Stephen Lawson

Freescale Semiconductor Inc. has agreed to be acquired by a group of investment firms for US$17.6 billion (Cdn$19.7 billion). A consortium of four private equity firms plans to buy the big Austin, Texas, chipmaker for US$40 (Cdn $44.78) per share in cash. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and a vote by Freescale shareholders. Freescale's board of directors has unanimously approved the sale, the company announced

Wireless LAN access points based on the draft for a faster standard should cost less as Atheros unveils its chipset and networking processor and that would enable products using it to be much faster than today's standard gear.

Apple Computer Inc. will resolve its patent squabble with Creative Technology Ltd. by paying the Singapore-based company US$100 million for a licence to use a recently awarded patent.

Fast wireless LAN gear based on a draft version of the next industry standard is making inroads into the small-office and home market despite costing more than twice as much as other products.

The Boeing Co. will phase out its Connexion by Boeing service, leaving what it once considered a promising market for in-flight Internet access.

Boston's vision of municipal WiFi sees city, university and hospital fiber networks bypassing the major service providers and laying the foundation for free Internet access, proponents said this week.

Watch what you say about your computer: It's getting better at understanding your voice. Nuance Communications Inc. says the latest version of its speech-recognition software can achieve -- with some speakers -- 99 percent accuracy out of the box, without a "training" session to familiarize the software with how a particular person talks. It was scheduled for launch Tuesday.

Yahoo Inc. is set to launch a service that helps consumers plan trips online the way they do in real life: By finding out where other people went and what they did there.