Silicon Valley start-ups, increasingly dropping Microsoft and turning to Web-based software, may be the crucial opening Google needs for its Chrome operating system. Analysts and executives say Google, which unveiled the Chrome this week in a direct challenge to Microsoft’s decades-old dominance of computer operating systems and business applications, will take years to get significant share... 

Strengthening its line up of portable 1.8″ hard drives for external storage markets, Samsung Electronics has announced its 250 Gigabyte 1.8 inch hard disk drive, the Spinpoint N3U which incorporates a native USB controller on its printed circuit board. This optimized design results in a smaller foot print, less power consumption and optimized performance, which is ideal for portable external... 

Google Inc’s bid to compete with Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system may help lower the cost of personal computers at a time when prices are already being pinched by inexpensive netbooks. Analysts expect Google to offer its just-announced Chrome Operating System for a small fee or for free when it is launched in the second half of 2010, a move that could force Microsoft into a price...