AP - Sony's new online service connecting the whole range of its gadgets to downloadable content like movies and games should help build brand loyalty, a top executive said Friday.

AP - Increasing numbers of English-language Web sites are spreading al-Qaida's message to Muslims in the West. They translate writings and sermons once largely out of reach of English readers and often feature charismatic clerics like Anwar al-Awlaki, who exchanged dozens of e-mails with the Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood shootings.

AP - Nathaniel Lester scored 19 points and Hofstra held off Yale 68-63 in the first round of the NIT Season Tip-Off on Monday night.

AP - Yahoo Inc. is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon in its latest attempt to get people to use its Internet search engine more frequently.

AP - A spacewalking astronaut put aside the impending birth of his daughter and blazed through his first-ever venture outside the International Space Station on Saturday.

AP - Think of it as closed captioning for the new media world.

AFP - Austrian cattle farmers no longer have to travel long distances to sell or buy cattle: it can all be done at the click of a mouse, on a new auction website.

InfoWorld - Ruby, the popular open source dynamic language, is making headway not only on Java but also on the Windows and Mac platforms.

AFP - British mobile phone giant Vodafone Group Plc has sought an extra two months to reply to a two-billion-dollar Indian tax claim over its purchase of India's third-largest mobile operator.

AP - Moody's Investors Service downgraded ratings for Liberty Media Corp. subsidiary Liberty Media LLC on Friday. The changes come shortly after shareholders approved the formation of a new company out of DirecTV Group Inc. and some of Liberty's entertainment businesses.

PC World - Microsoft wants you on Xbox LIVE for the weekend with, of course, a view toward forever, and it's prepared to temporarily waive the cover fee to grab your attention.

Macworld.com - It was a banner week for stupid opinion pieces about Apple. Indeed, the Macalope had a hard time narrowing the field. He did eventually pick two lucky winners, but hed like to assure all the silly pundits who auditioned that they did horrible, horrible work and even though they didnt get selected,they shouldstill feel terrible about themselves. Before we wade into the muck, though, who wants to dancewith Microsoft?!

PC World - Earlier this week, Google gave the world a first look at the Chrome OS. The press event confirmed what was suspected when Google announced it was working on a netbook operating system four months ago -- it would emphasize speed and simplicity. As the tech world tests versions of the operating system that were compiled from Google's source code it is looking like the project's priorities may be weaknesses.

Reuters - The auction for Nortel Network's optical networking and carrier ethernet business went into a second day on Saturday, after Ciena called for a break in the auction late on Friday, two sources said.

PC World - A Seattle computer security consultant says he's developed a new way to exploit a recently disclosed bug in the SSL protocol, used to secure communications on the Internet. The attack, while difficult to execute, could give attackers a very powerful phishing attack.