Google responded to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti earlier this week by working with satellite imagery company GeoEye to quickly make images of the destruction available in Google Earth and Google Maps. The images were taken at approximately 10:27 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, and could prove to be a helpful tool for aid organizations attempting to survey and assess the damage to Haiti's infrastructure.

(Click on any of the images in the story to see a larger version; all show satellite images of areas in Haiti before and after the earthquake hit.)

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Google appears to be trying to boost its customer support for Nexus One customers, posting replies to many more queries on its online forum.

Google has come under fire since the launch of the Nexus One after hundreds of messages were posted with complaints or questions about the phone. Many customers said that after calling T-Mobile they were referred to HTC, the phone's maker, or the reverse. Google does not have a customer-service phone line, and customers sending e-mails were being told to wait one or two days for a reply.

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Worldwide PC shipments soared during the fourth quarter, driven by historically low PC prices and an increased demand for laptops and netbooks, analyst firm IDC said Wednesday.

Shipments totaled 85.8 million units during the fourth quarter of 2009, growing 15.2 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. The unexpected growth signals a possible end to the struggles the PC industry has gone through during the recession, IDC said in a statement.

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Each year, the nation's largest geekfest, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is full of hype, overhype, and beyond the valley of the hype. Remember the Internet Refrigerator?

And each year the hype (and overhype, and b.t.v.o.t. hype) inevitably leads to disappointment: Vendors dangle many alluring prototypes and product rumors in front of the assembled tech journalists and geeks during the week in Las Vegas, but many of the products never appear or arrive far later than scheduled and in a competely different format. Evidently, much of what is dangled in Vegas stays in Vegas.

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