2004.12.13 - 2004.12.19   |   A summary of the past weeks main technology & science news. Updated every Sunday.

RELATED STORIES: Galileo satellite system gets final go-ahead. Samsung, Sony sign tech exchange deal. Nintendo announces media module for DS. ICANN to add more top-level domains. Peoplesoft finally accepts Oracle's offer. Symantec buys Veritas for $13.5bn. Siemens about to sell its phone biz to China? MPAA launches attack on BitTorrent users. Toshiba boosts "mini-HD" capacity to 80GB. Samsung shows 2.5m HDTV plasma screen. Nokia sticks holograms on its batteries. Gamer buys virtual property for $26k. RELATED STORIES: Google to become digital library? Microsoft buys anti-spyware firm. OpenOffice.org previews version 2.0. Autodesk & M$ to exchange patents. SaveJe wins first big phone OS deal. Five fixes in December's Windows update. Apple updates MacOS X to 10.3.7. M$ plugs XP firewall security hole.

RELATED STORIES: Intel reveals "Smithfield" dual core CPU. IBM, AMD improve transistor performance. PCI Express 2.0 already specified? Atheros unveils access-point-on-a-chip. nForce 4 SLI hits retail. Intel takes over HP's Itanium dev team. AMD to introduce new Opterons in February? nVidia introduces chip with TurboCache. Intel cuts Celeron, chipset prices. RELATED STORIES: NASA prepares for DeepImpact launch. NASA Administrator O'Keefe leaves his job. The future of NASA. NASA brings nanotech to electronics. Data correction for quantum computers. Russians launch American satellite. NASA teams plan for Neptune orbiter. More evidence that Mars was once a wet world.