With touch-screen tablet computers dominating growth across the entire personal computing market, total shipments of personal computing systems are forecast to rise 12% in 2014 to 585 million units, according to IC Insights. [ + ]

The Surface Mount and Circuit Board Association (SMCBA) is presenting a free seminar on purchasing/manufacturing offshore at this week's ElectroneX expo. [ + ]

Mouser has signed a global distribution agreement with fabless semiconductor company Broadcom Corporation.  [ + ]

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated how low-cost, wearable inertial sensors could detect firearm usage. [ + ]

The European Commission (EC) has fined Infineon, Philips and Samsung €138m for setting up a smartcard-chip cartel.  [ + ]

Optoelectronics devices, such as touch screen panels, liquid crystal displays and solar cells, require transparent conductors. The transparent conductors currently used for such applications are made of indium tin oxide (ITO).  [ + ]

Switzerland-based engineers have developed a new batteryless cardiac pacemaker, which is based on an automatic wristwatch and powered by heart motion. [ + ]

The Osram plant in Berlin is celebrating 100,000,000 xenon lamps. Since the introduction of xenon technology in the 1970s, 100 million xenon lamps have been produced at the plant.  [ + ]

Researchers have developed a simple, one-step method to grow germanium nanowires from an aqueous solution. The process could make it more feasible to use germanium in lithium-ion batteries. [ + ]

Researchers at the National Physical Laboratory have discovered that the conductivity at the edges of graphene devices is different to that of the central material. [ + ]

Murata Electronics North America and Peregrine Semiconductor have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Murata will acquire all outstanding shares of Peregrine not owned by Murata for $12.50 per share in cash, or a total transaction value of around $471 million. [ + ]

La Trobe University's eNurse has won the best technical development award, and received an overall 'highly commended', in Telstra's 10-week M2M (machine to machine) University Challenge for students from across Australia. [ + ]

Engineers Australia has announced 49 engineering projects as finalists in this year's Sydney Division Engineering Excellence Awards. The projects collectively contribute substantial investment to the Australian economy. [ + ]

Researchers at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) have designed a new device for wireless energy transfer that will, for example, charge mobile phones or laptops without needing cables. [ + ]

You may know moulded connectors are a good option for harsh environments, but you may not know what to look for when specifying one in particular. [ + ]