The already intensively competitive wireless sector today finds itself with a tough new player: Wal-Mart (WMT). The retailing giant has teamed up with American Movil (AMX) to sell low-cost service under the Straight Talk brand. The company is offering unlimited voice and text minutes for $45 a month, or 1,000 minutes and 1,000 text messages for $30 a month.

WMT is rolling out the plans nationwide after previously testing service via 234 stores, according to Reuters.

This is something of a nightmare for the pure-play pre-paid wireless companies, including MetroPCS (PCS) and Leap Wireless (LEAP), which just a few days ago found themselves facing the prospect of AT&T (T) jumping into the pre-paid market.

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Dell (DELL) has confirmed that it is developing mobile devices for China Mobile (CHL), Reuters reports. The new device is called the mini3i. The WSJ notes that the new device will support applications from China Mobile’s online store, launched today.

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A Silicon Valley startup and handful of publishers have a new plan to bring peace to the war between Web sites and media companies accusing them of stealing their content.

The group, which includes Reuters and smaller online publishers like Politico, wants companies that broker advertising to Web sites to give them a share of the revenue from ads they sell alongside full copies of their content. Companies like Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT), along with many more specialized players, operate advertising networks that carry out this brokering role.

Reponsibility for policing the program would fall to Attributor Corp., whose technology identifies copies of articles and videos on the Web. Up to now its clients, which include the Associated Press and the Financial Times, have often used the information to request their content be taken down.

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A south Korean blogger was acquitted Monday of spreading false information in a widely-watched case about Internet free speech that could have sent him to prison for 18 months.

Reuters reported from Seoul that the court threw out charges Park Dae-sung had intentionally depressed market sentiment by posting false information on his blog. “Even if there was recognition that it was false information, he cannot be seen as having acted on purpose to harm public interest considering the situation at the time including the special nature of the foreign exchange market,” the court told Reuters by telephone.

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A provocative story from Reuters Monday ruminated on which companies are likely to replace Citigroup (C) and General Motors (GM) in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Its conclusion: Google (GOOG) and Cisco (CSCO) are the most likely contenders, with Apple (AAPL) and Visa (V) having a less likely chance.

It’s a safe bet that those two troubled companies–trading below $2 a share–will get the boot, potentially along with Bank of America (BAC), which is trading below $4. All are plagued by concerns that bankruptcies or government takeovers would wipe out shareholders. Talk of a reshuffling of the Dow has been heating up of late.

Does Google belong in the Dow? I think it does for a few reasons. According to Dow Jones’ explanation of the indexes composition, “a stock typically is added only if it has an excellent reputation, demonstrates sustained growth, is of interest to a large number of investors and accurately represents the sector(s) covered by the average.”

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I’m not sure why the micropayments-as-the-savior-of-journalism meme seems to have taken off of late, but I’m glad there are lots of people trying to squash it: I’d particularly recommend Gabe Sherman and Clay Shirky. But in the case of Steve Brill’s “secret memo” on the subject, it’s worth responding to some of his specifics; a few points are worth making beyond those of David Cay Johnston.

First, Brill frames the question in an utterly bizarre manner, through the parent of a journalism student:

As one parent put it to me last fall, “Why are you luring my daughter into something that will never pay her loans when she could go to work for McKinsey?” I have been trying to construct an answer for her.

The answer is simple: “Madam, if your daughter wants to go work for McKinsey, she’s more than welcome to.” You want to make lots of money? Don’t become a journalist. In fact, if you’re the kind of person who would make a great management consultant, don’t become a journalist: The skillsets are just too different.

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Toshiba Corp. confirmed it is in talks to buy Fujitsu’s hard disk drive business, according to Reuters. The deal would reportedly be worth $340 million to $450 million. Fujitsu held previous talks to sell the unit to Western Digital (WDC), but those talks collapsed late last year.

A Fujitsu spokesman told Reuters that it was in talks with multiple parties on the future of its hard drive business.

