How do you expect this first decade of the 21st century to end? What other hot gadget will it bring? And we have got less than 3 years to find out the answer.

By 2010, people will become consumers of gizmos at an early age (3-4 years). Early versions of these gadgets are being developed inside labs.

With its headquarters in Japan, Sony Corp. stated that the plant it built as a joint venture together with the South Korea's giant, Samsung Electronics, will start the production of LCDs this summer, which outruns the schedule.

This week Yahoo launched its new Internet search system developed exclusively for users of mobile phones. The system delivers locally relevant answers, which pushes aside its main rival Google with its offers, making Yahoo one step ahead of the services that the number one search engine has to offer. The officials from Yahoo stated that the company looks forward to take advantage of the field in which searches through the Web are performed by mobile phones. The starting point is the U.S. market followed by international markets.

The scientists will launch a simulation game called Virtual Iraq. The simulation, according to the developers, has the goal of helping traumatized soldiers and military staff to recover when they get home from their duty.

Virtual Iraq was developed by scientists at the University of Southern California. However, Reading is now putting the simulation into practice. Thus Virtual Iraq represents a part of an exposure therapy program aiming to help soldiers that suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder to deal with their psychological trauma. The simulation has already given positive results for its first testers.

The software giant, Microsoft, started its invasion on another giant, the number one search engine Google. The officials from Microsoft state that the leading search engine takes a cavalier approach to copyright protection.

The general counsel of Microsoft, Thomas Rubin, prepared a special remark to the Association of American Publishers. He argued that the idea of Google to get involved into the media markets is a wrong move since it comes at the expense of publishers.

One of the biggest U.S. radio and television networks CBS announced that it will invest in Electric Sheep Co., the content developer of virtual worlds. The officials from CBS have mentioned that the company looks forward to expand significantly its activity.

Cuban government looks forward to move from Microsoft's Windows to open-source software. This step is going to expand the gap between Cuba and the U.S.-based corporation. Several ministers backed the idea of moving to open-source software.

The four giants of motherboard manufacture have released the information on the deliveries made in the PC stores around the world. The overall numbers are rather impressive.

HIV/AIDS has been spreading lately with a high speed and especially in Africa, where conditions of life are very poor and people do not receive enough care. Nowadays every single organization tries to contribute to this issue; institutions from the hi-tech area are not an exception.

Although China is considered to be a fast developing economic and social power, it still has to handle certain issues. Due to the continuous growth of information technology, China now faces the problem of protecting works covered by copyright law. It has been often criticized for not being able to tackle illegal movie and music downloads properly.

Hewlett-Packard has announced that it is going to add new grounds to the cooperation with SAP, the largest software enterprise in Europe, the third largest in the world, located in Walldorf, Germany. The Hewlett-Packard Company is widely known as HP. At present day HP, with headquarters in California, represents the largest information technology corporation providing many countries with printers and personal computers. Besides computing and printing, the corporation is involved into digital imaging, also offering software and services.

Yahoo Inc. is introducing a new on-line ad sales strategy. The innovative system is regarded as an opportunity for investors to speed up revenue growth and provide a push for its shares.

Microsoft has come up with a new way of fighting international software piracy. This week, on Monday it launches an on-line campaign named "Genuine Fact Files". Microsoft states that the campaign will make more people aware of all the aspects of using licensed software versus fraudulent one.

It is not a secret that a lot of present day Internet users dream of free downloading the things of their interest - whether this is their favorite music, books, software or movies. But are they ready to join a state that would break all the laws of copyright?

Canon Inc. has decided to buy out the stake owned by Toshiba Corp.'s in their joint venture, SED Inc. This way Canon hopes to put an end to a patent dispute related to the development of a new TV set model.