Google acquires Aardvark

Google is buying Aardvark, a company that fields questions and routes them for answers to the most qualified respondents within the user's social networking circle, reports PC World.

"We have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Aardvark, but we don't have any additional details to share right now," says Google spokesman Andrew Pederson.

Once people sign up for Aardvark, they create a list of contacts, either manually or by importing their contacts from Facebook, Gmail, and other Webmail and IM services, and populate it with those who have already signed up for Aardvark. Users can expand the list to also include friends of friends, as well as members of Facebook groups that they belong to.

Apple may soon sell television shows through iTunes for a dollar per standard-definition episode, following successful talks with unnamed studios, writes eWeek.

The deal represents another of Apple's attempts to corral content creators under its banner before the release of the iPad tablet PC at some point within the next two months.

If the $1 price is confirmed, it's also a reflection of how flexible pricing related to the iPad and its associated content remains even as the device's release date draws closer.

A Japanese astronaut aboard the International Space Station since December has been shooting some incredible images and sending them back to Earth, says CNET.

Souichi Noguchi, a member of the Soyuz TMA-17 crew and Expedition 22, has sent more than 28 images of the world's major cities and tallest mountains taken from on board the International Space Station more than 322km into space.

The images have been posted via Twitpic to his Twitter page: here.

Technology workers saw a 0.3% increase in employment, or roughly 12 900 more jobs in the US in January, as reported by TechServe Alliance, which publishes a monthly technology outlook based on data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, states eWeek.

In December, IT employment increased by 6 400 jobs - an improvement of 0.2%, according to TechServe Alliance.

For January, there were 3 823 700 employed technology workers, up from 3 821 000, with the dominant increase being in computer systems and design services. By comparison, in November 2008 there were over four million individuals in technology jobs, a decline of nearly 275 000 jobs in 14 months.