China pushes for national TV network

China intends to consolidate radio and television networks under a single national cable television network company, reports People's Daily Online.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television says the new company will come up by the end of the year and will expand into new businesses like mobile TV and online videos.

The Chinese government last month rolled out a pilot project in 12 cities to test the convergence of the three networks. The trials are expected to last till 2012 and will focus on connecting the broadcasting and telecom networks.

Apple filed a European patent for a PC capable of shifting between touch-screen and traditional keyboard-and-mouse input, states eWeek.

This leads to speculation that the company could be preparing an iMac or other device capable of using both. Apple's touch-screen products, including the iPad, have seen notable marketplace success.

If Apple eventually crafts PCs with touch-screen functionality, it would follow other manufacturers' hybrid laptops and other devices that run a touch-enabled version of Windows 7.

CounterPath and NEC Unified Solutions have introduced NEC Smart Mobile Client, a solution for fixed-mobile convergence, says TMCnet.

The client software supports BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian platforms, as well as Apple iPhone and Android through the Web client.

Donovan Jones, CEO of CounterPath, says: "With Smart Mobile Client, customers on NEC call servers can now seamlessly shift phone calls off the cellular network onto their enterprise WiFi network, saving an estimated 30% on their mobile cellular spending.”