The Tapwave Zodiac mobile entertainment console, its accessories and games are now available in the mobile computing section of all 227 CompUSA stores.

The technology trade show that once defined the industry has been canceled for 2004. Citing declining attendance and a lack of focus, Medialive International said it would focus instead on the proposed 2005 event.

US investigators said they had arrested an America Online employee for allegedly stealing the Internet provider’s customer list and selling it to a purveyor of spam email. Jason Smathers of Harpers Ferry, W. Va., has been charged with stealing a list of 92 million AOL customer screen names and selling them to Internet marketer Sean Dunaway of Las Vegas.

Verizon Wireless has recalled 50,000 cell phone batteries, some of which may be counterfeit, after reports suggesting that they may cause minor fires and injuries. The TM-510 batteries, which carry the LG Mobile Phones brand, don’t have the circuitry normally installed to prevent overcharging, according to a notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Bob Bemer, a computer pioneer who helped develop the ASCII coding system and the technology that led to the “escape” key, has died at the age of 84 after battling cancer.

Toshiba announced a small methanol fuel cell which weighs just 8.5 g (0.3 oz) and can produce 100 mW of power. Toshiba describe this new unit as small enough for integration into a wireless headset for mobile phones, but still efficient enough to power an MP3 music player for as long as 20 hours on a single 2cc charge of highly concentrated methanol.

Security experts are tracking a new piece of malware that appears to be compromising large numbers of Windows PCs. The attack uses a novel vector: embedded code hidden in graphics on Web pages and seems to exploit a vulnerability in Internet Explorer.

The US Dept. of the Army has awarded Intermec Technologies a prime contract to provide mobile computing and automatic identification systems, wireless networking technologies and services worth as much as $238 million over the next five years. Under the terms of the five-year technology contract, Intermec will supply a complete line of advanced mobile computing, wireless communications and data collection systems and services, all engineered to meet the most demanding military applications and deliver unparalleled levels of efficiency and productivity.

Microsoft has been awarded a patent for using human skin as a power conduit and data bus. The patent describes a method for transmitting power and data to devices worn on the body and for communication of data between those devices.

IBM and German memory maker Infineon unveiled a prototype 16-megabit magnetic-memory chip this week. The two companies presented the MRAM, or magnetic random access memory, chip at the Very Large Scale Integration Circuits Symposium in Hawaii. The MRAM relies on magnetism rather than an electrical charge to store data.