LOS ANGELES: A federal judge in California ruled on Monday that wireless chip maker Qualcomm must immediately stop selling third-generation, or 3G, WCDMA cellular chips that infringe on Broadcom patents. U.S. District Judge James Selna ruled however, that Qualcomm can keep selling through January 2009 some chips with designs that infringe three patents held by rival Broadcom. Qualcomm also is restricted to selling only cellular chips it was offering as of May 29, 2007, when a Santa Ana, California...

Every year the tech market sees scores of new products, discoveries and startups. Most of them are gone or forgotten within the decade.

But a few of them go on to have a lasting impact on the way people work, live and play.

While it’s hard to know which ones will wane as fads and which will change the world, several trends emerged in 2007 that appear to have long-term potential. While none is a brand-new concept, here are the top five ideas that went mainstream and promise to have an even bigger influence in 2008:

Cloud computing

True, this is just another way of saying “Web services,” a concept that’s been around almost as long as the Web itself. Now, it’s finally reaching the masses.

Think of it as the third wave of computing: first there was the mainframe, hulking, centralized computers that doled out access to the lucky few. Then came personal computers anyone could own. Unfortunately, they were mostly islands of computing, disconnected from one another except in small client-server networks. Then came the Internet, which has helped connect every computer to almost any other anywhere around the globe.

Web pages and e-mail were only the beginning. Thanks to faster connections and easier-to-use services, it’s now a snap to use faraway software and data storage as if they were on your own computer. By tapping into this “cloud” of Web-based services, you have access to your information no matter where you are.

Offerings such as Google () Docs and Zoho Office make it possible to create, edit and share documents online. And others such as Mozy, Box.net and Xdrive let you use the Internet as your own personal hard drive.

Next year, Google is expected to launch a service that lets users easily store and share documents online. And Microsoft plans to add its own twist to the concept with Office Live Workspace. An add-on to Microsoft’s () Office applications will make saving to the Web as easy as saving to your hard drive.

Greentech gets practical

If idealism was the root of the early ecology movement, a more down-to-earth business sense seems to be fueling the tech industry’s recent shift to cleaner, more sustainable policies. Besides the PR benefits of going green, companies are saving real money.

Case in point: Sun Microsystems () says its switch to electronic annual reports alone saves it close to $1 million a year.

This year, expect companies to consider the ecological impact of their products at the design stage. Instead of merely supporting the recycling of electronic waste at the end of a product’s life, Sun and other companies are thinking about how to design a product from the start that’ll be easy to recycle later.

At the same time, rising oil prices and global-warming worries have sparked a wave of investment into alternative energy, alternative-fuel power conservation and efficiency.

Batteries used in hybrid and electric cars are set to get cheaper and longer-lasting, while computers promise to offer more bang for the kilowatt.

Getting Social

While some scoff at the $15 billion valuation suggested by Microsoft’s investment a few months ago in Facebook, the trend is clear: technology is getting more social.

Social networking sites help you stay connected with friends and colleagues and their friends and colleagues. And those features aren’t limited to social networking sites such as Facebook, News Corp.’s () MySpace and business-focused LinkedIn. Case in point: Google’s news-gathering service, Google Reader, added a feature that lets you see items shared by other Google Reader users.

And Microsoft’s Xbox Live gaming service now lets players see not just their friends, but those friends’ friends.

Google’s recently launched Open Social effort could make it even easier to keep in touch.

Solid-state storage

If you own a cell phone, iPod Nano or digital camera, you’re already using solid-state storage in the form of flash memory.

The technology, which stores information on computer chips rather than magnetic film, is fast, compact, rugged and easy on batteries.

But it’s been too expensive to use in large capacities until now. The ever-shrinking size and price of chips make it possible to put lots of storage on small devices and making flash memory a realistic substitute for hard-disk drives.

Several computer makers offer the option of flash-based storage instead of hard drives. And flash-based portable devices are now capable of holding thousands not hundreds of songs and videos.

The upshot: tiny devices get more powerful; powerful PCs get tinier.

Ubiquitous Internet

Wi-Fi wireless networking and WAP (wireless application protocol) cellular data services gave many laptop and cell phone users their first taste of data on the go in the late 1990s. It also exposed the technology’s maddening limitations: namely, speed and coverage.

Users who want to stay connected have had to make a frustrating choice: enjoy fast connections, but only at a few scattered Wi-Fi hot spots, most of which charge serious money. Or stay connected anywhere a cell phone works, but at slow speeds on tiny screens.

That’s poised to change in 2008, thanks to a mix of technologies that will blanket more areas with high-speed connections.

The first is 3G, or third-generation, data networks being rolled out now by wireless carriers.

AT&T’s () HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access/universal mobile telephone system) offers download speeds of up to 1.4 megabits per second.

Also, more computer makers are rolling out notebook PCs with built-in connections to EVDO (evolution, data only) networks run by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. ()

Another technology called WiMax could offer even faster speeds. Expect fast data to become commonplace. As science fiction writer William Gibson put it: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

December 31, 2007 — SAN FRANCISCO - Two brothers who were injured when a tiger attacked them at the San Francisco Zoo had slingshots on them at the time, a source said. An empty vodka bottle was also found in a car used by Amritpal Dhaliwal, 19, and his brother, Kulbir, 23, on the day of the mauling, which left 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. dead, according to the source. The discoveries could be an indication that the brothers may have taunted the 350-pound Siberian tiger before...