From CNET News.com: Facebook, it appears, was not about to let Google get this week's award for shadowy new projects. On Tuesday night, a number of users--including Mashable blogger Ben Parr--received notifications that they were beta testers for something called "Facebook Lite."...

From DailyTech: Microsoft's Office 2003 and 2007 wove XML into Word, with the introduction of .docx, otherwise known as Office Open XML, as the format of choice. The new format brought an open standard and better storage to the application. Unfortunately, it also turned into one of...

From DailyTech: NVIDIA is the second largest GPU maker in the world behind Intel. Intel leads the market because its GPUs are inside the vast majority of notebook and desktop computers with integrated graphics processors.

When notebooks offer discrete GPUs, things swing in favor of...

From Tom's Hardware: Joystiq is reporting that Valve Software is researching sign language for the next episode (3) of Half-Life 2 by conducting a focus group with deaf individuals. The company is looking to understand the language and how it can be used in games. Valve's first use...

From X-bit Labs: Nvidia Corp. last week recorded another $119.1 million charge because of the weak packaging of certain of its graphics processing units (GPUs) and core-logic sets for mobile personal computers. The new charge brings the total sum that Nvidia paid its partners for...

From InfoWorld: Intel and Micron Technology announced Tuesday that they have developed a new 3-bit-per-cell, NAND flash memory technology using Micron's 34-nanometer lithography process.

"Fundamentally, this will reduce the overall cost of our MLC flash product," said Kevin Kilbuck...

From InfoWorld: Adobe's Flash program is being used on heavily trafficked Web sites to collect information on how people navigate those sites even if people believe they've restricted the data collection, according to a new study.

The study comes as the U.S. government is evaluating...

From PC World: Steve Ballmer has all but admitted that Windows 7 Starter Edition, to be sold on netbooks, is little more than a way to get people to upgrade to higher-priced versions of Windows 7. Is this the latest version of the time-honored strategy of bait and switch...

From CNET News.com: Apple on Tuesday added an antiglare upgrade option to its 15-inch MacBook Pro line of notebooks.

The option of an antiglare display has already been available on the 17-inch MacBook Pro. The 13-inch counterpart continues to offer only a glossy display.

First...

From DailyTech: Microsoft is set to release its latest Zune model next month and will do battle with a third-generation Apple iPod touch which will be launched at around the same time. DailyTech first reported on the Zune HD in May and now more details are surfacing about the device...