Communications regulator Ofcom wants to overhaul how UK consumers switch broadband providers, giving the new company the responsibility for ensuring a smooth handover.

Laptops and desktops with Intel's next generation Core chips will ship early next year, and the chip maker will use its conference next week to highlight the architecture behind the new processors. At the Intel Developer Forum, the company will shed light on improvements in its next generation Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, which could bring significant application and graphics improvements to laptops and desktops.

Nokia has named Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's business software group, to become its new CEO effective from later this month.

Microsoft will launch Windows Phone 7 on October 11 at an event in New York, according to a report on the Pocket-lint website. Pocket-lint, which publishes gadget news and reviews, cited multiple Microsoft sources that it did not name.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature on a bill passed by state legislators last month would make it illegal to impersonate someone on Facebook or Twitter there.

Microsoft today said it will issue nine security updates to patch 13 bugs in Windows, Office and its web server software next week.

The worldwide market for mobile WiMax services in 2015 will be five times its current size, according to ABI Research - but smaller than the company's analysts had expected just a few months ago.

SanDisk today announced a joint agreement with middleware vendor NDS MediaHighway that will allow it to sell its solid state drives (SSD) to set-top box makers. SanDisk said it will begin selling its P4 SSDs with NDS' set-top box software on them to pay-per-view television operators, who can then offer a new range of fanless box designs that are silent and more energy efficient.

Myricom, a pioneer in high performance computing that has shifted its focus to more mainstream networking applications in recent years, has named co-founder Nan Boden as its new president and CEO.

Storage vendor NetApp said Thursday it has reached an agreement with Oracle to dismiss patent litigation stemming from a 2007 suit NetApp filed against Sun Microsystems, which Oracle acquired earlier this year. Terms were not disclosed.