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As initially reported over the past week by outlets including Reuters and Bloomberg, Qimonda (QI), the Munich-based maker of DRAM that’s been on death watch for some time, announced yesterday that it has obtained a 605 million euro investment from a combination of investors–including parent Infineon Technologies (IFX), which holds a 77.5 percent stake in the company, and the Federal Republic of Germany. That amounts to roughly $845 million at current exchange rates. The company said the financing comes in the form of a 150 million euro loan from the German state of Saxony, a 100 million loan from “a leading financial institution in Portugal” and a 75 million euro loan from Infineon, plus 280 million euros from the German Republic, of which Qimonda is in “advanced negotiations” concerning a 150 million euro portion.

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In what tech pundits at Gartner Research (IT) call the curve of hype and gloom, Linden Lab’s virtual world, Second Life, has officially entered the gloom stage.

In October, Reuters pulled its full-time Second Life reporter Eric Krangel, who had written daily news stories about the virtual world’s economy for a year and a half, out of the virtual world. Krangel, who now blogs at Silicon Alley Insider, wrote that Linden Lab needs to recognize that “Second Life’s reputation is now a liability,” and that hanging out in the virtual world was “like watching paint dry.” In November, Google (GOOG) seemed to echo the bearish mood toward virtual worlds when it shut down its own online microcosm, Lively.

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Toshiba has suspended NAND flash memory production at two plants for nine days due to weak demand, according to Reuters, which picked up the story from broadcaster NHK. The wire service said the company denied plans to shut down all operations at the two factories in Yokkaichi, in western Japan, and Oita, in southern Japan. The Yokkaichi factory is a joint venture with SanDisk (SNDK).

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The debut today of the Research In Motion (RIMM) BlackBerry Storm, the company’s first touchscreen phone, has drawn long lines at some Verizon Wireless stores, according to Reuters and other news reports. At some stores, people lined up by the “hundreds.”

Reuters notes that more than 200 people had waited at a Verizon store in midtown Manhattan early Friday, but that many were turned away after it ran out of phones less than an hour after it opened at 9 a.m.; according the report, “angry customers caused a ruckus and police came to restore order.”

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A longish article from Reuters today speculates on whether Research in Motion (RIMM) could be bought out, now that its share price has received a 50 percent haircut in the last month, to $59.03, and its market capitalization has fizzled to a mere $33.4 billion. Noting Microsoft’s (MSFT) struggles against Google (GOOG) on one front in the cellphone wars and Apple (AAPL) on the other, Reuters quotes Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek–who yesterday raised his rating on the stock to “Buy” from “Hold”–as saying “RIM is a massive strategic fit” for Microsoft, adding, “I’m fairly certain they have a standing offer to buy them at $50 (a share).”

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Solar stocks are having another rough day, one which looks all that much worse with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up well over 200 points. A number of analysts this morning wrote notes on their trips to the recent European solar conference in Valencia, Spain. There were no bombshells that I found; but there does seem to be some concern about the pricing outlook for 2009, as Reuters noted today.

Richard Keiser, technology strategist at Bernstein Research, wrote this morning that an “astounding number” of solar panel companies demonstrated products at the show–and offered aggressive expansion plans. He says that suggests fears of commoditization and oversupply “are well founded.”

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Liberty Media (LCAPA) is “open” to swapping its stake in Time Warner (TWX) for AOL’s dial-up Internet access business, Liberty Chairman John Malone said Monday, Reuters reported.

Malone said there have not been any discussions on the concept so far, however.

“Clearly, an exit from the Time Warner equity stake into a cash-generating asset would be attractive, but at the current time, none have been proposed that we could take action on,” Malone said on a conference call with analysts.

Liberty owns about 103 million shares, or 2.8 percent of Time Warner.

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Carl C. Icahn took his first steps into the Internet earlier this year by beginning a blog. Now he’s about to get some help. The activist shareholder has hired Dane Hamilton, a hedge fund reporter at Thomson Reuters, to work on his Web site, The Icahn Report, according to people briefed on the matter. Mr. Hamilton is expected to contribute original reporting and analysis to the site, augmenting Mr. Icahn’s own voluble opinions on the state of corporate America.

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