LONDON - Computer hackers will open a new front in the multi-billion pound "cyberwar" in 2007, targeting mobile phones, instant messaging and community Web sites such as MySpace, security experts predict.As people grow wise to email scams, criminal gangs will find new ways to commit online fraud, sell fake goods or steal corporate secrets.

"The attacks are becoming more sophisticated," said Dave Rand of Internet security firm Trend Micro. "It's all about making money. And they're making a lot of it," he told Reuters.

STOCKHOLM - Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson will work with computer chip giant Intel on applications for mobile computers that will increase their attractiveness in the market, Ericsson said on Friday.

Ericsson said the joint effort with Intel would aim to enhance the appeal of mobile broadband and multimedia for consumers and corporations.

NEW YORK - Advertising spending at U.S. newspapers will rise 1.2 percent in 2007, driven by gains in internet advertising that won't overcome flat sales in print editions, an industry group said on Friday.

Total ad spending at U.S. newspapers likely will be about $50.1 billion, slightly higher than in 2006, the Newspaper Association of America said.

NEW YORK - Microsoft Corp. launched Windows Vista for businesses on Thursday, unveiling the first major upgrade of its dominant operating system in five years and predicting that over 200 million people will run new Windows, Office or PC server software by the end of 2007.

Vista upgrades the operating system used on more than 90 percent of the world's computers and features translucent windows to make it easier to view items on the desktop, an improved search system, and improved reliability and security.

SEATTLE  - One of the two new heads of Microsoft Corp.'s Office software team downplayed the threat from Google Inc.'s Web-based word processing and spreadsheet applications, saying they are unlikely to appeal to corporate customers.

Antoine Leblond, who became co-leader of the Office group in June, said Google was the latest in a long line of challengers to the Office software suite, which includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Outlook e-mail and PowerPoint presentations.

LONDON - It's unlikely to occur by swallowing a pill or donning a special cloak, but invisibility could be possible in the not too distant future, according to research published on Monday.

Harry Potter accomplished it with his magic cloak. H.G. Wells' Invisible Man swallowed a substance that made him transparent.

NEW YORK  - Net2Phone, the Internet telephone unit of IDT Corp.has filed a lawsuit against eBay Inc.'s Skype Internet telephone unit, accusing the unit of infringing a Net2Phone patent. 
 

STOCKHOLM - Sweden's domestic intelligence agency said it would probe why the government's Web site crashed on Sunday amid reports hackers had sought revenge for a crackdown on alleged online piracy.

The government Web site went off line in the early hours of Sunday. The Internet home page of the national police crashed in similar fashion on Thursday.
 

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants U.S. Internet providers to retain Web address records for up to two years to aid investigations into terrorism and pornography, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
 

NEW YORK - Internet service AOL said on Thursday it had resolved a software problem that delayed the transmission of millions of e-mails since the late morning.

Many AOL members had been unable to send or receive new e-mails since 11.00 a.m. Eastern Time.

LOS ANGELES - Dell Inc. on Wednesday rolled out three new personal computers aimed at consumers who are willing to pay a premium for machines they use to play games, music and video.

Alex Gruzen, senior vice president of Dell Product Group, said the XPS M1210, XPS M2010 and XPS 700 are aimed at "a more discerning, premium customer."

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. has no plans to build its own Web browser software to compete with rival Microsoft Corp., Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday.

During a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Schmidt dismissed speculation that the company aimed to tie together its Web search and other services to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the world's dominant Web browser.

NEW YORK - Motorola Inc. plans a new range of slim cell phones next year, the head of its cell-phone division said on Wednesday.

Ron Garriques, who heads Motorola's biggest division, said the range would be called the SCPL, pronounced "scalpel."

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. launched its second major test version of the Windows Vista operating system on Tuesday as a senior executive said he was "confident" the company will meet its targeted release date. 
 
The world's largest software company also said it was starting trials of its upcoming Office 2007 business software suite and its Windows Server system code-named "Longhorn."

LOS ANGELES - Intel Corp. shares fell to a three-year low Friday after No. 1 personal computer maker Dell Inc. said it would begin using chips from smaller Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., whose shares surged. 
 
Dell said that for the first time in more than two decades, Intel will no longer be its sole provider of computer microprocessors, the brains that run computers. 

SAN FRANCISCO  - For information seekers, the days of culling Web search pages, ten machine-generated hyperlinks at a time, may be numbered.

On Monday, Yahoo Inc. takes the next step to realize its vision of combining human advice with machine automation to offer more relevant ways of searching the Web. It is using the millions of human suggestions from its recently introduced Yahoo Answers to complement the mathematically organized features of its core search system.

LOS ANGELES - Japanese video game maker Konami Corp. said on Friday it is looking into the possibility of striking a motion picture deal based on its blockbuster fighting game series "Metal Gear Solid."

The comment comes after "Silent Hill," a horror film based on another Konami video game series, replaced comedy spoof "Scary Movie 4" as the top choice for North American moviegoers in late April.

BRUSSELS — The Internet governing body's decision to reject a new .xxx Internet domain for porn sites is a clear case of U.S. political interference in the Web's governance, the European Commission said on Thursday. 

The board of the U.S.-based Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted by 9 to 5 on Wednesday to dismiss the application to register the domain name, which would be like the .com or .net at the end of an Internet address.

LONDON - A British computer expert accused by Washington of the world's "biggest military hack of all time" should be extradited to the United States to stand trial, a court ruled on Wednesday.
 

LOS ANGELES - Sony Corp has revealed little about its upcoming PlayStation 3 online service to rival Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live, but an upcoming offering from the Japanese giant's online game division may hint at its direction. 
 
Sony Online Entertainment in July will debut a service, known by its working title LaunchPad, which provides users access to several of its online PC games.
 

SAN FRANCISCO - In their continuing struggle to attract music fans from iTunes, subscription music services are resorting to what made digital music popular in the first place -- a price tag marked "free."

This time, however, they have the support of the music industry, because these services are using online advertising to compensate labels, artists and publishers for the rights to their work.
 

TOKYO—With the launch of its PlayStation 3 video game console six months away, Sony Corp. is gearing up for an all-out battle to put the electronics and entertainment conglomerate back on a growth path.