The charges are to cover the losses copyright owners may face from private copying of material, estimated to cost the technology industry €500m-€1.5bn ($788m-$2.4bn) a year.

Technology companies have always campaigned hard for the fees to be scrapped, arguing that they force European consumers to pay over the odds for gadgets. The companies constantly challenge the charges through the courts.

Their lobbying almost bore fruit two years ago, when the Commission came close to passing new rules on the levies, which would have cut them dramatically. However, plans were aborted after pressure from France.

This year Charlie McCreevy, the internal markets commissioner for the EU, said he would take another look at the issue and now consumer electronics companies appear more open to a compromise.

They are thought to be willing to accept surcharges, if they are harmonised in Europe.

The level of charges can vary dramatically from country to country.

A basic HP printer with a recommended retail price of about €100 carries a levy of €102.28 in Germany, but just €1.28 in the Czech Republic and no charge in the Netherlands.

The levies have recently been applied to products, such as music-enabled mobile phones, bringing companies such as Nokia and Motorola into the debate.

Consumer electronics companies including Nokia, Apple and Sony, said they could be willing to call a truce in a decades-long battle with copyright owners over extra charges imposed on the sale of devices such as MP3 players and mobile phones – or, in times past, tape recorders.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of Nokia, and Greg Brown, chief executive of Motorola, are among the signatories of a letter to the European Commission saying that they are willing to “explore new ways forward” in a dispute that has been in deadlock since the 1960s.

Some 22 out of the 27 European member states oblige technology companies to pay an extra “copyright levy” on the sale of products that can be used to copy music, books, films and other protected content. Exceptions include the UK, Ireland and Luxembourg, which never had a levy.

France, Germany, and Hungary have imposed charges, a decision is imminent in Spain and there is lobbying to introduce them in Finland and Austria.

If mobile phone levies are brought in across Europe, it could cost €500m a year in the phone industry alone.

Concerns over a possible spending slowdown are making consumer electronics companies more anxious about profit margins.

Technology companies may be more willing to accept charges, as the use of copyright protection software on devices becomes less common.

Music labels such as EMI and Universal have recently agreed to scrap such protection on their songs in order to make them more accessible to download on a variety of digital devices.

Liquid crystal display (LCD) makers had predicted shoppers would snap up the biggest flat TVs as prices came down, but are finding that it's the smaller models that are moving faster off the shelves.

TV screens sized 32 inches or smaller and TV-viewing PC monitors are a cheaper way to replace bulky cathode-ray sets for many consumers in emerging markets, such as China, India and Russia, in time for the Beijing Olympic games.

A U.S. economic slowdown has curbed demand for larger, more expensive sets.

Makers had previously forecast premium 40-inch sets would be the main money-spinners and spent heavily in a race to build larger factories suited for bigger panels.

Now, makers with strength in small screens, such as Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp, and those with a focus in the Chinese market such as LG Display Co Ltd are in favor.

"As of now, 32-inch is almost one third of the market," Champ Shin, vice president in charge of TV screen sales at LG Display, told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit.

"Up to now most LCD makers had focused on large screens only. But the growth rate of larger screens seems to be a bit slow. And there's big demand for ... TVs using monitor panels or smaller TV panels."

LG Display is switching some of its TV panel capacity to computer screen production, building a new line for smaller panels and strengthening ties with Chinese TV makers.

The lead by small-size TVs will likely continue for the next few quarters as the U.S. economy stutters and the Chinese TV market takes off ahead of the Olympics.

32-inch TVs are the most popular model for those replacing conventional cathode-ray tubes, whose market size was around 100 million units in 2007, according to Lehman Brothers.

High-definition monitors adopting the wider TV screen format are increasingly sold for TV viewing, as new technology such as broadband TV has blurred the line between monitors and TVs

So-called moniTV sales could more than double in 2009 to top 50 million units, AU (AUO.N) CEO H.B. Chen said at the Reuters Summit.

"All these monitors can still provide very good TV performance. MoniTVs are a new segment to grow," Chen said.

The entry-level 15-inch models are for students or emerging market consumers, while 19-inch is becoming a mainstream in the moniTV market, said Paul Peng, AU executive vice president.

But the popularity of the small-size TVs won't last long as TV makers are aggressively cutting prices, which soon will spur up demand for larger sets.

In North America, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Sony Corp, and Vizio are conducting a fierce price battle for market share in the slowing market.

After all, moniTVs are not the flagship product.

