Panasonic Announces 17,000 Job Cuts

Panasonic has announced a decision to cut 17,000 of its employees.

Japanese consumer electronics giant Panasonic has said it will cut five percent of its workforce as part of efforts to restructure and streamline the company and recover losses from Japan’s March 11 earthquake. The cuts, expected to take up to two years to complete, will reduce the company’s numbers to 350,000. Currently, Panasonic’s headcount is just shy of 367,000 people. Also on the cards is the closure of up to 20 percent of Panasonic’s manufacturing facilities. 

Next Snapdragon CPU: 2.5GHz, 75% Less Power

Qualcomm has said its next Snapdragon processors will bring console-quality gaming to mobile devices

Samsung made headlines last week when it promised a 2GHz smartphone CPU for 2012. It wasn’t long ago that such a thing didn’t even seem possible, and the news sparked plenty of conversations about how fast the industry is moving. However, it seems Samsung’s lofty promise has already been outdone by Qualcomm, which is planning new single, dual and quad core Snapdragons that will reach clock speeds 2.5GHz.

Next-Gen Internet Launched at USC Stevens Inst.

The next-generation Internet will be a decentralized, universally accessible, open platform.

While the current world wide web is migrating over to IPv6 before surfers finally come to a screeching halt at The End of the Internet, the next generation Internet has reportedly launched on Wednesday at the University of Southern California's Stevens Institute for Innovation. The launch took place during Aram Sinnreich's TEDx presentation at the Institute.

YouTube to Launch On Demand Movie Rentals

Google-owned video sharing site YouTube will soon launch an effort to take on the likes of iTunes and Netflix.

With the arrival of web-connected TVs, and Google TV in particular, it’s no surprise to hear that YouTube wants to expand its reach in the living room beyond funny cat videos and the odd viral hit. Though the company has been offering a limited number of movie rentals for a while, a report over on the Wrap indicates that the company will next month expand that service to include titles from major studios including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Universal. Also on board are several independent studios, including Lionsgate and Kino Lorber. Still on the fence are Paramount, Fox and Disney.

Apple Testing iPhone on T-Mobile USA (Photos)

Already available on AT&T and Verizon, it seems the Apple iPhone could soon be making its way to T-Mobile.

When the iPhone launched four years ago, in June of 2007, it was exclusive to AT&T. That exclusivity was supposed to last for five years, but it ended earlier this year when Verizon announced that the iPhone 4 was arriving on Big Red’s network. However, it seems Verizon’s run as ‘the other iPhone provider’ may be short-lived as pictures surfaced over the weekend to suggest the Apple smartphone could soon be headed to T-Mobile.