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Software to analyze genetic experiments

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Elon Gasper, senior vice president of VizX, said the new version will bundle several preliminary functions researchers commonly use. One option will enable experimental results to be posted to public databases because many scientific journals now require it for publication.

T-Mobile

Access to Wi-Fi hotspots to expand

Bellevue-based T-Mobile said Wednesday it was adding access to 6,500 Wi-Fi hotspots in Europe and Asia for its customers through roaming agreements with other wireless carriers in a consortium called the Wireless Broadband Alliance.

T-Mobile subscribers can now use more than 11,500 Wi-Fi locations worldwide. Previously, customers had access only to U.S. hotspots and more recently to wireless locations supported by T-Mobile's sister companies in the Deutsche Telekom family.

The feature will be free until the new year, when a fee kicks in.

Yahoo!

E-mail storage grows to compete with rivals'

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Yahoo! is more than doubling its limits on free e-mail storage move to combat Google and Microsoft.

Accountholders will get up to 250 megabytes free instead of up to 100 megabytes, effective today. The change follows Microsoft's decision to boost free Hotmail storage to 250 megabytes.
 
Both Yahoo! and Hotmail have sharply increased storage since Google rolled out its free e-mail service in April. The Google service, Gmail, offers each accountholder up to 1,000 megabytes.

Adobe Systems

More power added to popular Acrobat

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Software maker Adobe Systems has upgraded its flagship desktop publishing products, giving powerful new features to not only the authors of electronic documents but also recipients.

Adobe's Acrobat converts documents into the Portable Document Format, or PDF, commonly used for viewing files over the Web and in e-mail attachments. Its companion Adobe Reader, a free downloadable program, is used by more than 500 million people to access PDF documents.

In the past, the Adobe Reader simply allowed viewing capabilities. But the new version 7.0 — to be unveiled today with Acrobat 7.0 — now lets users make comments or editing changes — if the original creator of the document uses Acrobat 7.0 and authorizes it, company officials said.

Cellular Operators

Providers in India struggle despite boom

Mobile phones have now surpassed landlines in India, but mobile-phone companies are still worried about low revenues and high taxes.

T.V. Ramachandran, secretary general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, said service providers don't make enough to invest in infrastructure.

Average monthly revenues per user have fallen from around $40 in 1999 to $9 currently, while users are typically making more calls — 309 minutes' worth in June, compared with 295 minutes in March.

Yet service providers have to pay up to 14 percent of their revenues toward license fees, revenue shares and charges to use wireless spectrum, Ramachandran said.

According to the latest figures from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the sector's watchdog body, there were 44.51 million mobile phones and 43.96 million landlines in India at the end of October.

eBay

Data site lets buyers, sellers track trends

A new feature from online auctioneer eBay delivers a trove of data for buyers and sellers and could become one of the holiday season's hottest reference guides.

The free "Pulse" data aggregation site at www.ebay.com/pulse will be updated daily to reflect popular offerings in dozens of categories, including the day's most expensive listings and the most frequently used search terms.

Google, Yahoo!, Amazon.com and other portals and e-commerce sites publish data about their listings, but eBay's aggregated data could dwarf those. At the end of September, eBay had a record 125 million users and 348 million items for sale.

The site is expected to help sellers, including small businesses that operate eBay Stores, manage inventory so that they don't flood already saturated markets. The site could also spark buying sprees of must-have toys or video games for the holidays.

Compiled from Seattle Times business staff and The Associated Press