Zoho Adopts Offline Mode For Its Web-Based Applications (CIO.com )

Zoho, a web-based suite of productivity applications, announced yesterday that users of its word processor software can edit their documents in an offline mode. The announcement quells one of the primary criticisms mounted against the two-year-old start-up and its primary competitor, Google Apps, by businesses accustomed to traditional installed tools like Microsoft Office.

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Nigerian firm sues Negroponte, OLPC for patent infringement (Engadget)

Just months after a slew of OLPC XOs made their way into Nigeria, a Nigerian-owned company is filing suit against Nicholas Negroponte and the OLPC Association for patent infringement. Lagos Analysis and subsidiary LANCOR filed the lawsuit on November 22nd in Nigeria, claiming that the aforementioned parties willfully and illegally reverse engineered its keyboard driver source codes.

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Google GDrive preps for takeoff, but is late to the launch pad (Ars Technica)

Google's long-rumored online storage project, GDrive, is reportedly close to launch with free and paid options. This is one of the first times Google isn't in the lead, though, meaning that the competition has an opportunity to blow us out of the water before Google can.

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Verizon Wireless "Opens" Its Network (Red Herring)

In what might be seen as a concession to pressure applied by Google and others, No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier Verizon Wireless on Tuesday said it will open its network to independent application developers and device makers by the end of 2008.

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Google hopes to spawn world-wide renewable energy movement (TG Daily)

Google announced a new initiative yesterday called RE<C (Renewable Energy less than Coal), one designed to speed up the development pace on clean, renewable energy sources. They'd like to bring forth a 1 Gigawatt capacity clean, renewable energy generation system, one producing energy which costs less than coal, enough to power a city the size of San Francisco.

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Robot with soft hands chats, serves meal (Reuters)

A pearly white robot that looks a little like E.T. boosted a man out of bed, chatted and helped prepare his breakfast with its deft hands in Tokyo Tuesday, in a further sign robots are becoming more like their human inventors.

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