The common electric socket will serve as your home's connection to broadband with a new chip developed by Matsushita -- doing away with all the ethernet cables or the hassle of hooking up to a wireless network device.
The technology has been around for some time -- including in the United States -- but Matsushita's (MC) system is unique in that it delivers fast-speed broadband information at up to 170 megabits per second, which is faster than ethernet.
Attach a special device made by Matsushita to a socket and all you have to do is plug your TV or other gadgets into a socket for instant connection to broadband, which allows for faster transmission of online information than dial-up telephone connections.
Matsushita hopes to eventually sell refrigerators, TVs and other products with the chip already installed.
A network-connected refrigerator may allow users to connect from a mobile phone or laptop to check whether you're low on eggs, for example. Or you may want to turn gadgets off or on, such as your washing machine or air-conditioner, from outside the home.
Samples of the technology are being made available to companies that may want to use it for their products. A demonstration of the technology will be on show at the CEATEC exhibition that showcases electronic technology, opening near Tokyo next month.
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Finders keepers: A senior U.S. official rejected calls for a U.N. body to take over control of the main computers that direct traffic on the internet, reiterating U.S. intentions to keep its historical role as the medium's principal overseer.
Many countries, particularly developing ones, have become increasingly concerned about the U.S. control, which stems from the country's role in creating the internet as a Pentagon project and funding much of its early development.
Some negotiators from other countries said there was a growing sense that a compromise had to be reached and that no single country ought to be the ultimate authority over such a vital part of the global economy.
A stalemate over who should serve as the principal traffic cops for internet routing and addressing could derail the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society, which aims to ensure a fair sharing of the internet for the benefit of the whole world.
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No hard news feelings: Google's boycott of News.com appears to have ended quietly, less than three months after company executives told the technology news site that they would stop speaking with its reporters for a year.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt granted an interview this week to News.com's Elinor Mills, the reporter whose article in July about privacy issues raised by Google's search engine apparently offended the company.
For her July story, Mills went looking for details on Schmidt to illustrate the kind of information available through Google. She noted in the piece that his net worth was $1.5 billion, that he donated $25,000 to the Democratic National Committee and that he had attended the Burning Man counterculture festival.
She also included a link to a site where Schmidt's home address could be found.
Google's interview ban had forced News.com to run a disclaimer on any articles about Google explaining why Google executives weren't being quoted. Pundits and columnists then accused Schmidt of taking a "hypocritical" stance and even fearing his own company's technology.
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Massive memory: Samsung, the world's top memory-chip maker, announced a $33 billion investment plan to add new production lines, aiming to more than treble its chip sales by 2012.
The plan, the biggest single investment project since Samsung entered the semiconductor business in 1974, was set to widen the gap with its smaller rivals while adding capacity in its relatively weak non-memory-chip division.
Samsung also said it was considering building new production facilities in the United States, although nothing was set.
Memory-chip makers have huge capital spending requirements as production moves to finer circuitry technology that makes chips smaller and helps cut manufacturing costs.
Analysts expect firm demand for memory chips over the coming years due to growing PC markets in emerging countries and booming sales of digital cameras and music players, which use flash memory chips.
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Compiled by Keith Axline. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
