its Google Talk VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) application, promising that "exciting things" are in the pipeline. In an inaugural post on the Google Talkabout blog, Mike Jazayeri, a product manager, said the company plans to formally document the its voice signalling extensions to XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), while noting that several "clever developers" outside the company had already documented them. Jazayeri also noted that developers outside Google had found a way to make RPC calls using Google Talk and praised the Web site Customize Talk for offering tips and links to Google Talk add-ons.

4| | |Intel gets in tune with Chinese Internet users| | |3

Intel has teamed up with Internet content provider Tom Online to open a chain of Internet cafes that allow users to record and share songs over the Internet. Intel opened the first Intel i-Cafe Music Studio in Zhengzhou, the capital of China's Henan province. The Internet cafe allows users to record their own music and then upload the songs to Tom's Wanleba song-sharing site, where they can be streamed to listeners over the Internet. The songs can also be downloaded as ringing tones for mobile phones. Intel plans to open 13 of the i-Cafe Music Studios around China.

4| | |Netease appoints founder to take over as CEO | | |3

Chinese Internet company Netease.com has appointed its founder, William Ding, to take over as the chief executive officer of the company, replacing Ted Sun, who passed away in September. Ding, who is also Netease's largest shareholder and one of China's richest men, will take over as CEO immediately, the company said in a statement Monday. Previously, Ding served on Netease's board of directors. Ding replaces Sun, who died in September at the age of 38. Following Sun's death, Michael Tong, the company's chief operating officer, and Denny Lee, the company's chief financial officer, assumed his responsibilities pending the appointment of a successor.

4| | |Taiwan 's Elitegroup buys rival's PC division| | |3

Taiwanese contract electronics maker Elitegroup Computer Systems has finalized the purchase of Tatung's desktop computer division, which will bulk up its own existing business. Elitegroup is one of the world's largest makers of computer motherboards, but it also produces notebook and desktop PCs on behalf of major companies, such as Hewlett-Packard. The addition of Tatung's PC division into its fold increases the size of Elitegroup's contract PC manufacturing business, which will help the company reduce costs. The company offered Tatung 314 million of its shares for the PC business. Elitegroup valued the transaction at NT$6.7 billion (US$200 million).

4| | |Software AG ships Tamino with WebDAV support| | |3

Software AG announced the availability of Tamino XML Server 4.4, which implements WebDAV support directly in the kernel. The WebDAV integration provides data management facilities such as extended search functions, authorization and security, and data integrity to unstructured data residing in local file systems. Users can store, share, search, and retrieve XML documents through drag and drop, as well as using XQuery. Version 4.4 also provides support for high-availability cluster processing, replication mechanisms, and enhanced scalability and security. Tamino 4.4 is available for the Windows Server and XP, Sun Solaris, HP (Profile, Products, Articles)-UX (64-bit), and Linux (Overview, Articles, Company) for Intel platforms. Additional platforms including AIX, HP-UX, and z/Linux are scheduled for December.

4| | |Samsung to make chips under contract for Qualcomm | | |3

Qualcomm has tapped Samsung Electronics to manufacture wireless chip sets on a contract basis. Samsung will produce CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and W-CDMA (Wideband CDMA) wireless chip sets for Qualcomm. The chip sets, which are used in cell phones, will be produced using 90-nanometer process technology, with more advanced processes being employed in the future. When describing process technology, the number refers to the size of the smallest feature that can be created on a chip. More advanced production processes allow designers to shrink the size of their chips, which generally results in lower power consumption and lower manufacturing costs. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.