AMERICA'S decade-long control of the internet will end today as the management of the web is effectively privatised.

(Telecompaper) Japan's NTT plans to offer fibre-optic services with speeds of up to 200 Mbps, double the company's current speed. The new service will be offered as an upgrade to NTT's Flet's Hikari service, The Nikkei writes. customers can apply for the service from 1 October and services will launch from end-November. NTT East will begin offering the services, followed by NTT West in 2010. The 200 Mbps service will be offered for the same price as the existing 100 Mbps service, between JPY 3,570 (condominiums) to JPY 5,460 (single family homes). However, customers will have to pay an installation fee of between JPY 2,100 to JPY 28,455.

(Telecompaper) The European Commission has approved Panasonic's tender offer for Sanyo Electric with conditions. The commission's investigation identified competition concerns in a number of battery markets where the merged entity would have a significant market share. These are the markets for primary cylindrical lithium batteries, portable rechargeable nickel-metal hydride batteries and rechargeable coin-shape batteries based on lithium. The latter are used principally as back-up power for real time clocks in mobile phones and digital cameras as well as in certain other applications such as watches, laptops and keyless entry systems for cars. The companies agreed to sell a production plant producing both cylindrical lithium and rechargeable coin-shape batteries. They also agreed to divest one of their portable nickel-metal hydride businesses to eliminate any increase in market share in this product market. In the consumer electronics market, the commission found that in many instance

MACQUARIE University has appointed Marc Bailey to the newly created role of chief information officer.

MICROSOFT has released free software that people can use to protect computers against viruses, spyware and other malicious codes.

Google is looking at ways to write software that would fully integrate plug-in hybrid vehicles to the power grid.

A GROUP of entertainment companies conducting a landmark copyright claim against iiNet has withdrawn part of its case against the ISP.

THE government is putting the final touches on the grant guidelines that will determine who will oversee its $100 million smart grid.

KRAFT has killed off its controversial iSnack2.0 Vegemite spin-off in the face of national outrage.

We pit the newly-released Picasa with facial recognition against Apple's iPhoto, and Microsoft's Windows Live Photo Gallery software to see which one did the best job at recognizing faces, and making it easier to organize big photo libraries.