Critics wallop Wikia

Wikia Search, the highly anticipated search engine conceived by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, arrived on 7 January without many of its promised "collaborative" features, prompting a chorus of harsh reviews around the blogosphere, reports Business Week.

Preliminary testing of the site by BusinessWeek.com produced disappointing results, consistent with the widespread grumbles, many of which concluded that Wikia Search went live far too early with this alpha version.

Wales, who has touted plans to incorporate user feedback into search results, launched the site without any of those capabilities in place. For now, Wikia Search is little more than an ordinary algorithm-driven search engine mixed with a few Facebook-type frills, such as user profiles that can be used to find others with common interests.

Apple has introduced a more powerful Xserve aimed at organisations with limited IT support, such as small businesses or departments in larger companies, says Information Week.

In addition, the company launched a Mac Pro with twice the performance of the previous version of the workstation for creative professionals and research organisations. Apple unveiled the new products a week before the Macworld conference opens in San Francisco.

Both new products are under $3 000 and come standard with two Intel Xeon quad-core chips, code-named Harpertown, which were released only last month. Last year, the same custom design would have cost $4 000.

Frontline Wireless, which wanted to build an innovative cellular network for both private use and local public safety agencies, has collapsed because it could not raise enough money to bid in the government auctions of wireless spectrum that start later this month, reports New York Times.

The company's failure raises questions about the ability of the auctions to raise the $14 billion or more the federal government wants in exchange for the broadcast spectrum that will be freed next year by the shift from analogue to digital television.

Last month, Frontline filed an application to participate in the auction. But it was not able to make the required deposit of $128 million that was due last Thursday, a person involved in the company said.

The consumer electronics industry has for many years tried to shoehorn a game (some would say game-like) experience on the mobile phone device, but this year, Sony swims upstream in the same waters, says CNN.

It has taken the PSP handheld game platform and turned it into a mobile phone, albeit with limitations. But the value proposition for consumers is a win-win. Newer PSPs will be able to make Skype calls from anywhere there is a WiFi connection.

Sony has partnered with eBay's Skype division and developed a portable version on the VOIP service for the PSP, effectively turning the gaming handheld into a Skype phone, with the same functionality, as well as its limitations.