Google updates business mail

Google is moving to attract big business users to its Google Apps service, only a year after entering the software market. The company said on Tuesday it is offering stepped up e-mail management services at no additional cost to paying users, reports Reuters.

Google, the market leader in Web search and online advertising for consumers, is introducing e-mail controls and anti-spam protections resulting from the acquisition of e-mail services supplier Postini, which it closed three weeks ago.

Enterprises which pay $50 a month per office worker for the Google Apps package of business software, e-mail and Web services will get 25GB of data storage each for no extra cost, meaning many users will no longer need to delete incoming e-mail.

Nokia will co-brand a set of Renault Twingo cars which will go on sale later this month, packed with Nokia's navigation system and hands-free equipment, says Reuters.

"Navigation is a new and fast-growing industry and we are also looking for new ways to operate there. Cooperation of Nokia and a car industry is a natural step," Nokia's spokesperson Eija-Riitta Huovinen said yesterday.

Earlier this week, Nokia offered $8.1 billion for US-based digital map supplier Navteq in its largest takeover yet, to get a stronghold in the navigation business, which is one of the fastest growing sectors in the technology industry.

Verizon Wireless has unveiled four new mobile phones for the 2007 holiday season, and it hopes that one of them is cool enough to shift the spotlight away from Apple's iPhone, says InformationWeek.

Attracting the most attention is LG Electronics' Voyager, which resembles the iPhone in several ways.

The Voyager, exclusively offered by Verizon Wireless, has a large external touch-screen that also slides open sideways for a full qwerty keypad. This gives users a choice on how they access the phone's features, Verizon Wireless said.

Regardless of how the first trial of a person accused of illegally sharing music online turns out, the record industry plans to keep suing listeners for a while, according to FOXNews.com.

"We think we're in for a long haul in terms of establishing that music has value, that music is property, and that property has to be respected," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, which coordinates the lawsuits.

Some 26 000 lawsuits have been filed since 2003, but the case against Jammie Thomas, a mother of two, is the first to go to trial. Many other defendants settled by paying the record companies a few thousand dollars.