Nokia, Microsoft marriage expected

Nokia is expected to enter a partnership with Microsoft during a strategy and financial briefing on Friday, which would see the Finnish manufacturer roll out Windows Phone 7 devices in an attempt to remain competitive in the smartphone market, says V3.co.uk.

Analysts expect Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop to outline a change in strategic direction but were cautious about its chances of turning round Nokia's fortunes.

Nick Jones, a vice-president at analyst firm Gartner, suggested that a partnership with Microsoft is one of the options available to Nokia.

Scotland's video games companies are hoping an influential report will back their calls for the industry to receive tax breaks, reports the BBC.

Hi-tech firms claim tax aid would safeguard thousands of jobs and generate hundreds of millions of pounds of investment.

Scotland has a significant video games sector, in a market said to be worth £55 billion worldwide. The Scottish Affairs Committee report on the industry is due out today.

Hackers broke into a Nasdaq service that handles confidential communications for some 300 corporations, the company said on Saturday - the latest vulnerability exposed in the computer systems Wall Street depends on, writes the Associated Press.

The intrusions did not affect Nasdaq's stock trading systems and no customer data was compromised, Nasdaq said. The bourse is the largest electronic securities trading market in the US, with more than 2 800 listed companies.

A federal official told the Associated Press that the hackers broke into the service repeatedly over more than a year.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has publicly objected to the UK's Digital Economy Act (DEA), states Computing.co.uk.

The DEA, which was passed just before the dissolution of the last parliament, says ISPs should restrict access to Web sites that infringe copyright laws through P2P file sharing.

A letter from the IFLA's senior adviser, Stuart Hamilton, which was posted on a digital rights blog called Slightly Right of Centre, explains how this part of the Act could see libraries incur significant financial obligations.