Stories about: Texas Instruments

Until September, the US tech industry appeared insulated from the year-long economic slowdown. Most of the 20 largest US tech firms reported solid second-quarter earnings in July and August, and they were projecting continued growth in sales through the year-end. Then Wall Street crashed. Here's the latest word from tech executives about current market conditions and the outlook for the rest of this year.

The technology behind almost every electronics device in the world, the integrated circuit or IC, celebrated its 50th anniversary on Friday. Its enduring success is thanks in part to two "nice guys" who developed it, and their early efforts to convince an industry that at first reviled their idea.

This year marks an almost forgotten 40th anniversary: the conception of the device that ultimately became the PC. And no, it did not happen in California.

You are one of 8 million users who just downloaded Firefox 3.0. But are you ready for Firefox for mobile?

The Symbian Foundation is growing, with another nine companies joining the organization, including mobile operators 3, America Movil and TIM.

As if "openness" wasn't already the key word of the year for mobile communications, Nokia took the concept a step further Tuesday, announcing plans to create an organization called the Symbian Foundation, which will make the Symbian mobile operating system an open platform, with licenses to be offered royalty-free.

A new breed of extremely small and light (2 pounds or so) laptop has emerged just in time for summer travel. Called mobile Internet devices (MIDs), and also known as mini-laptops, mini-notebooks, or mini-notes, these lightweight laptops are practically naked, stripped of all extraneous features. And starting at around US$400, they're far cheaper than other mobile PCs.

Intel plans to make the specification for a USB 3.0 host controller freely available during the second half of this year, hitting back at rumors the chip maker wanted to keep the technology for itself.

Fear: Being woken by an earthquake my first night in Taipei. Loathing: New ASUS Eee PCs face a battle royale for low-cost mini-notebook dominance, as does the new Intel Atom chip that powers them.

Similar to its famous "developers, developers, developers" rant, Microsoft is chanting "software, software, software" as it lays the cornerstones of its unified communications platform.

Intel's Atom processor has been stealing the limelight when it comes to small, portable Internet devices, but Intel rivals Arm and Texas Instruments hope to change that.