Apple's music store overwhelmed
Swarms of online shoppers armed with new iPods and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed Apple's iTunes music store over the holiday, prompting error messages and slowdowns of 20 minutes or more for downloads of a single song. Full Story

Greg’s 2006 Christmas Presents: Ponies for HP & Google; Coal for Others
OK everybody, gather ‘round ‘cause Santa Greg is about to hand out gifts to those hi tech children – both naughty and nice. Full Story

Apple shares fall on stock options probe worries, new questions about CEO Jobs
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Shares of Apple Computer Inc. had another wild ride Thursday after new details of a U.S. federal investigation into the company's stock options practices raised questions about the role played by its charismatic CEO, Steve Jobs. Full Story

German military gives Siemens-IBM group US$9B deal to modernize IT systems
BERLIN (AP) - The German military said Thursday it has hired a consortium run by Siemens AG and IBM Corp. to modernize and run much of its communication network, awarding a contract worth 7.1 billion euros (US$9.3 billion) over 10 years. Full Story

Sirna shareholders approve US$1.1 billion sale of company to Merck
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Shareholders of Sirna Therapeutics Inc. on Thursday approved the sale of the tiny biotechnology company to the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. for US$1.1 billion. Full Story

L-3 Communications files protest on $4.65B army pact for linguistics services
WASHINGTON (AP) - Military contractor L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office over the loss of a $4.65-billion contract to provide translators to the army, the watchdog agency said Thursday. Full Story

General Dynamics can acquire SNC Technologies if it sheds assets: U.S. FTC
MONTREAL (CP) - Defence contractor General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) can proceed with a proposed US$275-million acquisition of SNC Technologies so long as it sells its interest in American Ordnance, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. Full Story

Apple's iTunes Music Store back on track after holiday slowdown
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) - Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iTunes Music Store appeared to be back to normal Thursday, two days after shoppers wielding new iPods and gift cards faced error messages and long delays while trying to download songs. Full Story

Intel ordered to produce international evidence in AMD antitrust case
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) - Chip-maker Intel Corp. said it would not object to a court order to produce documents related to its international business practices, as part of an antitrust case filed by rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Full Story

Google upgrades Blogger service - for some
Google Inc. is offering some users of its Blogger website access to a new version of the blog hosting service allowing user-definable templates, tagging of posts, multiple authors and faster publication of new posts, the company announced on its own blog. It will also integrate use of the blogging service more closely with other services through changes to the account log-in process. Full Story