Google's plan will give the publishing business a high-tech twist: the company will expand its computer system, which already auctions off advertisements on millions of Web sites, to take bids for newspaper ads as well. Hoping to reach out to a new crop of customers, such as small businesses and online retailers, many of the largest newspaper companies, including Gannett, the Tribune Company, The New York Times Company, the Washington Post Company and Hearst, have agreed to try the system in a three-month test set to start later this month.

For Google, the test is an important step to the company's audacious long-term goal: to build a single computer system through which advertisers can promote their products in any medium. For the newspaper industry, reeling from the loss of both readers and advertisers, this new system offers a curious bargain: the publishers can get much-needed revenue but in doing so they may well make Google -- which is already the biggest seller of online advertising -- even stronger.

Tom Phillips, who runs Google's print operations, said the company was attracted by the $48 billion spent every year in the United States on newspaper advertising. Google, nonetheless, is trying to position itself as a friend of the newspapers.

"Print adds value the Internet doesn't have," he said. Mr. Phillips, the former publisher of Spy Magazine, was hired by Google earlier this year. "It is a different browse-able reading medium."

Sling Media's first product, the Slingbox, is a consumer electronics device that turns existing cable and satellite TV feeds into packets and then sends them across the Internet. Slingbox allows consumers to select regular TV programming they see at home and see it on any Internet-connected Windows-based laptop, smart phone or PDA.

The product is popular among business travelers, who, for example, can watch their hometown sports team while on the road. The device costs about $250, and there is no ongoing subscription fee to use the service. Slingbox is already sold in more than 3,000 retail locations.

"In recent years millions of people have become comfortable downloading and enjoying digital media, including electronic books. But until now, there has not been a good device on which to read them," said Ron Hawkins, senior vice president of personal reader systems marketing at Sony Electronics.

"Our research has shown that people are looking for a device designed exclusively for immersive reading. The Sony Reader, with its electronic paper display, thin format and extraordinary battery life, fits the bill."

Battery life is key to such a device and Sony is using screen technology from US firm E-Ink to offer at least 7,500 page turns between recharging.

The web giant's co-founder Larry Page announced the service at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

US network CBS is making shows like CSI and Star Trek available to buy online.

Google is the latest company to explore the idea of selling video on the net, following Apple who led the way with its iTunes online store.

More than 300 episodes from about a dozen prime time, cable, late-night and classic TV shows are now available for $1.99 apiece, viewable on computers or downloadable on the latest, video-capable iPod.

The programming spans from the 1950s to the present, including shows from "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Dragnet," USA Network's "Monk," the Sci-Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica," and NBC's hit series "Law & Order." Sketches from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" are also for sale.

Apple unleashed a dramatically different way of distributing television programs when it debuted videos for sale on its iTunes Music Store on Oct. 20 with Walt Disney Co.'s ABC as its first network partner. Customers have since downloaded more than three million videos.

I think this is by far the most exciting announcement since I started! Today, we announced that TiVo intends to support iPod and Sony PSP as new portables in our service update first quarter of next year. This means that you will be able to use the TiVoToGo feature to transfer shows from your TiVo box to a PC connected to your home network. Then you can choose to have the transferred shows prepared for synch to your iPod automatically once the transfer is complete.

I don't currently have the new video iPod—they came out with it one week after I bought my first iPod—the Nano. Which. I. Love. But I might just have to run out and buy the new one so it can cross-pollinate with my TiVo box!

And actually, I think podcasting or whatever it morphs into over the next two or three years is here to stay and will remain popular. What was interesting about podcasting was that, while everyone was waiting for digital video for so many years, kind of like waiting for Godot, podcasting arrived. And it tapped this latent demand for being able to hear what you wanted when you wanted it. It unleased all these indie voices and encouraged the traditional media companies to let their content go mobile.

Like the record labels, television stations are now lamenting the iPod, and are worried about lost revenues, reports the Wall Street Journal. Shouldn't they be worrying about lost audiences, thanks to bad programing, instead of blaming the technology. I agree with Mark Cuban when he says, "Bob Iger has saved Network TV ... By completely changing the economic model." This is the new economic model that takes into account that most consumption patterns are changing, and media like everything has to fit our supremely busy lives.

Mr Jobs said the 30 GB iPod should be able to store 75 hours' worth of video and the 60 GB version twice that. Despite both versions having more storage on board they are thinner than the existing 20 GB iPod.

To give people something to watch on their video-playing iPod Apple is planning to make available more than 2,000 music videos on the iTunes store that will cost £1.89 ($1.99 in the US) each.

Apple has also set up a deal with US television company ABC to let Americans purchase episodes of shows for $1.99. The shows will be available the day after broadcast. There was no information about when, or if, this service would come to Europe.

Microsoft is in talks with Time Warner over the sale of AOL or a business partnership, the New York Post reported Thursday. Details of the discussions are murky, but the two companies appear to be discussing a wide array of possibilities, including combining efforts in Internet searching, instant messaging and online advertising, according to the Associated Press

While speculation centered on Microsoft buying all or pieces of AOL, the New York Times reported that Microsoft offered to sell its Internet division to Yahoo and AOL so it could focus on Web searching. The offers ultimately spurred the ongoing discussions with AOL.

Microsoft and AOL declined to comment on the reports.

An alliance between the two companies could result in an even more formidable competitor to Google and Yahoo, both of which have strong head starts over their peers in search technology and online advertising.

One of the most elaborate proposal under discussion would involve combining America Online with the MSN Internet portal and dial-up Internet business, creating the world's largest Internet company. The venture's Web search would be provided by Microsoft. A combination along those lines would be a significant blow to Google, which provides the Web search on AOL's services. This year, 11 percent of Google's revenue came from advertising it placed on AOL sites.

A combination of AOL and MSN would have 18 percent of the search market in the United States, according to Nielsen NetRatings, making it third after Google, with 46 percent, and Yahoo with 23 percent.

TiVo has struck a deal with the Independent Film Channel to transmit several of the cable channel's shows through a broadband connection as part of a trial program. Participating customers will begin receiving the shows next week, said TiVo spokesman Elliot Sloane.

Sloan confirmed that TiVo sent messages to its customers - later posted on the technology Web log Engadget.com - offering to transmit three IFC shows beginning Aug. 19, before they aired on the cable channel.