Verizon Wireless acquired spectrum in New York City and MetroPCS snapped up airwaves in Florida during a recent bankruptcy auction. Verizon’s $930 million bid was the minimum that bankrupt NextWave Telecom asked in exchange for 10 megahertz of spectrum covering New York, northern and central New Jersey, Westchester and Rockland counties.

Coffee company Starbucks has added wireless service to 110 stores in five states, the company said in a statement. The states are Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Wisconsin, bringing the total number of Starbucks stores offering hot-spot service to 3,100.

Scientists at General Electric unveiled one of the smallest functioning devices ever made, a carbon tube about 10 atoms wide that could one day shrink computer chip technology. Researchers at GE’s central lab in Niskayuna, NY, hope that their new device, which is a rolled-up sheet of carbon atoms resembling chicken wire, will someday operate as the standard semiconductor in computers and other electronics.

A computer science researcher has highlighted the shortcomings of Microsoft’s latest patch for its Internet Explorer browser by identifying another way that online vandals could run malicious programs on a Web surfer’s computer.

Linksys has released antennas that increase the range of wireless networks. The antennas are to be used with select Linksys Wireless-B and Wireless-G products and address the No. 1 complaint of consumers, networks that don’t reach far enough.

Metrowerks Corporation has introduced its newest Linux board support package (BSP) for Freescale Semiconductor’s i.MX21 multimedia applications processor, an industry-leading platform for wireless applications and portable consumer electronics devices. This production BSP replaces the previously released Metrowerks BSP supporting i.MX21 alpha silicon.

PowerByHand, provider of mobile content and solutions, and palmOne, launched the palmOne eBook store, with content provided by PowerByHand’s eReader.com, the world’s largest and most popular electronic bookstore. palmOne currently provides its customers with access to PowerByHand’s award-winning eReader (formerly Palm Reader) in the box with most palmOne devices.

The author of mass-mailing worm Bagle began distributing its source code and two new variants on Sunday, which could trigger another summer of misery for Windows users. The Bagle worm first appeared in January as an e-mail attachment. Within months, there were more than 25 variants.

Internet-based business disruptions triggered by worms and viruses are costing companies an average of nearly $2 million in lost revenue per incident, market researcher Aberdeen said. Out of 162 companies contacted, 84 percent said their business operations have been disrupted and disabled by Internet security events during the last three years.

Web companies doing business with Californians are beholden to a new state law protecting consumer privacy, and industry executives believe many sites have yet to comply. As of July 1, California companies operating a commercial Web site must post a conspicuous privacy policy on their Web sites and disclose the kinds of personally identifiable data that they collect and share with third parties, according to the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003.