San Francisco, Jan 27 - Global tablet shipments reached nearly 27 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 with Android jumping to a record share of 39 percent, said a new research released Thursday.

According to the research by consulting firm Strategy Analytics, global tablet shipments reached a record high of 26.8 million units in the last quarter of 2011, surging 250 percent from 10.7 million units in the same period a year earlier.

Android captured a record 39 percent share of global tablet shipments, rising from 29 percent in the year-ago quarter, reported Xinhua.

San Francisco, Jan 27 - A patent application published by the US Patent and Trademark Office Thursday showed that Apple is working on a universal touchscreen remote capable of controlling multiple devices, shedding lights on the company's much-anticipated plan on a smart TV product.

The patent, titled "Apparatus and Method to Facilitate Universal Remote Control" was filed Sep 30, 2011, said that the remote will be capable of controlling multiple devices including "a television, a video tape player, a video disk player, stereo, a home control system or a computer system", reported Xinhua.

San Francisco, Jan 19 - Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang has resigned from its Board of Directors and all other positions with the company, it was announced Tuesday.

The 43-year-old Yang also resigned from the Boards of Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba Group Holding limited, Xinhua quoted the company as stating in a press release.

Having founded the online company in 1995 with David Filo, Yang was Yahoo's chief executive from June 2007 until January 2009. (IANS)

San Francisco, Jan 13 - Microsoft Thursday announced a patent licensing agreement with LG Electronics covering tablets, smartphones and other consumer devices running Google's Android or Chrome operating system.

Microsoft said it marks the 11th deal with a device manufacturer leveraging Google's operating system platform.

"More than 70 percent of all Android smartphones in the US are now receiving coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio," Xinhua quoted a press release from the Microsoft as saying.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. So far, Microsoft has struck major cross-licensing patent agreements with HTC, Samsung and Acer, among others.

San Francisco, Dec 22 : Smartphones and tablets running Intel's chips will enter the mobile market early next year, posing a challenge to the dominance of Apple's iPhone and iPad, US media reported Wednesday.

Technology Review, a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it had tested prototype smartphones and tablets equipped with Intel's latest mobile chip, dubbed Medfield. The products run Google's Android mobile operating system, reported Xinhua.

San Francisco, Dec 22 - Yahoo's board is expected to meet Thursday to discuss selling its holdings in China's Alibaba Group and its Japanese affiliate back to their majority owners in a transaction valued around $17 billion, US media reported Wednesday.

Under the current proposed terms, Softbank, Yahoo Japan's majority owner and Alibaba would create new legal entities consisting of both cash and certain operating assets. Yahoo would swap out most of its stake in Alibaba and all of its stake in Yahoo Japan for these entities to sell those holdings, the New York Times reported.

San Francisco, Dec 20 - Apple and Google are working on wearable technology that would send data to their smartphones, US media reported Monday.

Researchers in Google's secret Google X lab, a facility where Google is reportedly working on projects pertaining to future technologies, have begun working on peripherals that would communicate information back to Android smartphones when they are attached to one's clothing or body, said Bits, a technology blog of the New York Times, citing sources.

San Francisco, Dec 16 - US online retail giant Amazon announced Thursday that it has been selling over one million Kindle devices per week for the third week in a row.

According to the company's press release, Kindle Fire, Amazon's latest tablet computer, has been the No. 1 bestselling product on Amazon. com since its launch 11 weeks ago.

The company noted Kindle Fire is the most successful product it has ever launched and is "building millions more to meet the high demand", reported Xinhua.

San Francisco, Dec 16 - Microsoft Thursday announced that it will automatically upgrade the Internet Explorer (IE) to the latest version to give Windows customers more protection against malicious software.

According to the company's blog post, starting from Australia and Brazil next January, users of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 will get the IE updates if they have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update.

San Francisco, Dec 14 - Apple is in talks to acquire Israeli fabless semiconductor maker Anobit for $400-500 million, Xinhua reported.

Apple is likely interested in Herzliya Pituach, Israel-based Anobit for an exclusive access to its embedded flash controllers which can significantly boost memory performance of smartphones and tablet computers, said technology news site TechCrunch, citing Israeli newspaper Calcalist.

Apple already uses Anobit's technology in iPhone, iPad and the MacBook Air.

If the deal works out, it could be Apple's largest acquisition ever, surpassing its $404 million purchase of NeXT in 1997.

San Francisco, Dec 13 - Over 100 million apps have been downloaded from Apple's Mac App Store since its launch in January, Xinhua reported.

"With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world," Apple said in a statement Monday, adding that "Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry."

Apple launched the Mac App Store in January as a free download for Mac OS X users, allowing users to sift through free and paid applications and download them to their devices like Apple mobile App Store.

San Francisco , Dec. 10 :Travelling to space or embarking on an expedition to excavate lost Mayan ruins are normally the stuff of adventure novels, but for employees of Facebook, these and other lavish dreams are moving closer to reality.

According to the Daily Mail, the world''s No. 1 online social network is preparing for a blockbuster initial public offering that could create at least a thousand millionaires.

San Francisco, Dec 10 - Apple Friday suffered a setback in its global patent war, as a German court ruled over its copyright infringement battle in favour of Motorola Mobility.

The German court ruled that Apple's iPhone and iPad infringe a Motorola patent and issued an injunction banning the import of iPhones and 3G-capable iPads into Germany, reported Xinhua.

San Francisco, Dec 3: Over 100 million people around the world log in to Twitter every day to tweet about everything from their daily commutes to the meals they eat, but many have used the social networking tool this year to share important events with people who could be thousands of miles away.

San Francisco, Nov 15 - Apple Monday released a new version of its media player programme iTunes, adding the much-anticipated scan-and-match service for music iTunes Match.

The feature, included in iTunes 10.5.1, can scan a user's library to find music and match the content to the music available in an iTunes Store.

If it finds a match, users don't need to upload the music and can listen to them anywhere, even better-quality versions, on any devices running Apple's iOS operating system. Music that doesn't match is automatically uploaded, reported Xinhua.