Google, SingTel and others to build submarine cable

Web search company Google Inc has agreed to build an undersea cable with five telecoms operators that will link the United States to Japan, and provide the capacity to sustain a surge in Internet traffic between the continents.

Google and the five telecoms companies said in joint statement that the 10,000 km (6,200 mile) undersea fiber optic cable, connecting the United States to Japan, will cost $300 million.

Google's partners in the consortium, dubbed Unity, comprises Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI Corp, Pacnet, and Singapore Telecommunications.

The cable will provide much-needed capacity to sustain unprecedented growth in data and Internet traffic between Asia and the United States.

"The Unity cable system allows the members of the consortium to provide the increased capacity needed as more applications and services migrate online," said Jayne Stowell, a spokesman for the consortium.

The consortium said it has picked NEC Corporation and Tyco Telecommunications to construct and install the system, which is expected to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2010.

(Reporting by Daryl Loo; editing by Louise Heavens)

Yahoo may consider Google alliance: source

Yahoo Inc would consider a business alliance with Google Inc as one way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, a source familiar with Yahoo's strategy said on Sunday.

Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, that source said. At $31 a share, Yahoo believes the bid undervalues the company, two sources said.

A second source close to Yahoo said it had received a procession of preliminary contacts by media, technology, telephone and financial companies. But the source said they were unaware whether any alternative bid was in the offing.

In a memo to Yahoo employees on Friday, which was obtained by Reuters on Sunday, Yahoo leaders wrote: "We want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made -- and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there's certainly no integration process underway."

Few natural bidders exist besides Google that could engage in a bidding war, and Google would be unlikely to win approval from antitrust regulators, some Wall Street analysts said on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Sunday that Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt called Yahoo's chief executive Jerry Yang to offer his company's help in any effort to thwart Microsoft's bid.

Spokesmen for Yahoo and Google declined comment. Google was not immediately available for comment on the WSJ story.

Eric Auchard and Megan Davies

California Company Introduces New Mobile Linux Platform

Another mobile Linux platform, this time from Azingo, hit the market on Wednesday, joining an increasingly crowded market of Linux phone software.

Formerly called Celunite, Azingo aims to differentiate itself from the crowd by offering phone makers an entire package, including kernel, middleware, applications, development tools and integration services.

"Mobile Linux has failed because there's a big integration problem," said Michael Mclaughlin, marketing director at Azingo. "People come with piece parts."

For example, companies like Montavista and Wind River make mobile Linux kernels while others like Trolltech, purchased by Nokia just this week, make application development environments. Phone makers typically must buy the different components and then struggle to integrate them. That puts mobile Linux at a disadvantage against some other mobile platforms, like Windows Mobile, which comes complete, he said.

Azingo is offering a complete suite of mobile Linux software but will also help customers integrate different pieces if they choose components from different vendors, said Mclaughlin.

The applications Azingo offers as part of the platform include Web widgets that can deliver information such as weather and traffic, entertainment applications such as video and audio players, and productivity software like e-mail.

Azingo hasn't announced any deals with handset makers planning to use its software. Mclaughlin said the company has been working with some of the well-known vendors and expects handsets running its software to ship in the fourth quarter.

The company isn't the only one offering the market a complete suite of mobile Linux software. A La Mobile has a similar approach, using some of its own software and integrating components from other vendors including Trolltech. GUPP Technologies, a Malaysian company, announced in 2006 that it would use A La Mobile's platform.

Azingo will also compete against Android, Google's high profile Linux-based mobile phone operating platform, which includes an operating system, middleware and applications. Android phones are expected to become available in the second half of this year.

Azingo is a member of the LiMo Foundation, a group founded by Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Samsung and others to build a mobile Linux platform.

Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

746,000 for the Jupiter PC

f you're partial to all things bling, then a platinum and jewel-encrusted desktop PC could be just what you're looking for.

Jupiter from Japanese manufacturer Zeus, features a solid platinum case studded with diamonds which, the company claims, replicate astrological constellations. The PC runs on an Intel 3GHz E6850 Core 2 Duo CPU and features 2GB of DDR 2 memory and a 1TB hard drive. The only downside is its price tag - a cool $746,000).

Zeus has also launched a cheaper, gold alternative. It still has diamonds in its case and the same tech spec, but will only set you back a mere $557,284. Both PCs are available now in Japan.

Carrie-Ann Skinner, PC Advisor

Kingston SD Card Hits 16GB

Kingston Technology has introduced a new 16GB SDHC Flash memory card for digital cameras and other devices.

The new entry is the largest-capacity SDHC card Kingston makes. It costs US$231.

Kingston rates the 16GB card as a Class 4 memory card, which means it has a minimum sustained data transfer rate of 4MB per second. It's compatible with SDHC-compatible host devices and writes data in FAT 32 file format.

Kingston said the new card can store up to 7,500 full-resolution images from a 6 megapixel digital camera, or about 5,000 images from an 8MP camera.

Peter Cohen, Macworld