British cable operator Virgin Media is testing a new technology to deliver ultrafast broadband over telegraph poles which could allow it to extend its reach to another 1 million homes.

Virgin, which is looking to cement its advantage in delivering faster broadband over slower copper-based rivals, said it was launching a trial in a Berkshire village to deliver 50 Mb broadband along with its television service.

Motorola Inc has reached a deal with Microsoft Corp that will put Bing search and mapping services on its phones that use Google’s Android operating system.

Motorola said the partnership with Microsoft means that a Bing bookmark and search widget will be loaded on cell phones, starting in the coming weeks with phones in China.

Sony Corp has unveiled its new motion-controlled video game system, pitching it to both casual and hard-core gamers alike, as the company looks to ride one of the hottest trends in gaming.

The new system will help Sony keep pace with rivals Nintendo Co Ltd, which pioneered gesture-based gaming, and Microsoft Corp, which is launching its system later this year.

Opera Software unveiled on Thursday a version of its Mini mobile browser for use on cellphones running on Google’s Android software.

Opera Mini is the world’s most widely used browser on cellphones, ahead of Apple’s iPhone browser, as Opera benefits from its wide offering across all key platforms, according to web statistics firm Statcounter.

PALM’S PROBLEM: As smart phones have gotten more popular, Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerrys have benefited while Palm has fallen behind.

ITS SOLUTION: Sleek new phones, fresh operating software and a new CEO who helped Apple make the iPod a household name. But while the products have gotten positive reviews, consumers have been slow to pick them up.

China Mobile Ltd., the world’s biggest phone company by subscribers, said Wednesday it was investing $5.8 billion in a Chinese bank as part of a plan to develop mobile phone banking and business services.

Under the agreement, China Mobile will pay 39.8 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) in cash for 20 percent of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, the cell phone company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The two companies plan to work together to develop mobile phone services involving customer payments, bank cards, money transfers and other so-called e-commerce businesses.

More than 100 Chinese consumers have filed an official complaint against Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N) over faulty laptop computers, leaving the door open for a lawsuit against the U.S. technology company, a lawyer for the group said on Wednesday.

Jiang Suhua, a lawyer at Yingke Law Firm in Beijing, told Reuters the complaint centred on video cards which overheated and caused the laptop to malfunction.

LG Electronics Inc, the world’s No. 3 mobile phone maker, on Wednesday launched a smartphone based on Google’s Android operating system in South Korea, as it seeks to boost its relatively weak smartphone line-ups.

LG, which is fighting an uphill battle against leaders Nokia, Blackberry maker RIM and Apple, plans to boost smartphone offerings with some 20 models this year, half the offerings based on the most popular Android.

U.S. regulators may dedicate spectrum to free wireless Internet service for some Americans to increase affordable broadband service nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday.

The FCC provided few details about how it would carry out such a plan and who would qualify, but will make a recommendation under the National Broadband Plan set for release next week. The agency will determine details later.

A coalition of cable and satellite companies will this week call on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to create a new process to resolve increasingly bitter disputes over carriage fees paid to broadcasters.

The group, which includes rival TV distributors such as Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N), DirecTV Group (DTV.O) and Dish Network Corp (DISH.O) serve more than 65 million U.S. homes. They will file a petition with the FCC, which argues the current retransmission consent regime is flawed.