SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N and Sun Microsystems Inc. SUNW.O were among the fastest-growing data storage providers in the second quarter, while EMC Corp. EMC.N and Dell Inc. DELL.O lagged overall market growth, researcher IDC said on Thursday.

TechWeb - NXP's corporate coming out party focused on the launch of a new high-definition TV chip aimed at grabbing a share of the consumer electronics market.

AP - Former Japanese Internet entrepreneur Takafumi Horie and his defense team are confident he will be cleared of securities laws violation charges, one lawyer said Sunday, a day before the trial is due to begin at a Tokyo court.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Takafumi Horie, the former CEO of Internet firm Livedoor Co. who came to symbolize a freewheeling capitalism at odds with Japan's cozy corporate norms, pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of breaking securities law.

MIYAZAKI (Reuters) - Hitachi Ltd. said on Tuesday it expects prices of its plasma display TVs to fall by about 20 percent in the business year to next March, less than its previous forecast for a decline of 30 percent.

AP - Shares of Intel Corp. fell in after-hours trading after the world's largest chip maker announced sweeping job cuts that some investors believed were not severe enough.

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd RIM.TO, the maker of Blackberry e-mail devices popular among executives, said on Thursday it is pushing into a wider consumer market with the Pearl, its first phone with a camera and music player.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. IBM.N said on Thursday it has begun shipping the microchips for Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s 7974.OS new Wii console.

TechWeb - IBM is working with Los Alamos to install the first phase of the latest supercomputer, dubbed Roadrunner, by next month. The hybrid machine will get a speed boost enabling it to break the petaflop barrier when the Cell processors are added to AMD's Opteron technology.

AP - People moving state to state, armed with cash and tricks to avoid scrutiny, are buying cheap prepaid mobile phones by the thousands with plans to sell them in Latin America and Hong Kong.

Reuters - Time Warner Inc.'s AOL on Monday plans to announce that it will offer two new NBC programs on its Web site a week before their broadcast TVpremiere.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - TiVo Inc. TIVO.O on Tuesday started selling its latest digital video recorder which is capable of displaying high-resolution TV signals, as the recording technology company seeks new subscribers among buyers of premium home theater systems.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. YHOO.O and Intel Corp. INTC.O said on Tuesday they are teaming up to pipe sports statistics to TV screens, targeting fans who devour data about real-world players to manage their fantasy teams.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo Co. Ltd. 7974.OS said on Thursday it will launch its new game console, the Wii, on December 2 in Japan for 25,000 yen ($212), making it the third and last major game maker to bring a next-generation console to market.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Four decades after Capt. Kirk and crew zoomed off at warp speed to 'the final frontier,' the iconic sci-fi series 'Star Trek' returns to broadcast television this week with an extensive digital face-lift.

TechWeb - A mobile phone coupon service from Silicon Valley startup could be the start of a new wave of mobile marketing.

AP - Microsoft gives away a security firewall with its latest operating system. Many high-speed Internet service providers offer free anti-virus protection for subscribers. And several Web sites distribute free toolbars to warn of Web scams.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Cognos Inc. CSN.TO COGN.O is preparing to unplug its business analysis software from the desktop PC and make it mobile, with plans for its first launch on BlackBerry devices in early 2007.

AP - Microsoft Corp. is hoping to tap the explosive popularity of online video sharing by joining startups and major Internet rivals with its own video service.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O said on Wednesday it will launch its Xbox 360 HD DVD player in Japan on November 22.

AFP - Panasonic will sell the first Blu-ray DVD player-recorder in Japan in November, a company official said, months after rival Toshiba released a comparable product in a feud for the next standard of DVDs.

AP - Insert your own punch line: Hewlett-Packard Co., the technology company facing federal and state investigations for spying on board members and journalists, is co-sponsor of an award for 'privacy innovation.'

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese electronics maker Sony 6758.T said on Saturday it is investigating a fire incident on a Lenovo 0992.HK laptop PC that reportedly used a Sony-made battery.

HAGA-GUN, Japan (Reuters) - Japan's Honda Motor Co. 7267.T has done it again.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Criminals are increasingly trying to trick citizens into giving them their bank account details, according to a survey published on Monday which showed such 'phishing' attempts almost doubled in the first six months.

AFP - Japanese Internet firm Softbank has said that it plans a major issue of new bonds backed by Vodafone KK assets to cover a short-term loan it took out to buy the cellphone operator.

AP - The youth-heavy online hangout MySpace.com is launching a voter-registration drive to engage its members in civics.

AP - Google Inc. will file a motion in response to a Brazilian judges' deadline to turn over information on users of the company's social networking service Orkut, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

TechWeb - Panduit plans to incorporate the technology into its line of networking and electrical products for the data center.

Reuters - Most forms of Internet gambling would be banned under a bill that received final U.S. congressional approval early Saturday.