MS revamps Zune

Microsoft has revamped its slow-selling Zune digital music players and created a MySpace-style social networking site in its drive to compete with Apple's market-leading iPod player, says The New York Times.

In large part, the Microsoft moves announced yesterday - the introduction of a smaller, sleeker version of the Zune player and the planned Zune Social Web site - reflect an attempt to build scale for a brand that so far has achieved only niche status. Microsoft said it had sold about 1.2 million units of the original device in the last year.

"For something we pulled together in six months, we are very pleased with the satisfaction we got," Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, said in an interview yesterday.

An angry iPhone buyer is suing Apple for $1 million after the company slashed the price of the device by $200 only 68 days after its US launch, reports Times Online.

Dongmei Li, of New York, who waited "for hours" to buy a 4GB version of the iPhone in July, three days after its debut, accuses Apple of "price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, deceptive actions and other wrongdoings," according to a filing by her attorney, C Jean Wang, of Wang Law Offices.

Apple cut the price of the 8GB model of the iPhone to $399 from $599 last month, triggering an outcry from consumers who had paid the higher price for the much-hyped gadget.

Samsung Electronics and audio product maker Bang & Olufsen have unveiled their latest joint music-mobile phone, Serenata, which holds 4GB of songs and has a number of other music features similar to the iPhone.

The handsets will go on sale in Europe by the end of the month, said Anthony Lee, a spokesman for Samsung. Pricing has not yet been determined, according to PC World.

The handset does not look much like a mobile phone: the top half is dominated by a navigation wheel, the designers having dispensed with buttons. The 2.26-inch liquid crystal display touch-screen is below the navigation wheel, in the place where the buttons are found on conventional mobile phones.

Toshiba plans to begin selling televisions with organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens as soon as panels are ready, according to a company spokesperson, reports PC World.

The first Toshiba OLED television sets should hit the market in 2009, said Toshiba spokesperson Yuko Sugahara.

OLED screens offer higher contrast and faster response times than liquid crystal display screens. OLED screens can also be thinner since no backlight is required. The carbon-based materials used to make OLEDs, illuminate themselves when an electrical current is applied.