"Do you want to have that in your living room? I don't think so. Large-size TVs will still be king in the future," said Nigel Lee, a fund manager at Taiwan's National Investment Trust.

A looming panel oversupply in 2009 will only help make bigger TVs affordable sooner than expected.

After an industry-wide spending curb last year, new capacity from top makers such as Samsung and LG Display is set to hit the market early next year.

Analysts expect prices of 40-inch grade TVs to fall below $1,000 by the 2008 fourth quarter, boosting demand. Sony has lowered prices of its key LCD TV models by 30 percent in the second quarter, they say.

"40- and 42-inch TVs, along with the 32-inch model, will become the mainstream in the global market by 2010," said Jeff Kim, analyst at Hyundai Securities.

The phase-out of analog broadcasting in the United States in early 2009 is also expected to speed up TV replacement demand.

"In the U.S., the sweet spot is quickly moving to 40 inches," Mike Splinter, CEO of Applied Materials Inc, told the Reuters Summit in New York.

"(TV size) is going to continue to move up for the next few generations. I don't know where the limit is."

Research firm iSuppli forecasts worldwide LCD TV sales volume to top 100 million this year and reach 194 million in 2012. LCD TV shipments were at 78.5 million units in 2007.

The announcement will be made by chief executive John Browett as the first stage of a turnaround plans following its second profit warning in under four months in April.

It follows the announcement of a joint venture between the world's biggest electronics retailer Best Buy with Carphone Warehouse Group.

DSG has blamed its woes on the tough economic conditions forcing UK consumers to tighten their belts and that customers have become increasingly promotion and deal driven, impacting gross margins.

PC World is already under pressure from Carphone Warehouse, which has started offering “free” laptops in exchange for a £19.99-a-month broadband subscription. The new venture is expected to lead to a increase in similar deals.

Browett will outline his new strategy on May 15.

The group of around 140 small investors accuses Jerry Yang, Yahoo! founder and chief executive, of losing his "moral authority" to lead the company. Yahoo!'s share price has plunged after Microsoft dropped its bid. The group, named Plan B, has been formed by Yahoo! shareholder Eric Jackson, who criticised former Yahoo! chief executive Terry Semel at last year's shareholder meeting.

Microsoft pulled its offer after three months of negotiations and increasing animosity between the two companies. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive, says the $33 per share offer was dropped because Yahoo!'s demand for $37 per share "made no sense." Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock responded by maintaining that Microsoft was undervaluing the business.

Microsoft offered $31 per share for Yahoo!, a 62% premium on the search engine's share price at the time, on January 31. On May 3 Yang and his co-founder David Filo met Ballmer and his deputy Kevin Johnson in Washington. The Yahoo! bosses said the board would accept $37 per share, but the founders believed $38 per share was the right price.

A month ago Microsoft threatened to reduce its offer and go directly to shareholders with a hostile bid. Ballmer set Yang an April 26 deadline to agree terms, but Yang let it pass and Ballmer made an improved offer. Industry experts had expected Microsoft to go hostile to complete the Yahoo! deal.

In a letter to Yang withdrawing Microsoft's offer, Ballmer said he was unwilling to go to Yahoo! shareholders because Yahoo! had threatened to outsource its advertising to its rival Google if a hostile approach was made.

April 30, 2008 Featuring an intuitive touch-screen interface and capable of storing up to 3000 CDs in their original quality, the OPUS No4 is pitched at music lovers who want to spend less time managing their collection, and more time enjoying it.

The ultra quiet, passively cooled hard drive, cushioned in eight layers of noise canceling padding, allows 94khz/24bit music playback – 250 times the resolution of CD's. The unit comes preloaded with up to 100 CDs, though the rapid ripping process makes it a simple matter to add the rest of your collection. The OPUS No4 also allows users to burn CDs, and create playlists from the music library and the 4.3-inch color touch-screen displays album artwork and provides color-coded navigation. The OPUS connects to amplifiers or receivers with high-quality analog and digital outputs, and can also connect to your home network via Gigabit Ethernet, or 802.11g wireless. The Internet capability allows users to control their OPUS remotely, and listen to Internet radio. The USB 2.0 interface allows users to backup their music to an external hard drive, and a special Olive-connecter that integrates the OPUS with iPods will be available in the second half of this year.

The OPUS can also connect to up to 10 of the company's MELODY No2 satellite units so that different music can be relayed to 10 rooms simultaneously.

Available in black and silver, prices for the Californian designed and custom built Olive OPUS Nº4 start at USD$1499 for the 320GB model up to USD$1799 for the top of the range 1TB version.