PlayStation 3 launch date in question

What Sony CEO Howard Stringer didn`t say at the recent Consumer Electronics Show about Sony`s PlayStation 3 video game console spoke volumes about the key product`s timetable, analysts say. According to Marketwatch, Stringer provided no updates about the product`s US launch.

Industry watchers now expect the product`s US launch in the second half of 2006, although Sony may get a Japanese version out during the spring 2006 launch window that the technology giant first predicted last year.

Any delays could make it much harder for Sony next holiday season as it races to put out its own new product to take on Microsoft`s Xbox 360 in the market for video game players.

French president Jacques Chirac listed the "American giants" competing with France`s technology industry this week, reports the Seattle Times.

Chirac discussed a European response to Google, a multimedia search engine called Quaero being developed by a European consortium including French electronics company Thomson, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom.

"We must meet the global challenge of the American giants Google and Yahoo," Chirac said. "Today the new geography of knowledge and cultures is being drawn. Tomorrow, that which is not available online runs the risk of being invisible to the world."

Napster has denied claims that the digital music company is on the verge of a major shake-up that could see large numbers of employees lose their jobs. The Register reports that Napster has also rejected allegations that its bosses are planning to sell the business, or shut it down.

One Napster insider said the claims sound like "idle New Year speculation... all the plans I know of for Napster in 2006 relate to new products and expansion".

Sources have revealed that the company is cutting jobs in the UK.