Intel and electronics group Philips have joined to market home entertainment systems with Intel chips, as the world's top chipmaker targets the $70 billion-a-year market for consumer electronics semiconductors.
Intel (INTC) will supply a processor, chip set and software for a Philips media center that will allow customers to store and share photos, music and video in a single system, as they promote digital products for the home.
The PC-based Philips Showline Media Center will include a card that allows users to watch two TV channels at once, as well as a 250-GB hard disk drive for storing music and photo collections and a recorder for DVDs and CDs.
While the first products are closely related to personal computers, running Microsoft Windows software, Intel aims to expand into chips for a broad range of networked consumer electronics devices, including advanced televisions, in a journey that will take the company several years to complete.
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Creative mistake: Creative Technology said some of its MP3 player shipments to Japan contained a virus worm, and it is recalling affected products from stores.
Creative (CREAF), which makes Nomad and Zen brand players, said in a statement on its Japanese website that some of its Zen Neeon devices, which started shipping in late June, contained a "low-risk worm."
The company estimates that fewer than 50 units were affected, out of 2,900 devices that had been shipped to Japan since Sept. 1. "The system with the problem has been disposed of, and the problem has been fixed. We verify that Creative Zen Neeon shipments going forward will not have this problem," the company said.
Creative shares fell 2.2 percent to $13.60 on Friday. The stock has slumped about 24 percent over the last 12 months.
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Rage against the machine: Machinists at Boeing went on strike Friday, forcing the aerospace company to halt production of commercial airplanes after the two sides could not agree on a new labor contract.
The strike affects about 18,400 machinists in the Seattle area, Wichita, Kansas and Gresham, Oregon.
The machinists, who assemble Boeing's commercial airplanes and some key components, voted overwhelmingly Thursday to strike, rejecting a three-year contract proposal their leaders called "insulting."
Boeing spokesman Charles Bickers said the strike meant the company would immediately stop assembling commercial airplanes.
Union leaders said the contract offer fell woefully short on top issues including pension payments and increased health-care costs. District Lodge 751 is negotiating for employees in all three states, although some terms differ based on location.
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Follow your heart: Johnson & Johnson will sell its Cordis coronary steerable guidewires business in Canada in response to concerns by Canadian regulatory authorities ahead of its $25.4 billion acquisition of cardiovascular device maker Guidant.
J&J (JNJ) said the Canadian Competition Bureau has decided not to take any action at this time on the company's proposed acquisition of Guidant in relation to markets affected by that proposed deal but will monitor developments.
Last week, the European regulators gave conditional approval to the merger, and J&J said it would divest its steerable guidewires used to navigate the vascular system and Guidant's Endovascular solutions business in Europe.
Both New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J and Indianapolis-based Guidant are active worldwide in vascular medical devices, with their products used to treat diseases in the heart as well as other parts of the body.
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Compiled by Keith Axline. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
