Oh wow, HTC is not only good and recognized in design only, but now the company wants to jump deeper into silicon than ever was before! VIA Technologies today announced the signing of definitive agreement to sell all of its shareholding in S3 Graphics Co., Ltd. to HTC Corporation. S3 Graphics is a leading provider of innovative graphics visualization technologies used in PCs, game consoles and, more recently, mobile devices. VIA acquired S3 Graphics in 2001 with the intention to accelerate integration of graphics capabilities with its processor and chipset products. Under terms of the agreement with HTC, total consideration for all outstanding shares of S3 Graphics will be US$ 300 million. VIA will recognize a capital gain of US$ 37 million and paid-in-capital of US$ 115 million in this transaction.

Quietly brilliant! HTC Corporation, a global designer of mobile phones, has been honored by three separate international organizations for excellence in product design, reflecting the company's commitment to creating perfect experiences for everyday life that make consumers' lives a little better. HTC's philosophy of designing mobile phones for the individual passions and pursuits of consumers is reflected in each winning product line, resulting in recent awards from IDEA, and earlier in the year from red dot and IDA. HTC garnered four top awards at the 2011 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), known as the "Oscars of Design," and sponsored by Fast Company magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America, for devices in the communications tools category.

Amazing, happy birthday GSM! Feels like yesterday since you've launched (and I joined in 1993). As Nokia has posted, on July 1, 1991, former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri made the world's first public GSM call, using Nokia equipment (for sure). However, what Nokia forgot to mention is, that the GSM standard was significantly developed by German Siemens and French Alcatel because the standard goes back to a very early initiative of Germany and France. Anyway, Nokia jumped the bandwagon pretty early as well and was one of the key developers of GSM technology as we know it today.

During yesterday's D9 Conference, Microsoft demonstrated the next generation of Windows, internally code-named "Windows 8", for the first time. Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse. The demo showed some of the ways Microsoft reimagined the interface for a new generation of touch-centric hardware but for Windows Phone users, it's nothing new at all since it mimics Windows Phone's Metro UI and (live) tile Start screen.

As rumored yesterday night, Microsoft and Skype today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype, the leading Internet communications company, for US$ 8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake. The acquisition will increase the accessibility of real-time video and voice communications, bringing benefits to both consumers and enterprise users and generating significant new business and revenue opportunities. The combination will extend Skype's world-class brand and the reach of its networked platform, while enhancing Microsoft's existing portfolio of real-time communications products and services.