Today's technology round-up 

Google PC will start in seven seconds or less Skip related content

New Google Inc software will start up a computer as fast as a television can be turned on, the search company said on Thursday as it showed off its Chrome operating system designed for PCs that do their work on the Web. Google gave the first public look at its Chrome OS four months after declaring its intention of developing the PC's main software, a move that pits it directly against Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc.

Smartphone growth to continue strong in 2010

BARCELONA (Reuters) - The wireless chip industry expects smartphone market surge to continue, with British microchip designer ARM saying growth would likely even accelerate further next year. The smartphone market slowed drastically in the September quarter, but chip makers -- whose products are sold weeks, if not months, before phones are sold to consumers -- said they were seeing strong market growth, indicating third quarter slowdown was temporary.

Vodafone eyeing new Internet revenue options

LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone is looking at new ways of making money from the mobile Internet, such as offering premium services, as the battle for control of an expanding market dominated by search engine Google heats up. All the major mobile operators have suffered in the last year in mature markets such as Europe from falling voice revenues due to competition and the economic downturn.

Tesco signs up C&W for broadband push

LONDON (Reuters) - Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, has signed up Cable & Wireless to help it provide broadband and home phone services as part of its drive to increase revenues from non-grocery businesses like telecoms. The supermarket group, which is holding two days of seminars for analysts and investors on its retail services ambitions, said on Thursday the five-year deal would allow Tesco Telecoms to step up expansion outside of its mobile phone business.

Nokia sees corporate interest for netbook

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Top cellphone maker Nokia has seen growing interest among companies for its first netbook or mini-laptop, a company executive said on Thursday. "When we launched the Booklet 3G ... we thought it to be primarily a consumer device, but after the launch a big, growing interest is coming from companies," Heikki Norta, head of Nokia corporate strategy, told a seminar.

China wants content, values censored in online games

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China said it will tighten regulations in its rapidly growing online games sector, requiring game operators to enhance socialist values in their games and hire specialised staff to monitor content. China's Ministry of Culture said in a circular that game operators must re-examine their game offerings for obscene and violent content and limit the number of virtual marriages and player-versus-player combat.

All Blacks face dressing down over Twitter leak

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Neemia Tialata and Cory Jane can expect a talking to from All Blacks coach Graham Henry after revealing on the social networking site Twitter they had been left out of the New Zealand to play England this weekend. The pair published the news they were being rested more than 24 hours before Henry formally announced his lineup on Wednesday.

China's military says website had 230 million attacks

BEIJING (Reuters) - A website set up by China's Ministry of Defence this summer was hit by more than 230 million hacker attacks in its first month of operation, but none of the attacks were successful, state media reported on Thursday. The China Daily report could not be independently confirmed. If true, that would equate to more than 5,000 attacks per minute.

Police make "trojan" virus arrests

LONDON (Reuters) - Detectives have made the first arrests in Europe to tackle a "trojan" computer virus which is believed to have infected tens of thousands of computers across the world, London police said on Wednesday. The ZeuS or Zbot trojan, a type of sophisticated malicious computer programme, has been used to collect millions of lines of data from machines allowing those responsible to obtain a mass of personal information.

EU ombudsman rebukes EU over errors in Intel case

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Ombudsman rebuked European Union regulators on Wednesday for procedural errors in their antitrust probe of Intel but the censure will not affect a 1.06 billion euro (941,000 pound) fine against the U.S. chipmaker. The European Commission levied the record fine in May for illegally shutting out rival AMD. The ombudsman's decision is non-binding but it could help the world's No. 1 chipmaker in its appeal against the ruling to Europe's second-highest court.