At the end of last week Samsung revealed the first phone based on its own operating system bada. The technology underlying the operating system is Samsung’s TouchWiz system used on its touch-screen non-smart phones. The company wants this way to challenge Apple iPhone and RIM BlackBerry markets. J.K. Shin, the president of Samsung's phone division, said the goal of bada was to expand the market for smart phones, making them available to people across the world who have made do with non-smart phones.

 As Microsoft is about to launch its biggest product in a decade on Thursday analysts and PC makers are speculating over the benefits from a refresh of hardware lines next year. Many industry players believe new software will help boost sales in the IT sector as customers will be more inclined to purchase updated machines. While some experts say Windows 7 may have a short-term impact on PC sales to consumers businesses have a cautious mood preferring to look to 2010 while abstaining from purchase for a time and keeping to an observer position.

Twitter, the fast-growing microblogging site now seeking ways to make money, expanded its terms for users on Thursday to allow advertisers to reach the Internet site's more than 45 million monthly visitors.Twitter, the two-year-old venture capital-backed company that lets people send an unlimited number of 140-character messages, is just now beginning to ramp up efforts to monetize, or gain revenue from, its popular site.

EBay's ambitious project to turn its Selling Manager set of e-commerce tools into an open platform and repository of third-party applications reached another milestone on Monday when it was opened to the marketplace's sellers.EBay vice president of Seller Experience Dinesh Lathi said in a blog post that merchants can now sign up for a free subscription to the new Selling Manager and give external applications that interest them a test run, since all fee-based applications have free trial periods.

Nextel has selected NCR to provide a self-service bill payment system designed to enhance service. The system will be based on the NCR SelfServ 32 automated teller machine platform and will enable Nextel customers to pay their bills without staff assistance. With the introduction of the system customers will have an opportunity to choose between using cash, credit cards, debit cards or banks.

investment Technology Group, Inc., a leading agency broker and financial technology firm, today announced the addition of global electronic trading capabilities in its Triton® execution management system (EMS), enabling clients to trade among North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific markets from any location on one platform.